A Sunday-School Christmas Program circa 1873

From the Union Sunday School minute book that begins in 1873 come these notes on the letterhead of Mathew W. Jory, giving the program for a Christmas pageant.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The "Address by Superintendent" would probably be delivered by Mathew himself.

The names of the children performing, as best I can read them, are: Eva Harrison (can't identify); Louisa Black (b. ~1864 to Joseph and Catherine Black); Amelia Briggs (can't identify); Annie Gadsby (b. ~1869 to George and Sylvia Gadsby); Minnie Wadge (b. ~1867 to Richard and Electa Wadge); and Lillie Harrison (b. ~1870 to Thomas and Jennie Harrison). Was a three-year-old really performing in the pageant? — maybe this was more like 1875 or '76.

I wonder who dressed up as Santa Claus?

Lewis Hammond's Tavern

The 1979 collection of memories about downtown Hobart that forms the basis of my Downtown Hobart 1979 blog includes the assertion that at some unspecified time in Hobart's history, a man named Lewis Hammond ran a tavern on the site of the Hobart library. I would have been delighted to find evidence of that in the ledgers I've been indexing, but so far all I can establish is that a Lewis Hammond ran a tavern in Liverpool.

First we find him, in October 1847, renting a house in Liverpool from George Earle.


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Images courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

In November of that year, he paid the rent for a tavern in Liverpool.



Throughout that ledger, Lewis shows up here and there, paying rent — or buying big sacks of flour, as he did on March 15, 1848:



The daybook of the Hobart sawmill records him making numerous purchases of lumber throughout 1848 and 1849. This page shows him buying lumber on May 10, 1849; and the "L. Hammond" of May 5 is probably our Lewis as well.



The latest reference I have found in the ledgers to Lewis Hammond (full name) is October 1849; to "L. Hammond," December 1849. There's also an entry in April 1850 that shows I. Wheeler paying money on a Hammond account that may or may not have been Lewis'.

Naturally I went to Ancestry.com to try to find some background on Lewis Hammond, but background on him is remarkably scarce. I can't identify him positively in any local records.

The 1850 Census of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has an interesting entry:


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Image from Ancestry.com

Could that be our tavernkeeper? — an inmate of the Allegheny County jail?

Mary Munch's Moonshine

When Mary Munch was caught with a still back in February 1923, she had claimed it wasn't hers. Seven months later, caught with two stills and 15 gallons of moonshine, she apparently didn't think anyone would buy the same story.


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Hobart Gazette, Oct. 19, 1923.

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In the "Local Drifts" column above, we find a couple of locals leaving the countryside to become town dwellers.

While we've encountered the name Hooseline in several "South of Deep River" columns, I've looked into the family only in connection with the suicide of John's father-in-law. But looking a little more closely now, I gather that John's father, Michael Hooseline, came into this area with his parents (Michael Sr. and Rebecca) sometime between John's birth in 1842 (Maryland) and the 1860 Census of Union Township, Porter County.[1] By the 1870 Census, Michael Jr. had married Laura Tabor and moved to Ross Township, Lake County. Our John was born in the south-of-Deep-River countryside in 1871. The 1874 Plat Map shows the "Hooseline & Tabor" farm straddling Randolph Street at the divide between Ross and Winfield Townships, but from the 1891 Plat Book on, I can't find any land under the Hooseline name in Ross Township.

Here is John Hooseline's obituary from 1944:


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Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso), Feb. 28, 1944.

The article fails to mention John's first wife, Rhoda Smith, whom he married in 1896. Rhoda was the daughter of Homer and Rachel Smith, although the 1880 Census doesn't list her (unless she is the "Rudie" whom the enumerator called a son; the birth dates match). Rhoda bore John Hooseline two sons, Harold and Hubert/Herbert (1900 Census), and died in 1902. In 1904 John married Emma Carbein Phillips. Their children were Kenneth and Velma (1910 Census, 1930 Census).


The other country-dweller getting out of the country was Simon Small, of Small's Crossing. From what I can find in the census and death records, he was a son of John and Mary (Riley) Small; odd that he wasn't mentioned in Mary's obituary. His children were all by his first wife, Cora Deardoff, whom he married in 1883 (Indiana Marriage Collection) and who died in 1902. He married his second wife, Anna Bean, in 1906 in Cook County, Illinois, where he may have been living already, as he was in the 1910 Census and 1920 Census. Apparently he moved back to Small's Crossing after 1920 just to leave it a few years later.

Here's his obit from 1945:


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Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso), Nov. 20, 1945.

I wonder if this leaves any Smalls at Small's Crossing? The Union Township plat maps shows that the old Small farm changed its name between 1921 and 1928.

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[1] That's assuming the enumerator made an error in recording John's age.

Threshing Circa 1919

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Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

There is no date on this photograph. I'm guessing at roughly 1919 based two things: first, the tractor is an International Harvester Titan 10-20, a model produced between 1915 and 1921 according to online information.

Secondly, the men in the photo are named on the back …



… and the three I've been able to identify lived in the vicinity of the Sela Smith farm in Ross Township, where Eva Thompson (who gave the photo to Eldon Harms, who let me scan it) moved with her family in 1918.

Spade was the Americanized spelling of the German name Spaeth. Richard was born in 1874 to Edward and Alvina Spaeth (1900 Census). In 1897 he married Minnie Keiser (Indiana Marriage Collection). The Spaeth family lived and farmed on the west side of Clay Street at 83rd Avenue.

Albert Wilier, I'm willing to bet, was actually Albert Weiler.

Gust Kaiser is a mystery to me at this point. It seems possible that he was related to Mrs. Richard Spade, née Minnie Keiser, whom I think I've found in Hanover Township, Lake County, in the 1880 Census, but I can't find a brother or other relative of hers named Gust (August).

We've met Harry Sullivan before; he was Arthur's brother.