Mrs. Martin Eldis

According to History of  Erie County, Ohio, ed. by Lewis Cass Aldrich, Mr. and Mrs. Martin Eldis settled in Sandusky, Ohio in 1828. Martin Eldis was born in Elsass (Alsace?) in 1798, and came to America in 1817. He married Louise Guckenberger in Cincinnati in 1827. In the Spring of 1828, Martin Eldis opened a provisions store and bakery on Water Street in downtown Sandusky. On November 28, 1852 Martin Eldis died, leaving Mrs. Louise Eldis a widow with several children. Mrs. Eldis stated in History of  Erie County, Ohio, that when they first settled in Sandusky, she and her husband were not welcomed. She said, in part, “On our arrival sixty years ago, we were advised to better move on. If it had not have been for the steamboat trade, we never could have made a living in the first year or two. By and by though, the inborn element became more friendly to us, and learned to respect our ways. For nearly four years we were the only German family in this hamlet, and in all probability in the county."


Mrs. Louise Eldis died on December 19, 1888, at the age of 82. Her obituary, which appeared in the December 21, 1888 issue of the Sandusky Register, reported that she was probably the oldest resident in Sandusky at the time of her death. Mrs. Eldis was survived by three grown daughters and two sons. She was preceded in death by a son, George W. Eldis, as well as three little girls who died at a very young age. The Register article said about Mrs. Eldis, “The deceased through a long life filled its measure of usefulness and duty, a true wife, a devoted mother, a consistent Christian woman, a lifelong member of Grace church, giving of her means and labor with unwavering fidelity and always with cheerfulness for the poor and the spread of the gospel, and making her home a center of sunshine to her friends and a joy to her loved ones. Her death, peaceful and serene, like the setting of the sun at the close of a clear and calm day, was a fitting ending of this earthly life forth that entrance into the beyond.” Mrs. Eldis was buried in the family lot at Oakland Cemetery. Martin and Louise Eldis and all their children were interred in Lot 8 of Block 9 at Oakland Cemetery.