My name is Cody Ramsey and I am a Junior Criminology major at the University of Lynchburg. I began working here at Historic Sandusky in March of 2019, and it has quickly become one of the best jobs I have had. Starting out, I was able to transcribe historical Civil War letters which gave me a great insight into the daily lives of soldiers and civilians in the 19th century.

Throughout my time here, I’ve had the opportunity to tr...

This past year, I have been working at Historic Sandusky as an Archaeology Lab Assistant cataloging artifacts found on the property. Currently, I am an undergraduate student majoring in Environmental Science with minors in Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of Lynchburg.  Before interning here, I participated in the 2018 Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest Archaeology Field School.  In a typical Archaeology Field...

Hello, my name is Hannah Ramsey, and I am a senior Graphic Design major at the University of Lynchburg. I have spent the past semester interning for Historic Sandusky, and using this opportunity to help them out with my design skills. I was able to use what I have learned in my design classes over the last 3 years to complete several projects.

Finally I worked on a couple of smaller projects as well. I made some advertisements...

After more than 100 years, Sandusky was sold out of the Hutter family, in 1952. At this point Sandusky had been owned by Janie C. Hutter, the widow of Ferdinand Lee Hutter. Their children had all married and moved away. For most of the 19th century the property consisted of 600 acres; by the mid 20th century is was but 3.84 acres. The surrounding meadows and fields had been sold to a developer who proceeded to build the Sandus...

It must not be forgotten that part of Sandusky’s history, until 1865, were the enslaved families that lived and worked there. Their history is often hidden and difficult to uncover. The enslaved were usually not literate so they did not leave any writings that might help us understand their lives. Their owners’ writings only mentioned them briefly usually.

The lives of the enslaved were spent toiling in the background and...

In 1841 Sandusky, and its 512 acres, was purchased by George Christian Hutter who set up his home there along with his wife Harriet. This began the longest family residency of Sandusky, one that lasted 111 years across three generations.  

George was the son of a German immigrant who settled in Easton, Pennsylvania. As a young man, during the War of 1812, he served briefly in the Pennsylvania militia but did not see any ac...