Marriages and Other Transitions

Two young people with Ainsworth connections; two marriages.

After the coal-gas incident in 1917, William Gernenz was lucky to have a life to pledge to his bride in September 1920.

And Mildred Blachly had grown up on a farm near Ainsworth, a descendant of local farming families. Her grandparents were (the late) Morgan and Amelia Blachly, her parents Walter and Eva (Harper) Blachly.


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In spite of Anna Wesley's family being "well known people residing south of Ainsworth," I have not seen fit to mention them yet in the blog. I don't even have much on them in my notes. Let us hope this is because they lived quietly happy lives, not because I missed something juicy. It does appear that Anna's father, John, had lost his first wife (name unknown). In 1898 he married the 20-year-old Ida Sonntag, who became stepmother to John's three boys, the oldest of whom was about 13. Ida went on to bear him two daughters, Anna and Theresia. The Wesley land lay mostly at the intersection of (present-day) E. 83rd Ave. and Randolph Street — 40 acres on the northwest corner and 30 acres on the southeast corner, with another 20-acre parcel further south on Randolph. (Anna's oldest half-brother, Edward, had married Martha Sonntag's sister, Selma, in 1906.)

And so the newlywed Gernenzes settled down to farming near Ainsworth, and the young Kostbades took up residence in Valparaiso, washing their hands of both farming and Ainsworth.

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Another kind of transition — from life to death, or from death to life, by Frances Springman Schavey, without whom there would have been no Schavey envelope.



This obituary from the Gazette is a little confused — it was six sons and two daughters who survived her. [7/26/2013 update: more than a little confused, as it got her parents wrong too. Correction here.]

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Lastly, a mundane sort of transition: Amelia and May Blachly moved, yet again.


(Click on image to enlarge)

The Gazette described Amelia's new house as "opposite the Hobart Lumber Co." (which was on the west side of Main, where the "lumber" part of Hobart Lumber is now). Two weeks early, Amelia had sold her home on Fourth Street, described as the former A.C. Thompson house, to one John Walsh.

Also note the item that mentions a couple of Dr. Clara Faulkner's relations by marriage. But Dr. Clara wasn't married anymore — not if I'm reading the 1920 census correctly. Sometime after the 1910 census, her husband, Samuel, vanished. I can't find him anywhere. I was hoping to see something in the local newspapers about the divorce (or death, if not divorce), but I haven't; either I missed it, or the incident was treated with unusual discretion.


Sources:
♦ 1891 Plat Book.
♦ 1908 Plat Map.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Gernenz-Wesley." Hobart News 30 Sept. 1920.
♦ "Hobart Boy Marries." Hobart Gazette 1 Oct. 1920.
♦ Indiana Marriage Collection.
♦ "Kostbade-Blachly." Hobart News 30 Sept. 1920.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 16 Sept. 1920; 30 Sept. 1920.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 26 Oct. 1906; 8 Oct. 1920.
♦ "Mrs. Schavey Dies in Chicago." Hobart Gazette 1 Oct. 1920.