“The Spirit of the Lakes”

From 1849 through the 1850’s, a journal named the Spirit of the Lakes and Boatmen’s Magazine was published in Sandusky, for the Western Seaman’s Friend Society. The purpose of the Society was “to improve the moral and religious condition of seamen and boatmen on western waters.”

An outreach of the W.S.F.S. was the Bethel Chapel, which can be seen at the top left of the picture below.

Bethel Chapel was first located on the south side of Water Street between Wayne and Hancock Streets, and later moved to the north side of Water Street, just west of Jackson Street. This chapel served as a church for those working on the Great Lakes. Sandusky ministers who were associated with the Bethel Chapel and the Western Seaman’s Friend Society included Rev. Nathaniel Wilcox Fisher and Rev. Leverett Hull. Both of these ministers died of cholera, Rev. Fisher in 1849, and Rev. Hull in 1852. Judge Ebenezer Lane and former Sandusky Mayor Moors Farwell served as vice presidents of the Western Seaman’s Friend Society.

On page 92 of the June 1850 issue of the “Spirit of the Lakes” is an advertisement for the Bethel Chapel, which served the port of Sandusky.

An advertisement for the steamboat Arrow also was featured in that issue.

In the February, 1850 issue, Rev. Leverett Hull discussed the possibility of creating a songbook containing hymns especially for sailors.

Charles E. Frohman wrote an article about this publication in a 1973 issue of Inland Seas. He stated that the Bethel missionaries attempted to improve the moral character of canal drivers and boatmen. A particular challenge was to overcome the use of profanity by the seamen. The Western Seaman’s Friend Society did not survive very long, and never met with widespread success. Surviving issues of the Spirit of the Lakes are quite rare.

The Reverend Philip Ried, of Castalia

Rev. Philip Ried (sometimes spelled Reid) was the first pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Castalia. Rev. Theodore Stellhorn had taught catechism to some of the young people in Margaretta Township in the early 1900’s, but in the summer of 1901, Rev. Ried was called to minister to three different parishes, those in Mustcash (an area of Western Erie County near Crystal Rock), Groton Township, and Castalia. Rev. Ried traveled between the congregations on horseback and taught catechism classes in his home.

A building fund was started in 1905, and the cornerstone for the Lutheran Church in Castalia was laid on October 2, 1910. Dedication of the new church building was held on August 27, 1911. In February of 1912, only five months after the church’s dedication, Rev. Philip Ried died. He had been attending a session of Luther League in Toledo, when he was suddenly was taken ill. Rev. Ried had been well respected in the community. His obituary, from the front page of the February 6, 1912 Sandusky Daily Register reported that Rev. Reid was “a faithful worker and an excellent preacher as well as a man whose advice and counsel was sought in affairs of citizenship as well as religion, the Rev. Mr. Reid had none but friends. There were many manifestations of sorrow when the announcement of his death was received at Castalia.”

Rev. Philip Ried’s parents outlived him by many years. At the Castalia Cemetery, there is a striking monument on the Ried family plot. The cross is inscribed with the words “Simply to thy cross I cling.”
At the base of the Ried monument is the Ried surname, formed in the shape of tree branches.
A booklet marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of Grace Lutheran Church provides a history of the church. It is found, along with many other church histories from Erie County, at the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library.