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.

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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.