Indian Tobacco (Lobelia Inflata)

Found at the edge of a soybean field in Deep River County Park, and all I had with me was my cell phone.


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I don't know how I managed to spot those tiny blue blossoms.

Perhaps the "inflata" part of its name comes from the calyxes, which swell up with fruit.

Blue Mass

Late in the summer of 1850, there was sickness around Hobart, and people were coming to our shopkeeper (probably George Earle himself) for cures. He sold them quinine, an effective cure for malaria, discovered in the 17th century and still used today. He sold them boxes of nameless pills and bottles of nameless medicine. He also sold them the now-notorious "blue mass" pills.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The active ingredient of "blue mass" was mercury. People who took the pills developed mercury poisoning, which causes a number of unpleasant symptoms and may result in death. We don't know what John Phelps was intending to treat with the blue mass he bought, since it was prescribed for a range of medical problems, including syphilis, tuberculosis, constipation, toothache, parasitic infestations, and the pains of childbirth (according to Wikipedia). It actually cured nothing.

In researching blue mass, I learned that historical evidence seems to indicate that Abraham Lincoln took such pills and suffered neurological symptoms as a result; but he eventually recognized that the pills were causing problems and stopped taking them. You can download an interesting article about Lincoln and his blue pills here.

Finally, I am curious about that purchase by J.B. Albee on September 4: "1 bottle of pain extractor." This is the first I've ever heard of the term "pain extractor." Looking around on the internet, I find numerous advertisements dating to the latter half of the 19th century for Dalley's Magical Pain Extractor, but no information about what its ingredients might have been.

Bee Movie

In this story in the Hobart Gazette of September 14, 1923 (reprinted from the Chicago Tribune, I gather), Joseph Mundell talks about his honey farm on Old Ridge Road, his family history, his advertising methods, and the usefulness of his free campground in bringing in honey customers.


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Hobart Gazette, Sept. 14, 1923.

In the October 12 Gazette, we learn that a one-minute movie of the bee farm existed, and may still exist somewhere.


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Hobart Gazette, Oct. 12, 1923.

Further down in the same column, we learn that Nicholas (Jr.) and Anna (Halfman) Fleck lost a baby daughter who lived and died between censuses. Zeta (or Zita) had been born August 14, 1922 (Indiana Death Certificates).

The Scharbach-Kramer Wedding Party

Long ago, I posted a photo of Louis Kramer on the morning of his wedding to Myrtle Scharbach, getting a haircut from Hazard Halsted. Later I posted a newspaper account of the wedding.

Now, thanks to a modern-day Scharbach, the Hobart Historical Society has a photo of the whole wedding party.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Mr. Scharbach knew only the identities of the bride and groom. To identify the rest of the wedding party, who were all named in the newspaper story, we have to use other means. So, I believe we have, standing, from left to right: Florence Ewigleben (by process of elimination), Elmer Scharbach (cousin of the bride and looks a bit like her), George Kramer (brother and spitting image of the groom), Erna Piornack (confirmed by living relatives), and Mary Grace Barnard.

Florence Ewigleben was related to the bride: Myrtle Scharbach's mother, Caroline, had been an Ewigleben. Florence was born in 1906 to Fred and Tillie (Blanchard) Ewigleben. In 1927 she would marry Erna Piornack's brother, George (Indiana Marriage Collection).

Elmer Scharbach, born 1906, was the son of Emil and Emma (Busse) Scharbach.

George and Louis Kramer were sons of Conrad and Louise (née Wischman).

I do not know if Erna Piornack was actually related to the bride or anyone else in the party, or just a good friend. As I mentioned above, she was Florence Ewigleben's future sister-in-law.

As for little Mary Grace Barnard of Mishawaka, her mother was born Gertrude Scharbach. Gertrude's father was Frank — the bride's uncle — and her grandfather William Sr. of the lumber yard.

Granny Ensign's House

One day several years ago, I was driving with Eldon Harms along South Hobart Road when he pointed to a house on the east side of the road (number 1395) and said, "That was Granny Ensign's house."

"Who was Granny Ensign?" I asked him.

"I don't know," he said. "I just knew that as Granny Ensign's house." He went on to tell me that the house originally consisted of only the front part, and the larger back part was a later addition.

The house in question was built in 1925 according to the county records. If it started as only the "front part," it would have been very small — about 400 square feet, according to the sketch on the Assessor's website.

I bring this up now because the September 13, 1923 issue of the Hobart News, in an article entitled "Building of Residences Here Not Active This Year," mentions an exception in "Mrs. Elizabeth Ensign" who was building a house described as being southeast of Hobart, across the road from her present home. Well, we know who Elizabeth aka Nora Ensign was, and we know her "present home" was on the west side of South Hobart Road, so maybe I've finally found the Granny Ensign of Granny Ensign's house.

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Elsewhere in the same issue, a story about our old friend, Calvin C. Shearer:


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Hobart News, Sept. 13, 1923.

Two columns to the left of that story, we find an article about the wedding of Erna Piornack. I have been following her outside the blog because her mother, née Emma Zobjeck, was the sister of Hobart's own Hugo Zobjeck. Emma had married Charles Piornack in Chicago in 1896.[1]. According to the 1920 Census, they had only two children: Erna and George.


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[1] Ancestry.com. Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index, 1871-1920 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: "Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871–1920." Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2010. Illinois Department of Public Health records. "Marriage Records, 1871–present." Division of Vital Records, Springfield, Illinois.

The Rev. William C. Litchfield

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This photograph comes from the Wood-Vincent album. Fortunately, the album's owner included a caption telling us who he was:



The back of the photo shows that it was taken in Rockland, Massachusetts:



One source I found online says that E[dwin] A. Bass operated in Rockland, Massachusetts, during 1878 and '79.[1] Those dates are consistent, I think, with William's apparent age here — he was born in 1840, so would be about 38 or 39.

He shows up several times in the Union Sunday School record books that I have indexed so far: once, in January 1877, as a student in the school, which would mean he was in Hobart; other times, later that same year, as donating books to, or purchasing books for, the Sunday School, which could have been done from far away. Loose in the back of one of the record books is this letter William wrote from Massachusetts to Joseph Blackhall of Hobart on June 16, 1877, in which William promises to carry out some favor for the Sunday School, and disclaims the title of "Reverend" since he has not been formally ordained:


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

My transcription of the body:

Your note of the 9th inst. was duly received. In reply I would say that I will gladly comply with the request of the Sunday School the first time I visit the city or have opportunity to do so by the help of a friend who will understand what you want.
I am very busy with town business this month but will attend to the matter of the book soon as possible.
I reached home in safety Tuesday P.M. about 1/2 past 4. I found my family & friends well. Give my regard to the Hobart people, & accept my thanks for personal kindness.
I see you honor me with a "Rev." While I have letters[?] frequently marked thus, I make no claim to the title, as I have never been ordained after the form of men, therefore am not entitled to the prefix & do not want[?] it used for me at present.

Here are William and his family at home in Plymouth County, Massachusetts in the 1880 Census:


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Image from Ancestry.com.

The 1900 Census and 1910 Census also record him in Plymouth County. William died in 1911.

I note from the findagrave.com entry that his middle name was Cummings. In the 19th century, people sometimes christened a child with a surname to honor some family connection. I also notice that the Wood-Vincent album includes a Lottie Barker Cummings of Attleboro, Massachusetts, who was a granddaughter of Hannah (Pattee) Wood's sister Lois. I wonder if there was some connection between the families (Wood and Cummings) that might explain why William Cummings Litchfield of Massachusetts happened to journey out to Hobart, Indiana, of all places?


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[1] https://www.stereoworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/US-PHOTOGRAPHERS.pdf. From another source: "Bass, E. A., photographer, Rockland, MA (1870s-1880s) cdv image," Langdon's List of 19th and Early 20th Century Photographers, https://www.langdonroad.com/ban-to-baz.