Fremont Ohio Community Band

Fremont (Ohio) Band 

Rutherford B. Hayes Library and Museums 

This 5 x 7 inch photograph is an image of the Fremont (Ohio) Band organized in 1859 by George Held and  Fred Fabing with twelve members. From left to right are J. Spicher, H. Nelhi, Fred Fabing, F.  Faller, Phil Zimmerman, Godfried Gephard, Adam Hodes (bass drum), and Ed Schertinger (snare drum). 

John C. Smith's Boat House, Sandusky River, Fremont, Ohio

 

This photograph, a part of the Sandusky County (Ohio) Photograph Collection at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums, features a view of John C. Smith's Boat House on the Sandusky River. It is believed to have been taken about 1890. The boat house lay near North Front Street.  Visible is the back of the old Kessler Hotel and the Western and Lake Erie Depot where John Smith had offices on the upper floor. Note the canoes along the bank of the river.

In the upper left hand corner of the photograph is John Pero's coal company. The gas plant existed in the same area in 1887.  By 1904,  Pero's coal company was known as Riverside Coal. The sign on the large building in the center of the photograph reads "Soapine." This appears to have been an advertisement for this well-known cleaning product. 

Booktown, Sandusky County, Ohio

 Lying at the junction of Muskellunge Creek and the Sandusky River, about four miles below Fremont, Ohio in Sandusky Township on State Route 53, is Booktown. It began as a shipping port where lumber and barrel staves were shipped to cities and towns along the Lake Erie shoreline and across Lake Erie to New York ports.  Legend has it that the name derived from the German name Buck (pronounced "Book" in German) who were among the  earliest settlers in the area.  They established a store and a post office.  A thriving sawmill also existed.  Several ships, including the Tindall were built at Booktown. 

As the region's supply  of lumber began to die out, shipping down the Muskellunge to the Sandusky River declined. In 1896, a tornado destroyed property in the area, including the store of Adam Engler.  By the 1930s, Herman Buck, the Englers, and the Logsdon, Huffman, and Fishers were the only remaining families in  the Booktown area.   Businesses consisted of a single garage, a convenience store and gas station owned by Bob and Orlena Fisher. The Disappearance of Booktown, Ohio: An Historical, Personal, and Environmental Perspective by Harold "Corky" Logsdon provides an excellent in-depth study of this once thriving village along the Sandusky River.