Henry Paulus Buys the Business

After owning and operating Ainsworth's general store for almost eight years, Charles and Amelia Goldman sold their business (but not their building) in February 1923 to a newcomer named Henry Paulus.


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Hobart Gazette 16 Feb. 1923.

If I've found the right place on modern-day maps, Cook, Indiana, was just west of Cedar Lake (and is now part of the Town of Cedar Lake). I'm going to have to take the newspapers' word for it, because I can't locate Henry Paulus in Hanover or Center Townships. For that matter, I've spent a ridiculous amount of time already trying to trace him anywhere. You wouldn't think "Henry Paulus" was such a common name.

Here's one place where I know I've got the right Henry J. Paulus:


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Ancestry.com. U.S., Appointments of U. S. Postmasters, 1832-1971 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-1971. NARA Microfilm Publication, M841, 145 rolls. Records of the Post Office Department, Record Group Number 28. Washington, D.C.: National Archives.

(This answers the question of why I could never find a first name for the "Mr. Pintz" listed in Along the Route — because he was Max Mintz.)

Anyway, from what I've been able to piece together so far: Henry Joseph Paulus was born December 19, 1882[1] — thus missing the 1880 census. He might be the "Henry Paulis" who shows up in the 1900 Census as coachman to the family of H.A. and Minna Kirchhoff, who were somewhat socially prominent (to judge by their daughter's wedding announcement). In 1903, Henry married Theresa Osburg.[2] By the 1910 Census they had a six-year-old son, Ambrose. (Henry seems to be unemployed, but I have a hard time believing that.) The 1920 Census shows them still in Chicago, now with another son (Urban) and a daughter (Irene); Henry is a salesman.

And the next we hear of him, it's 1923 and he's in Ainsworth. Ainsworth! — what could possibly bring him down here? A desire for fresh country air? And when did he have time to go run a store in Cook, Indiana?

We already know he stayed only a few years here. I've found Henry and Theresa, I believe, in a 1928 Hammond city directory, and then the 1930 Census shows them back in Chicago, where Henry ran a hardware store. They stay there until 1935 (or later), but moved to California for the 1940 Census. And, as that 1944 Vidette-Messenger article says, Henry ran his hardware store in Los Angeles. I believe he died in California on May 31, 1961.[3]

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According to the Hobart News, the Goldmans found their "desirable house" to be Frank Clifford's house in Hobart Park ("Local and Personal," 22 Feb. 1923).

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[1] WWII Army Enlistment Records.
[2] Cook County, Illinois Marriages Index.
[3] Ancestry.com. California, Death Index, 1940-1997 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000. Original data: State of California. California Death Index, 1940-1997. Sacramento, CA, USA: State of California Department of Health Services, Center for Health Statistics.

Wildflowers of Ainsworth: Galinsoga

I found these by accident. While driving along Ainsworth Road, I had been noticing tall spikes of blue-violet flowers growing on the wood's edge in Deep River County Park land, and wondered if they were something I hadn't identified yet — it's hard to tell what a flower is when you're just driving by. Finally yesterday I parked the car and walked along the road for a better look, only to find that they were a re-run (Tall Bellflower). Well, that was a waste of time … until I happened to look down and notice, right next to the road, an unfamiliar low-growing plant with tiny blossoms of white, toothed petals and a yellow central disk.


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For more information, including the origin of the name, visit the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Hobart From the Bayou ca. 1913

To create this postcard, the photographer captured some scenic beauty that we don't care about, and a glimpse of downtown Hobart that we do care about.


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We can easily identify some of the buildings.




The postcard was sent from Wheeler on May 1, 1913.



The message reads:

Dear sister Annie if you havent made definit plans, come down here for Sun or as soon as it suits you. This is with Nellies consent & she says dont bring any work & I say dont carry your suit case from depot Ill get it & if you have the rye maybe your girls can use it & you just bring the bran & two or three old teacups if you can spare them. N- hasnt been so well for a couple of weeks & I told her to see you again. Mollie Pevant

I have not been able to identify Mollie or Nellie, nor the recipient, Mrs. Annie R. Congdon. It was Annie, perhaps, who scrawled across the address: "I just cant go — wrote her of our plan same I wrote you."

Kenneth Humes Puts a Ring on His Finger

After winning $100 in damages for his lost finger, Kenneth Humes could afford to buy a nice set of wedding rings, I suppose.


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Hobart News 15 Feb. 1923.

I still don't know exactly where the Humes residence was, or is, if it's still standing. Nor do I know where the Bradley garage was — but it might have had something to do with Charles Bradley.

An item in the "Local and Personal" column of the same issue reports that a sister of Kenneth who married a William Hill came to town for the happy occasion. As far as I know, Edwin and Carrie Humes' only daughter was Gladys … but Gladys shows up in the 1930 Census, married, with the surname Stevens (living with her parents; husband not recorded in the household), and with a child old enough to have been very young in 1923, surname also Stevens. Hm!



I hope Grace Nelson got well in time to attend the program at the W.H. Haan School.

The Death of Henry Shearer

This veteran of the Great War died an untimely death in January 1923. He was laid to rest in Hobart Cemetery.


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Hobart Gazette 9 Feb. 1923.

I am confused about what, if any, relation he had to the other Shearers I've written about. I used to think that his father, Jeronomy, was also known as Jerome and thus was the father of Ainsworth's own Calvin C. Shearer — evidently I was mistaken about that.*

His mother's maiden name being Perry leads me to wonder if she was related to Harriet Perry Chester Casbon. But I am going to have to get a faster internet connection or a better computer before I can figure that out.

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Beneath Henry's obituary we find a tribute to little Ramie Schumacher.
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*However, I now think that Calvin Shearer's father, Jerome, was the brother of Cora Shearer Maybaum's grandfather, Daniel (Porter and Lake Counties (Goodspeed/Blanchard), 1860 Census).

White-banded Telphusa

I do not have time to go looking for moths, but this one came to me. It was sitting on a flower catalog in front of my computer. I think it's a white-banded telphusa. Very small; usually 5-7 mm long per Peterson Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America.


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The room was too dark for me to get a good picture. I had some idea of carrying it on the catalog to a spot near a window, but it flew away before I could do any such thing.


Usually when I try to type "moth" I automatically type "mother."

Walter Davis Quits Farming

It's February 1923 — February; a good time to decide you want to join the crowd who've quit farming, and let someone else have a chance at the Krull farm for the spring planting.


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Hobart News 8 Feb. 1923.

I just saw that reference to Ainsworth in the farm's location and thought I had better include this, but I have no idea who Walter Davis was. Never heard of him before. I think he might be the guy whose name was transcribed as "Havis" on Ancestry.com, in which case the 1920 Census recorded him living with his wife, Edna, and their four children in Winfield Township, farming rented land. Maybe the Krull farm; I don't know. His eldest son might be the Leslie Davis whose Ford touring car made it into a "South of Deepriver" column in the summer of 1922, when Leslie was about 17.

If so, then by 1930 Walter Davis, true to his word, was in Crown Point not farming, and I have a feeling I need not pay any more attention to him.

Wildflowers of Ainsworth: Dame's Violet

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Not so much wild as "escaped from cultivation," according to Newcomb's Wildflower Guide. But all cultivated flowers are descended from wildflowers, so these were just completing the circle.

The few specimens in my field are in a thicket of other wildflowers, which makes it hard to photograph the whole plant.



If you drive along S.R. 149 in Porter County (not far north of 130) in May, you will see areas where the side of the road is painted in shades of violet, and I think these flowers are the painters.

A close-up of the leaves:

Sarah Graham and Isaac Crisman

Early in February 1923, two old-timers passed out of this new world.

Sarah Graham was the mother of Ross Graham, among others. (The "Julian Moran" in her obituary is a misprint for "Julia.") She is buried in Maplewood Cemetery.


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Hobart News 8 Feb. 1923.

Isaac Crisman was more socially prominent; he even had a town named after him. He is buried in McCool Cemetery. He must be some relation to John Crisman of Deep River, but I don't have time to figure it out.

Nuts to You

While indexing the Hobart Historical Society's earliest Union Sunday School record book, which appears to begin in 1868, I came across this page. Some earnest person carefully recorded something (attendance?) about these young* Sunday scholars … and then some irreverent person came and scrawled "nuts to you" and perhaps left those smudges with his or her dirty hands.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The expression, "nuts to you," seems out of place in 1868. We know it was in use in 1930s-40s — I keep running across this example:

"Please eliminate the expression 'nuts to you' from Egbert's speech." [Request from the Hays Office regarding the script of "The Bank Dick," 1940]**

However, my internet research doesn't turn up any information about how far before 1940 it goes back. So I shouldn't jump to conclusions. But I picture a bored 13-year-old circa 1940 nosing around in the attic when the adults were away, finding this ancient record of good little children, and writing something impertinent for the sheer fun of it.

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*Just to look at a few: John Shearer would have been about 12 years old in 1868; George Shearer, 10; John Frank, 11 (he was the son of William and Salinda Frank; and Simeon Brown, 13.
**E.g., http://www.dictionary.com/browse/nuts.