The Reminiscences of Herman and Hedwig Zistel

In Archival Box G-14, folder 14 at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center  is a wonderful piece of local history. The complete title reads: The Reminiscences of Herman Zistel: Memories of a German-American family in Nineteenth-Century Sandusky, Ohio to which are appended The Childhood Memories of Hedwig Zistel, edited by David P. Harris (2006, 2009.) The first part includes remembrances of Herman Zistel, who was born to Louis and Anna (Rosenkranz) Zistel in 1867. Herman’s parents were both natives of Germany.  Herman’s reminiscences were put on paper because his daughter, Era Zistel Posselt, wanted to hear memories of the older generations of her family. David P. Harris was a great nephew of Herman Zistel, and he edited the memories from a typewritten transcript of the original family letters. Herman tells about losing his mother at a young age, and having a new stepmother whom the children called “Grandma.” He described living in Sandusky, Ohio in the 1860s and 1870s, close to the waterfront and spending time at his father’s business known as the Atlantic Gardens. Herman survived an attack by the bear that lived in a cage at the Atlantic Gardens.

An interior scene at the Atlantic Pleasure Gardens in the 1870s

When he was old enough, Herman took one of his father’s boats out on Sandusky Bay for fishing parties. Then in the 1880s he left home on the train and headed west where he worked on a cattle ranch. Eventually he moved back to Ohio and married Mary Rodecker. They had two daughters, and resided in Cuyahoga County, where Herman worked in the shoe business. 

In the portion of the notebook which includes memories of Hedwig Zistel are Hedwig’s recollections of life in Sandusky in the 1800s. She recalled that the Great Western Band used to have a concert every Wednesday night at the Atlantic Gardens.

Stereographic Image of Great Western Band circa 1880

Her job was to clean the chimneys. Hedwig, also known as Hettie or Hattie, told about her father inventing a rustic cash register, and an ice elevator. She also recalled her brother Oscar’s inventions, especially the live fish car. Hettie became an apprentice seamstress, after leaving school at a young age. In 1891, she married Charles Schippel. Hettie lived to the age of 91, passing away in January of 1962. This notebook of recollections of Herman and Hedwig Zistel is fascinating to read. It takes one back to a day before television and automobiles, and gives details about what everyday life was like in Sandusky, Ohio from a long gone era.

Norma Zistel’s Diploma

Miss Norma Zistel graduated from Sandusky High School on June 19, 1902.  At that time the superintendent of Sandusky City Schools was H.B. Williams, and the High School principal was H.N. Morton. William Graefe was the president of the School Board, with Charles Kubach serving as secretary.

Norma Zistel was the daughter of Oscar Zistel, and the granddaughter of Louis Zistel, an early German immigrant to Sandusky. In the summer of 1938, Norma won $2,500 in a contest sponsored by Oldsmobile. (About $45,000 in today's money.) Her essay “Why I Like Oldsmobile’s Safety Transmission” won first place in the contest. Throughout most of her adult life, Norma worked at the American Crayon Company, where she served as the advertising manager. In her leisure hours, Norma was active with the Art Study Club. In the picture below, Norma Zistel is the person on the right. She and other members of the Art Study Club were dressed in historic costumes.

Norma Zistel died in July of 1966. She was buried in Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery.

Oscar Zistel Ran a Wholesale Fish Business

Oscar Zistel was born in Germany in 1854, the son of Louis Zistel and his wife the former Anna Rosenkranz. Mr. and Mrs. Louis Zistel and their young son Oscar came to the U.S. about 1858. Louis had been to the U.S. earlier, but he returned to Germany after the outbreak of cholera. Louis Zistel was involved in fishing and boating, and he also ran the Atlantic Pleasure Gardens. After working with his father in the fishing and boating businesses, Oscar Zistel eventually ran his own wholesale fish business. 

The fish company was located at 316 Meigs Street. A previous post in Sandusky History discusses how the business in Sandusky shipped 4000 pounds of live carp all the way to Philadelphia in May 1911. 

Oscar Zistel had married Martha Von Camien in 1878, and the couple had three daughters, Elsa, Norma and Vera. In December of 1907, Oscar Zistel wrote a letter to his daughter Elsa, who by that time had become Mrs. Carl Sonntag.

A transcription of the letter reads:

My Dear Girl Elsa, 

            I suppose you will be surprised to hear me as you know how well I like to write. Your mommy tells you all the news, so I won’t undertake to contradict her and can only thank you and Carl for the cigars. They are fine and thank you very much. Now Elsa your mommy has been buying you all the presents for Christmas now I don’t want to get left altogether and I have enclosed yours for New Years. Thought it best to let you buy what you like than to pick than to pick it out myself and wish you both a very very Happy New Year.
I am your loving daddy

Oscar Zistel built a cottage at Cedar Point in 1910, for family fun during the warm weather months.

             

Oscar Zistel died at the age of 62, on July 28, 1918, and was buried in Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery. His wife Martha lived in Sandusky until 1952, when she passed away at the age of 94.

Carp Were Shipped Live From Sandusky to Philadelphia in 1911

An article in the May 18, 1911 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal reported that 4000 pounds of live carp from Oscar Zistel’s wholesale fish company, on Meigs Street in Sandusky, were recently shipped to Philadelphia. Mr. Zistel, the Adams Express Company, and government officials all worked together on the venture. At one time the fish, which were introduced in the U.S. from other countries, were despised,  known as “the hog of the waters,” but by the 1910s carp were considered a delicacy in some markets in the eastern U.S.

To ship the carp, first the fish were penned in floats on Sandusky Bay; then the floats were transported to the Pennsylvania freight house. The live fish were loaded onto a car on the Pennsylvania Railroad, which was refrigerated and had circulating water, to ensure the well being of the carp. The carp were taken out of the floats, placed into baskets, weighed, and put into the freshwater tanks on the railway car, where they traveled from Mansfield to Pittsburgh, and then on to Philadelphia.The trip to Philadelphia was over 500 miles, and an expert aboard the railroad monitored the refrigeration and air tanks in the fish tanks. The Star Journal article stated that the Jewish residents of Philadelphia were so eager to purchase the fresh fish that they bought it straight from the train car, where the fresh carp sold for eighteen to twenty cents per pound. 

In 1913 and 1914, Oscar Zistel received patents for fish transporting devices. Patent number 1,109,193 was for the improvement of an aerating device which could be useful in the transporting of live fish. Patent number 1,227,732, issued in 1917, was for an automobile which could be used to transport live fish.

Sadly, Oscar Zistel died in 1918, before his vehicle could be fully developed. Several patents issued between 1951 and 2011 cited technology that Zistel had patented. The Zistel family was quite entrepreneurial. Oscar’s father Louis Zistel carried passengers to Cedar Point in the 1870s, and was the proprietor of the Atlantic Pleasure Gardens, a saloon and entertainment center on Meigs Street.

Historic Views of the Former Railroad Bridge on Sandusky’s East Side

Oswald Zistel was aboard his sailboat in the picture above, taken in the early twentieth century. Behind him is the old railroad bridge. In the 1896 Erie County Atlas, a swing bridge is shown along the railroad tracks just past the cove on Sandusky’s northeast side, near present day Battery Park.

A late nineteenth century stereographic image shows the drawbridge of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, along with Ben Icsman’s lumber yard in the east cove area of Sandusky.

           

The bridge and tracks were in use by several different railroads from 1853 until the 1970s, including the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, and the Baltimore and Ohio. In June of 1908, a train wrecked at the drawbridge, causing a large crowd to gather.

     

According to the New York Times of June 22, 1908, an engine carrying a heavy trainload of tourists from Indianapolis who had spent the day at Cedar Point, plunged through an open drawbridge in the east end of Sandusky. While none of the passengers was hurt, J. J. Perrish, the engineer, had both legs broken, and Fred Sullivan, fireman, had cuts on his head and shoulders. Both had internal injuries as well. The gatekeeper of the bridge says the train pulled out at 9 p.m., but had not been scheduled to leave until 9:30.

Veterans Day November 11 -- Errol "Zip" Zistel, Military Aviator

Errol Henry Zistel was born in Sandusky, Ohio on July 16, 1895, to Ottomar and Amelia Zistel. He earned the nickname “Zip” from his days of “zipping” in an iceboat on Sandusky Bay when he was a teenager. He once went from Sandusky to Kelleys Island in eight and a half minutes in his iceboat, at a speed of ninety miles per hour. 

Errol Zistel began his military career as fighter pilot in Britain’s Royal Flying Corps and later transferred to General Pershing’s American Air Service during World War I.  During the war, he was seriously injured, but after his recovery he remained active in the Reserves. In 1927 he was one of the organizers of Ohio’s first Air National Guard Unit, the 112^th Observation Squadron. During World War II, he commanded the fourth Air Support Command at Hamilton Field, California, achieving the rank of Major General. General Zistel actively flew aircraft until his retirement from active service in 1957. 

Errol H. Zistel died on January 25, 1968, and was buried with full military honors at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio. Members of the Air Force served as Honor Guards. General Zistel had been a member of the Early Birds, the American Fighter Aces Association, the Order of Daedalus, the Quiet Birdmen, and the Air Force Association. He was a past president of the Cleveland Aviation Club. A lengthy obituary for Errol “Zip” Zistel appeared in the February 3, 1968 issue of the Sandusky Register.

Cedar Point Grew Along with the Middle Class in America

After the Civil War in the United States, there was a period of rapidly increasing industrialization. As machines replaced hand labor in industry, production increased and work hours for employees were shortened. Railroads helped boost economic development in the U.S. as they transported both raw materials and finished products throughout the country and abroad. Ohio was blessed with early railways, besides having access to Lake Erie for shipment of goods by water. Industrialization helped lead to the development of a rising middle class in the U.S. Individuals in the middle class were not necessarily wealthy, but they were comfortable. Improvements in labor conditions allowed workers to have more leisure time and more disposable income. While the wealthy may have been able to spend a whole summer at the seashore, middle class residents could take their families to a weekend at the lake, or perhaps even a week's vacation once a year. The warm summertime weather and access to water in the Sandusky Bay and Lake Erie Islands region made the area popular to vacationers. Visitors to the Lake Erie Island area enjoyed cool lake breezes, beaches, fishing, boating and camping. Cedar Point began as a popular site for fishermen in the late nineteenth century. As early as 1870 Louis Zistel ferried Sandusky residents to Cedar Point, where there was a bath house, sand boxes and swings for children, and dancing for adults. The fee for the boat ride was twenty five cents.

Louis Zistel, 1830-1889

Cedar Point's first roller coaster, the Switchback Railway, was built in 1892. In the 1890s, more and more people visited Cedar Point. They traveled to the amusement park by steamship, railway and electric railway.

In 1897, The Cedar Point Pleasure Resort Company purchased Cedar Point, with George A. Boeckling serving as General Manager.

George Boeckling, 1862-1931

Under Boeckling's leadership Cedar Point was transformed from a summer picnic and fishing area to a thriving amusement park with wide appeal. Always seeming to anticipate what would appeal to the public, Boeckling offered concerts, movies, and dancing, and encouraged military groups and businessmen to hold their annual conventions at Cedar Point. The Hotel Breakers, which opened to Cedar Point guests in 1905, offered visitors amenities such as brass beds, wicker furniture, and Tiffany stained glass windows in the lobby. Services available included a manicurist, physician, barbers, beautician, stenographer, and tailor.

Throughout the twentieth century more and more rides and attractions were featured at Cedar Point.  You can see the Sea Swing in the background of the picture below taken at the Cedar Point beach about 1930.

Land developers George Roose and Emile Legros purchased Cedar Point in 1956, and aimed to make Cedar Point the "Disneyland of the Midwest." Today, Cedar Point draws millions of visitors each year, and is especially known for its roller coasters. To read a more thorough history of Cedar Point, see the book Cedar Point: The Queen of American Watering Places, by David W. and Diane DeMali Francis (Amusement Park Books, 1995), available at the Sandusky Library. An article by Mr. Francis entitled “Cedar Point and the Characteristics of American Summer Resorts During the Gilded Age,” which appeared in the Hayes Historical Journal, is available online.

Photograph Album of Sandusky High School Graduates, Class of 1902

In 1902, C. W. Platt had a photographic studio at the northeast corner of Columbus Avenue and Water Street in downtown Sandusky, which had been started by his father, A.C. Platt. C. W. Platt’s daughter Winifed H. Platt and her future husband Edward C. Schnaitter were both graduates of Sandusky High’s Class of 1902.

Miriam and Oliver Rinderle donated a photo album to the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center which features individual portraits of each of the graduating seniors from the Sandusky High School class of 1902.

Unfortunately only four of the students’ pictures were identified in the album.  They are:

W. Leroy Slate

Alice Judson

Norma Zistel

and Frank Prout, who would later become Superintendent of Sandusky City Schools, from 1921 to 1939, and would serve as President of Bowling Green State University from 1939 to 1951.

Two African American young women graduated from Sandusky High School in 1902: Emeline Gilkeson and Iona Scott.

Other noteworthy students from Sandusky High’s class of 1902 were Dr. Walter Rieger, a physician who resided in Cleveland, and Mary Klingbiel, who became a nun and observed fifty years as a parochial educator in northern Ohio schools in 1957. After entering the Notre Dame order, Mary was known as Sister Mary Josephine. Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to view these and other vintage photographs of residents of Sandusky and Erie County, Ohio.

Louis Zistel, an Early German Immigrant

Louis Zistel was born in Germany in 1830, and came to the Sandusky in 1848 (during the time of revolutionary upheavals in Europe). Because of the cholera epidemic of 1849, he went back to Germany for a time, but returned to Sandusky in the mid 1850s. His first wife was Anna Rosenkranz. The couple’s first two children, Oscar and Louis, were born in Germany. Louis died in infancy. After moving to Ohio, they had several more children: twins Ottomar and Oswald, Wilhelmina, Herman and Hedwig. Mrs. Anna Zistel died in 1877, when several of the children were quite young. On May 12, 1879 Louis married Catherine Peters, whom the Zistel children fondly called “Grandma.”

Several members of the Zistel family are pictured below. The Platt Photograph Company made a stereographic image of the Zistel residence and boatyard.

According to an article in the March 7, 1899 issue of the Sandusky Register, Louis Zistel owned the first steam fishing tug in Sandusky Bay. He was connected with boats and fishing for many years. During the Civil War, he was issued a government contract to transport Confederate prisoners to the Union prison camp at Johnson’s Island. One of his steamers was named the Young Reindeer. In 1870, Zistel ferried Sandusky residents to Cedar Point, where there was a bath house, sand boxes and swings for children, and dancing for adults. The fee for the boat ride was twenty five cents.

Zistel operated the Atlantic Garden,  a boat house saloon, in the 1870s. For a time he also featured a large aquarium at the Atlantic Garden, as well as a bear and other animals.

Louis Zistel died on March 3, 1889, after a long battle with throat cancer. His four sons served as active pallbearers. Funeral services were held at the Zistel residence at 319 Meigs Street, and were largely attended. The Sandusky Register reported, “Old German citizens, whose ranks are being so rapidly depleted, paid their tribute to their deceased friend and fellow citizen.”

In the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center are The Reminiscences of Herman Zistel and The Childhood Memories of Hedwig Zistel, two of the children of Louis Zistel. These reminiscences are a firsthand account of growing up in Sandusky in the nineteenth century. They include stories about the loss of their mother, family pets, childhood pranks, and favorite pastimes of members of a very lively family. Ask at the Reference Desk if you would like to view The Reminiscences of Herman Zistel or The Childhood Memories of Hedwig Zistel.

A View of Meigs Street and the East Waterfront in 1876

In about 1876 photographer A.C. Platt created a series of stereoscopic views of the region, which he called The Isles of Lake Erie. Pictured above is a view on Sandusky which features Meigs Street and the waterfront. Sandusky resident Leroy Hinkey created a key to this image.

Sycamore School can be seen at the top right of the picture. Louis Zistel’s aquarium and boat livery are numbers 2 and 3 in the picture, adjacent to the Atlantic Gardens, also owned by Mr. Zistel. Two ice houses and residences, and several Sandusky businesses can also be seen in the picture. We are fortunate that Leroy Hinkey had the foresight to allow future Sandusky residents to have of a better understanding of life in Sandusky in a time gone by.

No TV, No Internet, No Video Games

Have you ever heard kids (or yourself) wonder what people did before there were movies, television, computers, or even radio? Going to the neighborhood saloon for a beer was one of the more common social activities in the nineteenth century. Here is a view of some men having a drink at an unidentified saloon on Water Street in 1889. It's impossible to guess which saloon this is, because in 1889 there were forty-one saloons -- on Water Street alone!!! That's right -- the neighborhood saloon was in every neighborhood back then. Sometimes there were more than one on a block. (For example, in 1889, Adolph Ernst had a saloon at 202 Tiffin Ave., and George Ferback operated one at 210 Tiffin Ave.) The 1889 Sandusky city directory lists 181 saloons in the city.
The saloon was a place where men met to socialize with their friends and enjoy a beer, and maybe even get something to eat, just like they or their fathers or grandfathers did in the "old country" (most likely Germany). This image probably represents a typical scene in a neighborhood saloon of the era: men who may have just finished work for the day, gathered together to talk about their day and the world they lived in. Note the spittoons and hand towels at intervals along the bar, and the hearty, dark beer that was common then. (None of that wimpy pale beer, like we drink today!)

While most saloons were small neighborhood operations, some were a bit more elaborate. Louis Zistel was proprietor of the Atlantic Garden Saloon (sometimes identified as the Atlantic Pleasure Garden) on Meigs Street (near where the city building is today). You can see a bowling alley in the foreground of this picture of Zistel's saloon.
Zistel also operated a boat yard and (briefly) an aquarium, where visitors could view aquatic life through glass in a tank twelve feet deep and one hundred feet in circumfrence.