Kelleys Island History Blog

C. C. Townley, manager of the Island House hotel for several years,  wrote a lengthy article about winter life on Kelleys Island. In this, part 2, he shares how the Islanders kept themselves busy before radios, telephones, computers, televisions, and even electric lights! The Islanders are generally a large hearted, intelligent people, well up to the ways of the world with the happy faculty of making money and disbursing it judiciously. Isolated a greater portion of the winter, they are thrown upon their own resources for amusement, consequently nearly all take an active interest in any pastime that will help shorten the long winter. They are all great readers, not only keeping themselves thoroughly posted on the leading topics of the day but readily devouring nearly everything readable that comes in their way. Statistics at the Post Office   show that there are more newspapers, magazines, etc. delivered there than at any other office of similar population in the country. ...

Today we have the luxury of an extended ferry season and travel by airplane all year round. The airport is our lifeline during the winter months, providing regular flights to Port Clinton, bringing us the mail and transporting our school students. However, back in the 1800s, we did not have these options. Mail, freight, and travelers had to travel over the ice to get from here to there. C. C. Townley, manager of the Island House hotel for several years,   may have left the island but his heart was never far from the friends he made there. He became involved in the Mansfield   Lyceum   and read the following paper about life on the island. “Those only who have had the experience can form but little conception of what constitutes Island life in winter. To the novice it presents itself in two different characters; that of novelty and monotony; while to those native and to the manner born, the situation is accepted as one of the most natural things in life. …   Durin...

January 1952 – The Martin Light & Power Co. and residents of Kelleys Island received badly needed fuel oil … a mercy mission by the U S Coast Guard. A total of 254 barrels were transported to alleviate the fuel oil famine when ice and hazardous weather prevented shipment by normal methods.  (Thanks to Leslie Korenko for this article) Today we enjoy heat during the winter, air conditioning in the summer with reliable electric service provided by the Hancock Wood Electric Co-op. But in the early days of electric service on the Island, electricity was provided by the Martin Electric Co., which  was housed in the old south side crusher building. The entire Island was powered by an electric generator, the wires were 'daisy chained' which meant that if one link went down, the entire system failed.  In 2018, the museum featured the history of Electricity on the Island. You view those posters here:   https://www.kelleysislandhistorical.org/island-electricity-1.html...

Needless to say, travel over the ice can be exciting, invigorating and extremely dangerous. Fortunately, there have been very few deaths while traversing the ice to the mainland, but there have been some harrowing experiences as this article shows.