Artist John Opie's Painting of a Lyman Boat

 

In the historical collections of the Sandusky Library and the Follett House Museum is a painting of a Lyman boat, titled Lyman Islander, by artist John Opie. Mr. Opie is a native of Sandusky, graduating from Sandusky High School in 1954. He earned Bachelors of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees from Kent State University; after several years of teaching in art schools and universities, he became a full time artist, now living in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. John Opie’s family was associated with the O.P. Craft Company in Sandusky for many years. (His father was treasurer and general manager of the business.)

The Lyman Boat Company was founded in Cleveland in 1875 and moved to Sandusky in November 1928. They made wooden boats in Sandusky until 1973; these boats are still beloved by many Great Lakes boaters.

To read more about the Lyman Boat Works, read the book Lyman Boats: Legend of the Lakes, by Tom Koroknay (T, Koroknay, 2004), available for loan through the Clevnet system.   You can see a Lyman boat on exhibit at the Maritime Museum of Sandusky.         

Elmer Grahl’s Painting and the Story of Sandusky's Puck

In 2003 longtime Sandusky barber Elmer Grahl painted a picture of the ice cream and sandwich shop operated by the Charles Hoffman family in the 1920s and 1930s. This shop is no longer standing, but it once stood at the southeast corner of Scott and Hancock Streets.

Puck, the figure on top of the stand, was in the front window of Dietz and Mischler’s cigar store on Columbus Avenue until about 1915. After the cigar store closed, this zinc statue landed in John and Henry Weier’s scrap yard, on Hancock Street, between Neil and Scott Streets. Charles Hoffman rescued Puck and placed him on top of the family sandwich shop, just down the street. The tip of Puck’s spear was electrified, and fitted with a light bulb, showing the way to Hoffman’s shop. Hoffman descendants donated Puck to the Follett House Museum in the 1970s.

Below is a photograph of Hoffman’s shop when it was in business in Sandusky. The Hoffman family was well known in Sandusky for its business ventures, including the Hoffman Coal and Milling Company and the Hoffman Manufacturing Company.

Painting by Charles H. Hubbell

The painting above was created by Charles H. Hubbell for Reinhardt N. Ausmus. (The library owns a photograph, but not the original painting.) The monoplane was designed, built, and flown by Ausmus in 1912. 

Reinhart Ausmus in 1920

Reinhardt N. Ausmus was only 16 years old when he built his first plane. Before serving in the U.S. Army as a flight instructor in World War I, Ausmus worked in Sandusky with another aviation pioneer, Thomas Benoist. Mr. Ausmus was an advocate for veterans' welfare throughout his life. He was appointed the first Erie County Veterans Service Officer in 1949, serving in that position until 1969.

Photo of Charles H. Hubbell, from the Smithsonian Institution Archives

Mr. Hubbell, who died in 1971, was one of the most well known commercial aviation artists of his time. Many of his paintings are now a part of the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum collection of the Western Reserve Historical Society.

Mr. and Mrs. William Townsend

Now on display at the Follett House Museum, oil paintings of William Townsend and his wife, the former Maria Lamson, were donated to the museum by descendants of Mr. and Mrs. Townsend. William Townsend settled in Sandusky, Ohio between 1815 and 1819. He opened a dry goods store opposite the Colton House in Sandusky, and later went into the commission and forwarding business. Mr. Townsend was the first local merchant to advertise in the Sandusky Clarion. The advertisement below appeared in the Sandusky Clarion of May 15, 1822.

William Townsend was a Sandusky council member when the city was incorporated in 1824, and he also served as the city’s first recorder. He invested in the Mad River Railroad, and owned a line of steamers that ran between Buffalo and western lake ports, including the city of Sandusky. He married Maria Lamson (sometimes listed as Lampson) in 1824.

The Townsends had a large family of eight children, all of whom were girls except for one son named William Kneeland Dell Townsend. An article in At Home in Early Sandusky, by Helen Hansen, states that William Townsend’s employees celebrated the birth of the son in 1840 by firing off guns from the roof of the commission house.  

The former home of William and Maria Townsend was built in 1844, and it still stands on West Washington Street, now a multi-family unit.

Sadly, the happiness of this prosperous local family was shattered in 1849. William and Maria Townsend, their daughter Sarah, as well as a sister of Mrs. Townsend all died between July 27 and July 31, 1849 when a cholera epidemic swept through Sandusky. The oldest Townsend child was Mary Elizabeth Cooke, the wife of Pitt Cooke.  Mr. and Mrs. Pitt Cooke took in Mary’s orphaned siblings, and raised them. A lovely monument at Oakland Cemetery, which honors the memory of William and Maria Townsend, is pictured on this stereographic card created by photographer A.C. Platt.

    

Another beautiful memorial at Oakland Cemetery is connected to the Townsend family. William and Maria Townsend’s youngest daughter Louisa married Theodore Hosmer, the first Mayor of Tacoma, Washington. The final resting place of Louisa Townsend Hosmer, who died in 1885, and Theodore Hosmer, who died in 1900, is in Lot 25 in the North Ridge section of Oakland Cemetery.

Portrait of Frank G. Sloane

In the Toy Room of the Follett House Museum is a beautiful portrait of Frank G. Sloane, painted by Caroline L. Ormes Ransom. Frank Gilkeson Sloane was the son of former Sandusky Mayor Rush R. Sloane, and his wife, the former Sarah E. Morrison. Caroline L. Ormes Ransom was an artist who spent time in Sandusky, Ohio in the mid-nineteenth century.  Caroline was known for painting portraits. Her portrait of President James Garfield can be seen at the James A. Garfield NationalHistoric Site in Mentor, Ohio. Young visitors to the Follett House Museum are often surprised to learn that the child in the portrait is a male, because he has long curls. Visit the Follett House Museum to see many artifacts from Sandusky’s historic past.

Samuel B. Caldwell

This painting of Samuel B. Caldwell, now at the Follett House Museum, was painted by a strolling artist, according to the donor, Mrs. Ethelinda Griswold Free. Samuel B. Caldwell was born in Washington County, New York in 1792. During the War of 1812, he took part in the battles of Plattsburg and Lake Champlain. He married Mary S. Cady in 1815. In 1817, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel B. Caldwell moved west, along with the family of Eleutheros Cooke. First the two families resided in Indiana, and later they moved to Bloomingville, in what is now Erie County, Ohio. After Mary Caldwell’s death in 1825, Samuel B. Caldwell moved to Sandusky, where he boarded at the Steamboat Hotel.  In 1827, Samuel married Susan Boalt, the daughter of the hotel’s proprietor, John Boalt. Mr. and Mrs. Caldwell lived in this stone house at 257 Jackson Street from about 1835 until the 1850s. The property at 257 Jackson Street is now a part of the First Presbyterian Church.

Samuel B. Caldwell was one of the first local school directors, and during the years 1837 to 1839, he was the Mayor of Sandusky. Hewson Peeke wrote in A Standard History of Erie County, Ohio, that Caldwell served as an Associate Judge of the Common Pleas Court, though his years of service were not listed. A biographical sketch of Judge Caldwell, which appeared in the Firelands Pioneer in 1874, stated that the judge “stored his mind with useful and varied information which he could command with facility as occasion required. He possessed a native modesty that prompted him to shun rather rather than court notoriety.”  He and his wife were very hospitable to family and friends. A letter from Judge Caldwell is held in the  historical collections of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. The Judge and his wife invited Samuel and Clara Butler to Thanksgiving dinner in 1846.

Judge Samuel B. Caldwell died on July 15, 1873. He was buried at Oakland Cemetery. Mrs. Susan Caldwell survived until 1886. A portrait of Mrs. Susan Caldwell can also be seen at the Follett House Museum.