Fox and Harms

John Harms grew up on the Harms homestead east of Ainsworth. In 1901, at the age of 24, he married Sophia Schavey. By 1910, it appears he had moved his wife and young son, Lester, to Valparaiso, while he worked as a railroad baggageman. (I say "it appears" because we have to allow for a couple of errors on the census-taker's part to conclude that this little family is the one we want.) But in August 1919 he bought the land that would become his lifelong home.


(Click on images to enlarge)

Both newspaper accounts agree that the parcel was 40 acres, so I don't know how to account for the fact that it looks smaller than that in the 1926 plat book.



The 1891 plat book shows the parcel as being about 35 acres. Even then it was owned by the Foxes (John and his wife, Anna), but I have not been able to find them in the census earlier than 1900, when John was 50 years old, Anna 44, and they farmed that land with the help of their 20-year-old son, William.

The spring mentioned in the article was the only source of water for the house when John and Sophia Harms bought it. There was no running water in the house — you had to carry it up from the springhouse. Nor was there an indoor bathroom, or a septic tank. The Harmses remodeled the house to include those modern conveniences.

I am told (by the same person who told me the above) that the Fox-Harms house, which stood at 1722 East Cleveland Avenue, was demolished just a few years ago.

I have a couple photos of bits of the Fox-Harms house, accidentally taken while someone was photographing his beloved cars. The first is undated, but must be from 1957 or later. The second is from 1964.


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images from a private collection.




Sources:
♦ 1891 Plat Book.
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1926 Plat Book.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ Indiana Marriage Collection.
♦ "John Harms Buys John Fox Forty Acres Just East of Town." Hobart News 14 Aug. 1919.
♦ Untitled social column. Hobart Gazette 22 Aug. 1919.