Darley Champion Diesel Pumper

OK, I could have sworn I posted this a long time ago, but I can't find it in the blog so I must conclude that I'm losing my mind.

This is an advertisement that ran in the March 1970 issue of Fire Engineering magazine, showing off what a fine piece of equipment W.S. Darley & Co. had sold to the Ainsworth-Deep River Fire Department.


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From the Ainsworthiana Collection.

Emil Pearson Update

Remember Emil Pearson from those early-20th-century glass-plate negatives? — well, now we have a few photos, and a little information, from his later years, which I've added to his first appearance here.

Scene on Lake George

This is a reproduction of a postcard:


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I don't know where the photo was taken. That seems like a lot of mud you'd have to walk through just to get your boat out onto that sluggish-looking water.

I'm more interested in the identity of the photographer. This is not the first image I've seen with that "M.L. Photo" inscription, and each such inscription has a number below it, which unfortunately does not seem to be the year the photo was taken. "M.L." may be the photographer's initials, but I don't know what they stand for.

Two Old-Timers

And now we lose two old-timers.


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From the Hobart Gazette 15 Apr. 1921.

Jeremy Parker's name is given as Josiah in the News, but perhaps that was the second "J." Here is J.J. Parker's land in Hobart Township, 1908:



I believe there was once a Parker School on the northeast corner of the Liverpool-Old Ridge intersection, and nowadays there is a Parker Road in the north part of the old farm — which may be coincidence; I don't know. The nameless widow mentioned in the obituary was born Cornelia Hutton, who had married J.J. in 1876.

And southwest of Ainsworth, on the farm formerly belonging to Benjamin Case, Dayton T. Case lost his wife, née Eliza Jane "Jennie" Toothill. They had married in 1881. (Dayton was Benjamin's nephew, the son of Benjamin's brother, William.)

I suppose this is the "farm near Merrillville" where Jane was born and raised:


From the 1874 Plat Map.

So it's now part of Calumet Park Cemetery.

Dayton and Jane's two daughters were their only children (to survive infancy, anyway). The elder daughter, Bessie, married Archie Brooks in 1916; they lived in Hobart and he worked at a steel mill. In 1914 Ada had married Paul Henning (brother of Elsie Henning Nelson). They farmed rented land in Ross Township — to judge by the 1920 census, somewhere south of Ainsworth.


Sources:
♦ 1874 Plat Map.
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1908 Plat Map.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Death of Mrs. Case." Hobart Gazette 15 Apr. 1921.
♦ "Funeral of Josiah Parker Held Sunday Afternoon." Hobart News 14 Apr. 1921.
♦ "Funeral of Mrs. D.T. Case Will be Held Saturday Afternoon." Hobart News 14 Apr. 1921.
♦ Indiana Marriage Collection.
♦ "J.J. Parker Dies April 7." Hobart Gazette 15 Apr. 1921.

Grand Trunk Crossing, 1958

While I don't know the location of this crossing, I know it wasn't Ainsworth. That much is obvious from the overpass at the right.


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But cover up the right side with your hand, suspend your disbelief, and you might think you're looking at the Randolph Street crossing in 1958 … which may have been called the Springman Road crossing back then. Gravel road, no gates, no lights, little traffic; barns and fields, and a steam engine just passing through.

The original is marked "May 12, 1958." I am told that the car in the picture is a 1957 Ford.

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Ainsworth has had a rash of stopped freight trains lately. Most of the time I don't bother slogging through the snow to photograph any graffiti. And when I do, either the graffiti isn't very good or I can't manage to focus my camera.

Here's Raildog, who says, "Hi Mom."



From an intermodal train, we get uninspired scrawlings about a coal train in Jackson, Mississippi …



… and a sad willow.



I believe intermodal trains have the second-worst graffiti on the roads.



The worst graffiti of all is to be found, or not found, on coal trains.

In other news, work is progressing very slowly.

A Dachshund Named Tippy

The internet is not taking a break, and through its magic some delightful tidbits about Louise Foreman have fallen from the sky into my lap.

Gateway Motel

During this hiatus, I am going to try to post something weekly (or weakly) so I don't forget how to blog.

And so I present to you the Gateway Motel.


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It looks as if it's in the middle of nowhere. It was at the junction of U.S. 30 and Broadway, which perhaps was the middle of nowhere at the time. (This postcard wasn't used. If I had to guess at a general timeframe, I'd say late 1950s.) But it had Baity's Motel and Restaurant for a neighbor, if their timelines overlapped.

From the back we learn that this motel offered not only central heat and TV, but private baths. Unlike the Cozy Camp.