Hobart Then and Now: Nickel Plate Garage/Town Hall

1923, and 2023[1]




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I don't know when the Nickel Plate Garage was built: I didn't note its construction during my microfilm reading and can't find that information in any online source. At present I can only guess that it must have been built after 1910, when it fails to appear in the Sanborn map, and before April of 1917, when I find my earliest note of its existence.[2]

Here is the garage as shown on the 1922 Sanborn map:


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In November 1917, Frank Beltzhoover (by then the sole proprietor) sold the Nickel Plate Garage to William Boyd Owen,[3] a son of the W.B. Owen of brickyard fame. The younger William was born in 1881 or '82 and married Eva Kitchen in Chicago in 1901. In the 1910 Census, William Jr., a Hobart resident, gave his occupation as "Superintendent" of a "Fire Proofing" business — that would be the brickyard, I believe. In the 1920 Census, as might be expected, his occupation was "Auto Salesman."

In January 1920 Paul Wehner bought 50 percent ownership of the Nickel Plate Garage and became its supervisor.[4] Born in 1898, he was the son of Andrew and Anna (Gottlieb) Wehner of Calumet Township. (I would expect to find him in Hobart in the 1920 Census, but I can't find him there or anywhere else.) In 1926, he married Leona Traeger. Sadly, she died the following year from complications of pregnancy; the infant died as well. Paul never remarried. By 1930 he had moved to Michigan City, working as a foreman in an "auto shop," but he came back to Hobart before the decade was out and by 1937 was in some sort of business partnership with Thomas Crisman.[5] He died of pneumonia in January 1937.

W.B. Owen had died in 1928 in South Bend.

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I haven't been able to find out much about what's on the other side of the card.


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The addressee was Eva (Drake) Stevens (or Stephens), a lifelong resident of Michigan as far as I can determine. The sender, Edith S., might have been any of several Ediths in Hobart whose surname begins with S and who were old enough, per the 1920 Census, to be sending postcards. Or she might not have been a Hobart resident at all. With so little information, I can't form even one of my wacky theories about how the sender and receiver might be connected.

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[1] I know the Google street view is from 2022. The view hasn't changed in a year.
[2] "Frailey & Beltzhoover Sell 22 Cars Since January 1st," Hobart News, 5 Apr. 1917. The owners were Clarence Frailey and Frank (or maybe Calvin) Beltzhoover.
[3] "W.B. Owen Buys Nickel Plate Garage of Frank Beltzhoover," Hobart Gazette, 15 Nov. 1917.
[4] "Owen and Wehner New Owners Nickel Plate Garage," Hobart Gazette, 8 Jan. 1920.
[5] "Lake Co. Courts," Hammond Times, 4 Feb. 1937.

Widow Skimmer Dragonfly

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She let me take only one photo, then she zoomed off. Better pics here, and possible explanations of the "Widow" part of their name here.

She Tried to Warn Them

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Hobart Gazette, 16 June 1955.



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Hobart Gazette, 29 Mar. 1956.

Deptford Pink

Somehow I happened to notice these tiny blossoms growing along an occasionally mowed path in my otherwise overgrown field. The blossoms are so small, and were growing so low to the ground, that I couldn't manage to get an in-focus picture. This is the best I could do:


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Thumb for scale:



Here's a taller plant that had no blossoms:



These flowers are native to Europe (named for the town of Deptford in England), but naturalized in Indiana — which means that that they are "growing in harmony with their new environment causing no disruptions to established biodiversity."[1]


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[1] https://botanicalpaperworks.com/blog/non-native-wildflowers/#:~:text=These%20neutral%20non%2Dnative%20wildflowers,problems%20in%20the%20local%20environment .

An Ainsworth Artifact

This square of rusted metal came into the Hobart Historical Society museum recently. It had been found circa 2006 in the woods 'way back of the houses on the east side of Grand Boulevard.

The slightly convex square is embossed with the word "PRAIRIE" in an oval shape, with two lines of illegible numbers below that. (I photographed it at an angle in sunlight to try to bring out the lettering.)


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Here is the underside of the square, just for completeness.



I figured it was from some sort of farm equipment such as a tractor, or maybe even a wood- or coal-burning stove, so I started searching the internet for some such thing, but I got absolutely nowhere. Then I posed the question on the "What Is This Thing?" subreddit. I was amazed how quickly someone got back to me with the answer.

It is the hopper lid of a Prairie No. 3 1786E walk-behind seeder. Here are some photos of one that sold at auction.


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Images from https://kraftauctions.hibid.com/lot/25205-173932-486897/prairie-no--3-1786e-planter/.

(Once you know the second line under "PRAIRIE" is "No. 3," you can see it on our rusted square. The last line, well, I would never have guessed.)





I found another one sold at auction here.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any information on how old our hopper lid might be. Also, we don't know exactly where it was found. The person who found it lived in Section 17, which was Chester-Schmidt-Wasy land, but who knows if they might have wandered northward along the eastern border of the old Kegebein farm?


Here is a video on how a modern walk-behind seeder works.

Pale Dogwood Berries

The pale dogwood blossoms have turned into blue berries.


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I did just a little internet research trying to find out if pale dogwood berries are edible. Thus far, I've only learned that some types of dogwood have edible berries and some types have poisonous berries. I didn't see any specific information about pale dogwood, and I don't intend to find out the hard way.

Northern Pearly-Eye Satyr

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I had never seen one of these before. This guy landed on a Carrion Flower vine in my field, sat there just long enough for me to snap a couple pics with my cell phone, and then flitted away, and I will probably never see another Northern Pearly-Eye Satyr as long as I live.

My butterfly book points out that the clubs on their antennae are black with orange tips.

Bad Times at the Black Cat: Drunk and Disorderly

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Hobart Gazette, 21 July 1955.

Somebody creating a disturbance at the Black Cat — so, what else is new?


… What else is new, you ask? — Jack Hendrix is now performing at the Country Lounge.


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Hobart Gazette, 2 June 1955.

In the Gazette's "Hobart Happenings" column of September 8, 1955, we come across this item: "Mrs. Ida M. Hendrix, mother of Jack Hendrix, will leave next week for Key West, Florida, to make her home with her son."


I have only just recently learned that, as early as the mid-1940s, Key West was becoming known in gay subculture as a something of a sanctuary. I wonder what sort of impression Key West made on Ida Hendrix?