Mr. and Mrs. James Ellis Marshall

James Ellis Marshall was born in 1808 in Bradford, England. He came to the United States in 1855, having interests in the textile and iron industries in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. In about 1860 he settled in Sandusky, Ohio, where he became one of the incorporators of the Sandusky Tool Company, founded in 1869..

Mr. Marshall and his wife, the former Clara Robinson, were the parents of four children: Joseph Marshall, who moved west; Mary Elizabeth Marshall, the wife of Lewis Moss; Hannah Sophia Marshall, who married Rush Sloane, and sadly died in 1872; and Benjamin Marshall, whose death was believed to have been hastened by his experience in the 1900 flood in Galveston, Texas. Clara Robinson Marshall served on the Board of the Sandusky Library Association from 1870 to 1873.

Clara Robinson Marshall

Known as Deacon Marshall, James E. Marshall was very active in the Congregational Church in Sandusky. The Marshall family lived in this lovely Wayne Street home, built in the 1870s, now on the National Register of Historic Places.

According to the Ohio Historic Places Dictionary (State History Publications, 2008), the Marshall home was the first residence in Sandusky to be connected to the city’s new water and sewer lines. 

James E. Marshall died at the age of 98 on March 20, 1907. He and his wife were both interred at Troy, New York in the family vault at Oakwood Cemetery. Though Mr. and Mrs. Marshall were not born in Sandusky, and were not buried here, they definitely contributed greatly to the community in which they lived for over forty years.

Early Twentieth Century Postcard of Sandusky

This postcard was created by noted photographer Louis James Pesha in the early 1900s. The eastern side of Columbus Avenue is pictured in Sandusky’s busy downtown district.   The Cooke building, with a flagpole atop a decorative tower, can be seen at the northeast corner of Columbus Avenue and Market Street. Stone’s Block, which housed the general offices of the Lake Shore Electric Railway, is at the southeast corner of Columbus Avenue and Market Street. At this time N.E. Marshall ran a bookstore at 210 Columbus Avenue. The S.H. Knox and Co. 5 and 10 Cent Store was in business at 214 and 216 Columbus Avenue. The Dietz and Mischler cigar store, at 224 Columbus Avenue, was known for selling Siesta cigars for five cents each. Puck, a cast zinc statue, stood in the front window of the store from the late 1800s until about 1915. Puck now can be seen at the Follett House Museum.

The Bauman Brothers sold wallpaper at 226 Columbus Avenue, and the Melville Brothers drugstore was located at 228 Columbus Avenue. Also in the 200 block of Columbus Avenue was William Seitz Sons, merchant tailor and the American Banking and Trust Company. O.S. Alcott ran a men’s furnishing store at the northeast corner of Columbus Avenue and Washington Row. You can read a portion of the sign of the O.S. Alcott store in the close up view of the postcard below.

Thanks to Mr. Pesha, we can take a peek into our community’s past. Sadly, L.J. Pesha was killed in an automobile accident in 1912.

Woman’s Relief Corps No. 48

Following the Civil War, the Woman’s Relief Corps was formed as an auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization whose members were Union Veterans of the Civil War. The purpose of the Woman’s Relief Corps was to aid and assist Union veterans, as well as the widows and orphans of Union veterans.

In Sandusky, the McMeens Corps, Woman’s Relief Corps, No. 48, served as an auxiliary to the McMeens Post of the G.A.R. The women of the W.R.C. helped provide food, entertainment, and a listening ear to the residents of the Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Home in Sandusky, now known as the Ohio Veterans Home. In 1913, a monument which honored the Civil War dead was unveiled at the Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Home. Members of the W.R.C. throughout the state spent two years raising money for the monument. A photograph found on Lake Erie’s Yesterdays shows several members of the Woman’s Relief Corps at a Memorial Day ceremony held at the Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Home in 1914.

Emogene Niver Marshall was a member and past president of the Woman’s Relief Corps, No. 48. She also was a past president of the Ohio W.R.C. Following her brother’s death in a Civil War prison camp, she devoted her life to patriotic work. The residents of the Soldiers and Sailors Home called her the “Angel of the Home.”

On February 11 and 12, 1896, a charity opera under the auspices of the Woman’s Relief Corps in Sandusky was held at the Nielsen Opera House. The opera, entitled “Egypta,” was based on the life of Moses. It featured a huge cast of local adults and children as well as many musical numbers. The program is several pages long, and can be viewed at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.

Emogene Niver Marshall and Her Civil War Memorial to Her Brother

Mrs. Emogene Niver Marshall was a well known Sandusky resident who died in 1935, at about 85 years old. She gave many years of service to the Soldiers and Sailors Home (now the Ohio Veterans Home), giving entertainment to the residents and cheering the sick in the hospital. Emogene was married to Joseph T. Marshall, who served in the 101st Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War. Though Mr. Marshall had never been a resident of the home, over four hundred persons associated with the Soldiers and Sailors Home attended the funeral service Joseph T. Marshall in 1910, to show their respect and appreciation to Emogene Niver Marshall for her service at the Home.

She had an elder brother, Edwin M. Niver, about five years older. In 1861 Edwin enlisted in the 3rd Ohio Volunteer Calvalry, before he reached his seventeenth birthday, and served in battle through Tennessee and Alabama. He was captured by Confederate forces in November 1863, and sent to the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia, where he died on June 19, 1864.

In 1932 Emogene Niver Mashall wrote a book in memory of her brother and his service in the war. In this book, REMINISCENCES OF THE CIVIL WAR AND ANDERSONVILLE PRISON, you can read the letters that Edwin M. Niver wrote home to his family. Emogene writes of the dreadful conditions of the prison, and includes a lengthy poem honoring the dead heroes buried at Andersonville. In the foreword to the book, E.H. Mack, Editor of the Sandusky Register states that Mrs. Emogene Niver Marshall was called the “Angel of the Home.” To view Mrs. Marshall’s tribute to her brother, inquire at Reference Services located on the Lower Level of Sandusky Library.