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Friday, October 31, 2008

Program Announcement: Early Sandusky Through the Eyes of Martha Cooke (Brown-bag Lunch series)

Bring your lunch and join us in the Library Program Room (Terrace Level) as we explore topics in local history. We will meet again on Wednesday, November 5, at 12:00 noon. The topic will be Reflections on Early Sandusky Through the Eyes of Martha Cooke. Local historian Janet Senne will bring the character of early Sandusky resident Mrs. Martha Cooke to life. Martha Cooke was married to Eleutheros Cooke, Sandusky's first lawyer. "Mrs. Cooke" will share about her family, her home, and everyday life in early Sandusky. Registration is requested. To register, call 419-625-3834 and press 0 to speak with a switchboard operator (9-5, Monday-Friday) or press Option 6 to leave a message.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Pitt Cooke


Pitt Cooke was the son of Sandusky’s first lawyer, Eleutheros Cooke, and his wife, the former Martha Carswell. He was born on July 23, 1819 in Bloomingville, Ohio, in a building that had formerly served as the Bank of Sandusky Bay.  (The bank was never chartered.)


Pitt Cooke was educated at the Norwalk Academy, and he attended college at Kenyon College, where he studied law. After passing the bar, he practiced law in Sandusky, Ohio with Lucas Beecher. Later he was in the forwarding and commission business with William Townsend, until 1849 when Mr. Townsend died in the cholera epidemic. After the Civil War began, he moved east to assist his brother Jay Cooke a banker was a significant financier of the financier of the Union military effort during the Civil War. Pitt continued to work at the banking house of Jay Cooke and Company in New York until 1873, when he moved back to Sandusky, Ohio. An article in volume 17 of the Firelands Pioneer stated about Pitt Cooke, “Few men were more competent or active in business than Mr. Cooke, and as a companion and friend he was always genial and pleasant. He was a man of large heart and warm, generous impulses, and ever ready to assist to the extent of his ability those who were in need.”    After the death of both Mr. and Mrs. William Townsend in 1849, Mr. and Mrs. Pitt Cooke took in their orphaned children, who were the younger siblings of Mrs. Cooke, the former Mary Townsend.

On December 13, 1879, Pitt Cooke died at his residence on West Washington Street in Sandusky. He left behind his wife and six children. Funeral services for Pitt Cooke were held at the family residence with several members of the Episcopal clergy present, including Rev. L. S. Osborn and Rev. A. Nicholas of Sandusky; Dr. S.A. Bronson of Mansfield; and Rev. Samuel Marks of Huron. Pallbearers were: Judge E.B. Sadler, Judge Rush Sloane, R.B. Hubbard, A.H. Moss, C.C. Keech, W.T. West, W.A. Simpson, and S.S. Hosmer. He was buried in the family lot at Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery. 

Saturday, April 13, 2019

Mary Cooke



Mary A. Cooke, the wife of Sandusky businessman Charles E. Cooke, was an early member of the Board of Trustees of the Sandusky Library Association. She was on the Board in 1870 when the Library Association of Sandusky was founded, and when it was incorporated on November 5, 1895. 

Mrs. Cooke was born Mary Augusta Turney. She married Charles E. Cooke on May 31, 1860. Besides serving on the Library Board, Mrs. Cooke was also very active in the Martha Pitkin Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She traced her roots back to Noah Hoyt, an ancestor who served as a private with the Connecticut militia during the time of the American Revolution. 

On December 16, 1900, the local D.A.R. celebrated the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party at Mrs. Cooke's home, at the southeast corner of Wayne and Jefferson Streets. Between the parlors of the Cooke home, was displayed the log cabin silk banner which was created by Sandusky women, to welcome William Henry Harrison to Sandusky in 1840. This banner is now in the historical collections of the Follett House Museum.

  
The people at the celebration wore colonial costumes. Colonial era refreshments were served, and a quartet led by Mrs. J.W. Andrews sang patriotic songs, to the accompaniment of Mrs. Frank Sloane on the piano. A summary of the celebration of the Boston Tea Party in Sandusky was featured in volume 18 of the Daughters of the American Revolution magazine. 

Mary Augusta Turney Cooke died at her Wayne Street home in Sandusky on May 4, 1917, after a lengthy illness. Rev. E.G. Mapes officiated at the funeral services, and burial was at Oakland Cemetery. Mrs. Cooke was survived by her daughter, two sisters and grandchildren.

Wednesday, January 06, 2016

Henry D. Cooke, Governor of the District of Columbia

Firelands Pioneer, December 1900

Henry David Cooke was the youngest son of Eleutheros Cooke and his wife, the former Martha Carswell, born in Sandusky on November 23, 1825. He was educated at Allegheny College and Transylvania University. Though he studied law in Sandusky and Philadelphia, his deeper interest was in journalism. In the mid to early 1850s he was a partner in Bill, Cooke and Company in Sandusky, the firm which published the Sandusky Register.


Henry David Cooke married Laura Humphreys of Utica, New York, in 1849; they had six sons and one daughter. The 1855 Sandusky City Directory lists his residence as 51 Columbus Avenue, the home his father had built in 1844 at the corner of Washington Row and Columbus Avenue. This building was dismantled in the 1870s, and was rebuilt brick by brick at what is now 1415 Columbus Avenue.
  

After working briefly for the Ohio State Journal, he became a partner in the banking house of his brother Jay Cooke. During the Civil War the Cooke brothers aided the United States Government by placing loans and raising funds for the Union cause. 

In February of 1871 Henry David Cooke was appointed as Governor of the District of Columbia, an office that no longer exists. He served as the Governor of the District until September 13, 1873. While serving as Governor, Cooke paid special attention to making improvements in the infrastructure of the District. He proposed the following legislation for the raising of funds for improvements to the District of Columbia on November 25, 1871.


In 1878 Cooke went to Colorado where he was engaged in mining operations. His health began to fail while in Colorado, and he returned to Washington. On February 24, 1881, he died after a lengthy illness. He was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington D.C. Several articles appeared in the February 25, 1881 issue of the Sandusky Register. A brief quote from one article described him this way:“Subsequent advancement never changed his nature, and even when holding a high rank under Government, and living in princely style, he was the same modest, unassuming and social companion he was when a boy.” 

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Women's History Month Wrap-Up: Finding Information about Your Female Ancestors in Erie County


March is Women’s History Month, and in honor of the women of our area, here are some tips on how you can locate information about your female ancestors in Sandusky and Erie County. 

For the earliest settlers in Erie County, you can check the index of the Firelands Pioneer. There is a general index arranged by surname, and a separate index for obituaries. In the June 1865 issue of the Firelands Pioneer, Truman Taylor recounts his grandmother’s account of  how several families moved from Glastonbury, Connecticut to Perkins Township in Erie County, Ohio in 1815, by oxen train.


The women had to wash clothes along the way, sometimes hanging the wet laundry on a brush pile to dry. The families camped at night, stopping in a location with pastures for the cattle and horse. They took provisions along with them, consisting of bacon, bread, butter and cheese. Once they settled in Erie County, the pioneers had to clear the land, build cabins, and till the tough prairie sod.

Two sources that provide information are Mothers of Erie County, by Marjorie Cherry Loomis, and Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve, edited by Mrs. Gertrude Van Ressselaer Wickham. These books are anecdotal in nature, and provide biographical information about the earliest female residents of Erie County. The Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve was originally written in five parts, and is housed in a bound two volume set, shelved in the genealogical section of books in the lower level of the Sandusky Library.  The pages devoted to women from Sandusky are found in Part 1, pages 158 to 164. Mrs. Jane Hartshorn, daughter of William Kelly, recalled that when her family settled in Sandusky in 1818, there were only five frame houses in Sandusky at that time. All the rest were built of logs. The family stayed in a small log house that had been used as a cabin for fishermen. It had no fireplace, just a stone hearth, and very little furniture or dishes. Though times were difficult, she remembered those early days with fondness. Jay Cooke remembered his mother, Martha Simpson Carswell Cooke, working at her spinning wheel, to prepare material for the children’s clothing and stockings. When Martha’s husband, Eleutheros, brought back cans of oysters from the east, she shared liberally with her neighbors. Jay Cooke recalled that his mother had wise counsel and unfailing Christian love. There are indexes in the back of volume two of Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve arranged by the surname of the pioneer women, as well as an index to towns and counties.

For genealogical information about your female ancestors, the Sandusky Library has access to Ancestry Library Edition and Heritage Quest. An outstanding online resource, available to anyone with computer access, is FamilySearch.org. This database is particularly strong in Ohio information, such as birth, marriage, and death records and some census data.  Sources available inside the Sandusky Library include school yearbooks, Sandusky city directories, Erie County directories and histories, obituaries in the microfilmed copies of the Sandusky Register, and church records, also on microfilm. Hundreds of historical photographs are housed at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. Inquire at the Sandusky Library for more information.

A fun way to learn a bit more about women from Sandusky and Erie County, search for  women ​in the Labels list to the left. In these links, you can read, for example, about women working for the war effort in World War II.



Sarah Howard was the first African-American female to graduate from Sandusky High School.


The Woman’s Endeavor was a newspaper published by Sandusky women in 1908. In 1920, there was an all-women jury in a courtroom at the Erie County Courthouse. Dr. Carrie Chase Davis was one of the first female physicians in Sandusky, and was also known for her active involvement in women’s rights.


Two other notable Sandusky women we cannot forget are Marie Brehm, the first legally qualified female candidate to run for the vice-presidency of the U.S., and Jackie Mayer, Miss America of 1963, now a motivational speaker. Jackie Mayer speaks about her recovery from a near-fatal stroke when she was 28.