Requiem for a Roadhouse

(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News 8 Dec. 1921.

I wish I knew where the "first bend after you leave the Ridge Road" was. Elsewhere, the Gazette gave the Berghoff's location as "on the Chicago Road [i.e., Old Ridge Road], near Gary corporation," and added: "Former operators at first operated a gambling joint in the building as the rear of the Inn, which recently burned, but City Marshal Rose put a stop to gambling there before the building burned."

The fire was not the end of the trouble; as the new year opened, the Berghoff closed.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News 5 Jan. 1922.

It was fun while it lasted, one supposes.


Additional Source: "Berghoff Inn Closed." Hobart Gazette 6 Jan. 1922.

Rose and Charlie

Here is Rose and her son, Charles … the second great trouble of her life.


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

According to the 1900 Census and the WWI Draft Cards, Charlie was born in September 1882, a couple of months before Rose's 20th birthday. Here he looks perhaps as much as a year old, so the photo probably dates to 1883.

Rose's expression strikes me as determined, even defiant, and small wonder: she was facing down convention as a single mother. Around the age of 19, Rose had become romantically involved with a man (name unknown), and she got pregnant. The usual solution to that problem in those days was a quick marriage to the father of the child. But marriage wasn't possible in this case; the father was already married. And with her own father a widower, Rose could not even try to preserve her respectability, as Jennie Ols may have, by letting people believe the child was her new sibling.

Of all the other alternatives, she chose the least unpleasant. She stayed in her home, gave birth, and set about raising her son, without pretense. Her father and her sister stood by her, apparently, but I can only imagine the gossip that went on behind her back — maybe even name-calling to her face — and some degree of ostracism felt by all the Hendrickses. From what I've heard of Rose, she was headstrong, decisive, lean and energetic, and could swear like a sailor; whether those qualities predated her trouble, I don't know. But even with a strong personality, a young woman could still feel, and suffer from, the judgment of others, and then there were her father and sister to consider, too. The social disapproval in Plymouth may have been what drove Rose and her family to leave.

After a blank of 20 years, we find Rose in Hobart in 1900, now the wife of William Ezra Gilpin. They tell the census-taker that they were married circa 1890; I can find no official record of the marriage. Ezra, born and raised on a farm in Adams County, Indiana, had by 1880 joined his sister, Nancy, and her husband, Dr. Charles Rainier, in Center Township, Marshall County — where Rose was living at that time, so they might have married there.

The little Gilpin household in Hobart includes Charlie, now 17 and working as a day laborer, and described to the census-taker simply as Ezra's son. They had no other children.

Living nearby, we find Rose's sister Ida, who had married Edward Berg circa 1895, and their father, Jacob Hendricks, still working as a carpenter at 65 years of age. The Bergs had no children.

Their living situation sounds pleasant and cozy. I'd like to think this was a happy ending to a difficult beginning.

Fox News

Throughout December 1921, henhouses in southeastern Ross Township were suffering greatly from foxes, and James Frame intended to do something about it.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News 29 Dec. 1921.

On January 2, 1922, some 40 to 50 men showed up to wander about the countryside with their guns and their dogs.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart Gazette 6 Jan. 1922.

A separate hunt took place in Porter County the same day, with the same result — only one fox killed.

I believe that the "Dick Hoffman of Deepriver" who shot the fox was 14-year-old Richard Huffman. His parents, Randall and Nellie, owned a 40-acre farm on the east side of County Line Road just south of the Grand Trunk Railroad, in Union Township.

As for Charley Pierson, I leave it to anyone who cares to figure out who he was.


(Walter Miller, who wrote the "School Notes" in the Jan. 6 Gazette, was Ruth Miller Powell's brother.)


Additional Source: "Local and Personal." Hobart News 5 Jan. 1922.

Samantha Rosetta Hendricks Gilpin

Just call her Rose … or Grandma, if you're one of the three little Hendrixes.


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

Rose is on the left. The other two are unidentified (although I'm wondering whether the girl on the right mightn't be her younger sister, Ida). Rose was born circa 1862, and in this photograph she looks about 17 years old.

The earliest record I can find of her is the 1870 Census, which shows Rose and Ida with their 36-year-old father, Jacob, a carpenter, and apparently a widower. Their home was in Plymouth, the county seat of Marshall County, Indiana. I can find no official record of Jacob in 1860, nor of his marriage or his wife's name. Notes appended to his name on findagrave.com state that his wife's name was Rebecca Gillis, that she died in 1868, and that they had lost a little daughter, Lucetta, in 1863.*

The 1880 Census shows the little Hendricks** household unchanged but for the addition of ten years. Unusually for that time, Jacob had not remarried. I don't know how he got through those early years after the death of his wife, with two small girls to care for. Those girls no doubt took on household responsibilities early. By 1880, Rose was 18 and Ida 16 — certainly old enough to manage the house for their father.

The loss of her mother had been the first great trouble of Rose's life. As we look at that 1880 census, the second great trouble of her life may have been already developing. We will get to that soon.

_______________________________
*These notes may not be entirely reliable, as they give 1920 as the year of Rose's death, but the 1930 Census shows her still living.
**This is how the family originally spelled its surname, but the father of the three little Hendrixes changed the spelling because he was tired of getting mail addressed to another Hendricks living nearby. For my own convenience, I will be indexing everyone in this family under Hendrix.

Ruth Miller's Wedding

On December 24, 1921 Ruth Miller of Ainsworth became Mrs. Powell of Battle Creek.


(Click on images to enlarge)
Hobart Gazette 30 Dec. 1921.

As we know, Ruth had been working as a sanitarium nurse. Her new husband (as best I can determine) was Gleason A. Powell, a 21-year-old railroad fireman.

Following the couple through the 1930 Census and 1940 Census, they remained in Battle Creek. Ruth left her nursing work to become a gas-company bookkeeper. Gleason remained a railroader. It appears they had no children.

♦    ♦    ♦
The same issue of the Gazette, in an article titled, "Hobart Builds 32 Dwellings," gave a summary of 1921's new construction, as well as repairs and remodeling of existing construction. While in general "rural improvements" were "not enumerated," the article mentions the new barn on the Gruel farm.




Cut off from the above print-out was an interesting little item in the "Local Drifts" column:

Update: Lice and Drama

Courtesy of the Dewell family archivist, we have a family story to add to the Feb. 19 post!

Best Birthday Wishes

I'm a day late in posting this. Minnie Rossow was born on February 22, 1897.


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.



All I can read of the postmark is the "FEB"; the year is illegible — the day, too, but I'll bet Herman Harms made sure his "Dear Friend" got her birthday wishes on time.

At the Crown Point Fair

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

Handwritten notes on the original: "Ma got this Sept. 17, 1910. Crown Point fair."

The people in this photo are identified as (left to right) John Baessler, Sophie (Ols) Baessler, Emma Baessler (above her), unknown, Clara Baessler (seated), Minnie Baessler (big bow in hair), Charles Ols (seated), Bertha Ols (behind him, holding Elizabeth Ols), Pearl or Bessie Ols (big bow in hair), Henry Ols (seated), Louise Ols (wife of Charles), Pearl or Bessie Ols (daughter of Charles and Louise).

Together those notes and those IDs have me confused. The fashions seem consistent with a date of 1910 (though I'm a little surprised that there is not an automobile to be seen anywhere in the background). Bessie and Pearl Ols would have been about 14 and 11, respectively, in 1910, so if they are correctly identified, their apparent ages seem consistent with a date of 1910. Per the 1910 Census, John and Sophie Baessler had three girls: Carrie (18), Minnie (13), and Emily (11, and her name was given as Emma in the 1900 Census). The girl identified as Emma Baessler here looks older than 11, in my judgment (which may well be wrong). But the major problem is that Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry and Bertha Ols, was born circa 1890; either that's a different Elizabeth Ols (and one that I can't find in the census), or somebody here is misidentified.

His Honor and His Eskimo Pie

December 1921: the Eskimo Pie comes to Hobart, introduced by the Mayor, who intended to manufacture them in his ice cream factory.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart Gazette 23 Dec. 1921.

The Streetcar Benches Didn't Make Themselves, You Know

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

All of these men, assembled for a photo in front of a Gary-Hobart line streetcar, are unidentified save for the man in the white shirt and suspenders, second from the right. He is Henry Ols. He was employed as a carpenter for the streetcar line. He made benches for the streetcars.

The date is unknown, but estimated at around 1914-15.

Birthdays

Down near Ainsworth, Claude and Mary Ann Bullock welcomed their first daughter (and only) daughter, after two sons; while up in Hobart, Henry and Anna Harms welcomed a crowd into their home to celebrate his 69th birthday.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News 22 Dec. 1921.

We also learn another name to add to the Chester family tree: Luella (Chester) Olson's daughter Juanita had married Benjamin Reiman in 1917. By 1920 they had one son, Charles.

(I like that story about the "smooth game" in South Bend, although it has nothing to do with anyone around here.)

♦    ♦    ♦
The next day's Gazette mentioned that "E.L. Arment of Greencastle, Ind., was in Hobart Wednesday looking after his property interests south of Hobart" — which might mean he came here to see how his bungalow was progressing. Or not.

♦    ♦    ♦
[2/23/2015 update] Concerning the ninth item down in the left-hand column of the Hobart News page above, about Louise Sapper Schavey Dewell, the DeWell family archivist writes:

It was confirmation of a story I always heard from my dad.

He was born 11-28-1921, so was not even a month old when his mom went to Chicago for what I think was a kidney stone problem (can't be sure). My infant father had to go with his mom so she could breastfeed him. He was kept in a separate room, but she claimed she could hear him crying and would have crawled to him if necessary to comfort him. (Sounds rather dramatic!)

When they returned home, they reportedly stripped down, bathed, and boiled their clothing before entering the house to prevent a lice infestation.

Makes you wonder about hospital quality back then!

Additional Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Births." Hobart Gazette 23 Dec. 1921.
♦ Indiana Marriage Collection.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 23 Dec. 1921.

Report Card, 1910-11

Minnie Rossow spent the eighth grade, like the seventh, in the classroom of Sena Borger.


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.



This is the last year for which we have a Hobart public school report card for Minnie.

Stop Dumping Your Dead Animals in the Alleys

Hobart must have been a pleasant place to live, in 1921, with dead animals in the alleys and garbage in the streets …


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News 22 Dec. 1921.

… and check forgers in the stores, but that was unusual. (The headline got cut off on the printout — in full it reads, "Check Forger Gets in His Work in Hobart Thursday and Friday.")




(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News 22 Dec. 1921.

That is all.

Katherine Fagan

(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

A handwritten note on the back identifies her as Katherine Fagan …



… but that doesn't really tell me who she was. Since the postcard came out of the steamer trunk, I suppose she was a friend of Minnie Rossow.

Based on the style of her clothing (what I can see of it), I would estimate the date at roughly 1913. Siegel Cooper & Co., which printed the postcard and/or took the photo, was a large department store in Chicago.

Three Spring Shoats

(Click on images to enlarge)
Hobart Gazette 16 Dec. 1921.

If I hadn't already shot off my mouth about where I thought the Ella Roper farm was, I could have pretended that I knew all along it was northwest of Hobart, as Thomas Chandler says in his notice. The only problem is that I can't identify an Ella Roper farm northwest of Hobart … unless maybe it's the "E.S. Roper" land shown in this image from the 1926 Plat Book:



Anyway, this means that Fred and Olga Rossow are not going to become Ross Township residents when they move onto the Ella Roper farm.

Happy Valentine's Day!

One of Minnie Rossow Harms' children gave her this sweet little homemade Valentine's Day card.



Inside the folded heart was a poem:




The card was enclosed in a decorated envelope:

Cousin Mabel

Mabel Schavey was about 14 or 15 when she wrote a page in the autograph album of her little cousin, Lester Harms.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

We've seen that poem before.

Mabel was still a farm girl at this time, living just over the Porter County line.

With a Friend Like This, He Didn't Need Enemies

The violent robbery of George Bruebach, Jr., is the most attention-grabbing story on this page …


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart Gazette 16 Dec. 1921.

… but we should also note the wedding of Irma Baessler to Helmuth Kasch, Jr.

Irma, about 20 years of age, was the eldest child of Michael (Jr.) and Emma Baessler, who had bought their farm on the Lincoln Highway in 1918.

I have not paid the slightest attention to the Kasch family yet, but in 1920 they were Ross Township residents, renting a farm that seems to have been in the general area of Clay Street and E. 83rd Ave. At that time the family consisted of Helmuth Sr. (45 years old), his wife, Emma (43), and their children, Helmuth Jr. (20), Edward (19), and Vera (16). Helmuth and Emma had brought their family to the Indiana countryside from Chicago. (Also in the household in 1920 were William Dewell and his little son Conrad. William's wife, Martha, who had died of the Spanish flu in December 1918, had been Emma Wischman Kasch's sister.)

Apparently, by December 1921 the Kasch family had moved to "the old Lincoln farm south of East Gary," which I cannot identify.

By 1930 the elder Kasches would be back in Ross Township. Helmuth Jr. and Irma became residents of Hobart.


Sources:
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ Indiana Marriage Collection.
♦ "Kase-Baessler [sic]." Hobart News 15 Dec. 1921.

A Gottlieb Family Portrait?

From the steamer trunk.


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

I think believe this photo includes the Gottlieb family only because I recognize two of the Gottlieb girls, and somehow it just looks like a family, with some additional relatives or maybe neighbors.



#1 is Anna Gottlieb — compare her photo here (she's even wearing the same dress and necklace in both pictures).

#2 is Agnes Gottlieb — compare her photo here.

The postmark on the back is August 1911. On the assumption the photo was taken not much earlier than that, I suspect that #3 is brother Walter (age 11 in 1911, per the 1920 Census); #4 Ervin (age 8),* and #5 Arthur (age 3).

I hesitantly identified the parents as #6 and #7 only because the ages look about right (John Gottlieb was 45 in 1911, Mary Gottlieb 40) and because they are standing so close to Anna and Agnes. That's very slender evidence. John Gottlieb could just as easily be the man seated in front, and Mary the woman seated at right. That's assuming they're even in the picture.


Honestly, when I first looked at this picture, I did not recognize Anna and Agnes. It was only when I read the message on the back …



… with its use of the pronoun youse, that I remembered Agnes' style. And then the identification was easy.

____________________
*Or maybe #3 and #4 should be switched. It's hard to tell which boy is taller when one is standing and one sitting.

Car Wreck by the Gottlieb Farm

The quiet of a December Sunday morning in the countryside east of Hobart was broken by a mysterious car wreck witnessed only by John C. Cavender. He, along with Fred Rossow and his hired hand, tried to help the victim, but found him beyond help.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart Gazette 16 Dec. 1921.

George and his family lived in the household of his parents, Louis and Caroline, on the farm they owned. (A 1921 plat map spells their surname "Klindt.")

But it isn't poor George, may he rest in peace, who attracted my attention in this article; it's our acquaintances who were more or less involved in the accident.

I mentioned the Gottlieb farm back when we met Anna and Agnes. Here it is on a 1921 plat map:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image from http://www.inportercounty.org/maps.html, courtesy of Steven R. Shook.

And John Cavender had to cross the fields to the south to get to Fred Rossow's house. That doesn't tell us exactly whose farm Fred and Olga were renting, but it does tell us I was premature in thinking that their move to the "Ella Roper farm" had already happened.


Additional Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "George Kendt Killed Sunday Morning When His Car Went in Ditch." Hobart News 15 Dec. 1921.

The Former Deep River Schoolhouse

Anytime you want to see the former Deep River schoolhouse, you can just drive to the intersection of Randolph and E. 73rd and look at the northwest corner … but I also have a couple of photos from the dim and misty past in which a camera aimed at people inadvertently took in part of the former schoolhouse, in which those people were partying.


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

Left to right, we have Anna Harms, Henry Harms, Sr., unknown, and Don Niksch. The photo is undated; but Don looks about 12 years old here, which would bring us to about 1928, and that's consistent with the fashions.

They are standing on the front steps of the old schoolhouse.

The next photo shows a bit more of the building.



These people are not identified, although we can recognize, at the far right, Anna Harms, and next to her, Henry Harms, Sr. The lady seated in the rocking chair with the flowers in her lap appears to be the guest of honor; I wish I knew who she was. We have no date on this, but judging by the women's fashions, my rough guess would be circa 1925.

You can clearly see the curved brackets supporting the roof over the entrance, which were also a feature of the old Ainsworth schoolhouse. Both schoolhouses also had those metal screens over the windows.

Edward and Tillie (Harms) Niksch

(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

It was Thanksgiving Day 1964, and someone took this photo of Mathilda "Tillie" and Edward Niksch at the celebration of their 60th wedding anniversary.

As I was writing about their purchase of the former Deep River schoolhouse (yesterday's post), I realized that I've scarcely mentioned these folks in the blog, and I had better take some time to make up for that oversight. They were Ainsworthites, after all: Tillie grew up in the Harms farmhouse east of Ainsworth, and she and Edward moved onto the Lincoln Highway/Randolph St. farm in the spring of 1912.

Tillie was born November 12, 1884, so she had just turned 20 when she married Edward Niksch.


(Click on images to enlarge)

Numerous unnamed Ainsworth-area residents also attended the wedding. (The "bride's home on south Main street" probably refers to Harms house at the southwest corner of Lincoln and 7th.)

Minnie Rossow Harms' family history gives us a brief summary of the next 16 years:

After Mathilda (Tilly) and Ed were married in 1904, they moved into his home on Devonshire street* in Hobart (Leona and son still** live there). Tilly had attended Valparaiso University and worked as a compositor for the Hobart Gazette. Leona was born December 28, 1907 and Laverne April 9, 1909. They had a great desire to go farming and soon Grandfather Harms purchased his Lincoln Highway farm where they raised their family. Donald was born July 3, 1916 and Edward Jr. July 28, 1920.

♦    ♦    ♦
I've talked a lot about the Harms family in this blog, but what about Edward Niksch and his people?

Edward was born May 13, 1882, in Hobart, one of ten children of Louis and Minnie (Niemann) Niksch, who by 1891 owned and farmed this land northeast of town:


Image from the 1908 Plat Map.


His mother died in June 1909.



(Yes, it was Edward's sister, Rosa, who had conquered the heart of the redoubtable Michael O'Hearn.)


Louis Niksch followed his wife to the grave in January 1912.



(While the 1900 enumerator recorded Louis' immigration year as 1860, the 1910 enumerator agreed with the obituary on 1854.)


Edward Niksch is described in the 1900 census as a farm hand, living and possibly working on his parents' own farm. Sometime between then and his marriage in 1904, he went to work in the brickyard, and bought that house in town. He remained a brickie through 1910 — probably until 1912, when he and Tillie moved onto the farm. After that, he stuck with farming, even through the Great Depression, as the 1940 census records him still farming on the Lincoln Highway land.

My notes record only pleasant events for the Niksches until 1917, when Edward became ill. Early in November he was in Chicago getting medical treatment for "serious affection of the eyes." The November 15 News included these unpleasant details:

Edward Niksch, who has been suffering with his eyes, underwent an operation at Dr. Dahlman's hospital in Chicago last Saturday for affected glands and another operation on Monday for pus forming on his face and for his jaws being set. Late reports were that he was some better.

In early December the Gazette reported that, after a couple weeks' treatment and much suffering, he was back home:

Edward Niksch who was operated upon Nov. 9th at the South Shore hospital by Drs. Werelius and Dahlberg for necrosis of the upper jaw bone and joint was able to return home the forepart of last week and indications are that he will meet with a full recovery. His head was so bandaged when he came home he was scarcely recognizable, except by voice. He has been returning every third day to the city for dressing of the wound. He says the pain he suffered before the operation was almost unbearable.

Either he recovered in good time or I was negligent in taking notes, as I have no further information on that illness.

So Edward and Tillie quietly got on with life in the neighborhood of Ainsworth, farming and raising their family. In May 1921, their eldest child, Leona, took part in the first commencement at the new W.G. Haan school.

Late that autumn, the Niksches bought the old Deep River schoolhouse, which started this digression.


_____________________
*1019 Devonshire, per Polk's Hobart City Directory 1962.
**I believe Minnie wrote this in 1952.


Sources:
♦ 1880 Census.
♦ 1891 Plat Book.
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ 1940 Census.
♦ "Ainsworth Pick-Ups." Hobart Gazette 2 Dec. 1904.
♦ Harms, Minnie Rossow. As It Was Told to Me. 1952 – 1978. MS. Hobart Historical Society, Hobart, Indiana.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 8 Nov. 1917; 15 Nov. 1917.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 16 Mar. 1912; 16 Nov. 1917; 7 Dec. 1917.
♦ "Niksch-Harms Nuptial." Hobart Gazette 2 Dec. 1904.
♦ "Obituary." Hobart Gazette 25 June 1909.
♦ "Two Pioneers Pass Away." Hobart News 11 Jan. 1912.
♦ WWII Army Enlistment Records.

Schoolhouses Sold

Both of the old frame schoolhouses were bought by their neighbors.


(Click on images to enlarge)
"Local and Personal." Hobart News 8 Dec. 1921.

Edward Niksch farmed a parcel of land that embraced the northwest corner of Randolph and E. 73rd, where the Deep River schoolhouse stood (and still stands).

Sometime between 1891 and 1908, Helmuth (aka Michael) Foreman had bought the farmland that included the site of the old Ainsworth school. The school building was torn down sometime in the 1970s and I don't know exactly where it stood, but I've marked its approximate location with a green x on this excerpt from the 1926 Plat Book:




The guests throwing the surprise party for Annie Rossow (mentioned in the "Local and Personal" column above the item about the school building sales) went to the Rossow farm at County Line Road and 700 N.

♦    ♦    ♦
And here's what Charles and Amelia Goldman were advertising at the Ainsworth general store.


Hobart News 8 Dec. 1921.

Henry and Bertha Ols and Children

Here's a nice family portrait of this branch of the Ols family. In the top row, left to right, are the children: Elizabeth, Herman, and Martin. Henry and Bertha are seated in front.


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

The picture is undated. Martin was born circa 1894, so we can try to estimate the date based on his apparent age — maybe ten?

South of Deep River

The social news from the countryside as November 1921 came to an end:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News 1 Dec. 1921.

♦    ♦    ♦
In unrelated news, the Roper Bros. in Hobart suggest you buy a one-ton truck chassis and build your own truck.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart Gazette 2 Dec. 1921.

♦    ♦    ♦
Sarah Read's return to the Nolte farm in late October did not last long. She became ill again sometime in November, I gather, and had to go back to the home of her nephew, Benjamin Packham, in Hobart ("Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette 2 Dec. 1921). She spent most of December 1921 convalescing there, and not until after the New Year was she able to leave the house — only to go to downtown Hobart, though; not to the farm ("Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette 13 Jan. 1922).

I Won't Git Home for Awhile Yet

From the steamer trunk.


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

… Well, I'm sure it was intended to be comic.


The message on the back was perfectly innocent, and Herman Harms signed off "as ever" to his friend Minnie.

Entertainments at the Ainsworth School

(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News 1 Dec. 1921.

I don't know the reason for this Thanksgiving-evening banquet in the W.G. Haan School, nor do I know the topics of those "talks." The first talker I can only tentatively identify as George B. Argo, whom I haven't mentioned yet in this blog. Born in Iowa circa 1884, George shows up in my notes as early as 1912, when apparently he was the Grand Trunk agent at the Ainsworth depot. He pops up now and then through June 1913, after which he disappears; that may have been when he was transferred to the Grand Trunk station at Capac, Michigan, where the official records place him in 1918 and 1920. But now he's back in the area — where, exactly, I don't know; perhaps he's in Hobart, where the 1930 census will record him. Anyway, if George had anything to do with the February 1921 community entertainments and the "Argo orchestra," he must have been something of a live wire.

The other two talkers at the November 1921 banquet were, I'm guessing, Robert Harper (a local dairy farmer and one-time marshal of Ainsworth), and Albion Paine (another local dairy farmer, and father of Alice ).

After the talking, there was dancing.

♦    ♦    ♦
I have not been able to find a script for that 2.5-hour play, The Country Minister, which may be a mercy. But the performance was intended to raise money for a good cause — the purchase of equipment for the school — and in fact it was well attended, and judged "a big success."


Additional Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ "Additional Local News." Hobart Gazette 2 Dec. 1921.
♦ "Ainsworth Notes." Hobart News 26 June 1913.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 15 Dec. 1921.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 2 Dec. 1921.
♦ "Ross Township Notes." Hobart Gazette 21 June 1912.
♦ WWI Draft Cards.

Where Are the Snows of Yesteryear?

In honor of this little blizzard we're digging out from, I thought I'd post a couple of pictures from the Lester Harms collection. Both have a development date of May 1963, but somehow I think the pictures were taken earlier — unless May of that year saw a freak blizzard?


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

The government road crews did not plow Harms Road in those days, so Lester built a snowplow onto his tractor to clear the road himself. (We don't know who if that's Lester on the tractor.)





That is Lester's 1958 DeSoto. (The two people are unidentified.)