Photographs of the Children of Andrew and Louise Biemiller

Andrew and Louisa Biemiller, both natives of Germany, had a son and two daughters born in Sandusky. Mr. Biemiller worked in the fish business, as well as being the original owner of the Sandusky Opera House, built in 1877. Originally called the Biemiller Opera House, ultimately it became known as the Sandusky Theatre and was the location for hundreds of performances of operas, musicals, vaudeville acts and plays, as well as motion pictures. 

John Biemiller

John Biemiller was born about 1857. He married Anna Graves in 1879, but died in the following year. He was the father of Andrew Frederick Biemiller, and the grandfather of politician Andrew John Biemiller.

Barbara Biemiller

Miss Barbara Biemiller was born around 1862. She married Otto H. Ilg on April 24, 1884. After her husband died, she married August H. Klotz. Barbara outlived both her husbands. She passed away on June 23, 1930.

Cora Biemiller

Cora Biemiller was the youngest child of the family, born in Sandusky, Ohio on April 8, 1872. Cora never married. When she died on January 31, 1952, her obituary (found in the 1952 Obituary Notebook), stated that she was the last member of one of  the city’s older families. Her funeral services were held at the Biemiller residence at 312 East Adams Street, with the  Rev. Hunsdon Cary, Jr., of Grace Episcopal Church, officiating. Burial was at Oakland Cemetery.

The patriarch of the family, Andrew Biemiller died in Sandusky in 1882. He was buried in the family lot at Oakland Cemetery.

Andrew’s widow Louisa married Robert McChesney, in 1885. Mr. and Mrs. McChesney resided in New York State.

Louisa Biemiller

After her death in 1908, she was buried next to her first husband in Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery.

Anthony Ilg, Pioneer Brewer

Anthony Ilg, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Casper Ilg, was born in Germany in 1820. He came to the United States in 1849, settling first in Cincinnati, where he worked in the hotel and saloon business. In the 1870s, he and his family moved to Sandusky, where he purchased an interest in the old Fox brewery, becoming a partner in the brewery known as Raible, Strobel, and Ilg. From 1874 to 1879, the brewery was operated by Strobel and Ilg. Eventually Mr. Ilg became the sole proprietor, with his son Otto working for him. The Anthony Ilg brewery operated at the foot of Harrison Street on Sandusky’s west side until the late 1880s.  

The 1886 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows the layout of the Ilg Brewery, with a large ice house, and smaller areas for coal, barley, mash and malt:

An excerpt from Hewson L. Peeke’s A Standard History of Erie County, Ohio, describes the popularity of breweries and saloons in Sandusky in 1883:

According to Peeke’s History, there was a saloon for every sixty five residents of Sandusky in 1883.

Anthony Ilg passed away on July 18, 1905, and was buried in the North Ridge section of Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery.