Fred and his Fire Truck

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Images courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Two views of Fred Rose, Sr., and the Hobart Fire Department's fire truck. Notes on the back of one of them read:

Fire Station at Fourth Street and Lake George. Fred Rose, Senior became town fire marshal and town marshal in 1901, becoming fire chief and chief of police when Hobart became a city in 1921. In 1936 the jobs were split and Rose retained the fire chief post until 1941.

In the top picture, in the background at left you can see what I believe is the Nickel Plate bridge over Lake George, which gives you some idea of where this fire station was.

Neither picture is dated, but this is probably Hobart's first fire truck. From the Hobart Fire Department's 50th anniversary program:

Proud indeed was the city of Hobart when the American LaFrance 500 gallon pumper engine was purchased in 1920. This truck is used today [1943] as an auxiliary to the American LaFrance 750 gallon pumper and booster tank streamlined truck which the city bought in 1940.

If this is that first truck, the photos must date between 1920 and (probably) 1940; judging by Fred's clothes and apparent age, I would put the first one closer to 1920 (Fred was then 53 years old), the second perhaps 10 or 15 years later.

I don't doubt he was proud of that fire truck; in his place, I would have been, too.

Raymond

[continued from here]


(Click on image to enlarge)
Gust Lindborg's draft registration card from September 1918. Image from WWI Draft Cards.

Back in Ainsworth, Gust Lindborg's blacksmith shop was doing well, and he continued to make a little extra money renting out his dance hall for special events — including monthly meetings of the Ainsworth milk producers, and the wedding reception when the Baesslers' daughter, Emily, married Henry Schultz.

Life in the Lindborg home seems to have gone in its usual way — quietly busy — in spite of the war excitement. The blacksmith who kept the farm machines in working order played a part in the agricultural production that had become so vital to the war effort, and with a wife and four small children dependent on him, Gust could hope for leniency from the draft board.

But disease cares nothing for dependents. In late January 1918 Gust developed appendicitis. His case was so acute that he was taken to a hospital in Valparaiso (probably Christian Hospital) and underwent surgery there. For several days he lay dangerously ill. Anna Lindborg no doubt tried to put on a brave face for the children, but she had all the more reason to be frightened as she was then nearly five months' pregnant with their fifth child.

The danger passed, however; Gust began to mend, and by February 1 the Gazette could report that he was "doing nicely." Anna breathed a sigh of relief; Gust came home; life picked up where it had left off.

In April the Lindborg dance hall was the scene of a "box social and entertainment" intended to raise money to buy a Victrola — for whom, the report did not say.

And then the Lindborgs dropped out of the news for over a month. The next news we hear is good: on June 12, 1918, Anna gave birth to a baby boy. He would be named Raymond.

To 11-year-old Mildred, her new baby brother must have seemed like a living doll. About a decade later, she put together a little album of family photos, all captioned by hand in gold ink. The album included a photo of Raymond as a toddler — perhaps two years old — and the special attention Mildred gave that photo hints at how she doted on the little boy:


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Image from a private collection.

"Waiting patiently" — "School" — "The rag-pickers" — "Don't cry" — family in-jokes, probably, of the kind we've all developed out of the silly little things said by and to children we love.

The Lindborg family was now complete, although of course they didn't know it.


Sources:
♦ "Ainsworth Farmers Elect Officers." Hobart Gazette 26 Jan. 1917.
♦ "Births." Hobart Gazette 14 June 1918.
♦ "Births." Hobart News 13 June 1918.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 18 Apr. 1918.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 1 Feb. 1918.
♦ "Schultz-Baessler Nuptial." Hobart Gazette 20 Apr. 1917.

Hobart Fire Department Racing Team

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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

No names attached to this photo. No date, either, but the mounting board is embossed: "A. Haase/Hobart, Ind." August Haase operated a photo studio in Hobart from late 1902 through 1911 (perhaps a little into 1912, I'm not sure).

We learned from the history written for the department's 50th anniversary that in the early days, when a team of horses "was not handy" the firemen themselves had to pull the equipment, so, although this occasion looks festive (maybe part of a July 4 celebration?), there were times when they weren't racing for fun.

I can't identify the location. It looks quite civilized, with a nice sidewalk or footpath beside the road. There's a house in the far background, but I don't recognize it.

Female Alien Enemies

After the February 1918 registration of all male "alien enemies", the federal government extended that requirement to females, fixing the ten days beginning June 17 as the window for completing the process. In its final May issue, the Gazette reminded its women readers of the upcoming deadline.

The requirements are the same as they were for the men. Besides filling out the questionnaire, finger prints must be made, and each registrant must furnish the postmaster three* late pictures of herself. This order embraces the wives of all German aliens; all unmarried women over 14 years of age who were born in Germany, provided their father was or is unnaturalized; all women, whether they were born in Germany or America, if they are married to a German alien.

That was this difference between the men and the women: "the wife takes automatically the civil status of her husband," and the unmarried woman, I gather, took the civil status of her father.

♦    ♦    ♦
The Gazette's June 14 issue reported on the case of Henry Wolf, a 61-year-old naturalized German immigrant and a justice of the peace in Laporte County, who had just received a two-year sentence in federal court. Wolf, who was alleged to have said that he was "doing more good for the Kaiser than any other man in his neighborhood," was convicted of "irregularities in making out questionnaires for men subject to conscription."

This case is notable for the remarks by the sentencing judge. The Gazette identified him only as "Judge Anderson"; I believe he was the jurist of whom one historian has said that "few federal judges displayed judicial insensitivity and intransigence more boldly than Indiana's U.S. District Court Judge Albert B. Anderson." If so, then the judge was in typical form in Henry Wolf's case, as reported by the Gazette:

"I sometimes wonder if any of your people (meaning Germans) are square with the United States," Judge Anderson declared before sentencing Wolf. "You are like a good many others. When you read a paper, you either smile or frown, according to who is looking at you. Some of you people take out citizenship with a string attached to it."

_________________________________
*The News said four photographs were required.


Sources:
♦ "Alien Women Must Register." Hobart Gazette 31 May 1918.
♦ "All German Alien Women Must Register June 17 to 26." Hobart News 6 June 1918.
♦ Tuohy, Martin. "Interurban Railroaders and Changing Work Conditions on the South Shore Line, 1908-1938." Indiana Historical Society. Web. http://www2.indianahistory.org/ihs_press/web_publications/railroad/tuohy.html (accessed 8 Mar. 2011).
♦ "Wanatah Justice Gets Prison Sentence." Hobart Gazette 14 June 1918.

Bird's-Eye View of Hobart, 1901

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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

This bird's-eye view, probably taken from the top of the water tower, is dated 1901 so it's probably about 16 years older than the similar one I posted earlier. This is a large file, but it's worth it. The laundry hanging on the lines! The backyard privies! The scrap piles! The windmill behind that building on Main Street! The white horse in motion in the foreground! Not to mention the acres and acres of open fields on the west side of Lake George.

Notice the bell between the white frame building and the white frame house just below the center of the scene — that was the fire alarm bell. (And doesn't that white frame building resemble the Red Front building I was wondering about … just with some 13 years' worth of remodeling? On the other hand, it's not very distinctive — anyone, anytime could throw up a building like that.)

Where Main Street runs off the right edge of the photo, I think that's the original St. Bridget's Church, the original frame church that was eventually replaced by the second one (seen in this post), which was then replaced by the present one. Am I right?

A Flag for Company K

For their home-grown militia, the proud residents of the Hobart area had raised $80 to buy a company flag. They chose the E.A. Armstrong Mfg. Co. of Chicago as the supplier. In the latter part of May 1918, the flag and its accoutrements were delivered to Hobart. The Gazette described the outfit in some detail:

"[The flag] is composed of the finest banner silk, grown in America, but hand loomed in France, the best that money can buy for the size. The size is U.S. regulation, 4.4 feet by 5.6 feet. The outfit comprises, besides the flag, a jointed ash staff, nickeled, a rain cover, a dust cover and a leather belt.

Awaiting Decoration Day and its formal presentation to Company K, Herman Pflughoeft put the flag on display in the window of his furniture store. Hundreds of people came by to look at it.

Undoubtedly, Decoration Day had special significance this year, with the war raging overseas, 100 Hobart-area men in the service and one dead, and the war-related worries, shortages, work and drives overshadowing every waking moment (and many dreaming moments, too, I'm sure).

The town was preparing for its ceremonies and parade. The team of C.C. Shearer and Marshal Fred Rose, Sr., who had served so well for the Liberty Loan parade, would once again be in charge for the day. Although Company K's officers had already received their state-supplied uniforms, the rank and file had not; Captain Charles Reeves and First Lieutenant Walter MacPherson investigated the situation and learned that the men's uniforms were languishing in storage in Indianapolis, with no hope of delivery before the big event. On May 28 the two officers hopped aboard a train bound for the capital, intending to take matters into their own hands.

In fact, they managed to bring back enough uniforms to outfit most of the men. When Decoration Day finally arrived, Company K "presented a fine appearance," largely in uniform and shouldering rifles.

Early-morning rain clouds had cleared away by 9:45, when the flag ceremony took place near the school on Fourth Street, in the presence of the assembled parade participants and spectators. Seven "old soldiers" (probably Civil War veterans) had carried the flag to the site. At Captain Reeves' command, Company K assembled itself. Town board president James Carpenter took the flag from the old soldiers and, with a brief speech of presentation, handed it to Company K's color-bearer, Robert Roper.

The parade then formed itself and began marching. Everyone who was not in the parade was standing on the sidewalks, watching. In the lead were Marshal of the Day C.C. Shearer and his assistant, Marshal Fred Rose; then came the Commercial Club band, playing its heart out; then Company K, with its new flag gleaming in the sunshine, and the "old soldiers"; they were followed by wreath-bearing girls, boy scouts, members of the Order of the Eastern Star, a crowd of schoolchildren, and, finally, ordinary citizens driving autos.

The column wound its way to the Hobart Cemetery and stopped. N.P. Banks came forward to conduct the ceremonies honoring the Civil War veterans who lay there — 48 of them, according to the News. General John Logan's Memorial Day Order was read, wreaths were laid on the veterans' graves, and Company K shouldered its rifles and solemnly fired off three volleys.

Afterward the parade re-formed and marched back to the schoolhouse. People crowded into the auditorium to hear a speech on war events, a reading of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and patriotic songs.

In the afternoon, Company K took its new uniforms and flag to march in the parade at Gary.

I do not know what has become of the flag.


(Click on image to enlarge)
The Roll of Honor as it appeared in the Hobart Gazette of May 17, 1918.

♦    ♦    ♦
On June 10, Reeves and MacPherson, along with Second Lieutenant Franklin Fetterer and Captain Dwight Mackey, M.D., once again departed for Indianapolis, this time to attend officers' training school. (The Sunday before they left, Company K's baseball team played a game against the East Gary team. History does not record who among Company K served on the team, nor the outcome of that game.)

The officers returned from Indianapolis on June 12 to report what Governor James Goodrich had told them:

The governor addressed the officers and intimated that owing to the serious Mexican troubles it would probably be only a matter of a brief period until the state troops would be asked to volunteer for border service and in the event of war with that country where 400 German officers are in active service, the state would be asked to raise an army for government defense. If Mexico places a chip on her shoulder, United States would be compelled to brush it off, and she would.

But for the moment Company K's greatest concern was its third fund-raising dance, scheduled for June 15 in Odd Fellows' Hall. All the men who had uniforms were to wear them to the dance, to "give the affair a military bearing." A military bearing was just what people wanted these days.


Sources:
♦ "Capt. Reeves and Lieut. McPherson Go After Uniforms." Hobart News 30 May 1918.
♦ "Company K Notes." Hobart Gazette 7 June 1918.
♦ "Decoration Day Patriotically Observed in Hobart." Hobart News 6 June 1918.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 6 June 1918; 13 June 1918.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 17 May 1918; 31 May 1918; 7 June 1918; 14 June 1918.
♦ "Memorial Day Observance." Hobart Gazette 7 June 1918.
♦ "Militia Flag Has Arrived." Hobart Gazette 24 May 1918.

Hazard Halsted "in the Car Sales and Service"

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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The title of this post is how the notes identify this photo. No date. A Wikipedia article says that the Jewett Six was manufactured between 1922 and 1926.

No location given. I'm not even sure this was Hazard's own shop, or if he was just moonlighting from his barbering, or taking a break from it, or what.

Homemade War

Thomas Murray was as swept up in war enthusiasm as everybody else, but at 15 years of age, he wasn't old enough to join the army just yet, so he had to make do with war games. One evening in May, he and his friend Charles Cunningham set about to play war on the Porter County farm of Thomas' parents, John and Augusta.

I suppose that since they were teenagers, they would have been embarrassed to use sticks or their fingers for guns, but the Murray farm, like every other farm, had guns on hand, so the boys used the real thing for their play battle — unloaded, of course. They chose sides; then at the agreed-upon signal they charged at each other, yelling "Pow!" for their guns. And then Charles' gun spoke for itself. It hadn't been completely unloaded, after all.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Thomas Murray died on May 22, 1918, and is buried in Mosier Cemetery, also known as the Blachly Corners Cemetery, in Porter County.


Source: "Thomas Murray, of Blachly Corners, Shot by Playmate." Hobart News 30 May 1918.

All Happy But Two (Unidentified Image)

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Today's unidentified image comes from the DeWell family archives. The original was found in the attic of Louise Sapper DeWell's Hobart home.

I've shown it to a few long-time residents; no luck, so I'm putting it on the blog as a last resort. Maybe someday, somebody somewhere will see it … (The trouble with that theory is — the people most likely to know who these folks are, are the least likely to use the internet.)

This looks like a family group; mother and father in the front row with their youngest children, combining dignity and affection; young lady in the back looking perhaps a bit reserved, though not forbidding; but those two young men! — what are they so mad about? Especially the one on the right. If I were the photographer, I'd be thinking about making a run for the door.

The décor is modestly genteel, but the room looks well lived-in.

The photo is undated. If I had to guess, I'd say perhaps around the first decade of the 20th century; I'm basing that mostly on the young woman's blouse-and-skirt combination and her hairstyle, and the tall, stiff collars on the young men. (Come to think of it, those collars might account for their bad moods.)

♦    ♦    ♦
[3/23/2012 UPDATE] A reader writes in from California with a possible ID on this family portrait:

We think we may be able to help you with the picture that was found in Louise DeWell's attic. We believe it is Fred and Anna Schavey with five of their nine children. Fred and Anna are the parents of Edward Schavey who was the first husband of Louise (Sapper) DeWell. There were six boys and 3 girls in Fred and Anna Schavey's family. We are not sure which children are in the picture. … We have an older picture of Fred & Anna, so we are pretty sure that photo is of them.

Thank you, D.E.!

Hazard Halsted (or Halstead)

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All photos in this post courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Today's random old photos are not as random as usual, because Hazard Halsted* once lived near Ainsworth. The 1900 Census finds 13-year-old Hazard on a Ross Township farm with his parents, Wallace and Jessie, and his 21-year-old sister, Alta, who was then a schoolteacher. Their farm was in the vicinity of Gilbert and Estella Bullock's.

Furthermore, his grandparents, James and Mary Halstead, were described as "pioneers of Ross Township" by Sam B. Woods in his article on "The Passing of the Pioneers" in Lake County History, Vol. 10 (published by the Lake County Historical Association in 1929).

By the 1910 Census, the Halsteds had moved to Hobart. The 1920 Census shows Hazard married to Dora (maiden name unknown) and working in a steel mill, but when the 1930 Census came around, Hazard called himself a barber.

Actually, he was barbering before 1920, as shown by this notice printed in the Hobart Gazette of August 23, 1918:



He was also barbering not long after 1920, as we can infer from this photo:



Here's the caption on the back:



I've found in Hobart (per the 1930 Census) a Louis Kramer who married a Myrtle (maiden name unknown)** in 1923 or 1924 — a date not inconsistent with anything I see in that photo. [10/14/2019 update: We have a photo of the wedding party here.]

Notes on the first photo (the exterior shot) say that the barbershop was in the Lightner building. I seem to recall reading somewhere that the Lightner building was (is) the building on the northwest corner of Main and Fourth. But I can't remember where I supposedly read that, so I can't check and make sure I wasn't just dreaming it. And this building doesn't look as if it's on a corner. So … I don't know.


__________________________
*How I wish these people would decide on one spelling for their names — I'm going with "Halsted" because that's how I first encountered it and began indexing it.

**[7/27/11 update] Mystery of Myrtle solved! See Comment below.

Alas, I Must Leave You, You Lousy Ingrates

It seems that Virgil Mood didn't last long after S.J. Craig's departure. The Gazette published his open farewell letter, which seemed divided between regret at leaving those who had welcomed him, and a desire to tell the rest what jerks they were.


(Click on image to enlarge)
From the Hobart Gazette of May 17, 1918.

(The "Garage Building Condemned" story on the page deals with the building where John Chester had his garage. If I find out what went up in its place, perhaps I can locate it. Or maybe somebody can just tell me where the Sela A. Smith building on Main Street was.)

It wasn't until the following July that Lake County got a new agricultural agent, this time some guy named V.A. Place,* "a young man of pleasing personality" who had just finished a three-year term as county agent in Wabash County. He had a great deal of work before him if he wanted to make the office of county agent as interesting as his predecessors had. [Source: "County Agent Appointed," Hobart Gazette 19 July 1918.]

___________________________
*I believe he shows up in the 1920 Census as Virgil Place, then 31 years old.

The Red Front, 1888

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Images in this post courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

I don't know exactly where this store was. It must have been somewhere in Hobart, or why is this photo in the Hobart Historical Society museum?

From the front window, we glean that the Red Front sold hats, boots and shoes.

I say this photo was taken in 1888 because that's what a note on the back says, and the fashions look right for that era. Here in its entirety is the cryptic inscription on the back of the original:



"Lowell"? Is that the proprietor's name? (I'm going to pretend I never heard of Lowell, Indiana.) The 1880 Census does show Edwin and Hattie Lowell living in Hobart; their occupations are given as machinist and keeping house, respectively, but that could change in eight years.

That's about all I've got, but I love that privy in the backyard.


I hope you folks are liking these random old photos, because they certainly make my life easier.

Drive On

Drives, drives, drives. Just after Hobart went "over the top" in the latest Liberty Loan drive, Ross Township came "to the front" for the impending Red Cross drive. Early in May, Ross Township selected its own officers to organize the drive: Henry Kuehl as township chairman, William G. Woods as secretary, Fremont B. Price as treasurer, and Belle Blachly (J.B.'s wife) as chairman of the women's committee. They organized the usual patriotic rally, held at Merrillville on May 15. Among the speakers was Ensign Asa Bullock. The Campfire Girls presented a flag they had made; it bore 16 stars representing Ross Township "boys" in the service. Lydia Zuvers (widow of Silas) made a plea "on behalf of the mothers of the township … for cheerful bravery in those left behind." Schoolchildren sang. And then pledges were taken. Within a few minutes they amounted to $800. But the Ross Township organization was certainly not going to stop with that sum; it was determined to outdo the $1,700 it had just recently donated to the Knights of Columbus drive.*

Hobart, naturally, had its own organization: R.R. Peddicord as chairman, Deering Melin as secretary and Emil Scharbach as treasurer. They probably expected Hobart to go "over the top" yet again. The Gazette harangued its readers from the front page: "If you wake up in the night and you find your conscience hurting you, possibly you have not given to the Red Cross all that you can afford to give. … Every one should talk Red Cross donations until the drive ends next Monday. Every one should give something. There should be no slackers."

Meanwhile, upstairs in the Stommel building on Third Street, Miss Grace Thompson began a class, meeting thrice weekly, to teach "girls and women" to make surgical dressing for the Red Cross.

_____________________________
*Ross Township made good on its determination, collecting $2,869.93 for the Red Cross.


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 24 May 1918.
♦ "Red Cross Drive On." Hobart Gazette 24 May 1918.
♦ "Red Cross War Fund Report for Crown Point District." Hobart News 13 June 1918.
♦ "Ross Township to the Front." Hobart Gazette 24 May 1918.
♦ "Surgical Dressings Class." Hobart Gazette 24 May 1918.

Grandma Markham

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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

I came across this photograph in the files at the Hobart museum. It is identified only as "Grandma Markham" — she must be Emily Markham, "Grandma" to the four Ainsworth Bullock children.

This photo is undated, but she looks a good deal younger here than in the circa-1905 photo I posted previously. Twenty years younger, maybe?

Food Administrator and Contradictor of Rumors

Food in general had risen to the level of news by late spring 1918. Dr. Harry E. Barnard, Federal Food Administrator for Indiana, began sending out "Official Food News" to the press. And, as we can see from the column that ran in the Hobart News of May 2, 1918, Dr. Barnard's duties included not only spreading information but stopping misinformation. The Indiana division of the wartime rumor mill had lately produce a story about foodstuffs being contaminated with ground glass. Dr. Barnard duly contradicted the story and made the usual patriotic anti-gossip appeal, though he stopped short of attributing the story to pacifists.


(Click on image to enlarge)

♦    ♦    ♦
Notice the advertisement of the Hobart Lumber Company on that page, urging people to lay in their coal supplies early. A month later the federal fuel administration started spreading a similar message, in more forceful terms. William J. Killigrew, as local fuel administrator, passed along to the local citizens "an ultimatum in the form of an appeal" to buy as much coal now as they had room to store, or they would "be placed at the bottom of the waiting list next fall." He and his fellow fuel administrators kept detailed records of who bought how much coal when, and next winter they would certainly not exert themselves to help any freezing grasshoppers who had idled away the summer instead of stockpiling coal.

The implication was that the war and its attendant shortages were expected to continue through the winter.


Sources:
♦ "Buy Your Coal Now." Hobart Gazette 7 June 1918.
♦ "U.S. Fuel Administrator." Hobart Gazette 7 June 1918.

The Butler Cottage

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This image was sent in by Heather with these comments:

This one is from my Butler family line, of which William Moulton Butler was the head. The following was written on the back:

Butler Cottage in Hobart, Ind. Your birthplace, Julia.

Julia would have been Julia Carrie Butler, born July 4, 1871. She was married first to Frank Trenton and then to William Foster in 1896. I don't know where the house was, but the family did live on Cleveland Ave. in the 1880s.

Well, I have walked along part of Cleveland Avenue, and driven along the rest of it, and the only house I could find that actually made me pause for a moment is this:

(Click on image to enlarge)
The front door and windows are reversed, which I suppose could happen if the original had been printed from a reversed negative, but beyond that the proportions and angles don't seem exactly right, so my impression is that it's not a match, unfortunately. Thus I'm labeling this image "unidentified."

The Butler house wasn't necessarily on Cleveland Avenue, so if it's still standing it may be somewhere else. And as often happens, it may be remodeled beyond recognition.

But if anybody knows anything about this, I'd like to hear it!

Hobart House, Turn of the Century

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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

This photo is undated, but based on what I can see of the ladies' fashions, I'm guessing at the turn of the century, or very late 1890s.

No one is identified, not even the horse.

"Over the Top"

Both Hobart papers used a phrase from the battlefield to describe the success of the town's latest Liberty Loan drive — "over the top." The quota for the Hobart section of Lake County had been set at $80,000 in bonds; its subscriptions, collected from 1,077 people, amounted to $90,250. And that number would have been higher had not "captain" Sam Woods, who commanded part of the Ross Township district, defected to the Crown Point section with the subscriptions he had collected, thus depriving Hobart of some of its glory and adorning Crown Point's brow with borrowed laurels. I get the sense that the Gazette had to restrain itself from calling him a traitor. (The Gazette further pointed out that if subscriptions from the nearby towns of Miller and Aetna had been reported to the Hobart section, its total would have come to about $160,000.)

Of all the "captains" who remained loyal to the Hobart section, John Dorman was far in the lead. His Ross Township district accounted for $16,800 in subscriptions. Only group efforts outdid him: "collections by women" ($17,400) and "collections at banks" ($22,150).

During the drive, John had also been occupied with politics. He was running to be a delegate to the Democratic state convention as well as a committeeman for the second precinct of Ross Township.


(Click on image to enlarge)


Sources:
♦ "Democratic Township Candidates." Hobart Gazette 3 May 1918.
♦ "Hobart Goes Over the Top in Liberty Loan Drive." Hobart News 9 May 1918.
♦ "Hobart Section 'Over the Top' in Bond Drive." Hobart Gazette 10 May 1918.

Pastor Moberg

(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

From the collection of glass-plate negatives. This fellow is identified only as "Pastor Moberg." I can't find him locally in the census, but I found this item in the Hobart Gazette of November 9, 1906:



That may be our rifle-toting guy. Is he going out hunting in that three-piece suit and stiff collar? — wearing his pince-nez glasses?

An item the "Hobart News" column of the Lake County Times of October 30, 1906, puts him in a different church (and gives him a different first name):

Reverend Berg, who has been the local pastor of the Swedish Lutheran church for the past year, is moving his family to Princeton, Ill., where he will have charge of a parish. Rev. Phedo Moberg, a student at the Evanston university, has taken his place.

… but I'm more inclined to trust the local source for local details.

Doesn't this look like the same place and the same time of day as the second photo (the rabbitless one) of Eric Carlson posted earlier? Maybe they were going out hunting together.

Procrastination Blossoms (Random Pointless Photos)

I thought I had to clean the house, until I remembered I could just go outside and photograph some random blossoms …

Chicory blossom.


(Click on images to enlarge)

Zucchini blossom, already fruiting.



Last summer I baked about 20 loaves of lemon-ginger zucchini bread and froze them. I'm down to my last four loaves.

Radish blossoms.



I don't like radishes, but I grow them in my garden because I read on the internet that cucumber beetles may find them repellant. And if it's on the internet, it must be true.

Cucumber blossoms, one already fruiting.



Green pepper blossom.



Ugly little thing, isn't it?

Tomato blossoms.



Homegrown tomatoes: better than chocolate.

Road Work

This notice in the Hobart Gazette of May 10, 1918, threw me for a loop:

All voters under the age of 50 years are compelled to do road work for two days or pay $3.00. Arrangements for work or pay can be made with the undersigned or with Wm. Tyler.

Fred Rose, Road Supt.

I don't know if this was something new, or something people needed to be reminded of.

In either event … well, it just seems so alien to the way we do things today. This, I take it, was in addition to jury duty. But you could get out of your road-work duty by paying $3.00 — about $44.89 in today's money, per the CPI Inflation Calculator.

And, of course, it didn't apply to women.

W.G. Haan School, 1960s

Today we have a couple of photos of the Ainsworth school, courtesy of the Allendorf family. Several members of that family attended the W.G. Haan school in the mid- to late 1960s, the time period to which these photos date.

First, the front entrance, in color!


(Click on images to enlarge)

… You have no idea how much I want to walk through that open door.

And then we have Mr. Horner, the sixth-grade teacher, standing next to what I assume is his car, beside the school. (A local vintage-car enthusiast tells me it's a 1968 Chevrolet Impala.)



Our contributor has this to say about Mr. Horner: "He was a wonderful teacher! He had pictures of both Pinky and Blue Boy in the room, and I can't ever see those pictures without remembering him."

I did a little searching of on-line newspapers to try to find out Mr. Horner's first name, but without success. (I did find a story about an Ainsworth grain elevator burglary in the late 1960s, and the obituary of John Paine of Valparaiso — born to Albion and Ethel Paine of Ainsworth in 1915 — which was depressing.)

Anyway — Mr. Horner, whatever your first name was and wherever you are now, you are remembered.

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[7/13/11 update] OK, we have a first name for Mr. Horner — Clinton (see Comments below).

Charles Borger at Work

(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Charles Borger working in his harness shop in later years.

The photo is undated, but it's timeless.

A Return and a Departure

Charles Lee was slowly recovering from his pneumonia, according to the News of May 2, and the same social column announced laconically: "Edward Sauter left this (Thursday) morning from Gary for camp."

Ed Sauter, Sr. was in his fifties, a bit old to be enlisting in the ranks, so it must have been Ed Jr., the baby of the family, now about 25 years old, who was off to prepare for war. It isn't clear whether he had volunteered or been drafted.

According to the draft card he'd filled out the previous year, Ed Jr. had been living in Gary, working for the American Sheet and Tin Plate Co. located there.

A couple weeks later, Charles Lee was doing much better. No word on how Ed Jr. was doing.


(Click on image to enlarge)


Sources:
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 2 May 1918.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 17 May 1918.
♦ World War I Draft Cards.

Charles Borger's Harness Shop, Exterior

(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Here we have a view of the exterior of Charles Borger's harness shop in Hobart.

This photo is not dated, and with it being so blurry, faded and splotched, you can't really get a lot out of it. That would be Charles with the beard, I suppose, and that little girl may be one of his daughters.

A Bullock Family Reunion

In early May 1918 the social columns reported that Oliver and Olga Bullock, along with their young son, Robert, were in Hobart for a visit — coming from the Panama Canal Zone. Oliver and his brother Gilbert both were employed by the U.S. government on the canal works. Oliver described his job as "electrical supervisor" of the Miraflores locks, on the Pacific side, while Gilbert worked on the Atlantic side.

With a month's leave from his job, Oliver and family traveled up via New Orleans, then took a turn west through the Rocky Mountains before arriving in Hobart.

Gilbert hadn't come with him, but their brother Asa was home on a visit at this time (as we've seen), so it was something of a family reunion. The two brothers hadn't seen each other, or the rest of their family, for three years.


Sources:
♦ "Asa Bullock Home After a Year Spent in the War Zone." Hobart News 25 Apr. 1918.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 2 May 1918.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 3 May 1918.
♦ WWI Draft Cards.

1882 Grand Trunk Railway Timetable

Fell off the no-timetables wagon again.

This poor little old thing was originally one big sheet, but it's already disintegrated into three parts, and those parts are crumpled and crumbling.

It doesn't mention Ainsworth, but one can hardly hope that a condensed international timetable would mention a one-horse podunk town where nobody in their right mind would want to go.

Anyway, for what it's worth, I scanned the old thing as best I could, and here it is, in pieces.


(Click on images to enlarge)



Check out the dining car. If the cuisine was like the décor, those Canadian passengers ate richly:

The New Captain Becomes Official

Draft 258 was deemed "most appropriate" for Co. K's fundraiser because — as I gather from the only synopsis I've been able to find — it was pro-war propaganda. It starred Mabel Taliaferro, whom I never heard of before.

Anyway, it went over well with the patriotic locals, and the Gazette reported that the benefit show had brought in $157.60 for Co. K.

Meanwhile, Charles W. Reeves' new rank became official. As the company's first lieutenant, he had risen to the rank of captain by default when Charles Allen resigned. Now the commander of the Indiana State Militia sent orders commissioning Reeves as captain and Walter MacPherson as first lieutenant. Franklin T. Fetterer retained his position as second lieutenant.

Charles Reeves was just 25 years old — the youngest captain in the state, according to the News — but he had training and experience. He had earlier been a member of the Georgia National Guard, and within the last couple of years had served on the Mexican border as a sergeant with Co. F of the Indiana National Guard.

He now commanded the 88 men of Co. K. Their number had fallen somewhat since the company's mustering-in; the News explained that a dozen former members had either enlisted in the regular military or relocated. Still, Co. K was the largest in Indiana, and Hobart the smallest town to have its own company, if we are to believe the Gazette.


Sources:
♦ Advertisement. Hobart Gazette 19 Apr. 1918.
♦ "Charles W. Reeves Promoted to Captain of Co. K, I.S.M." Hobart News 2 May 1918.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 3 May 1918.
♦ "New Company Commander." Hobart Gazette 3 May 1918.

July 4, 1876

(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

We've all seen this image before. It's a parade down Main Street in celebration of the centennial Independence Day.

I scanned a reproduction of the photo. They had the original at the museum as well, but it was so faded and battered, I thought this might work better. Maybe next year I'll try scanning the original.

All I recognize for sure in this photo are the Hobart House and the old mill, off in the distance. I say the "old mill," but in 1876 it was only about 30 years old.

Letter from an Army Hospital

Apparently the staff of Hobart High School's Aurora yearbook contacted Emma Gruel, now stationed at Camp Cody in New Mexico, and asked her to write something about her experiences there. She responded with this letter, which was printed in the 1918 yearbook.


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

No Class of 1918

Would you believe nobody from Ainsworth graduated with the Hobart High School Class of 1918?

But there were a few Ainsworth underclasspersons in that school, so I'm going to post their pictures.


(Click on images to enlarge)
All images in this post courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Here we have Willard Dorman, son of John and Ella Dorman whose farm is now the Indian Ridge Golf Course. Wilma Cullman was a Deep River girl; we've already taken notice of her triumph over disaster.




Here we have Edward Wollenberg, the second son of William and Adelphine Wollenberg, owners of the Ainsworth saloon. I don't know if Eddie will prove to be as talented as his older brother; thus far his only public performance has been on a church basketball team.




Grace Nelson, the younger daughter of Lovisa Chester Nelson, had just recently become an aunt.

Alice Paine was living on the old Bullock homestead with her parents, Albion and Ethel. She looks rather severe, doesn't she?


Sources:
♦ "Basket Ball Games at M.E. Gym Thanksgiving Evening." Hobart News 6 Dec. 1917.
♦ Hobart High School Aurora Yearbook, 1918.

Bird-Feeder-Raiding Deer of Ainsworth(Random Pointless Photo)

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At last I can say I've seen a deer's tongue.

Shot this photo through my front window. I watched this critter chow down for several minutes before I went out and chased it away. Bird seed is expensive!