Mary Schott's Autograph Album

The Sandusky Library Archives Research Center has in its collections an autograph book owned by Sandusky resident Mary Schott, with autographs collected when she was a young woman. She was born in 1860; the album covers the years 1881 and 1882. By looking through the pages of the album, one can learn about her friends and acquaintances, as well as discover the style of writing and humor of the late nineteenth century, often known as the "Victorian Era."

On June 9, 1881, Mary’s friend Teresa Missig wrote to Mary:

“There is no death of kindness

In this world of ours,

Only in often blindness

We gather thorns for flowers.”

 Beside Teresa’s poem is a sentence written in the shape of an anchor:

“May Faith Hope and Charity Anchor thee safe into eternity.”

 

Lizzie Zipfel, later Lizzie Feick, wrote a verse to Mary on Oct. 12, 1881:

 

“Don’t forget me when you are happy,

Keep for me one little spot,

In the depths of thy affection,

Plant one sweet “forget me not.”

Lizzie Zipfel was about 17 when she wrote her message to Mary. She is pictured here later, when she was Mrs. Feick

Fred Westerhold wrote to Mary on March 4, 1882:

 

“On life’s rugged road,

As we journey each day

Far, far more of sunshine

Would brighten the way.

If, forgetful of self

And our troubles, we had

 

The will, and would try

To make other hearts glad.”

 

Sometime after 1882, Mary Schott married Mr. Joseph Robertson, but by 1900 she was widowed, and living with her sister, Eva Schott Missig. Mrs. Mary Robertson died on her 90^th birthday in 1950. She had been a lifelong member of St. Mary’s Church.

Mary J. Zipfel Grummel MacLeod

Mary Josephine Zipfel is pictured above in a wintry scene (created by the photographer). The photograph was taken at the C.W. Platt studio in Sandusky when Mary J. Zipfel was in her early teens. Mary J. Zipfel was the daughter of Constantine and Mary (Daniel) Zipfel. Mary’s father was the owner of a well known Sandusky meat market. In the picture below, Mary J. Zipfel is wearing her bridesmaid’s dress for the wedding of her brother Charles to Anna Wagner.

According to marriage records at Erie County Probate Court, on April 24, 1889, Mary J. Zipfel married Philip Grummel, Jr. in Erie County, Ohio. Sadly, the couples’ little girl, Edna Grummel, died when she was only five months old, on June 1, 1890. Mary and baby Edna were photographed at the C.W. Platt studio shortly before Edna passed away.

Mary and Philip Grummel, Jr. became the parents of a baby boy in 1892. Mary’s husband Philip died on February 4, 1900. Later Mary Zipfel Grummel married Archibald MacLeod. Mary also survived her second husband, as Mr. MacLeod passed away in 1932. Mary J. Grummel MacLeod lived to be 91 years of age. She died in a nursing home in Clyde, Ohio, and she was buried next to Archibald MacLeod at Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery. Mary’s life as a young woman is well documented at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center thanks to the generosity of family members who donated several photographs that originally belonged to the Zipfel family. If you have vintage photographs of former residents or buildings from Sandusky or Erie County, consider donating them to the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center so that future generations may enjoy them.

Zipfel’s Meat Market

Constantine Zipfel founded a meat business in Sandusky. It was in operation from the 1860’s through the early 1900’s. Pictured below is the Zipfel Meat Market in the 1890’s.

Constantine Zipfel was born in Norsingen, Baden (Germany) on May 21, 1839. He married Mary Daniel on December 31, 1858. Constantine and Mary were the parents of seven children, all born in Ohio: Carl, Joseph, Elise, Marie, Ida, Laura, and Alfred. Mrs. Mary Zipfel passed away on January 28, 1886. Constantine married Catherine Liess, and they had a son named Wilbert in 1889. Constantine Zipfel died on June 3, 1894, after he had unsuccessfully sought health in the spas of Germany. He is buried in St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery in Sandusky. One of the original bells at St. Mary’s Church was the gift of Constantine Zipfel.

An image of Constantine Zipfel appears on Plate III, Image 1, in Sandusky Einst und Jetzt, by Ernst Von Schulenburg. This title was translated into English by Norbert Adolph and Marion Cleaveland Lange in 1959. See Sandusky Then and Now, available at the Sandusky Library, to read more about the early German residents of Sandusky. An every-name index helps researchers find specific names easily. Ernst von Schulenburg wrote in the preface to the second edition of Sandusky Einst und Jetzt, about the early German residents of Sandusky, “They are indeed dead-yet they still live.”