Michael Hommel

 

Michael Hommel, pictured above from an article which appeared in volume 17 of Wine and Spirit Bulletin, was a well known Sandusky business man.  At the time of his death on May 31, 1903, Mr. Hommel was the head of the M. Hommel Wine Company in Sandusky, Ohio. An obituary for Michael Hommel was found on page 35 of volume 17 of the Wine and Spirit Bulletin. It read:

The Death of Michael Hommel

Michael Hommel, head of the M. Hommel Wine Co. of Sandusky, Ohio, died at his home in that city at 7:35 o'clock, Sunday evening, May 31st, of peritonitis, after a short illness. Mr. Hommel was born in Rippweiler, Grandy Duchy of Luxembourg, France January 10, 1844. At fourteen years of age, he went to Ay, where he secured work in a wine and champagne cellar. Being apt, he soon learned the work, and at eighteen he was made champagne maker for one of the largest concerns in France. Four years afterward, he came to this country and lived in New York, Cincinnati and St. Louis, until 1871, having been married in the latter city in 1867 to Miss Mary Daumont.

In 1871, Mr. Hommel came to Sandusky and obtained employment with Mr. W. H. Mills, where he remained for seven years. Then he decided to go into the wine business on his own account, which he did on the site of his present plant, making the wine in a shed, and storing it in the cellars of his house, which were made for the purpose. That was in 1878, and, at the time of his death, he had the satisfaction of knowing that he and his company possessed one of the largest and best-stocked champagne cellars in America, every bottle of which had been mode under his personal supervision.

No man in Sandusky was better known or more highly respected than Mr. Hommel. For fourteen years he was a member of the city council, a part of the time its president. He was a man of unswerving honesty, and was never known to speak ill of any one. Every one he knew was his friend, because he refused to have enemies. He is survived by a widow, two sons and two daughters. His demise will in no way change the business of the company, Mr. William H. Hommel, his eldest son, having been taught the business thoroughly.

Michael Hommel was laid to rest at Sandusky's Oakland Cemetery.