The Capsizing of the Sandsucker Kelley Island

On Saturday morning, May 2, 1925, a crew of sixteen men left from Sandusky in the sandsucker Kelley Island, owned by the Kelley Island Lime & Transport Company. Early in the afternoon the vessel met with rough waters just off Point Pelee.  The adverse weather conditions, combined with shifting cargo, caused the vessel to capsize. Several men were trapped below decks. 

A total of nine men perished in the lake disaster. The dead were: Captain William G. Slackford, Oley Kriss, William Mayer, Rolland Will, Alvey Martin, William A. Slackford, all of Sandusky. Frederick Holder and Paul Everett, both of Oak Harbor, and Thomas Moran, of Castalia also drowned in the accident.

Deckhand Curtis Brown was hailed a hero because of his successful efforts in rescuing three crew members. The Sandusky Register reported that several other crew members also heroically tried to save the ship from the water that was rushing into the ship. Alvey Martin and Frederick Holder failed in their efforts. Captain Slackford remained in the deckhouse as the ship sank. The Canadian fishing boat, the Flossie B., came to the aid of the crew of the capsized sandsucker. Members of the crew who survived the disaster were: Curtis Brown, Andrew Krause, William Loveridge, and Scott Pethbridge, all of Sandusky; Clarence Bloomstrom and Nicholas Rennard, both of Toledo; and Morton Everett of Oak Harbor. The surviving crew members of the ill fated voyage are pictured below:

The picture below shows three men from the Lakeside viewing the overturned hull of the Kelley Island.

The Slackford family suffered a double loss, as Captain William G. Slackford and his son William A. Slackford both died in the lake tragedy. Captain Slackford was a well respected shipmaster; his biography is online. A shipmaster’s pennant which once belonged to Captain Slackford is in the collections of the Follett House Museum.

To read more about the capsizing of the Kelley Island, visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. Sandusky newspapers, now on microfilm, carried numerous articles about the tragedy.

Sandusky High School Football Team of 1914

Pictured above are some of the members of the 1914 Sandusky High School football team. Notes on the original item, part of the Norbert A. Lange Collection, have identified the team players. In front from left to right, are: Bill Meese, Carl Kerber, Clarence Homberger, Herb Taylor, Amandus Smith, Bill Busch, and Joe Page. In the back from left to right are: Eugene Close, Hans Slackford, Bill Boehm, and Bill Smith. At the far right, Coach Bill Kinder is standing. In Northern Ohio League play in 1914 Sandusky won three out of four league games, including a win of 35 to 0 over the Fremont Little Giants. 

In 1914 Sandusky High School was still located on Adams Street, and future congressman James T. Begg was the school superintendent.

Coach Kinder went on to serve as an ambulance driver for the American Field Service during World War I. He then went back to seminary in order to become a clergyman. Rev. William Kinder became a well-known rector in the Episcopal Church in Detroit, Michigan and Youngstown, Ohio. 

Sandusky High School Football, 1912

The Sandusky High School football team about 1912:Pictured are:
Top row: C. E. Fleming, Leonard Osberg, George Singler, Frederick Slackford
Middle: Charles Abele, Frank Field, Howard Earnshaw, Wilbur Schoepfle, Estes Drake, Bob Judson
Front: Bill Busch, Roy Hazen, Wilson Harris, Gene Close, Don Hand, George Giesler, Art Wieland

Charles E. Fleming would go on to teach chemistry at Sandusky High School for thirty four years. Leonard Osberg served three two year terms as the Mayor of Vermilion in the 1940’s. Robert Judson retired as plant manager from the American Crayon Company in 1964, having been with the company for forty seven years. Wilbur Schoepfle was a Navy Ensign during World War One. He majored in mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan. Wilbur moved to California, and lost his life in an automobile accident in Orange County, California in 1941. The football team photograph pictures the young men with all their hopes and dreams ahead of them, years before the two world wars were thought of, and without the responsibilities of a job and family.

Visit the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library to learn more about the history of the people who have made Sandusky and Erie County their home.