New Love For That Other One, Too

(Click on image to enlarge)
Handsome fellows, aren't they? … These young Hobart women are in costume for some sort of performance (date unknown).
Back row, left to right: Edith Wood Parker, Ruth Nitchman, Clara Sauter Rowe, Bess Hayward, Elsie Mummery.
Front row, left to right: Unknown Wilson, Carrie Bullock, unknown, Mabel Rowe Black.

Clara Sauter seemed always a few steps behind her little sister Lizzie, in joy and in sorrow. She was three years behind Lizzie in becoming a wife and three months behind her in becoming a widow. She was still a widow when Lizzie remarried in July 1915, but she too was on her way to new happiness.

After the death of her husband John in 1910, Clara had remained in Hobart, living quietly, occupied with caring for her little son. When her brother George opened a store in partnership with Armen Meckeldey in the summer of 1913, they hired Clara as their bookkeeper. She held that position for two and a half years, but as 1915 turned to 1916 she resigned, and the Gazette commented: "Dame Rumor says she is to be married the coming month."

Dame Rumor was right in this case. On February 1, 1916, Clara married Frank Severance. He farmed just east of Hobart in Porter County (and I don't know if or how he was related to the Ross Township Severances). Because he lived in Porter County, he and Clara thought they were acting properly in going to Valparaiso for their license, but there officials turned them away on the grounds that the bride's residence was in Lake County. So they had to make the trip to Crown Point. There they were quietly married, and quietly returned home, not even having planned any reception.

That evening a group of relatives and friends showed up at their "beautiful country home" to throw a surprise reception for them. (Clara had also been surprised a week earlier by a shower, organized by and held in the home of her mother, Augusta (Mrs. John Fiester).)"Both are popular and well known in this vicinity," said the Gazette, "and their many friends will wish them a prosperous and happy companionship."

If her father, Ed Sauter, was present at any of these events, no one saw fit to mention him.


Sources:
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 31 Dec. 1915; 28 Jan. 1916.
♦ "Personal and Local Mention." Hobart News 6 Jan. 1916.
♦ "Severance-Rowe Nuptial." Hobart Gazette 4 Feb. 1916.
♦ "Severance-Rowe." Hobart News 3 Feb. 1916.