Grapevine Looper and Sawfly Larva

This moth was on a Virginia Creeper vine in my field.


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Grapevine Looper moths come in Greater and Lesser varieties, but they are very hard to tell apart without measurements. I couldn't get measurements on this guy; I was lucky just to get a picture.

The moth gets its name from its caterpillar, which feeds on grapevines and Virginia Creeper, and forms a loop shape when it walks.

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Here is a many-legged critter that the nice people in the IN Nature group on Facebook helped me to identify as a sawfly larva.


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The adults are called sawflies because their ovipositors resemble saws.

Cockfight at the Hobart House

I came across this strange story, printed in the Chicago Tribune of April 10, 1874, about a cockfight held at the Hobart House, which the article called the "Roper Hotel."


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According to Elin Christianson's book, Hobart's Historic Buildings, the Hobart House was built in 1870 by Edward Roper, so I suppose he is the proprietor mentioned in the article, who defied public opinion in hosting this "disgraceful exhibition."

I am not sure what the popular objection was to the cockfight — because it was inhumane to the animals? or because it attracted "Chicago roughs and gamblers"? The sub-headline of the article, "Another Gathering of Roughs at Hobart, Ind.," implies that this wasn't the first time.

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Now let me just remedy my ignorance about Edward Roper.

He was born in England in 1843 to James and Charlotte (Baker) Roper. The family came to the United States about 1851[1] and showed up in Hobart in the 1860 Census. In 1866 Edward married Margaret Rhodes (Indiana Marriage Collection). The 1870 Census records them in Hobart, Edward giving his occupation as saloon keeper. By the 1880 Census he had gone into farming.

Years ago I posted a photo in which the second-from-left subject is identified as Edward Roper:


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The approximate date of the photo is 1884, so this may be from Edward's farming years.

It appears that Edward quit farming to resume his old occupation by 1887, when we find his application for a license to sell liquor being rejected. According to the "County Board" column of the Crown Point Register of December 15, 1887: "Strong opposition to granting the license was made by citizens of Hobart. Evidence was introduced to show that Roper kept his saloon open Sundays and that he kept a disorderly house." (An item in the "Hobart" column says that his wife opposed his license as well.)

The next record I have of Edward and Margaret is the 1900 Census. At that time they were living in Hammond. Sometime later they were divorced, apparently, as that is Edward's marital status in the 1910 Census, when he was living in a Chicago hotel or boardinghouse and working for a meat packer. It's possible he married again (I'm not sure I've found the right person), but he was described as divorced in the record of his death in Chicago in January 1913, when "he was struck by a switch engine"[2] while on his way to work.

He and his former wife are buried in Ross Cemetery.

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[1] "Death of Philip Roper, Sr.," Hobart Gazette, 11 Oct. 1918.
[2] "Hobart," The Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 30 Jan. 1913.

Dwarf Snapdragon and Ironweed Curculio

"A low plant of waste places, especially along railroad tracks," says Newcomb's Wildflower Guide, and indeed these were growing next to the Canadian National tracks here in Ainsworth.


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They were maybe 6" tall, with tiny blossoms. Hard to photograph such small things.

Here's a blossom with my thumb for scale:



More info and images here: https://midwestherbaria.org/portal/taxa/index.php?tid=108768&taxauthid=1&clid=5211

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Here's a bonus Ironweed Curculio. It's not on Ironweed, it's on a sunflower in my back yard.



(Thumb for scale.)



(Ant for scale.)

It breeds in plants of the Aster family, including Ironweed. I did not know that Ironweed was in the Aster family until I started researching this bug.

Bad Times at the Black Cat: Domestic Edition

"The triumph of hope over experience" turns into "fool me twice …"


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Hobart Gazette, 20 Jan. 1955.

The 1950 Census shows Ronald Reed managing the Black Cat, along with his brother William (and William's wife, Darrielyn).

I've found the October 1953 record of Ronald and Laura's re-marriage in Lake County, Indiana. I can't find the record of their original marriage. I'm guessing that happened in Pennsylvania sometime between (probably) 1935 and 1940, when they show up married in the census, living in Uniontown, Pennsylvania.

The owners of the Black Cat, Paul and Elva Allen, are recorded the 1950 census on the page before the Reed brothers. Elva was the mother of Ronald and William. Paul was their stepfather. Apparently Elva and their father, William, had been divorced, since William lived until 1959.

Now I'm wondering about Betty Reed, described in the 1953 article as the "wife of the owner." I can't find any Betty in the 1950 census. Did the article just get her name wrong?


I don't actually know if the divorce went through for Ronald and Laura. If she got her $30,000 in alimony, she did pretty well; that's about $341,000 in 2023 dollars (the $200,000 gross income of the Black Cat would be over $2,000,000 today). The next I hear about Ronald is a newspaper item in 1957 saying that he was marrying Lorraine Brady.[1] But I can't figure out what happened to Laura.

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In happier news, Jack Hendrix is back!


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Hobart Gazette

He was "back" from Key West, Florida, where he lived most of the time, I believe. A "Hobart Happenings" item from the Gazette of March 3, 1955, said:

Jack Hendrix will leave Tuesday for Florida, where he is the featured organist in the Bamboo Room at Key West. He has been visiting friends and relatives in this area for the past two months.

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[1] "News From the Court House," The Brook Reporter (Brook, Ind.), 3 Jan. 1957.

Red Admiral Caterpillar

Several years ago I learned what Three-Seeded Mercury looks like. But only recently I learned that it is a member of the Nettle family and thus a host plant for Red Admiral caterpillars. [7/5/2023 update: I was wrong about that. Three-Seeded Mercury is a member of the Spurge family according to every internet source I can now find. I must have dreamed the source that talked about Nettle. So why was that caterpillar so interested in the Three-Seeded Mercury, I wonder?]


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Here are some pics of a grown-up Red Admiral that found something it liked on the outside of my hummingbird feeder.


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A Semi-Famous Author I Never Heard of Before

I was surprised to come across this item in the Hobart Gazette of August 20, 1953:


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In all my years of researching local history, I never heard of Paul Darcy Boles.

His connection to Hobart is slight. He didn't live here long enough to be counted in a census. In the 1920 Census and 1930 Census, he was living in Gary with his father and stepmother.[1] They spelled their surname Bowles.

Paul did get into the Hobart High School 1931 yearbook, as a freshman.


Image from Ancestry.com

Here he is in the high-school band:


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Image from Ancestry.com

According to later information, he dropped out of high school. By 1935 he was living in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, with his mother and stepfather.[2]


After The Streak, he went on to write more books and even to win a couple of literary prizes. His death in 1984 was reported in newspapers across the country. Here is one obituary from California:


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Fresno Bee, 6 May 1984.

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So I went on Amazon and bought a copy of The Streak. And I read it. Forced myself to stick with it to the very end. The style reminds me of Hemingway.[3]

I will not be reading his later books to find out how (or if) his style progressed.

Here is Mr. Boles talking about himself on the 1953 dust jacket, brushing off his Indiana ties:



By the way, the date is wrong. It should be 1916.

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[1] That is, I think she was his stepmother. I'm not clear about his family of origin.
[2] Again, not sure about the family relations.
[3] I can't stand Hemingway.