“The Spirit of the Lakes”

From 1849 through the 1850’s, a journal named the Spirit of the Lakes and Boatmen’s Magazine was published in Sandusky, for the Western Seaman’s Friend Society. The purpose of the Society was “to improve the moral and religious condition of seamen and boatmen on western waters.”

An outreach of the W.S.F.S. was the Bethel Chapel, which can be seen at the top left of the picture below.

Bethel Chapel was first located on the south side of Water Street between Wayne and Hancock Streets, and later moved to the north side of Water Street, just west of Jackson Street. This chapel served as a church for those working on the Great Lakes. Sandusky ministers who were associated with the Bethel Chapel and the Western Seaman’s Friend Society included Rev. Nathaniel Wilcox Fisher and Rev. Leverett Hull. Both of these ministers died of cholera, Rev. Fisher in 1849, and Rev. Hull in 1852. Judge Ebenezer Lane and former Sandusky Mayor Moors Farwell served as vice presidents of the Western Seaman’s Friend Society.

On page 92 of the June 1850 issue of the “Spirit of the Lakes” is an advertisement for the Bethel Chapel, which served the port of Sandusky.

An advertisement for the steamboat Arrow also was featured in that issue.

In the February, 1850 issue, Rev. Leverett Hull discussed the possibility of creating a songbook containing hymns especially for sailors.

Charles E. Frohman wrote an article about this publication in a 1973 issue of Inland Seas. He stated that the Bethel missionaries attempted to improve the moral character of canal drivers and boatmen. A particular challenge was to overcome the use of profanity by the seamen. The Western Seaman’s Friend Society did not survive very long, and never met with widespread success. Surviving issues of the Spirit of the Lakes are quite rare.