I Say, "Jump," You Say, "Woof Woof"

(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society and Tom Rainford.

According to the notes with this photo, it was taken somewhere near Wheeler, Indiana, around May 1904. The man at right is Herman Rossow, son of Henry and Augusta Rossow, and brother of Ida Rossow Hendrix, whose grandson owns the original.

In 1904, Herman was about 22 years old. I can't find him in the 1900 census, but in 1910 he was living in Hobart in the same household with three sisters and a brother, and working as a driver for a brewery. (In As It Was Told To Me, Minnie Rossow Harms mentions that Augusta's daughters did not get along with her second husband, William Carey, whom she married in 1903; the young women moved out of the Carey home and got their own place in Hobart. In 1910 their brothers lived with them. All five siblings were then single, and Herman would remain so.)

The man at left, who has persuaded the dog to jump, is Herman's friend Perry Palmer. Perry was about 28 years old in 1904, married for some five years, father of three children (with more to come), earning his living as a bricklayer. He had moved his family from Hobart to Wheeler sometime between 1900 and 1910. Later they would move to Gary.

The photo below appears to have been taken in the same place on the same day.