Professor Ferdinand Puehringer, Conductor and Composer

Ferdinand Puehringer led a band at Cedar Point in the 1880s. He is pictured below with several  band members, including Fred Bauman, Maxwell Godfrey, J. Bolton, Ed Pelding, M. McAdams, Joseph Bock, and Max Wintrich. (Fred Bauman was a pioneer musician in Sandusky, having also been director of the Great Western Band and a member of Ackley’s Band. Read more about Fred Bauman in the 1922 Obituary Notebook, located in the Archives Research Center.)

Before moving to Cleveland in 1872, Ferdinand Puehringer was a professor at Wittenberg College. While in Cleveland, he was associated with many musical groups, including the Boys Band, a singing and orchestra school, and the Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1889, Professor Puehringer accepted a position with the S. Brainard Sons Company, a musical publishing house in Chicago. He wrote the Chicago Life Waltz in 1890, and also produced several operas, including The Czar and Zimmerman, and The Bohemian Girl.

Ferdinand Puehringer died in 1930, and his wife Mary Emich Puehringer died in 1938. They left behind a daughter Ritta Caldwell. 

(*Note: As often is the case in the spelling of surnames of European origin, Ferdinand’s last name was alternatively spelled Pueringer or Pureinger.)

Clara Bock, Restaurant Proprietor

Clara Halawachs was born to Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Halawachs in Germany in 1856. She came to the United States in 1865, according to U.S. Census records. On October 27, 1874, Clara Halawachs married Joseph Bock, who was also a native of Germany. Joseph Bock died of consumption (aka Tuberculosis) in 1895, leaving Clara a widow with four children.

From about 1908 until 1938, Clara Bock ran a home restaurant at 312 West Water Street. Besides running the restaurant, she also catered dinners for the Sandusky Yacht Club and the Kiwanis Club. In 1930 on the occasion of Judge E.B. King’s eightieth birthday, Mrs. Bock presented him with a birthday cake at the July Kiwanis meeting.

On April 1, 1939, Mrs. Clara Bock passed away after a brief illness. Funeral services were held at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Henry Reutler. Burial was at Oakland Cemetery. Despite leaving her homeland at a young age, and losing her husband when she was just a young woman, she was the embodiment of the American success story.

While we do not have any photographs of Mrs. Bock’s home restaurant, below is a picture of the J. and F. Bock Barber Shop in the 1880s, at 812 Water Street, the address of Mrs. Bock’s restaurant prior to the 1915 street numbering changes in Sandusky. Most likely the children in the picture are extended members of the Bock family, and the man may be her husband Joseph.

African American Barbers in Sandusky

There have been barbers for as long as history has been recorded.  Razors have been found dating back to the Bronze Age, and shaving is mentioned in the Bible. In Sandusky there were many barber shops located within local hotels, for the convenience of out of town travelers.  Pictured below is the J. and F. Bock Barber Shop, at 810 Water Street around 1886.  Joseph and Frank Bock’s father Matthias G. Bock was listed as a barber in the 1855 Sandusky City Directory.

Barbering was one of the few professions open to black men in the nineteenth century, so several shops in Sandusky were operated by African Americans. In the Firelands Pioneer of July 1888 Rush Sloane states that Grant Ritchie, an African American, opened the first barber shop in Sandusky. Ritchie “was the earliest and most active agent of the line [Underground Railroad] and always successful in his operations.” Another African American agent of the Underground Railroad was John Lott, who barbered in Sandusky in the 1840’s and 1850’s.  It is thought that many discussions and plans for the freeing of fugitive slaves via the underground railway took place in barber shops, where African American men could speak freely.

Mr. Lott’s advertisement appeared in The Daily Sanduskian on January 31, 1851.

John Lott was among the several African American citizens of Sandusky who presented Rush Sloane with a silver headed cane in appreciation of his efforts on behalf of seven fugitive slaves whom he represented in 1852. You can still see this cane at the Follett House Museum. Unfortunately, no known photographs exist of Mr. Ritchie or Mr. Lott.

Barber shops continue to thrive all over America, particularly in the African American community, where people can get a haircut as well as catch up on the local gossip. Barber shops have been the inspiration for books, magazine articles, barbershop quartets, and even a major motion picture in 2002.

Barber Shops in Sandusky

According to the July 1888 issue of the Firelands Pioneer, the first barber shop in Sandusky was operated by Grant Ritchie, an African American who was also active in the Underground Railroad in the Sandusky area, a network of individuals who aided fugitive slaves find their way to freedom in Canada. In the 1850s, most of the barber shops in Sandusky were in the downtown area of the city. Though the picture below is not in color, the J. and F. Bock Barber Shop, located at 812 Water Street in 1886, featured the familiar red, white, and blue pole in front of the shop. The red and white pole (with blue usually added in American poles) has long been a symbol of the barber’s trade.

The 1902 Sandusky City Directory listing for barber shops included the names of thirty three barbers. Harry Parker’s barber shop was in the Sloane House hotel at that time. In the first part of the twentieth century, several hotels in Sandusky had their own barber shops for the convenience of their guests. Barbershops were found in the West House, Commercial Hotel, Murschel House, Hotel Rieger, the Wayne Hotel and the Hotel Breakers at Cedar Point. Below is a photograph of Jerry McMahon’s barber shop in the Hotel Rieger about 1935. Jerry McMahon is on the right. The other barbers in the picture are: Bill Foley, Chet Martin, and Bill Wells. Charles Alexander, in the back of the shop, worked as a shoeshine porter.

John Martin Luipold worked as a barber in Sandusky for over sixty years. In this picture of his barber shop on Hayes Avenue in 1915, you can see a wooden rack holding the shaving  mugs of several of his regular customers.

Today, Sandusky still has several traditional barber shops, though some hair styling businesses cater to both male and female customers. The Acme Barber Shop on Columbus Avenue (below, in 1922) has operated under various owners since 1901.

To read more about the history of barbers in Sandusky, see Article 40 in volume two of From the Widow's Walk, by Helen Hansen and Virginia Steinemann.

Transporting Baby in Sandusky

An image of a baby stroller appeared in Punch in 1847. An article found online states that the earliest carriages and prams were made of wicker or wood, and the infant would recline in the carriage. Strollers allow for a young child to sit up. Today a wide variety of baby strollers, car seats, and travel systems are available for parents of young children.

These images from the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center show examples of youngsters being transported around the turn of the twentieth century. The baby pictured below is in a wicker carriage in front of the Bock Barber Shop.

Children of Ferdinand V. Seibert are seen in a carriage in front of a residence on Third Street in Sandusky.

Ruth Beach is pictured below about 1905.

This vintage collapsible doll buggy can be seen in the toy room of the Follett House Museum.

A newspaper advertisement from the March 2, 1901 issue of the Sandusky Daily Star features a Sleep Go-Cart from Goebel’s Big Store. The product is upholstered, and contains a parasol to protect baby from the sun.