Oscar the Grouch versus Linda Street

On the morning of August 24, 1915, residents of Linda Street watched as an old frame building — familiar to them, since it had stood on Main Street for many, many years — moved slowly down their street, carried on the trucking equipment of William Croan, house mover. No one knew where William was taking it, and he wasn't telling.

When the creaky procession reached a point between the houses of Harrison Shearer and Charles Ockerline, it stopped in the middle of the street. Onlookers saw William and his assistants busy about their equipment, but not until the moving trucks actually started to move again minus their cargo did the witnesses realize that the building had reached its intended destination.

There it sat, blocking the street to team traffic — an obstruction, a fire hazard and a dilapidated eyesore. And yet someone had induced William to go to all the trouble of hauling it from Main Street and setting it down in the middle of Linda Street.

That someone was Oscar W. Carlson. He was well known to the town fathers already, as he had previously engaged in a lengthy battle with the town over the laying of some sewer pipes. He had also run for town marshal in 1911, unsuccessfully. As the Gazette put it, "[I]f there is really any one who loves a scrap it's Mr. Carlson."

The focus of his current "scrap" was his belief that he actually owned part of Linda Street itself. He possessed a tax title deed that he believed proved his ownership of it. And he had decided to move the building onto his alleged Linda Street property to test his right of ownership. Apparently his theory was not that far-fetched. Though Linda Street had been in use as a public highway since the town's infancy, the Gazette acknowledged that its legal status had "been in question for a number of years."

By early September, exasperated Linda Street residents had gotten up a petition to the State Fire Marshal, asking that Oscar be ordered to remove the building. It continued to sit there for another week as the Fire Marshal deliberated upon their request. Finally, in an order dated September 14, the Fire Marshal ordered Oscar to remove the building and all attendant rubbish within 20 days; if he failed to do so, he could be fined as much as $50 a day for as long as the house stood there.

Oscar had a right of appeal, but uncharacteristically he didn't pursue it. After considering the matter for about 10 days, he gave in and began the process of taking apart the old frame building. On the third day, as he stood high on a ladder, pulling siding off one of the walls, the structure collapsed, and Oscar and his ladder fell down onto the heap of rubbish. He sustained cuts and bruises to his face and legs, and two of his lower teeth were knocked loose.

Three days later he interrupted his work (or perhaps his convalescence) to travel to Hammond, where he petitioned the court for a temporary restraining order against William Scharbach, Sr., and his sons, Emil, William and Barney, and August Simon. Oscar claimed that they had interfered with his dismantling of the building, harassed him and threatened to do him bodily harm. The Scharbachs and Mr. Simon insisted they had done none of those things. After hearing both sides, the court ruled for the defendants.

Defeated, Oscar returned to his work in Linda Street. Although the deadline for the removal of the building had passed, apparently no one took the trouble to fine him; he was clearly attempting to comply with the order, albeit slowly. And so work progressed through the month of October.

On October 29, the Gazette reported that Linda Street was "about cleared of the rubbish" and again open to traffic. The matter had taken more than two months, and much trouble, injury and expense to various people. All of that probably suited Oscar's taste, but nothing had been settled, and the legal status of Linda Street remained a "muddle."


Sources:
♦ "Hurt in Building Wreck." Hobart Gazette 1 Oct. 1915.
♦ "In Hands of State Fire Marshal." Hobart Gazette 10 Sept. 1915.
♦ "Linda Street About Cleared." Hobart Gazette 29 Oct. 1915.
♦ "Linda Street Muddle Deepens." Hobart Gazette 8 Oct. 1915.
♦ "Locates House on Linda Street." Hobart Gazette 27 Aug. 1915.
♦ "Orders Building Removed." Hobart Gazette 17 Sept. 1915.