Mr. and Mrs. F.W. Alvord

Frederick Wakeman Alvord was born on September 28, 1836 in Fairfield, Connecticut. By 1850, he and his parents Elisha and Louisa Alvord had moved to Sandusky, Ohio, where his father worked as a carriage maker. On July 19, 1866, he married Caroline Sprague in Erie County, Ohio.

By 1869 F.W. Alvord was engaged in the wholesale fish business with his father. The E. Alvord & Son wholesale fish business was on the south side of Water Street east of Wayne Street in downtown Sandusky. According to proceedings from the American Fisheries Society, in 1883 Alvord & Son caught over 23 tons of whitefish, and in 1884, they caught 30 ½ tons. During this time, from 1878 to 1885, F.W. Alvord also served as Clerk of Courts in Erie County. Mr. Alvord continued in the wholesale fish business until poor health caused him to disband the business in 1898. 

Mrs. F.W. Alvord was an early member of the Board of Trustees of the Library Association of Sandusky, serving in the 1870s and 1880s. Mr. and Mrs. Alvord had three children, Katharine Sprague Alvord, Frederick E. Alvord, and Sophia Louise Alvord Gawne. Katharine Sprague Alvord served as DePauw University's first dean of women, from 1915 to 1936.

Their son, Frederick E. Alvord, along with A.J. Peters, operated the Alvord-Peters Company for many years. The Alvord & Peters Company owned and published the Sandusky Star Journal from 1904 to 1929. F.W. Alvord died in Sandusky in 1908. Mrs. Alvord survived until 1917. Both were buried in the Alvord family lot at Oakland Cemetery.

Captain Otto J. Biemiller

Otto J. Biemiller was born in Sandusky, Ohio on March 28, 1865 to Christian and Margaret (Weber) Biemiller. He worked on Great Lakes fishing boats for over fifty years, having served as master of boats operated by the Post Fish Company and Lay Brothers Fisheries. Earning his first-class pilot papers in 1891, some of the boats that Captain Biemiller served on as Master were: the Anna Roberson, Erie, Silver Spray, Maythan, Markwell, the Driscoll, and the Canadian steamer Thistle.

On December 25, 1909, Captain Biemiller rescued the sons of Erie County Auditor, John Deist. William Deist, age 13, and Carl Deist, age 8, were ice skating on the Jackson Street slip when Carl fell through the ice, and William fell into the icy bay as he tried to rescue his brother. Though the ice was cracking, Captain Biemiller walked across the thin ice and grabbed Carl. William was then able to remain afloat while he waited for Biemiller to assist him. The April 23, 1911 issue of the Sandusky Register reported that Captain Biemiller had also rescued a party in distress on Lake Erie in Vermilion in June of 1902.

In January 1938, Captain Otto Biemiller retired as Master of the Shearwater, a vessel used by the Ohio Department of Conservation, in conjunction with the fish hatchery at Put in Bay. Otto Biemiller died on January 2, 1942, after having been in failing health for some time. Funeral services were conducted by Dr. Donald Wonders at the Keller Funeral Home, and burial was at Oakland Cemetery.  

The Biemiller family was well known in Sandusky. Otto’s uncle, Andrew Biemiller, was a prosperous fisherman, and was owner of the Biemiller Opera House which he had built in the 1870s.

  

Annual Outing of Booth Fisheries Employees

Mrs. H.C. Lehman donated this undated picture postcard of employees of the Booth Fisheries on their annual outing. The manager of Booth Fisheries, J.J. Schrank, is the fourth individual on the left in the back row. The men are all lined up at the pier, waiting for the trip to begin aboard the Major Wilcox. While we are not positive which year this picture was taken, an article in the July 2, 1917 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal provides us with a vivid description of the annual outing from 1917. The headline of the article stated that the outing was a great success.

Over fifty employees of the Booth Fisheries, and some of their friends, left aboard the company docks, in spite of threatening weather. Louis Beverick served as master of ceremonies, and “Bumps” Biehl was the chef. The group was served turtle soup and fried fish. After dinner, the group returned to Sandusky to unload equipment, and they returned to the Major Wilcox for a boat ride around the Lake Erie Island, while another round of refreshments was served. If you would like to read the article in its entirety, visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center, to view the Sandusky Star Jounal of July 2, 1917, now on microfilm.

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.

At Work in Sandusky

Celebrated in the U.S. since 1882, Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is dedicated “to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.” The men in the photograph above were employed by Lay Brothers Fisheries in the 1930s. The crew was on a fishing boat, pulling up nets from Sandusky Bay. In the historical photograph collection at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center are a wide variety of images of local residents pictured in the workplace. 

Several men and women who were employed at Hinde and Dauch can be seen in the 1905 picture below.

The ice industry provided many area residents with jobs in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

During World War II, employees at Barr Rubber made life rafts for the war effort.

In the picture below, taken sometime between 1910 and 1915, are members of the Sandusky Chapel of the Typographical Union employed by the Sandusky Register. Maybe their vehicles were decorated for a Labor Day celebration!

 

Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to see many more vintage pictures of the people who called Sandusky and Erie County home.

Ferdinand Geiersdorf, Former Mayor of Sandusky

Ferdinand Geiersdorf was born in Munich, Germany (then Bavaria) on December 5, 1831. When he first came to Sandusky he was a poor butcher’s apprentice, but eventually he became quite wealthy in the fish business. Mr. Geiersdorf’s image can be seen in the image above on the upper left, from Plate IV in the book, Sandusky Einst und Jetzt. Below is an advertisement which appeared in the 1869 Sandusky City Directory.

From 1863 to 1867, Geiersdorf served as Sandusky’s Mayor. He was the first individual of German descent to become Mayor of the city. In his inaugural address, which was published in the April 15, 1863 issue of the Sandusky Register, he stated that because of the ongoing rebellion (the Civil War), local residents would be taxed rather heavily until the war’s end. Mayor Geiersdorf called for immediate cleaning of the streets and gutters in town, to maintain the excellent health of the residents of Sandusky. He hoped to see that the principal roads coming in to Sandusky would be maintained in good condition, to ensure the ability of visitors being able to travel to Sandusky, to frequent its offices and businesses. Mayor Geiersdorf concluded his address with the words of President Jackson, “The Union must be preserved.” 

When Ferdinand Geiersdorf died on September 22, 1870, he was greatly mourned.  In a biographical sketch in Sandusky Then and Now, it was said about him that “His goodness and readiness to alleviate need with an open hand will live after him.” The former Mayor was buried at Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery.

A large letter G is at the top of the monument of Ferdinand Geiersdorf. The letters of his surname, appearing at the base of the monument, were designed to resemble tree branches.

Read Sandusky Then and Now, translated into English from the German version of Sandusky Einst und Jetzt, to learn more about the earliest German American residents of Sandusky.

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.

Pictures from Lay Brothers Fisheries

Lay Brothers Fisheries was founded in 1870 by John Sr. and Jacob Lay, both sons of Jacob Lay, Sr., who died in the 1849 cholera epidemic. Pictured above is the Lay Brothers building in 1910, along the waterfront at the foot of Wayne Street. The company grew rapidly, with another brother, Henry Lay, joining the business in 1881. When Jacob Lay retired in 1902, three sons of John Lay, Sr. came into the family business. Below is a vintage photo of employees (including the horse) of Lay Brothers Fisheries in 1890.

This picture of Lay Brothers employees was taken in 1905. Notes accompanying the picture indicate that John Lay, Sr. is the man with the beard standing in the doorway.

A woman was working along with several male employees in this office picture from the early 1900s.

    

The boat crew can be seen pulling up nets in the picture below from the 1920s or 1930s.

In the 1930s, Lay Brothers Fisheries had about thirty fishing boats. By the 1950s, business declined due to the decline of the fish population and competition from Canada. Lay Brothers Fisheries closed in 1961. Historical records from the Lay Brothers Fisheries are now in the manuscript collection of the Historical Collections of the Great Lakes.  The book Lake Erie Fishermen: Work, Tradition, and Identity (University of Illinois Press, 1990) by Timothy C. Lloyd and Patrick B. Mullen, is available for checkout from the Sandusky Library

Adam J. Stoll, Inventor

Adam J. Stoll was born in Bucyrus, Ohio in 1844.  He moved to Sandusky in 1868. That same year, he married Sophia Burgdorf, the adopted daughter of Ferdinand Geiersdorf. He was part owner of the Cedar Point resort in its very early years. When Mr. Stoll first moved to Sandusky, he worked in the commercial fishery business with his father in law. Later he partnered with Lewis Adolph in the fish business. For a time he worked independently in the fish business, until he sold the business to Booth Fisheries.  In 1883, Adam J. Stoll was issued Patent Number 285,521 for an apparatus which mixed ice and salt for freezing fish.

The former home of the Adam J. Stoll family, at 531 Wayne Street, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Mrs. Sophia Stoll died in January, 1921. Adam J. Stoll passed away on July 17, 1930. He was survived by two daughters. His funeral services were held at the Stoll residence, and burial was at Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery. To read more about Adam J. Stoll and other former residents of Sandusky and Erie County, visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.

Kelsey and Hosmer’s Fish Dressing Machine

The Hosmer, Bear and Company was a fish and pork packing house in Sandusky, at the foot of Wayne Street on Railroad Street (now known as Shoreline Drive) in the late 1800’s. An article from the October 6, 1873 issue of the Sandusky Register described the first operation of a fish dressing machine. The machine was invented and patented by Sandusky residents Frederick Kelsey and Frank H. Hosmer. Run by steam, the machine beheaded, opened and dressed from sixty to ninety fish per minute. The public was invited to view the machine which was set up at Hosmer, Bear and Co. The article concluded by stating about the machine that, “It is destined to mark a new and important era in the fish business of the world.”

Kelsey and Hosmer’s Fish Dressing Machine was on display at the Centennial International Exhibition of 1876. The Report from the International Exhibition indicated that the Kelsey and Hosmer Fish Dressing Machine was commended for facilitating the cleaning and dressing fish. It was worthy of mention as an ingenious mechanical device.

Image from Google Patents

You can read the full text of the patent for the Kelsey & Hosmer’s Fish Dressing Machine on Google Patents. Patent Number 142918 was issued on September 16, 1873.

"Sandusky of To-Day" (when "To-Day" was in 1888)

One of the more fascinating and informative items in the Sandusky Library's collections is the publication, Sandusky of To-Day, published by I.F. Mack & Bro. in 1888. It was designed as a promotional document to encourage people and businesses to settle in Sandusky, but for us today (no hyphen anymore) it is an invaluable historical document that gives an interesting snapshot of local business and commerce during that era. Its full title is Sandusky of To-Day (Historically Reviewed) Its Facilities and Inducements for the Investment of Capital, Comprising Sketches of Its Extensive Fisheries, Its Lumber Interests and Complete Railroad Connections, While Affording All the Advantages of a Lovely Lakeside Residence.

As you can tell from this subtitle, a significant portion of the volume describes local businesses, and gives us a good picture of the dominant industries of the time -- an entire chapter on "our fish interests," for example.

As you can see on the image of page 29, Sandusky was said to be the largest fresh water fish market in the world at that time. It was estimated that 1000-1500 men were employed in the profession, and that 500-600 tons of fish or more per day were harvested.
Other industries and businesses received attention in the book -- "our lumber interests," ice companies, wineries, breweries, tool factories, and many others.

And not surprisingly, much was written about the "Cedar Point Pleasure Resort," "the Coney Island of the West."


Unfortunately, due to its condition, access to the original book is restricted, but for those with a research need, the original document may be used under strict conditions in the Archives Research Center. A digital copy is also available; ask a reference librarian for more information.