Wildman & Mills Deeded Property to Martin Eldis in 1841

On August 14, 1841, several members of the Wildman and Mills families deeded property to Martin Eldis. (Zalman Wildman and Isaac Mills were original property owners, and are considered founders of the city of Sandusky.) The property was No. 29 Water Street, which was in the city of Sandusky, bounded to the north by Water Street, to the east by Lot 28, to the south by Lot 22, and to the west by Lot 30. 

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The property sold for $2, 082.83. A fee of ten cents was paid to the Erie County Auditor, Orlando McKnight. The deed was recorded in Volume 2 of the Records of Erie County, on pages 258 and 259. Horace Aplin was Erie County Recorder in 1841.

The deed was witnessed by Mayor S.B. Caldwell and by Associate Judge Moors Farwell.

The names of several pioneer residents of Sandusky appear on this deed. F.D. Parish, well known abolitionist, served as the attorney for Julia Ann Wildman and Mary Starr. Isaac A. Mills, attorney for Abigail Mills, was the son of one of the proprietors of Sandusky, also named Isaac Mills. Martin Eldis and his wife, the former Louisa Guckenberger, were among the earliest Sandusky settlers of German descent. They ran a bakery, which was taken over by Mrs. Eldis after the death of her husband in 1852.

Mrs. Louise Guckenberger Eldis

To read more about Mr. and Mrs. Martin Eldis, see page 94 of Sandusky Then and Now, available at the Sandusky Library.

Oakland Cemetery Deed from 1856

On December 13, 1856, a deed for Lot 8, Block 9 of Oakland Cemetery was issued to H. H. Eldis. The burial lot was purchased at a cost of $15.00. The document was signed by Sandusky Mayor Charles Cross. It appears that Samuel Lewis, Recorder, signed the document on May 12, 1854. (This date may be a clerical error.)

Henry H. Eldis was the son of early German settlers Martin and Louisa Eldis. According to According to the History of Erie County, edited by Lewis Cass Aldrich, Martin Eldis settled in Portland Township, Sandusky, and opened a bakery and provision store on Water Street in the Spring of 1828. Martin Eldis died on November 28, 1852, "leaving to his wife and children an abundant share of earthly goods."

Mrs. Eldis (pictured above) told of her early years in Sandusky:

"We were not welcomed. On our arrival sixty years ago [1828], we were advised to better move on; if it had not have been for the steamboat trade, we never could have made a living in the first year or two. By and by though, the inborn element became more friendly to us, and learned to respect our ways. For nearly four years we were the only German family in this hamlet, and in all probability in the county."

The death record of Henry H. Eldis states that he died on August 16, 1892, at the age of 63. He had been employed as a railroad clerk. Henry H. Eldis was buried in Lot 8, Block 9, of Oakland Cemetery in the family lot, near his parents Martin and Louisa Eldis. To learn more about the early German settlers in Sandusky, read Sandusky Then and Now by Ernst Von Schulenburg.