"Real Photos" Tell the Real Story

Everyone collects something. Down through the decades, millions have collected those fascinating images of America printed in a 3 x 5 format - known to all of us as picture postcards.  It began in 1901 when the U. S. Post Office allowed companies to print pictures on small postcard stock. A caption was sometimes written on the negative which was often glass. They could be mailed for a penny. 

An Ernst Niebergall real photo postcard of the ferry Welcome tied up at Lake Erie's Kelleys Island
Lake Erie's Yesterdays features more than a thousand of his photographs 

Originally the sender could add only his or her address.  But in 1907, all that changed.  Space was created on the back so people could write a short message.  What began as a mere fad became an absolute craze. At the height of the golden age of postcards, Americans were sending nearly a billion a year!  

Why, one asks, did these little pictures become such a mania?  For the first time, average Americans could see how the other half lived. They could see views of cities they never would visit, mountains they never would climb, bridges they would never cross, and technology they never would use. 

Bridge over Ohio River at Marietta, Ohio

Library of Congress

To satisfy what seemed to be an insatiable appetite for "view" cards, companies hired armies of anonymous photographers. They fanned out across the country, snapping black and white photos of anything and everything. From trains, planes, churches, bridges, courthouses, businesses to families, farms, houses, dogs, horses, disasters, - nothing was too insignificant, too strange, or too plain.

Cityscape of Findlay, Ohio
Library of Congress

Walker Evans, renowned photographer, photojournalist, and avid postcard collector, once said, "The picture postcard is a folk document - these honest and direct little pictures." And, how right he was! When we look at them today we see factories belching smoke with proud workers standing front and center; clogged streets, fires, and disasters. They were simple, straightforward, and often ugly. 

On the way to the Fire
Library of Congress

But  as Evans declared, there is no doubt that this is exactly what our towns, cities, homes, streets, buildings, and families looked like during the early years of the 20th century. It was an expression of their world - and they were proud of it.

Perhaps most interesting are the one-of-a-kind pictures created by amateur and professional photographers. In 1903, Eastman Kodak invented a simple, affordable pocket camera and photographic printing paper which made it possible for nearly anyone to develop photographs. There was also a Kodak postcard camera. Film could be sent away and printed on special postcard paper.  Even today in the 21st century, these "real photo" postcards are rare and in demand by collectors and publishers of the ever-popular "then and now" books. 

Eastman Kodak Postcard Camera

Those long ago pictures of tree lined streets, county courthouses, and ballparks fascinate even those who claim to have little or no interest in history. The photo postcards of schoolchildren posing before their one-room schoolhouses often evoke a poignant charm -.their brave little faces, earnest expressions, slicked-down hair, an occasional tie, a worn dress, and sometimes bare feet. 

Graytown School, Ottawa County, Ohio 
Private Collection

Note: More than a thousand images by Sandusky, Ohio photographer Ernst Niebergall appear on Lake Erie's Yesterdays. He sold many of his images as postcards at Cedar Point and around Erie and Ottawa Counties. 

In 2018, the Firelands Postcard Club produced the award-winning book of Nierbergall's postcard images titled "Sandusky's Photographer: The Real Photo Postcards of Ernst Niebergall."

Ephraim Shay: A Man of Ideas and Innovation

Shay Engine No. 30
Ernst Niebergall Collection

Occasionally we all have one of those great ideas, but few have as many as Ephraim Shay. Born in Huron County in 1839, Shay was educated in New Jersey. By 1861, he was teaching in Bellevue, Ohio, and hoping to purchase farmland. He traveled to Michigan and Illinois, ending up in St. Louis where his plans changed. He enlisted in the 8th Missouri Infantry for three years. When discharged, Shay returned to Huron County and married Jane Henderson. The couple soon moved to Ionia County, Michigan, where he ran a sawmill. When the area was logged off, Shay moved north to the Manistee River area and set up his mill near Haring.

Logging in Michigan was dangerous, costly, and weather dependent. Once river tracts were logged off, men pushed into the forests, building roads and felling trees until the ground froze, snows came, and logs could be hauled out. 

Hoping to reduce costs, Shay built a temporary wooden tram over which horses pulled log cars to the mill. Shay's tram made year round logging a reality, but it was slow and Shay knew the dangers were great. On downgrades, horses were killed when overtaken by the cars they were pulling.

Even though everyone thought it was a "crazy idea," Shay worked for nearly two years on a geared steam locomotive. Its cylinders drove a flexible line shaft with universal couplings and slip joints through bevel gears. The flexibility allowed each log car to navigate the track independently, keeping the locomotive on the rails. His locomotive could climb steep grades, handle sharp turns, and operate on rickety wooden tracks. The Shay locomotive revolutionized not only logging in Michigan, but also the Lima  Machine Works, the Ohio company Shay hired for machining some parts. The company transformed its operation, changing its name to the Lima Locomotive Works. They built 2,768 Shay locomotives. Shay received $1,000 royalty on each one built. 

The above photograph from the Hayes Presidential's Ernst Niebergall Collection is one of eight Shay locomotives built by the Lima Locomotive Works for Kelleys Island Lime and Transport Company to use at its Kelleys Island quarries. Number 30, featured here, was a straight-boiler engine used until quarrying ended on the island. Connecting the island quarries by rail greatly facilitated the transporting of stone and flux to the lime kilns and then to the Kelleys Island docks for shipping.

By the late 1880s, Shay moved his operations to Harbor Springs, Michigan, where he constructed the Hemlock Central Railroad, a machine shop, sawmill, waterworks and his steel-clad home known as the "Hexagon" and now an historic landmark.

Rather than wealth and success, it was ideas and innovations that drove Ephraim Shay. He patented a universal joint, logging wheels, and a propeller shaft. 

In 1891, he began building  a steam-powered, 40-foot, steel-hulled boat that he dubbed the "AHA." After numerous rebuilds, the "AHA" could reach speeds of 15 knots rapidly, setting records on Little Traverse Bay. But her weight and narrow design made her top heavy and ride low in the water. Shay finally admitted the "AHA" was not practical for steam travel. 

His son removed her engine and installed it in his home as his central heating system. Her hull was towed over the ice to Sturgeon Bay where hunters and fishermen used her for both shelter and target practice. There the "AHA" sat rusting away until the state of Michigan put her in storage. Finally, in 2003 Harbor Springs residents brought the "AHA" home, where she represents a part of Shay's lifelong legacy of "creativity and sheer ability."

1913 Flood in Fremont and Tiffin, Ohio

 

 

 

Homes Damaged on Fremont, Ohio's
South Front Street

Flood of 1913

 

In a guest post earlier, HistoricNaturalDisasters.com featured the devastation in Dayton, Ohio caused by the 1913 flood that wreaked havoc throughout much of the state. The torrential rains created severe flooding of the Sandusky River, that resulted in the destruction of 50 homes and damaged more than 550 more in Fremont, Ohio. Three individuals died in the flood, one of them after rescuing hundreds of flood victims.   The damage to the Ballville Dam, businesses, residences, county roads, and bridges reached more than $1 million. A few miles upriver, in Tiffin, Ohio, 19 lives were lost and 500 homes were damaged.

Now on Historypin, you can see a slideshow of 35 historic photographs from the Charles E. Frohman Collection, showing some of the destruction suffered by residents. The photographs were taken by Sandusky, Ohio photographer Ernst Niebergall

Called to action, the city police and fire departments monitored river conditions, warned residents to evacuate the area, and rescued people from homes and businesses. Help came from the local Company K, 6th Ohio National Guard, and after several days, further assistance was requested and received from Battery B of Toledo and from Cleveland's Troop A.

Chambers of Commerce in several Ohio cities and even Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, sent aid. The New York Central Railroad assisted with communications, after long distance telephones went out. Relief was also received from the state of Ohio and the Red Cross. Churches and other organizations, such as the Elks, provided food and shelter. School rooms became temporary shelter for the sick when the hospital reached capacity.

Read more about the 1913 Flood in Fremont, Ohio at Sandusky County Scrapbook

Sandusky's "Crystal Blue, Clear as Glass Ice"

Local Ice Dealers Loading Blocks Directly from the Ice Fields
Ernst Niebergall ca. 1911/1912
Charles E. Frohman Collection

Sandusky, Ohio, was the largest ice producer west of New York City during the latter half of the 19th century. Noted for its solid, "crystal blue, clear as glass" ice, the city became known as the "Ice Capital of the Great Lakes." Icemen eagerly watched the waters of Lake Erie until they froze to a depth of 8 to 16 inches. For as long as "good ice makin' weather" held, Sanduskians endured ten-hour days of harsh winds and frigid temperatures for a daily wage of $2.

In the picture above, taken during the winter of 1911 or 1912, many local dealers from Sandusky and neighboring towns filled their orders by loading their delivery wagons directly from the ice fields.

Sanduskians harvested 400,000 tons of ice each winter. The greater portion of the harvest was stored in some fifty sheds that dotted Lake Erie's shoreline. Sandusky provided most of Ohio's cities with ice, including 90 percent of the ice consumed by the city of Cleveland. According to the local paper, Sandusky's "crystal quality put the murky, sewer-tainted" Cleveland ice to shame. Most of the ice was shipped across the lake as needed from a string of icehouses located on Put-In-Bay's Peach Point.

A Game of Hockey on Sandusky Bay

Playing Hockey on Sandusky Bay
Ernst Niebergall ca. 1913

Charles E. Frohman Collection

Generations of Sanduskians have enjoyed the bay - summer and winter. This image produced from one of the late Ernst Niebergall's glass plate negatives shows Sanduskians of all ages skating and enjoying a game of hockey on the frozen bay.