Thanksgiving Concert in 1887

On Thanksgiving Night, November 24, 1887, “Ye Old Folkes” Concert was held at the Opera House in Sandusky. Mrs. John Mack donated the original concert program to the Sandusky Library. The November 25, 1887 Sandusky Daily Register gives a detailed account of the event. The reporter credited Mrs .S. W. Butler and Mrs. Leeson as the chief organizers of the concert. The paper stated: “Mrs. S. W. Butler proposed and planned the concert, and almost alone, through many discouragements, worked it through.”
Concert participants wore costumes from the style of “ancient days.” Hymns and tunes were sung, with Mr. A. J. Nusley serving as the “singing master.” A quartet called the “Foure of Ye Men Singers,” including Mr. Talcott, Mr. McFall, Mr. Lockwood and Mr. Stroud, were a crowd favorite and performed several encores. (Walter Talcott’s obituary, found in the 1926 Obituary Notebook in the Archives Research Center, details Mr. Talcott’s talent.) Miss Fannie Loomis sang a solo called “Jedediah.” Mrs. Norbert Becker sang a song as “Jubilee Pendegrass.” Another hit of the evening was “My Johnny was a Shoemaker,” sung by May Elwell as “Belinda Bugler.” Malcolm Jennings “rendered a solo with fine effect.”

Attorney S. C. Wheeler sang a solo entitled “Ri Ti Tu Ri.” The Register says that Mr. Wheeler was “called out a second time and finally led off the stage by the ear by Deliverance Higgins.”
The newspaper article listed the program from the concert, and stated that the concert would be “long remembered as one of Sandusky’s greatest local events.” To find historical documents, newspapers and photographs from Sandusky’s past, visit the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library.

Broderson’s Home Service Store on McDonough Street

Adolph and Martin Broderson were partners in the grocery business in Sandusky for over fifty years. (Adolph G. Broderson died in February 1955, and Martin Broderson died in January 1954.) Pictured above is the Broderson’s “Home Service Store” on the southwest corner of Polk and McDonough Streets. Visible in the store windows are advertisements for Sunbeam bread, Salada tea, and Esmond dairy products, and a Coca Cola sign can be seen on the side of the building.

Products could be purchased here on credit. A former Polk Street resident tells that when her grandmother sent her to the Brodersons’ store to pay the bill, she always received a piece of penny candy in return. An earlier blog entry features more photographs of grocery stores in Sandusky.

General Henry A. Axline, “Father of the National Guard of Ohio”

Henry A. Axline was the youngest soldier to serve in the Civil War from Muskingum County. He served in Company G of the 159th Ohio Volunteer Infantry.

After the Civil War, Henry A. Axline held the positions of Captain, Major, Lieutenant Colonel, and Colonel of the Ohio National Guard. During the Spanish American War, Henry Axline was Colonel of the Tenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, taking command at Camp Bushnell. During the Johnstown flood, Henry A. Axline took the first relief train of Ohio troops to that city.

General Axline was the Adjutant General of Ohio from 1886 to 1890, and again from1896-1898. William Taylor Alexander, author of The Centennial History of Columbus, called Henry A. Axline “the father of the National Guard of Ohio.”

Active in Veterans’ organizations, General Axline was often a speaker at Campfires, military reunions, and Memorial Day exercises. The Sandusky Daily Register of May 18, 1914, reported that “as a public speaker General Axline had but few equals.” At the time of his death he was chief of staff of the national encampment of the G.A.R. Henry A. Axline died May 18, 1914 in Zanesville, Ohio. He is buried in Oakland Cemetery in Sandusky, Ohio. (He was buried in Sandusky because his daughter and son-in-law were residing in Sandusky at the time of his death.) Henry A. Axline married Helen Westlake in 1874. They were both graduates of Ohio Wesleyan University. Their daughter Tella Axline was married to Claude B. Dewitt, pictured below. (They later divorced.)

Veterans Day, November 11: J. Elmer Bauer and G. Lynn Hughes, Musicians in the Great War

Two soldiers from Erie County, John Elmer Bauer and G. Lynn Hughes, both served in Infantry Bands during World War One. George Lynn Hughes was born in Huron in 1888. He entered the service on May 26, 1918, and was associated with the 125th Infantry Band. John Elmer Bauer, also known as Elmer Bauer, was born in Sandusky on January 6, 1896. Bauer entered the service on May 26 1918, and was a musician with the 39th Infantry Band. The August 30, 1919 Sandusky Star Journal reported that Bauer and Hughes, along with Harold Fort and Herb Lechler, were organizing a musical group called “The Harmony Four.” In 1921 J. Elmer Bauer and G. Lynn Hughes ran a music store called the Bauer-Hughes Music Company, located on Decatur Street. Later, Mr. Bauer ran the business alone as “Bauer’s Everything Musical.”

G. Lynn Hughes worked at the Hinde and Dauch Paper Co. for thirty-seven years. He passed away in 1971. J. Elmer Bauer moved to Pinellas County, Florida, where he died on April 8, 1975. Mr. Bauer’s obituary in the St. Petersburg Times stated that in the eight years that he played the organ at the Tramor Cafeteria, he closed every evening’s performance with “God bless America.” Pictured below is J. Elmer Bauer at the organ:

Program Announcement: World War I in Sandusky

The First World War, "the war to end all wars," ended 90 years ago this November. Join us in the Library Program Room on Sunday, November 9, at 1:00 p.m. as Archives Librarian Ron Davidson presents a discussion of World War I in Sandusky. Using original documents from the Library's Archives Collection - letters, photographs, newspaper stories, and other accounts - he will present observations of what life was like for Sanduskians during the Great War and the effects of the war on people and society. Registration is requested but is not required.

Veterans Day, November 11: Corporal Isaac F. Mack and Sergeant Selden A. Day of Company C, 7th O.V.I.

Selden A. Day is pictured in his uniform from the Spanish American War, in which he served as an officer in the Artillery. The photograph was a gift to Sandusky newspaper publisher, Isaac F. Mack. During the Civil War, Selden A. Day and Isaac F. Mack both served in Company C of the Seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Isaac F. Mack was a Corporal and Selden A. Day served as both a Corporal and a Sergeant while in the 7th infantry.

Selden A. Day had a long record of military service to his country. He served in the Civil War as well as the Spanish American War. His monument at Arlington National Cemetery bears the inscription: “Breveted First Lieutenant, 3 June 1864 for gallant and meritorious service in the battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia; Breveted Captain, 13 March 1865 for gallant and meritorious services during the war. “

Selden Day’s wife was quite well known in her own right. Alice Chenoweth was born in 1853 in Winchester, Virginia. When she began writing, Alice legally took the pen name of Helen Hamilton Gardener. She authored seven books, was a vice president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and was the first female member of the United States Civil Service Commission. President Wilson appointed her on April 13, 1920. Upon her death (subscription required), Helen willed her brain to science .

Isaac F. Mack was one of the most prominent and influential citizens of Sandusky, Ohio. He was associated with the Sandusky Register from 1869 until 1909. He was a charter member of the Western Associated Press, which went on to become the Associated Press.
Mack was elected Commander of the Ohio Department of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1892. He was very influential in securing Erie County as the home of the Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Home, now the Ohio Veterans Home. The I.F. Mack building at the Ohio Veterans Home honors his memory.

To read more about the life of Isaac F. Mack, read Sandusky's Editor, by Charles E. Frohman, available at the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library.

Program Announcement: Early Sandusky Through the Eyes of Martha Cooke (Brown-bag Lunch series)

Bring your lunch and join us in the Library Program Room (Terrace Level) as we explore topics in local history. We will meet again on Wednesday, November 5, at 12:00 noon. The topic will be Reflections on Early Sandusky Through the Eyes of Martha Cooke. Local historian Janet Senne will bring the character of early Sandusky resident Mrs. Martha Cooke to life. Martha Cooke was married to Eleutheros Cooke, Sandusky's first lawyer. "Mrs. Cooke" will share about her family, her home, and everyday life in early Sandusky. Registration is requested. To register, call 419-625-3834 and press 0 to speak with a switchboard operator (9-5, Monday-Friday) or press Option 6 to leave a message.

William Griswold Lane

William Griswold Lane was born in Norwalk, Ohio in 1824 to Ebenezer Lane and Frances Griswold. When William was twelve years old he became acquainted with fellow student Rutherford B. Hayes, at the Maple Grove Academy, in Middletown, Connecticut. They became lifelong friends. William Lane attended college at Yale and Harvard, and spent a year studying law in Berlin, Germany.

After returning to the United States, William practiced law with his father. In 1850, William married Elizabeth Diodate Griswold. In February 1873 William G. Lane was appointed Judge of Common Pleas for the Fourth Judicial District.

William G. Lane died in October 1877, at the age of 52. Resolutions from the Court and Bar of Erie County appeared in the Sandusky Register. One resolution stated “In this death, the bench and bar have lost an able, impartial and upright Judge – one of the most esteemed, high minded and scholarly members of the profession – and this community a citizen of great mental and moral worth – a man just, honorable and honest in all his dealings with his fellow men and conscientious and faithful in the discharge of all the public and private duties that devolved upon him. While we mourn his loss we delight to honor his memory.”

The Lane family monument at Oakland Cemetery is a beautiful sculpture in honor of William Griswold Lane and his family. I.F. Mack wrote in an article in the June 1882 Firelands Pioneer, that Judge William G. Lane was “without doubt, the wisest counsellor we ever had at our bar.” A memorial tribute to Judge William G. Lane is on file at the library at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in Fremont, Ohio.

A view below of the Lane Family monument at Oakland Cemetery in Sandusky, Ohio. Several family members’ names are inscribed on the stone.

Mystery Photo: An Easy One

It's been too busy here to post much lately, so I thought I'd do a quick "Mystery Photo." It probably won't be very difficult for most people, but I thought the view is interesting -- significantly different than it looks now.

Update: It looks like the secret is out. If you haven't seen Jason Werling's blog on the Sandusky Register website yet, go take a look at his "before and after" picture, taken from the top floor of the Feick Building.

It looks like we had a "ringer" in the comments. The photo above was taken from the Feick building in 1923. The large stone builing on Water Street was a winery, but it was probably the Engels & Krudwig Winery; the Dorn Winery was a block further east.

Ulysses Thompson Curran, Educator and Judge, and His Son Charles, Artist

Ulysses Thompson Curran was the superintendent of the public schools in Sandusky from 1872 through 1880. After leaving the field of education, U. T. Curran practiced law in Sandusky. He served as Erie County Common Pleas Judge in the Probate Division, from 1899 to 1905. He was a lifetime member of the National Education Association.
Under Mr. Curran’s leadership, the “Sandusky Training School” was founded in 1874. New teachers were mentored by more experienced teachers to prepare them for their profession. Miss Mary Alice Chenoweth was the lead teacher at the training school. Mary Alice later changed her name to Helen Hamilton Gardener. She was a suffragist leader, an author, and was appointed to the U.S. Civil Service Commission by President Woodrow Wilson in 1920. (She willed her brain to Cornell University for medical research.)

On February 28, 1914, Ulysses Thompson Curran died at the home of his son Charles Courtney Curran in New York City. Charles Courtney Curran graduated from Sandusky High School in 1879. After high school, Charles Curran attended the Cincinnati School of Design, and later the Art Students’ League, and the National of Academy of Design in New York City. In 1888, he won the Academy’s Hallgarten Prize for his painting, A Breezy Day. Also in 1888, Charles Courtney Curran married Grace Winthrop Wickham, daughter of Huron County Judge Charles Preston Wickham.

After his marriage, Charles Curran studied art in Paris, where he developed his impressionistic style. Three works by Charles Courtney Curran can be seen at the Follett House Museum, including Laurel Among the Rocks, pictured below.

Charles Courtney Curran painted a portrait of his father, which is also on display at the Follett House Museum. Local author Patty Pascoe wrote about both U. T. Curran and Charles Courtney Curran in the book, Elected to Serve, available from the Sandusky Library.