The Village of Enterprise

The small community of Enterprise was located in the southern section of Section 1 of Oxford Township, Erie County, Ohio, just north of the Huron River, as seen below on a portion of an historic map from the website of the Erie County Auditor.

The 1896 Erie County Atlas featured a small map of the village of Enterprise, which is now in  an area of rural Oxford Township. The village is no longer in existence. Some of the individuals who resided in or near Enterprise in 1896 were W.H. Newton, Urban Livengood, P. Huber and H. Root.

According to the Erie County Cemetery Census, Before 1909, there is a graveyard in the woods near the former village of Enterprise (now on private property.)  Only one stone remains intact - that of Clarinda Sayer, wife of Jedediah Sayer, who died May 22, 1841, at age 55 years. Others who are reported to have been buried in the graveyard in the woods near Enterprise include Jedediah Sayer, died 1841; Capt. Charles Parker, died 1812; Ira Parker, died 1812; and Samuel Seymour, died 1812.  

An article in the November 24, 1947 issue of the Sandusky Register Star News provides some history about some of the events of 1812, in an interesting history of the Milan area. There was once a military blockhouse near Enterprise, at the former farm of Charles Parker. It was there that, it is said, Samuel Seymour was murdered by Native Americans in the fall of 1812. Though the Village of Enterprise no longer remains, it once was a lively small community in the heartland of northern Ohio.

Oxford Township Grange Hall in Bloomingville

Now a private residence, the Oxford Township Grange Hall was the center of community life for many years from the early 1900s until the 1980s. The building is located at the intersection of Taylor Road and Mason Road in Oxford Township of Erie County, Ohio.   Farming was the main occupation of residents of Oxford Township in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  In the picture above, from the 1910s, several individuals can be seen with their horses and buggies. 

Bloomingville is an unincorporated village in northern Oxford Township of Erie County. Hewson Peeke wrote in A Standard History of Erie County, Ohio, that the earliest settlers in Bloomingville arrived in 1810. Bloomingville was one of the largest towns in northern Ohio at that time, with a church, mill, school, inn, and post office established in that first decade. The Bank of Sandusky Bay was built in the village in 1816-1817, but it was not granted a charter.  The old brick bank building is pictured below.

Eleutheros Cooke and his family lived in the former bank building in 1819, and his son Pitt Cooke was born here. Andrew W. Prout lived here in the 1830s. (The building no longer stands.)  The Bloomingville Cemetery is located adjacent to the former Grange building, with burials dating back to the early 1800s.

You can read more about the history of Oxford Township in several histories of Erie County, Ohio, at the Sandusky Library. 

The historic marker at Bloomingville Cemetery gives a brief summary of the community's history

Rev. John G. Ensslin

According to his death certificate, John George Ensslin was born in Bopfingen, Germany on September 9, 1840 to Casper and Mary Ensslin. Rev. Ensslin’s surname was spelled many different ways through the years, including Enszlin, Enslin, and Ennslin. After studying for six years at the Mission Institute at Basil, Switzerland, John G. Ensslin was ordained in 1868. In that same year Rev. Ensslin emigrated to the United States. After serving as a minister at two different churches in Michigan, Rev. Ensslin began his ministry at Sandusky’s Emmanuel Church on May 1, 1876.

Rev. Ensslin served as the pastor at Emmanuel Church for over thirty five years, officiating at many baptisms, funerals, weddings, and confirmations. Due to declining health, he resigned from active ministry in January of 1912. At that time he was the oldest active member of the clergy in Sandusky, Ohio. For eleven years, Rev. Ensslin also had charge of St. John’s Evangelical Church in Oxford Township. On January 6, 1914, Rev. John G. Ensslin died at his Jackson Street home in Sandusky. He was survived by three daughters and three sons. Mrs. Ensslin had predeceased him in 1910. Funeral services for Rev. Ensslin were held on Friday, January 9, 1914, at Emmanuel Church, under the direction of Rev. Theo. Eisen. Several clergymen from other cities were also in attendance. Burial was at Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery. 

Family Portrait of the Ramsdell and Linn Families

In about 1910, a photograph of the Ramsdell and Linn families was taken by Sandusky photographer Edward H. Schlessman in Bloomingville, Ohio. The elderly man in the center of the picture is Horace Valentine Ramsdell. Horace V. Ramsdell was born in Bloomingville in 1842, one of twelve children born to Horace and Sarah Ramsdell. During the Civil War, Horace V. Ramsdell enlisted in Company G of the 101^st Ohio Volunteer Infantry when he was only nineteen years old. He was severely injured at the Battle of Stones River. He was shot twice on December 31, 1861. When the ambulance picked him up, the army surgeons thought he would never survive his wounds. After two months of nursing care, Horace did recover from his war injuries, though it took him a full year to completely recover. 

After the war, Horace V. Ramsdell took charge of the family farm in Oxford Township. For a brief time he worked in the fishing business, and went mining in the Black Hills district in the 1870s, but soon he returned home. Horace V. Ramsdell and his wife, the former Alma Louise Bardwell, were the parents of four children, one who died young. A biographical sketch about him is found in Hewson L. Peeke’s A Standard History of Erie County, Ohio. Mr. Peeke wrote: “A life that was significant of sturdy character, upright manhood, long-continued industry, patriotic service during the period which insured the integrity of the Union, and lasting esteem from family, friends and neighbors, was lived by the late Horace Valentine Ramsdell in Oxford Township.” On January 17, 1914, Horace V. Ramsdell died from heart failure. He was buried in the Bloomingville Cemetery. Mr. Ramsdell was survived by his wife, two daughters, one son, a brother and sister, and seven grandchildren.

Several family photographs from the Ramsdell and Linn families were bequeathed to the Sandusky Library by descendants of Horatio V. Ramsdell.

Back to School. . .

As students in our area head back to school, here is a look back at students in Sandusky and Erie County from the historical collections of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. In the picture below, the Sandusky High School football team can be seen on the practice field in the 1920s.

J.W. Dietz took this picture of the 1903 Sandusky High School orchestra on the steps of the old Sandusky High School.

Dr. Norbert Lange donated this class photo of the third grade class at Monroe School from about 1900. Clarence E. Thompson, who is number 38 in the picture, went on to become a doctor. He practiced medicine in Chicago for over forty years.

The students and teacher of the District 3 School in Oxford Township were photographed by commercial photographer E. H. Schlessman  in the 1910s.

Prout's Station

The town formerly known as Prout or Prout’s Station is located in the north central portion of Oxford Township of Erie County.

A. W. Prout settled in this location in 1833, purchasing land from George Hollister and Isaac Mills for four dollars an acre. A. W. Prout was an agent of an early railroad line that operated in Oxford Township, and also served as the Postmaster of Prout’s Station. A Post Office was first established as “Wheatsboro Post Office” in 1812, and later operated as Prout Post Office (among other names) until Nov. 14, 1905.

In 1885 a mission church from the St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Milan was started at Prout’s Station. A school is found at Prout’s Station in the 1896 Erie County Atlas. In the 1920’s the Central Erie Supply and Elevator did a thriving business, handling an estimated six hundred thousand dollars in 1927.

James A. Ryan, in a 1928 Star Journal newspaper article called Frank J. Prout “one of Prout’s Station’s best known sons.” Frank J. Prout (shown below) was Superintendent of Sandusky City Schools from 1921 to 1939. Dr. Prout was appointed to the presidency of Bowling Green State University in 1939, and continued in that position until 1951. Prout Chapel on the BGSU campus is named for Dr. Frank Prout, while a women’s dormitory was named Alice Prout Hall, for his late wife.

Another Prout descendant, Charles Merz, son of Sakie Prout Merz, was the editor of the New York Times from 1938 until 1961. His editorials in opposition to Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950's were influential on American thinking.

You can read James A. Ryan’s history of Prout’s Station from the October 6, 1928 Star Journal at the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library, where the Star Journal, Sandusky Register, and other newspapers are available on microfilm.