James M. and Patience Hand

Capt. James M. Hand was lost at sea in late November of 1872. The Schooner C. C. Griswold was lost on Lake Superior. There were no survivors. Several biographies of ships' captains are found on the Great Lakes Maritime History web site. (James M. Hand is discussed under the biography Elmer Hand.)


By 1917, Mrs. Patience Hand had moved to Buffalo. She died there on March 4, 1917. Both James M. Hand and Patience Hand are buried in Oakland Cemetery.

Selah H.F. and Hannah Loveland House

Selah H.F. House and his wife, the former Hannah Loveland, are buried in Perkins Cemetery in Erie County, Ohio. According to the GENEALOGY OF THE LOVELAND FAMILY FROM IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FROM 1635 TO 1894, Selah Freeman Truman Henry House was born in Glastonbury, Connecticut on February 15, 1808, to Mr. and Mrs. Lazarus House. He signed his name Selah H. F. House. Hannah Mary Loveland was born to Francis and Hannah Stevens Loveland in Glastonbury, Connecticut on March 18, 1804.

We read in the book HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY, OHIO, ed. by Lewis Cass Aldrich, that at the age of 12, Selah drove a yoke of oxen from his home in Connecticut, coming to Ohio with his father.Selah and Hannah House lived on a farm in Perkins Township, along with several other families from Connecticut. They had a large family, as recorded in the GENEALOGY OF THE LOVELAND FAMILY, mentioned earlier:

An infant who died young
Emily House, born 1830
Harriet House, born 1831
George Lewis House, born 1834
Ira Francis House, born 1836
Alfred W. House, born 1839
Henry Harrison House, born 1841
Charles Loveland House, born 1848
and
Freeman Truman House, born 1849


Selah H. F. House died in Perkins Township on November 5, 1878. Hannah Loveland House died on February 15, 1876. They are buried amidst many family and friends who made the pioneer trip from Connecticut to Ohio long ago.

Charles and Sarah Steen

Charles F. Steen was born in Erie County, Ohio, in 1857. His father was an Irish immigrant who died when Charles was an infant. (He was murdered by bandits, and his body was found in Sandusky Bay.) His mother, Lorenda Stevens, was the daughter of one of Erie County’s first teachers, Charles Stevens.

In 1874, Charles Steen married Sarah Milner. Sarah had been born in Michigan, but was adopted by Henry and Huldah Westfall Milner when she was quite young. Charles and Sarah had a farm in Perkins Township, where they were charter members of the Perkins Grange. They were very active in the Methodist Church, known as the “red brick church.” Mr. Steen also served as President of the Erie County Agricultural Association.


Mr. and Mrs. Steen had four children, Harry, who died young; twins Ada and Alpha; and Rollin Steen. Ada Steen married Leroy Parker, a farmer and concessionaire at Cedar Point. Alpha marred Fred Martin, a local candy manufacturer who had been born in Belgium. Rollin married Mildred Brooks, and he had a long career as an educator in Ohio.To the right is an image of Mr. and Mrs. Steen in their later years. Pictured below are Charles and Sarah Steen, with their daughters Ada and Alpha and son Rollin, in the early 1900's.




Charles Steen died in 1933, and Sarah Steen died in 1939. Both are buried in the North Ridge section of Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery.

Mrs. Amelia Heinsheimer

Mrs. Amelia Heinsheimer was born in Beyreuth, Bavaria about 1829. Her husband was David Heinsheimer. Amelia died on August 2, 1854, "in the 25th year of her pilgrimage."

Mrs. Amelia Heinsheimer was buried in Sandusky's Oheb Shalom Cemetery. A history of Reform Judaism in Sandusky, Ohio is found at the website of the Oheb Shalom Temple.

Very little is known about Amelia or David Heinsheimer. Their surname does not appear in any indexes of Erie County histories, or Erie County census records. To date, no marriage record has been found. There are listings of the last name Heinsheimer in the 1860 and 1870 U.S. Census in the states of Ohio, New York, and Iowa, but we do not have any clues as to which family Amelia may have been connected. If anyone knows more about Amelia Heinsheimer who is buried in Sandusky, Ohio, please leave a message in the comments field.

Venice Cemetery

Venice Cemetery is located in the western portion of Erie County, on old Route 6,also known as Lima-Sandusky Road. Henry Howe wrote these words about Venice in his HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO:

The village of VENICE is on Sandusky bay, near the mouth of Cold Creek, and on the L.S.& M.S.R.R. In the summer of 1817 the village was founded and the mill-race was begun to bring Cold Creek to the present site of the Venice mills. The flouring mills here have performed a very important part in the development of the country. The Venice flouring mills, completed in 1833, established the first permanent cash market for wheat in the "Fire-lands." The first 100 barrels of flour in the merchant work was sent to New York. On its arrival hundreds of people went to see it, for it was the first shipment of extra flour from Ohio, and some even predicted that in time Ohio might furnish them with several thousand barrels of flour a year.


An historical marker was dedicated at Venice in the summer of 2008 by the Erie County Historical Society.The marker noted the significance of the early grain and winery industries of the small village.


Mr. and Mrs. Peter Altvater are buried in Venice Cemetery.

Peter Altvater was born in Prussia in 1850. He married Fredericka Sick on December 29, 1880 in Erie County, Ohio. Hewson Peeke’s STANDARD HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY contains the following paragraph about the daughter and son-in-law of Peter Altvater:

Mr. Englert married Miss Margaret Altvater, who was born in Castalia, Ohio, of which place her father, Peter Altvater, now deceased, was a well known and respected citizen. To him and his wife five children have been born, namely : George, now residing in Toronto, Ontario ; Ida M., the wife of James S. Van Norman, of Sandusky, Ohio ; Charles, who resides at Frankfort, Indiana ; Earl R., of Ironton, Ohio, and Carrie L., wife of E. M. Winters, of Castalia, Ohio. The phrase "a self-made man" is often used by biographers in describing one who has risen to a comfortable or enviable position in life by his own exertions and without extraneous advantages, and in the sense that "self-made" is often "best-made" it can be applied without reserve to Mr. Englert.

Peter Altvater died in 1909, and his wife died in 1943. Their tombstone in Venice Cemetery is in the shape of a tree stump to which is attached a scroll that is inscribed with the names of Mr. and Mrs. Altvater.

Graveyard Squirrel in Oakland Cemetery

So far, I have not managed to photograph a rabbit at any of Sandusky's cemeteries, but today a frisky squirrel was scampering about Seventh Street in Oakland Cemetery.

Daniel and Johannah Larkins

Mrs. Johanna Larkins passed away on July 7, 1890. She died at her home on Hayes Avenue in Sandusky. Mrs. Larkins was 96 years old, and at the time of her death, her husband was 104 years of age. Her obituary in the Sandusky Register stated that "The age of the couple was something remarkable, as very few people reach such an advanced distance in life's journey."

Daniel Larkins was born in Ireland, and he died on May 25, 1893 at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Thomas McClain, in Bellevue, Ohio. His obituary in the Sandusky Register indicated that Daniel Larkins had come to the United States in 1830, and first settled in the state of Connecticut. By the 1840 Census, the Daniel Larkins family was residing on a farm in Perkins Township of Erie County. The children of Daniel Larkins were: Patrick, Margaretha, James, Daniel, Johanna, and Gregory. At the time of his death, only two children were still living, Mrs. Thomas McClain, and Mrs. Patrick Kelly, of Elgin, Illinois. Twenty five grandchildren and several great grandchildren also survived Mr. Larkins. Two grandchildren who resided in Sandusky when Mr. Larkins died were John Larkins, an engineer for the Big Four Railroad, and Thomas Larkins, a machinist employed by the Hospital Supply Company.


Dates recorded on U.S. Census records indicate that Daniel Larkins may have actually been younger than the age given on his tombstone and in his obituary. Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Larkins are buried in St. Joseph's Catholic Cemetery in Sandusky.

In an article from the March 9, 1844 Sandusky Clarion, Daniel Larkins was on a committee which signed a resolution, and had it published in the newspaper, that the "Sons of the Emerald Isle" resolved to celebrate St. Patrick's Day on temperance principles, without any intoxicating beverages.

Infants Arthur and Violet Curth

These tombstones memorialize two children of Henry and Caroline Curth who died very young. Arthur Curth was buried on January 12, 1895 at the age of three months, and Violet Curth was buried on August 31,1905 at the age of one month. Their stones are located in the North Ridge section of Oakland Cemetery.

Mr. and Mrs. Curth went on to live long lives in Sandusky, Ohio, and had three healthy daughters who lived to adulthood. I'm sure that little Arthur and Violet came to their minds many times throughout the years. Henry Curth served as a firefighter for the Sandusky. When he passed away in 1945, three officials from the Sandusky Fire Department were among his pall bearers. Mrs. Curth had predeceased him, having passed away in 1938.

Laurence Cable

Laurence Cable was born in Germany in 1824. He settled in Sandusky in 1844, and worked as a carpenter and a cabinet maker. His first wife, Josephine Zercher Cable, died in the 1849 cholera epidemic. Mr. Cable married Virginia Stoll in 1852. He had a total of seven children, Josephine, from his first marriage, and six children were born to Laurence and Victoria Cable: Caroline, Sophia, Edward, Frank, Albert, and Herman.

Through the years, Laurence Cable had a variety of jobs. In the 1850’s he build cars for the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad. Later he was in the shoe business. Cable was also the first president of the Third National Bank. After the death of Victoria Stoll Cable, Mr. Cable took as his third wife Philomena Walter from New York.

On October 16, 1904, Laurence Cable died, and he was buried in St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery. You can read more about Laurence Cable and his family on page 72 of Helen Hansen's AT HOME IN EARLY SANDUSKY. Obituaries for Laurence Cable appeared in the October 17, 18, and 19, 1904 Sandusky Register.

The Cable District in Sandusky was named for Laurence Cable and his sons.