Poems of Eternal Value by Elizabeth Browning Kelham

 

Elizabeth Browning Kelham was born in 1893 to William and Sarah (Durkee) Kelham of Sandusky, Ohio. She graduated from Sandusky High School in 1913. Miss Kelham was a teacher with the Sandusky City Schools for thirty-seven years. In the 1930s, Miss Kelham taught classes for visually impaired students at Barker School. She made soup or cocoa for the students to have with their lunches during the cold weather months, according to an article in the Sandusky Star Journal.

In 1939 she wrote a book entitled Poems of Eternal Value. It was dedicated to her mother Sarah D. Kelham, and in memory of her father, William R. Kelham. The small book was printed by the Stutz Printing Co. of Sandusky, Ohio. The poems were inspirational, with topics such as faith, peace, friendship, and prayer.

Miss Elizabeth B. Kelham lived until the age of 90. She died in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, and was buried at Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery. Below is a picture of the Sandusky High School Bible Class from 1911-1912, of which Elizabeth Kelham was a member.

Castalia, by Burton Frye

Born in Huron, Ohio in 1920, from the age of nine, Burton Frye lived in Castalia, Ohio with his parents Roy and Mary Frye and his older sister Bernetta. He graduated from Margaretta High School, served in the U.S. Army during World War II, and was a graduate of Miami University.  He worked in the literary field as a writer, publisher, and a book reviewer.

Most of the books Burton Frye wrote were works of poetry, although his thesis on file at Miami University Libraries was a book of short stories, titled Stories of Soldiers and Italy. On February 12, 1949, The Book Shop, at 115 West Monroe Street in Sandusky, gave an autograph party in his honor.  Mr. Frye signed copies of his book, Castalia, a book of poetry. Although he had connections to Castalia, Ohio, he titled he book Castalia for the celebrated fountain in Greece. It is said that the waters found at the Castalian Spring inspired those who drank of them with poetic power.

The first poem in Castalia reads:

Who’s afraid to turn a word 

Into a scarlet-breasted bird,

Or bounce a statement quick as light

Into the brawl of wrong and right.

In the winter of 1950 Mr. Frye lectured at several schools in Erie County. He spoke on “Ballads and Ballad Makers” and “Modern Poetry: For or Against Us.” In his presentations, Mr. Frye sang ballads in both English and Italian, and recited lyric poetry. In an article in the February 17, 1955 issue of the New Orleans State newspaper, he was described as a "troubadour," who was performing in the city during Mardi Gras season.

Burton Frye passed away June 10, 1982 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He was survived by his wife, the former Virginia Chapin. 

Gertrude Victor’s Tribute to the Month of May

The essay below was a tribute to the month of May by Gertrude Victor. Gertrude Victor, born Gertrude Nash, was the wife of Sandusky tavern keeper, Henry Victor. She was the mother of author and editor, Orville James Victor. Gertrude Nash Victor died in 1882, and she is buried in Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery. 

Hail lovely maid!

We thy fond even passions

now before thee with humble reverence bearing flowers we approach

thee for they are first emblems of your own freshness and bloom; yet although

at present like these, we fondly hope that your fate may not be as evenot ___

& transient as theirs – for the evening sun shining on them, their tints &

colors will be fading’ wilst the morrow’s sun will see them with

ired and dead forever – but for you, fondly do we hope that the future may

but add new grasses to the changes of the present and that the fruit

may e’en be fairer than the flower. With faces bedecked with smiles

and wreathed with flowers we salute thee our melody created sovereign.

True sovereign of our hearts, for thou art the sovereign of our love. Isle

among sovereigns dost thou sustain they power, and by force but by the

soft voice of kindness & charity which, as the warm rays of the sun do

melt by their soft and genial influence, the icy mounts which but presented

a firmer & more solid frost, as the ____ of North writing blast razed in

___ jury against them, but which, losing their rugged temper before the

mild & insinuating embraces of the genial sun, repent, after and dissolve

themselves into tears of sorrow for their own ungovernable temper, penetrate

and instill into our hearts the soothing feelings of love’s youth is the

season of flowers and with us all is gaiety and joy. The dark clouds of adieu

____ may in the future lower over our paths – but even so why trouble the

happiness of the present with dark forebodings of the future – why dim the

mirror of childhood with the shadow of age – Nay! Nay! Far from us let us drive

all such chilling thoughts for in nature also it is the season of happiness

and bloom. Removed alike from the chilling frosts of winter and

the arid beats of summer nature himself is bedecked and wreathed with

flowering smiles; - and the earth sends up her flowery messengers to

welcome the advent of spring in as she comes tripping along

thousands of perfumed harebells & primroses & daisies spring forth

to catch our glance of her bewitching eye, and to inhale the cheering

incense of her fragrant breath. Thus in the season of Nature’s

bloom, have met to enjoy our innocent pleasures and to

check our queen of May- Then bend your head sweet maid

and on our your fair brows, I will place in the name of my companions,

a flowery crown, that which there are none less weights &

less free of care, and which we fondly hope will be as it

has been in the past & present, the emblem of your future life – and thus crown

thee queen of May –

            Salute, dear friends, our beauteous queen,

            The fairest I know that e’er we’ve seen:

            Crowned with flowers and wreathed with smiles

The ___ of Nture the fairest child.

May the bloom in thy cheek n’er fade

May sorrow n’er visit the dear Maid

But as the sparkling rays of a sunny day

So mays’t they future be, the Queen of May!

                                                G.H. Victor

Charles F. Selkirk, Poet and Friend of Poets

Charles F. Selkirk was born in Sandusky, Ohio on May 15, 1866 to George O. Selkirk and Anna Maria Alden. Mrs. Selkirk was a direct descendant of the Pilgrims John and Priscilla Alden. After graduating from Sandusky High School in 1884, he worked for the New York Central Railroad for forty five years. He wrote many poems, some of them published in the Sandusky Register under the pen name Solkirke. Mr. Selkirk was a personal friend of poets Edmund Vance Cooke and Strickland Gillilan. It was through Mr. Selkirk’s friendship with these two men that they gave public presentations in Sandusky. When the humorist Strickland Gillilan gave a program at the Congregational Church on November 21, 1923, Charles F. Selkirk wrote the following verse which was printed in the November 12, 1923 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal.

Strick’s Comin!

Get out your laugh protector,                                      

Wear nothing that is tight,

Inspect your waistcoat buttons

Before that coming night

W h e n Gillilan the mighty

Comes on from Baltimore

To agitate your every rib

Until it’s “good and sore.”

This warning to the men folks

Is given for their heed,

While woman, formed from Adam's rib,

May extra caution need;

Forewarned they always told us,

Meant forearmed quite as well,

We’ll leave it to the ladies

All chances to dispel.

 W h e n “Finnegan’s” Creator

Starts “Off Agin” to listen

Not “Gone Agin” to pout;

Keep well in mind his comin'

He’s good when at his worst,

'A confidential confab'

November twenty-first.

Charles F. Selkirk passed away on April 23, 1931, after a lengthy illness. He was engaged to an elocution teacher, Charlotte Atwater Devine, at the time of his death. His obituary is recorded in the 1931 Obituary Notebook at the Sandusky Library.