The Housekeeper's Social Life

The Nolte brothers' housekeeper, Sarah Read, had a more active social life than they did — which isn't saying much. In the summer of 1919, I suppose you could attribute the Noltes' quietness to grief over the death of their younger brother, but then they've been like that all their lives thus far. August 1919 brings two stories about Sarah's social life, and not a word about the Noltes'.

Sarah Read was a widow. She and her husband, William, had been married in England in 1881 and had come to the U.S. around 1889 (when William was 53 and Sarah 43). By 1900 they were in the Hobart area, farming in a small way on rented land near the Fox farm.

William died in September 1910. I do not know when Sarah joined the Nolte household, but the first mention I hear of her being there is this, in the Gazette of August 22, 1919: "Mrs. Wm. Read of near Ainsworth visited with relatives in and around Hobart this week." (I'm reading a lot into "near Ainsworth.")

If the Reads had any children, I don't know about them. Sarah did, however, have a sister, as we learn from this article in the next week's Gazette:


(Click on image to enlarge)

Ann Jeffery (or Jeffrey) and husband John were in Hobart as early as 1880.

That obituary is a lot of newspaper space to devote to someone with a very tenuous connection to Hobart; I suppose it is evidence of the sisters' love for their brother-in-law, or pride in him.

♦    ♦    ♦
Speaking of tenuous connections, here's a story about an early encounter Louis Dunham had with a criminal:


(Click on image to enlarge)


Sources:
♦ 1880 Census.
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ "Additional Local News." Hobart Gazette 22 Aug. 1919.
♦ Indiana WPA Death Records Index.
♦ "Obituary." Hobart Gazette 29 Aug. 1919.
♦ "Pickpocket Caught." Hobart Gazette 22 Aug. 1919.