Wedding Report

In late November 1923, a flurry of weddings involving people we know.

The first took place on the farm of Theodore and Annie Rossow. Harry, born in 1898, was their youngest son, but not their youngest child.


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Hobart News, Nov. 29, 1923.

The young couple stayed in Gary, to judge by the 1930 Census and the 1940 Census, and had no children of their own as far as I can tell; but in 1940 their household included a young niece and nephew. I wonder what the story behind that was.


The next wedding, further down in the same column, involved Isaac Small, descended from the Smalls of Small's Crossing. Isaac's father, Richard, was one of the children of John E. and Mary Jane (Riley) Small, and had died in 1916, which is why only Isaac's mother, Carrie, is mentioned.[1]

Frances' father, Severin (aka Siegfried), was a baker with a shop on Main Street (bought out in 1922 by his son, Fred). Her mother, Lena (Conrad), had died in 1910.

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The third wedding involved the Moehl family, members of which eventually ran a garage at East and Second Streets in Hobart, near the flat where the article says the newlyweds would live.


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Hobart News, Nov. 29, 1923.

As for the Born family, I can't say I've learned anything about them since the one and only time I mentioned them before, so perhaps it's time for me to do a little research.

Viola Born's grandparents, Charles (aka Carl) and Hanna (aka Johanna) — both German immigrants — brought their family down from Chicago sometime after the 1880 Census. The 1891 Plat Book shows them owning over a hundred acres of farmland west of Hobart. Here is the Born farm as it appears on the 1908 Plat Map:


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It was the same in 1891 but for those southeasternmost 20 acres.

If I'm reading this all correctly, the brick house at 5050 Liverpool Road — built in 1900 per the county records — is probably the old Born place. And the Borns were neighbors of the Ewiglebens.

Viola's father, Paul, was the eldest child. By the 1900 Census he had five siblings. In 1901 he married Emilie (aka Amelia) Bastian (Indiana Marriage Collection). In the 1910 Census, Paul and Amelia, with Viola, Lauretta and a newborn daughter (as yet unnamed) were farming rented land in the same neighborhood — possibly part of his father's property.

Paul's mother died in 1904, his father in 1917. The 1920 death notice of his sister Anna gives a little snapshot of the family at that time:

The funeral of Mrs. Wm. Medrow was held from the home of her sister, Mrs. Bertha Thurber, of West Third street …. Burial was in Crown Hill cemetery.

Mrs. Anna Medrow died Monday at her home in Chicago after an illness of some time from tuberculosis. She was born in Hobart, her age being 46years, 4 months and 2 days, and lived here most of her life. Besides her husband she leaves seven children, six sons and one daughter, also three sisters, Mrs. Bertha Thurber, Mrs. Edward Rohwedder and Mrs. Edwin Sievert, and three brothers, Paul Born of Hobart, and Otto and Fred of Illinois.[2]

The 1920 Census shows Paul's family (now including four daughters) living on their own farm, which, according to the 1926 Plat Book, was formerly his parents' land.

Viola and Ernest Moehl are recorded in the 1930 Census living in their own home (with a radio) at 901 Garfield Street. He was employed by a lumber company as a truck driver.

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[1] Carrie's maiden name was Haxton and she married Richard in 1881 (Indiana Marriage Collection).
[2] "Funeral of Former Hobart Girl Held Wednesday Afternoon," Hobart News, May 20, 1920.

Unidentified Baby, Semi-Identified Photographer

Several drafts ago in my list of local photographers, I included Henry Iverson of Chicago; later I took him out because I thought I had confused the Chicago photographer with the "Iverson, Photographer" of "Hobart, Ind." who had taken a photograph in the possession of our Ols historian. Now I begin to think I was wrong in thinking I was wrong.

Here is another Iverson photo I recently bought:


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No helpful notes on the original to identify the baby, and it looks like every other baby in a christening gown. So: on to the photographer.

The Hobart Historical Society has a few issues of a Hobart newspaper that has not been microfilmed or otherwise digitized, called the Hobart Advertiser. Elin Christianson[1] tells us that it was published from 1884 to 1899 and further comments:

The Advertiser was established by H.C. Hanson, a Hobart watchmaker and jeweler. George Scholler, Hobart music teacher and instrument dealer, was associated with the Advertiser as editor for a good part of the time. The policy of the paper was distinctive to Hanson who was an ardent prohibitionist and self-appointed keeper of the public morals, using the Advertiser to campaign against saloons, gambling, and Sunday baseball games. He frequently attacked local residents in his columns and collected caustic comments from the Hobart Gazette and physical injuries and libel suits from irate townsfolk in return. In 1899 Hanson decided to become a preacher and sold his paper to Zora E. Irvin [who] changed the name of the paper to the Indiana Cyclone …. [citations omitted]

After reading that description, I dared to hope that the Advertiser might give some juicy details about a certain Ainsworth scandal, so I retrieved the crumbling papers from the museum archives and read through them. Not a word about my scandal, but I did find an interesting item in the April 15, 1887 issue: an advertisement entitled "New Art Gallery," announcing that "H. Iverson," who called himself a "Practical Photographer," was now in business in Hobart.

The Chicago Historical Society[2] tells us that the Chicago photographer, Henry Iverson, operated studios at various addresses from 1874 through 1885:


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In 1886 and later years, he was no longer listed in Chicago directories as a photographer. So it's possible that he moved down to Indiana.

The March 15, 1889 Advertiser, in its "Hobart Tidings" social column, reported that "Mr. Iverson and family left for their home in Kansas, last Tuesday." That may have been the photographer; I can't find any other Iversons who lived in Hobart. The Kansas newspapers that are online don't yield any information about the photographer Iverson in that era, and, of course, the 1890 census is lost.

The 1900 Census shows the Henry Iverson who I believe is our guy back in Chicago, having remarried after the death of his first wife, and working as an insurance agent. I can't find him in the 1910 Census. He died August 31, 1916. The transcription of his death certificate on Ancestry.com says he was a retired miner, of all things! I can't find any death notices in the Chicago newspapers online.

So, in short, he's elusive and I'm not sure about his history before and after his stay in Hobart, but I feel pretty confident that photographs with the imprint of Iverson of Hobart, Ind. (rare as they are) date between April 1887 and mid-March 1889.

I have updated my photographer notes accordingly.


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[1] Elin Christianson, "Hobart Advertiser (1884-1899)," Hobart, Indiana Newspapers Summaries, Aug. 1979 (manuscript owned by the Hobart Historical Society).
[2] Chicago Historical Society, Chicago Photographers 1847 Through 1900 as Listed in Chicago City Directories (1958), online at http://livinghistoryofillinois.com/pdf_files/Chicago%20Photographers%201847%20through%201900,%20as%20listed%20in%20Chicago%20City%20Directories.pdf.

The Dunes Highway Opens

Construction on the Dunes Highway had started in 1922. By mid-November 1923, the Highway was ready to be opened to public use. The dedication ceremony would be attended by some prominent Hobart citizens.


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Hobart Gazette, Nov. 9, 1923.

The following week's Gazette reported that the ceremony included an odd incident that was resolved with "a bottle" …


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Hobart Gazette, Nov. 16, 1923.

… which I'm inclined to interpret as a flouting of Prohibition, which (as we know) was not uncommon — but this case would be uncommonly open and public.

The "Local Drifts" of the same issue mentioned that "Paul Bruebach of this city was a member of Perry's Municipal Band that furnished music last Friday afternoon at the dedication of the Dunes Highway."

Incidentally, in spite of the November 9 issue's giving November 14 as the planned date of the ceremony, and the inclusion in the Route 12 Wikipedia entry of a picture of a historic marker also giving November 14 as the date of the highway's opening, the two November 16 items name "Friday," that is, November 16, as the date of the ceremony. So does this article from the Hobart News of November 22, 1923:


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Hobart News, Nov. 22, 1923.

The "Local and Personal" column of the same issue mentioned a few more locals who attended the ceremony: "Paul Emery, W.J. Killigrew, Evan Roper, Leslie Walters, A.J. Smith, O.L. Pattee; and John Dorman and Alex Boyd of Ross Township."

In the November 22 issue above, an article in the second column to the right mentions a "Bootjack extension" that was planned to connect the Dunes Highway and the Lincoln Highway. An online article about the Lincoln Highway in Indiana includes a map from 1924 showing the "Boot Jack Corner" near Rolling Prairie, and even today in that vicinity there is an "East Bootjack Road." Add this to the collection of random facts I have learned accidentally since I started the blog.

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Also in the November 22 issue, we see an announcement of a law-and-real-estate partnership between F.E. Demmon and C.L. Fleming. We've already met Calvin L. Fleming, former cigar-maker and billiard-room operator, now concentrating on real estate. The lawyer would be, I suppose, Floyd E. Demmon, whom the 1920 Census records as a 28-year-old lawyer for an unnamed railroad, living on Cleveland Avenue with his mother-in-law, Harriett Mundell. Floyd had married Alice Mundell in 1918 (Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index).

Herman Ols and Katherine Yandow

After my post about Geraldine Ols Cliff, I remembered this wedding photo of her parents.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society and Fred Ols.

The wedding happened in 1916 per the Indiana Marriage Collection and the 1930 Census.

It strikes me as a little unusual for the groom to be standing and the bride sitting. Usually it's the other way around, if they are not both standing or sitting together.

Katherine's whole outfit is gorgeous. As for Herman … well, maybe that look of determined endurance was just his natural expression.

A Case for 23andMe

I haven't done much looking into the extended Ols family mainly because they have their own local historian/genealogist, but to get it all straight in my own mind I'm going to write a little summary.

We've already met (briefly) the families of four Ols siblings: Christ(ian), Charles, Henry, and Sophia. These, and a few additional siblings, were the children of John and Charlotte (née Kegebein), who were born and married, and had their first five children, in Germany (Prussia). They came to the U.S. circa 1871. The 1880 Census shows them farming in Hobart Township. I can't find them owning land on the 1874 Plat Map, but the 1891 Plat Book shows a John Ols (who may have been either father or son) owning an 80-acre parcel just north of Ainsworth. (By 1905 that parcel belonged by Henry Chester.[1])

Charlotte Ols died in 1885, per the local Ols expert. I can't find John in any census after 1880. They are both buried in Hobart Cemetery.


The event that prompted all this attention happened in November 1923 and concerns John and Charlotte's grandson, Herman (son of Henry and Bertha Ols). Herman was born circa 1894. In 1916 he married Katherine Yandow (Indiana Marriage Collection), about whom I know nothing. Gary city directories from 1918 and 1920 show the young couple living at 2136 Adams Street. But in 1923 they were living in Hobart, according to this news item:


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Hobart Gazette, Nov. 23, 1923.

The News gave a few more details:


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Hobart News, Nov. 22, 1923.

Yes, they got Herman's name wrong.

No clue as to the baby's biological parents has come down through the family. Her birth was local enough, it seems, to have involved Dr. Friedrich — which could mean Hobart, of course, but also Gary and other places.

The little girl would be named Mary Geraldine (or vice versa; I'm not sure), and commonly went by Geraldine. The 1930 Census records her with her parents on East Third Street, living next door to Grandma and Grandpa:


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Image from Ancestry.com.

For the birthplaces of her mother and father, the enumerator used Katherine's and Herman's.

Geraldine graduated from Hobart High School in 1942. Here is her senior portrait:


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The caption reads: "Gerry had an urge for drama and took the lead in many of the Dramatic Club's productions. She belonged to the band for two and a half years."

In 1944, Geraldine married a young Hobart widower named Robin Cliff.[2] Here is his senior photo:


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Geraldine and Robin still have living descendants — so I am told by the local Ols genealogist. This makes me wonder what biological relatives a genetic test might turn up for them.

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The page from the News, above, includes an item about the "road leading from the Lincoln highway at Ainsworth to the Dunes highway at Miller" possibly being taken over by the State Highway Commission. That stretch of road corresponds to present-day State Road 51. We shall see.

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[1] "Barns and Contents Destroyed," Hobart Gazette, Jan. 6, 1905.
[2] He had married Eunice Edith Peterson in 1938 (Indiana Marriage Collection); she died in 1943 (Indiana Death Certificates).