Christopher Reeve’s Connection to Sandusky

Most of us remember Christopher Reeve as the not-quite-original movie Superman. But what's more interesting from our perspective is his "relationship" to Sandusky: Christopher Reeve’s maternal grandfather was a native-born Sanduskian. Horace R. Lamb, was born in Sandusky in 1892, the son of Burt I. Lamb and Harriet “Hattie” Davis Lamb. Before he married, Horace Lamb lived in Huron County for several years, eventually settling in Connecticut.

In the late 1890’s Burt I. Lamb advertised his tailoring business in the Sandusky Register.

Mr. and Mrs. Burt I. Lamb are buried in the North Ridge of Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery.

Hattie Davis Lamb was the daughter of Ira T. Davis and Eunice Woolsey Davis Lamb.

Ira T. Davis came to Sandusky in 1852. He had a grocery store on Columbus Avenue and later was involved in the real estate and limestone business. He married Eunice Woolsey in 1856, and the couple had five children born and raised in Sandusky. Mr. & Mrs. Davis are also buried in Oakland Cemetery. You can read more about the family in Article 30 of Helen Hansen’s At Home in Early Sandusky and in Hewson Peeke’s Standard History of Erie County.

Christopher Reeve mentioned Sandusky in his biography Still Me: A Life. He wrote about his grandfather Horace Lamb’s roots from a working class family in Sandusky.

Visit the Sandusky Library’s Archives Research Center to learn more about Christopher Reeve’s Sandusky ancestors, and perhaps your own ancestors as well.

Poem by Confederate Lieutenant S. Boyer Davis, imprisoned at Johnson's Island

According to the book Rebels on Lake Erie, by Charles E. Frohman, Samuel Boyer Davis was sentenced, as a spy, to be executed by hanging on February 17, 1865, at Johnson’s Island Prison. According to a note written on the back page, the poem was given to "Pri. M. Hebblethwaite, USA" (possibly a guard at the prison?) on February 11, 1865, "on condition . . . that they are never made public." After 156 years, we think Lt. Davis would not mind the recognition we give him. 

Fate was kind to Lt. Davis, however, as President Abraham Lincoln commuted his sentence from execution to imprisonment for the duration of the war, with the prisoner only learning of his fate on the very day that the execution was to be carried out. He was transferred to a prison at Fort Delaware, on the Delaware River. 

Transcribed, the poem reads:

 

A Soldier boy from “Dixie” lay dreaming in his cell

He was far from home & kindred & those that he loved well

His feet were sore & weary & bound by iron chains

He dreamt of Far off Richmond lovely Richmond on the James.

 

No Sister sat beside him to sooth his troubled brow

No comrade now bent o’er him to whisper words of cheer

But his Soldier heart was fearless, Twas got him there had chained

And he dreamt of one in Richmond dear Richmond on the James.

 

He walked or thought he walked the old familiar path

He talked or thought he talked with friends of days gone past

But at each & every moment the clanging of his chains

Told he was far from Richmond old Richmond on the James.

 

He thought of those who loved him what pain they would endure

When they heard that he was missing from the old Potomac Shore

And Oh! it will be deeper when they hear he’s bound by chains

The sorrow at old Richmond at Richmond on the James.

 

He wakes! The light is growing dim darkness is falling fast

Another night of sorrow & anguish must be past.

How many many moments must he spend thus bound by chains

E’re again he goes to Richmond, to Richmond on the James.

 

After the war, Samuel Boyer Davis was released. He married Anna Mason, and died on September 14, 1914. They are buried at Ivy Hill Cemetery in Alexandria, Virginia.

Frances Lockwood Davis, Civic Leader and Suffragist

Frances Lockwood was born in Elyria,Ohio in 1849, the oldest daughter of Judge and Mrs. William F. Lockwood. She married Thomas H. B. Davis, a successful businessman, in 1872. They had two children, Thomas H. B. Davis, Jr., and Edith Davis, who later married Clifford M. King.

In 1900, T.H.B. Davis died, at the age of 57. Mr. Davis’s obituary stated that “a son and daughter, together with the wife now left to tread life’s winepress alone, survive him.”

Mrs. Frances Lockwood Davis lived a very full life following her husband’s death. Her obituary, which appears in the 1933 Obituary Notebook, listed her many accomplishments: “Mrs. Davis was active in civic affairs, was the first president of the local Women’s Suffrage association and a member of the Library Building Fund association and of the board of the Sandusky Library association. She was one of the organizers of the Children’s Day Nursery, which later led to the founding of the Erie-co. Children’s Home.” Mrs. Davis passed away on January 22, 1933. She is buried in the North Ridge section of Oakland Cemetery in the family plot.


Mrs. Edith Davis King, daughter of Frances Lockwood Davis, is pictured below. Edith was also the daughter in law of Judge and Mrs. E. B King. Edith was the Assistant Librarian of the Sandusky Library in 1930, according the U.S. Census records for Erie County.

Wagenet & Davis, Insurance Agents

In the 1886 Sandusky City Directory, H. W. Wagenet and Josh B. Davis were listed as agents for over twenty five different insurance companies. Their offices were on the upper floors of the Cooke Block.  Their advertisement stated that they offered the lowest going rates, and that they offered insurance protection for fire, marine, accident, lightning, cyclone and plate glass damages. H.W. Wagenet had previously been in the insurance business with Bryon Gager at the same location. In the 1880 City Directory, Mr. Wagenet’s name was listed as H.W. Wagenknecht, but by 1886 he had changed the spelling of his name to Wagenet. 

The September 8, 1888 issue of the Sandusky Register reported that H.W. Wagnet was leaving Wagnet & Davis. His interests were taken over by his brother, John H. Wagenet, with the new partnership being known as Davis & Wagenet. You can see a sign for Davis & Wagenet, barely visible above the main front door in this image: 

    

The Cooke Block has been home to many different businesses in Sandusky throughout the years. Visit the Sandusky Library to view historic city directories to learn about the many different residents and businesses of our city.

Limestone Quarrying Has Been Important to Sandusky and Erie County for Generations

Hewson Peeke wrote in his book A Standard History of Erie County, Ohio, about the limestone underlying the ground in Sandusky and the Lake Erie Islands region. In Sandusky, the upper portion of stone is corniferous limestone, which is bluish in color and found in thin strata. The stone quarried at Marblehead and Kelleys Island is lower in the ground than the corniferous limestone, and lighter in hue. 

Ellie Damm wrote in her book Treasure by the Bay that many limestone mansions were built in Sandusky between 1834 and 1872. The stone for most of these buildings was quarried near the building sites. It is thought that the stone for Grace Episcopal Church and the Oran Follett House was quarried in the area of the triangular park at the corner of Wayne Street, Huron Avenue, and East Adams Street. 

At one time, Sandusky and the Lake Erie Islands region were dotted with quarries, many which were filled in and used as building sites. There were lime kilns in Marblehead and in Sandusky in the 1800s.

                                           

Some individuals ran stone quarries. In the 1880s, Ira Davis established a quarry along Sycamore Line.

Charles Schoepfle had a quarry on the west of Hancock Street, south of McKelvey Street in the 1890s. Here is a receipt for items purchased by Jay Bogert from Charles Schoepfle.

In 1893  Michael Wagner established the Wagner Quarries, now a part of Lehigh Hanson. This post card created by Ernst Niebergall shows Wagner Quarry employees in 1926, at Plant Number 2.

  

         

Below is an aerial photograph of the Wagner Quarry in Perkins Township, taken by Thomas Root in 1950; it is still operating today.

                    

 Limestone and crushed stone quarried and processed from Erie and Ottawa Counties continue to provide needed materials for the construction of roads, highways, businesses, and homes in our area and beyond.  This area is fortunate to have so many natural resources, including the limestone bedrock as well as a natural harbor from which the stone can be transported to where it is needed.  To read more about the geology of Erie County, see A Standard History of Erie County, Ohio by Hewson L. Peeke and History of Erie County, Ohio, edited by Lewis Cass Aldrich, both available at Sandusky Library. 

Women's History Month Wrap-Up: Finding Information about Your Female Ancestors in Erie County

March is Women’s History Month, and in honor of the women of our area, here are some tips on how you can locate information about your female ancestors in Sandusky and Erie County. 

For the earliest settlers in Erie County, you can check the index of the Firelands Pioneer. There is a general index arranged by surname, and a separate index for obituaries. In the June 1865 issue of the Firelands Pioneer, Truman Taylor recounts his grandmother’s account of  how several families moved from Glastonbury, Connecticut to Perkins Township in Erie County, Ohio in 1815, by oxen train.

The women had to wash clothes along the way, sometimes hanging the wet laundry on a brush pile to dry. The families camped at night, stopping in a location with pastures for the cattle and horse. They took provisions along with them, consisting of bacon, bread, butter and cheese. Once they settled in Erie County, the pioneers had to clear the land, build cabins, and till the tough prairie sod.

Two sources that provide information are Mothers of Erie County, by Marjorie Cherry Loomis, and Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve, edited by Mrs. Gertrude Van Ressselaer Wickham. These books are anecdotal in nature, and provide biographical information about the earliest female residents of Erie County. The Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve was originally written in five parts, and is housed in a bound two volume set, shelved in the genealogical section of books in the lower level of the Sandusky Library.  The pages devoted to women from Sandusky are found in Part 1, pages 158 to 164. Mrs. Jane Hartshorn, daughter of William Kelly, recalled that when her family settled in Sandusky in 1818, there were only five frame houses in Sandusky at that time. All the rest were built of logs. The family stayed in a small log house that had been used as a cabin for fishermen. It had no fireplace, just a stone hearth, and very little furniture or dishes. Though times were difficult, she remembered those early days with fondness. Jay Cooke remembered his mother, Martha Simpson Carswell Cooke, working at her spinning wheel, to prepare material for the children’s clothing and stockings. When Martha’s husband, Eleutheros, brought back cans of oysters from the east, she shared liberally with her neighbors. Jay Cooke recalled that his mother had wise counsel and unfailing Christian love. There are indexes in the back of volume two of Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve arranged by the surname of the pioneer women, as well as an index to towns and counties.

For genealogical information about your female ancestors, the Sandusky Library has access to Ancestry Library Edition and Heritage Quest. An outstanding online resource, available to anyone with computer access, is FamilySearch.org. This database is particularly strong in Ohio information, such as birth, marriage, and death records and some census data.  Sources available inside the Sandusky Library include school yearbooks, Sandusky city directories, Erie County directories and histories, obituaries in the microfilmed copies of the Sandusky Register, and church records, also on microfilm. Hundreds of historical photographs are housed at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. Inquire at the Sandusky Library for more information.

A fun way to learn a bit more about women from Sandusky and Erie County, search for  women ​in the Labels list to the left. In these links, you can read, for example, about women working for the war effort in World War II.

Sarah Howard was the first African-American female to graduate from Sandusky High School.

The Woman’s Endeavor was a newspaper published by Sandusky women in 1908. In 1920, there was an all-women jury in a courtroom at the Erie County Courthouse. Dr. Carrie Chase Davis was one of the first female physicians in Sandusky, and was also known for her active involvement in women’s rights.

Two other notable Sandusky women we cannot forget are Marie Brehm, the first legally qualified female candidate to run for the vice-presidency of the U.S., and Jackie Mayer, Miss America of 1963, now a motivational speaker. Jackie Mayer speaks about her recovery from a near-fatal stroke when she was 28.

James R. Davis, Mail Carrier

James R. Davis is on the right in this 1905 picture of Sandusky mail carriers. According to U.S. Census records, James R. Davis was born about 1877 in Virginia. Mr. Davis was appointed mail carrier at the Sandusky Post Office in 1903, a position he held for thirty-nine years. For thirty years, Mr. Davis served as president of the Ohio Baptist Sunday School Convention. In his many years as a member of the Second Baptist Church, Mr. Davis served in a variety of posts, including deacon, trustee, Sunday School superintendent, and financial secretary. On June 22, 1953, he was honored at a banquet at Second Baptist Church. An article about the banquet appeared in the June 20, 1953 issue of the Sandusky Register. 

James R. Davis died in the summer of 1965. He was buried in Los Angeles, California. Mr. Davis was well known and respected in Sandusky for many years. You can see him in the picture below, taken in 1912 at the old Post Office Annex on Market Street.

Sandusky Post Office

From 1857 until 1927, the Sandusky Post Office was at the southwest corner of Columbus Avenue and West Market Street. An annex building was just west of the Post Office on Market Street. Here are some of the earliest mail carriers in Sandusky, from about 1896:

Front row: Mose Doyle and John Gilbert. Middle row: James McCann, Adam Rice, Gust Heiberger. Back row: Henry Schimminger, John Schaub, Charles Schoepfle, and William Twigs.

Former Librarian Miss Mary McCann donated this picture of mailmen posed inside the Post Office Annex building in about 1912.

The men in the photo are: Harry Schimminger, Jim McCann, Tim Ryan, John Schaub, Harry Gosser, Charles Schippel, Charles Schoepfle, Ed Ernst, Dan Schwab, Roman Ott, Jimmy Davis, Bill Twiggs, and Louis Holzhauer.

A new Post Office opened at the intersection of Jackson Street, West Washington Street, and Central Avenue in 1927. This facility was in operation until 1987, when a new Post Office building opened on Caldwell Street. The Merry Go Round Museum is now located at the site of the former Post Office.

You can read more about postal service in Sandusky in Article 68 of From the Widow's Walk, by Helen Hansen and Virginia Steinemann.

Carrie Chase Davis, M.D.

Carrie Chase Davis was born in Castalia, Ohio on August 13, 1863, to Thomas and Sarah (Chase) Davis. Mr. Thomas Davis was involved in the Underground Railroad, his home being a “station” for those seeking freedom from slavery. The Davis family moved first to Bloomington, Illinois, and then moved to Putnam County, Missouri. Carrie Chase Davis and her sister May Davis both became teachers, and moved to Kansas where they each homesteaded on a piece of government land. After graduating from medical school at Howard University in 1897, Carrie Chase Davis started her medical practice in Sandusky, Ohio.

Besides being one of the first female phyicians in Sandusky, Dr. Davis was known for her active involvement in women’s rights. Dr. Davis served as the recording secretary of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association for a number of years. Dr. Davis was formerly the president of the Civic Club of Sandusky and served on the board of managers of the Women’s Rest Room Association. In 1910, Dr. Carrie Chase Davis moved to the Washington D.C. area, and by 1930, she had relocated to Humphreys County, Tennessee.

Harry Stack wrote about Dr. Carrie Chase Davis in his “Speaking Of” column in the December 14, 1946  issue of the Sandusky Register Star News that Dr. Davis practiced medicine for many years in rural Tennessee and her calls took her “on foot, horseback or muleback, over hills and through hollows, in freezeing weather and in the death of night” to give medical attention to isolated families. Sometimes she was paid for her services, and sometimes she was not paid.

Dr. Carrie Chase Davis died in March of 1953 in Tennessee. She willed her body to the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine for use in medical education. Her final wishes were in line with her lifelong devotion of service to humanity.

Davis Boat Works

 

The Davis Boat Works was in business in Sandusky from about 1901 to 1920 at the foot of Sycamore Street. The owner of the Davis Boat works was Adelbert B. Davis, the son of prominent local businessman Ira T. Davis. At six years of age Adelbert Davis became deaf. He graduated from the Ohio School for the Deaf in Columbus, Ohio, where he also met his future wife, Lucy Cook.  The Davis Boat Works built boats for customers all across the United States. At a yacht race in Put in Bay about 1909, forty percent of the boats there were made by the Davis Boat Works.

Charles E. Frohman wrote in Sandusky's Yesterdays, that the Davis Boat Works built the hulls for Weldon Cooke’s hydroplanes. One of Cooke’s flying boats, the Irene, was well known locally, but it was not successful in getting from the water up into the air for flight.
The Irene is pictured below.

An article in the October 8, 1937 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal reported that Adelbert Davis died in Columbus at the age of 80, after he had contracted pneumonia. He was survived by his wife, a son, Seth Davis, daughter, Mrs. A. J. Beckert, three sisters and a brother. Two sisters of Adelbert Davis, Caroline Davis and Mrs. Charles Stroud were residing in Sandusky at the time of his death. An article about Adelbert Davis, entitled “A Deaf Boat Builder,” by Mrs. E. F. Long, appeared in the January 1912 issue of the periodical The Silent Worker.

1890 Veterans' Schedules

On file at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center is a roll of microfilm which contains the Schedules of the 11th Census (1890) which enumerated Union Veterans and Widows of Union Veterans of the Civil War. The Veteran’s or widow’s name is listed in the upper portion of the census page, and notes regarding the individuals appear at the bottom of the page. The rank, company, regiment, date of enlistment, date of discharge, and length of services is listed for each serviceman. Below we learn that Josh B. Davis served as a Corporal with Company B of the 101st Ohio Volunteer Infantry, as well as Sergeant with the 1st United States Veterans Infantry. He enlisted on August 6, 1862, and was discharged on June 20, 1865. Information about several other veterans appears on the page below the name of Josh B. Davis.

Looking at Entry 9 on the census page below, we find the name of Anna McMeens, widow of surgeon Dr. Robert McMeens, who died during the Civil War. Notes under entry number 9 indicate that Anna McMeens was suffering from a fall through a sidewalk that took place in February of 1889.

Erie County’s Veterans’ Schedules include sixty three census pages on which are enumerated the residents of the Ohio Soldiers’’ and Sailors’ Home.

The 1890 Veterans Schedules are also accessible via Ancestry Library Edition, which can be accessed from the computers in the lower level of the Sandusky Library as well as in the Archives Research Center. Many other resources pertaining to U.S. Veterans are available at the Sandusky Library, including military rosters, regimental histories, and pension abstracts from the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.

Sergeant Josh B. Davis, Chaplain of the G.A.R.

Josh B. Davis was born in New York in 1842. By 1860, he was a resident of Sandusky, along with his brothers Ira T. Davis and John R. Davis. Josh B. Davis was an insurance agent in the city of Sandusky for many years. During the Civil War, he was a Corporal in Company B of the 101st Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Later he was a Sergeant in the First United States Veterans Infantry. Mr. Davis was discharged from the military service on June 30, 1865. He served as a Chaplain in the McMeens Post of the G.A.R.

By 1920, Josh B. Davis and his wife Sarah moved to Medford, Oregon, where they resided with their daughter’s family. He died in Medford, Oregon on February 15, 1921. His remains were brought back to Ohio for burial. An obituary for Josh B. Davis appears in the February 25, 1921 Sandusky Register. Rev. C. H. Small of the Congregational Church held the funeral services, which were largely attended. Active pallbearers were members of the Perry Post of the American Legion. Taps were sounded by Harold Mertz. Josh B. Davis is buried in Oakland Cemetery with his wife Sarah, who died in 1925.

The Woman's Endeavor

(March is Women's History Month.)

A gift from Charles E. Frohman, the newspaper entitled The Woman’s Endeavor was published on Saturday, March 21, 1908, selling for ten cents. The proceeds from the sale of The Woman’s Endeavor were designated to be used for the equipping and maintaining of a Women’s Rest Room and its associated activities.
Featured in the newspaper were articles about pioneers of Sandusky, the Underground Railroad, and histories of several area organizations, including the first Children’s Home, the Erie County Humane Society, and the first ladies literary society. Poems and jokes, as well as articles about fashion, cooking, and household hints, were also included.

Several local business owners purchased advertisements in The Woman’s Endeavor. Besides the many male doctors, dentists, and other businessmen who purchased ads, there were two advertisements placed by women business owners. Jessie Meenan ran a millinery shop in the Sloane block of Washington Row, and Marie Bruckner had a corset shop at 204 Columbus Avenue.

Three members of the editorial staff of The Woman’s Endeavor, Mrs. J. F. Hertlein, Mrs. J. T. Mack, and Mrs. T. M. Sloane, went on to serve on the first female jury in Erie County in 1920. Two female physicians were associated with this newspaper: Dr. Emily Blakeslee had an advertisement, and Dr. Carrie Chase Davis wrote a feature article in this publication.

Many women of Sandusky were active in the Women’s Suffrage movement. In 1903, a state suffrage convention was held in Sandusky. Marie C. Brehm, born in Sandusky in 1859, was a suffragette, and also the first legally qualified female candidate to run for the vice-presidency of the United States. She ran on the Prohibition ticket in 1924, with Herman P. Faris.

Burt I. Lamb, Sandusky Tailor

Burt I. Lamb was featured in the 1895 booklet entitled Men of Sandusky, a small publication which was printed by I. F. Mack and Bro., Printers. The booklet includes several photographs, a history of Sandusky, an article about the Soldiers and Sailors Home, and a page of interesting facts and statistics.
Mr. Lamb’s advertisement on page 65 of “Men of Sandusky” states that he “gives the highest grade of goods for the lowest grade prices in Sandusky. He does his work scientifically, studies the art of tailoring, is always up to date in style, and does honest work at honest figures, and guarantees absolute satisfaction in every case.” His tailor shop was in the Mahala Block, on E. Washington Row.

Horace Rand Lamb, the son of Burt I. Lamb and Hattie Davis, served as a First Lieutenant in World War One.
Hattie Davis Lamb’s father, Ira T. Davis, had a grocery store on Columbus Avenue and later was involved in the real estate and limestone business.

A genealogical web site indicates that Horace Rand Lamb was the grandfather of actor Christopher Reeve. Therefore, Burt I. Lamb and Ira T. Davis were Christopher Reeve’s great-grandfathers.

You can read more about the family of Ira T. Davis in Article 30 of Helen Hansen’s At Home in Early Sandusky and in Hewson Peeke’s Standard History of Erie County. Christopher Reeve mentioned Sandusky in his biography Still Me: A Life. He wrote about his grandfather Horace Lamb’s roots from a working class family in Sandusky.

Visit the Sandusky Library’s Archives Research Center to learn more about Christopher Reeve’s Sandusky ancestors, and perhaps your own ancestors as well.