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.

Pictures from Lay Brothers Fisheries

Lay Brothers Fisheries was founded in 1870 by John Sr. and Jacob Lay, both sons of Jacob Lay, Sr., who died in the 1849 cholera epidemic. Pictured above is the Lay Brothers building in 1910, along the waterfront at the foot of Wayne Street. The company grew rapidly, with another brother, Henry Lay, joining the business in 1881. When Jacob Lay retired in 1902, three sons of John Lay, Sr. came into the family business. Below is a vintage photo of employees (including the horse) of Lay Brothers Fisheries in 1890.

This picture of Lay Brothers employees was taken in 1905. Notes accompanying the picture indicate that John Lay, Sr. is the man with the beard standing in the doorway.

A woman was working along with several male employees in this office picture from the early 1900s.

    

The boat crew can be seen pulling up nets in the picture below from the 1920s or 1930s.

In the 1930s, Lay Brothers Fisheries had about thirty fishing boats. By the 1950s, business declined due to the decline of the fish population and competition from Canada. Lay Brothers Fisheries closed in 1961. Historical records from the Lay Brothers Fisheries are now in the manuscript collection of the Historical Collections of the Great Lakes.  The book Lake Erie Fishermen: Work, Tradition, and Identity (University of Illinois Press, 1990) by Timothy C. Lloyd and Patrick B. Mullen, is available for checkout from the Sandusky Library

Dedication of Historical Marker at the Cholera Cemetery

On September 10, 1966, the Ohio Historical Society’s marker at the Cholera Cemetery was dedicated. Charles E. Frohman composed the wording on the text of the marker. The arch, which had been designed by Artist Frank W. Smith, was donated by the grandchildren of John Lay, Sr. Serving as Master of Ceremonies at the marked dedication was Charles E. Frohman. Dr. C. F. Lavender, President of the Erie County Medical Society spoke, along with Daniel R. Porter, executive director of the Ohio Historical Society. Music was provided by the Sandusky High School Band. The invocation was given by Rev. Msgr. William Armitage, and Dr. Theodore Stellhorn, Jr. gave the benediction. Also participating in the day’s events were the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and Camp Fire Girls.

Over 300 persons lost their lives in the Cholera Epidemic of 1849, which took place between July 1, 1849 and September 7, 1849. Cholera struck Sandusky again in 1852 and in 1854, but not as severely as the 1849 epidemic.

Two sources which include historical details about the cholera epidemics in Sandusky are chapter XIV of Hewson Peeke’s A Standard History of Erie County, Ohio, published in 1916, and chapter 9 of Sandusky Then and Now.

Another outstanding resource relating to the cholera epidemic of 1849 is Cholera Victims of 1849 in Sandusky, Erie County, Ohio, by Katharyn L. (Huss) Wunderley. Mrs. Wunderley, who was an avid genealogist, spent hundreds of hours researching the names of the individuals who perished from cholera in 1849. She consulted the above two books, along with History of Erie County, Ohio, edited by Lewis Cass Aldrich, local newspapers, church records, and cemetery records. Two other resources used in Mrs. Wunderley’s research were the Cholera Hospital Register and the Cholera of 1849 and the Opinions of Medical and Other Professional Gentlemen in Regard to Its Origin and Proper Treatment, both accessible at the Ohio Memory Online Scrapbook.