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Ottawa County Time Traveler Eastern Ottawa County Past & Present November 2022 |
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Holidays and celebrations can provide an important element to your family history. How did you celebrate your birthday? What was your favorite birthday from your early years? Have you kept any birthday traditions? What were the important holidays in your house? Describe the decorations, food, music, or other aspects that you remember most. Were holidays more of a religious observance or secular event in your family? Which holidays were spent with immediate family, with friends, and with extended family, friends, neighbors, or community? What was your first Halloween costume? Describe trick-or-treat as you remember from your childhood. How was it different from trick-or-treat with your own children? Did you stay home or travel for Thanksgiving? What special food did you have or take for Thanksgiving dinner? What Christmas traditions do you remember? How did you celebrate New Year's? Resource: To Our Children's Children by Bob Greene. The library has a copy in adult nonfiction under number -- 920.02 Greene 1993, and a 2nd copy in the Genealogy & Local History collection. |
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The Maiden Voyage of Onward Wednesday, December 14, 2022 5-6 pm Ida Rupp Public Library, 310 Madison St, Port Clinton Community Room A&B |
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Submitted by Linda Higgins, Friends of the Ida Rupp Public Library In the Ottawa County Museum sits a lovely, well-worn piano, surrounded by many other items once owned by The Reverend Harold Boggs. Reverend Boggs, one of five siblings, was born on June 18, 1928, to Willie and Rosa Boggs of Port Clinton. His gift for music was apparent early in his childhood, and by the time he was four, he had taught himself to play old folk tunes on his family’s organ. Thus began a lifelong love of gospel music. Because he was so obviously gifted, his mother sent him to The Gunnell School of Music, where, with the help of tutors, he excelled, despite losing most of his sight to glaucoma in his early teens. Harold performed locally, often at The Gypsum Tabernacle, perfecting his talent and impressing congregations and other audiences with his gifts. As a teenager, he opened at a Toledo concert for Mahalia Jackson. He was approached after that performance by one of her booking agents with promises of fame and fortune, but Harold was not leaving Port Clinton and his community of supporters. By 1943, he was declared totally blind and although his mother took him to many eye specialists, any treatments were beyond the family’s ability to pay. According to those who knew him, Harold was ambitious, but low-key and pragmatic, so he simply moved on. At 19, Harold gathered members of his Gypsum choir to travel by bus under the banner of the Harold Boggs Gospel Singers. Their travels took them through Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, performing at churches and other such venues. Often, the group would follow the Underground Railroad route. Old friend Warner Buxton, one of his choir members, became his chauffeur and general business manager, a relationship that lasted throughout their lives. Their journey included recording gospel songs for King Studios in Cincinnati, and forming Boggs Specials, which recorded with Nashboro Records in Nashville. In 1958, he collected a new group to sing as Boggs Specials, performing for over two decades. Rumor has it that the performances were so good that church ladies not only threw hats and purses at the stage, but had to be carried out on stretchers after fainting! The Specials traveled throughout many states, enjoying success in the gospel and R&B areas. It was common in the 50s and 60s for R&B artists to take gospel music and alter it for commercial viability. Ray Charles and Hank Ballard were among those who took this route. Harold also had some “run-ins” with Sam Cooke and Eric Clapton over this issue. One legal dispute with Clapton was never resolved. Harold did manage to take revenge for the pilfering of his music by redoing Ray Charles’ “Yes Indeed” as “When It Hit You.” The Reverend traveled extensively in-country and appeared on Cleveland Channel 5, one of the first African American gospel singers to do so; and he was the first African American to host his own radio program on WRWR in Port Clinton. He spent his own time and money sponsoring church programs for charities, and helped start the Port Clinton chapter of the NAACP, all the while continuing to sing, preach, write and travel. He was given the Key to the City of Port Clinton as well as a day in his name. In 1972, Prof. Harold Boggs was ordained, becoming pastor of Gypsum Tabernacle in 1973. In 1995, Reverend Boggs moved his congregation to a building on State Street, which became Grace United Church. He never stopped singing, playing piano and composing, resuming travel for a while in his later years. He passed away on Sunday, November 12, 2000, at Magruder Hospital, nine months after his mother died at the age of 100. He’s buried at The Christy Chapel Cemetery, on the Underground Railroad route. |
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Submitted by Lorrie Halblaub, Friends of the Marblehead Peninsula Branch Library Edward Martin Herman was the last principal keeper of the Marblehead Lighthouse. He served as a Coast Guardsman, not a civilian keeper. Edward was born at Tonawanda New York in 1878. At age 21, he joined the Revenue Cutters Service, which later became part of the Coast Guard. He served on four different ships before gaining the rating of Master-at-Arms on the USRC Morrill. Then he was appointed the assistant keeper at Horseshoe Reef Lighthouse at the east end of Lake Erie, near the Niagara River. This lighthouse was built on an underwater reef and only accessible by boat. It was a lonely job. In 1908, Edward married Margaret King from Michigan. In 1913 they moved into the upstairs of the Keeper’s House in Marblehead when Edward was appointed assistant keeper to Charles Hunter. He served for 20 years as the assistant. When Edward became the principal keeper in 1933, he had no assistant keepers. He was known for keeping the lighthouse and grounds in excellent condition, winning the Efficiency Star for his care. He was a quiet, formal gentleman who wore his keeper’s uniform with pride While Edward was serving at Marblehead, he witnessed air races. The audience sat on blankets on the lawn as single engine, open cockpit planes and biplanes used the lighthouse as the south pylon of the race and a floating point out in Lake Erie was the north pylon. Pilots waved to the spectators as their wings nearly touched the ground while they banked around the lighthouse. In 1943 Edward retired. However, since World War II was going on, he agreed to help keep the light after retirement until 1946. During the war, Coast Guardsmen patrolled the waters off Marblehead and kept watch at the lighthouse. In fact, the old Quarry Hospital on Main Street in Marblehead was used as a barracks for the extra guardsmen. Margaret and Edward never had children. They were active members of the community of Lakeside and built a home on 423 Maple Street where they lived after Edward retired. Margaret died in 1961 and Edward died in 1964. They are buried at Sackett Cemetery in Danbury Township. After his death, among Edward’s possessions, a niece found a photo of a bi-plane flying past the Marblehead Lighthouse. From 1946 until the present, the men and women of the Marblehead Coast Guard maintain the light source. Since everything is now automated, they visit the light only occasionally to change a bulb or fix a problem. Gone are the days of carrying whale oil up the steps, trimming wicks, and polishing brass. No more watching for ships, keeping a log, or staying up all night to tend the flame. The clockwork mechanism that used to be wound several times a night so that the light would rotate, runs quietly with only the lighthouse itself to bear witness. |
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Submitted by Peter Huston Lovers of island history are mourning the loss of the Crescent Tavern in downtown Put-in-Bay. It was torn down at the end of October. Generations of islanders (and visitors) have dined, danced, and spent the night at one of the oldest taverns on South Bass Island. According to author Robert Dodge, the Crescent Hotel’s popularity was influenced by its connection with island personality TB Alexander, and the vaudeville world. In Dodge's book, Isolated Splendor, he states that the Crescent Hotel & Tavern has been known over time as The Hunker House, Ward Summer Resort, Hotel Alexander, and the Detroit House. In an era of large resort hotels like the Put-in-Bay House, The White House, The Beebe Hotel, which was later renamed the Hotel Commodore, the Crescent Hotel was unique. They all provided luxurious accommodations and fabulous dining for their weekend guests from Detroit, Toledo, Sandusky, and Cleveland who had come by steam boat for an island getaway. But the Crescent was a friendly, small hotel. Built in 1871 by the Hunker family, The Hunker House on Delaware Avenue had an orchard, a vineyard, and rooms for about seventy people. Several additions over the years doubled its capacity. A regular favorite, the Crescent Hotel survived the many hotel fires that gripped the island for many of those early tourism years. It even survived The Hotel Victory, a large 500 room resort hotel which opened in 1892 and burned down in 1914. Through it all the Crescent Hotel was able to provide enjoyable accommodations and great food. The Crescent Tavern remained open until the early 1970s. In 1988, the island favorite “Colonial Dance Pavilion and Beer Barrel Tavern” at the other end of Delaware burned down. No one was hurt, but many islanders were devastated by the fire. Fortunately, with the Crescent Tavern and other historical buildings remaining, islanders were optimistic that the historic downtown would remain intact. New owners, June and George Stoiber, renovated and revived the Crescent Tavern. It was again a vital island bar and restaurant. Its final use was as a country western bar and BBQ called TJ’s Smokehouse. There are lots of stories of the hotel and tavern being haunted. This has made the Crescent a popular paranormal destination and earned it a chapter in the book Haunted Put-in-Bay by William Krejci. Ghost hunters and paranormal explorers alike have reported intense activity at Crescent Tavern over the last 30 years. According to a paranormal blog site, which quoted the owner, “doors slam and TV's turn on and off by themselves, and the janitor has seen a ghost sitting at the bar at night when he was cleaning!” With the Crescent Tavern gone for good, we can only wonder where these ghosts that have haunted the tavern, like TB Alexander, will go next! |
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Submitted by Susan Dress, Clerk at Ida Rupp Public Library
GRAVE DIGGING IN THE LIBRARY: A review of the library’s collection of cemetery and obituary listings in the Genealogy and Local History collection. Part V Seneca County Ohio Cemetery Inscriptions 1987 G & LH 929.377124 SENECA Compiled by The Seneca County Genealogical Society “Preface: In 1981 when our Seneca County Genealogical Society was formed, we saw the need to transcribe and record all the tombstones in the 91 plus cemeteries of Seneca County. This encompasses 15 townships.” The book includes a list of cemeteries destroyed and cemeteries moved, and a map of Seneca County. Cemeteries are listed by township. Each township section starts with a map showing the cemetery locations, followed by row or section listings of the inscriptions. Following the cemetery listings is an alphabetical listing of names of deceased giving the page number for finding their inscription detail. A supplement at the end of the book lists the dates the inscriptions were read for each cemetery; a list of abbreviations used in the cemetery listings; some ‘small cemetery information’; and additions and corrections to the main records. Sandusky County Ohio Madison Twp. Cemeteries G & LH 929.3771214 SANDUSKY (and) Sandusky County Ohio Woodville Twp. Cemeteries G & LH 929.3771214 SANDUSKY (and) Cemeteries and Burial Places of Sandusky County, Ohio G & LH 929.3771214 CEMETERI A set of three books compiled by Sandusky County Kin Hunters The first two books cover just the townships named in the book title. A map in front shows the location of the cemeteries. Each cemeteries inscriptions are then listed by plot number. There is an index that lists names alphabetically with the page number for their details. The third book covers all Sandusky County townships, with first a map of the township, and list of cemeteries and their location on the map, followed by detailed pages for each cemetery that include location, directions, accessibility, condition, records and a brief history. There’s a separate listing for Indian Burials, which gives location, if known, or mentions of burying grounds found in historic documents. Erie County Ohio Cemetery Census Before 1909 G & LH 929.377122 ERIE BEFORE 1909 Kathryn Huss Wunderley and Patty Dahm Pascoe, co-chairman; Erie County Cemetery Project Volunteers County burials are ‘published alphabetical by township, alphabetical by cemetery and alphabetical by burials within the cemetery’. An index at front lists all cemeteries alphabetically, with page numbers. A second index breaks that list down by township first, then alphabetical list of cemeteries in that township and page number. There is no index by burial name. And this brings us to the end of our cemetery book collection. Next month we’ll look at our collection of local church records.
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