What Products did Barney and Ferris Sell?

F.T. Barney and B.F. Ferris owned the Barney and Ferris hardware store at the northeast corner of Jackson and Water Streets in the 1870s and 1880s. The building still stands in Sandusky today. 

The building the housed the former Barney & Ferris store, circa 2016

All varieties of hardware were sold at Barney and Ferris, including nails, paint, mantels, grates, hearths and glass. You could even purchase agricultural implements there. By 1881 the company branched out into selling sporting goods to hunters and fishermen. Several different kinds of gunpowder were sold by Barney and Ferris, many from the Oriental Powder Company.

An advertisement from1886 referred to Barney and Company as the “Old Pioneer Hardware House.” At that time, Barney’s was an agent for products like the Nickle Barn Door Roller and the Eureka Mower.

After the deaths of F.T. Barney and B.F. Ferris, other individuals operated hardware stores at the same site, including Pierre Van Alstyne and members of the Donahue family.

Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to learn more about the former businesses that were a big part of the lives of the early residents of Erie County, Ohio.

Commercial Building at the Northeast Corner of Jackson and West Water Streets

The three story brick building at the northeast corner of Jackson and West Water Streets in downtown Sandusky was built about 1870, and has been a key commercial property in Sandusky for more than a century. For several years, Freeland T. Barney and Benjamin F. Ferris operated a hardware store at this location.

After Mr. Barney died in 1875, his widow, Mary Barney took over the business, with the help of a bookkeeper named Pierre VanAlstyne. Mr. VanAlstyne took over the business after the death of Mrs. Barney in 1881. 

The building underwent a major renovation in 1892, including the addition of a Romanesque Revival facade. Arches adorn the windows of upper levels of the building, and decorative brackets trim the upper most portion of the building.  The hardware store that had started as Barney and Ferris eventually became the Donahue Hardware Store. Below is a picture of the Donahue Hardware Store about 1900. In the early twentieth century, the Donahue Hardware Store occupied 735-737-739 Water Street. 

By 1915, the Donahues had moved the hardware store to Market Street, and Schnaitter and Bechberger Plumbing and Heating took over the location of the former Donahue Hardware, which was now known as 231-233 West Water Street.  Bender & Woodward Wholesale Grocers had temporary quarters at 225-229 West Water Street at that time.  In 1932, the Elks Hall was on the upper floor of 231 West Water Street. Later businesses in the large block from 225-233 West Water Street were Hessler Plumbing and Heating, Trophy Specialists, the Yankee Clipper barber shop, an art gallery and the Sandusky Athletic Club. To learn the exact years and names of businesses at this location in downtown Sandusky, see the historical Sandusky City Directories housed in the lower level of the Sandusky Library. 

The large 20 Mule Team Borax advertisement below was painted on the former Barney & Ferris building at the time of the 1913 Perry Centennial Celebration in Sandusky.

The side of the building which faces to the west is likely where the old Borax ad was painted.

More details about the businesses that have been located on West Water Street are found in an article by Helen Hansen and Virginia Steinemann in the January 19, 1992 issue of the Sandusky Register, now available on microfilm at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.

Anna White Ferris, Mrs. B.F. Ferris

According to the Firelands Pioneer, Anna Damarius White was born on August 11, 1838 to Samuel M. White and his wife, the former Damarius Pendleton. Samuel M. White was a building contractor. He and his wife were pioneer settlers of Sandusky, Ohio. In 1861, Anna D. White married Benjamin F. Ferris, a hardware merchant. The steamer B.F. Ferris was named for Anna’s husband.

           
Mrs. Ferris was an early member of the board of the Library Association of Sandusky, serving on the board in 1878 and 1879. For many years, she took an active part in parish activities of Grace Episcopal Church. On October 9, 1901, Mrs. B.F. Ferris passed away in the very room in which she was born, at her home on Adams Street in Sandusky. An article in the Sandusky Daily Star of  October 9, 1901 read in part, “By her death, Sandusky loses a woman of sterling worth and character, who had many warm friends and who will be sincerely missed from among her associates.” Mrs. Ferris was survived by her husband, a brother, and three sons. She was buried in Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery. Her husband, Benjamin Franklin Ferris, died in October of 1912. A beautiful monument honoring the memory of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin F. Ferris, as well as several members of the White family, is located in Block at Oakland Cemetery.