Visiting Cemeteries

When you visit a cemetery, you can learn a lot about your family history. You may find tombstones of infants that you never knew existed, until you found their grave marker. By looking around a family lot, you may find the surnames of married females in a family. If you take along younger relatives, a visit to the cemetery can be a springboard for you to tell them stories about their grandparents and great grandparents.

These are the grandchildren of General John Beatty at his grave in Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery.

The great grandfather of these youngsters, also named John Beatty (an ardent abolitionist), was once the Mayor of Sandusky!

If you do want to learn more about the people whose final resting place is in Erie County, Ohio, visit the Sandusky Library where you will find dozens of resources, both in print and online, which can provide more details about your ancestors. Several times a year, the library offers walking tours of the city and cemeteries in Sandusky. On Wednesday, October 12 at 6pm There will a tour of Sand Hill Cemetery on Mason Road.

Remember that every tombstone has a story! Visiting a cemetery can be a terrific learning adventure.

Bogarts Corners

Pictured above is an undated photograph of a tavern located at Bogarts Corners, probably from the late 1800s or early 1900s.

The United States Geological Survey places Bogart, formerly known as Bogarts Corners, at the intersection of Milan Road and Bogart Road in Perkins Township. Hewson Peeke wrote in A Standard History of Erie County (Lewis Publishing, 1916) that “The hamlet of Bogart is located…at the junction of the roads leading to Sandusky, Huron, Milan, Bloomingville, and Castalia.”

Image courtesy USGS

In the very early years of Perkins Township, several roads crossed Bogart Road, which caused Bogarts Corners to become a center of business. John Beatty, who purchased much of the land in what is now Perkins Township, sold lots to several buyers from Connecticut. He led an oxen train of fifteen families from Glastonbury, Connecticut to Perkins Township in 1815. Mr. Beatty built a stone house near Bogarts Corners, and he ran a tavern and a small store at this location. His home served as a stop on the stagecoach line from Mansfield to Sandusky.

The Beatty house in 1980

John Beatty was the first Postmaster of Perkins Township, and he was known as a friend to fugitive slaves escaping to freedom on the Underground Railroad. Mr. Johnson ran a blacksmith shop, and Rev. William Gurley ran a silversmith business. A cooper shop was operated by Mr. Kellogg, and John Broadhead was a carpenter. Later, James Daniel Parker had a general store at Bogart and served as Postmaster. (The elder James Daniel Parker was the father of Dr. J.D. Parker, and grandfather of Dr. Watson Parker and Dr. Lester Parker.) In 1902, the Post Office was moved to the Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Home, while many area residents received their mail by rural delivery. The majority of the residents in and around Bogarts Corners were engaged in farming.

On January 26, 1888, the Sandusky Register ran a column featuring Bogart in its neighboring communities page. A writer known as “Plato” wrote this column:

In 1893, Bogart was a stop on the Sandusky, Milan and Norwalk Electric Railway, and later on the Lake Shore Electric Railway.

from Wikipedia

A Methodist Society was organized in Perkins Township, not far from Bogarts Corners, and in the 1800s, circuit riders preached at the church services. Later the Perkins Methodist Church merged with Trinity Methodist Church in Sandusky. 

Former Perkins Township Trustee, Glenn Parker, lived in a home in what was known as Bogarts Corners from the 1940s through the 1960s. Glenn was a descendant of pioneer settlers of Perkins Township.

Now many hotels, restaurants, and other businesses are located near the intersection of Bogart Road and Milan Road. You can read much more about the early years of Bogarts Corners and Perkins Township in chapter 10 of Hewson Peeke’s Standard History of Erie County (Lewis Publishing, 1916).

The “All Nation’s Pageant” in 1932

Several ladies from the Sandusky and Erie County Federation of Women’s Clubs participated in the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s “All Nation’s Pageant”, held at Cleveland’s Public Hall. This event was part of the International Exposition presented in Cleveland from November 19 to 28, 1932. While thirty-eight women participated, only sixteen were present for the photograph above. 

Pictured are: Back Row: Ada Parker, Leona Love, Carrie Beatty, Nettie Beatty, Ms. Drummond, Emma Phillips, Dorothy Drummond, Adeline Rosekelly, Florence Wright. Front Row: Mary Louise Blanckey, Annette Lockwood, Lois Miller, Attie Hawley, Harriet Ruggles, Virginia Caswell, and Marie Harris. 

Several scrapbooks, membership lists, secretary’s record book and photographs from both the Erie County and Sandusky Federation of Women’s Clubs are housed in the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.

Laying the Cornerstone for the Administration Building of the Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home

The cornerstone for the administration building of the Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home was set in place on July 11, 1888. Still in operation, this facility is now known as the Ohio Veterans Home. The officers of the McMeens Post, No. 19, Grand Army of the Republic, sent out invitations to fellow G.A.R. members for the special event.

 At 11:00 a.m. on July 11, 1888, members of several Ohio G.A.R.  posts met at the foot of Columbus Avenue, to be reviewed by Department Commander Joseph W. O’Neall. After the procession, all those in attendance took the train to the grounds of the future Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home, in Perkins Township, just south of the city limits of Sandusky. The cornerstone laying ceremony began at 2 p.m. with music by the Great Western Band and the Aeolian Quartette. After a prayer, Commander O’Neall laid the cornerstone. Addresses were given by General W.H. Gibson, Ohio Governor J.G. Foraker, and other Ohio military leaders. Several musical selections concluded the cornerstone laying ceremony. 

A grand camp fire was held under the auspices of the McMeens Post of the G.A.R. at Cedar Point on the evening of July 11. The steamers Hayes and Ferris were chartered to take guests to Cedar Point, with a round trip fare of twenty cents. Former soldiers, families, friends, and interested citizens were invited to the camp fire. Among the featured speakers were: Governor Foraker, General Manning F. Force, Colonel John W. Chapin, General W.H. Gibson, C.J. Colgan, C.B. Dennis and General John C. Lee. General John Beatty spoke on “The Citizen Soldier, The Soldier Citizen.”

The event concluded with the playing of Auld Lang Syne by the Great Western Band. 

In 1908, William Howard Taft spoke in front of the Administration Building at the Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home while campaigning for President.

 Here is a picture of the staff at the Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home in 1915:

       

Today the Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home is known as the Ohio Veterans Home, and the former administration building is now home to a museum which features historical photographs and artifacts from Ohio veterans which date back to the Civil War. 

Famed Circus Performer Clyde Beatty at the M. Hommel Wine Company

On May 26, 1937, Clyde and Harriet Beatty, along with several other individuals associated with the Cole Brothers Circus, visited the M. Hommel Wine Company and signed the guest book.

Clyde Beatty, a native Ohioan, was well known as a lion tamer and circus owner. Three special trains brought the Cole Brothers Circus to Sandusky on May 25, 1937, where a performance was given at the corner of Campbell and Pierce Streets.

Several guest registers from the M. Hommel Wine Company are now in the historical collections of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. The oldest guest register is from the M. Hommel Wine Company exhibit at the Pan American Exposition which was held in Buffalo, New York from June to October of 1901.  There was a guest register from the company’s display at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904 -1905. The M. Hommel Wine Company also kept guest registers at its facilities in Sandusky, one dating from 1898-1917, and another from 1917 to 1967. An article which appeared in the July 1, 1963 issue of the Sandusky Register reported that Buffalo Bill and former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt had also visited the M. Hommel Wine Company and signed the guest register.

Michael Hommel was born in France in 1844. He learned how to make wine in the French town of Epernay which is known for its fine champagne wines. He came to Sandusky in 1871, where he worked for Mr. W. H. Mills, a local winemaker. In 1878 Hommel established a winery and residence at the northeast corner of Clinton and Pearl Streets. Here is a picture of the M. Hommel Wine Company, at 1422 Clinton Street, taken in March of 1955:

It soon became a thriving business. The M. Hommel Winery specialized in naturally fermented champagnes derived from grapes grown in the Lake Erie Islands region. The Hommel wine cellars were carved out of limestone, and maintained a constant temperature of fifty degrees all year round. After Michael Hommel’s death in 1903, his son William H. Hommel took over the business. The Hommel Wine Company acquired the Diamond Wine Company in 1906. This gift package was distributed by the Hommel Wine Company in the 1930s.

The M. Hommel Company stayed in the Hommel family until 1945, when it was sold to outside interests. In 1971 a fire destroyed the Clinton Street buildings that had once housed the M. Hommel Wine Company. An apartment complex is now located at the site of the former winery. An unopened bottle of extra dry American champagne, produced and bottled by the M. Hommel Wine Company, is displayed in the Industry Room of the Follett House Museum.

The Citizen Soldier, by John Beatty

John Beatty, grandson of the former Sandusky Mayor of the same name, wrote a book about his experiences as an officer during the Civil War. The book, The Citizen-Soldier; or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, was published in 1879 by Wilstach, Baldwin & Co. of Cincinnati. John Beatty started his military career as a private in the Third Ohio Infantry. By 1863 he was commissioned as a Brigadier General. Beatty led regiments at Perryville, Stone River, Tullahoma, Chickamauga, and Marion Ridge. After the Civil War, he served as a representative from Ohio in the U.S. Congress from 1868 to 1873.

The Citizen-Soldier was dedicated to John Beatty’s brother, Major William Gurley Beatty, who also served as an officer in the Union Army during the Civil War. In his introductory remarks, John Beatty states that he wrote his memoirs down so that future generations of the Beatty family would know the “thoughts, fears, hopes, (and) acts” of someone who lived generations before them. He closed his introduction with “Kinsmen of the coming centuries, I bid you hail and godspeed!”

In his book, Mr. Beatty frequently recorded full stanzas of songs that he heard soldiers singing. Through vivid descriptions, Beatty allows the reader to gain a sense of what the day to day life of a soldier was like. In January 1862, he tells about their New Year’s turkey tasting as tough as leather. When a pretty young girl waved the Union flag in the direction of the marching troops,

Beatty said that the loyal girl “captured a thousand hearts” as she raised the spirits of the soldiers.

In March 1862 near Murfreesboro, a Confederate lady by the name of Mrs. Harris, asked General Beatty for protection, as her husband and daughter were absent from home. She insisted that many of the Union soldiers she had encountered were quite rude. General Beatty assigned Sergeant Woolbaugh to stand guard at the Harris home, and to be on his best behavior. It turns out that Sergeant Woolbaugh and Mrs. Harris engaged in conversation in the sitting room long into the night, discussing the current issues between the North and the South.

The horrors of war are also recollected by General Beatty. After the Battle of Perryville, Beatty describes the scene as soldiers dug trenches for fallen soldiers, many of whom they knew quite well: “We hear convulsive sobs, see eyes swollen and streaming with tears, …. as our fallen comrades are deposited in their narrow grave…” One time when the food supply was running short, hungry soldiers cut chunks of meat from horses which had been killed in battle.

General Beatty ends his memoir on January 1, 1864. Before wishing a “Happy New Year” to any future readers, Beatty’s thoughts as he looks out over the land in Mission Ridge, Tennessee are:

“Looking on this panorama of mountains, ridges, rivers and valleys, one has a juster conception of the power of God. Reflecting upon the deeds that have been done here, he obtains a truer knowledge of the character of man, and the incontestable evidences of his nobility.”

Beatty’s book concludes with a narrative of General Harrison Hobart’s capture and imprisonment at Libby Prison.

The Citizen-Soldier; or, Memoirs of a Volunteer is part of the “Local Authors” collection of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. It is also available to be read full-text at Google Books. General John Beatty is buried at Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery.

The Diary of John Beatty, edited by Harvey S. Ford, is found at the website of the Ohio Historical Society.

The Vanished Settlement of "Africa" in Erie County

The July 1878 issue of the Firelands Pioneer features an article written by A. W. Hendry about a vanished settlement of African Americans in Erie County in the 1830’s and 1840’s.

The settlers resided in an area southeast of the city of Sandusky, across Pipe Creek. The area was known as “Africa,” because the residents were men of color. Samuel Carr and Frederick Swears were the first settlers, arriving in Erie County in the mid 1830’s. Samuel Carr lived on the bank of Pipe Creek. He sold produce from his garden in Sandusky. Mr. Swears had a grain farm and also raised cattle and hogs.

Mr. Hendry wrote that the land beyond the creek was overgrown, so the settlers cleared away the brush and timber, and built log cabins and cultivated the land for crops. Isaac Brown and Thomas Butler first settled in Pipe Creek, but later purchased fifty acres of land from John Beatty in Perkins Township. (This land was later owned by James Hinde.)

Other settlers in the Pipe Creek area were Basil Brown, George Robinson, John Hamilton, Benjamin Hill, Moses Thompson, William Thomas, George Carr, John Stoaks, Ben Johnson, Peter Gregg, two men with the last name of Jones, Samuel Floyd, William Butler, Benjamin Bell, William Harris, James Jackson, Dick Lett, and a Mr. Glinton. Rev. Thomas H. Boston settled in Erie County in 1839. In about 1843, there were over one hundred African Americans residing in the settlement. The residents built a log school house, which was sometimes used as a church. A Mr. Robinson from Rhode Island was a school teacher there. General John Beatty, in an address to the Firelands Historical Society on October 3, 1900, stated that he once attended a revival meeting at the home of “old Sammy Carr.” He said that “It was the most animated religious gathering I ever witnessed.” General Beatty also mentions a debate between the white young men of Milan Road and the African American young men of the Huron Road (now Cleveland Road.) A Mr. Brown took the floor and he “was not only a master of good English, but had a touch of humor in him, and a whole arsenal of sarcasm and invective.” Mr. Brown won the debate, and General Beatty’s team lost.

Following some unpleasant land disputes, most of the residents from this early settlement moved to Canada. However, the families of Rev. Boston and Basil Brown remained in Erie County. Visit the Sandusky Library to read about the vanished settlement of Africa, and hundreds of other accounts of the pioneer settlers of Erie and Huron County in the Firelands Pioneer, a multi-volume set of journals shelved in the genealogical section of the library’s Reference Services area.

The Irish in Erie County

During the first half of the nineteenth century thousands of Irish emigrated to the United States. The potato famine of 1845 left devastating conditions in Ireland. The Irish immigrants had hopes of starting a new life in the United States. Often the only jobs available were among the least desirable. As a result many Irish born workers built the canals and railways of America and worked in dangerous mines. Besides working difficult jobs, the Irish often faced discrimination. They encountered signs that said “HELP WANTED – NO IRISH NEED APPLY.” As a result the Irish found solace in churches and community organizations. Eventually the Irish were assimilated into American culture, along with thousands of other immigrants from many other countries. Today Americans of Irish descent are still known for their humor, love of family, and their sometimes feisty personalities. St. Patrick’s Day has been celebrated in America since 1737.

One of the earliest Irish immigrants in Erie County was John Beatty, who was one of largest land owners of the Firelands. John Beatty led a group of fourteen families from Connecticut to Perkins Township in 1814. He was Mayor of Sandusky from 1833 to 1836. His brother-in-law was Rev. William Gurley, an early Methodist minister was licensed to preach by John Wesley, the “father of Methodism.”

Father R. A. Sidley (below) was born in Ireland in 1828. He was the priest of Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Sandusky from 1863 until 1871. Father Sidley oversaw the building of the church which still stands today at the southeast corner of Columbus Avenue and Jefferson Street. Father Sidley left a bequest of over $13,000 for the building of a new school, which was completed in 1907. The auditorium of the new school was named “Sidley Memorial Hall” in honor of Father Sidley. For many years Sidley Hall was used for concerts, commencements, as well as amateur and professional dramatic productions.

Leonard Johnson, another local Irish immigrant, bought Bull’s Island in 1852. The name of the island was later changed to Johnson’s Island. During the Civil War there was a Prisoner of War Camp located on Johnson’s Island.
Wilson “Slip” McLaughlin, who was Chief of the Sandusky Fire Department for many years, was the grandson of Irish immigrant, Michael McLaughlin. “Slip” is in the center of the group pictured below at the fire station located at the corner of Meigs Street and Sycamore Line. Mr. McLaughlin’s obituary in the November 24, 1984 stated that he was a “champion of the underprivileged and public” and a public servant for fifty years.
Descendants of Irish immigrants to Sandusky and Erie County still live and work in Sandusky today. A walk through St. Joseph’s Cemetery will bring to mind many of those Irish Americans who have gone before us.

Beatty Church on Washington Square

John Beatty, the Mayor of Sandusky from 1833 to 1836, founded a church in Sandusky in 1835, after the Methodist Church voted against hosting an antislavery speaker. He withdrew his membership from the existing Methodist Church and formed a new Methodist church, commonly known as the “Beatty Church.” It was located at the west end of Washington Square, along Jackson Street, facing Washington Street. After Beatty’s death, most of the membership of the Beatty Church returned to the parent church.

During the Cholera Epidemic of 1849, the building formerly known as the Beatty Church housed a cholera hospital. Hewson Peeke wrote in The History of Erie County that the city of Sandusky had seized the building for use as a hospital. Charles E. Frohman devoted an entire chapter of his book, Sandusky's Yesterdays, to the “Cholera Days” of Sandusky.

In 1855 the Baptist Church purchased this building. Rev. Justin D. Fulton was the minister of the Baptist Church in Sandusky from 1855 to 1859. Former Sandusky dentist Frank Sage wrote in the January 19, 1923 Sandusky Register that Rev. Fulton was “fearless in attacking with fiery zeal, public wrong, abuse of all descriptions.” Rev. Fulton later pastored churches in Boston and New York. He wrote several books, many of them expressing his anti-Catholic sentiment. Justin D. Fulton married a Sandusky girl named Sarah Norcross after he had moved to Boston.

The German Lutherans of Sandusky purchased the building in 1862. (The Lutherans actually traded buildings with the Baptists, paying an additional $2,000 in cash.) Rev. J. G. Lehrer was the Lutheran minister in 1862. The History of Zions Lutheran Church tells of Rev. Lehrer’s direction of the congregation toward order and progress. Members who failed to live up to their calling were disciplined, and sometimes excluded from the congregation. The Lutheran church held services here until November 12, 1899, moving to the building they still use today, at Columbus Avenue and Jefferson Street. Eventually the building on the courthouse square was demolished.

The old stone church in the Courthouse Square hosted many different groups of Sanduskians, with some very strong-willed men in leadership positions. Several church histories, historical files, and microfilmed church records are available at the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library for further research.
View of the Beatty Church and Erie County Courthouse from Washington Row, circa 1890.