Showing posts sorted by relevance for query caldwell. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query caldwell. Sort by date Show all posts

Monday, July 15, 2013

Samuel B. Caldwell


This painting of Samuel B. Caldwell, now at the Follett House Museum, was painted by a strolling artist, according to the donor, Mrs. Ethelinda Griswold Free. Samuel B. Caldwell was born in Washington County, New York in 1792. During the War of 1812, he took part in the battles of Plattsburg and Lake Champlain. He married Mary S. Cady in 1815. In 1817, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel B. Caldwell moved west, along with the family of Eleutheros Cooke. First the two families resided in Indiana, and later they moved to Bloomingville, in what is now Erie County, Ohio. After Mary Caldwell’s death in 1825, Samuel B. Caldwell moved to Sandusky, where he boarded at the Steamboat Hotel.  In 1827, Samuel married Susan Boalt, the daughter of the hotel’s proprietor, John Boalt. Mr. and Mrs. Caldwell lived in this stone house at 257 Jackson Street from about 1835 until the 1850s. The property at 257 Jackson Street is now a part of the First Presbyterian Church.


Samuel B. Caldwell was one of the first local school directors, and during the years 1837 to 1839, he was the Mayor of Sandusky. Hewson Peeke wrote in A Standard History of Erie County, Ohio, that Caldwell served as an Associate Judge of the Common Pleas Court, though his years of service were not listed. A biographical sketch of Judge Caldwell, which appeared in the Firelands Pioneer in 1874, stated that the judge “stored his mind with useful and varied information which he could command with facility as occasion required. He possessed a native modesty that prompted him to shun rather rather than court notoriety.”  He and his wife were very hospitable to family and friends. A letter from Judge Caldwell is held in the  historical collections of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. The Judge and his wife invited Samuel and Clara Butler to Thanksgiving dinner in 1846.



Judge Samuel B. Caldwell died on July 15, 1873. He was buried at Oakland Cemetery. Mrs. Susan Caldwell survived until 1886. A portrait of Mrs. Susan Caldwell can also be seen at the Follett House Museum.

Monday, September 07, 2009

Dr. Joseph Caldwell’s Ledger from 1833

In The History of the Fire Lands, by W. W. Williams, we learn that Dr. Joseph Caldwell came to Huron, Ohio in the spring of 1833, and he continued practicing medicine there until his death on June 13, 1866. Mr. Williams wrote that Dr. Caldwell’s death was “much lamented by many friends.”

A page from Dr. Caldwell’s ledger is found in the Business Collections of the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library. A record was kept of the Lewis Hoyt family’s appointments with Dr. Joseph Caldwell from September 1833 through June 1835.


On September 7, 1833, quinine was given to Lewis Hoyt. On September 10, Dr. Caldwell made a house call to the Hoyt family, and medicine was prescribed. Other visits to the doctor were made by Lewis Hoyt and his wife and children. The final item on the ledger was made on June 27, 1835, at which time liniment was given to Mrs. Hoyt. At the bottom of the ledger is an entry for interest for two years, which was listed as being 84 cents. Mr. Hoyt’s son’s account was $3.50. The total for two years of Dr. Caldwell’s medical services for the Hoyt family, including interest, was $20.56.

The Erie County, Ohio Cemetery Census Before 1909 provides the dates of death for Dr. and Mrs. Caldwell as well as for Lewis and Mercy Hoyt. Dr. Joseph Caldwell, who died on June 13, 1866, is buried in Scott Cemetery in Erie County. Mrs. Margaret Caldwell died on October 25, 1863. Stephen Caldwell, son of Joseph and Margaret Caldwell, died of cholera in 1834. He is buried near his parents in Scott Cemetery. Lewis and Mercy Hoyt are buried in Peakes Cemetery in Berlin Township of Erie County. Lewis Hoyt died on November 4, 1853, and Mrs. Mercy Hoyt (listed as Marcy on the tombstone) died at the age of 91 on August 20, 1878. It appears that Dr. Caldwell’s medical services helped Mrs. Hoyt to live a long life, in an era when life expectancy was under age 50.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Letters Home, by Jay Caldwell Butler


In 1930, the book LETTERS HOME was privately published. Watson Hubbard Butler arranged the letters of his father, Jay Caldwell Butler, Captain of the 101st Ohio Volunteer Infantry.

The dates of the letters range from September 10, 1862 through August 28, 1864. Following Jay’s letters, included in the book are a letter from his mother dated April 23, 1865 and a telegram to Jay’s father on June 19, 1865. Jay Caldwell Butler was born on September 3, 1844 to Samuel W. and Clara Boalt Butler. Jay entered service as a Private in company B of the 101st Ohio Volunteer Infantry on July 22, 1862. He moved up through the ranks, and was commissioned as a Captain on February 10, 1865.

Near Springfield, Kentucky on Oct. 7, 1826 he wrote to his parents about marching with his friends Charles Dennis, Alexander Hosmer, (called Alick in Jay’s letters) and his brother John. Jay wrote about the Confederates taking 25 prisoners of the 3rd Ohio Cavalry and killing six horses belonging to Union soldiers. He also told his parents that he had seen Dr. McMeens, a Sandusky physician who would die during the war.

Following the Battle of Perrysville, Jay saw 150 dead and wounded soldiers. He wrote to his parents, “Don’t be uneasy about us. We have good faith in the cause, and if anything should happen you will know it as soon as possible. Excuse the shortness and poor writing, as it is done by campfire. Give my love to all. All send love and are first rate and of good cheer. I could write a great deal more but have a chance to start this on its way. Good-by.”

While traveling from Kentucky to Tennessee on Nov. 9, 1862, Jay wrote: “This is a dreary, desolate, barren and deserted looking country. All the small towns that we have passed through have been deserted…The houses and stores are either closed or smashed to pieces. Everything is going to utter destruction. Just think of two such armies passing through Ohio.” In the same letter he tells of hearing about the death of Dr. McMeens, hoping the report was not true, but of course it was true.

On December 7, 1862, near Nashville, Tennessee, Jay wrote to his parents that the regiment had not had devotions for six or eight weeks, because the Chaplain was tending to the sick and wounded. The water in is tent was frozen solid, and even his hair was frozen, and he was unable to comb it. He had eaten a dish of mush and molasses with his friend Alick that day. He wrote to his parents, mentioning his three younger brothers, “Give Frankie a kiss and tell him I would like to see him as badly as he would me, also George and Charley.” In January 1863 Jay wrote to his mother, telling her about Sergeant Simon Huntington of Kelleys Island having to have his leg amputated.

In Winchester, Tennessee, in July of 1863, Jay and Alick heard the sounds of a piano, and they went into the house of a Tennessee family. Jay wrote, "…we were attracted by the sound of a piano and thought there would be no more harm in going into the house than standing outside listening, so we went in – and found one of very good appearance seated at the piano – and her Mother was sewing in her easy rocking chair. They greeted us very cordially and treated us exceedingly kind. We excused our abruptness etc. When another young made her appearance, they played and sang for us. Although they acknowledged themselves secesh (secessionist) yet they would not converse nor sing any southern songs for us. Thus we spent a very pleasant hour indeed.”

According to the Official War Record of Jay Caldwell Butler, during the Battle of Nashville, on December 16, 1864, Jay was severely wounded, and he lay of the field for several days before receiving medical attention. He came home for a time following his injury, but Jay never truly recovered completely. Following the war, Jay worked with his uncle, John M. Boalt, in the manufacturing of sashes, doors, and blinds. In 1873, Jay married Elizabeth Hubbard, and they had two children, Elizabeth and Watson Hubbard Butler. Jay Caldwell Butler died on July 13, 1885. Over sixty of Jay’s employees filed by the casket at the time of his burial. An obituary of Jay Caldwell Butler is found in the 1888 Firelands Pioneer. The wife and daughter of Jay Caldwell Butler are pictured at the Sandusky History website.

By reading the letters home from Jay Caldwell Butler (and other men, including Horace Harper Bill) one gets a sense of the actual experiences of a young Civil War soldier. Jay saw the horrors of war, but he also grew close to his comrades, learned how to be a leader, and he strengthened family bonds through his letters to and from home.

Monday, February 17, 2020

Charles P. Caldwell's Farewell Poem



On page 11 of the 1924 Obituary Notebook at the Sandusky Library is the final farewell of Charles P. Caldwell to his family and friends. Mr. Caldwell was a veteran journalist who worked for the Sandusky Register for several years. He was born in Bristol, Ohio in 1852, and attended Hiram College when James A. Garfield was on the faculty. After working on newspapers in Warren and Cleveland, he came to Sandusky in 1872, to work under I.F. Mack at the Sandusky Register

In his early years at the Register, Mr. Caldwell was reporter, local news editor, telegraph editor and proofreader, all at the same time. While at the Register he met many well-known people, including James Blaine, William McKinley, Senators Foracker and Sherman, President R.B. Hayes, Governor Charles Foster, Jay Cooke, and Andrew Carnegie. Two of his earliest stories at the Sandusky Register were the notorious lynching of William Taylor in 1878 and the 1882 American Eagle disaster. In 1892, Mr. Caldwell was appointed Deputy Collector of Customs. He continued to work in the Customs office until 1919, when he was transferred to Dayton. He retired in 1922, and moved back to Sandusky, where he resided until his death on February 10, 1924. 

 After Mr. Caldwell died, a poem was found in his pocket, which he had written on July 4, 1922. He asked that the poem by printed in the Sandusky Register after his death. The poem read:

FAREWELL
By Chas. P. Caldwell

It is a solemn thought as death draws near
That I must part from those I hold most dear.
‘Tis certain when I came upon this earth
I had no choice whatever as to birth,
And, likewise, to my last expiring breath,
I’ll helpless be to stay the hand of Death,
For He who gave us life alone controls
The destinies of our immortal souls.
Death is the common end of all mankind,
And to that fate ‘tis best to be resigned.
So live that when the end of life draws nigh
You’ll not be stricken with the fear to die.

The light grows dim! Shades of eternal night
Foretell my soul is soon to take its flight;
And ere these final parting lines are read
The writer will be numbered with the dead.
Life will have vanished like a passing dream,
And left Death’s awful hush to reign supreme-
When all that’s mortal to my grave descends,
‘Twill be a mute farewell to kin and friends.
The rains and snows will beat upon my tomb;
The brightest sun cannot dispel its gloom.
When in the darkness of unending night,
I lie at rest, obscured from human sight,
I hope that you may sometimes be inclined
To hold a friendly thought of me in mind.

Saturday, June 23, 2018

Streets Near the Sandusky Post Office





Have you ever wondered for whom the streets near the U.S. Post Office in Sandusky were named?  The Post Office sits near the corner of Parish and Caldwell Streets.


Samuel B. Caldwell was once the Mayor of Sandusky, and he served as an Associate Judge of the Common Pleas Court in the 1800s. His portrait is now housed at the Follett House Museum.


F. D. Parish was an early Sandusky lawyer. He became well known as an abolitionist and was an active agent of the Underground Railroad.


To the north is the intersection of Follett and Caldwell Streets.


Oran Follett was active in the railroad, politics, and he published the Lincoln-Douglas Debates with Frank Foster. You can tour the former home of Oran Follett, which is now the Follett House Museum, located at the corner of Wayne and Adams Street.


Cowdery Street is one street south of Parish Street



M.F. Cowdery was Sandusky’s first Superintendent of Schools. His brother and brother-in-law were key developers of an improved chalk for use in school classrooms, which eventually led to the formation of the American Crayon Company.




Sadler Street is a short street that runs between Cowdery Street and Perkins Avenue. It was named for E.B. Sadler, who served as a Judge in the Common Pleas Court in the 1840s, when the 13th Judicial Circuit included several counties, including Erie County. He was so popular, it was said that he lived his life without an enemy.


Sunday, November 29, 2015

The Boalt Family of Sandusky and Norwalk


Pictured above is the former home of John M. Boalt, who was president of the Sandusky Wheel Company in the 1860s. John M. Boalt was the son of Captain John Boalt and Ruth Lockwood Boalt. His first wife was Sarah Follett, daughter of Oran Follett; she died at age 20 in 1844. (He later married Fanny Griswold.)



The Boalt family settled first in Norwalk, but moved to Sandusky around 1823, where Captain Boalt was the proprietor of the Steamboat Hotel. John and Ruth Boalt had a large family. Their daughter Amanda Boalt was the first wife of prominent Sandusky attorney George Reber. Daughter Clara Boalt married Samuel W. Butler, who had a large commission business in the early days of Sandusky. Susan Boalt married Samuel B. Caldwell, an early Mayor of Sandusky. Portraits of both Samuel B. Caldwell and Susan Boalt Caldwell are housed in the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.



Another child of Captain John Boalt was Charles L. Boalt, who was a well known attorney in Norwalk, Ohio. He was also associated with the Toledo, Norwalk, and Cleveland Railroad. Charles L. Boalt’s daughter, Fanny, became Mrs. Jay O. Moss. Mrs. Moss was the driving force behind securing funds from Andrew Carnegie for the purpose of building a public library in Sandusky.  


Charles L. Boalt’s son was John Henry Boalt, who was a prominent lawyer in California. There is a Boalt Street in Sandusky as well as in San Francisco.


The Boalt family members were deeply involved in civic and business affairs in both Huron and Erie Counties and beyond. Several books in the Sandusky Library chronicle our area’s rich local history. Among the titles are: The Centennial History of Erie County, by Hewson L. Peeke; History of Erie County, edited by Lewis Cass Aldrich; and History of the Firelands, by W. W. Williams.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Ladies in Hats -- Mrs. Jay C. Butler and Daughter Elizabeth

Pictured below, in their fancy hats, are the wife and daughter of Jay C. Butler, a prominent Sandusky businessman. In the 1880’s Jay C. Butler and his brother George had a business at the southwest corner of Water and Decatur Streets. They manufactured doors, sashes, blinds, and other building materials and office furniture. Jay C. Butler had served as a Lieutenant in Co. B of the 101st Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War. He died in 1885, when he was only forty years of age.
Jay C. Butler’s wife was Elizabeth Hubbard, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Watson Hubbard. (She is on the right in the photograph above.) Elizabeth Hubbard Butler was born in Michigan on April 23, 1852. She resided at 429 Wayne Street, and lived to be 91 years old, passing away in 1943. Mr. and Mrs. Butler’s daughter, also named Elizabeth, (on the left in the photo) was born in 1884. Elizabeth Butler married Frederick Harten. In 1932, Fred Harten was the president of the Harten-Brooks Motor Company, at 424 Huron Avenue in Sandusky. In the 1930 Census, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Harten had two adopted children. Also living in the household were a nurse, a cook, a butler, and a chauffeur.

It appears that Elizabeth and Fred Harten may have divorced, as they are not buried in the same location. At Oakland Cemetery, Mr. and Mrs. Jay Butler are buried in Block 61, along with their daughter Elizabeth Butler Harten.

In 1930, Watson Hubbard Butler, the son of Jay C. Butler published a book of his father’s letters written during the Civil War. You can find the book Letters Home, by Jay Caldwell Butler, at the library of the R. B. Hayes Presidential Center. An obituary for Jay Caldwell Butler was carried in the 1888 issue of the Firelands Pioneer.

Wednesday, June 05, 2019

A Postcard Scene of Washington Row in the Late Nineteenth Century


            
In the collection of historical postcards at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center is a postcard which features a view of East and West Washington Row in the late 1800s. In the close up view below, you can see two men looking toward the west down Washington Row from the doorway of Charles J. Krupp’s Funeral business in the Mahala Block:


The Sandusky City Business College, later known as the Sandusky Business College, was in operation in the middle of the Mahala Block.


On the left side of the picture, you can see the Kingsbury Block, at the northeast corner of Washington Row and Columbus Avenue.  At the northwest corner of Washington Row and Columbus Avenue was the Sloane House hotel. In the distance, you can see the former home of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel B.Caldwell, next to the Presbysterian Church, which is hidden by the trees. Horse and buggy was the normal mode of transportation at this time.


On November 18, 1909, a massive fire destroyed the Mahala Block, with losses estimated at approximately $250,000.



Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Happy Thanksgiving

(Reposted from 2006)

As many of you might remember learning in grade school, the first "official" Thanksgiving was proclaimed by President Abraham Lincoln during the height of the Civil War, in 1863, in honor of the first Thanksgiving held by the pilgrims in Plymouth during the 17th century. But even before President Lincoln made Thanksgiving a holiday, it was traditionally celebrated by many people. The first letter below is evidence of that:

In this letter, Judge Samuel Caldwell of Sandusky has invited Samuel Butler and his wife Clara to his home for Thanksgiving dinner. (We know pumpkin pie was on the menu!) The date of the letter is November 23, 1846, nearly twenty years before the national holiday was observed. (It is also interesting to note that even then Thanksgiving was celebrated on a Thursday in November -- nobody seems to know for sure why this day was chosen.)

The second letter is from Eliza Follett, the wife of Oran Follett, requesting contributions from local residents to provide Thanksgiving food to the wives and children of soldiers serving in the Civil War. Mrs. Follett was very active in community service and charitable work, as can be inferred from this letter.

Have a happy Thanksgiving. . .

Thursday, August 30, 2018

Jay Cooke's Address to the Firelands Historical Society in 1900



Jay Cooke was born in Sandusky, Ohio on August 10, 1821. After working for E.W. Clark and Company, he opened his own banking business in 1861, known as Jay Cooke and Company. His company prospered, and during the Civil War Jay Cooke and Company negotiated loans for the government and sold bonds to raise capital for the Union cause. Because of his fundraising efforts in the 1860s, he became known as the “financier of the Civil War.” 

On October 3, 1900 Jay Cooke read an address to the members of the Firelands Historical Society at the Trinity Methodist Church in Sandusky.


Cooke’s address was printed in the December 1, 1900 issue of the Firelands Pioneer. Besides discussing his successful fund raising efforts during the Civil War, he recalled many fond memories of his early days in Sandusky, such as going hunting with Judge Caldwell. He remembered that the first train from Sandusky to Bellevue was horse drawn, and that a cannon had been shot off at the ground breaking of the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad. He revealed that he had sent the first telegraph to Sandusky, written in Philadelphia and sent to his father Eleutheros. 

You can read Mr. Cooke’s entire address in the Firelands Pioneer of December 1, 1900.  

In the nineteenth century photographer A.C. Platt created this stereographic card which features the steamer named Jay Cooke in honor of the Sandusky born banker.


A silver spoon with inscribed with the name “Jay Cooke” is in the historical collections of the Follett House Museum.


A marker noting the birthplace of Jay Cooke can be seen in downtown Sandusky on the north side of East Market Street.



Wednesday, August 02, 2017

Watson Hubbard, Sandusky Businessman


Watson Hubbard was born in Bloomfield, Connecticut on July 11, 1819. He married Georgiana A. Holcomb in 1845. Mr. and Mrs. Watson Hubbard, along with Watson’s brother Langdon, moved to Lexington, Michigan in 1848, where the brothers began work in the lumber business. The lumber business they founded developed into the firm of R.B. Hubbard and Company. 

Watson Hubbard moved to Sandusky, Ohio in 1860, where he lived with his family in the West House for eight years. He had a house built at the northwest corner of Wayne and Jefferson Streets, just down the block from the home of his cousin, Lester S.Hubbard. Watson Hubbard served as Director and Vice President of the Second National Bank, and he was on the Board of Directors of the Sandusky Plow Company and the Nes Silicon Steel Works. He was among the earliest contributors to Good Samaritan Hospital. 

Watson and Georgiana Hubbard had three children, but only one survived to adulthood, Elizabeth Hubbard. Elizabeth married Jay Caldwell Butler, a Civil War Veteran who ran a business in Sandusky that manufactured sashes, doors, blinds and other wooden items. Pictured below are the daughter and granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Watson Hubbard, Mrs. Elizabeth Hubbard Butler and Mrs. Elizabeth Butler Harten.


In 1955, the former home of Watson Hubbard and his descendants, at 429 Wayne Street, was razed, to make room for an office for the telephone company. Before the house was razed, a neighbor, Mary Dauch, made this sketch of the home at 429 Wayne Street.



To read a biographical sketch about Watson Hubbard, written by his daughter Elizabeth, see the April 1925 issue of the FirelandsPioneer.

Friday, January 13, 2017

Wildman & Mills Deeded Property to Martin Eldis in 1841


On August 14, 1841, several members of the Wildman and Mills families deeded property to Martin Eldis. (Zalman Wildman and Isaac Mills were original property owners, and are considered founders of the city of Sandusky.) The property was No. 29 Water Street, which was in the city of Sandusky, bounded to the north by Water Street, to the east by Lot 28, to the south by Lot 22, and to the west by Lot 30. 

Click to zoom

The property sold for $2, 082.83. A fee of ten cents was paid to the Erie County Auditor, Orlando McKnight. The deed was recorded in Volume 2 of the Records of Erie County, on pages 258 and 259. Horace Aplin was Erie County Recorder in 1841.


The deed was witnessed by Mayor S.B. Caldwell and by Associate Judge Moors Farwell.


The names of several pioneer residents of Sandusky appear on this deed. F.D. Parish, well known abolitionist, served as the attorney for Julia Ann Wildman and Mary Starr. Isaac A. Mills, attorney for Abigail Mills, was the son of one of the proprietors of Sandusky, also named Isaac Mills. Martin Eldis and his wife, the former Louisa Guckenberger, were among the earliest Sandusky settlers of German descent. They ran a bakery, which was taken over by Mrs. Eldis after the death of her husband in 1852.

Mrs. Louise Guckenberger Eldis

To read more about Mr. and Mrs. Martin Eldis, see page 94 of Sandusky Then and Now, available at the Sandusky Library.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Homer B. Williams, Educator


Homer B. Williams was born in 1865 to John and Mary (Secrest) Williams in Mt. Ephraim, Ohio. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ohio Northern College, and he earned graduate degrees from Baldwin-Wallace and Columbia University. He was given an honorary doctor of law by Bowling Green State University. After teaching in rural Ohio schools, he served as school Superindent of schools in Caldwell, Kenton, and Cambridge. In August, 1898, Sandusky City Schools selected Homer B. Williams as Superintendent of Sandusky Schools. An article which appeared in the August 8, 1898 issue of the Sandusky Star reported that Williams was considered one of the leading educators in Ohio. His annual salary in 1898 was $1,800.  During the annual session of the Ohio States Teachers’ Association, which met at Cedar Point from June 27 to June 29, 1911, Mr. Williams gave the opening address, entitled “Intellectual Habits.”  The text of his address was reprinted in Volume 60 of the Ohio Educational Monthly.




In 1912 Homer B. Williams went to Bowling Green to become the first president of what was then the Bowling Green Normal School. The school had an enrollment of 100 when classes met in 1914. At the time of his retirement in August of 1937, Bowling Green State University had an enrollment of 1,876. Williams Hall, on the campus of BGSU, was named in his honor in 1917. 

Dr. Homer B. Williams died on September 22, 1943, at age 77. Funeral services were held at the auditorium of Bowling Green State University. Dr. Williams was survived by his wife, a daughter, and three sons. He was buried at the Oak Grove Cemetery in Bowling Green. An obituary for Dr. Homer B. Williams appeared in the September 23, 1943 issue of the Sandusky Register Star News.

Friday, March 07, 2014

Women Worked for the War Effort at Barr Rubber Products Company (Women's History Month)

From 1923 until 1986, the Barr Rubber Products Company was a leading manufacturer of quality rubber products in Sandusky, Ohio. During World War II, several products were made for the nation’s war effort. Two women employees of Barr Rubber are pictured below making rubber gas tanks for B-29 bombers.


The company also made rubber life rafts for the war effort.



An article in the March 25, 1944 issue of the Sandusky Register Star News described the life rafts that were made in Sandusky. The rafts were used by aviators during World War II. At first the rafts appeared to be cushions, but when airmen jumped from a plane, the cushions inflated to become life rafts. Included on the raft were a sail, bailing bucket, an anchor, paddles and a first aid kit, along with distilled water and sea markers. In March of 1944 several Sandusky High School students who were facing possible military service used a life raft made by Barr Rubber Products during a series of physical fitness and lifesaving classes conducted by Coaches Howard Ziemke and Howard Caldwell.

Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Garage at the Corner of West Washington and Jackson Streets

In 1916 and 1917, the Sandusky Motor and Vulcanizing Company operated at the corner of Jackson and West Washington Streets. The business was run by Charles B. Spencer and Linden Scheid. (A portion of the Erie County Courthouse is visible in the background.)


One of the signs on the building advertised “Hupmobile Service.” The Hupmobile was built between 1909 and 1940 in Detroit, Michigan. At the garage repairs were made to automobiles and tires, and oil and grease were sold.

In 1917, Mr. Spencer and Mr. Scheid dissolved their partnership. At least two other garages were in business at this location, until 1925. Sandusky’s third Post Office was built here between 1925 and 1927. The Customs Office and U.S. Weather Bureau also had offices at the Post Office. The Post Office was at this location until 1986, when it moved to 2220 Caldwell Street. In July of 1990, the Merry Go Round Museum opened in the former Post Office building. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. An historic marker was placed at this site in 2001.

Monday, August 22, 2011

George R. Butler, Civil War Veteran and Manufacturer

George R. Butler was born on April 3, 1848 to Samuel W. and Clarissa (Boalt) Butler in Sandusky, Ohio. During the Civil War, he served as a drummer in Company B of the 145th Ohio Volunteer Infantry.

After working for ten years with the passenger department of western railroads, George began working with his brother, Jay Caldwell Butler, in the lumber business. The company, located at the southwest corner of Water and Decatur Streets, manufactured sashes, doors, and blinds. George took over the business after the death of his brother in 1885. The George R. Butler factory can be seen in the picture of downtown Sandusky in the mid 1880’s.

On January 28, 1925, George R. Butler died at Good Samaritan Hospital after a lengthy illness. Rev. N.R.H. Moor officiated at funeral services, and he was buried at Sandusky's Oakland Cemetery. Mr. Butler was survived by his wife, the former Susan Barney, a son, and two daughters.