Businesses That Helped Build Sandusky

 

In the historical collections of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center is a pamphlet produced around 1880 to provide information about the leading industries in the region. The item serves as a useful summary of important businesses of the era.

Sandusky was an important transshipment point for the lumber industry of the time, so it is not surprising that the pamphlet begins with lumber. Several major businesses, such as the Sandusky Tool Company, developed in the city to take advantage of this resource.

The next pages (above) highlight some of the businesses created to take advantage of the natural resources available in the area.

Our agricultural resources inspired additional industries, including wineries and breweries.

The last two pages of the pamphlet describe some of the largest companies in the city at the time. Many enterprising business owners and workers took advantage of the region's resources to create wealth in their community.

Edwin A. Sprau, Baseball Enthusiast

In the 1942 Obituary Notebook in the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library is an obituary for Edwin A. Sprau. Mr. Sprau died on June 19, 1942, following a brief illness. He was only 39 years old.  Prior to his death, he was in business with his brother, Emmett Sprau, at the Sprau Grocery on Camp Street. 

For many years Edwin Sprau was active in baseball circles. He was secretary of the Sandusky Baseball Federation, secretary-treasurer of the Northern Ohio Baseball League, and had also been associated with the Firelands Baseball League, the Junior Leagues of Sandusky, and the Church Indoor League.

Hundreds of officials and baseball players from several area baseball teams paid their respects at a memorial service in the Elks Home on the evening of June 22. Funeral services for Edwin A. Sprau took place on Tuesday, with the Rev. Donald Wonders of Grace Episcopal Church officiating. Burial was in Oakland Cemetery. Edwin A. Sprau was survived by his mother, and brothers Walter and Emmett. Edward C. Sprau, Edwin's father and the founder of the family grocery business, had died in 1939.

Pictured below is the E. C. Sprau grocery store around 1908. Edwin A. and Emmitt Sprau are standing in the doorway with their father and other family members.

Sandusky Mourns President Garfield

 

President James A. Garfield died on September 19, 1881, after having been shot on July 2, 1881.  Born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio in 1831, he became president of the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (now Hiram College) in 1857, and was elected to the Ohio Senate in 1859.  Garfield served as a general in the Civil War, and after the War he was elected to the United States Congress. In 1880, at the Republican National Convention, James A. Garfield became the “dark horse” candidate for the presidency. He was elected President on November 4, 1880. Author James Baird McClure wrote in his book General Garfield: From the Log Cabin to the White House, that Sandusky Register editor I. F. Mack rode with James Garfield in the train to Cleveland, immediately after Garfield secured his presidential nomination in Chicago in 1880. 

The Sandusky Register carried several feature articles about the funeral of President Garfield from September 20 through September 27, 1881. A detailed list of the groups participating in the funeral procession appeared in the paper, as well as an account of the hymns sung, scriptures read, and government officials in attendance. A delegation from the Sandusky Masons, the Erie Commandery, marched in the procession. A number of tributes to President Garfield also appeared in the Register.

On September 25, 1881, the First Presbyterian Sunday School held a commemorative service for the deceased president.

O. P. Cowdery spoke about Garfield’s boyhood; U.T. Curran’s address was about Garfield, the educator; while W. F. Converse spoke on Garfield as a statesman.

The back of the program from the Presbyterian service featured President Garfield’s favorite hymn, “Ho, Reapers of Life’s Harvest.”

At the dedication of the Garfield Memorial, on May 30, 1890, I.F. Mack commanded a group of Sandusky Civil War Veterans who were at the service in Cleveland. The Great Western Band

from Sandusky sent twenty five musicians to participate in the procession. The full text of the dedication of the Garfield Memorial can be read at Google Books. On July 3, 1948, the Sandusky Register Star News featured a syndicated column entitled “Let’s Explore Ohio: Mother of Presidents.”  The column mentions the home of James A. Garfield and his tomb at Lakeview Cemetery.

 

Jay Bogert, Livery Proprietor

The publication, History of Erie County, Ohio, edited by Lewis Cass Aldrich, reported that Jay Bogert was the owner and proprietor of the Sandusky Livery and Sales Stables. Jay Bogert was born in 1842 to David and Minerva Bogert, who settled in Erie County in 1832. Census records from the 1840 and 1850 census list David Bogert as residing in Perkins Township, but by 1860 the Bogert family had moved to Sandusky. The 1886 Sanborn Fire Insurance map below shows the livery stable business at 124 Jackson Street in downtown Sandusky. (Virtually every downtown block had a livery stable at its center during that era.)

In 1893, Jay Bogert was in partnership with a Mr. Hess. As you can see on the map, the Bogert & Hess Livery was close to the West House, as well as the St. Charles Hotel. Visitors to these hotels found it convenient to rent a horse and buggy from the livery nearby.

Pictured below is an advertisement for Jay Bogert’s livery business which appeared in the July 26, 1900 issue of the Sandusky Star. Carriage painting was a specialty of the business.

On April 5, 1916, Mr. Bogart died suddenly after suffering a stroke. He was at his place of business until noon on April 5, but he was sticken later in the afternoon. An obituary which appeared in the Sandusky Register of April 6, 1916 stated that he had been one of Sandusky’s oldest and most respected citizens, engaged in the livery and harness business for most of his life. Mr. Bogert was survived by his wife, a daughter Jessie, and sons David and Charles Bogert. Mr. Bogert was a veteran of the Civil War, serving with Company O of the 123rd Ohio Infantry. Mr. Bogert was buried in the family lot at Oakland Cemetery.

A Love Letter to Dr. Lauderdale

A letter and envelope once intended for Dr. Edward Lauderdale is now in the historical files of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.

Here is a transcription of the letter:

Gretna Green

My Dear Sir,

I sigh for thee, I sigh for thee,

And oh you may depend on me –

I’ll weep for thee, I’ll die for thee;

And that will be the end of me.

Long has this tender feeling dissolved my heart. Long have I sighed to call thee mine – can tears avail? Our ingon patch is broad and long – Can sweetness touch thy heart? Our lasses tub is deep and full -Have soft petitions power to move? Come to the mush pot on our stove.

And if with these I now can charm thee,

Come quickly with thy love to arm me –

That I may conquer every foe,

And call thee mine, while winds do blow.

Molly Sweet

Though Dr. Lauderdale never married, it appears that long ago a young lady was quite fond of him. The letter was from someone who called herself Molly Sweet, from Gretna Green. Learning more about Gretna Green and its symbolism, we have to wonder if there was a cryptic message that goes deeper than a simple love letter: the original Gretna Green is a location in Scotland along the border with England, where English couples would go to get secretly married to avoid certain restrictions in England (e.g., age limits, parental consent). "Gretna Green" eventually became adopted as a slang term for any location that allowed marriages for non-residents. Of course, "Molly Sweet" (if that was her real name) could have been writing from Scotland, but is that likely? We actually do not know if the letter was ever delivered, or what Molly's true motives were. 

Dr. Edward Lauderdale was a physician who became noted for caring for Sandusky patients who were stricken with cholera during the epidemic of 1849. Dr. Lauderdale’s office was in the old Post Office. In 1850 Dr. Lauderdale moved to Detroit, Michigan, and served as Detroit’s city physician, Wayne County Coroner, and later as Assistant Surgeon in the 24th Michigan Infantry during the Civil War. Dr. Lauderdale died in Pontiac, Michigan in 1883, and he was buried in the family lot in Temple Hill Cemetery in Livingston County, New York. 

Dr. Lauderdale’s name is included on the historic marker at the Cholera Cemetery which lists the names of the doctors who helped Sandusky residents during the dreaded cholera epidemic of 1849.

A "Found" Piece of Business History

Shortly after the June 23, 1924 tornado in Sandusky, Mary Louise Krupp, wife of Charles J. Krupp, found a small book labeled "Autographs." That same year, she donated it to the historical collections of the Sandusky Library. 

This book, although made for autographs, was used to record the sales of chromolithograph prints. In 1873, Apollos Huntington, father-in-law of Sandusky businessman John McKelvey, was an agent for “Middleton’s Oil Chromos.” Customers who purchased the prints for $7.50 each (about $170 in today's value) also received a frame, with hardware for hanging included. 

Chromolithography was a technique developed by Louis Prang for making colorful prints, with its roots in lithography. Various colors are added in layers, with the end product resulting in a print which was much less expensive product than an original oil painting.

It appears he only sold two selections, “The Mount of Olives” and “Garden of Gethsemane.” Between May and September of 1873, the following individuals purchased one or both of the chromolithographs from Mr. Huntington:

Rev. H. N. Burton, minister of First Congregational Church

Rev. Martin K. Holbrook, minister of the Congregational Church at Kelleys Island

Rev. Ernst Von Schulenburg, minister of Emmanuel Church

I.F. Mack, publisher of the Sandusky Register

Starr & Dewitt, Dealer in Boots and Shoes

The owners and staff of Starr and Dewitt, dealers in boots and shoes are pictured in front of their business at 130 Columbus Avenue in downtown Sandusky about 1882. The proprietors of the business were Merrill L. Starr and Edward W. Dewitt. Mr. Dewitt later was active as a real estate agent in Sandusky.

Before entering into the shoe and business, Merrill L. Starr served as Erie County Sheriff from 1876 until 1880. He was also a veteran of the Civil War, having been with Company E of the 8^th Ohio Infantry. In the 1884 Sandusky City Directory, M.L. Starr was in business with Howard C. Frederick at 130 Columbus Avenue. At this time the listing stated that Starr & Frederick manufactured and sold boots and shoes.

See our previous blogpost to learn more about Columbus Avenue, which has been home to a variety of businesses in Sandusky throughout its entire history.

Christopher Reeve’s Connection to Sandusky

Most of us remember Christopher Reeve as the not-quite-original movie Superman. But what's more interesting from our perspective is his "relationship" to Sandusky: Christopher Reeve’s maternal grandfather was a native-born Sanduskian. Horace R. Lamb, was born in Sandusky in 1892, the son of Burt I. Lamb and Harriet “Hattie” Davis Lamb. Before he married, Horace Lamb lived in Huron County for several years, eventually settling in Connecticut.

In the late 1890’s Burt I. Lamb advertised his tailoring business in the Sandusky Register.

Mr. and Mrs. Burt I. Lamb are buried in the North Ridge of Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery.

Hattie Davis Lamb was the daughter of Ira T. Davis and Eunice Woolsey Davis Lamb.

Ira T. Davis came to Sandusky in 1852. He had a grocery store on Columbus Avenue and later was involved in the real estate and limestone business. He married Eunice Woolsey in 1856, and the couple had five children born and raised in Sandusky. Mr. & Mrs. Davis are also buried in Oakland Cemetery. You can read more about the family in Article 30 of Helen Hansen’s At Home in Early Sandusky and in Hewson Peeke’s Standard History of Erie County.

Christopher Reeve mentioned Sandusky in his biography Still Me: A Life. He wrote about his grandfather Horace Lamb’s roots from a working class family in Sandusky.

Visit the Sandusky Library’s Archives Research Center to learn more about Christopher Reeve’s Sandusky ancestors, and perhaps your own ancestors as well.

Printers in Sandusky in 1900

An unidentified print shop, probably early 20th century

 Listed in the 1900-1901 Sandusky City Directory are eight businesses under the heading “Printers, Book and Job.” They are:

Alvord –Peters Company, at the northwest corner of Water Street and Columbus Avenue

C. C. Bittner at 622 Market Street

C.E. Chaney at 513 Market Street

I.F. Mack and Brother at 626 Water Street

Sandusky Printing Company, at 618 Water Street

W. & W.F. Senn at 742 Water Street

Star Publishing Company at 602 Market Street

Several of these print shops published newspaper as their primary business.

A.J. Peters and F.E. Alvord would go on to own and publish the Sandusky-Star Journal, which was a merger of three newspapers: the Sandusky Journal, the Sandusky Local, and the Sandusky Star. When A. J. Peters died in 1929, employees of the Star-Journal served as active pallbearers at his funeral.

In 1900, C. C. Bittner was the publisher and proprietor of the Sandusky Daily and Weekly Journal and Local. C.E. Chaney and the Sandusky Printing Company were primarily job printers. The Sandusky Star was published by the Star Publishing Co. in 1900, whose officers were Charles Bang, President, and E. C. Tierney, Secretary.

I.F. and John T. Mack were the proprietors of the Sandusky Register, but the company also did printing jobs, binding, and sold stationery. I.F. Mack was associated with the Register from 1869 until 1909, when his brother John T. Mack took over as the editor and publisher. 

(In 1972 Charles E. Frohman chronicled I.F. Mack’s years as editor in the book, Sandusky's Editor: Isaac Foster Mack's Blazing Forty Years as Editor of the Sandusky Register.)

Philip Buerkle and William F. Senn published the Sandusky Demokrat, the last German language newspaper in Sandusky.

To read more about newspapers in Sandusky, see the chapter about Erie County Newspapers in Hewson L. Peeke’s book A Standard History of Erie County.  Also available at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center is a bound copy of the Twin Anniversary Celebration edition of the Sandusky Register-Star News, from November 24, 1917, which features an article about the history of newspapers in Sandusky, beginning from David Campbell and the Sandusky Clarion and continuing through 1947. Ask at the Reference Services desk to view this item.

C. L. Derby & Company

Chauncey Lyman Derby was the youngest of four Derby brothers involved in nineteenth century book publishing. Born in central New York state (probably in the 1820s), by 1850, he ran the C. L. Derby & Co. bookstore in Sandusky, Ohio, in the Phoenix Block, the recently-demolished building on the 100 block of East Water Street. According to a 1948 article in the University of Rochester Library Bulletin, he sold pianofortes and melodeons along with books and stationery at the shop. C. L. Derby was also closely associated with the Cosmopolitan Art Association. Subscribers received a periodical subscription, as well as a chance to win an art object through a yearly lottery.

Pictured below is an advertisement from Derby’s column in The Daily Sanduskian, a predecessor to the Register newspaper, published by David Campbell & Son.

The advertisement features a person reading a book entitled C. L. Derby & Co. Booksellers & Stationers. Another book entitled Sandusky, O., is below the open book. This poem also appears in the ad:

This books can do-nor this alone; they give

New views to life, and teach us how to live:

They sooth the grieved, the stubborn they chastise,

Fools they admonish, and confirm the wise.

Crabbe.

Derby’s column contained several small ads for specific book titles he was selling at his shop. Titles included: The Great Harmonia!, Laugh and Grow Fat, When Doctors Disagree, and Hearts & Homes.