The Port Clinton Fish Company - Linda Higgins
A Port Clinton business with a long history actually has roots in Sandusky in the nineteenth century, the Port Clinton Fish Company. Jacob George Lay was born in Oberschaffhausen, Bavaria, Germany, in 1816. He arrived in Sandusky, by way of Canada, in 1836. He married Maria Baltzmeyer. They had two sons named Jacob and Henry, before he died in the cholera epidemic at the age of 32. Their third son, John, was born in December of 1849, just after his father’s death. The senior Lay had been a pioneering brewer by trade, had a small grocery store, and had also become involved in the fishing business.
John, having been involved in his father’s fishing endeavors from an early age, launched his first crewed fishing boat in the 1860s. This began as a one-person operation known as Lay Brothers Fisheries. Business flourished, and soon John’s brother Jacob joined him in the business, now also known as Lay Brothers Wholesale Fish Company. The business involved not only the sale and shipping of fresh, salted and frozen fish, but also the services of towing, wrecking and ice cutting. They employed a large workforce during the prime season and were considered a successful business in every way. Their brother Henry joined them in 1881, and John’s sons eventually followed suit, making it a true family enterprise.
Meanwhile, several subsidiaries had been established due to the Lay brothers’ great success. They were selling fish to an international market early in the 20th century, and to help with this growth, operations in Huron, Ashtabula, and Port Clinton were opened. John Lay, Jr., began operating the Port Clinton store in 1910. This is the company that continues to this day at its location on Madison Street, on the water.
The Lay Brothers Fisheries even remained successful throughout the Depression, adding a partner in Winnipeg, Lake Manitoba Fisheries, Ltd. By the 1950s, a number of factors caused a decline in the success of the Fisheries: the pickerel populations had decreased, Canadian fishing fleets became strong competition as they worked year-round with no winter stoppages, and improved freezing and shipping methods allowed other companies to cut into the market. The Port Clinton Fish Company continued to function throughout this decline, providing fish for processing to the other branches.
John Lay, Sr.’s grandson, Jack Lay, finally closed the Sandusky and other locations beginning in 1961. The Port Clinton Fish Company has had some changes since, and is no longer owned by the Lay family. But it remains a viable business in its historic building on Madison Street in downtown Port Clinton. The Stinson family has owned and operated it since 1976, trapnet-catching their fish in their own boats, and shipping to many areas. Their season runs from March 1 through December 10, and they offer frozen fish and fish-related products in the off-season. They wholesale, but also retail now. They no longer offer towing or wrecking, but they still deal with ice! It’s a different world from the time of the Lay brothers, but their company lives on successfully in its present incarnation, and another piece of history is preserved here in Port Clinton, Ohio.
