"Old Fasel Homestead Destroyed by Fire"

(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News Mar. 23, 1923.

Once or twice, when we were driving along Tenth Street, Eldon Harms pointed out a two-story house on the south side of the road and told me, "That's the old Fasel homestead." Maybe that's the house that replaced the old Fasel homestead after it burned down in 1923? The County Assessor's records do not agree with that theory, but the County Assessor's records are not reliable.

In the right-hand column, we find James Chester working as an auctioneer.

Among the farmers who lost cows (in the article above the one marked) are some of our acquaintances, including Mike (aka Helmuth) Foreman of Ainsworth. We've also met Duffy DeFrance before. For the location of the "old DeFrance farm," we can go back to the 1870 Census and Duffy's parents, Charles and Catherine, living in Portage Township, Porter County; and the Portage Township plat map of 1876 shows them owning 120 acres in two parcels, one of which borders E. 37th Ave. not far east of where it is now crossed by the Prairie Duneland Trail, the old EJ&E line.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image from http://www.inportercounty.org/Data/Maps/1876Plats/Portage-1876.jpg.