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.]

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