Jay Hoehlein, Great War Veteran and Photographer

 

Jay Lawrence Hoehlein, who served as a Sergeant during World War I, was born in Sandusky, Ohio on April 16, 1889 to Lawrence and Jessie Hoehlein. (The Social Security Death Index reported his birth year as 1888.)  During his military service, he worked in the photo laboratory for the Signal Corps in Washington D.C.

Here is a picture of Jay’s fourth grade class of the Ninth Ward School (later known as Monroe School) in 1897:

He is seated directly behind the young ladies who are labeled numbers 6 and 7:

After living in Kentucky for several years, Jay and his wife Katherine moved back to Sandusky, Ohio. From 1935 until his retirement in 1979, he operated a photographic studio in Sandusky, starting out at 234 West Market Street, and later moving to Central Avenue. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, his photography studio was at 502 West Monroe Street.

On June 11, 1935, he took this picture for the Third National Exchange Bank on West Market Street in downtown Sandusky.

In the summer of 1935, he took pictures of Miss Helen Koppenhafer and Paul Mayberry, both of Norwalk, as they got married aboard the steamer Chippewa. The beautiful bride pictured below, Lucille Holtz Moosbrugger, was photographed in 1938.

An article in the July 8, 1935 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal stated that Mr. Hoehlein had the largest and most modern studio in Sandusky, and was equipped to handle all kinds of photography. The article ended with: “Hoehlein’s ideal is to render the greatest possible service at a price which will be entirely satisfactory.”   

On September 18, 1984, Jay L. Hoehlein passed away at the age of 96. He had been a member of Grace Episcopal Church and the American Legion Post 83. He was buried next to his wife, the former Katherine Horne, at Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery.