Hobart High School Class of 1917: Ruth Miller

(Click on image to enlarge)

Ruth was the daughter of John and Martha Miller of Ainsworth, who took such kind care of Delmer Fisher in the autumn of 1916. The Miller land comprised about 50 acres bordering on the southeast corner of the junction of State Road 51 and 73rd Avenue. John was a German immigrant, a farmer known for his strawberries (in 1910 he raised six acres of them). Martha was one of the many Ainsworth Maybaums. She reportedly suffered from some sort of heart trouble and was sometimes confined to bed, but when able, she was active and sociable. Ruth had only one sibling, her younger brother Walter. The family bought a piano from Lowenstine's in Valparaiso in 1911, probably for Ruth's benefit. I have the general impression that they were a happy family.

I don't know much about Ruth, since she's been quiet all these years, at least as far as the newspapers are concerned. The caption to the senior picture suggests she had a lively sense of fun, and I suspect her parents did too; at a 1910 masquerade ball in Ainsworth, John and Martha won the prize for the most "comical" costumes. Unfortunately the report did not include a description of their costumes.


Sources:
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1926 Plat Book.
♦ "Ainsworth Pick-Ups." Hobart Gazette 7 Oct. 1904; 10 June 1910; 24 June 1910; 1 July 1910; 2 Sept. 1910.
♦ "Ainsworth." Hobart News 7 Sept. 1911.
♦ "Chas. Maybaum Killed by Falling Tree Thursday." Hobart News 11 Sept. 1913.
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette 3 Aug. 1906.
♦ "Hobart High School Aurora yearbook, 1917.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 14 Jan. 1910; 1 Sept. 1911; 7 June 1912.
♦ "Personal and Local Mention." Hobart News 9 Apr. 1913.
♦ "Ross Township Notes." Hobart Gazette 8 Sept. 1911.
♦ "Ross Township." Hobart News 9 Jan. 1913.