Showing posts with label Matthews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Matthews. Show all posts

Sunday, March 17, 2019

Sandusky City Schools Report Card from 1848-1849

This  report card from  the arithmetic class of Miss L. A. Barney  for the term that met December 4, 1848 to March 17, 1849 was given to the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center by the Dean family. Miss Barney was a teacher in the Grammar School department of Sandusky City Schools.  

Names of the boys in the class were: Samuel Belford, John Dean, Benjamin Gregg, Robert Matthews, John Monroe, Christopher Mores, Max Rhobacher, James Van Fleet, and Joshua Watson. The young ladies in the class were: Mary Clarkson, Eliza Fisher, Margaret Garvey, Sarah Jane Jenks, Sarah Stephens, Sarah Willston, and Sarah Withington. Beside each student’s name were “exceptions to morals” in several catagories, and  the number learned for preliminary defitions, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. At the bottom of the report card were the signatures of Miss L.A. Barney, teacher, and M.F. Cowdery, superintendent of schools. 

M.F. Cowdery was the first superintendent of schools in Sandusky, serving in that capacity until 1871. He wrote a history of Sandusky City Schools, entitled Local School history of the City of Sandusky, from 1838 to1871 Inclusive, published by the Journal Steam Printing House in February 1876. A copy of this brief history is found in the Schools Collection of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. In the early history of Sandusky Schools, Mr. Cowdery recalled that before school buildings were built, classrooms were rented in the Methodist Chapel, Presbyterian Church, Grace Church, and a brick building in the Western Liberties. 

In February of 1844, a committee consisting of Moors Farwell, Alexander Porter, and Zenas Barker, voted in favor of purchasing lots near the East and West Markets, and one in the Western Liberties as the sites of school buildings. A high school building was to be erected on the public square. The Academy building, pictured below, was originally built on the east public square as the high school, but was also used as an early Courthouse for Erie County prior to the construction of the new high school in 1869 and the Courthouse in 1874.


M.F. Cowdery was still serving as superintendent of Sandusky City Schools when the new high school building opened in 1869.



Friday, March 22, 2013

Mrs. Willard A. Bishop’s Cookbook


Mrs. Mary Mathews Bishop was born about 1857 in Worcester, Massachusetts, and moved to Sandusky with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Matthews. She married Sandusky photographer Willard A. Bishop in 1884. She was an active member of Grace Episcopal Church.


Mrs. Willard A. Bishop’s cookbook was given to the Sandusky Library’s historical collections in 1985, from the Estate of Ethel Herman. Most of the recipes were handwritten, but a few were clipped from printed sources and pasted in the book. Some of the names of the recipes are unfamiliar to today’s world, such as “calves head hash” and “ragged britches,” which was a combination of milk, lard, soda, and salt that was combined and then fried. Often the title of the recipe reflected the person who gave it to Mrs. Bishop, including “Em Keyes’ Cocoanut Cake” and “Fannie Melville’s Sheet Cake.”

Below is a recipe for Oyster Cocktails (top of page).


Transcribed:

Oyster Cocktails

To ½ doz. oysters (Blue Pearls preferred) add one tablespoon of catsup, ½ teaspoon Worcestshire sauce, one dash of horseradish, lemon juice, salt and red pepper to suit taste.
(Mrs. Peterson’s Receipt)

It is interesting to read the various ingredients and cooking terms listed in Mrs. Bishop’s cookbook. In the era it was written, home cooked meals were the norm, and dining out occurred  only for special occasions. Mrs. Bishop died in 1925, and Willard A. Bishop in 1942. Both are buried in Oakland Cemetery. Mr. Willard A. Bishop’s obituary in the 1942 Obituary Notebook provides a detailed look at his sixty year career as a photographer in Sandusky.