Conrad Gernhard - Linda Higgins

A multitude of illustrious figures, industrious individuals of great integrity and heart, are to be credited with building Port Clinton. Conrad Gernhard is representative of those who were integral to developing the community despite difficult early lives.

Conrad was born on November 16, 1851, in Hessen, Landkreis Harz, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany, to Matthias Gernhard and his second wife, Anna Brentzell. With his first wife, Matthias had three daughters before she died, and with Anna, he had three sons. Matthias’ family, except for the two oldest daughters, came to America in 1856. Yellow fever struck the vessel on which the family traveled and the boat was quarantined at Staten Island. Anna, the youngest daughter Catherine, and the infant son born on the trip all died. Conrad and George, Conrad’s brother, were sent to a New York hospital, where George died of neglect. Matthias worked in New Jersey before coming to Ohio with Conrad, living in Brownhelm, Vermilion, and Birmingham. While in Birmingham, in 1859, Conrad was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Blanke. They then all moved to a farm in Benton Township, where Mr. Blanke died. His widow moved to Elyria, where she died two years later.

Matthias and Conrad stayed on the farm, working with the lumber, splitting rails, making railroad ties and logs, and clearing the farm. Conrad attended school only a few weeks during the winters. At age eighteen he left and opened a saloon in Elliston. In 1871, he married Augusta Wilke of Prussia, who had come to America in 1862. They had six children, one of whom died in childhood. Conrad was clerk of Benton Township for eight years and served two years as president of the Board of Education there. Matthias remained at the farm until his death in 1890.

In 1882, Conrad was elected Sheriff of Ottawa County, working as such for four years. Meanwhile, in 1881 or 1882, a fire completely destroyed the wooden building that had been built in 1870 as the Island House in Port Clinton. During the last six months of his term, because Conrad was entitled to keep funds collected in interest, delinquent taxes and fines, he used these monies to build a three-story Italianate-style brick structure in place of the old Island House. Commissioned in 1886, it was built for $25,000, and after his term expired, Conrad opened the hotel in 1887. It boasted 50 rooms, lobby, bar, dining, kitchen, just one bathroom, and every modern convenience. The family lived at the Island House and attended public schools. They were involved in the German Reformed Church, and all the children eventually married and thrived. The Gernhard family owned the hotel after Conrad died (in 1909) until 1926, when Otto and Mary Stenson received it as a wedding gift from her parents.

Conrad Gernhard remained active in the community throughout his tenure as proprietor of the Island House. He was elected to Port Clinton City Council in 1891, and was a member of the Court House Commission for the new courthouse, among other civic positions he filled here. Conrad had a reputation as a genial but disciplined man, responsible and hard-working. And he’s among the many reasons Port Clinton can be proud of its history