Zipfel’s Meat Market

Constantine Zipfel founded a meat business in Sandusky. It was in operation from the 1860’s through the early 1900’s. Pictured below is the Zipfel Meat Market in the 1890’s.

Constantine Zipfel was born in Norsingen, Baden (Germany) on May 21, 1839. He married Mary Daniel on December 31, 1858. Constantine and Mary were the parents of seven children, all born in Ohio: Carl, Joseph, Elise, Marie, Ida, Laura, and Alfred. Mrs. Mary Zipfel passed away on January 28, 1886. Constantine married Catherine Liess, and they had a son named Wilbert in 1889. Constantine Zipfel died on June 3, 1894, after he had unsuccessfully sought health in the spas of Germany. He is buried in St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery in Sandusky. One of the original bells at St. Mary’s Church was the gift of Constantine Zipfel.

An image of Constantine Zipfel appears on Plate III, Image 1, in Sandusky Einst und Jetzt, by Ernst Von Schulenburg. This title was translated into English by Norbert Adolph and Marion Cleaveland Lange in 1959. See Sandusky Then and Now, available at the Sandusky Library, to read more about the early German residents of Sandusky. An every-name index helps researchers find specific names easily. Ernst von Schulenburg wrote in the preface to the second edition of Sandusky Einst und Jetzt, about the early German residents of Sandusky, “They are indeed dead-yet they still live.”

Sandusky Then and Now

Ernst Von Schulenburg was both a minister and a physician in Sandusky, Ohio. He was born in Berlin in 1849, and settled in Sandusky in the 1870s. In 1872 he was the pastor of Emmanuel German Evangelical Protestant Church, and later he served as pastor of the St. Stephen’s German Evangelical Protestant Church. He is perhaps best remembered today as the author of the book, Sandusky Then and Now.

The author wrote the book in his native German language; the original title is Sandusky "Einst und Jetzt" : Mit Besonderer Berücksichtigung der Deutschen Localen Verhältnisse, which in English translates to Sandusky Then and Now: With Special Regard to Local, German Situations. In his book, Dr. Von Schulenburg discusses the political life of Germans in Sandusky, as well as German culture, customs, and business ventures. It includes biographies of several Sandusky German settlers, including their dates of migration. The book also provides a history of early Erie County and Sandusky, and includes an entire chapter on the cholera epidemics of 1849, 1852, and 1854.

In the preface to this book, originally published in 1889 , Dr. Von Schulenburg noted that “although the German population of Sandusky seems almost the same as that of the native-born and has become a powerful factor in the religious, political and social life of the city, yet it is surely striking that in all the local histories which I have seen, the German element was either completely ignored or at best treated as a step child.”

In 1959 Dr. Norbert A. and Marion Cleaveland Lange, chemistry professors who resided in Sandusky, translated Dr. Von Schulenburg’s book. It was published as Publication 114 of the Western Reserve Historical Society.

To read Sandusky Then and Now (in the English translation or in the original German) visit the Sandusky Library’s Reference Services area on the lower level of the Sandusky Library.