Mable and Harry and Flower Girl and Hat Guy

From the Schavey envelope collection.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Handwritten on the back of this photo: "(left) Mable ___? Breyfogle 1926(?)" That's what I transcribed, anyway. Now I can't remember if that blank line was a blank line in the original, or just illegible. And since nobody reads this thing, I don't have to be meticulous.

Yes, that's Mable Schavey Breyfogle, and we can recognize Harry Breyfogle beside her. As for the two unidentified, they are still unidentified, but I think we've seen them before as Flower Girl and Hat Guy. I'm pretty sure about Hat Guy, not so sure about Flower Girl.

Alma Sitzenstock and George Busselburg

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Alma Sitzenstock; undated, but possibly circa 1913.
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

This lovely young woman, the only daughter of Ernest (Sr.) and Emma Sitzenstock, the only sister of Ernest Jr., became Mrs. George Busselburg* sometime in November 1919. Exactly when, I can't tell, since the News says November 19, the Gazette says November 27, and the Indiana Marriage Collection is silent on the matter.**

So let us say, sometime in the latter half of November, the young folks went to Crown Point for a quiet wedding — quiet, I gather, since there were no reports of festivities, receptions, or honeymoons. The News simply noted that the newlyweds would "reside on the Sitzenstock farm adjoining the homestead."

The Sitzenstock farm lay just south of present-day U.S. 30, between Clay and Colorado Streets.


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Neither newspaper said a word about George's background. I myself have scarcely mentioned the Busselburg family — which makes sense, since they lived in Winfield Township. George's parents, Henry and Annie, were both German immigrants. They married in 1886 and owned land in Winfield Township as early as 1891. There they stayed for decades, farming and raising their family. George was their second son, born in January 1890. He would eventually have five brothers and two sisters, though I believe one of those sisters died in childhood.

This new Busselburg family that George and Alma have formed will probably show up more from now on, since they became a fixture in Ross Township and eventually moved to downtown Ainsworth. We've already seen a photo of one of their children, Marian, who attended the Ainsworth school.


_____________________
*Another name with a lot of variant spellings. I just chose one and I'm sticking with it.
**[2/25/2013 update] I've finally found them in the Indiana Marriage Collection, which gives the date as November 19, 1919. Perhaps I couldn't find them before because George's surname is mistakenly transcribed as Russellberg.


Sources:
♦ 1891 Plat Book.
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1908 Plat Map.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Busselberg-Sitzenstock." Hobart News 27 Nov. 1919.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 5 Dec. 1919.
♦ Social Security Death Index.

Girls With Swing

From the Schavey envelope collection.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

These two girls are unidentified. I can't really see a resemblance between either of these and Mable. Perhaps they are cousins or friends.

Both girls are nicely dressed, and both wear jewelry — necklaces and bracelets, and the girl at right even has rings.

This photo was probably taken in a photographer's studio: the decorated swing, the room devoid of furniture. Judging from the simplicity of their hairstyles and dresses, the giant hair bows and the low lace-up shoes, I'm inclined to date this to perhaps the early 1910s.

Meanwhile, At the Weilers' …

There were a whole lot of Weilers farming around Ainsworth, and I haven't yet figured out their relations to each other, if any.

One of them, Mrs. Mary Weiler, announced in the autumn of 1919 her intention to quit farming:


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This Weiler, I believe, was the widow of the Christian (Christ) Weiler who bought some Blachly land in 1912. Christ died May 28, 1916.



I am mystified by "Mrs. Louise Weiler of Chicago" — she sounds like the widow of a deceased son, but the only children recorded in the census are the four boys named in this obituary. If they had an older brother, he must have left home early, before the 1900 census. And he must have died before 1912, since Louis, when he married Martha Klemm in that year, was described as the eldest Weiler son. The youngest, Will, may have been the soldier lately returned from overseas.

On the 1908 plat map, I find more than one parcel labeled "C. Weiler," plus there was the 1912 purchase.


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From the directions in the sale notice, I think the sale happened at the southernmost parcel. The Vincent schoolhouse was well south of present-day U.S. 30.

Once the sale was over, Mary would lease the farm to her son George, who would carry on with farming, while Mary would "make her home with her children," in the cryptic words of the News.

♦    ♦    ♦
Next to Mary's public sale notice, above, ran a similar notice placed by Eugene Chandler. His sale, as we know, was in preparation for the move to his new farm.

Construction was still underway on the new farm. The News listed the buildings going up: "a modern brick house, barn, granary and chicken house." Eugene had even hired Lee & Rhodes to install a "Standard" electric lighting plant, to give his farm electricity at about half the cost of town power.

The new brick house, built by James Carpenter, Walter Boal and Willard Stevens, was now ready for the plasterers. The Halsted brothers were building the barn. Who had the honor of building the granary and chicken house is not recorded.


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I believe this is the Chandler farm as it appeared in 1926. I wonder if the lovely old brick house at 5501 S. Liverpool Road is the "modern brick house" that the Chandler family moved into?


Sources:
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1908 Plat Map.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1926 Plat Book.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 13 Nov. 1919; 20 Nov. 1919.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 14 Nov. 1919.
♦ "Public Sale." Hobart News 13 Nov. 1919.

Flower Girl and Hat Guy

From the Schavey envelope collection.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

No date, but looks like the same day as the other railroad romping … which would probably make it 1924. Flower Girl is dressed the same. We haven't seen Hat Guy before — that's definitely not Harry Breyfogle. Whoever it is, his expression seems to say, "In spite of my being so very handsome, I really don't care to have my picture taken."

Overrun with Hunters and Dogs

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This inhospitable notice, published on the front page of both local papers, was provoked by the area's growing population, as the News explained:

Farmers in this locality have become tired and disgusted with having their farms overrun with hunting parties with dogs, and have decided to put a stop to the practice. As the Calumet region grows, the hunters naturally increase until they have become a nuisance. A number of names appear in this issue of The News warning hunters to keep off their farms. It may be well for hunters to heed this notice or someone will pay a heavy fine.

♦    ♦    ♦
The "Births" column below the warning to hunters reports good news for some old friends, Charles and Amelia Gernenz — a new addition to the family. It's reported as a son, but later censuses seem to indicate it was in fact a daughter, Bertha.


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ "Births." Hobart Gazette 14 Nov. 1919.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 13 Nov. 1919.
♦ "Notice." Hobart News 13 Nov. 1919.
♦ "Warning to Hunters." Hobart Gazette 14 Nov. 1919.

Kissing? Who, Me?

From the Schavey envelope collection.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Handwritten on the back: "[illegible] Mable Breyfogle 1928(?)"

I swear that's the same driveway where we just saw those unidentified young folks kissing, and if Mable were dressed the same as that lip-locking lass, I'd say we had an ID … but she's not, and here she looks as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.

Armistice Day Anniversary

The first anniversary of Armistice Day brought thousands of people to downtown Hobart to celebrate the end of the war and the return of their soldiers — about 5,000, from Hobart itself, from neighboring farms and from nearby towns. The weather cooperated, with clear skies and mild temperatures.

In the afternoon, even before the main festivities, the town had a rare treat. A couple of pilots had been in the area taking "high-altitude" photographs for the government, and Harry Coons, president of Hobart's Commercial Club, had persuaded them to put on a little air show. Astonished schoolchildren were among those watching as the aircraft flew over the town and performed aerial stunts.

At 6:00 p.m., many businesses in Hobart shut down so that their owners and employees could join the fun — only the ice-cream parlors stayed open; and in the Watson building, the ladies in charge of feeding the crowds reported handing out some 4,000 plates between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. (And the food was free to the diners — paid for by subscriptions, or donated.)

After an hour and a half of eating, about 100 local men who had served in the late conflict began assembling in front of Odd Fellows Hall (Fourth and Main). They were in civilian dress, but each had been provided with a white ribbon, printed with the words: "Hobart Veteran, Armistice Day, 1919" in gold letters. These men, led by a Hobart musical band and four Civil War veterans carrying the American flag, marched the two blocks north to Community Hall (the former Hobart House).

There they halted, and they and the crowd pressing around them listened to an address by the Rev. A.H. Lawrence — only ten minutes of solemn speech, and then everything dissolved into merry-making. A Chicago vaudevillian provided comic relief; a quartet sang; the Hobart band played and young folks transformed the newly paved Main Street into an open-air dance hall. Later the dancing went indoors, to the polished floors in Community Hall and Odd Fellows Hall.

It was "a splendid demonstration of community pride and patriotism," said the Gazette, "not unlike the old Fourth of July celebrations held back in the 90's."

♦    ♦    ♦
The same issue of the Gazette brought us some news about our old friend, John Killigrew:

While workmen were digging for a sewer lead to the new house which John Killigrew is having built on Michigan avenue, on land purchased from Oscar Carlson, two large and handsome Indian tomahawks were unearthed. Mr. Killigrew feels proud of the recovery of the old relics.

(It also reported that the "Jolly Four," whose identity I hope to discover, planned to host a masquerade ball at Ainsworth on November 19.)

According to the following week's News, the new Killigrew bungalow was being built by Walter Boal and Willard Stevens, and was to have seven rooms. I don't know where it was, or is.


Sources:
♦ "Hobart Celebrates for Returned Soldiers." Hobart News 13 Nov. 1919.
♦ "Hobart Has Big Celebration." Hobart Gazette 14 Nov. 1919.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 20 Nov. 1919.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 14 Nov. 1919.

Flaming Youth

From the Schavey envelope collection.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Shameless!

Of course, their parents and grandparents and so on did the same thing … just not in front of a camera.

No ID on these brazen young folks, and no date. Judging by general appearances, I'd say 1920s.

Another Invalid

Like Charles Maybaum, an invalid who survived his mother less than a year, August Schultz, Jr. followed his father to the grave — but even more quickly, and at a younger age.

I have only this brief, confusing death notice to go by, which suggests that in spite of being an invalid August Jr. was not in the family home when he died.


From the Hobart Gazette of 7 Nov. 1919.

Wherever he may have died, we know where he is now: beside his father in Mosier Cemetery, and but for the dates of birth you might think the two stones marked one grave.


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♦    ♦    ♦
On a less depressing note, here's a story about Marshal Fred Rose, Sr., and a woman who was ready to kill for her sewing machine.


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From the Hobart Gazette of 7 Nov. 1919.

Wildflowers of Ainsworth: Ivy-Leaved Morning Glory

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Pretty flowers, hairy vines. Leaves deeply three-lobed. A member of the bindweed family, and I suppose if I don't pull it down it's eventually going to strangle that dwarf Alberta spruce it's climbing.

Hairy calyx, too.
 

Election and Expansion

I'm sure you're dying to know the results of that Hobart election I mentioned earlier, so here they are.


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From the Hobart News of Nov. 6, 1919.

Our own Hazard Halsted is Treasurer. (Deering Melin was one of Andrew Melin's sons.)

The same issue of the News carried an ad for the Ainsworth General Store, as the Goldmans held a sale to celebrate their expansion. Any excuse for a sale!



Whoever owned this copy of the newspaper did not feel the need to clip those coupons.

Harry at Work

From the Schavey envelope collection.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

On the back of this photo, someone has written: "Harry (right) 1918." Well, I believe Harry Breyfogle is in that picture, but I think he's the one on the left. And in 1918 Harry was about 15 years old; could anyone in that picture pass for 15? I don't know. Maybe he is at right and simply hasn't grown into his true Breyfogle mouth, which is so evident on his father, at left. Which is pure speculation on my part.

They all look dressed to work. This may be at home on the Breyfogle farm. But somehow, to me, this scene has a more industrial look.

The Volstead Act, and Bovine Genealogy

The big news was Hobart's upcoming election, but a small front-page item noted the passage, over a presidential veto, of the National Prohibition Act, also known as the Volstead Act.


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From the Hobart News of Oct. 30, 1919.

The 18th Amendment to the Constitution had been ratified back in January 1919; the Volstead Act provided its definitions and rules for enforcement. The State of Indiana, as we know, had been officially dry since April 1918 — and had been developing its bootlegging skills ever since. Prohibition-with-a-capital-P, when it took effect in January 1920, would simply mean that thirsty people around Ainsworth and Hobart could no longer make a short drive westward to the open conviviality of legal saloons in Illinois.

(Note the obituary of Anna Anderson — I'm wondering if the daughter it mentions was the same Tekla Anderson who was all over the glass-plate negatives, e.g., here, and here.)

♦    ♦    ♦
The previous week, at his Ross Township farm, William Lennertz was selling some distinguished cattle.


From the Hobart News of Oct. 23, 1919.

How do they come up with these names?? "Bossy" and "Elsie" not good enough?

I've largely ignored the Lennertz family of Ross Township, and I don't know why, except that I have to largely ignore some people, or this project would become unmanageable.

I believe this William was the son of Mat and Barbara Lennertz, born circa 1893, but I don't know for certain.

Wildflowers of Ainsworth: Hedge Bindweed

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"Oh, what a pretty morning glory!" said I when I first noticed this stuff in my privet hedge, and I let it grow all over. Only recently did I learn it was actually hedge bindweed.

I'm not the first to confuse it — one of its common names is wild morning glory.

It has arrow-shaped leaves with the two bases (opposite the point) squared off.



Other common names for this vine include old man's nightcap, devil's vine, hedge lily, and woodbine. — so that's woodbine, is it? Long ago when I learned a song (actually a Robert Burns poem set to music) whose second verse began:

Oft hae I roved by bonnie Doon
To see the rose and woodbine twine…

I didn't trouble myself to learn what woodbine actually was. I figured it only grew in Scotland anyway. I was wrong about that, too.

In The Secrets of Wildflowers, Jack Sanders includes this interesting tidbit:

Hedge bindweed turns its tip counterclockwise and away from the direction of the sun as it searches for a foothold, and winds that way once something is found. A botanist once discovered that if the plant is turned in another direction, it will die unless it can disengage itself and rewind in its natural, counterclockwise direction.

I suppose I had better go try to pull it out of my hedge, as my "pretty morning glory," left alone, may eventually smother the hedge. But I'm not terribly fond of that hedge anyway.

The Pollyanna Girls

In September 1919, Evelyn Triebess was living in Chicago when she and some high-school classmates formed a club called the "Pollyanna Girls."



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Images from the Triebess scrapbook, courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Pollyanna had been published in book form in 1913. I expect Evelyn and her friends had read it when they were about the same age as the title character (11 years old), and were quite sincere in their admiration of an outlook on life that nowadays we tend to think of as unrealistic if not slightly annoying.

"I'm Always Chasing Rainbows," from Oh Look! (1918 recording).

Mable, Unstable

From the Schavey envelope collection.

It's not my fault if you feel dizzy looking at this picture. The house is melting in the original. I can only suppose something went wrong with the film.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

A handwritten note on the back identifies this as "Mable 1920." Which would mean she was still a Schavey, not yet a Breyfogle.

Wild Mushrooms of Ainsworth: Blusher

Here we go with another very tentative mushroom identification. I think this is a blusher.


(Click on image to enlarge)

Its scientific name is Amanita rubescens. Of course I, as a Dorothy Sayers fan, got excited upon learning that — but a little more research taught me that the European species differs from the North American, so this may not be exactly the mushroom that played a central role in The Documents in the Case, though, like its European cousin, it can easily be confused with a deadly poisonous species.

The name "blusher" refers to the tendency of its skin to bruise reddish. I took an immature specimen and bruised its stem, just to see:



Looks somewhat reddish to me. That photo is interesting also in that it shows the partial veil stretching from the outer edge of the cap to the stem, covering the immature gills. As the cap expands, the veil ruptures and remains as a ring around the stem.



The stem thickens toward the base to form a club shape.

The Calls of Ainsworth

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John and Lillian (Buchfuehrer) Call. Undated.
Image courtesy of Norma Buchfuehrer Collins.

Just two years had passed since Lillian Buchfuehrer left her Ainsworth-area home with her parents; now, in the autumn of 1919, she left her Hobart home with her new husband, John Call.

According to the Gazette, the groom's parents, residents of South Bend, Indiana, "had at one time lived at Ainsworth." That's news to me! I never heard of them before. Their Ainsworth residence may have been pre-1899, or perhaps they slipped in and out so quietly and briefly that they escaped newspaper attention.

Lillian, now about 26, had spent most of 1919 working as a clerk at Scheidt & Keilman's store (the Bee Hive) in Hobart. As for the 24-year-old groom, he had spent the past 16 months in the Army, which had taken him to France and Germany, and brought him back only about a week before the wedding.

The quiet ceremony took place on the afternoon of Saturday, October 18, at the home of the Rev. E.R. Schuelke, witnessed by the bride's brother and sister, William and Augusta. Afterwards, the Buchfuehrers hosted a small reception and dinner at their home.

On Sunday, the young couple left for Harvey, Illinois, where they intended to live, as John held a position with the "car works" there. I do not know how long that lasted, but by January 1920 they had come back to Hobart to live, and John was working in a steel mill.


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Call-Buchfuehrer." Hobart Gazette 24 Oct. 1919.
♦ "Call-Buchfuehrer." Hobart News 23 Oct. 1919.

"Our Farm"

(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

"Our farm" was the Triebess farm. This photo comes from a little scrapbook put together by Evelyn Triebess after the family returned to Chicago, recording the events of her last year in high school. That scrapbook is now at the Hobart Historical Society museum.





So Evelyn spelled it "Triebes," but if you think I'm going to go back through this blog and correct every spelling of "Triebess," you overestimate me.

Unfortunately the scrapbook contains almost nothing relating directly to Ainsworth, aside from the photo of "our farm," which tells us very little — no date, and the young woman in the photo is not even identified, though I would guess it's Evelyn herself. I don't know where the orchard would have been. The Triebess land roughly coincides with John Wood Elementary School and the Christian Assembly church on the north side of 73rd, and, on the south side, Calumet Orthopedics and Prosthetics, and part of Veterans Memorial Park.

Wildflowers of Ainsworth: Flower-of-an-Hour Gone to Seed

I'm sure you all remember that flower-of-an-hour that hadn't quite opened yet, back in September 2009. This year I have a marvelous specimen in my flower bed, so I can get a photo of an opened blossom, as well as seed pods.


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I think the immature seed pods, with their translucent skins and decorative veining, are almost as pretty as the flowers, and goodness knows they last longer.



The seed pod, when it matures, splits open from the top to reveal several interior pods, like peapods, that also split open to spill out the seed nuggets.

Windmill On Its Way (Random Pointless Photos)

Now and then a windmill train will pass by on the Canadian National tracks: eastbound, loaded with parts for an electricity-generating windmill, heading for some wind farm somewhere, I suppose.

Here's one of the arms.


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It's hard to show how gigantic these things are.

Look! Down on the Ground!

From the Schavey envelope collection.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Handwritten on back: "Mable & Harry (right) 1923(?)" I don't doubt that's Mable and Harry, but I wonder about the date. The first photo I posted from the collection, dated 1924, showed them wearing (so far as I can tell) the same clothes, in roughly the same setting. On how many occasions did these people hang around the railroad tracks in their Sunday best?

Harry seems to be pointing out something on the ground, saying, "Look at that!" — perhaps that large piece of paper.

Mable had only one sister, Loretta, born 1914; if this is 1923 or 1924, that little girl at left could be Loretta. But that's just a wild guess. I have no clue who the woman in the plaid skirt is.

The configuration of railroad tracks and structures ahead of them doesn't look quite right to be southeast of the Pennsy Depot, so I'm in the dark about that too.

Wildflowers of Ainsworth: Japanese Knotweed

Intruder alert!


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These tiny white blossoms belong to an invasive species, Japanese knotweed.

This specimen was found in Deep River County Park, with plenty of company. Japanese knotweed spreads rapidly to establish colonies that crowd out native plants. It is very difficult to kill. I know — I have some of this stuff growing around my house. It was already growing there when I bought the house, and not knowing what it was, I let it alone, thinking it was rather pretty … until I noticed its tendency to take over all available space. Now I've got it pretty well confined to the crawlspace under my porch. Any leaf that dares poke out through the plastic lattice blocking off the crawlspace gets yanked off; any new plant that sprouts from the roots creeping outward under the soil gets sprayed with poison-ivy killer.

Japanese knotweed is characterized by zig-zagging stems that are hollow inside, with slightly swollen joints where each leaf sprouts off.

The Commute Was Killing Him

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I believe this was the Julius Triebess farm, as it appeared in 1926 Plat Book.

For over two years, Julius Triebess had been a commuter: a trip to Chicago, 24 hours as a fireman, then a trip to Ainsworth and 24 hours as a farmer. It was a life of perpetual tiredness. (I know; I myself used to commute between Chicago and Ainsworth.) After two years and a few months, Julius couldn't take it anymore. He had to choose whether to be a fireman in Chicago or a farmer in Ainsworth.

He chose Chicago, but not so completely as to sell his land. His livestock and his farming equipment, yes …

… but the land he would hang on to, renting it out to a couple of brothers, Charles and Lee Harris, who up until then had been renting the Albert Halsted farm northwest of Ainsworth.

And so Julius and Sophie, and their two teenaged children (Evelyn and Raymond), would be living at 6936 S. Michigan Avenue in Chicago in January 1920, when the census came around.

♦    ♦    ♦
The Gazette of October 31, 1919, aside from its comments on Julius, mentions a few other people we know, or wish we knew:



I must have missed some news about Earl Blachly: as far as I knew, he was living on his own farm, having moved back there in 1914. Apparently that didn't last long! But now he's going to try farming once again.

"Miss Chester" would be Jennie, now about 21 years old. Her position must have been in one of Hobart's elementary schools, as I don't see her among the high-school faculty in the 1920 Aurora yearbook.

As for the "Jolly Four," I don't know who they were, but I wish I did.


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1926 Plat Book.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 16 Oct. 1919.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 31 Oct. 1919.
♦ "Public Sale." Hobart News 30 Oct. 1919.

Wildflowers of Ainsworth: Solomon's Seal Berries

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This year I have Solomon's seal growing in my own field. Or maybe I've had it all along, and just never noticed it, because it's lurking in an overgrown area. Not precisely the same species I posted before; otherwise these berries would be hanging in pairs, not groups. That photo from Deep River County Park shows Polygonatum biflorum, but I think what I've got here is Polygonatum commutatum.



The berries are poisonous to humans, but according to what I've read, birds and bears like to eat them (the berries, I mean), and suffer no ill effects.

Mable in a Buggy

From the Schavey envelope collection.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

On the back of this tattered and faded photograph, someone has written: "Mable Schavey Breyfogle – 1921(?)" The question mark is in the original, which must have been written later, since, in 1921, she was Mable Schavey.

The young woman at left certainly looks like Mable, so I suppose the question is about the exact date. If it's off, I don't think it's off by much. The fact that they are in a buggy doesn't rule out the 1920s; people still used horse-drawn buggies and wagons into the 1930s and even 1940s, or so I am told. The style of their clothing looks pretty much consistent with 1921.