An Important Tool in the Early Library

 

The pencil dater pictured above was recently found by a member of the Sandusky Library’s administrative staff. This piece of library equipment was devised by the Milwaukee Public Library in the late 1800s. With just a slight motion of the hand, library staff could jot down the patron’s library card number, as well as stamp the date due on a slip of paper in the back of the library book. The pencil dater sold for seventy-five cents (about $25 today) in the Classified Illustrated Catalog of the  Library Bureau in 1891. This type of manual charging system was used at the Sandusky Library well into the 1970s.

Today the Sandusky Library is a member of the CLEVNET Consortium. The SirsiDynix computerized charging and discharging system used by CLEVNET libraries allows for efficient and accurate charging, discharging, and searches for items by author, title, subject, or series. The online catalog further enhances searches by providing a graphical interface, links to new arrivals, award winners, and best sellers.

Sandusky Library: 125 Years

In commemoration of the 125th anniversary of the Sandusky Library, here is a "re-run" of a post on the history of libraries in Sandusky:

The public library in Sandusky can trace its roots back to 1825 (only seven years after Sandusky was founded), when a subscription library was created, called the Portland Library. F.D. Parish, one of the city's first lawyers, was the first librarian, with about 300 books under his care. This organization was succeeded around 1840 by the Sandusky Lyceum, a literary study society; the Lyceum was in turn replaced by the Philomathesian Society in 1845. 

A page from a minute book of the Philomathesian Society

In 1855, the Young Men's Library Association took over the role of public library for Sandusky, until 1870, when the Library Association of Sandusky was founded. This organization was commonly known as the "Ladies' Library Association," because the membership of its board was composed entirely of women of the community. In 1886 the Library Building Fund Association was created to raise funds for the construction of a library building. In November 1895, the Library was incorporated and became the first free public library in the community. (Membership fees were no longer charged.) Originally located in the High School, the library operated in the Masonic Temple (seen here)from 1896 until 1901, when what is now the Carnegie wing of the present library was opened. Today's Sandusky Library has served the community at its present location for over 100 years, with expanded facilities for the 21st century.

Miss Jean Beis, Sandusky High School Teacher and Librarian

Jean Beis is pictured above in the Sandusky High School Library, on page 20 of the 1952 Fram. Miss Beis was born Jeanette Beis, in 1894, to local attorney George C. Beis and his wife, the former Lucinda Zerbe. Jean graduated from Sandusky High School in 1912, and attended the University of Michigan, graduating in 1917 with a degree in language. In 1941 she earned her bachelor degree in Library Science from the Western Reserve University in Cleveland. 

Miss Beis began teaching at Sandusky High School in 1920, where she taught Latin for several years. Eventually Miss Beis became the High School Librarian at Sandusky High School. In May of 1954, a slightly overdue book was returned to the High School library from the son of a former Sandusky resident. Though it was not collected, Miss Beis calculated the fine for the overdue book to be $539.70.

Miss Jean Beis is the second to the last person on the right, in the bottom row in the picture of the Sandusky High School faculty below.

In 1951 Miss Beis attended a class reunion. She is the person on the right in the picture below,  beside Letitia Adams and an unidentified male.

          

Jean Beis died on December 2, 1976  at the age of 82, at her home on Huron Avenue. She had been a member of the Sandusky Women’s College Club, Ohio State Retired Teachers’ Association, the Legion of Mary, and Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church. Funeral services were held at the David Suitor Funeral Home and burial was in the family lot at Oakland Cemetery.

The Former Library at the Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home

                                     

Built shortly after the Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home (now the Ohio Veterans Home) opened in 1888, this library building served the Home for many years. Residents of the Home could read books and magazines in the Library. A picture of the Library appeared in the book Art Work of Huron and Erie Counties in the 1890s.

    

A large assembly hall, often called “Library Hall” was on the upper level of the library, which was used for meetings and card parties. The McMeens Post No. 19, Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Civil War Veterans, often held its meetings there.  During World War II, the U.S. Civil Air Patrol held drills in Library Hall. Sometimes church services were held in the building. 

This picture of the Library was taken in 1983.

A series of twenty photographs of the Library at the Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home is found in the Prints and Photographs Collection of the Library of Congress Online Catalog. These views give a detailed view of each floor of the Library, as well as several exterior views. 

By 1988, this building was no longer used as a Library. It was demolished, along with several other buildings on the grounds of the Ohio Veterans Home, because it would have been too costly to make the improvements that would have been necessary were the buildings to remain in use.  Today a research library is housed in the Military Museum at the Ohio Veterans Home. The library is available for use by Ohio Veterans Home residents as well as the general public.  

Records of the Library Company of Eldridge Township

In 1938 Mrs. James Douglas donated the Record Book of the Library Company of Eldridge Township: 1825-1830 to the Historic Room of the Sandusky Library. (Eldridge Township is now known as Berlin Township.) It appears that this early library was a subscription library, which unlike today’s public libraries, was supported by subscription fees assessed to individual users. Persons who had a membership in the Library Company of Eldridge Township had their names listed on separate pages, and columns indicated the date they checked books out, and also the amount of “shares” they used for each check-out. The Record Book also contains minutes of the meetings, and gives details of fines charged and transfers of memberships.

One of the members of the Library Company of Eldridge Township the great-grandfather of Mrs. James Douglas, Noah Hill.

By 1818 Noah Hill was a farmer in Berlin Township, after having been a shipbuilder in Connecticut, and living briefly in Pennsylvania. He married Sukey Butler, and they had ten children. Two of their sons became physicians, and another was an Ohio legislator. His son Dr. Benjamin Hill was appointed as U.S. Consul at Nicaragua under President Lincoln. Mr. Hill served as a Justice of the Peace for several years. His obituary in the June 1865 Firelands Pioneer states that “the qualities of his heart will ever be held in remembrance by his relatives and acquaintances. He was noted by his love of home, and his attention to the wants and needs of his family…” Noah Hill was considered one of the few remaining original pioneers of the Firelands at the time of his death.

Rev. True Pattee was an early Methodist preacher in Huron and Erie Counties. The History of Ohio Methodism indicates that in 1824 Rev. Pattee was preaching in Sandusky in a frame building on Columbus Avenue where the Sloane House was later located.

Rev. William Gurley in his memoir says that Rev. True Pattee was distinguished and dignified. He continues to say that Rev. Pattee would “throw before the audience some pleasing truth, strew around it some flowers of rhetoric, and leave his hearers delighted with both it and himself.” Rev. True Pattee and his family moved to Indiana. He died in Allen County, Indiana in 1867. Burial was in the Old Harlan Cemetery.

If you or your family members have old records of historic organizations or businesses from Sandusky or Erie County, consider donating them to the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library to be preserved for future generations.