School Children 100+ Years Ago

 

Pictured above is a group of children from classes 3-A and 4-B at Sycamore School in 1919. Most of the young people look very serious. While the students have not been identified, we know that Polly Smith is among the children in the picture. Sycamore School was built in 1876, and hosted students for more than 100 years, until the building was repurposed into apartments in 1984.

The four young men above were on the second team of the Eagles basketball team in 1920. (We don't have information about the team, but it may have been in a recreational/intramural league.) The surnames of the boys were listed on the back of the original picture. From left to right are: Meinzer, Schemenaur, Stephens, and Pusateri.

The students above were in class 3-B from Campbell School in 1919. There are 45 children in the group, but only one person has been identified. Thomas Rotsinger, the donor of the photograph, is the fourth person from the left, second row from bottom.

The Eighth Ward School, later known as Campbell School, was built in 1885 by Adam Feick and brothers and designed by J.C. Johnson. The building is now home to Nehemiah Partners of Sandusky, a nonprofit group that serves area youth.

The students above were in the first grade class at Monroe School (Ninth Ward) in 1911. The Monroe School was built in 1894 to serve the students of what was then the Ninth Ward of Sandusky.

Sandusky School Children in 1919-1920

Pictured below is a group of children from classes 3-A and 4-B at Sycamore School in 1919. While the students have not been identified, we know that Polly Smith is among the children in the picture. Sycamore School was built in 1876; by 1984, the school was closed and the new owner re-purposed it as an apartment building.

The four young men below were on the second team of the Eagles basketball team in 1920. The surnames of the boys were listed on the back of the original picture. From left to right are: Meinzer, Schemenaur, Stephens, and Pusateri.

The next picture shows class 3-B from Campbell School in 1919. There are 45 children in the group, but only one person has been identified. Thomas Rotsinger, the donor of the photograph, is the fourth person from the left, second row from bottom.

Campbell School, designed by J.C. Johnson, was built in 1885 by Adam Feick and brothers. The former Campbell School is now home to Nehemiah Partners of Sandusky, a nonprofit group that benefits area youth.

Elementary School Photos in Front of the Old High School

Two group pictures, taken by the Pascoe Gallery in the 1880s, are housed in the Schools Collection of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. Students are posed in a group in front of the old Sandusky High School on Adams Street, before it was expanded in 1910. Notes on the photographs indicate that the students in each picture were taught by Miss Horn. Unfortunately, we do not know which Miss Horn was the teacher of these youngsters. There were three different teachers named Miss Horn, who were employed at different times by the Sandusky City School system. In 1886, Augusta and Clara Horn were both listed as teachers in the Sandusky City Directory. The 1908 Sandusky City Directory lists Augusta Horn and Stella Horn as school teachers. In this close up, in the middle of the front row, one young lady has her arm around her classmate.

Many of the students have quite serious facial expressions.

The students in this group picture appear to be from an early elementary grade level.

Miss Augusta Horn was associated with the Sandusky City Schools from 1881 to 1928. She taught at Osborne School, serving as the school’s principal for the last eight years of her lengthy career. After her death the Sandusky Star Journal featured a tribute to her in the November 22, 1938 issue. It read in part:

In giving 47 years to the teaching profession in our city, Miss Horn taught in the day when the teacher molded the life of her pupils and many men prominent in the civic life of our town have repeatedly said that they owe to her unfailing interest in them much of the success they now have achieved. 

Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to learn more about the history of Sandusky City Schools, and its many teachers, administrators and students.

Early Report Cards from Sandusky City Schools

William Henry Nye taught grammar at the elementary level for Sandusky City Schools in 1848 and 1849. The grade card pictured above belonged to Martha E. Newton, who later became Mrs. Rollin M. Wilcox. Martha’s individual scores in grammar are listed on the right side of the report card. On the left portion of the report card are the names of all the girls in Mr. Nye’s grammar class, and the “exception to morals” for each student. Martha had no exceptions to morals, but Miss Rosabella Dewey received marks for exceptions to good lessons and good order. Several of the students’ surnames are well known for their parents’ early contributions to Sandusky and Erie County. Clara Beecher was the daughter of the abolitionist lawyer Lucas Beecher. Augusta Farwell was the daughter of Sandusky’s first Mayor, Moors Farwell. Julia Townsend’s father was pioneer Sandusky businessman William Townsend. The report card was signed by both the teacher, Mr. Nye, and the school superintendent, M.F. Cowdery.

We do not know the owner of the report card from Miss L.A. Barney’s arithmetic class. The names of young gentlemen and young ladies in Miss Barney’s class appear on the left side of the report card. It is clear that the boys in this class had several more “exceptions to morals” when compared to the marks of the young ladies in the class.

Pictorial Section from The Bell in 1931

Students at St. Mary’s High School in Sandusky published a journal called The Bell (now a yearbook). A copy of the May, 1931 edition is housed in the Schools Collection of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. At the top of the front page of the pictorial section of this issue is a picture of Rev. William C. Zierolf as well as a scene taken at dismissal time at the end of the school day. The faculty is pictured at the bottom of the page (below). From left to right are: Miss Evelyn Bing, Miss Lillian Fievet, Mr. Ramond Helmer and Miss Olga Gundlach.

Pictured below in a scene from the annual St. Mary’s High School play are: Paul Hemrick, Dorothy Riesterer, Eula Sheets, Charles LeClair, Elizabeth Donahue, Geraldine Mack and Kenneth Polta.

Individual pictures of members of the St. Mary’s 1931 graduating class are pictured on page 2. Several of the young ladies appear to have a hairstyle known as the “Marcel Wave,” which was very popular in the 1920s and 1930s.

A Look at a Classroom at Sandusky Business College in 1908

     

This picture post card of a young woman in a classroom at the Sandusky Business College was created in December of 1908 when the school was in the Mahala Block on Washington Row.  At the front of the classroom was a large calendar from Buerkle and Lermann, a local insurance and real estate company. At the top of the chalkboard is the date December 17, 1908.

Vintage light fixtures -- probably only recently converted from gas jets to electric light -- are suspended from the ceiling, and shorthand characters are visible on the chalkboard. Instead of individual desks, the students in this class sat at sturdy wooden tables and chairs.

While today's students often use computers and tablets, students in 1908 used books, paper and pen as their main educational tools. 

The Sandusky Register of December 17, 1908 featured articles about President-Elect William Howard Taft, who had recently been elected. Employees of the Enterprise Glass Company were negotiating for higher wages. The suffragists were planning a convention to continue their quest to earn the right to vote for American women. Also in the Register was an ad for Hood's Sarsaparilla, which claimed to be helpful for troubles of the blood, liver, stomach and kidneys. Locally, Frank Schnaitter sold suits at his tailor shop for prices ranging from $25 to $50. The Manhattan men's store carried a full line of "union suits." Grocer Herman Bremer gave out Eagle stamps at his grocery store at the corner of Monroe and Clinton Streets with every cash sale. The Donahue Hardware Store on Water Street offered several suggestions for Christmas gifts, including pockets knives for twenty cents, skates for sixty cents, and sleds for fifty cents and up. By viewing this post card, and the local newspaper of the day, we can get a good idea of what was happening in Sandusky on December 17, 1908. Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to view microfilmed copies of Sandusky newspapers dating back to 1822.

Teacher and Students of a One Room Schoolhouse in Perkins Township

In about 1899, Miss Gertrude Taylor was the teacher at a one room schoolhouse in Perkins Township, on Columbus Avenue, south of Taylor Road. The picture was taken by Pascoe’s Gallery of Sandusky, Ohio.

Pictured in the photograph are: back row, Miss Gertrude Taylor, Mary Michel, Marie Strickfaden, John Von Eitzen, Morris Hills, Ethel House, Byron House, Henry Merriam, Vincent Morris, Ollie Merriam, Willie Michel; front row, Annabel House, Carl Oswald, Susanna Strickfaden, Edith Michel, Lloyd Hills, Beulah Taylor, August Von Eitzen, and Pauline Von Eitzen. The 1896 Erie County Atlas shows that the Taylor, House, and Hills families all lived very close to the school, so the children did not have far to walk to get to the schoolhouse.

Ethel House would go on to become very active in the Daughters of the American Revolution, serving as Regent of the organization for a time. Her first husband was former prosecuting attorney and judge, Claude J. Minor. Following his death, Ethel became the wife of Bowling Green State University president, Dr. Frank Prout. When Lloyd Hills had completed his school years, he became the owner and operator of the Hills’ Supply Company, which dealt in paints and automobile accessories. Susanna and Marie Strickfaden were the sisters of Joseph Strickfaden, who operated a garden center in Perkins Township for fifty years. Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to view this and hundreds of other archival photographs relating to Sandusky and Erie County, Ohio.

Fourth Grade Class at Monroe School in 1897

Mrs. Norman Scherer donated this classroom picture of the fourth grade class of Monroe School in 1897. Though not pictured, Miss Beilstein was the teacher for this class. Several of the students have been identified.

Originally known as the Ninth Ward School, Monroe School was built in 1894.

Sandusky City Schools Report Card from 1848-1849

This  report card from  the arithmetic class of Miss L. A. Barney  for the term that met December 4, 1848 to March 17, 1849 was given to the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center by the Dean family. Miss Barney was a teacher in the Grammar School department of Sandusky City Schools.  

Names of the boys in the class were: Samuel Belford, John Dean, Benjamin Gregg, Robert Matthews, John Monroe, Christopher Mores, Max Rhobacher, James Van Fleet, and Joshua Watson. The young ladies in the class were: Mary Clarkson, Eliza Fisher, Margaret Garvey, Sarah Jane Jenks, Sarah Stephens, Sarah Willston, and Sarah Withington. Beside each student’s name were “exceptions to morals” in several catagories, and  the number learned for preliminary defitions, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. At the bottom of the report card were the signatures of Miss L.A. Barney, teacher, and M.F. Cowdery, superintendent of schools. 

M.F. Cowdery was the first superintendent of schools in Sandusky, serving in that capacity until 1871. He wrote a history of Sandusky City Schools, entitled Local School history of the City of Sandusky, from 1838 to1871 Inclusive, published by the Journal Steam Printing House in February 1876. A copy of this brief history is found in the Schools Collection of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. In the early history of Sandusky Schools, Mr. Cowdery recalled that before school buildings were built, classrooms were rented in the Methodist Chapel, Presbyterian Church, Grace Church, and a brick building in the Western Liberties. 

In February of 1844, a committee consisting of Moors Farwell, Alexander Porter, and Zenas Barker, voted in favor of purchasing lots near the East and West Markets, and one in the Western Liberties as the sites of school buildings. A high school building was to be erected on the public square. The Academy building, pictured below, was originally built on the east public square as the high school, but was also used as an early Courthouse for Erie County prior to the construction of the new high school in 1869 and the Courthouse in 1874.

M.F. Cowdery was still serving as superintendent of Sandusky City Schools when the new high school building opened in 1869.

Exhibition of the Students of the Sandusky City High School in 1846

On Friday evening, February 6, 1846, students of the Sandusky City High School gave an Exhibition. Orations and compositions were presented throughout the evening. Julia Farwell, the daughter of Sandusky’s first Mayor, Moors Farwell, gave a composition entitled “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” An oration on the topic of slavery was presented by Francis E. Parish, the son of well-known Sandusky lawyer and abolitionist, F. D. Parish. Mr. F.D. Parish had been elected as one of the school directors in 1838.

Annette Tilden, seen below with her young son, after she had married Isaac Mills, was the daughter of pioneer physician, Dr. Daniel Tilden. Annette gave a talk on “Humbled Pride.”

Two of the students listed on the last page of the program are of interest. Edmund G. Ross went on to become a U.S. Senator for the state of Kansas. He is known for casting the vote which acquitted Andrew Johnson during his impeachment trial in 1868, and he was one of the subjects of the book Profiles in Courage, the book co-authored by John F. Kennedy and Theodore Sorensen in 1956. During the 1846 Exhibition, Edmund G. Ross gave an oration on capital punishment.  Richard R. Sloane, better known as Rush Sloane, gave his oration on the topic of the nineteenth century. Rush Sloane became a railroad official, Mayor of Sandusky, and was the owner of the Sloane House, a hotel that stood in Sandusky from 1881 until well into the twentieth century

It is interesting to note that the program for the Exhibition was published by D. Campbell and Sons, who also published the local newspaper in Sandusky. To read more about the early history of schools in Sandusky, see “Local School History of the City of Sandusky, from 1838 to 1872 Inclusive,” written by M.F. Cowdery in 1876, and housed in the Schools Collection of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.

J. E. Bragg’s Address on the Centralization of Township Schools

John E. Bragg served as a legislator in the Ohio General Assembly during 82^nd, 83^rd, and 85^th sessions (1917-1921; 1923-1925). He was a fifty-year member of the Margaretta Grange, a charter member of the Ohio Farm Bureau, and a lifetime member of the Woodmen of the World. John Bragg married Zella Deyo in 1893, and they were married for over sixty-three years. Both the Bragg and Deyo families have roads named for them in Erie County.  On January 24, 1947, Mr. A. B. Graham, who is considered the “father” of 4-H programs in the United States, sent a letter to the Sandusky Library. Under separate cover, Mr. Graham mailed a publication containing the address by J. E. Bragg on the topic of “Centralization of Township Schools: The Transportation Problem.” The address was given in Sandusky County on March 28, 1908.

 In his address, Mr. Bragg promotes the centralization of rural schools. He discussed the process of bidding for transportation provides and gave examples of how other Ohio school districts handled centralizing their township schools.  He went to cover discipline of the students, safety issues, and the quality of the construction of school vehicles. At the time of the publication, horse drawn vehicles were still in use. Pictured in a page below is a photograph of children arriving at school, circa 1908.

  

Mr. Bragg concluded his address with: “Friends and neighbors, study this school problem, both centralization and transportation, and I doubt not if you will let the torch of reason burn, you will soon agree with me if you do not today, when I say the little red school house has outlived its usefulness, and it is high time that were beginning to enlarge its walls.” Of course, today the one room schoolhouse in Ohio is now the exception, and many schools do have centralized transportation plans. Mr. Bragg’s address is found in the Schools Collection of the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library. You can read Mr. Bragg’s obituary in the November 12, 1956 issue of the Sandusky Register. It is interesting to read about the political thoughts regarding education from over one hundred years ago.

Venice School

Mrs. Leona Zeller Fitz donated these pictures of students and teachers from Venice School to the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. Pictured above are over fifty elementary students who attended Venice School in the first quarter of the twentieth century. No students have been identified, but Mrs. Baum was the teacher on the left and Mrs. Kelley was the teacher standing on the right. 

In the picture below, Leona Zeller is marked with an x. Mr. D.W. Carlisle, a teacher at Venice School in 1915, is the tall man in the back row. Later, he became principal of Venice School. Many of the male students are wearing short pants, or "knickers," and most of the older boys have on hats.

Venice Heights Elementary School is now a part of the Sandusky City Schools system, but for many years Venice School was one of the schools in Margaretta Township. (The original Venice School was founded in 1818 on Venice Road near Cold Creek.) This map from the 1896 Erie County Atlas shows the location of the school at that time, just south of the railroad tracks along Sandusky Bay.

An article in the April 4, 1923 issue of the Sandusky Register reported that “a handsome new school building” in Venice was to be dedicated on April 5. At that time, Mr. D.W. Carlisle was the principal of Venice School, and he also taught grades 7 and 8. All the other teachers at Venice taught two grades as well. That new school building, no longer standing, was on Bardshar Road, a short distance away from Trinity Lutheran Church. In the 1950s and 1960s, during some years an entire grade held class in the basement of  Trinity Lutheran Church, because of over-crowding at Venice Elementary School.

1847 Attendance Register of Elementary Students

The names of twenty-two female elementary students appear on this attendance register, which dates to August and September of 1847. The youngsters range in age from 4 to 10. In the early 1840s, there were school buildings in Sandusky in the East and West Markets as well as a high school on the public square. Teachers employed for 1846-1847 included these teachers for the male students: A.C. Huestes, A.M. Barber, E.P. Jones, James W. Shankland, and James Evers. Teachers for the female students were: L.A. McElwain, L.M. Jones, D.R. Whipple, L.B. Sprague, A.D. Latscha, M. Strong and E. Brewster. 

Sadly, at least three of the young ladies who attended school in Sandusky in 1847 died in the cholera epidemic of 1849.

Mary Halpin was among four members of the Halpin family to die from cholera. Helen and Marian Benschoter both died on July 28, 1849. Their sister Eulalia Benschoter, also a student in 1847, went on to marry Captain John Decatur Peterson; she lived to be age 55, and is buried in Scott Cemetery in Huron, Ohio.

Sandusky’s first school superintendent, M.F. Cowdery, wrote a history entitled: Local School History of the City of Sandusky: From 1838 to 1871 Inclusive in February 1876. The original item is housed in the Schools Collection of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. A photocopy of this document is available for patrons to read.  

Elementary School Children in Sandusky, 1883

Walter Ritter donated this picture of an elementary school class taken on the steps of the old Sandusky High School (later Adams Junior High School) in 1883.  Martha Anthony (later Mrs. I.C. Brewer), number 16 in the picture, was the original owner of the photograph. 

Listed as number 40 is Allen Stroud, the son of Dr. C. Eugene Stroud. Allen Stroud became a mail carrier in Sandusky, and he also owned the Stroud Gardens that were adjacent to his home on Milan Road.

Edward W. Altstaetter, number 46 on the picture, once served as Sandusky’s Mayor. When he passed away in 1970 at the age of 91, he was the oldest insurance agent in the city of Sandusky. Young Mr. Altstaetter is the second boy from the left in the image below.

To view hundreds of historic images related to Sandusky and Erie County, see the Past Perfect Local History Archives online.

Miss Gertrude Hartung, Teacher and Principal

Gertrude Hartung was associated with the Sandusky City Schools for forty years. She began as a teacher in 1921, teaching at both Madison and Campbell Schools. When she was still in her 20s, Superintendent Frank J. Prout named her as principal of Madison School.

Later she served as principal of Barker School. In her final years of teaching, Miss Hartung taught Social Studies at the Sandusky High School. She retired from Sandusky City Schools in 1961. 

Sandusky native Glenn Everett, who worked as a news correspondent in Washington D.C., wrote a tribute to Miss Hartung in the June 25, 1989 issue of the Sandusky Register, not long after her death. He told about Miss Hartung taking a large group of elementary children on a flat-bed truck to the Hartung family farm on Campbell Street, so the students could see cows being milked, and corn being harvested.  On another field trip, the children watched milk being bottled at the old Esmond Dairy, and they all got an ice cream sandwich after the tour of the plant. A field trip that really made an impression on Glenn Everett was when all the members of the class were locked for a minute in a dark jail cell at the old Erie County Jail, as a deputy sheriff warned the students about the consequences of bad behavior.

Miss Hartung felt that by going on field trips, the children learned things in a practical way that could not be learned just from reading a book. Mr. Everett wrote, “She made education exciting so that her students wanted to come to school to learn as much as possible…She was the kind of teacher all teachers could wish to be.”  In 1974, Miss Hartung was honored by the Firelands Council of Camp Fire for her many years of service as a Camp Fire Girls leader. 

On June 9, 1989, Gertrude Hartung died at the age of 89. Funeral services were held at the Groff Funeral Home, and burial was at Oakland Cemetery. Miss Hartung touched many lives during her long career as an educator with the Sandusky City Schools

Carl L. Mackey, Superintendent of Sandusky City Schools

Carl L. Mackey was born in Marietta, Ohio in 1895. He graduated from Marietta College in 1918, where he played baseball and football, and he was on the track team. Shortly after graduation, he entered an officers’ training camp, but as he was about to receive his orders, the war ended and he was honorably discharged. Late in 1918, he was hired by Sandusky High School to be the Athletic Director. He also taught Science and Civics. He coached Sandusky’s basketball team during the 1918-1919 academic year, where the team played to capacity crowds at every game. In the mid-1920s, he took a job in Oberlin, but by 1928, when Jackson Junior High School was opened, Mr. Mackey was the principal of the new school.

The opening of Jackson Junior High School was an exciting event in Sandusky. The school had a swimming pool and a large gymnasium which was also used as a community center from the late 1920s through the 1940s.  By the early 1950s, Mr. Mackey had become the assistant superintendent of Sandusky City Schools, and from 1953 to 1958, he served as superintendent of the school system.

Mr. Mackey was superintendent of schools in Sandusky when the new high school building opened in 1957.

Mr. Mackey was not only active as a teacher and administrator, but he was very involved in other community affairs as well. In the 1940s, he was the president of the local chapter of the Lions Club, and he was involved with the first Safety Town in Sandusky, sponsored by the Rotary Club in 1956. 

After retiring from Sandusky City Schools, Mr. Mackey moved to High Point, North Carolina; he died in North Carolina on March 25, 1976. He was survived by his wife, two sons, and four grandchildren. In his time in Sandusky, Mr. Mackey got to know many local residents through his many years of committed service to the school system and the community.