Damask Rose Parish

 

J.C. Judson wrote about Damask Rose Parish in his history of the First Congregational Church of Sandusky, which he titled Agony and Attainment. According to Mr. Judson, Damask Rose was born in the fall of 1845, and was baptized on August 27, 1846. Her parents were Francis Drake Parish and Mary L. Parish. F.D. Parish was a well known lawyer in Sandusky, and an active participant in the Underground Railroad. They named their child after the late wife of Congregationalist minister Rev. I. A. Hart. Born Damask Rose Frisbie, Mrs. Hart died in 1840, at about 30 years old.

F.D. Parish in his later years

Mr. Judson wrote that Damask Rose Parish was “an unusual, lovely and beautiful child.”

According to records at Oakland Cemetery, Damask Rose Parish died on October 6, 1855, at the age of ten. Her tombstone, which has a rose inscribed under her name, is in Lot 4 of Block 28.  Mr. Parish was greatly saddened when his daughter died, but he was noted for his stoic dedication to his work and community service. 

Hewson Peeke’s book, Stories of Sandusky contains an almost certainly fictional story about Damask Rose Parish. The story tells how Mr. Parish was a friend to fugitive slaves, and suggests that Damask Rose herself took part in helping provide food and water to the fugitives. But J.C. Judson noted that she could not have been old enough to have helped the slaves that were aided by her father in 1845, since she was born that same year.

You can find the grave of Damask Rose Parish at Oakland Cemetery today. Stories of Sandusky and Agony and Attainment can both be found in the Archives Research Center of Sandusky Library. While the Peeke story about Damask Rose may indeed be fiction, there is no question that F. D. Parish was a friend of fugitive slaves. An account of the Underground Railroad of the Firelands is given in the July 1888 issue of the Firelands Pioneer. Rush Sloane, who knew F. D. Parish personally, gives specific dates and places associated with the activities of the Underground Railroad.

James "Bud" Smith in His Youth

In the picture above, James “Bud” Smith is in a homemade go-cart near his home in Sandusky, Ohio about 1914. James was the son of Freeland Smith and his wife, the former Nettie Schnaitter. His siblings were Betty, Frank, Polly and Patricia.  An earlier photograph shows James and his sister Betty sitting on a donkey.

James enjoyed ice boating on the lake during the winter of 1923.

He served as class president during his senior year at Sandusky High School in 1925; He and his fellow class officers, class secretary Helen Wiegand and class vice president Edgar Robinson, appeared in the Sandusky Star Journal on May 23, 1925.

James Freeland Smith graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in engineering. In the 1930s, Mr. Smith was the inspector in charge of dredging projects for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Buffalo, New York. He later became the chief engineer for Union Chain, and its successor Hewitt-Robbins. Later he was head of project sales and engineering for Hewitt-Robbins, and its successor Litton Industries. After retiring from Litton, he served as vice president of North Central Television, Inc., retiring in 1973.

On December 15, 1984 James F. Smith died at the age of 77.  An obituary in the December 16, 1984 issue of the Sandusky Register stated that he had been a member of Grace Episcopal Church, the Sandusky Yacht Club, past president of the Sandusky Sailing Club, and was chairman of the Sandusky Zoning Code Board of Appeals since its inception in the 1950s.

James F. Smith lived an active life, filled with many civic, recreational and educational pursuits. Thanks to the generosity of a Smith family descendant, several photographs of the Smith and Schnaitter families can be seen at the website of the SanduskyLibrary Historical Collections. Original copies of the photographs are held in the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.

Sandusky School Children in 1919-1920

Pictured below is a group of children from classes 3-A and 4-B at Sycamore School in 1919. While the students have not been identified, we know that Polly Smith is among the children in the picture. Sycamore School was built in 1876; by 1984, the school was closed and the new owner re-purposed it as an apartment building.

The four young men below were on the second team of the Eagles basketball team in 1920. The surnames of the boys were listed on the back of the original picture. From left to right are: Meinzer, Schemenaur, Stephens, and Pusateri.

The next picture shows class 3-B from Campbell School in 1919. There are 45 children in the group, but only one person has been identified. Thomas Rotsinger, the donor of the photograph, is the fourth person from the left, second row from bottom.

Campbell School, designed by J.C. Johnson, was built in 1885 by Adam Feick and brothers. The former Campbell School is now home to Nehemiah Partners of Sandusky, a nonprofit group that benefits area youth.

The Rittman Family of Put-in-Bay and Sandusky

This picture of Lucy, George and Mamie Rittman was taken at the Pascoe studio in Sandusky, Ohio in the late 1880s. The parents of these children were Frank Rittman, Jr. and his wife, the former Fannie Parker. The Rittman family resided in Put-in-Bay, but often visited Sandusky to see relatives, including their grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Rittman, Sr. 

Memorial card for Grandfather Frank Rittman, Sr.

The Put-in-Bay column in the Sandusky Register often reported on the social activities of the Rittman family. In this brief posting, Lucy and Mamie had gone to Cleveland to visit their brother George and his wife.

George F. Rittman carried on the family butcher business at Put in Bay. He spent his final years on the mainland in Sandusky. In the early 1900s, Mary Rittman was a teacher in the public schools. In 1916 she married Captain Ezra Bickford, a veteran lakesman who was the first captain of the ferry the Erie Isle. Lucy became the wife of Granville Heuchele, who was associated with the U.S. Fish Hatchery. After Lucy’s death in 1933, Granville remarried.

The graves of George, Mary, and Lucy are all on South Bass Island. George Rittman (1877-1959) and Lucy Heuchele (1879-1933) were buried at the Maple Leaf Cemetery, and Mary “Mamie” Bickford (1882-1944) was buried at the Crown Hill Cemetery.

If you have ancestors from Sandusky or the Lake Erie Islands area, you can search for articles about them in local newspapers through Newspaper Archive, a Clevnet database. (To access, log in with your Sandusky Library card.)

Nineteenth Century Children's Photographs

Elma and Frank Geib were the children of Frank Geib and Minnie Emrich Geib. Minnie may have been related to the Emrich family from Sandusky, but to date we have not determined a solid connection. Elma Geib married Frederick Schniewind, who was a pioneer in the introduction of by-product coke ovens for use in the manufacturing of illuminating gas. Elma Geib Schniewind’s son, Carl O. Schniewind, was a well known art historian who was head of the Prints Department of the Art Institute of Chicago. Elma Geib Schniewind died in New York City in 1964, and she is buried with her husband at Cleveland’s Lake View Cemetery. After her death, she donated works of art to the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum.

Elma Geib, born in Ohio in 1875 is pictured below in a photograph taken about 1881 by Henry Biddle, a Cleveland photographer.

Elma’s brother, Franz Geib, was born in Ohio in 1873. He later went by the name of Frank Geib. He became a physician in Cleveland, and passed away in June of 1956.

It is not known who donated these photographs to the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center, but they show us the style of clothing of two youngsters from Ohio, born to a father who was a native of Germany. Both Elma and Frank grew up to have full lives, and it is interesting to see how they appeared before they started on their journey to adulthood.

The Three Sons of Mr. and Mrs. John Rieger

Pictured above are the three sons of John L. and Mary (Biehl) Rieger, in a photograph taken by C.W. Platt. Standing is Edward F. Rieger, born in 1882. Seated on the left is Walter Rieger, born in 1883. Youngest son Pierre Rieger, who was born in 1886, is seated in the chair. John Rieger was a pioneer resident of Sandusky. He had a shoe business on Hancock Street in the 1870s and he founded the Hotel Rieger in 1912. 

Another picture of the boys was taken at a later date. 

You can see that same portrait of the young Rieger boys in the family’s parlor in the picture below.

Edward F. Rieger died in an accidental fall from the fourth floor of the Hotel Rieger in 1921, when he was only 39 years old. Pierre Rieger died after a brief illness on January 30, 1951. Both Edward and Pierre Rieger were involved in the management of the Hotel Rieger. Dr. Walter H. Rieger graduated from the University of Michigan as a medical doctor in 1906. Dr. Rieger was the house surgeon at the Manhattan Eye and Ear Infirmary in New York, and he was the visiting otolaryngologist at Fairview Park Hospital and St. Vincent’s Charity Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio; he was the last surviving member of his family at the time of his death on June 27, 1951. Mr. and Mrs. John Rieger and all their sons are buried in Block 94 of Oakland Cemetery. The Hotel Rieger, which played an important role in the lives of so many members of the Rieger family, is pictured below in 1927.

The Bijou Restaurant after a Snowstorm

A large group of individuals are pictured above in front of the Bijou Restaurant on West Water Street, next to the West House Hotel (where the back of the State Theatre is today) in downtown Sandusky in 1910 or 1911. The huge mound of snow behind the men (with an interesting statue on top) indicates that Sandusky must have recently had a large snowfall. An obituary for Charles W. Herzog, which appeared in the 1950 Obituary Notebook at the Sandusky Library, stated that Mr. Herzog operated the Bijou Restaurant and Café from 1908 until 1916. 

A woman and child can be seen in an upper floor window, just to the right of the restaurant sign. Could that be Mrs. Herzog and their daughter? Probably. A little genealogical research lets us come to that conclusion: According to the 1912 city directory, the Herzog family residence was at the same address as the business. Searching for Mr. Herzog in Ancestry.com, we find a record for the 1930 census that shows that Charles & Suzanna Herzog had a 22-year-old daughter named Mildred, as well as a 10-year old son Charles and a 3-year old daughter Rosemary. We know that the two youngest were not around yet in 1911, but with a little math we know that Mildred was born around 1908 or 1909. So, seeing the child in the photo who looks around 2 or 3 years old, it might be reasonable to assume that the people in the window are Suzanna Herzog and her daughter Mildred. Isn't genealogy fun?!

Children at Play in Sandusky

Though the children have not been identified in the picture above, notes on the original item indicate that the photograph was taken on Reese Street in 1912 by an itinerant photographer who visited Sandusky. Around the same time, several of the Smith children, along with a friend, can be seen having fun at the beach. 

  

The little girl in the picture below is about to go for a wagon ride with her dog and a goat. 

 

This snapshot was taken at the former Erie County Children’s Home in the summer of 1942.