The Death of Claus Ziegler

Since coming to this country from Germany some 35 years earlier, Claus Ziegler had spent most of his time in the Lake Station-Hobart-Ainsworth area, but in September 1917 he moved to south Chicago. As a former saloonkeeper, he may have been motivated by Indiana's going dry, or perhaps the move was a concession to his health: he had developed heart trouble in 1916 and could no longer work much. He had two brothers in south Chicago, and had lived there with his second wife, Mary, before coming to northwest Indiana.

His heart trouble carried him off suddenly after Sunday dinner on August 18, 1918. He was 62 years old.

His widow held the funeral on Wednesday at her Chicago home, assisted by Claus' "brothers" in the local Odd Fellows lodge, then she sent his remains to Hobart on the milk train. A number of Hobart Odd Fellows turned out to escort Claus on his last journey — to Crown Hill Cemetery, where we've already seen his grave marker and family monument.

Claus had no surviving biological children, but on an earlier trip to the old country, he and Mary had more or less adopted a niece, Minnie Ziegler, bringing her back to live with them in Hobart. In 1915 she married James W. Harrington, and they were now settled in Gary.

The Ziegler name will live on for as long as people transfer property in Ziegler's Addition to Hobart.


Sources:
♦ "Death Comes to Three Homes During the Past Week." Hobart News 22 Aug. 1918.
♦ "Death of Former Citizen." Hobart Gazette 23 Aug. 1918.
♦ Indiana Marriage Collection.