"Practically All His Life"

Late in January 1919, Charles Maybaum, Jr. left his Ross Township home to move in with Arthur and Olive Weiler in Porter County. The Gazette noted that he had "spent practically all his life on the farm south of Ainsworth." Omitted from "practically all his life" were the first five years of it, spent in Germany where he was born, and the journey of over 4,000 miles that brought him to Ainsworth. Aside from that, then, let us say that he was an unadventurous homebody, at the age of 52 still a bachelor living in the old family home with his widowed mother, Caroline.

A week later comes news that gives us an idea of the reason for the move: the 76-year-old Caroline was sick, and had been for several weeks. She was under the care of her daughter, Hattie Sizelove. Hattie may have come to Caroline's house, or brought Caroline to her own; either way, apparently the old Maybaum household was disrupted enough to make Charles leave the home where he had spent practically all his life.


Sources: "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 31 Jan. 1919; 7 Jan. 1919.