Henry D. Seele and the Ice and Fish News

In the 1880 U.S. Census, Henry D. Seele listed his occupation as editor of Ice and Fish News.

At this time, Mr. Seele and his wife, the former Ora Dick, lived at the West House in downtown Sandusky. The Ice and Fish News was a monthly trade newspaper, eight pages in length, established in 1872. Advances in technology led to the demise of the natural ice industry, but in the 1870s and 1880s, the Ice and Fish News informed people all over the eastern U.S. about business in the Great Lakes region. An entry in the C.A. Cooke and Co. Newspaper Directory stated that this publication was “the only paper by which advertisers can reach ice dealers, brewers, commission merchants, fish packers and dealers, oyster packers and restaurants.” This listing appeared in Rowell’s American Newspaper Directory about 1880.

In 1882 Mr. Seele was one of the proprietors of the Buckeye Business and Telegraph College, along with J.J. Dauch and H.O. Stafford. This college later became known as the Sandusky Business College. He also was the senior partner in a wholesale lake ice business at this time; the Ice and Fish News was probably beneficial for the promotion of his ice business. 

In 1884 Henry D. Seele and his family moved to Indiana, where he worked in horticulture. He died in Elkhart, Indiana in the fall of 1934. At the time of his death, he was the second oldest member of Sandusky’s Perseverance Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons.