Getting to Know Rev. Edward R. Jewitt

Rev. Edward Rogers Jewitt (sometimes spelled Jewett) was born in Connecticut in 1811. He married Elizabeth Camp in 1834. In 1835 the young couple settled in Elyria, Ohio. By 1840 E.R. Jewitt was admitted to the North Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Rev. Jewitt ministered in the Methodist Episcopal Church for over twenty years. Rev. Jewitt addressed the crowd that gathered on July 4^th in Milan, Ohio for a Celebration and “PicNic.” He was the pastor of the Sandusky Methodist Episcopal Church from 1845 to 1847. In the 1850s, he was the minister of the Bethel Church, which was an outreach of the Methodist Episcopal Church to improve the moral and religious condition of seamen in waters west of New York State.

Rev. Jewitt preached a sermon on July 4, 1852 at Put in Bay, when five companies of the Volunteer Militia of Ohio met at Put in Bay to celebrate Independence Day, as well as to discuss the erection of a monument to commemorate Perry’s victory at the Battle of Lake Erie.

In 1860 and 1861, Rev. Jewitt was the Presiding Elder of the Methodist Episcopal Society of Sandusky. On January 13, 1860, under his leadership, the following anti-slavery resolution was passed at the Quarterly Meeting of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Sandusky:

 According to the obituary of Mrs. Elizabeth Jewitt, in 1863 Rev. Jewitt was injured and had to retire from active ministry. However, Rev. Jewitt remained involved in the community and in Methodist religious circles in Erie County, Ohio.

This advertisement from the Sandusky Register of May 11, 1864, states that Rev. Jewitt had opened a bookstore on Columbus Avenue. He sold Bibles and hymn books, as well as stationery, toys, and writing supplies.

When the Convention of the Erie County Sunday School Union met on May 11, 1872, the president of the organization was absent, so Rev. E.R. Jewitt stepped in to run the convention. Several in attendance felt that there was a significant correlation between children who attended Sunday School and secular school. There was a feeling that learning at Sunday School could reinforce the skills of school children who also attended public school. 

Rev. Jewitt attended the 42^nd Annual Session of the North Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church held in Ashland in September of 1888, and reported on the events which took place.

By 1880, Rev. and Mrs. Jewitt retired to a farm in Margaretta Township. Rev. Jewitt died on August 22, 1892, and he was buried at Oakland Cemetery. Mrs. Jewitt survived until 1904.

This obituary appeared in the Sandusky Register of August 23, 1892:

C. L. Derby & Company

Chauncey Lyman Derby was the youngest of four Derby brothers involved in nineteenth century book publishing. Born in central New York state (probably in the 1820s), by 1850, he ran the C. L. Derby & Co. bookstore in Sandusky, Ohio, in the Phoenix Block, the recently-demolished building on the 100 block of East Water Street. According to a 1948 article in the University of Rochester Library Bulletin, he sold pianofortes and melodeons along with books and stationery at the shop. C. L. Derby was also closely associated with the Cosmopolitan Art Association. Subscribers received a periodical subscription, as well as a chance to win an art object through a yearly lottery.

Pictured below is an advertisement from Derby’s column in The Daily Sanduskian, a predecessor to the Register newspaper, published by David Campbell & Son.

The advertisement features a person reading a book entitled C. L. Derby & Co. Booksellers & Stationers. Another book entitled Sandusky, O., is below the open book. This poem also appears in the ad:

This books can do-nor this alone; they give

New views to life, and teach us how to live:

They sooth the grieved, the stubborn they chastise,

Fools they admonish, and confirm the wise.

Crabbe.

Derby’s column contained several small ads for specific book titles he was selling at his shop. Titles included: The Great Harmonia!, Laugh and Grow Fat, When Doctors Disagree, and Hearts & Homes.

Mr. and Mrs. Henry C. Huntington

Henry Clay Huntington was born on November 21, 1841 in Brownville, New York, to Apollos and Deborah (Rowland) Huntington. Henry came with his parents to Sandusky, Ohio in 1852. He graduated from Sandusky High School in 1859. Even before he graduated from high school, Henry worked for C.V. Olds in his bookstore and stationery business. After the death of Mr. Olds, Henry took over the bookstore and stationery business on Columbus Avenue in Sandusky. For a time, he was in a business partnership with B.L. Skadden.  

In 1890, H.C. Huntington and Co. published a souvenir album of Sandusky.

The small album featured pictures from Sandusky, including the business district, churches, the Cold Creek area, Cedar Point, and the Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home. This page features several businesses from downtown Sandusky.

The album also contains images of the homes of prominent residents.

Brown paper book covers were once sold or perhaps given away by H.C. Huntington and Company.

H.C. Huntington was married twice. His first wife, Laura, was the daughter of educator M.F. Cowdery. Laura Cowdery Huntington died in 1868. Mr. Huntington's second wife, Mrs. Josephine Huntington, served on the board of the Sandusky Library in the late 1800s.

Henry C. Huntington died unexpectedly on December 11, 1905, at the train depot in Sandusky. He was survived by his wife, three sons, and three daughters. Mr.Huntington was buried in Oakland Cemetery. Besides running his successful  bookstore, from which he retired in 1904, Mr. Huntington had been a member of the Congregational Church, served on the board of the Sandusky Cooperage and Lumber Company, and he had been member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Men’s Literary Society. Mrs. Huntington moved to Spuyten Duyvil, Bronx, New York after her husband’s death, where she and her daughter ran an inn. Mrs. Josephine Huntington passed away on August 19, 1914. Her remains were returned to Sandusky for burial in Oakland Cemetery.

The Book Shop on West Monroe Street

According to article 23 in From the Widow’s Walk, by Helen Hansen and Virginia Steinemann (Follett House Museum, 1991), the stone cottage that once stood at 115 West Monroe Street was built from local stone to provide housing for local quarry workers. In the early days of the city, there were quarries on both East and West Park Streets. 

Lucas Beecher originally owned the property. Mr. Beecher sold the property to Felix Breen, a stone mason, who lived in the cottage for over thirty years. The son of Felix, James Breen, sold the property to John Gottlieb Epple. Mr. Epple rented the stone cottage out to the William McCudden family in the first half of the twentieth century. From about 1950 to the early 1960s, Carl and Jane Miller rented the cottage from Frederick Epple, and they ran The Book Shop at that location. Eventually, they sold antiques as well as books.  

Here is a bookmark from The Book Shop, which points out their commitment to good customer service:

In 1963 all the structures that had once stood at the northwest corner of Columbus Avenue and West Monroe Street were demolished and the property was given to the city of Sandusky.  Epple Corner Park is now a part of the city of Sandusky’s Park system.

William Hamilton, Book Seller

Here is a stereographic image, taken by A.C. Platt around 1880, of William Hamilton and his bookstore in downtown Sandusky. From about 1880 through the 1890s, William Hamilton ran this bookstore in the 100 block of Columbus Avenue. A listing from the 1882 Sandusky City Directory stated that Mr. Hamilton sold wall paper, window shades, and picture frames, besides books and stationery. For a time Peter Schumacher was in business with William Hamilton, but by 1890, Mr. Hamilton was the sole proprietor of the business again. In a closer view of the store, you can see portraits of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington in the window.

According to the historical records of Kurt Boker, housed at the Sandusky Library Archives research Center, William Hamilton was born in Ireland to Samuel and Eliza Hamilton. The family emigrated from Ireland to the U.S. in 1851, and resided at Kelleys Island in 1870. In 1878, he married Julia E. Pool, the daughter of former collector of customs, John G. Pool. They had a family of three daughters. By 1900 William Hamilton no longer ran the bookstore in Sandusky, and he was working as an insurance agent. On April 7, 1907, he died at his Decatur Street in Sandusky, following a lengthy illness. His obituary, which appeared in the April 8, 1907 issue of the Sandusky Register, reported that during the Civil War, William Hamilton had served as the clerk of the steamer Island Queen, during the unsuccessful attempt to free prisoners at Johnson’s Island. He had worked on other Great Lakes vessels as well.

To read more about the plot to free prisoners at Johnson’s Island during the Civil War, see Rebels on Lake Erie, by Charles E. Frohman, housed with the local history books at the Sandusky Library.