Receipts from the Horse and Buggy Era

Before the automobile age, people as well as goods were often transported by horse drawn vehicles. In 1880, Rush R. Sloane, Mayor of Sandusky, signed a license which granted Jay Bogart permission to run a hack from August 2, 1880 to August 2, 1881. The original document is embossed with the Mayor’s seal. (According to the tenth edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, one definition of a hack is “a horse let out for common hire.”)

Horses often had to have their horse shoes replaced in order to protect their feet. This bill dated 1899, is from Hodgins & Large, Practical Horse Shoers:

You can see the Hodgins and Large Horse Shoers building in the 400 block of Decatur Street in this picture taken in Sandusky about 1900:

                                 

In 1905 Mr. John Feick paid for services from the Charles Sprow livery and feed stable:

Dr. William A. Ferry had an active Veterinary practice in Sandusky for over thirty years, which certainly would have included the treatment of horses.

   

Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research to learn more about the historic businesses of Sandusky and Erie County. 

The Commercial House in 1898

Pictured above is a wagon from the Consumers’ Ice Company in front of the Commercial House hotel in 1898 on the west side of Jackson Street, between Market and Water Streets. Theodore Schleicher was the driver of the wagon.  In the 1898 Sandusky City Directory, Mrs. J. Reuter was listed as the proprietress of the hotel, which had formerly been known as Reuter’s Hotel.

Room rates were $1.00 to $1.50, and meals were twenty five cents apiece. There were bathrooms and electric fans in the Commercial House. Due to the close proximity to the Opera House, special rates were offered to theatrical people. In the 1893 Sanborn Map, you can see the exact location of the former Reuter’s Hotel and the Opera House.

AdWriter, Inc. is now at the former location of the Commercial House at 165 Jackson Street in downtown Sandusky.

Fair Pony Farms

The billboard above advertised the well known herd of ponies from the Fair Pony Farms in Sandusky, Ohio. Most likely, the ponies were owned by W.H. Millspaugh. An article in the March 15, 1917 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal reported that Mr. Millspaugh’s herd of Welsh ponies were the largest herd of its kind in the world.

Most of the ponies were kept at the Erie County Fairgrounds, while twenty brood mares were boarded at the Floyd Smith farm in Castalia, Ohio. William H. Millspaugh, who was the founder of the Sandusky Foundry & Machine Company, purchased the best Welsh ponies from several different herds. He was looking for individual Welsh ponies which had proven value in breeeding or in winning prizes. His purchases resulted in a total herd of over eighty miniature ponies. Mr. Millspaugh exhibited the ponies at local fairs. The prize Welsh pony was “Temptation,” a chestnut pony with a blaze face. Children, when accompanied by an adult, were invited to visit the ponies at the Erie County Fairgrounds on Saturdays and Sundays. The Millspaugh ponies were featured in the Plain Dealer Weekly in September, 1919.

Horse Races in Sandusky

Although we have not had horse races in Sandusky for quite a while, the trotters were popular in town for many years, beginning about 150 years ago.

When the Ohio State Fair was held in Sandusky in 1858 the new fairgrounds (off Wayne Street, where Cable Park is today) included a state-of the-art race track. The Sandusky Register previewed the racecourse in its August 7, 1858 edition, declaring that it "will be one of the finest courses in the state." It was a mile-long oval, fifty feet wide, "with a 'home-stretch' of 100 rods" (2.5 furlongs, or 550 yards). Its inaugural races were held on September 2, 1858, with races all during the state fair in September. Entrants in those early races appear to have been mostly residents of nearby communities who wanted to show off the quality of their horses and their racing carts. Winners at the fair's races received purses of $50.

By 1874, the Sandusky Trotting Association was established to manage the races. The first meet sponsored by the Trotting Association began at 10:30 AM on Wednesday, August 1, with eight horse races, and human foot races in between. (Foot races were frequently held on the track.) The highly popular Great Western Band performed throughout the day. (You can see the band marching in an 1876 parade on the track in the image above.) Each race was run as a best-three-of-five, or two-of-three, series of heats. One of the races was a match race between Gottlieb Epple's double team and Clark Center and his horse, Silversmith Maid -- a race the Register said was run as a "side bet." After losing the first heat, Silversmith Maid won the next two races to take the prize. (Sadly, there was no indication as to how much was bet.)

Additional newspaper articles show that the races were still popular into the 1920s, with a track record $5000 purse (worth about $50,000 today) offered on July 30, 1924.