Annual Examinations in the Sandusky Public Schools in 1860

Don't put stickers on your historic documents!

On March 14, 1860, at 9 a.m., several students from the First Grammar School of Sandusky City Schools had a program in connection with the students’ Annual Examinations. In 1860 the First Grammar School was located in Sandusky’s Public Square. Mr. John G. Chandler was the principal. Miss Eliza Moore was Mr. Chandler’s assistant and she taught elementary school classes as well. Essays and declamations were presented by students from geography, arithmetic and grammar classes. Musical selections were presented throughout the exercises. At 1:30 in the afternoon another set of students participated in the Order of Exercises for Annual Examinations.

Many of the students who attended the First Grammar School in downtown Sandusky were the children of individuals who played key roles in the city’s history. Ezra Gregg’s father, Philander Gregg, served as Sandusky’s Mayor from 1869 to 1870. Master Ebenezer Lane and Master William Cheesebrough were both the grandsons of Judge Ebenezer Lane. John G. Chandler married Miss Emeline Barber in 1864. By 1870 the Chandlers were living in St. Louis, Missouri, where John G. Chandler was an attorney. Eliza Moore and her sister Sarah Moore were teachers with the Sandusky City Schools for over fifty years. In 1891 Sandusky children collected pennies to help pay for a monument to be erected at Oakland Cemetery in honor of their teachers, the Moore sisters.

Patriotic Young Ladies

This photograph of eighteen young ladies in a patriotic scene featuring several American flags was taken shortly after the turn of the twentieth century. The only persons identified are Florence Bookerman and Ethel Mae Barber, who are in the back row. (Notes on the back of the photo do not specify the exact location of Florence and Ethel Mae.) The photograph was a gift from Jack Doller, the son of Ethel Mae Barber Doller.


Most of the girls are wearing a small diamond shaped badge that says “Who are you?” It also appears to say "Maccabee Rally" and something else that is not readable. The Knights of the Maccabees was a fraternal organization and insurance society that had a chapter in Sandusky.

With only the slightest hint of smiles, the young ladies are wearing lovely white dresses, and some have white bows in their hair.

Ethel Mae Barber would eventually marry Howard V. Doller, from a family with ties to Put in Bay.

Ethel Mae Doller was active in the Sandusky Sailing Club, First Presbyterian Church, Business Women’s Club, and the Eastern Star. She died in March of 1966, while her husband died tragically in an accident while he was in Madison, Indiana in 1943. Florence Bookerman never married. She was the daughter of Jacob and Mary Bookerman, and worked at the American Crayon Company.

If anyone knows the names of any of the other young ladies in the picture, please leave a message in the Comments section of the blog post.

J. Jay Barber, Artist

John Jay Barber was born in Sandusky in 1840, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Barber. He usually signed his name as J. Jay Barber. In the 1860 U.S. Census for Erie County, J. Jay Barber was listed as a law student. According to a biographical sketch of J. Jay Barber in the book Artists in Ohio, 1787 -1900, he entered the Bar in 1862, and he served briefly as a soldier in the Civil War. After the war, Barber focused on his love of painting. His specialty was landscape scenes including cattle. By 1871, J. Jay Barber had an art studio in Columbus, Ohio, where he pursued his craft and he also worked as a bank clerk. According to the Genealogy of the Breck Family, in 1871, J. Jay Barber married Amy Breck in Newton, Massachusetts. The couple had a daughter named Jessie in 1874.

Paintings by J. Jay Barber were usually set in Ohio. Mr. Barber’s sketch in Artists in Ohio, 1787-1900, states that the cows painted by J. Jay Barber were not “ordinary run-of-the-herd animals, but well known individuals like Pride of Eastwood, a Jersey cow, better known as Fannie.” J. Jay Barber won several awards for his artwork, including several awards from the Ohio State Fair. He exhibited his works at the National Academy of Design in the 1880’s. In 1882, Rutherford B. Hayes purchased a painting of a cow painted by J. Jay Barber. An image of the painting can be seen at the Object Catalog of the R. B. Hayes Presidential Center.

A sepia print signed by J. Jay Barber can be seen at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. (Ask Reference Services staff for more information.)

A large oil painting of four cows and a calf by J. Jay Barber can be seen at The Follett House Museum. Historical notes from our files indicate that it is thought that the scene was painted from a scene at Big Island, near Cedar Point.

Amy Breck Barber passed away in 1889, and she is buried in Greenlawn Cemetery in Columbus. After the death of his wife, and then his daughter, J. Jay Barber became despondent. Sadly, he took his own life on November 27, 1910. He is buried near his wife in Greenlawn Cemetery. An obituary for J. Jay Barber is found on the front page of the November 29, 1910 of the Sandusky Register.