Daddy's First Church, and Daddy's Subsequent Career

After my recent post about the Deep River church history, I decided to dig out a postcard that I have been ignoring ever since I bought it a couple years ago because dealing with it would require research, and I'm lazy.

Here it is:


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I thought it would take a long time to identify pastors of the Deep River church, especially a neophyte who served there circa 1918 as his first church. I was wrong.

Just a little bit of searching in the on-line newspapers turned up a Deep River pastor who apparently started at that church around May 1916 (at least, that was the first mention of him I could find):


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Porter County Vidette (Valparaiso, Ind.), 17 May 1916.

And that was not a one-time appearance. The local social columns in the Porter County Vidette continued throughout 1916 and into the spring of 1917 to report the Rev. Gerald Smith preaching at the Deep River church and being entertained at local homes.[1]

In this March 1917 account of a church-related box social, we learn that the Rev. Smith's mother lived in Viroqua, Wisconsin:


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Porter County Vidette (Valparaiso, Ind.), 14 Mar. 1917.

In mid-May of 1917, the Rev. Smith gave notice that he was resigning as pastor of the Deep River church …


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Porter County Vidette (Valparaiso, Ind.), 16 May 1917.

… but he continued to act in that capacity for a few more weeks, at least:


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Porter County Vidette (Valparaiso, Ind.), 13 June 1917.


So I, in my innocence, typed "Gerald L.K. Smith" into my Google search and … oh, dear. How is it that I never heard of him before?

A brief biography appears on Wikipedia. An Indiana website mentions Deep River among his earliest preaching experiences; apparently it was, in fact, "Daddy's first church." He has written books and had books written about him, some still available to buy on Amazon.com.

He died in 1976. Here is one of many obituaries that were printed in newspapers across the U.S.:


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Miami Herald, 17 Apr. 1976.
(The year of his marriage it wrong: it was actually 1922.)

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Photographs of Gerald L.K. Smith abound on the internet, mostly from later in his career. The earliest I could find was this, from 1926, when he served as pastor of an Indianapolis church:


Image from the Indiana Album, Joan Hostetler Collection.

Here is a later photo (undated).


Image from https://www.4029tv.com/article/arkansas-presidential-candidates/43698269.

Let us go back to the postcard above and take a better look at the young man standing at the left end of the back row:


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Is that the same person as in the two photos above? I don't know. I have run these photos through three free on-line facial comparison programs; two said these photos are all the same person, a third said they are not.

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And now let's look at the notes on the back of the postcard.

"Daddy's first church" was written during the ballpoint-pen era — that is, after World War II. The handwriting looks, to me, like a woman's.

The notes in red pencil may be the Rev. Smith's own writing, but I have failed to locate an on-line specimen to compare. I think these notes were written some time after the photo was taken. I imagine that Gerald Smith and his wife, Elna, were going through some of his old things and making notes for the benefit of posterity.[2] Thus, Gerald Sr.'s memory might have been a little off about the year.[3]

I had heard, of course, about the Moody Bible Institute and Moody Church of Chicago; what I did not know of, prior to researching this postcard, was the Moody connection to Cedar Lake, Indiana. In the timeframe of this postcard, one or both of those institutions held classes and events at Cedar Lake, eventually purchasing the former Monon Park for that purpose.

Here is a sampling of local articles about Moody events at Cedar Lake from 1916 to 1919:


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Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 24 Jan. 1916.


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"Lowell," Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 28 June 1917.



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Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 27 June 1919.


The point of this Cedar-Lake discursion is that I suspect our postcard photo was taken at a Moody event there. The group in the photo is standing in wooded grounds, and the autos behind them suggest they drove there (as opposed to taking a train, as they might have for a Chicago event). While I have failed to turn up, in the on-line newspapers, any specific mention of Deep River church members attending such an event with the Rev. Gerald Smith, they may have done it without publicity.

That would have been a bit unusual, though, wouldn't it? I think the Rev. Smith himself was responsible for so many items about the Deep River Church making their way into the local papers — after he left, the church seems to have dropped from the columns of the on-line papers to such an extent that I can't even find out who succeeded him as pastor there.


But at this point my laziness kicks in again. I'm pretty sure I have identified who "Daddy" was, and I've come up with a plausible hypothesis about the photo on the postcard. Anyone who wants more research done can do it themselves.

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[1] For example, the "Driftwood from Deepriver" columns of 24 May 1916, 21 June 1916, 12 July 1916, 16 Aug. 1916; and the "Southeast Ross" columns of 8 Nov. 1916, 22 Nov. 1916, 17 Jan. 1917, 11 Apr. 1917.
[2] They had one child, an adopted son named Gerald Jr., but as far as I have been able to find out Gerald Jr. left no surviving children.
[3] Nothing about either the fashions or the automobiles says exclusively 1918 or later.

A Very Short History of the Deep River Church

I came across this article in the May 14, 1975 issue of the Hobart Gazette about the Christian Church of Deep River, whose original building is now the Deep River County Park visitors' center.


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It's interesting that the old-timers of 1975 did not remember Contractor Abel, unless he was one of the volunteers mentioned. But I believe he and his family belonged to the German Lutheran Church in Hobart, so it isn't likely that he was volunteering his services to the Deep River church.

The article does me a favor by explaining the "Willing Workers," as I was unclear about its origin. I have seen that ladies' aid society mentioned numerous times in the early 20th-century newspapers (for example, a 1922 social column previously posted announced their fund-raising sale and supper). The earliest such mention I can find in my notes was in June 1906,[1] so I guess the 1975 old-timers' memories were off by just one year. Which is remarkably good.

I only wish the article were clearer about the location of the dance hall!


The photo of the Sunday School class includes some familiar names as well as some I have scarcely looked into.

Mrs. Flora Maxwell, presumably the Sunday-School teacher, had been born into an old Ross Township family, the Sturtevants, and had married Douglas Maxwell. Thus Olive Maxwell, in the first row, was her stepdaughter.

We already know of Philip Waldeck and his untimely death. Through his mother, he was a cousin of Clarence Maybaum ("Maybawm" is a mistake).

George Casbon, born in 1897, was a child of Thomas and Ella Casbon[2] and lived in a brick house on the north side of what is now 73rd Avenue (later owned by the Buchfuehrers).

Raymond Wood was the son of William and Martha Wood, and a great-grandson of John and Hannah, who founded the village of Deep River. The "Ford agency in town" mentioned in the article was run by William and Raymond.

Floyd Yager was born in 1897 to George and Anna. The extended Yager clan has already furnished considerable material for this blog, from Floyd's eccentric uncle, Fred, to his elegant brother, George Jr., but Floyd himself seems to have led a pretty quiet life. His family's farmhouse on 73rd Avenue is still standing.

Now we get to the less familiar names.

I believe that George Sandburg's father, John, bought Huffman's mill in 1903, and his mother, Lucy, had been a Baker.[3] George remained a Porter County resident through the 1940 Census, but by 1950 had moved with his wife to Tennessee, where he is buried.

Thus far I have indexed the surname Ditlow only in connection with "South of Deepriver" social columns (1921 and 1922). Raymond and Cecil Ditlow were brothers, born into a Union Township farming family. This 1942 article about their parents' 50th wedding anniversary gives a little of the family history …


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"Mr. and Mrs. Abe Ditlow Celebrate Golden Wedding," Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 21 Sept. 1942.

.. as does their father's 1947 obituary:


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Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 17 Mar. 1947.

Raymond and Cecil are both buried in Mosier Cemetery.

As for the surname Riley, I have found it several times in my notes, in connection with minor social news, and once it got into the blog, but I am confused about the relation of the various Rileys to one another, if any. The Riley in this photo, Marion, was the daughter of Edwin Stanton[4] and Rose (Miller) Riley and was born in 1897. In 1917 she married Reid Peck and lived out the rest of her life in Valparaiso. She, too, is buried in Mosier Cemetery.

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[1] "Thursday, June 21st, from two to four o'clock, there will be a ten-cent Tea served by Mrs. B.H. Wood at Deepriver and by other members of the Willing Workers society on Mrs. W.M. Waldeck's lawn. Everybody invited. Mrs. Casbon, President." "General News Items," Hobart Gazette, 15 June 1906.
[2] Per his entry on Findagrave.com, his middle name was Perry — the maiden name of his grandmother.
[3] The surname appears as both "Sandburg" and "Sandberg." Since George himself used "Sandberg" when he signed his WWI draft card, I will be indexing it that way.
[4] He seems to be variously referred to as "E.S.," "Edwin S.," and "Stanton," which contributes to my confusion.

Unidentified Scenic Beauty, 1911, East Gary

I bought these postcards (postmarked 1911) on Ebay because, at first glance, they seemed to show the view from the hill where I think the Bijou resort was located (now Riverview Park). Once I received them and had a chance to look more carefully at them, I started doubting my first impression. But if not there — where?


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"Bend of Deep River" — the Deep River has lots of bends, but one of the most significant is near Riverview Park, where there would also be a bridge carrying a road (now S.R. 51) over the river. But wouldn't you expect to see some evidence of "downtown" East Gary, if the photographer were on the Riverview Park hill pointing the camera more or less north?

He might not have been on a hill. He might have climbed somebody's windmill to get that aerial view.

I scanned these at 1200 dpi to bring out the details. The trees along the road have been planted at such regular intervals that, viewed from a distance against the road, they give the illusion of a line of railroad cars. In the second image (where you can see some farm outbuildings), there's a man working in the field near the right edge. I think the cattle are the same in both pictures — they just moved a bit while the photographer was adjusting the camera's position.

Here's what I get when I put the two images together through Hugin (free panorama software):




The location of the third postcard is even more of a mystery:



This one shows two bridges over the Deep River. I can't tell if the far one is a road or a railroad.

Although there's a spot where Central Avenue crosses a river near a railroad bridge, I can think of at least two problems in the way of identifying this image as showing those two bridges: one, the river by that point is the Little Calumet — the Deep River has already flowed into it and lost its own identity. (On the other hand, the photographer and the person who commissioned the photos might not have known or cared about exactly which river they were looking at.) Two, I'm not sure Central Avenue extended that far in 1911, or had such a nice bridge. Oh, and third, since even today this location is outside the Lake Station city limits, I'm not sure anyone in 1911 would have attached "East Gary" to the description. (On the other hand, it wasn't inside any other city, so why not attribute that scenic beauty to East Gary?)

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Thanks to Steve Shook's research, we already have information about the Crose Photo Co. But what about the person who commissioned the photos, W.E. Ashton?

I believe he was William E. Ashton, shown here in the 1910 Census:


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Image from Ancestry.com.

As the proprietor of a general store, he might have wanted his own exclusive line of postcards.

William was born in Illinois and grew up in DuPage County, I gather. We find him in the 1870 Census in Downers Grove, his father describing himself as a day laborer, and in Hinsdale in the 1880 Census, by which time his father was working as a butcher.

The 1900 Census showed William out on his own, farming in Liberty Township, Porter County. His household included no family, but three boarders — all female; two widowed, one single. The single one was Mabel Lester,[1] whom William married in 1901 (Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index). A 1905 directory out of Valparaiso shows them still living along a rural route, and the 1906 plat map of Liberty Township shows their 30-acre farm (I hope I labeled the roads correctly):


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Image from https://www.inportercounty.org/Data/Maps/1906Plats/Liberty-1906.jpg.

It appears that the move to East Gary happened sometime between 1906 and 1910. Thus, the Ashtons' stay in East Gary probably was no more than 14 years, at most. The 1920 Census records them in Gary. William worked as a laborer then, employed by a "Bridge Works."

Assuming I've found the right people, by the 1930 Census William and Mabel had moved to Mississippi! There William described himself as a carpenter. Then they came to their senses and moved back to Indiana — to Hobart, in fact, where the 1940 Census recorded them living on West Third Street. William and Mabel described themselves as a retired owner/manager and clerk, respectively, of a grocery store. Later, they moved to Crawfordsville, Indiana (1950 Census).

William died in 1951, Mabel in 1973, and they both were laid to rest in Hobart.

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The three postcards were all sent by the same person. Here they are in the same order as above.


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Ellen (last name/maiden name probably Carlson) first sent postcards to her mother, Mrs. J.A. Carlson, and her father (or stepfather), J.A. Carlson. Two days later she sent a third to her sister/maiden aunt/cousin/whatever, Miss Anna Carlson. I have found households with most of those names or initials, but none with all of them, so the Carlsons remain unidentified for now.


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[1] One of the widowed boarders was Mabel's mother, Linna ("Linnie").

Bruce Mitchell Times Two

This postcard is postmarked 1955:


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It introduces us to a father-and-son team of entrepreneurs who operated businesses in Hobart for some three decades. They sold a whole lot more than sporting goods, as we are told by this advertising flyer bound into the Classifieds section of the 1952-53 Hobart directory:[1]


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society, Hobart, Indiana.

Wellington Bruce Mitchell was the father, and Thomas Bruce Mitchell the son. The father usually went by "W.B."; the son almost always went by his middle name.

According to W.B.'s obituary, their business connection to Hobart started in 1932.


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"Deaths," Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 22 Dec. 1964.

But their emotional connection to Hobart started even earlier. In April 1910 W.B. married Mary Blaemire (Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index), a daughter of William and Isabell Blaemire,[2] who were Hobart residents as early as the 1880 Census, and who are now buried in Hobart Cemetery.

The 1910 Census, taken a couple of weeks before his wedding, recorded W.B. living with his parents in Chicago's Ward 8 — the furthest southeastern part of Chicago, bordering on Indiana. W.B. and his father both worked in steel mills.

W.B.'s draft card, filled out June 1917, stated that he and Mary, with their two children (the youngest being Thomas Bruce), lived in southeast Chicago while he commuted to a job in Gary, Indiana. Three years later, per the 1920 Census, they still lived in the same area, W.B. working as a millwright at an unnamed construction company.

In July 1929 we find this little personal item about the family in a south Chicago newspaper's social column: "Mr. and Mrs. Wellington Bruce Mitchell and their children, 7842 Paxton ave., left last week for a visit to their summer home at Hobart, Ind."[3] Their owning a summer home implies a fairly comfortable financial situation. In the 1930 Census, W.B. described himself as a self-employed real estate broker who owned his residence in south Chicago.

Two years after that, as we know, the family moved to Hobart. We start to find directory listings for them in the 1936-37 directory,[4] which shows them renting the house at 769 E. Third Street. We are told that W.B. is a merchant with a business called Hobart Paint & Glass, but there is no separate listing for that business. It was probably operating out of the Guyer Building, where the old-timers in 1979 remembered it, and where it was listed in the October 1940 directory.[5] A slightly later directory, for 1940-41,[6] showed Mitchell's Hobart Service Supply Co. (listed under "Paint Dealers") at 151 Illinois Street.[7]

In 1938 Thomas Bruce Mitchell got married.


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"Hobart," Hammond Times, 26 Sept. 1938.

The two Mitchell families set up separate households near each other on Kelly Street. Bruce (Jr.) worked in his father's stored; W.B. described himself as the owner of a lumber company (1940 Census) and a building contractor (1940-41 directory).

The sporting goods business makes its first appearance in Hobart's January 1946 directory,[8] with "Mitchell's" at 151 Illinois Street being listed in the Classified section under "Sporting Goods — Retail." The same business at the same address is also listed under "Hardware Stores" and "Paint — Retail." Under the latter heading we also find Hobart Paint & Glass at the same address. All these businesses shared one phone number: Hobart-75. In 1949, according to a photocopied newspaper article in the Hobart Historical Society museum files, a Mitchell appliance store was opened[9] (possibly at 225 Center Street, as listed in the 1952-53 directory insert posted above).

In the 1950 Census, W.B. is described as a "proprietor" in the "retail lumber & coal" industry, while Bruce is likewise a "proprietor," in the "retail sporting goods" industry.

As we already learned from his obituary, W.B. retired from business in 1952.

The 1956 directory[10] has a listing only for "Mitchell Bruce Sports" [sic] — no indication that any of the lumber, paint, or hardware business continued. But the Hobart Historical Society's file contains a photocopied newspaper article from 1957 about the "grand opening of Mitchell's Hardware store in its new location at 225 Center St."[11]

In 1962[12] Mitchell's of Hobart was operating at 151 Illinois. By 1968[13] it had moved across the street to 154 Illinois. That was the year of Thomas Bruce Mitchell's death, and, so far as I can tell, the end of the Mitchell business empire in Hobart. The 1970 directory has no business listings for any Mitchell business, and Bruce's widow, Loretta, is listed in Ogden Dunes.[14]

Bruce and Loretta (who died in 2005) are buried in Mosier Cemetery.

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As for the recipient of our postcard, Lloyd Schroeder — he lived a long, eventful life and now rests in Valparaiso.

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[1] 1952 — Directory — 1953 (Hobart – Wheeler – New Chicago – Ainsworth – Green Acres – Deep River – South Hobart Twp. – South Portage Twp.), published by Advance-News, Nappanee, Indiana (copy at the Hobart Historical Society museum).
[2] Indiana Death Certificates.
[3] "Personals," Southtown Economist (Chicago, Ill.), 19 July 1929.
[4] City Directory/Hobart, Ind./1936-37 ["Compiled by House-to-House Canvas"]. 1936: Mrs. Sherlock Hope (copy at the Hobart Historical Society museum).
[5] Hobart/Chesterton/East Gary/Kouts/Ogden Dunes/Valparaiso/Wheeler. Indiana Associated Telephone Corporation, October 1940 (copy at the Hobart Historical Society museum).
[6] City Directory/Hobart, Indiana/1940 – 1941 (copy at the Hobart Historical Society museum).
[7] Per the county records, the gas station now on that site was built in 1979. I have not been able to find any bird's-eye or aerial views showing whatever buildings may have been there before 1979.
[8] Valparaiso/Chesterton/East Gary/Hobart/Kouts/Ogden Dunes/Wheeler. Indiana Associated Telephone Corporation, January 1946 (copy at the Hobart Historical Society museum).
[9] "Mitchell's To Hold Grand Opening Of New Appliance Center On Saturday, Oct. 1," Hobart Gazette, 15 Sept. 1949.
[10] Robinson's Hobart, Indiana City Directory. George C. Robinson Directory Service (Hillsdale, Mich.), 1956 (copy at the Hobart Historical Society museum).
[11] "Many Prizes Awarded at Grand Opening of Mitchell's Hardware," Hobart Gazette, 28 Mar. 1957.
[12] Polk's Hobart (Lake County, Ind.) City Directory 1962. R.L. Polk & Co. (Detroit, Mich.).
[13] Polk's Hobart (Lake County, Ind.) City Directory 1968. R.L. Polk & Co. (Detroit, Mich.) (copy at the Hobart Historical Society museum).
[14] Polk's Hobart (Lake County, Ind.) City Directory 1970. R.L. Polk & Co. (Detroit, Mich.) (copy at the Hobart Historical Society museum).

Dime Store, Hobart, Indiana, 1957

The photographer climbed up on the checkout counter, I think, to shoot this nice overview of a store interior:


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Apparently, if you were a little kid in Hobart in 1957, you wore Buster Brown or nothing. Well, maybe you could get something else at Stommel's.

I like the assortment of goods packed into that small space. In the foreground, tissues; then sewing supplies, like cards of buttons and seam binding, and rolls of ribbon. Beyond the Buster Brown display, shelves full of yarn and socks. Saddle shoes and loafers. Ladies' nylons with reinforced heels. Then more children's clothing against the back wall. Up on the wall, kites and curtains.

The notes on the back of the photo don't tell us which dime store:




It might have been Harvey's, which, contrary to what the old-timer(s) remembered in 1979, didn't burn down until 1961:


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Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 27 Dec. 1961.

But then again we have photos of Elinor's from the 1957 Hobart High School yearbook, supposedly in that same location, so I'm confused.

I believe the Schultz Bros. Variety Store was operating on Main Street in 1957; that's another possibility. It is listed at 313 Main in my 1962 Hobart directory, and according to this 1940 column of Hobart-related news, had been operating in Hobart at least since 1939 (exact location unknown):


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Hammond Times, 5 Aug. 1940.

(So why did Almira Kramer and Claude Nelson get married secretly? Anybody know the story?)

Carpe Carpem

Rex Roll and his friend caught a whole lot of carp in Lake George, but they are not going to tell you where the lucky fishing spot is.


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That is all.

Deep River Then and Now: International Dairy Co.

1936 and 2024:




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Historical images courtesy of R.F.
2024 images from Google street view.

Per a 1936 history of Union Township written by Wheeler High School students and teachers:

The Pure Milk station was built in the fall of 1925 by the Midwest Dairyman's Company, but there have been several improvements made in the equipment since then. There have been no decreases in the shipment of milk; rather it has increased gradually from 10,000 pounds daily in 1925 to 36,000 daily in 1936. It is owned by the International Dairy Company and all members that belong are Pure Milk members.[1]

I must take their word for the construction date, since I have not been able to find any relevant information in the newspapers I have access to. Indeed, I read through the whole of 1925's Hobart Gazette without finding any mention of what must have been a big event in the village of Deep River. On the other hand, the Porter County Assessor's records have 1950 as the build date. I think that may be a mistake, unless the dairy building burned to the ground and an identical version was built anew in 1950. Possibly that was the date the two back sections were added on; they were not original, as we can see in the second 1936 photo, and as the relevant 1939 aerial photo confirms.

The earliest newspaper article I have found about the dairy dates to January 1931:


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Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 24 Jan. 1931.

Pretty exciting event, but I don’t think it made the Gazette.

This article, from later the same year, does establish that the dairy was operating at least as early as January 1930:


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Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 13 Apr. 1931.


This photo, also from 1936, was taken in an unknown location.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of R.F.

We don't know who the smiling man was, either — presumably a truck driver for dairy. This photo has the name "Vina Serafinski" in its file name, but I haven't been able to identify such a person, nor anything about the name Serafinski that would help I.D. this location.

From this photo, dated 1938, I gather that someone was really proud of the dairy building and its pretty landscaping:


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Image courtesy of R.F.

And lastly, a few random articles naming several employees of the International Dairy Co. over the years:


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Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 12 Dec. 1930.


Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 27 Jan. 1941.


Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 21 Feb. 1967.


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[1] From the "Industrial Development" section of WHEELER HIGH'S WINNING HISTORY OF UNION TOWNSHIP As Compiled By History Class and Instructors For The Vidette-Messenger, printed in the Porter County Centennial, 1836-1936, Special Edition, 18 Aug. 1936, as transcribed at https://www.inportercounty.org/Data/PorterCountyCentennial/Sec3-4-6_UnionTwpHistory.html.

The Robbed Grave of Sturdevant Cemetery

Artist's facial reconstruction of Esther Ann Granger Peck.

A fellow member of the Merrillville-Ross Township Historical Society alerted me to a story (which is now being reported by numerous sources and even being discussed on Reddit) about the identification of a skull that had been found during the 1978 remodeling of a home in Batavia, Illinois. DNA testing did not exist in 1978, of course, so means of identifying the skull were limited at that time. Now we have not only DNA testing but a lot of people who have submitted their DNA for genealogy purposes.

And so we have learned that a young woman's grave, marked in the little Sturdevant Cemetery in eastern Ross Township, has been at least partially empty for a long time.


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From Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society, Ross Township Cemeteries (1995).

The full story is here: Kane County Coroner’s Office and Batavia Police Department Team with Othram to Identify 1978 Jane Doe. This video story shows the house in Batavia where Esther's skull was found.

Esther's listing on Findagrave.com, which formerly led to Sturdevant Cemetery, now shows her as being buried in Batavia.

Granger was her maiden name. She married Zalmon Peck on December 20, 1864 (Indiana Marriage Collection) when she was about 16 years old and he about 27. A Reddit user has even come up with a copy of the marriage record:


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Comment by cassodragon to thread titled, "After 45 years, Kane County Jane Doe (1978) is Identified." Reddit, Oct. 24, 2024. https://www.reddit.com/r/gratefuldoe/comments/1gb57iy/after_45_years_kane_county_jane_doe_1978_is/


A look at the 1874 Plat Map shows why the cemetery was also known as the Dennis Cemetery: the Dennis and Sturdevant farms were next to each other on what is now 89th Avenue:



I do not know exactly where the cemetery is. Findagrave.com describes it as being 0.7 miles east of Randolph on 89th. That sounds like Sturdevant, not Dennis, land. (In the census records, the Dennis family appears only in the 1870 Census — Thomas (41) and Mary (26) and a couple possible in-laws.[1] The Sturdevant/Sturtevant name is more pervasive.)

The cemetery can't be seen on modern satellite view. It can't be seen on the 1978 aerial view from the Lake County GIS website, either:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image from https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/18676999665349e492506de765490541/page/Parcel-Info/.

That's just a screen shot. You can enlarge the 1978 aerial view more if you go to the website yourself, but you still can't see the cemetery. By the way, per the GIS info, all that land now belongs to the Lake County Parks Department.

I will try to get the 1939 aerial view, but that's not as easy as it used to be.

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[1] I came across an item in the "Hobart" column of the Crown Point Register of September 30, 1886: "The other day we met our friend, Thos. Dennis, formerly of Lake Co. He is as fleshy and good natured as ever and lives in Chicago."