Knapp’s Balsamic Cough Syrup

The advertisement above appeared in the Sandusky Register on February 8, 1875. John Knapp was associated with the Sandusky Medicine Company, which had its offices in the Sandusky Register building on Water Street in 1874 and 1875. Knapp’s Balsamic Cough Syrup was recommended for colds, sore throat, laryngitis, and all diseases of the throat.

Edwin Cutter, of Cleveland, Ohio gave a testimonial in the newspaper. He said he had tried a hundred remedies for asthma, but Knapp’s Balsamic Cough Syrup gave him the quickest and most effectual remedy of any other product. Mrs. E. Husted of Norwalk, Ohio stated that she was afflicted with a distressing cough for many years, but she found immediate relief with Knapp’s Balsamic Cough Syrup. The Sandusky Medicine Company seems to have gone out of business shortly after 1875, and by 1900, John Knapp was residing in Cleveland, Ohio with his daughter and her family. Patent medicines were very popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Sandusky’s drug stores sold many patent medicines before the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.

Memories from a 1963 Sandusky Telephone Directory

Housed in Archival Box D-14 is this Sandusky Telephone Directory, published by Ohio Bell Telephone in 1963. A princess phone graces the cover of the directory. Special features of the princess phone was its petite size and light-up dial.

A relatively new function of telephones in the Ohio Bell system in 1963 was the ability to dial long distance phone calls directly, using the digit 1 and the area phone before the regular telephone number. As you can see in the alphabetical listings of telephone numbers, Sandusky Library had the same telephone number that it has today: 419-625-3834.

Many residents will recall the International College of Beauty, owned and operated by Jon Knapp, who was the hairdresser of Miss America 1963, Jackie Mayer.

Before Standard Oil was bought out by British Petroleum, Baxter’s Sohio station offered round the class road services for automobile drivers. There were several service stations located at the intersection of Tiffin Avenue and Venice Road in the 1960s.

  

Surfside 66, a seafood and steak restaurant at Battery Park offered drive-in as well as boat-in service to customers.

Long before online shopping and cell phones were widely available, Ohio Bell’s slogan was “Let your fingers do the walking!”

Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to see this vintage telephone directory, and many, many more resources which document the history of Sandusky and Erie County.

George Knapp and Knapp Dressed Beef

George J. Knapp, Sr. was born in Germany in 1849, and settled in Sandusky in 1867. Mr. Knapp started a meat business on Decatur Street in 1870. By 1886 Knapp had  moved his business to Camp Street. A listing in the 1898 Sandusky City Directory stated that George Knapp was a wholesale and retail dealer in fresh, salt, and smoked meats and sausages of all kinds. The meat market was at 509 Market Street  and the Knapp family resided at 522 Camp Street. In the early 1900s, the business was known as the People’s Meat Market.

   

In 1904 the name of the business became the Knapp Dressed Beef Company, with George Knapp,Sr. serving as president; Charles Knapp, vice president; and Emma Knapp, secretary-treasurer; and George J. Knapp, Jr. as assistant manager.

        

A newspaper advertisement from the Sandusky Star Journal of July 31, 1911, stated that employees at Knapp Dressed Beef  did their own slaughtering of livestock, so that the meat they sold was absolutely fresh.

George J. Knapp, Sr. continued in the family business until his retirement in 1922. Mr. Knapp passed away on September 17, 1926. He was survived by four sons and four daughters. Mrs. Barbara Knapp had predeceased her husband in 1909. Funeral services for George J. Knapp, Sr. were held at the Charles J. Andres Sons’ Funeral Home, and burial was at Oakland Cemetery. An obituary for George J. Knapp, Sr. is found in the 1926 Obituary Notebook at the Sandusky Library.