Mrs. J. P. Vogel

This lovely monument is in memory of Mrs. Emma Belle Vogel, the first wife of John P. Vogel, a hardware merchant from Oak Harbor. In the early morning hours of January 31, 1885, a group of nine people were coming home on a sleigh following a dance held at Port Clinton. The Lake Shore Railroad was running late, and in the midst of darkness and dense fog, the horse driven sleigh was struck by the train at the Three Mile Crossing between Port Clinton and Lacarne. Miss Jennie Hoople and Mr. Stephen S. Hall died instantly, and Emma Belle Vogel died several hours after the accident as a result of her injuries. The accident was covered by the February 1, 1885 issue of the New York Times, as well as by the Sandusky Register on February 1, 1885.

Mrs. Vogel was survived by her husband John, and an infant daughter named Gertrude. She was first buried in Oak Harbor, but notes on the Oakland Cemetery interment card indicate that she was reinterred at Sandusky's Oakland Cemetery on September 29, 1894. John P. Vogel remarried, in 1889, to Miss Millie Rantz. John and Millie Vogel had three daughters, named Arminta, Florence, and Esther. A brief biographical sketch of John P. Vogel appears in the book COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF THE COUNTIES OF SANDUSKY AND OTTAWA, OHIO, available in many northern Ohio libraries, as well as at the database Heritage Quest and at the Internet Archive. The article lists the maiden name of the first Mrs. Vogel as Miss Bella Hugle.

Mrs. Emma Belle Vogel's tombstone inscription reads:

Beloved wife of
J.P. Vogel

Born September 30, 1864
Died January 31, 1885

Age 21 years