The Relics of a Dead Marriage

With her marriage ending, Olive Maxwell Hill and her little daughter were moving back with her parents, and she no longer needed all this nice furniture from the marital home — at least, that's what I think was going on here.


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Hobart News, Nov. 29, 1923.

Here is the Maxwell farm on the 1921 plat map of Union Township, Porter County:


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Image from https://www.inportercounty.org/Data/Maps/1921Plats/Union-1921.jpg.

We may be seeing the descendant of the old Maxwell place in the house and outbuildings on the north side of U.S. 30 east of N 725 W. Except I don't think the Maxwells had a caboose.

Michigan Avenue circa 1909

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This is Michigan Avenue in Hobart, according to the caption on the postcard. I'd do a then-and-now post, if only I knew where on Michigan Avenue. You can't see enough of any of the houses, or anything else, to identify the exact location.

The photographer was trying to capture an inviting scene: a wide, straight street lined with well grown trees all leafed out in their summer greenery. And sidewalks, even! But it doesn't translate very well to black and white, or sepia.

I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out who sent the postcard …



… only to conclude that there wasn't enough evidence to identify this Bessie. Hobart and the surrounding countryside was crawling with Bessies.

The recipient had been born Harriet Quirk. Here is a description of her wedding to James Scudder from the Hobart Gazette of November 4, 1904:

Scudder-Quirk Nuptial.

James F. Scudder from Ohio and Miss Harriet J. Quirk, daughter of Mrs. Chas. Estelle, of this place, were united in marriage yesterday, Nov. 3d, 1904. The ceremony was performed by Rev. Geo. B. Jones, pastor of the M.E. church, at the bride's home two miles east of town at high noon, in the presence of a few friends and relatives. The young couple departed on the afternoon train via Chicago for Colorado where they will reside for the present.

The groom is engaged in the mining business, and the bride is one of Hobart's accomplished and highly esteemed young ladies, possession many warm friends.

On Wednesday evening the bride was accorded a reception and given a bundle shower at the home of Dr. and Mrs. [Fred] Werner.

The Gazette joins the bride's numerous friends in extending hearty congratulations and well wishes.

The 1900 Census had counted Hattie twice: in Hobart, working as a "family domestic" in the home of William and Mary Devonshire; and in Portage Township, working as a milliner and living with her stepfather, Charles Estelle, and her mother, Sarah. Hattie had been born in Kansas, where her parents were married and where her father died; I wonder how the widow and child came to Indiana, and how Harriet met this Ohio man.

The Junior Klan

This story from November 1923 introduces us to another auxiliary of the Ku Klux Klan.


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Hobart News, Nov. 29, 1923.

The recently inaugurated Junior Klan was formed to prepare adolescent boys (12 to 18 years of age) for membership in the main organization. At the same time, the Women of the Ku Klux Klan established a counterpart for teenage girls: the Tri-K Klub. (There were a couple of organizations for even younger children and infants, according to the History Channel blog.)

By the way, the fact that the News does not mention the skin color of the "Gary men" in the story means almost certainly that they were white.

The Iverson Girls in Sunday School

As I mentioned in my last post, I am now pretty well convinced that Henry Iverson, the Chicago photographer, did indeed move down to the small town of Hobart in the late 1880s to practice his profession, because I have found two of his daughters attending the Union Sunday School in Hobart at that time.

Here is the Iverson family in the 1880 Census, recorded in Chicago, Illinois.


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Image from Ancestry.com.

You will notice that among the daughters is a Theressa and a Maria.

From the Union Sunday School record book that begins in 1888, here is a list of students that includes "Mamie" Iverson — a common enough nickname for Mary or Maria, at that time …


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

… and "Thereas" Iverson, for which I think we can read "Theresa":


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

This particular record book begins in September 1888 and ends in February 1891. These pages are undated, at the back of the book among random notes. The book gives very little information about who was teaching or studying in the Sunday School on any given date. But I'm not going to be picky; as far as I'm concerned this is evidence that the Iverson family fits into the timeframe established by H.C. Hanson's newspaper.

Maybe when the libraries open up again I can check other sources.

It's my blog and I'll obsess about minor things if I want to.

John and Mamie Harms, by Henry Iverson of Chicago

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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

This photograph is undated, but on the back of the original is the imprint of the photographer, Henry Iverson, 2176 Archer Ave., Chicago. So, thanks to the information about him compiled by the Chicago Historical Society, we can date the photograph between 1881 and 1885.

And since we know the birth dates of the subjects, we can narrow that down, based on their apparent ages in this photo, to 1884 or 1885.

John was born August 26, 1877 (Indiana Death Certificates) to Henry and Sophia (Reimer) Harms. Sophia died just a week later, of "milk fever," as the family oral tradition has it — probably puerperal sepsis.

In 1879 Henry Sr. married Johanna Springman (Indiana Marriage Collection). They had a baby daughter who was born and died in 1881. Maria aka "Mayme," born June 1, 1882 (Indiana Death Certificates), was the first of their children to live to adulthood. (As we know, she married Fred Harney.)

I have no clue why Henry and Johanna took their children to Chicago for this photograph, nor why they chose this particular photographer; but I like to imagine that this encounter had something to do with Mr. Iverson's moving down to Hobart within a couple of years, as I believe he did.