Judge John Phelps and Sandusky Descendants

 

According to volume 3 of the book, New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of Commonwealths and the Founding of a Nation, Judge John Phelps (born in Suffolk, Connecticut in 1736, died circa 1808) served as a Justice of the Peace and was a Representative to the Connecticut Legislature for several terms. Judge Phelps was associated with the manufacturing of iron, including the production of cannon balls and other war implements purchased by the United States Government. 

John Phelps married Mary Richardson, daughter of William and Lady Abigail Richardson, of Edinburgh, Scotland. One of their daughters was Abigail Phelps, who married Judge Isaac L. Mills, one of the co-founders of the city of Sandusky. William H. Mills, a well known Sandusky wine maker, was the grandson of the judge. 

Another descendant was Allen Phelps Mills, pictured with his mother in the daguerreotype below. Sadly, he died of diphtheria on November 7, 1869 at the age of nine. He was buried in the family lot at Oakland Cemetery.

Though Judge John Phelps lived and died in Connecticut, his descendants left a lasting impression on Sandusky. Mills School, Mills Street, and Mills Golf Course were all named after members of his daughter's family.

Mrs. Sophia Sprague

This daguerreotype of Mrs. Sophia Sprague was created by R.E. Weeks in his Sandusky studio in 1857. Sophia Patrick was born in Madison County, New York in 1798. She married Nehemiah Sprague in the mid-1820s in the state of New York, and they had a large family that included seven children. Mr. Sprague died in 1848, leaving Sophia to support the children by herself. By 1860 she was residing in Sandusky, Ohio, with several of her children. An article which appeared in volume four of the Firelands Pioneer describes her experience as a single mother.

Seven bodies to clothe and feed, seven minds to train and educate, was no small task for a woman, but she was equal to it and performed her work well. One by one they arrived at man and womanhood and were married, but until that time she provided them all a home and her work in that direction was not completed until there were none to look after. From that time on she found a comfortable home with those she had brought through trials and hardships from childhood to man and womanhood. Two of her daughters, Elizabeth and Sophia, married, one in 1853 and one in 1856, and moved to Ohio and to that state she followed them, with the rest of her children, in 1856; since that time she has resided in Sandusky. As long as any of her children remained unmarried, she kept her own home for them; when they were all gone and her duty done to them, she took up her abode with the children to whom she had been so faithful.

At the age of 83, Sophia Sprague displayed an embroidered lace handkerchief at the Erie County Fair. She also displayed a quilt at the fair which she had done in the style of the double Irish chain. The quilt was awarded as a premium. You can read much more about the Erie County Fair of 1880 in September 24, 1880 issue of the Sandusky Register, on microfilm at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.  

Mrs. Sophia Sprague died on November 19, 1886, at the age of 89. She was survived by four daughters and one son. Mrs. Sprague was buried at Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery. Her brother, Dr. Spicer Patrick, was the first speaker of the house for the new state of West Virginia.

Dr. and Mrs. Edgar J. Waye

According to U.S. Census records, Dr. Edgar J. Waye was born in the state of New York about 1826 or 1827. Dr. Waye is pictured above in a reproduction of a daguerreotype, created when he was a young man. His bride can be seen below  in a digital image of a daguerreotype taken when she was about 21 years old. Sometimes her name is listed as Leonice Smith; later records list her first name as Lelia.

                

On August 11, 1861, Erie County Probate Judge F.D. Parish signed the application for the marriage license of Edgar J. Waye and Lelia H. Smith.

Dr. Edgar Waye had a dental practice in Sandusky from the 1860s through the early 1900s.  An advertisement which appeared in the Sandusky Register of February 4, 1863 stated that Dr. Waye could make artificial teeth for his patients which would improve their physical appearance and also help them to chew their food more easily. Dr. Waye’s office was on Columbus Avenue across from the old Post Office. Dr. Waye often contributed articles to dental journals.  In an issue of the Southern Dental Journal, Dr. Waye discussed “Amalgam and Its Manipulation.”

Dr. Waye wrote about “Textile Foil” in volume 6 of the Ohio State Journal of Dental Science. On March 7, 1877, he delivered the address at the thirty-first annual commencement of the Ohio College of Dental Surgery in Cincinnati, Ohio. 

On April 2, 1905, Dr. Edgar J. Waye died at the age of 78. Dr. Waye was buried in Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery.  Mrs. Leonice/Lelia Waye passed away on April 17, 1919. She was buried next to Dr. Waye at Oakland.  Dr. and Mrs. Waye were survived by three daughters.  One of the daughters, Winifred Lee Waye, was well known in Sandusky as a painter, musician and newspaper columnist. Winifred wrote her newspaper columns under the name “Molly Lee.”

Giffe Babcock Follett, Mother of Oran Follett

The graphic above is a daguerreotype of an image (possibly a painting) of Mrs. Giffe Babcock Follett, the mother of well known Sanduskians Oran and Foster M. Follett. Oran Follett was in the publishing business, and published the Lincoln-Douglas Debates with his partner Frank Foster. Foster M. Follett was the Erie County Auditor from 1850 to 1852, and 1856-1860. He also was an early Mayor of Sandusky, and worked tirelessly during the cholera epidemic. Mrs. Giffe Babcock Follett’s daguerreotype was a gift to the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center from descendants of Oran and Eliza Follett.

Daguerreotype of Annette Tilden Mills and Son

Isaac Mills, who was the grandson of co-founder of Sandusky, Isaac L. Mills, married Annette Tilden in 1855. Annette was the daughter of Dr. Daniel Tilden, a pioneer physician in Sandusky. Pictured below is a daguerreotype of Annette Tilden Mills with her youngest son, Alan Phelps Mills.

Isaac and Annette Tilden Mills had four children, all who died young. Daniel Tilden Mills and Isaac Augustus Mills both died in 1859, and were under the age of 3. The two youngest Mills children died of diphtheria within days of each other. Annette Tilden Mills, whom the family called Annie, died at age 6 on October 31, 1869. Alan Phelps Mills died on November 7, 1869 at the age of 9. A tribute to Alan and Annie Mills was featured in the November 9, 1869 issue of the Sandusky Register:

Two very interesting children, son and daughter of Isaac Mills, have died within the past week of diphtheria. The parents, left childless, have the sympathy of the entire community, but of what avail. These “treasures in earthen vessels” have left their clay tenement, and gone to that “brighter world” to draw the long and loved ones upward.

Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Mills and all of their four children are buried at Oakland Cemetery in the Tilden family lot.