C.L. Alspach, Minister and Community Leader

Clement L. Alspach was born in 1867 in Van Wert, Ohio, to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Alspach. He attended Heidelberg University in Tiffin, graduating from the literary department in 1890 and from the theological department in 1893. After graduation, he became a Presbyterian minister. While serving at the Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh in the mid-1890s, Rev. C.L. Alspach secured a pipe organ for the church from Andrew Carnegie. Later he served in Akron and Zanesville, Ohio. During World War I, Rev. Alspach was the minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Sandusky, Ohio.

In 1919, Rev. Alspach left the ministry, and began working for the American City Bureau, to help boost memberships in a Chamber of Commerce membership drive in Steubenville, Ohio. Before he left Sandusky, Rev. Alspach was in a group photograph taken of the members of the Sandusky Chamber of Commerce. He is the man with the bow tie in the close-up view below. (See our previous blog post to view the full picture.)

By 1924, Rev. Alspach had returned to Sandusky. That year, he served on the Centennial Executive Committee for the city of Sandusky.

From 1934 to 1959, Rev. C.L. Alspach served as Jury Commissioner at the Erie County Courthouse. 

On May 15, 1959, Rev. Clement L. Alspach died at the age of 92. An obituary in the May 16, 1959 Sandusky Register said about Rev. Alspach, “An erect six-footer and immaculately dressed , the Rev. Mr. Alspach was a familiar figure as he walked about this city with a cane or umbrella, visiting the Courthouse almost daily.” 

Rev. Alspach, who had been predeceased by his wife, was survived by a daughter, Mrs. Karl Kugel; a son, Clement W. Alspach; two granddaughters, and several other relatives. The final resting place of Rev. and Mrs. Alspach is Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery. Mrs. Marjorie Owings, a granddaughter of Rev. C.L. Alspach, was associated with the Sandusky Library for over fifty years. Below is a picture of Sandusky Library staff members in the 1940s. Marjorie Owings is the third person from the left.