At Work in Sandusky

Celebrated in the U.S. since 1882, Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is dedicated “to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.” The men in the photograph above were employed by Lay Brothers Fisheries in the 1930s. The crew was on a fishing boat, pulling up nets from Sandusky Bay. In the historical photograph collection at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center are a wide variety of images of local residents pictured in the workplace. 

Several men and women who were employed at Hinde and Dauch can be seen in the 1905 picture below.

The ice industry provided many area residents with jobs in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

During World War II, employees at Barr Rubber made life rafts for the war effort.

In the picture below, taken sometime between 1910 and 1915, are members of the Sandusky Chapel of the Typographical Union employed by the Sandusky Register. Maybe their vehicles were decorated for a Labor Day celebration!

 

Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to see many more vintage pictures of the people who called Sandusky and Erie County home.

Labor Day

In honor of Labor Day, we would like to share some images of workers, from the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.

Lay Brothers, 1905

Sandusky Tool Company, circa 1880

Beilsten Steam Laundry, circa 1895. Note the child laborers.

Another example of women at work: Jackson Underwear factory, 1906

The men who built the Jackson Underwear factory, 1899

A meeting of the Bartenders' Union, 1940

Labor Day Celebration at Johnson’s Island in 1897

On September 6, 1897 the Sandusky Trades and Labor Assembly held their eighth annual Labor Day celebration at the Johnson’s Island Pleasure Resort Company.

Speakers of the day were Jacob Holl, Jr., Isaac Miller, and the Honorable Max S. Hayes, a well known labor leader from Cleveland.

Scouton’s Concert Band, conducted by Will Scouton, presented concerts in the afternoon and evening. Dancing was enjoyed as well, including waltzes, the two-step, and a schottische.

Advertisements from Sandusky businesses are found throughout the program.

Veterans Day, November 11: Corporal Isaac F. Mack and Sergeant Selden A. Day of Company C, 7th O.V.I.

Selden A. Day is pictured in his uniform from the Spanish American War, in which he served as an officer in the Artillery. The photograph was a gift to Sandusky newspaper publisher, Isaac F. Mack. During the Civil War, Selden A. Day and Isaac F. Mack both served in Company C of the Seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Isaac F. Mack was a Corporal and Selden A. Day served as both a Corporal and a Sergeant while in the 7th infantry.

Selden A. Day had a long record of military service to his country. He served in the Civil War as well as the Spanish American War. His monument at Arlington National Cemetery bears the inscription: “Breveted First Lieutenant, 3 June 1864 for gallant and meritorious service in the battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia; Breveted Captain, 13 March 1865 for gallant and meritorious services during the war. “

Selden Day’s wife was quite well known in her own right. Alice Chenoweth was born in 1853 in Winchester, Virginia. When she began writing, Alice legally took the pen name of Helen Hamilton Gardener. She authored seven books, was a vice president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and was the first female member of the United States Civil Service Commission. President Wilson appointed her on April 13, 1920. Upon her death (subscription required), Helen willed her brain to science .

Isaac F. Mack was one of the most prominent and influential citizens of Sandusky, Ohio. He was associated with the Sandusky Register from 1869 until 1909. He was a charter member of the Western Associated Press, which went on to become the Associated Press.
Mack was elected Commander of the Ohio Department of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1892. He was very influential in securing Erie County as the home of the Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Home, now the Ohio Veterans Home. The I.F. Mack building at the Ohio Veterans Home honors his memory.

To read more about the life of Isaac F. Mack, read Sandusky's Editor, by Charles E. Frohman, available at the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library.

Labor Day

In honor of the working men and women throughout the history of our community, this post commemorates Labor Day. Labor Day was first celebrated in 1882 in New York. It was made a national holiday in 1894.

















The men in the picture on the left (below) are workers at the Bay View Foundry (which operated from around the beginning of the 20th century to the 1930s), at Shelby and Water Streets, circa 1905; the photo on the right (above) shows the women workers (and their male supervisors) at the Jackson Underwear Factory, North Depot and McDonough Streets, circa 1906. The Jackson Factory operated from 1899 to around 1933.

If you have historical documents describing the activities of working people in Sandusky and Erie County -- documents such as: labor union records; photographs of people at work; personal letters and papers; business records; etc. -- please consider donating those documents to the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. Contact the Archives Librarian via email or at 419-625-3834.