Friday, July 19, 2019

Founding of the Ames Dental Laboratory


During the late 19th century, dentistry was becoming a distinct profession. Rather than serving apprenticeships, future dentists were attending actual schools where they learned from educators, chemists, and physicians. Sandusky Countian William Van Bergen Ames was one of those, graduating with honors in 1880 from the Ohio Dental College in Cincinnati, Ohio.



Dr. William V. B. Ames


It wasn’t long before Dr. Ames headed to Chicago where he researched, lectured, and patented new techniques at a time when dentistry was rapidly turning from extracting to saving decaying teeth. Eliminating the decay and filling the remaining cavity posed numerous problems. Dentists needed a substance that was at once both hard (to withstand chewing) yet pliable enough to be molded.
Dentists used resin, molten metal, mercury, zinc, and gold, but each had its drawbacks.

Through his research Dr. Ames developed a cement or composite that was hard, easily molded, and long lasting. Most importantly, it had no side effects for the patient. Dr. Ames lectured on numerous topics to young dentists and then helped found the school of dentistry at Northwestern University.

A short time later, he opened his own laboratory to produce what became known as Ames Dental Cement. His success with the new composite led to other products, including the development of gold inlays. Dentists throughout the United States used his cement and other products with great success. Eventually, dental supply houses from around the world purchased Ames Dental Products.


Storefront Displaying Ames Dental Products

Dr. Ames benefitted greatly and soon became a millionaire. With his new found wealth, he purchased Briar Ridge, a dairy farm near Libertyville, Illinois, that he and his wife dearly loved. Always generous, Dr. Ames also helped friends and family gain an education.

By 1906, his laboratory had outgrown the Chicago facility. It was then that Ames’ thoughts turned, once again, to Fremont and his two sisters, Jane and Nell. Still living in the family home on High Street, they helped their brother produce the composite on a small scale. Dr. Ames proposed converting the barn behind the residence into a modern laboratory. He placed his sisters in charge. The number of employees grew and other Ames products were manufactured at the laboratory. Eventually, the company found a new site at 137 Adams St. (see nearby photo) where it existed until as late as 1965!


137 Adams Street Fremont, Ohio

Dr. Ames and his wife began to look for a warmer place to spend their retirement years. South of Phoenix, they purchased land from the state of Arizona and began construction of what was described as one of the “oddest and most unique homes ever built in the west.” In reality, Ahwatukee, as it became known, was truly modern, convenient, and finely constructed. Still in existence, the house originally featured 17 rooms, seven bathrooms, and four fireplaces. The exterior utilized both Spanish and Hopi styles of architecture. There were quarters for servants and guests. The couple moved in during Thanksgiving of 1921. But there was little time for Dr. Ames to enjoyhis retirement home. In poor health, he passed away only three months later.                                                                                                                            .      

Sunday, July 7, 2019

The Kellogg Brothers of the 68th Ohio Volunteer Infantry


Sgt. Thomas Kellogg

Courtesy of L. M. Strayer


 Thomas Kellogg, a young man of 18, was one of nearly 3,000 Sandusky Countians to serve in the Civil War. Thomas and his younger brother Collin were the sons of Elijah Kellogg who had emigrated from Canada in 1840 to settle and raise a family in Woodville, Ohio. Elijah was a Union man who strongly opposed the South’s secession. When war broke out, it was only natural that his two sons would join the Union cause.  They enlisted in the 68th Ohio.


Thomas, a true patriot like his father, had little knowledge of the South and slavery. As the war continued and the march of the 68th took them deeper and deeper into the South, the conflict and all its horrors brought not only disillusionment, but also changed attitudes toward the South.
In his nearly 80 letters to family and friends back home, Thomas tells of conversations with prisoners, deserters, and local residents.   Near Oxford, Mississippi, he found the locals “so short of provisions that we had to give them rations to live on. One place we left a half barrel of molasses.” At Vicksburg, Kellogg wrote his father back on the farm in Woodville, “I tell you that there is some very large plantations on the Mississippi. The negroes are coming in by the hundreds and as soon as they come they are put right at work digging” [the canal to Lake Providence]. Kellogg “no longer opposed the arming” of the slaves, and wrote that the “rebs thought they could gobble up what negro soldiers we had.”  Instead, “the sesech found the ‘black yankees,’ as they called them,” credible fighters.

Siege of Vicksburg

by Kurz and Allison

Following the Union victory at Vicksburg on the 4 th of July 1863, Thomas escorted hundreds of prisoners to Clinton, Mississippi. He discovered that “nearly all of them seamed to be tired of the war”… and some of them “declared they were done fighting and ready to take the oath. There were a great many Mississippians and border state men among them.”

To Thomas Kellogg, no longer were these men hated enemies. His conversations with Confederate soldiers, deserters, and the wounded softened his attitude to toward the South. Escaped slaves who fled to safety behind the lines of Grant’s army gained his respect as both workers and fighters for the Union and for their freedom. Seeing their plight firsthand, Thomas sympathized.   


Fort Pickering at Memphis, 1858

The ravages of war took a toll on the Kellogg brothers. After continuous fevers and days of sickness, Collin wrote his father, hoping he could come to the hospital at Fort Pickering and take him home. He wrote, “I would be very glad to get home if I could for it seems like I can never get well here.” Collin did receive a medical discharge and Elijah Kellogg left Woodville and headed to Memphis to bring his son home. Collin survived the war, but suffered for the remainder of his life. Thomas was not so fortunate. A year later, afflicted with consumption, Sergeant Thomas H. Kellogg, aged 21, died at Vicksburg.   




Letter from Sgt. Thomas Kellogg to his parents, Elijah and Barbara Kellogg 

of Woodville, Ohio





Providence, Louisiana
Feby 23rd 1863


Dear parents as I now have an opportunity and not knowing when I might have another I shall write a few lines to let you know where we are. we left memphis on the morning of the 21st and landed here this forenoon. it is a miserable looking place and if it was not for the levy it would be no place at all. the soldiers that are hear are verry busy digging a cannal from the river to lake Providence a distance of six hundred yards. the river at the present time is sixteen feet higher than what the lake is. the outlet of this lake empties into Red River and so you see if the thing works right we can move our transports below Vicksburg.. for my part I don't see how it can help but work. they tell me that it is 75 mi from here to Vicksburg. I think it all of that and if any thing more. 

there has not been any fighting in this vicinity. they had  a skirmish a day or two before we came and I guess if the truth is known its not a verry dangerous place. the negroes are coming in by the hundreds and as soon as they come they are put right at work digging. I tell you there is some large plantations on the mississippi. I saw some of Gen Price's plantation. on the arcansas side. some places there is a bank or levy thrown up for miles and at the present time the water in the River is several feet higher than the bottom land. I have been down to see the lake. it is a small thing but still I can say I have seen a lake. 

Coll was left back at memphis. his is jackson block Ward D. so if you want to write to him you direct as above mentioned. I can assure you he will have good care so you kneed not fret as to that. I tried to go and see him but it was out of the question. I got permission one afternoon while we were on the boat to go and find what hospital He was in. I went all through Adams Block. I could not find him but ran on Henry Harpel. He was glad to seem me and before I all through there it was night & I went to the boat without seeing him but one of the boys in co. K has a brother in the same hospital. He saw his brother and he told me He saw colls bunk but coll had just gone out so I am certain He is there. we drew two months pay after we got on the boat. I drew coll which was 13 Dolls and shall send it to him. and as he is not a valetudinarian He will soon recover. 

since I commenced this we have moved out on the lake shore  and are camped in a large cotton field put up our tent and got a good floor in it but I tell you the way the old man's house had to suffer was a caution. it don't make any difference how nice a house is if the boys want lumber to sleep on they tear the house down. the house our division tore down was worth not less than five thousand dollars. I tell you it looks barbarous to see how we tear up things but all I have got to say is they had no business to [?] I will send ten dollars in this letter. 

In writing to coll don't put the company or the Regt on the letter. no more this time from your son Thos. H. Kellogg