The Summer of Jeremiah

I have to get back to the estate of Jeremiah Wiggins, because I have taken it upon myself to pull together a little binder for the Merrillville-Ross Township Historical Society museum that will include print-outs of Jeremiah's estate papers and my attempted transcriptions thereof, as well as whatever historical background I can dig up on the other people mentioned in those papers. That historical digging is going to take some time and stop me from doing the research to write about anything else here, so this blog will probably be all Jeremiah for some time.


Here is a claim on the estate:


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Images courtesy of Alice Flora Smedstad.

And my transcription:

Estate of J. Wiggins Decd

To John C. Davis Dr. [abbreviation of "debere," indicating an amount owed]

To 5 Ton of Hay used by [illegible word that appears to have been struck out by the writer] the said Wiggins during his life time at $3.00 per Ton $15.00

Allowed

This would be the back of the folded document:



Transcription:

No. 1
Wiggins Estate
J.C. Davis a/c 15$.

Filed & proved in open court Feb. 10th 1840
Solon Robinson Ck. [clerk]

I just briefly mentioned John C. Davis earlier in this blog, and I have not been able to find out any more about him since then. It appears that he came into Lake County from Philadelphia in 1835 or '36, and made some money selling town lots in the future metropolis of Liverpool. Now we know he also made some money selling hay to Jeremiah Wiggins. I don't know where he got the hay, but I'm betting he didn't grow it himself.

In the early account books at the Hobart Historical Society museum that I have indexed so far,[1] he shows up doing business with George Earle as late as 1847. I can't find him in the 1840 Census of Lake County, nor clearly identify him in any other census, here or in Philadelphia.

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[1] A project that has fallen by the wayside. Someday, someday, I will have time to get back to it. Someday.

A Scrapbook from the Forgotten War

I recently bought a scrapbook relating to the late Frederick E. Kennedy, a Hobart man who served in the Korean War. It includes many photos from overseas and a few from the states, as well as a few newspaper clippings and documents.

This, I believe, is Frederick himself:


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The insignia on the top of his sleeve is included in the scrapbook.



And this little newspaper clipping, undated, from an unknown source.





Frederick lived a long and full life, and died in 2008.

This scrapbook has traveled a bit. As of tomorrow its new, permanent home will be at the Hobart Historical Society museum.

Fence-Weaving Snakes of Ainsworth

I don't know why this garter snake thought it was a good idea to weave herself[1] into my fence this morning. Maybe she just wanted to see if she could do it.


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She's about two feet off the ground.



Here's another shot of that awesome tongue.



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[1] Or himself, as the case may be. I can't believe just I spent half an hour trying to learn how to sex garter snakes. This is why I can't get anything done.

Mourning Stationery

(Or: When an Amateur Historian Fails to Look Closely at the Ebay Listing)

This envelope was described in the Ebay listing as pertaining to Merrillville because of the postmark. The listing included pictures. But not until I had received the envelope and looked more closely at the postmark did I realize that both the seller and I had misread it: it's not Merrillville; it's Henryville. But still, this is a nice example of mourning stationery — black-bordered paper and envelopes used by a bereaved person.[1]


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Unfortunately, only the envelope was available, not the letter it contained.

Mrs. Elizabeth Bottorff was herself bereaved, as her husband, Cornelius, had been killed in a workplace accident the previous year. But mourning stationery was used by a person in mourning, rather than in writing to that person (unless the writer was also in mourning).

By coincidence, Elizabeth (who often went by Eliza) and Cornelius ("Corney") had a connection to Lake County. The newspaper report of his death mentioned that he had only recently come down from Hammond, where he had been employed:


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Jeffersonville Evening News, 2 July 1920.

The article got the widow's name wrong; also, Corney left two children, Warren (age 14 in the 1920 Census) and Floyd (age 5).

Evidently the Bottorffs had spent some time in Lake County: we also find the family here ten years previously, in the 1910 Census of North Township:


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Image from Ancestry.com.

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Here is the back of the envelope, again with black borders:


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Under the flap is the imprint of the manufacturer, the W.K. Stewart Co. of Louisville, Kentucky …



… which was a lot closer to Henryville than we are.

Henryville is a small town 'way down in southern Indiana along I-65. If you ever are passing through, you can take a walking tour.

Eliza and Cornelius are buried in Silver Creek Cemetery.

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There! — that concludes two afternoons spent researching and writing about something that has nothing to do with anything relative to this blog. Now I am going to crawl back in my hole and not come out again until I learn to read Ebay listings properly.

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[1] For further reading about, and images of, mourning stationery, you may wish to go here.

Wild Columbine

Columbine is native to Indiana, but I have never seen it in the wild. So, I cheated and ordered seeds from Prairie Moon Nursery, along with a few other types of wildflowers that were supposed to be able to grow under pine trees. I was planning a little wildflower garden under my white pine.

Autumn 2022 — seeds arrived and I planted them under the pine.

Spring 2023 — not a single thing comes up, maybe because it was a dry spring and I was too busy to water. I thought that was the end of my under-pine wildflower garden.

Spring 2024 — pretty little leaves appear under the pine. My columbine has finally come up! They did not bloom, but grew all summer. Nothing else came up.

Spring 2025 — the columbine return, and at last they bloom.


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Just recently I noticed that one small wild geranium has popped up, probably from the seeds I planted.



If it comes back next year, it too may bloom.