"We Have Come to Stay"

Two smiling young women, a bicycle, and a snowy landscape.


(Click on images to enlarge)

Handwritten notes on the back identify them:



The photo has no date, but based on their leg-of-mutton sleeves and apparent ages (Clara was born circa 1877, Lena circa 1879), I would put it close to the turn of the 20th century.

I'm not sure which is Lena and which is Clara. Comparing them both to the person identified as Lena Triebess in the Old Maids' Basketball Team, I think Lena is on the left. Also, here's a photo of Lena in 1916:


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

Lena and Clara worked together as schoolteachers at the Miller school during the school year beginning September 3, 1900. Lena continued teaching there for at least two more school years; Clara did not. The school's principal was a G.F. Peterson — this may have been the George F. Peterson who in June 1907 became Lena's husband.

Their marriage is the first time I can find either Lena or George in the official records. I naturally wondered whether Lena was related to Ainsworth's own Julius Triebess. In January 1900, "Julius and Tillie Triebess made a short visit with their sister Lena" in Miller — I just haven't been able to find anything to show me if that was our Julius. (In 1910, we find a 29-year-old Tillie Triebess living in Miller, teaching school, but that doesn't prove anything. There was also a Triebess family in Hobart — one of whom married Fred Thompson — but based on the matriarch's obituary, I don't think she could have had any closer relation than aunt to Lena or Julius, if related at all.)

Here's the Gazette's story of Lena and George's wedding:

One of the prettiest weddings occurring in Hobart took place at the home of Mr. and Mrs. W.B. Owen last Monday evening, June 24, 1907, when Miss Lena A. Triebess of this place and George F. Peterson, of Miller, were united in marriage. The ceremony was performed at 8:30 o'clock in the presence of about forty relatives and friends by the Rev. Bruce Brown, Ph.D., pastor of the Christian church at Valparaiso. The Methodist Episcopal service was used.

The bridge was attired in white and presented a most handsome appearance. She carried a shower bouquet of pink sweet peas. Mr. and Mrs. Owen's little daughter Jessie was flower girl and gracefully performed her part. The Owen home was extensively decorated, suitable for the occasion.

After congratulations, a fine wedding dinner was served, following which the bride and groom departed to their new home, which, for the present, will be a cottage on the beach at Lake Michigan north of Miller. Their future residence will be either at Miller or at Gary, where at present the groom is engaged in his chosen profession, that of electrical engineer.

The groom was raised at Miller, educated at our public schools and two years ago he graduated from the department of electrical engineering at the Purdue University. The past year and a half he was engaged in teaching manual training in the public schools at St. Paul, Minn., while the bride has claimed Hobart as her home, having lived for a number of years at the Owen residence. After attending our public schools, she began teaching eight years ago, having taught five years in Miller and the past three years in the Hobart schools, having been very successful in her school work. Both young people are very popular among their friends and acquaintances and are highly respected in our community. We join their numerous friends in extending well-wishes and happiness.

Those present from out of town were: From Miller — Mrs. Hannah Peterson, the groom's mother, and his sister Clara, Mrs. Aug. Olson and two daughters and Prof. Frank Fitzpatrick; from Lake [Station] — Mrs. V.P. Babcock [née Esther Hazelgreen] and Misses Clara and Eleanor Hazelgreen; from Chicago — the bride's brother Julius and family and sisters Amanda and Annie; from Valpo — the bride's sister Tillie, Mr. and Mrs. Albert Kitchen, Mr. and Mrs. Rodney Kitchen and Mr. and Mrs. Frank Foster; from Cincinnati — Chas. Langeman, a classmate of the groom while in colleage, and from Kentucky, Dr. and Mrs. J.C. Boone.

That still doesn't tell us if this Julius Triebess was the Ainsworth Julius.

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As for Clara Hazelgreen, by 1910 she had left northwest Indiana and, along with several of her siblings, was living in Seattle, Washington, describing herself as a missionary teacher. It appears she lived out her life in Seattle, and now rests there. (Her findagrave.com entry includes photo of three people identified as Lena, George, and Clara.)

This undated portrait of Clara Hazelgreen was taken in Seattle:





Sources:
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ 1940 Census.
♦ Indiana Marriage Collection.
♦ "A Pleasant June Wedding." Hobart Gazette 28 June 1907.
♦ "Deaths." "Mrs. Minnie Triebess." Hobart Gazette 14 Feb. 1935.
♦ "Miller Murmurings." Hobart Gazette 12 Jan. 1900.
♦ "School Begins Sept. 3rd." Hobart Gazette 24 Aug. 1900.
♦ "School Teachers For Next Year." Hobart Gazette 26 July 1901.