The First Ainsworth School

(Click on image to enlarge)
From the collection of R.F.

This photo of Ainsworth's old wooden schoolhouse was taken long after it had ceased to function as a school. As you can see by the legend over the door, the school was built in 1900, so it's probably the Ainsworth school mentioned by the Rev. T.H. Ball in his Northwest Indiana from 1800 to 1900. And apparently Kenneth Schoon errs in saying that Ainsworth had a two-story brick school by 1900 — elsewhere he gives a building date of 1912, and that may be correct for the brick school, which still stands today, occupied by a restaurant (Alex's Place).

The person who gave me these photos tells me that this school and its brick successor were both named the W.G. Haan School. The local newspapers disregarded this honorary moniker and always called it simply "the Ainsworth school." I haven't been able to find out who W.G. Haan was. Update on W.G. Haan.

The wooden school building survived for seventy-plus years, used as a storage shed by the owners of the property where it stood. It was demolished sometime in the 1970s.


(Click on image to enlarge)
From the collection of R.F.

Above is the same schoolhouse in 1909, with its students and teachers. The two teachers, at the very back, are Nellie M. Meyer on the right, Silas E. Zuvers on the left.

Below is a souvenir program from the 1908-09 school year, listing all the students.

Ainsworth school 1908-1909 school year souvenir program by AinsworthIN

Courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Too bad I can't match any of the names to the faces, because some of these young people are acquaintances. We've already spoken briefly of Louis and Edward Nolte. Daisy and Lesta Raschka would be the daughters of William and Carrie Raschka. We've just barely mentioned the Gruel family, of Superior Farms fame; they deserve to be discussed at greater length someday when I get around to researching them more. And the two Foreman children were on their own family's land when they attended this school.

The Trustee, Calvin C. Shearer, owned a business in Ainsworth. Below is a photo of him from the Hobart High School Aurora yearbook of 1923, when he was president of the Board of Education:


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Sources:
♦ Ball, T.H. Northwest Indiana from 1800 to 1900. Chicago: Donohue & Henneberry, 1900.
♦ Schoon, Kenneth J. Calumet Beginnings: Ancient Shorelines and Settlements at the South End of Lake Michigan. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003.

And here, for search-engine purposes, are all the names in text: Nellie M. Meyer, Silas E. Zuvers, Laura M. Houk, Calvin C. Shearer, Frank F. Heighway, Winston Dorman, Lena Newman, Eddie Wollenberg, John Gernenz, Clare Chadoine, Anna Smithers, Ralph Bodamer, Walter Newman, Edward Nolte, Antoine Chadowine, Evelyn Fredrick, Willard Dorman, Elsie Seivert, Otto Foreman, Martin Gernenz, Clifford Blatchly, Harry Bodamer, Willie Wollenberg, Agnes Smithers, Edger Byers, Willie Gruel, Elsie Gruel, Willie James, Hettie Gruel, Elsie Wojahn, Lawrence Smithers, Daisy Raschka, Harold Dorman, Bessie Ols, Willie Gernenz, Louie Nolte, Edward Gruel, Clarence Maybaum, Harold Maybaum, Pearl Ols, Ruth Miller, Annie Foreman, Lesta Raschka, Myrtle Wollenberg, Frank Yagmis.