A German Edition of an American Periodical

The Sandusky Library has an issue of the German edition of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, dated October 22, 1881, in the historical files of the Archives Research Center.

The cover of this issue featured the 100 year anniversary of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. The German text was easy for local residents of German descent to read. The German-born population of Sandusky in the 1880s was about 25% of the total population, so German was a prominent second language in the city at that time.

The item was donated by Mrs. Louis Duennisch, who was both the daughter and wife of men who had been born in Germany.

Her father, Conrad Ebert, was born in 1824 in Bavaria, where he learned the trade of cabinetmaking. Mrs. Duennisch was the second wife of Louis Duennisch, who was born in Ostheim, Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach in 1847. He emigrated to the U.S. with his widowed mother in 1857. Louis Duennisch worked at the Sandusky Sash, Door & Blind Company, where he eventually became foreman of the shop. He continued at that firm as well as its successors, for over thirty five years. At the time of his retirement, the business was known as George R. Butler and Company. Mr. and Mrs. Duennisch traveled extensively, both in the United States and abroad; the library has a photograph album of their travels from 1895 to the early twentieth century. Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to learn more about the former residents and businesses of Sandusky and Erie County, Ohio.

Mr. and Mrs. Louis Duennisch

Louis Duennisch was born in Saxony, Germany on September 4, 1842. In 1857 he and his widowed mother emigrated to the United States, settling in Sandusky, Ohio. For thirty five years, he was employed by the Sandusky Sash, Door & Blind Company, and its successors. Mr. Duennisch was made foreman of the shop when he was only nineteen years old. 

On July 2, 1867, Louis Duennisch took Margaret Newman as his bride; she passed away in 1875. He married Margaret Ebert in 1878, the daughter of Conrad Ebert, a native of Bavaria.. 

Between 1895 and the early 1900s, the couple traveled extensively in the United States and Europe. Descendants of the Duennisch and Ebert families bequeathed a photograph album to the Sandusky Library Research Center, which contains many pictures from their travels.  Below is a picture of Mr. and Mrs. Duennisch in Madeira (part of Portugal, despite the caption).

For many years, Mr. Duennisch served as a trustee of Oakland Cemetery. The front page of the Sandusky Sunday Register of October 10, 1886 featured a story which reported on an electrical device which he had invented. Having heard of cases of “suspended animation,” in which a living person had been buried alive, Louis wanted to provide an escape method for an individual finding oneself in this unfortunate situation.  Insulated rings were to be attached to the body in the coffin, and these were wired to an alarm bell in the bedroom of the cemetery superintendent. At the slightest movement of an individual’s fingers, an alarm would ring loudly in the superintendent’s room. We do not know if this invention was actually implemented by Oakland Cemetery, but on October 10, 1888, it was lauded as “one of the grandest triumphs of electrical science.” 

Louis Duennisch died on October 4, 1918. He was buried in the North Ridge section of Oakland Cemetery.

The Ebert Siblings in 1864 and 1878

The three children of Mr. and Mrs. Conrad Ebert are pictured above in a picture taken by J.M. Frisbie in Sandusky, Ohio on September 28, 1864. Carl was age ten, Conrad was age four, and Margaret was age 7. Conrad Ebert, the father, and his wife Margaret, were both natives of Bavaria, but all three children were born in Ohio according to the 1870 United States Census.

Another portrait of the Ebert siblings was taken about 1879, at the A.C. Platt studio. By this time Carl and Margaret had married, and they posed with their spouses. Conrad Ebert is standing in the back, next to his brother in law Louis Duennisch. In the front are: Carl Ebert, his wife Caroline Ebert, and Margaret Ebert Duennisch.

The younger Conrad Ebert was a successful druggist in Sandusky for a number of years. Carl Ebert had a long career with the U.S. Post Office in Sandusky. Margaret Ebert married Louis Duennisch, who worked for several years with the Sandusky Sash, Door and Blind Company, later known as the George R. Butler Company. Because an Ebert family member donated these photographs to the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center, we are able to see how the Ebert children changed over time. If you have vintage family photographs of people, businesses, or organizations from Sandusky or Erie County, Ohio, please consider donating them to the Archives Research Center so that future generations may enjoy and learn from them.