Interview with the Time Travelers

Tax Receipt dated January 1, 1856


Porter County Vidette , September 17, 1903

(Click on images to enlarge)

Ainsworth, Indiana: Thank you both for being here today. Tax Receipt, since you've come the longest distance, I'll start with you. Now, pardon me for gushing a little bit — I can't believe you've come all the way from 1856. That just astonishes me.
Tax Receipt: Yep.
AI: And the fact that you were part of a box lot I bought at auction for $2.50, and I was the only bidder! That a visitor who has come so far, and passed through such perils, would end up like that, I'm just shaking my head at it.
TR: Yep.
AI: You've come here with quite an entourage, although the other documents haven't traveled quite so far. That tax receipt from 1912, for instance, you probably think he's a lightweight.
TR: Yep.
AI: You're a tax receipt of few words, I can see, so let's get right to the point.
TR: John Ream paid the Treasurer's Office $2.94 in taxes, in full, for the year 1855.
AI: Did that include real estate taxes?
TR: State, county, school, road, township, library, sinking fund and special tax, one poll, and $120 personal property.
AI: OK. Well, let's assume it did include real estate. Was it on the same, or part of the same, land as all the other tax receipts?
TR: State, county, school, road —
AI: Excuse me, we got that. By the way, I'm curious about something else — was this the same John Ream who married Perescellie Bowers, who died in 1899? — because if it was, his wife had the coolest name in Porter County.
TR: John Ream.
AI: Um, okay. I was just wondering, was John Ream the "Ream" in Onstatt v. Ream? You have to admire a man who goes all the way to the Indiana Supreme Court over a pig!
TR: John Ream.
AI: Yes, I know, but what I'm asking — oh, well, let's move on. Porter County Vidette, you've come from 1903. It looks like it's been a rough journey. No offense, but I've got a Harper's Weekly from 1870 that's in better shape.
Porter County Vidette: One dollar per year.
AI: Yes. But were you stored near a furnace, or in an attic or something, that caused you to deteriorate so badly?
PCV: Alvin Jones was the guest of his "cousin" at Valpo over Sunday. Miss Bertha Trowe, of East Chicago, is visiting at home.
AI: Yes, you do love your social gossip, don't you? That really struck me about you. Nowadays we have Facebook and Twitter for that sort of thing.
PCV: Former Valparaiso Man Still Being Reviled at Marion.
AI: That too. But let's be honest here: I think the main reason, perhaps the only reason, you're here with us today is that article on your front page, about the tragedy in the Ream family.
PCV: Boy Killed by Lightning. During the terrific thunder and lightning storm yesterday morning Arnold Ream, a well known young man, was killed almost instantly.
AI: And you still think of it as "yesterday," don't you? That's part of what makes you so remarkable. Now, you say that his grandfather —
PCV: — His grandfather, who was near, was unhurt.
AI: But you don't give the grandfather's name; was it the same John Ream whose tax receipt I was just talking to?
PCV: Ream was taken to the home of his father, Henry Ream ...
AI: Henry was John's son, and Arnold his grandson?
PCV: ... where he breathed a few minutes but never regained consciousness.
AI: Well, apparently that's all you have to say, but it's enough, isn't it? I mean, any other newspaper would have been used to line the bird cage, or for even less savory purposes. So Henry Ream kept you. What I'm wondering is, why did he hand you off to the Kraft brothers in 1916 along with all the tax receipts pertaining to the land he transferred to them?
PCV: The funeral service will be held Wednesday afternoon.
AI: All right, you can't tell me why. I guess I'll never know. Thanks for your time, both of you.