Lesta Comes Home

Nineteen-year-old Lesta Raschka had spent over a year in Fort Wayne, Indiana, living with her Aunt Ella and Uncle Charles Olson while she underwent chiropractic treatment. During that time she had come home only for short visits.

In November of 1917 she came back home to stay. In spite of the initially optimistic reports, her treatment had not cured her medical problems, whatever they were. She was now going to Valparaiso for "special treatment." In between treatments, Lesta made herself useful by teaching a girls' class at the Church of Christ.

William Raschka drove his daughter to her appointments in Valparaiso, I believe, and on a return trip along the Lincoln Highway on December 20, they witnessed an incident that gives us a picture of the highway's uses and conditions at the time.

Westbound, they came upon the scene of a minor accident. Twenty-five brand-new autos fresh from the factory in Flint, Michigan, had been traveling single-file along the highway, also westbound, probably destined for sale in Lake County or Chicago. Rounding a curve near the Lake-Porter County line, one of the drivers had lost control. His brand-new car had swerved off the road and down the side embankment. It came to a stop among the trees, luckily right side up, the driver unhurt.

As William slowed to pass the stopped cars on this narrow stretch of road, Lesta watched a large, heavily loaded truck approaching from the other direction. Looking at the narrowness of the road and the softness of the dirt roadbed, she said, "If he's not careful, he'll go over the side, too!" — and in the next moment, it happened. The heavy truck went over the embankment, and the driver was badly injured.



Sources:
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ "Big Truck 'Goes Over Top' on Lincoln Highway Last Thursday." Hobart News 27 Dec. 1917.
♦ "Church Notes." Hobart Gazette 9 Nov. 1917.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 22 Nov. 1917.