Very little is known about George Cratari (sometimes listed as George Catari.) His tombstone at the St. Anthony Cemetey in Milan, Ohio, provides his birth year as 1874 and death year as 1917. His monument was erected by someone named John. The surname of the benefactor named John is illegible. Rest in peace, George Cratari.
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| Linda G, Dorene, Jack L. |
Jack and Linda and I all took College Prep Classes at Margaretta High School. We had Miss Stiller for English Literature, and Mr. Van Orsdall for Biology. We three were members of the Mighty Polar Marching Band, under the direction of Mr. Robert Price. The band bus experience was always a lot of fun.
Linda's mom was a teacher at Venice Elementary. In the Baby Boom years, some academic years, Mrs. H. had her class at Trinity Lutheran Church, down the road from Venice School, because Venice School was overcrowded. On more than one occasion, I was blessed to go on vacation with Linda's family, because her older sisters were working, and they wanted Linda to have someone to pal around with .We went to Washington D.C., and I got to meet Congressman Mosher. Another vacation was to Atwood Lake Lodge. My parents, who were raising six children, rarely went on vacation, so my trips with Linda and her parents were a delightful treat!
Jack's mom Viola, lived to be over 100 years old! She was a strong woman, and she had helped raise her siblings, after their mother died young.
Living in a small community, there are ties with family and friends that stay with you all through life's journey. Thank you Linda and Jack, for being there to help us remember my daughter Melanie, who left this earth at age 47. Niece Tina got me a special journal, in which now I am sharing memories of my daughter. I encourage you to jot down memories on paper, or in a blog. Future generations may enjoy the memories you have.
When I was in Junior High School at Margaretta School in Castalia, Ohio, Ken Bracy was our math teacher. It was in Mr. Bracy's class on November 22, 1963, that he and our class learned that President Kennedy had been killed. Everyone was very upset, as you can imagine!
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| Ken Bracy photo from 1984 SHS Fram |
Later, when several of my friends from Grace Lutheran Church were also members of the Luther League, Mr. Bracy attended one of our meetings to call square dances! He was so funny! Now in math class, there is not too much to laugh about, but Mr. Bracy would ad lib the "script" as he called the square dances, and he made everyone laugh! You did not have to actually have a date to participate in square dances, it was just "good clean fun." Some of the phrases in the square dance calls included:
Promenade
Do si do
Allemande left
Right and left grand
Circle left
To learn about the commands in square dancing, see this website from Hallmark:
https://www.hallmarkchannel.com/home-and-family/how-to/12-basic-calls-for-square-dancing
Throughout my life, I would run into Mr. Bracy every now and then. My very first day of college at BGSU Firelands, I stopped at an ice cream stand in Castalia after class, and he was working there! He called me "Betty Co Ed." Later in life, when my then husband and I had twins, Mr. Bracy installed a chain link fence, as an employee of Koch Aluminum. The twins would spend countless hours in the little swimming pool, toddler slide, and sand box, and that fence kept them safe, if I had to go inside for a moment. At an even later time, when I worked in the Reference Department of Sandusky Library, I helped Mr. Bracy work on his family tree. One of his ancestor's surnames was Roethlisberger. I tried to connect him to football player Ben Roethlisberger, but I could not make a solid connection. I do recall that Mr. Bracy had roots of Swiss/German origin.
Below is a picture of my Confirmation Class at Grace Lutheran Chruch.
Ken Bracy passed away in 2007, but he will never be forgotten! And I will never forget participating in square dances at Luther League, music class, Girl Scouts, and even at wedding receptions. My dancing days are over, but happy memories remain with me!
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| Image Credit -- Square Dance Tech |
At the Sandusky Library, where I worked for over thirty years, I learned how to trace a family tree, look up census records, obituaries, and find information in books, microfilmed sources, and online databases.
Today was an exciting day at Sandusky Library, as over 500 people attended the Dino-Mite Summer Reading Kick Off Party. Families got to enjoy treats, games, and many other fun activities on the Erie County Courthouse Lawn. The Courthouse is near the Boy with the Boot Fountain in Washington Park. The weather was perfect today! Of course at the Erie County Courthouse, during weekdays, you can access many birth, death and marriage records, just to name a few of the resources housed there.
And a few former co-workers, and many more enthusiastic Sandusky Library staff members.
We even found our father's name, Paul Orshoski, on a brick at the World War Two Memorial in the nearby Veterans Park.
Explore your own local library, and see what resources are available for your family history research! You may even run into a dino! Thank you to my sisters for a fun and eventful outing in Sandusky, Ohio!
My adult daughter, Melanie, recently passed away after a sudden illness, at the age of 47. Her death has caused me to ponder life and death. I have been thinking about the words I choose to live by.
First, I choose to live by this passage of scripture from the King James Version of the Bible:
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Matthew 22: 37-39
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
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Next are two quotes, that help me often.
"Whatever you are, be a good one."
Though often attributed to Abraham Lincoln, a quick search online indicates that it was most likely said by William Makepeace Thackery. Even if you are just running the sweeper, or folding laundry, do it whole heartedly, and not half-way!
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The final words I try to live by are:
"Figure it out."
Whatever challenges come my way, I try to sit down, pray, and come up with a reasonable plan.
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Thank you for reading my words to live by!
A lengthy tribute to William Kneeleand Dell Townsend appeared in Volume 16 of the Firelands Pioneer.
William Kneeland Dell Townsend was the only son of Mr. and Mrs. William Townsend, pioneer residents of Sandusky. Everyone was so happy in 1840, when the Townsends finally had a son, after six daughters, that the employees at the Townsend Commission Warehouse set off guns to celebrate. Sadly, Mr. and Mrs. William Townsend died in the cholera epidemic of 1849. William K.D. Townsend served in the Civil War, and later moved to Champaign, Illinois, where he lived until his death on September 18, 1907.
Parental care the child enjoyed for only a few years. In the summer of 1849, old residents of Huron and Erie counties need not be reminded, came to Sandusky that cruel scourge, the Asiatic cholera. Among its victims were the father, mother and a sister of the lad. The event broke up the family and left to others the care and education of the boy. He grew to manhood in his home town, attending private schools and later Kenyon College, at Gambier.
Answering to the first call of President Lincoln, in April, 1861, Mr. Townsend, then a little past twenty-one years of age, volunteered into the national service and became a member of Co. “E” of the 8th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. With the strenuous service of that active organization, he became so far disabled with the three months’ service that he was unfitted for a second enlistment. He then traveled abroad, lived in New York for a period and likewise sought the invigorating climate of California. By the year 1863, he was so far recovered in health that he sought a permanent employment. He purchased and drove to Champaign county, Illinois, a drove of 3,000 sheep, but striking the state at an unfortunate time when an early frost almost entirely cut off the corn crop, the enterprise proved disastrous to him financially. Not however in the long run of the future, for, being so impressed with the excellence of the soil and climate of that country, he determined to make it his home. This he did in 1869, when having married, on July 14, of that year, Miss Mary Hamilton Zurhorst, of Sandusky, the two settled upon his new farm of 640 acres, four miles north of Champaign. The thirty-eight years of life upon the farm and of retirement, proved the wisdom of his choice of his home.
During his life spent upon the farm he brought it to a high state of cultivation, enjoying the successes of the intelligent farmer, winning the high regard of his neighbors and establishing the merits of his magnificent prairie farm. His quiet life of retirement in the city of Champaign and his interest in the general good of his community, won for him the high esteem of the business community with which he mingled and in which he bore a conspicuous part, until the end came on the eighteenth day of September, 1907, when he quietly passed away, leaving his wife, two sons, William and Edmund Dell, with their children and the children of a deceased daughter, surviving him. These sons alone bear to posterity the name of “Townsend,” once so potent and prominent upon the Firelands. The funeral of Mr. Townsend was the signal for the gathering of a large number of those to whom he was best known and the reading there by his long time friend, Capt. J. R. Trevett, of the memorial copied below best expresses the esteem for him of his large circle of friends. “Recalling the personal characteristics of our friend, we are impressed by his integrity of purpose and high moral character. Honorable in his business transactions, he possessed the confidence of all who knew him. As language is the expression of the soul, so his purity of thought was shown in his conversation with his fellowmen. No objectionable words ever fell from his lips, and his daily life was without reproach. “Always extending to his acquaintances a pleasant greeting, yet he was of a reserved disposition, and it was only to his most intimate friends, in quiet conversation, that he disclosed his fund of world-wide information. Quiet, and at times seemingly almost timid, yet he possessed a spirit of resolute bravery that led him quietly to the front at his country’s call, to face the dangers of the battle and to endure the hardships of army life. “His strength of purpose and courage was shown in his work on the Pacific coast in the early days, before civilization and railroads had reached that part of the country. Later, with his young bride, he came to this county, and together they built their home on the then bleak prairies of Illinois, enduring hardships requiring a courage unknown to the young farmers of to-day. Having acquired a competency, he retired from active labor, but his interest in business affairs never lessened and he devoted his thoughts and his capital to the cultivation of his lands, thereby adding to the wealth and productiveness of the county he loved so well and in whose future he had a patriotic confidence.” The writer, from a long knowledge of the life and standing of Mr. Townsend in his community, gladly assures those he left behind him on the Firelands, the associates of his earlier years, that the eulogy of Capt. Trevett was well deserved. J. O. CUNNINGHAM. Urbana, Illinois, October 25, 1907.
So many loved ones were at the Celebration of Life for my daughter Melanie Paul this weekend. She truly was loved. Though she had a lot of struggles, she truly loved the Lord and her family. Rest in peace, Melanie Paul. You were loved and you are remembered!
For me it does not seem real yet.
My family and friends have been so supportive. Life is so short!
Below is a blurry image of a poem my mom, Joyce Orshoski, wrote long ago. Somehow it so very fitting to find this poem today.
A transcription reads:
Remember me with smiles and laughter,
Your head hold high and tall.
If you remember me with only tears,
Then don’t remember me at all.
Alva Humiston passed away on July 18, 1948. His wife, Louise Humiston, died at the home of her son in Marshall, Michigan on July 30, 1956. Mr. and Mrs. Humsiton's gravesite is in Block G at Oakland Cemetery.
Below is a picture of one of the buildings at the Ohio Veterans Home, formerly known as the Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Home.
Roy D. Mitchell came to Sandusky, Ohio in 1898 to teach at the Sandusky Business College. In 1907, he became proprietor of the Sandusky Business College. Below is an advertisement for the Sandusky Business College from the January 30, 1908 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal. Principal R.D. Mitchell maintained that young men and women could be successful in life if they had a proper business education.
Roy Mitchell eventually gave up his interest in the Sandusky Business College. He served as Maor of Sandusky from about 1917 to 1919. He was Mayor of Sandusky during the difficult years of the First World War, and during the outbreak of the influenza epidemic. On November 11, 1918, Mayor Mitchell announced that a huge parade would take place in Sandusky to celebrate the end of the Great War.
Former Mayor Roy D. Mitchell died on March 1919, 1934. He and his wife, the former Bertha Hall, are both buried at Sandusky's Oakland Cemetery.
The image above shows a listing of the interments from Holy Angels Church in Sandusky, Ohio, officiated by Rev. John F. McInerney in 1905 and 1906. Burials were at St. Joseph's Cemetery. Several decades of church records have been digitized, and are accessible with a free account at FamilySearch.org.
To access these and many other records, go to the website below. Bowse through the records, which are arranged by county, then city, and then parish.
https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/collection/1494476
To learn more about Rev. J.F. McInerney, see his memorial at Find a Grave.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/148298201/john_f-mcinerney
Happy hunting!
David and Anna Steinman are buried at Oheb Shalom Cemetery in Erie County, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Steinman were concessionaires at Cedar Point for over thirty years. David Steinman passed away on August 27, 1946. Calling hours for Mr. Steinman were held at Andres Funeral Home in Sandusky, Ohio. Burial was at Oheb Shalom Cemetery. Anna Steinman moved to the Columbus, Ohio area. After her death on August 26, 1968, her remains were brought to Sandusky for burial next to her husband at Oheb Shalom Cemetery.
Recently I learned that an Orshoski cousin has written a book. Another Orshoski descendant is the author of several children's books. It got me to thinking that if Great Grandpa Joe Orshoski had not gotten on that ship and come to America, we would not be here!
Grandpa Joe worked in coal mines in two states, before moving to Bay Bridge to work at the Medusa Cement plant. In 1919, his first wife died and left him with several sons.
He then married again, and had two daughters, and inherited a stepdaughter. The second marriage lasted over 50 years!
Orshoski descendants have worked in a variety of fields, including:
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| Photo courtesy Find a Grave 245732530 At the Sandhill Cemetery in Erie County, Ohio are graves for several young children of Richard H. Rogers and his wife, the former Lucy Tucker. From left to right at the grave site are: May and Fay, Twin Infants Jerusha, who died at age 8 days old in 1845 Amanda, who died at 8 years old in 1842 Mary, who died at 5 years old in 1840 Emily, who died at 5 years old in 1842 It must have been so heart wrenching for Mr. and Mrs. Rogers to lose so many children. They did have two children who survived to adulthood, Richard Hart Rogers Jr. and Mrs. Lucy Hayes. According to Manford's Magazine, vol. 39 , Richard H. Rogers Sr. went on to marry again, to Rebecca Smith of Wisconsin. They had two sons. Rest in peace Rogers children. |
Grace Estella Lindsley, the oldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Lindsley, died on October 26, 1905, shortly after her 4th birthday. A lovely poem appeared in the local newspaper, written by Mrs. Lizzie Ferguson. Grace was first buried in the old Perkins Cemetery. Afer a munitions plant went in near the old Perkins Cemetery, all the graves were re-interred at the current Perkins Cemetery.
It reads:
There is many an empty cradle
There is many a vacant bed
There is many a lovely bosom,
Where joy and life has fled.
For think in every graveyard,
The little hillock lies:
And every hillock represents
An angel in the skies.
Rest in peace, young Grace.
Donald McClellan was killed in action while serving in Okinawa during World War Two. He died on May 23, 1945 at the age of 33. Thank you for your service! Donald McClellan is buried at Oakland Cemetery near his father, Rev. Henry Lincoln McClellan, former rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Sandusky, Ohio.
