"Gangrenous Appendicitis"

Back on the Chester farm, the peaceful June of 1921 ended with an attack of appendicitis:


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From the Hobart Gazette 1 July 1921.

"The young man had been hard at work all day Saturday previous and had been sick but about six hours," according to the News, which gave his condition the scary name of "gangrenous appendicitis."

But when Charles and Constance brought their son home on July 6, just a week and a half after his surgery, he was "reported in fine condition."


Sources:
♦ "Additional Local News." Hobart Gazette 8 July 1921.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 30 June 1921; 7 July 1921
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 1 July 1921.

Milkweed Tussock Moth Larvae of Ainsworth

I was checking a milkweed for Monarch larvae. Found these guys instead.


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They are going to grow up to be Milkweed Tussock Moths.

The Milk House

The story about the new Gruel barn in Monday's post mentioned a plan for a new milk house as well, "built of hollow tile … 34x36 feet." That reminded me that I have a picture I haven't posted yet, which comes from the "John Gruel Farm" envelope found among Lillie Newman Barnes' keepsakes, and which may be of that milk house.


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Image courtesy of Diane Barnes.

That looks like hollow tile to me, and I suppose the width could be 34 feet, especially if you were measuring across the center of the interior. Not a positive ID, but possible.

The marvelous new barn is almost completely hidden behind this possible milk house — you can just see the top of the silo on the north side of the barn, and one of the cupolas.

When I was out there last spring photographing the former site of the barn, I took a picture of the shed that now stands approximately where the (possible) milk house stood.



I have spent a lot of time since then trying to convince myself that it's the same building, just with a lot of remodeling. I haven't quite succeeded, but I shall keep trying.

For Stud Service, Go to Mike O'Hearn's House

We haven't heard from our old friend Mike O'Hearn since 1918. Now we find him offering the stud services of a golden sorrel stallion — apparently at his own property, where you venture at your risk.


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From the Hobart Gazette 24 June 1921.

In the next column, we get some details about the Gruel cow barn, which has been under construction for nearly a month.

Belly Up to the Bar

Here are some unidentified men enjoying a glass of beer served by an unidentified bartender in an unidentified bar at an unknown date. It's still a great picture.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society and Tom Rainford.

Since it's from the Rainford collection, one of those men might be Herman or Louis Rossow (Ida's brothers), but I can't say I recognize anyone.

Abscess on the Brain

I can't find the Harold Guernsey, Otis' son, in the 1920 census — not even in Montana, which is where his brother William had to go to fetch him when he became dangerously sick in June of 1921. Harold was about 21 years old at this time.


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Images from the Hobart News 23 June 1921.

All the other news on this page is much more pleasant, including an ice-cream social at the home of Arthur and Mary Strong, south of Deep River; and in Crown Point, a party for Elmer Bullock's 18th birthday.

In the left-hand column we find notices of an upcoming show based on the popular comic strip, The Gumps. The fact that it would be held under a "big rainproof tent" is alarming to those of us who know what waterproofed tents could do when they caught fire. But no reports of disaster came out of "Henpecked Andy" in this case.

Nolte-Wasy Barn

Continuing our look at the 1947 photos of the former Nolte farm after it passed into the hands of the Wasy family, we come to this large, impressive barn.


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Images courtesy of Chester Wasy.

I wonder if this relates to the long concrete floor you can still find among the trees between Big Maple Lake and the Deep River? But again, there was plenty of time for other construction between 1947 and … whenever the Lake County Parks Dept. bought this property.

The Shadow of the Speedway

The Hobart Historical Society museum has on display a gigantic aerial photo of Hobart dated 1967. Seriously, this thing is about seven feet high and wide.

Although by 1967 the Hobart Speedway was long out of use, on that photo you can still see its shadow in the fields south of Cleveland Avenue. This is probably the sort of thing that could not be seen from ground level, only from the air.

Here is a photo I took yesterday of that part of the gigantic aerial view.



Here it is with labels:



You can see the whole set of images I took, trying to get a good shot, here.

Wildflowers of Ainsworth: Water Horehound

Found growing in the low ground beside the Canadian National tracks.


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The flowers are tiny (less than ¼" across), white with purple streaks, and grow in the axils.



The leaves on the upper part of the stalk are toothed. Further down, they are deeply lobed.



I can't find much information about this plant. Its cousin, common horehound, gets all the press.

"Camp Grounds in Much Favor"

The Cleveland Avenue campground's first summer was proving its value to travelers.


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From the Hobart Gazette 10 June 1921.


How I wish I had the picture taken May 10, 1921:


From the Hobart Gazette 17 June 1921.

(Also: Wood-Rose genealogy revealed in the "Local Drifts"!)


Here a Gary newspaper mentions a Chicago newspaper's praise of the Hobart campground:


From the Hobart News 23 June 1921.

(Also, the obituary of William Scharbach, Sr.)


Local people found the campground a convenient and pleasant spot for outings, too, and Augustana Lutheran Church held its annual picnic there on June 30, 1921.


From the Hobart Gazette 8 July 1921.

The "Local Drifts" column of the same issue noted the entrepreneurial spirit of the McAfees' 15-year-old son, Warren:

Warren McAfee has established a refreshment stand near the park entrance, and is meeting with very good success supplying tourists with refreshments. His stand is also well patronized by campers.

Harms Road

From the Lester Harms collection.

Harms Road is an odd little stretch of two-lane blacktop just south of Route 30. It cuts diagonally across the countryside to connect two regular east-west section roads, E. 83rd and E. 89th. Back in the old days (circa 1930s, perhaps later) it was known as the Sitzenstock Road in honor, I believe, of the family of Ernest and Emma Sitzenstock, whom we find on the 1908 Plat Map owning a farm that straddled the road just as it dove southwest from present-day E. 83rd Ave. Its name was changed in honor of Lester and Mathilda "Sue" Harms, who owned 80 acres at the junction of Colorado St. and the Sitzenstock road at the time the road names were being formalized and set — well, not in stone, but on street signs and maps, I suppose. Why them, instead of any of the other landowners along that road? Perhaps they had been there longer than anyone else, but if that's the case then the street name must have been assigned sometime after 1950, when the Sitzenstocks still owned their old farm.


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From the 1950 Plat Book.

Or maybe "Sitzenstock" wouldn't fit onto a street sign.

Anyway, today our selection from the Lester Harms collection is an undated aerial view of the farm that gave Harms Road its name.


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Image courtesy of E.H.

We are looking northwest. Lester's farm is in the foreground, with Harms Road running in front of it, horizontally across the picture. Beyond it you can see Colorado Street. The little collection of buildings and trees on the west side of Colorado is the farm of William and Louise Prochno. Their daughter, Mathilda, after losing her first husband (Noland White), would become Lester's second or third wife — I am really confused at this point over how many times Lester was married and to whom.

Today, Lester's former house and the big barn are still standing. Maybe some of the other outbuildings are, too, but I'm not sure. Nothing is left of the Prochno buildings.

Saloon Building to Come Down

The "dilapidated structure" that is the subject of this Times article is the Sauter saloon building. The work begun last fall has long since been abandoned. The building has been sitting empty, with a big hole in the roof and an unlocked door, so nature and vandals have been free to do as they please. Now it's a wreck. Historic — 115 years old — but a wreck.

Since I moved to Ainsworth, we've lost the blacksmith shop and the general store. The train depot and the original school were gone before I got here. Now the saloon is about to go. Ainsworth is disappearing.

Visiting the Swamp Milkweed (Random Pointless Photos)

Yesterday I noticed that this swamp milkweed near my garden had a couple of visitors. Up on the blossoms, this guy:


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I think that's an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, but I'm no butterfly expert.


And down on the leaves, this caterpillar:



… which I think is someday going to be a Monarch butterfly.


Aside from being tasty, the swamp milkweed blossoms are just so darn pretty.

On the Ainsworth Stone Road

We know it as Grand Boulevard or State Road 51, but to the 1920 census enumerator it was the "South Hobart Road to Ainsworth," and to editor of the Hobart News, writing in 1921, it was the "Ainsworth stone road." Edwin and Carry Humes had been living in a rented house along that road, with their four children, when the 1920 Census recorded them. In June 1921 they bought that house — the "Hettie Ryan residence," which was in Hobart Township, but since the plat maps don't show parcels of three acres, I don't know exactly where.

Further south on the same road, in Ross Township, the Grabowskis continued their improvements to the old Carlson place. My current theory is that the red brick house on the west side of S.R. 51, on the north bank of the Deep River, is the old Carlson place, but that's just my current theory.

Also, the Yellowstone Trail got re-routed through the heart of Hobart …


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"Local and Personal," Hobart News 16 June 1921.

… and a Buick report.

On the Water Wagon

From the steamer trunk.


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Images courtesy of E.H.

This card was mailed in 1913, when the phrase "on the water wagon" and its variations were already in common parlance when alcohol was being discussed — as it was so often in those days.

Someone sent this card to Herman Harms, but I don't know who.



Herman did not have a little sister. The handwriting and the general style don't look like Minnie Rossow's, and as for signing her initials "M.H." — that was far in the future. I can only suppose that Herman had some cousin or friend in Chicago whom he treated like a little sister.

Auto Mayhem Report

Side by side in the Hobart Gazette of June 3, 1921, two happy escapes, and one sad ending:


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The story on the left mentions the names without explanation, as if the Gazette's readers should know them, but I can't identify those exact people.

As for poor Dan Slachelska, he was indeed buried at Porter County's expense, in Crown Hill Cemetery. "It is said," the Gazette commented, "he possessed no means nor friends to defray burial expenses" — or to buy a marker for his grave, apparently, as none was found by the Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society's readers. Unless some family or friends later turned up to claim his remains, perhaps he sleeps there anonymously to this day. ("Additional Local News," Hobart Gazette 10 June 1921.)

Update to Land Ownership Page

I have added to my Land Ownership page (under "Pages" in the right-hand column of this blog) scans of Ross and Hobart Townships taken from:

(1) 1950 Map of Lake County, Indiana Showing Ownerships compiled by Samuel E. Brownsten, Lake County Surveyor and Engineer ("1950 Plat Book"). This plat book is so big that I had to scan each township in sections.

(2) Lake County Indiana Plat Book & Index of Owners. Town & Country Publishing Co., Inc. (La Porter, Ind.), 1972 ("1972 Plat Book"). Bless the author's heart, he/she managed to fit each township on an 8.5" x 11" page!

Jackson Hendrix

From the Rainford collection.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society and Tom Rainford.

We've seen "Jack" before in a group photo; now here he is on his own, at about four years of age, circa 1915.

He was the first child born to his parents, Charles and Ida (Rossow) Hendrix.