In Memorium: Glenn Parker

My great uncle, Glenn G. Parker, passed away of February 14, 1974. He was a Perkins Township Trustee for twelve years. Uncle Glenn was instrumental in helping to establish Fire Station No. 1 on Bogart Road, and Fire Station No. 2 at Campbell and Bell Streets. The clippings above (click on the image for a larger view) were recently found in Parker family notebooks. They show some of the fire equipment that was purchased during Glenn Parker's tenure as a Perkins Township trustee. Flags at all three of the Perkins Fire Stations were at half-mast on the day of the funeral of Glenn Parker.

Sentimental Sunday: Print from the Parker Farm House

My mother told me that the print pictured above was located on the wall of the the living room of her paternal grandparents, Leroy and Ada Parker, at their farm house in Perkins Township. My great grandparents, Leroy and Ada (Steen) Parker were married on March 3, 1901, in Perkins Township, at the "old brick church," which was Methodist. They moved to this farm house shortly after their wedding.

















In the Spring of 1941, several Perkins Township farms were purchased by the United States Government, in order to make way for a munitions factory needed for World War Two. Later this land was the site of NASA's Plum Brook Station. Grandpa Roy and Grandma Ada moved to an apartment on Washington Street in Sandusky, and they took their print, which Mom always called "End of Day," with them to their Sandusky home.























The Parker grandchildren never forgot playing at the farm, and they missed all the parties, holiday gatherings, and picnics that once took place with their extended family at the Parker farm. (For a closer view of the Parker cousins, click here.)

Seventy Five Years in Perkins by W. D. Gurley

In the December 29, 1890 issue of the Sandusky Daily Register, W. D. Gurley wrote an article about his ancestors, who were early settlers in Perkins Township of Erie County, Ohio. Mr. Gurley, whose full name was William Dempster Gurley, was the son of pioneer Methodist minister Rev. William Gurley.

My ancestor, Julius House, and his wife and children were among those who came by oxen train from Glastonbury, Connecticut to Perkins Township in 1815 with John Beatty. Julius House, Rev. Gurley, and many of those early Perkins Township settlers were laid to rest in the Perkins Cemetery. They were first buried in the old Perkins Cemetery, but were moved to the current Perkins Cemetery when their land in Perkins Township was needed for a munitions factory during World War Two.



















A transcription of W. D. Gurley's article about "Seventy Five Years in Perkins" appears below. Mr. Gurley contrasts the rustic cabins of the early settlers with the lovely home of Truman B. Taylor, which was built in the 1890's.

Seventy-five Years in Perkins
by W. D. GURLEY
For The Register

At the close of the war of 1812 the Rey. John Beatty and Julius House then living in Connecticut, formed a colony of twelve families. Late in the fall of '15 they arrived in Erie county and selected their farms in Perkins township on the sand ridge now leading from Bogart to Bloomingville, then an Indian trail. Each family built his own campfire and slept in their wagons while building their one story log cabins, The country being now, they were surrounded by wild beasts and savage tribes. These cabins were built without boards, nails or glass. During the winter of '15 they organized the first M. E, church on the Firelands, John Beatty being a local preacher and Julius House an exhorter. Mr. House was chosen class leader, which office he held for more than fifty years. The number of members was about fifteen. At a meeting in'86 there was 108 added to their number. This society has prospered for the last seventy five years under such preachers as the Rev. John H. Powers, Wm. Runnells, John Kellam, Adam Poe. Rev. T. B. Gurlev, Sawyer, Dunn, McMahon, Mitchell, Barkdull, Breckenridge, Broadwell,
Thompson and a host of others.

The Rev. James Gray has been returned for the second year to Perkins for to persuade the people to come out to church and receive the blessings reserved for them. These old pioneers, fathers and mothers, went to work, fenced and cleared their land, plowed the ground, set out several apple orchards which grew and thrived and in a few years furnished apples and cider not only tor the neighborhood but also for Sandusky.

In a few years those old log cabins were removed, frame buildings took the place of the old ones, barns and outhouses were erected, rail fences torn down and picket and board fences became the fashion of the day. These old pioneer fathers went to work, toiled hard early and late for more than half a century, then they one by one passed away, leaving their homes to their children and grand children.There are today six of those children living who came with their parents to Perkins seventy-five years ago: Mr. Stuart Bell, of Sandusky; Mrs. Susan Monnett, of Norwalk; Mrs. Riley, of Avery; Mrs. Green, of Perkins; Ellery Taylor and Lindsley House, were all children when they arrived here.

The new generation that has sprung up was not satisfied with those old pioneer orchards because they were old fashioned and somewhat infirm with age, so they have all been cut down and cleaned away. Mr. T. B. Taylor, grandson of Jessie Taylor, now occupies his grandfather's old homestead of seventy-five- years. A magnificent mansion has just risen on the sight of the old cottage by Mr. Taylor. It is built in the latest French style, its windows filled with French cut glass, while those of the hall are Chinese glass. Tho building fronts the road and is built with its hip roof, its stack chimneys and surmounted spires; it is roofed with slate and painted in the latest style of the nineteenth century. The driveway leading from the road to the stable curves to the east parlor door, then passes through a beautiful potochere, a French name, and is a very convenient part of the house. The way is covered with slate and pebble stones; the sidewalk leading from the gate to the house is laid with long square flag stones imported from some foreign port. Shrubbery occupies the yard, while in front of the house stands a beautiful row of maples. The old barn has been removed a little back and a magnificent one erected on the site of the old one, with its surmounted cupola and spire; it is painted red and tipped with white. Thrift and fashion have removed the old land marks by Mr. Taylor and introduced a new era into the shady paradise of the past. Mr. Taylor and family are now comfortably settled in their new home and the well arranged furniture shows the taste of Mr. and Mrs. Taylor. There was one of these old pioneers apple trees standing in the door yard which had escaped the notice of the woodman's axe.

Sandusky Daily Register, December 29, 1890, p. 4

Mr. and Mrs. James Madison Harris

Mr. and Mrs. James Madison Harris are buried at Sandusky's Oakland Cemetery. While the 1860 U.S. Census for Erie County indicates he was born in Kentucky in 1810, an obituary for Mr. Harris, which appeared in the July 9. 1895 issue of the Sandusky Register, reported he was 95 years of age at the time of his death on July 8, 1895. James Madison Harris was an early African American settler of Perkins Township in Erie County, Ohio. In the 1880 U.S. Census, Mr. Harris's first name was listed as Mattison. He was a farmer, aged 65, according to the census records. He lived in Perkins Township with his wife Julia, age 40, and his son William, age 17. A marriage record for William H. Harris, which informs us that he married Ida Smith in 1903, indicates that William Harris's mother's maiden name was Julia Brown.

Mrs. Julia Brown Harris passed away at the family residence on Patten Tract Road in Perkins Township on April 3, 1904. An obituary for Mrs. Harris was carried by the April 4, 1904 issue of the Sandusky Morning Star.

A beautiful monument which honors the memory of James Madison Harris and Julia Brown Harris is located in Block 13 of Oakland Cemetery. A draped urn which sits upon a closed book adorns the top of the Harris monument. The draped urn symbolizes sorrow or mourning.























A hand holding an open book is found in the middle portion of the Harris monument, just below a decorative flower.
























Click on the images for an enlarged view.

Remembering Nellie Goodsite Hill

Below is a very brief timeline of the life of Nellie Goodsite Hill. Click for a larger view:



Nellie Goodsite Hill is pictured here with her husband's first cousin twice removed, Joyce. Both Joyce and Nellie's husband were descendants of Lindsay House and Mary Ann Young. Nellie was born in Perkins Township, Erie County, on February 4, 1899 to William Goodsite and Louisa Mary Dauch Goodsite. Nellie's uncle J. J. Dauch was one of the co-founders of the Hinde and Dauch Paper Company, which operated in Sandusky for many years.

Nellie married Grant Hill, and they had a family of four children. They lived for a time in Michigan, and then moved back to Perkins Township, to live on a farm near many of the people that they grew up with. In 1941, after the U.S. Army bought out a large section of land in Perkins Township for a munitions factory for the War effort, Nellie and Grant moved to a farm just outside Bellevue, Ohio. In a brief article in the August 12, 1942 issue of the Sandusky Register Star News, it was reported that Mr. and Mrs. Grant Hill were on the committee for organizing an "Old Neighbors" picnic for the former families who lived in Perkins, bought were forced to move when the TNT plant was built. This "Old Neighbors Picnic" was a tradition for over twenty years.

On January 2, 2000, Nellie Hill passed away at the Arbors at Clyde. Her beloved husband Grant, and daughter Arline had already died by this time.Grant and Nellie Hill were buried in the Perkins Cemetery in Erie County.


Nellie was "small but mighty." When Duke professor Edward Hudson Young was writing his genealogical book, OUR YOUNG FAMILY IN AMERICA, Nellie wrote to him to provide information about the Young descendants in her husband's maternal line. In the 1990's, my mother and I visited with Nellie. She told us of the many weddings, funerals, and bridal showers that she had attended when she lived in Perkins Township. She had lived a full, wonderful life with her husband on the farm near Bellevue, but her memories of her days as a young woman in Perkins Township were still quite vivid. As our lovely conversation ended, Nellie served us homemade sugar cookies which were delicious! Anyone who ever met Nellie Goodsite Hill recalls her fondly. She outlived her husband and a daughter, and moved with her husband three different times in her life. Through it all Nellie kept a positive attitude, and relied on her strong faith in God. She truly "bloomed where she was planted."

Sentimental Sunday: On Grandpa's Farm in 1941

Pictured to the left are Leroy and Ada Parker's six grandchildren playing on a wagon on the family farm in Perkins Township, Erie County, Ohio in 1941. Guiding the group is Tommy Parker. Behind him are his sister Joyce, cousins Lee Baumeister, Lois Parker, and Richard Parker. Little sister Sally is acting shy by the barn.

Not long after this photo was taken, the U.S. Government took over the land owned by several Perkins Township farmers, to make way for a munitions plant during the Second World War.

Searching for Julius House at Google Books

Julius House is an ancestor on my great grandfather's maternal line. He was an early settler in Erie County, Ohio, and he is buried in Perkins Cemetery. I accidentally stumbled upon more details about his life when I was researching someone else in Google Books.

In the book A WESTERN PIONEER, OR, INCIDENTS OF THE LIFE AND TIMES OF REV. ALFRED BRUNSON, available full text online, I came across this vivid description of my ancestor’s faith and devotion as a leading layman in the Perkins Methodist Church in the early years of the nineteenth century in the Firelands.



(Note: The last name House is misspelled Houre in this passage, but the name of Julius House is correctly spelled in the listing of topics for Chapter 10.)

In a report of Ohio Supreme Court Decisions, I read about a court case in which Julius House disagreed with John Beatty over a land contract. Names of the lawyers, the judge, neighbors of the House family, and details giving key dates and a description of improvements made on my ancestor’s land were all given in this case. A portion of the case summary appears below:


I encourage you to go to Google Books and search for your ancestors. You may be pleasantly surprised!

Old Perkins Cemetery

The subtitle of the Cleveland Plain Dealer article (left) from March 31, 1941 reads: "Perkins Cemetery Must Yield Bodies of 450 Dead." An article from the website of Perkins Township in Erie County, Ohio, tells us that the original Perkins Cemetery was located behind the Methodist Episcopal Church near the intersection of Taylor Road and Columbus Avenue. In 1941, the War Department of the United States acquired about 9,000 acres of land in Perkins Township, to construct a munitions plant called the Plum Brook Ordnance Works. The Trojan Powder Company produced munitions for the United States Army during World War Two. All the farmers in this rich agricultural area had to leave their farms and re-locate. The Methodist Church, Grange Hall, and the cemetery also had to be vacated.

A company was hired to disinter the bodies of those buried at the old Perkins Cemetery, and the remains were re-buried at the site of the current Perkins Cemetery just off Route 250. A marker placed by the Erie County Historical Society briefly summarizes the relocation of the Old Perkins Cemetery to its currect location. The residents of Perkins Township in the 1940's thought their ancestors' remains had found their final resting place, but due to the War effort, a new final resting place was found.


To learn more about some of the people who are buried in Perkins Cemetery, do a search for Perkins at the Graveyard Rabbit of Sandusky Bay. Pictured below is the Parker family lot at Perkins Cemetery. Some members of the Parker family were first buried in the Old Perkins Cemetery, and were re-interred, but many were buried here after 1941.

Lindsey and Mary Ann Young House

The article below, from the August 23, 1911 issue of the Sandusky Register,reports on the reunion of the House and Young families, held at the home of George B. Parker. Mrs. Marian Parker was the daughter of Lindsey House and Mary Ann Young House. (The article mistakenly lists Youngs as the surname instead of Young.)Attendees were descendants of Lindsey House and Mary Ann Young House.















The following biographical sketch of Lindsey House, son of Julius House and Mrs. House, the former Percy Taylor, appears in A STANDARD HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY, OHIO, by Hewson L. Peeke:


Lindsey House was born in Glastonbury, Connecticut, and was about three years of age when brought to Erie County, Ohio, by his father, Julius House. His education was limited to such advantages as were offered by the country schools of his day, and when he reached manhood he entered upon a career of his own in agriculture. The remaining years of his active life were passed in agricultural pursuits, and he was so successful in his operations that he was able to retire a number of years before his death, which occurred in his eighty-sixth year. He was not a seeker for political preferment, preferring the peaceful vocations of his farm to the activities of public life, but was nevertheless a man of influence in his community and a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Edward Hudson Young wrote in OUR YOUNG FAMILY IN AMERICA, available fulltext at Heritage Quest, that Lindsey House married Mary Ann Young, on December 25, 1841.Lindsey and Mary Ann were the parents of nine children, including: Althea, Laura, Julius, Harriet, Elmina, Marian, Isabel, Lewis, and Rose. Mr. and Mrs. Lindsey House celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary in Perkins Township in December of 1891.

The following obituary was carried by the Sandusky Register on June 26, 1894.



Mrs. Mary Ann House died on February 9, 1902 at Perkins, Ohio and was buried there, according to OUR YOUNG FAMILY IN AMERICA. In 2009, no tombstone or cemetery record has been found for Lindsey and Mary Ann House, though they were most likely buried in the Old Perkins Cemetery. During World War Two, most of the individuals who had been buried in the old Perkins Cemetery were re-interred at the current Perkins Cemetery, when part of Perkins Township was taken over by the United States Government so a munitions factory could be built.

The following article from the March 31, 1941 Cleveland Plain Dealer discusses Perkins Township at the time of the Second World War:



















Many House and Young descendants still reside in Erie County today.