Thankful Cooke, Pioneer Resident

Thankful Parker Cooke (sometimes listed as Cook) was born in 1792 to Asaph Cook and his wife Thankful Parker, who were residents of Wallingford, New Haven County, in Connecticut. Asaph Cook served in the Revolutionary War. (The first name “Thankful” is an example of the early American practice of naming daughters with reference to terms of comfort and consolation, while males were often named after men from the Bible.) In 1818, the Asaph Cook family moved to an area known as “Four Corners” in Huron County, Ohio, close to what is now the intersection of Route 99 and Route 113, in North Monroeville. Today, this area is at the boundary between Erie and Huron Counties.

Thankful P. Cooke died in 1858 at the age of 66, and she was buried in the family lot in North Monroeville Cemetery. Her sister Sarah was the first wife of Moors Farwell, the first Mayor of Sandusky. Her brother, Eleutheros Cooke, was Sandusky’s first lawyer. Her nephew Jay Cooke was a major financier of the Civil War.

You can read genealogical details about the Cook/Cooke family in the book The History of Wallingford, Connecticut, written by Charles Stanley Henry Davis in 1870. A portion of page 684 can be viewed below.

To learn more about the early residents of Erie and Huron Counties, visit the Sandusky Library, where several local history books are housed.

Plaque Honoring Sandusky’s Pioneers

 You might have driven past this monument many times and not noticed it, but it deserves recognition. It is a tribute to the founders of Sandusky.

On June 25, 1937 members of the Martha Pitkin Chapter of the Daughters of the Revolution unveiled a plaque honoring several of Sandusky’s pioneer citizens at the triangular park located between Huron Avenue, Wayne, and East Adams Streets. The bronze plaque, created by A. J. Balconi, was placed on a three ton boulder at the park.

Names on the top portion of the plaque include the founders of Sandusky:  Zalmon Wildman, Isaac Mills, and George Hoadley. On the bottom portion are the names of the nine men who directed the incorporation of Sandusky as a city in 1824. They were: Dr. George Anderson, Aaron C. Corbet, Cyrus W. Marsh, Alexander Clemons, Eleutheros Cooke, John Wheeler, William Townsend, William Kelly, and Moors Farwell, who served as Sandusky’s first mayor. Several of these men were Masons; an article in a 1937 issue of the Sandusky Masonic Bulletin recognized them and the construction and dedication of the monument

Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to learn more about the pioneer residents of Sandusky, Ohio. And be sure to stop and visit the monument in the park sometime.

Israel Cook, Postmaster at Four Corners

Israel Cook was appointed Postmaster at Four Corners on January 25, 1831, by William T. Barry, then the Postmaster General of the United States of America. Four Corners was the name of the community now known as North Monroeville, located close to the intersection of State Routes 99 and 113 in Huron County, Ohio.

Israel Cook was a son of Asaph and Thankful Parker Cook. He was a brother to Eleutheros Cooke, Sandusky’s first lawyer. (Some family members spelled their surname Cook, and others spelled the name Cooke.) Israel Cook was born on December 4, 1801. He moved with his family to Huron County in 1818, and he died on January 28, 1854.

The tombstone of Israel Cook is pictured below, between that of his father, Asaph Cook, and his sister, Sarah Cook Farwell, the wife of former Sandusky Mayor Moors Farwell. They are buried at the North Monroeville Cemetery.

Early Report Cards from Sandusky City Schools

William Henry Nye taught grammar at the elementary level for Sandusky City Schools in 1848 and 1849. The grade card pictured above belonged to Martha E. Newton, who later became Mrs. Rollin M. Wilcox. Martha’s individual scores in grammar are listed on the right side of the report card. On the left portion of the report card are the names of all the girls in Mr. Nye’s grammar class, and the “exception to morals” for each student. Martha had no exceptions to morals, but Miss Rosabella Dewey received marks for exceptions to good lessons and good order. Several of the students’ surnames are well known for their parents’ early contributions to Sandusky and Erie County. Clara Beecher was the daughter of the abolitionist lawyer Lucas Beecher. Augusta Farwell was the daughter of Sandusky’s first Mayor, Moors Farwell. Julia Townsend’s father was pioneer Sandusky businessman William Townsend. The report card was signed by both the teacher, Mr. Nye, and the school superintendent, M.F. Cowdery.

We do not know the owner of the report card from Miss L.A. Barney’s arithmetic class. The names of young gentlemen and young ladies in Miss Barney’s class appear on the left side of the report card. It is clear that the boys in this class had several more “exceptions to morals” when compared to the marks of the young ladies in the class.

Exhibition of the Students of the Sandusky City High School in 1846

On Friday evening, February 6, 1846, students of the Sandusky City High School gave an Exhibition. Orations and compositions were presented throughout the evening. Julia Farwell, the daughter of Sandusky’s first Mayor, Moors Farwell, gave a composition entitled “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” An oration on the topic of slavery was presented by Francis E. Parish, the son of well-known Sandusky lawyer and abolitionist, F. D. Parish. Mr. F.D. Parish had been elected as one of the school directors in 1838.

Annette Tilden, seen below with her young son, after she had married Isaac Mills, was the daughter of pioneer physician, Dr. Daniel Tilden. Annette gave a talk on “Humbled Pride.”

Two of the students listed on the last page of the program are of interest. Edmund G. Ross went on to become a U.S. Senator for the state of Kansas. He is known for casting the vote which acquitted Andrew Johnson during his impeachment trial in 1868, and he was one of the subjects of the book Profiles in Courage, the book co-authored by John F. Kennedy and Theodore Sorensen in 1956. During the 1846 Exhibition, Edmund G. Ross gave an oration on capital punishment.  Richard R. Sloane, better known as Rush Sloane, gave his oration on the topic of the nineteenth century. Rush Sloane became a railroad official, Mayor of Sandusky, and was the owner of the Sloane House, a hotel that stood in Sandusky from 1881 until well into the twentieth century

It is interesting to note that the program for the Exhibition was published by D. Campbell and Sons, who also published the local newspaper in Sandusky. To read more about the early history of schools in Sandusky, see “Local School History of the City of Sandusky, from 1838 to 1872 Inclusive,” written by M.F. Cowdery in 1876, and housed in the Schools Collection of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.

Wildman & Mills Deeded Property to Martin Eldis in 1841

On August 14, 1841, several members of the Wildman and Mills families deeded property to Martin Eldis. (Zalman Wildman and Isaac Mills were original property owners, and are considered founders of the city of Sandusky.) The property was No. 29 Water Street, which was in the city of Sandusky, bounded to the north by Water Street, to the east by Lot 28, to the south by Lot 22, and to the west by Lot 30. 

Click to zoom

The property sold for $2, 082.83. A fee of ten cents was paid to the Erie County Auditor, Orlando McKnight. The deed was recorded in Volume 2 of the Records of Erie County, on pages 258 and 259. Horace Aplin was Erie County Recorder in 1841.

The deed was witnessed by Mayor S.B. Caldwell and by Associate Judge Moors Farwell.

The names of several pioneer residents of Sandusky appear on this deed. F.D. Parish, well known abolitionist, served as the attorney for Julia Ann Wildman and Mary Starr. Isaac A. Mills, attorney for Abigail Mills, was the son of one of the proprietors of Sandusky, also named Isaac Mills. Martin Eldis and his wife, the former Louisa Guckenberger, were among the earliest Sandusky settlers of German descent. They ran a bakery, which was taken over by Mrs. Eldis after the death of her husband in 1852.

Mrs. Louise Guckenberger Eldis

To read more about Mr. and Mrs. Martin Eldis, see page 94 of Sandusky Then and Now, available at the Sandusky Library.

Resources for Locating Oakland Cemetery Burial Records

This week the Cemetery Walk: Titans of Transportation will be held at Oakland Cemetery on these days: Tuesday, September 20; Wednesday, September 21; Thursday, September 22; and Saturday, September 24 at 10:00 a.m. 

Even if you cannot attend one of the tours, there are many ways to access individuals buried at Oakland Cemetery!

Oakland Cemetery is the final resting place of thousands of former residents of Sandusky and Erie County, Ohio.. Though it is not 100% inclusive, there is an online database at the City of Sandusky’s website.

Simply enter the first and last name of the person you are researching, and the result will provide you with the date of death, and location of the gravesite. Below is the listing for Moors Farwell, Sandusky’s first Mayor.

Another online database that is helpful in locating Oakland Cemetery records is Find a Grave. This link will take you directly to Find a Grave’s Search Box for Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery.

Resources that are available inside the Sandusky Library include the book Erie County Ohio Cemetery Census Before 1909. Interment information for Oakland Cemetery begins on page 355 of this reference book. Inside the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center are even more places where you can access Oakland Cemetery burial records. A standalone computer provides a database where you can search by first or last name to access burial information. The results vary, sometimes providing very little information, but sometimes giving the cause of death, date of death, and location of death. The interment card for Confida Textor, who died at the age of 2 is seen below.

Yet another place to access Oakland Cemetery records at Sandusky Library is on the microfilmed copies of interment cards in the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. Complete up to the 1980s, the records are arranged first by cemetery, and then alphabetically by surname. Below is the interment card for Anne Hubbard Butler, the young daughter of Watson Hubbard and Susan Quay Butler.

If you have ancestors buried in Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery, and you would like to learn more about them, consult some of the many resources of information available to you.

Independence Day Celebrations in the 1820s

Dr. George Anderson, pictured above, read the Declaration of Independence at the July 4^th celebration held in Sandusky in 1822. The event began with a national salute, and a procession of ladies and gentlemen led by William Hull. Volunteer members of the local militia, led by Ensign Callenway, also took part in the procession. When the group got to a grove, a short distance from Sandusky, Eleutheros Cooke delivered an oration.

Cyrus W. Marsh prepared a dinner at which Lyman and Moors Farwell presided.  Twenty four toasts were given, including this one: “Sandusky Bay – Though slandered and aspersed, truth will prevail. Flow on, thou fair water!”

The Fourth of July 1822 was celebrated in Venice, Ohio, at the home of James Webber. Charles L. Boalt read the Declaration of Independence and an oration was given by Frederick Falley. Dr. Anderson presided at the dinner, assisted by Abram B. Youngs. You can read a brief account of these patriotic celebrations in the January 1886 issue of the Firelands Pioneer, available in the Reference Services area of the Sandusky Library.

           

 A tinted wood engraving of an early view of Sandusky from Sandusky Bay, originally created by the author Henry Howe.

Anti -Slavery Meeting at the Courthouse in Sandusky on March 6, 1844

On March 6, 1844, at 6:30 p.m., ladies and gentlemen of Sandusky were invited to an anti- slavery meeting to be held at the Erie County Courthouse, which at that time was located on the east side of Columbus Avenue, just west of what is now Adams Junior High School. The names of fifty seven individuals appeared in the Sandusky Clarion, below a statement that read:

“The undersigned unite in advising a call for an anti-slavery meeting, to be holden at such time and place as may be found most convenient and proper; and they invite all who are opposed to the American system of slavery, and are willing to lend their personal, moral, and religious influence for its suppression, to be present, and participate in the deliberations of the meeting. If deemed advisable, an anti-slavery society will be organized and other measures adopted, to promote the object in view.”

Hundreds of residents of Sandusky and Erie County held anti-slavery sentiment for several years, and many of them participated in the Underground Railroad. The fact that many of those who held anti-slavery views were well respected in the community helped to spread that sentiment to members of the general public. F.D. Parish was Sandusky’s second lawyer, and Moors Farwell was Sandusky’s first Mayor. H.F. Merry and Thomas Hogg were early members of the Board of Education for Sandusky City Schools. Many of the men whose names appeared on the list in the newspaper in 1844 were business men in Sandusky. W.T. and A.K. West were merchants who went on to build the West House hotel in Sandusky. Long before the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, Sanduskians of the mid 1800s were also committed to civil rights.

Addendum: Here is a wider view of the area around the courthouse, circa 1870.

East Market Street Primary School

Charles E. Frohman wrote in his book, A History of Sandusky and Erie County, that following a public meeting on October 14, 1843, a committee consisting of Moors Farwell, Alexander Porter, and Zenas Barker met to prepare a plan for the erection of one or more school houses for the education of the young people of Sandusky. Two stone school houses were built at the end of West Market Square and the south side of East Market Square. Another school was erected on the west side of Camp Street at Adams, and the high school was located on the West Public Square.

Pictured below is the building that was formerly used as the East Market Primary School located on East Market Street. The school was in operation from the mid 1840’s through the 1870’s. The view is from Franklin Street, and the Variety Village Drive-Through can be seen adjacent to the former school building.

The Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library has in its local schools collection an attendance register from the East Market Primary School, covering the years 1848 through 1853.

On the register page dated August 18, 1851, are the names of Melissa and Minerva Bell. These twin girls lost their parents, Horace and Sarah Bell, during the cholera epidemic in Sandusky in 1849. Mary and Rosa, daughters of well known lawyer and abolitionist F. D. Parish, are also seen on this page. (Rosa was also known as Damask Rose. See the book, Stories of Sandusky, for a touching, possibly fictionalized story about Damask Rose Parish.)

Many familiar names of the children of early Sandusky residents can be seen throughout the attendance register. A student named Theodore Hosmer would become the first Mayor of Tacoma, Washington.

An interesting report form was found from August 19, 1853. Besides recording attendance, absence and tardiness, the following items were also recorded by the teacher: number of communications for the week, number of pupils engaged in quarreling, and the number of cases of falsehood, uses of profane language and cases of obscene language. The final item to be tallied was the number of corporal punishments inflicted in the classroom for the week.

Visit the Sandusky Library to find a variety of historical items relating to Sandusky and Erie, including historical yearbooks and city directories and county histories of several counties in Ohio.