Honorable Discharge of a Squirrel Hunter

In September of 1862, General Lewis Wallace (of Ben-Hur fame) was ordered to prepare to defend Covington, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio, following the capture of Lexington, Kentucky by Confederate forces.  Martial law was declared in Cincinnati, and local civilians were called in to help defend the city against an attack. Governor David Tod ordered the Adjutant-General of Ohio to send any available troops. Several counties around the state offered to send civilians to Cincinnati. Only men who had their own weapons were to respond, and the railroad was to provide transportation to the volunteers at no cost to the men. Eventually these men became known as “Squirrel Hunters.” 

One of the men who answered the call to go to Cincinnati was John McCardle, from Erie County.  In 1863, he received an honorable discharge by Governor Tod. The document was also signed by Charles W. Hill, the Adjutant-General of Ohio, and Malcolm McDowell, Major and acting Aide de Camp. In 1908 Ohio legislators passed a resolution to pay each surviving Squirrel Hunter a sum of thirteen dollars, as pay for serving as an Ohio militia man. You can read more about Ohio’s “Squirrel Hunters” in an online newsletter from the Oberlin Heritage Center.

Charging Desk at the Sandusky Library in 1941

Below is the blueprint for the wooden charging desk which served the Sandusky Library from 1941 through the early 1980’s. The desk was purchased from Gaylord Brothers in Syracuse, New York, but was customized to meet the needs of the Sandusky Library.

An article in the August 31, 1941 issue of the Sandusky Register Star News reported that new furniture for the Sandusky Library was purchased as a result of a monetary gift bequeathed to the library by Mrs. Clifford King in her will. Along with the new charging desk, new reading tables and bookshelves were also purchased. Some of the furniture that had been used in the library prior to 1941 had originally been in use when the library was still in the Masonic Temple. At the new charging desk, books were returned at the left side of the desk, and checked out at the right side of the desk. A feature of the desk was a modern filing system, which allowed employees to sort the cards according to fiction and nonfiction. A multi-functional pencil allowed library personnel to manually write down the library patron’s library card number, and a metal device held the date due stamp, which was stamped on the slip in the back of every book that was circulated. The dates had to be manually re-set every day the library was open.

Sandusky Library’s charging desk is pictured above, in 1977. During much of the lifetime of this desk, the library did not have air conditioning. Summer days could get quite warm inside the library. In the 1960’s patrons were limited to four books, and usually no more than two books on a particular topic could be charged out.

Library personnel in the photograph below (taken prior to 1941) include: Marion Neil, Dorothy Keefe, Evelynn McDowell, Yvonne Fievet, and Mary McCann. Miss McCann is seated to the right, in front of the other four librarians. Miss Fievet and Miss McCann spent many hours at the charging desk during their long tenures at the library.