Glen Nelson Quits Farming

Though Ross Township would pay him to haul pupils to the W.G. Haan School, Glen Nelson had to buy his own bus. The item doesn't tell us whether the bus was horse-drawn or motorized.


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Hobart News 24 Aug. 1922.

A couple of showers for our friend, Mabel Schavey, soon to be Mabel Breyfogle, one at the home of Uncle Henry and Aunt Christine Springman of Hobart. As you may remember, Mabel's mother, Frances, had been born a Springman.

(And we all know where to go to locate Walter Miscevich's Sunnyside Addition, don't we?)

A week later, Glen Nelson announced the planned sale of all his many accoutrements of the farming life:


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Hobart News 31 Aug. 1922.

To find the "old Wm. Burkely farm," let us look at the 1908 Plat Map:


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That land is still ascribed to William Burkley in the 1926 Plat Book, so Glen apparently was farming a nice parcel of nearly 160 acres. I believe that land would have been on a Crown Point rural delivery route, which may explain the reference in October 1921 to the Nelsons and Crown Point.

On the 1874 Plat Map, we find some land in that area owned by "G. Burkle," which I believe to be Gottlieb Bürkle, William's father. At some point the surname got Americanized.

Before Elna Arrived

Here is a nice portrait of the Haken and Christine (Blank) Hazelgreen family:


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The only one missing is Elna, and that's because she hadn't arrived yet, as the identifying notes on the back explain:



Jeanette is a bit of a mystery: her birth predates H.S. Hazelgreen's marriage to Christine Blank (1874 per the Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index). Perhaps Christine was his second wife, but I don't know his first wife's name or what became of her. Jeannette's married name was Ahlberg.

Esther, in the little rocking chair, was born circa 1886, so judging by her apparent age we can date this photo roughly to 1888 or '89. By that time the family had come to Lake County.

Born around 1883, Albin (on the far left) was still in skirts — not unusual for a boy of five or six at that time.

The painted backdrop suggests a photographer's studio, but nothing on the original identifies the photographer.

A Busy Season at the Yellowstone Trail Campground

The last I heard about Lee & Rhodes' public fountain was in April 1922, when it had been put in working order. Evidently by August it had gotten out of working order and people were going thirsty under the glaring sun.

While the story about Yellowstone Trail campground doesn't say so, I suppose that the registration box had been set out there when the camp officially opened on May 6, 1922.


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Hobart Gazette 25 Aug. 1922.

I don't know where exactly the Harmon house was, but it doesn't matter since apparently you couldn't get any moonshine there. (I wonder if the Harmon who lived there had any connection to the Rush Harmon who had been hanging around with Carrie Peas.)

And lastly, the bereaved Alfred Ingram and Anna Fleck left close up the empty house in Boston.

My Latest Half-Baked Theory

As I was writing about Hazel Thompson's marriage to Walter Veal in my last post, I happened to remember a photo left to us by Eva Thompson in which two adults were unidentified. The two thoughts suddenly connected in a flashing arc across my brain — oh! so that's who they were!

Upon further examination, I began to think it was just a case of faulty wiring, but I'll tell you my bright idea anyway.

Here's the photo in question:


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Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

In the front row, we have (left to right): Nancy Thompson; Alta Thompson Dye with an unidentified child on her lap; Minnie Rossow Harms with an unidentified child on her lap; Herman Harms, Sr.; and Eldon Harms. Eldon, born in 1924, looks about six years old here, so we can date the photo to approximately 1930.*

The two in back are unidentified — no, wait! They must be Walter and Hazel (Thompson) Veal!

In another photo taken probably within minutes of the first, Herman Harms, Sr. has taken the place of the unidentified guy in back, and Eva Thompson has taken Herman's place in the front row, with an unidentified baby on her lap.



In the 1930 Census, taken in April of that year, we find Walter and Hazel Veal in Jefferson County, Indiana, with three children: Lorraine (five years old), Kenneth (three years and five months), and Mary (ten months). So maybe Kenneth and Mary are the children in this second photo. (The unidentified child on Minnie's lap in the first photo might be Norma Harms, who was then about two years old.)

Mystery solved! … or not. Now that I look at that unidentified man, I have to admit he has some resemblance to Walter Dye, Alta's husband. And in the 1930 Census, Walter and Alta Dye had two boys, Robert (two years old) and James (six months), who could account for the two children in the second photo (although the baby on Eva's lap seems to be dressed more in the style of a girl). Furthermore, in 1930 Walter Veal would have been almost 50 years old; could that unidentified man pass for 50? But he could pass for 29, Walter Dye's age.

I should mention also that in looking at these photos, Eldon Harms did not recognize either of the unidentified people.** On the one hand, if Walter and Hazel Thompson Veal were friends of the Harms family, you'd expect him to recognize them; on the other hand, if they only ever visited during his early childhood, then 80-some years later and with weakened eyesight, he might not pick them out of a photo.

The Dye hypothesis still leaves the woman in back unidentified. Let's just say she's the Mystery Woman of Ainsworth.

__________________
*A copy of this photo found in another collection had "31" written on the back; it's not clear whether that means 1931.
**That's why they're unidentified, duh.

August Weddings

Two couples tying the knot in August 1922 were acquaintances of ours.


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Hobart News 24 Aug. 1922.

George Fleck had lost a sister just 13 days before he gained a wife.

I suppose the Baumer bakery produced the wedding cake.


Walter Veal, widowed about one year earlier, was now marrying Eva Thompson's eldest sister. Hazel was about 19 years old, Walter nearly 40 (1920 Census) and twice widowed (Indiana Marriage Collection).

I don't know exactly where Amelia Thompson's house was (nor have I figured out yet whether Amelia was any relation to the bride's family).

Joe and His Bees

We've seen Joseph Mundell's bees; now here's Joe with his bees.


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This photograph was taken to illustrate a little newspaper item — so I gather from the ragged piece of paper pasted to it:



Unfortunately I haven't been able to find out where and when the story and photo were printed, if they ever were. But a little investigation into Alva Turner of Ina, Illinois, turns up this tidbit, printed in the Mt. Vernon Register (Illinois) of May 16, 1949, under the title, "As You Were: Glances Through the Files of the Register and the News," and the subtitle, "25 Years Ago Today": "Bee stings are declared to be a beneficial treatment for nervousness by Alva N. Turner of Ina, who has himself tried the treatment."

So Joe's photo and story must date to after May 16, 1924, but not so long after that everyone would have forgotten Alva N. Turner's opinion of bee stings. A few barely visible fashions in the newspaper Joe is holding suggest mid- to late 1920s.


I turned up that 1924 story while researching Alva Turner, who was born in 1878 and died in 1963. He had a varied career: he was an insurance agent (1900 Census), a "gospel minister" (1910 Census, by which time he was married), a "common laborer" (WWI Draft Cards), again a minister (1920 Census, by which time he was divorced), and a house painter (1930 Census, 1940 Census).

And still he found time to write poetry — surprisingly modern poetry — and to correspond with William Carlos Williams.

His poetry and his connection to small-town Illinois remind me of his contemporary, Edgar Lee Masters — except, of course, that Masters moved to the big city, while Turner lived and died in southern Illinois. And everybody's heard of Masters; who (outside of academia) has heard of Turner? — I certainly hadn't. So I'm glad I bought that silly bee picture. It taught me something.

Also, that 1924 murder involving a minister and his married girlfriend sounds very juicy.

Update to Notes on Local Photographers

Poking around in the microfilmed 1899 Gazette, I came across an approximate ending date for Showman's Gallery, a starting date for A.O. Merrill, and a photography business that I never knew existed since I've never seen any photograph with their imprint — namely, the Dickenson brothers, apparently traveling photographers who spent a summer in Hobart.

So I have updated the Notes on Local Photographers page.

Order in the Court!

I wish these "Local Court Notes" gave more of the juicy details.

We know all the people in the first case. The last I heard, Nathan Bosen was renting Elmer Arment's new house on S.R. 51.


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Hobart News 24 Aug. 1922.

In the swearing case, I guess the point of where he lived was that the swearing wasn't done within Hobart city limits.

And of course we know Harry Cole, alias Harry Breyfogle. But I'm not sure which of the local John Petersons was suing him.

Wall Lake, Iowa

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Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.



What on earth was Herman Harms doing at Wall Lake, Iowa, in February? — ice fishing? awaiting the coming of Andy Williams? It's a trip of nearly 500 miles. If he wanted to go to a Wall Lake, there was a closer one in northeastern Indiana.

But then the card tells us what he was doing, doesn't it? — he was missing his Minnie.

Mahala Burge Frame

Since this blog is full of Burges and Frames, I thought I should go back to 1912 and post this obituary, skipped over the first time …


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Hobart Gazette 1 Mar. 1912.

… not that it's particularly helpful, since it fails to name her parents or her children. But with a little research, we can try to remedy that.

Looking at the 1850 Census, we find J. and Julia Burge farming in Chautauqua County, New York. While the census does not include what relationship each member of the household has to its head, this household includes a 17-year-old Mahala Weaver, a 13-year-old Byron, and a nine-year-old Henry. This suggests that the obituary gave the date of Mahala's first marriage incorrectly. In the 1860 Census, still in Chautauqua County, we find a 27-year-old Mahala Weaver living with a 31-year-old carpenter, Oren Weaver, and a three-year-old Ida.

Sometime after 1860, the family came west. Orrin died in Porter County on June 9, 1866.** In 1867 Mahala married Levi Frame in Porter County (Indiana Marriage Collection). While I can't find them in the 1870 Census, another source* seems to place Levi Frame in Christian County, Illinois, by 1870; and that is where we find Mahala in the 1880 Census, by which time she was widowed. A child of her first marriage, the 17-year-old Arthur Weaver, was living with her, as well as a 10-year-old girl named Effie Brown, who was described as an adopted daughter. The children of the second marriage were: John (11 years old), Burton (10), Frank*** (6), and Jesse (4).

So that gives us the five sons mentioned in the obituary. I suppose the one surviving daughter was from the first marriage.****

Sometime during the next 20 years, Mahala left Illinois for Indiana. In the 1900 Census, she was living in Hobart with her youngest son, Jesse.

Well. That was a lot of research for a little bit of information.

♦    ♦    ♦
Elsewhere on that page from the Gazette, we find obituaries of people we've mentioned before — Patrick Sullivan and Ericka Pearson.

Marion Wilson was a member of the Wilson family of Union Township, which I've only recently noticed. The obituary says he was buried in the Boiling Springs cemetery, which may be the Leonard Family cemetery on Boiling Springs Road listed on the NWIGS site. If the obituary is correct, it seems he was later moved, as today he rests in Blachly Cemetery. His wife was a daughter of Harriet Towl Ragen.


________________________
*Ancestry.com. Selected U.S. Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
**According to his grave marker in Mosier Cemetery; the obituary states 1865.
***I swear the enumerator wrote "Freak," but that can't be right.
****Based on information at findagrave.com, I believe her name was Blanch.

Wildflowers of Ainsworth: Clustered Snakeroot

This wildflower grows abundantly in Deep River County Park. To identify it, I had to go page by page through Newcomb's Wildflower Guide looking at every illustration, until on page 427 I found it. I had thought the flower consisted of five regular parts, but Newcomb classifies it under "parts indistinguishable."


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The parts are undistinguished, I will grant him that. They are also tiny, and the plant grows in shady places, all of which makes the blossoms hard to photograph.

I went back a few days later and tried to get a photo of one in bloom. This is the best I could do:



I wasn't too sure about the arrangement of the leaves, either. Newcomb considers them alternate, divided. So here's one leaf, divided into five leaflets:



All that trouble just to identify a wildflower that isn't very interesting. It's not even poisonous, unlike white snakeroot — or if it is, nobody has bothered to mention that fact.

More here.

Anne Fleck Ingram

Her surgery for gallstones had gone well, and Anne Fleck Ingram seemed on the road to recovery. But on August 11, 1922, suddenly and unexpectedly, she died.


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Hobart News 17 Aug. 1922.

The cause of death, according to the Gazette, was a blood clot. Anne was only 37 years old.

I am not sure where the "old Fleck homestead" was, but my guess is a parcel of land northwest of Hobart, shown here on the 1874 Plat Map as belonging to Peter Fleck, Anne's grandfather:



Peter had owned 80 acres in that vicinity as early as 1854. (I suppose he lost a little acreage to the Pittsburgh, Ft. Wayne and Chicago Railroad when it came through in 1858.) So it was possible for Anne's father, Michael, to have been born there in 1862.

If you look at that parcel now, some of it looks as empty as Peter might have found it in 1854.



Additional Sources:
♦ "Mrs. Anne Ingram Dies Suddenly." Hobart Gazette 18 Aug. 1922.
♦ Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society. Early Land Sales and Purchases, Lake County, Indiana, 1837 – 1857. Valparaiso: Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society, 2006.

Wildflowers of Ainsworth: Not a Wildflower

I had a really hard time identifying these spiky wildflowers because they are not wildflowers.


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They are galls formed by insects on wild grass. At least, that's my theory at the moment.

Hard to believe, isn't it?




More here.

Addition and Subdivision Help

Over in the sidebar on the right, I have added a new page, "Hobart Additions and Subdivisions, 1960," that is intended to help people locate the older additions and subdivisions whose names come up in the land title abstracts and newspaper articles that you read as part of historical research.

It isn't pretty but it works.

Peas Family Scattered

A year after Carrie Peas died, what was left of her family was broken up.


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Hobart News 17 Aug. 1922.

The oldest child, Albert, was then about 15. Since both Carrie and Jesse had been orphans, it's not surprising that there were no grandparents, uncles or aunts to help out with the children. I believe Albert was sent here, and George here. I can't identify the "Girls' home at Wabash" where Myrtle was sent.

What I'm wondering is how Arthur Kemerley got involved.

Wildflowers of Ainsworth: Jacob's Ladder

I had a hard time identifying this because Newcomb's Wildflower Guide requires you to classify a plant's leaves (if any) first as to arrangement on the stem: basal, alternate, or opposite/whorled; and then as to the individual leaf: entire, toothed/lobed, or divided.


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Wouldn't your first guess be opposite, entire? Mine was. My second guess was basal, divided. Turns out these leaves are alternate, divided.

It is called "Jacob's ladder" because the leaves seem to be forming a ladder or stairway up to heaven, as in the biblical Jacob's dream.


Pretty little flowers.






You can see some bedstraw intruding on the right in this photo: