Bruce McCabe

Since yesterday I mentioned someone who unexpectedly failed to show up in the 1920 census (Samuel Faulkner), today I'll just mention someone who did the opposite.

I had never heard of the surname McCabe in this area, so I was a little surprised when a Bruce McCabe popped up in the household of Herman and Minnie Harms in 1920. He was described as a "hired man," an 18-year-old orphan who did not know where his parents had been born.

Later I came across "The Harms Family of Hobart 1829-1992" and got Minnie's own explanation:

In September of 1917 we [Herman and Minnie Harms] sent for an orphan boy to live with us. He was 14 and his name was Bruce McCabe. He had a keen Irish sense of humor and lived with us until he was about 18 when he went to Detroit to work in the Ford factory for five dollars a day, the best wages in the area. He and his second wife Goldie later lived in Lafayette and came to visit our family many times throughout the years.

The 1910 census showed him living in the "children's home" in Lafayette, Indiana. (Two girls with the same surname also lived in the home.) That may have been where the Harmses "sent for" him. By Minnie's account, he left for Detroit in 1920 or '21. Sometime during the 1920s, Bruce married (his wife's identity unknown) and was widowed; in 1930 he was living in the household of his brother-in-law, William Brown, in Tippecanoe County, Indiana. That same year he married Golda Conn. A 1931 city directory shows Bruce and Golda living at 1728 N. 12th Street, Lafayette, Indiana, while Bruce worked as a driver for the Lafayette Ice & Coal Co.

♦    ♦    ♦
[9/8/13 update: The rest of this post has been corrected based on information from other family members.] In the steamer trunk were a couple of photos of Bruce McCabe.

In the photo below, Bruce is at left, taking off his cap.


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of E.H.

Herman Harms is standing next to him. The two girls at left in the middle row are Betty (possibly) and Bernice Harms; the third girl is unidentified. Sitting in the grass are (left to right) Herman Harms, Jr. ("Bud"), with brother Eldon almost hidden behind him, then Minnie Rossow Harms with her niece, Marge Rolfe, in her lap, and finally Norma Harms.

Here's another photo probably taken the same day. Bruce is again in back, at left.



The other people are (left to right) Herman Jr. ("Bud"), Eldon, Rheinhart and Herman Harms.

The photos date to about 1930. The photographer may have been Minnie's sister Ella Rossow Rolfe (mother of baby Marge).

These photos were taken on the Harms farm at 8842 Ainsworth Road. In the first photo, you can see part of the house in the background — I think that's the west side, so Ainsworth Road would be off to the right, not visible through all the flowers and trees.


Sources:
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ Ancestry.com. Lafayette, Indiana, City Directory, 1931.
♦ Social Security Death Index.