Helen Gallup Pyle

Helen Gallup was the daughter of Frank Gallup and the former Fannie Walker, born in Sandusky, Ohio in 1892. Both Helen’s father Frank and her paternal grandfather Mozart Gallup were associated with the Sandusky Tool Company. Above is a close-up from her third grade class picture at Monroe School about 1900. During her later years of high school, Helen attended Rogers Hall School for Girls in Lowell, Massachusetts, graduating in 1911.

In 1917, Helen Gallup married Joseph Gilpin Pyle, Jr., an attorney. The marriage took place at Grace Church in Sandusky.

A copy of the wedding invitation is in a collection of historic invitations from Sandusky area events in the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.

Mrs. Helen Gallup Pyle was very active in the Martha Pitkin Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. An article from the February 8, 1922 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal reported that both Mr. and Mrs. Pyle took part in a group of period dances at the D.A.R. Ball held at the Odd Fellows Hall in Sandusky. Helen served as both a teacher and a dancer for the special event. 

By 1927 Mr. and Mrs. Joseph G. Pyle, Jr. had moved to Pasadena, California with their two children, Joseph G. Pyle, III and Hermoine. Both of the Pyle children would later serve in the U.S. Military during World War II. Corporal Joseph G. Pyle, III was in an Infantry unit in the South Pacific in 1944, and Hermoine Pyle was with the Women’s Army Corps branch of the U.S. Army. 

A brief article in Sandusky Register of July 14, 1934 stated that Mr. and Mrs. Joseph G. Pyle, Jr. had divorced. Mr. Pyle passed away in 1940. Mrs. Helen Gallup Pyle died in York, Pennsylvania in 1965, and her remains were returned to Sandusky for burial in the Gallup family lot at Oakland Cemetery.

Sandusky Tool Company

The Sandusky Tool Company, pictured above in the book Sandusky of To-Day, was established in 1869 to succeed Allen, Dorsey and Tenner.  George Barney, Sr. was the company’s first president, and Stephen W. Dorsey was its first superintendent. The company was well known for its fine quality hand tools, including planes, hoes, axes and other small tools. A group picture of the company’s employees was taken about 1870. Note that some of the workers were quite young.

Here is a page from the 1886 Sanborn Map that shows the location of the Sandusky Tool Company on Meigs Street, adjacent to Sandusky Bay:

J.A.Montgomery, who was associated with the Sandusky Tool Company for many years, was considered a mechanical genius. He designed woodworking machinery that was in use at the tool company for as long as it was in existence. The innovation continued after his death in 1899. W.G. Schwer patented this plane the Sandusky Tool Company in 1928.

Mozart Gallup was director, treasurer, and assistant secretary of the Sandusky Tool Company in 1880, and on September 14, 1886, he became the president and general manager. Mr. Gallup held the office of president of the company until his death in 1923.

This picture of the Sandusky Tool Company was most likely taken in the 1920s.

In 1924, the Sandusky Tool Company was hit by a tornado, and within five years, the company closed.

                    

To read more about the of the Sandusky Tool Company see the publication The Sandusky Tool Company Story by Wilbert G. Schwer, housed with the local history and genealogical books in the Reference Services Area of the Sandusky Library. Five images of tools made by the Sandusky Tool Company can be seen online at the Ohio Memory Collection.  To view actual tools made by the Sandusky Tool Company, visit The Follett House Museum, where tools are displayed in a room on the attic level.