Local historian Michael White has shared with me his "pathfinder bibliography of maps of Lake County, Indiana, that are digitized and available online to view for free." In it he has pulled together links to a variety of online historical paper maps (digitized, of course) as well as different ways of viewing the contemporary landscape — including LiDAR!
This is a great resource for historians. I am linking it below and will link it permanently on my Pages sidebar.
Lake County Maps Pathfinder Bibliography
Sunday, June 14, 2026
Friday, June 12, 2026
Here Come the Grooms
Aside from the milk-fed turkeys of 1942, I know precious little about the Groom family that inhabited the Ainsworth/Hobart area, but I shall try to remedy my ignorance, now that they have come to my attention again through a little item in the "Local Drifts" column of the Hobart Gazette of February 1, 1924: "Hosea and Claude Groom and the latter's wife were called to DeSoto, Mo., last week by the death of their mother. They will return this week."
The brothers had been born in (or near) DeSoto,[1] Hosa[2] around 1890 and Claude around 1898, to Jefferson and Sarah Ellen Groom. There were eight children in all. The 1910 Census recorded Hosa and Claude still with their family in Missouri, but sometime after that, Hosa left home.[3]
He was in definitely in Lake County, Indiana, by 1916, when he married Hazel Pinson (Indiana Marriage Collection), who was also a native of Missouri. Hosa and Hazel show up in the 1920 Census in Hobart, with no children.
Meanwhile, Claude remained in DeSoto at least until September 1918 (WWI Draft Cards). I can't find him anywhere in the 1920 census (taken in January), but likely he was in this area by then or soon after: in October 1920, he married a Hobart woman, Mary Kisela. Her family and Hosa's were neighbors.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Image from Ancestry.com.
Somebody at the Hobart Historical Society probably knows where "Earl[e]" street was (and Lightner street, too, which was the next one recorded), but I don't.
Mary was just short of 17 when she married Claude, but it was a lifelong marriage.
Hosa's marriage to Hazel was not.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News, 8 May 1924.
The divorce went through, evidently, as we find Hosa a single man in 1930 census. (I don't know anything about Hazel's subsequent life.) In 1936 Hosa married Lola Martin. She had been born, raised, and was living in Illinois when they married,[4] so don't ask me how they met. But this marriage lasted.
Hosa and Lola continued living Hobart, he working in the steel mills and she keeping house. By the 1950 Census, the household included Lola's 21-year-old niece, who was divorced, with a three-year-old son.
Hosa was still living in Hobart when he died in 1951. According to his death certificate, his body was sent back to DeSoto, Missouri, for burial. Lola died in 1979 and is buried with her parents in Palestine, Illinois.
As for Claude and Mary Groom, they were living in Hobart in 1930 (next door to Hosa on Lawrence Street), with two children, Claude and Robert. Claude (Sr.) was a wireman in the steel mills. By 1940 they had moved to Ross Township (the enumerator notes "61st Street"), with another son (David) and Mary's parents (Frank and Barbara) having joined the household. When Claude was selling milk-fed turkeys in 1942, he told buyers to come to him "3/4 mile north of Green Acres at 330" — that is, 73rd Avenue.
I cannot find Claude and Mary at all in the 1950 census. Around the mid-1950s, they relocated to the Tampa area of Florida,[5] where they died in 1986 and 1988, respectively.
♦ ♦ ♦
The page of the News, above, where the divorce notice appears, includes an ad placed by Hattie Sizelove, who was selling life insurance from her farm east of Ainsworth. We already know that Hattie knew how to drive a car, so I'm getting the impression that she was quite an active person.
_______________
[1] Hosa so states in his WWI Draft Card; Claude's death notice says likewise ("Obituaries," St. Petersburg Times (Fla.), 30 Aug. 1986).
[2] Yes, his name shows up as Hosa on official documents, even if the Gazette and also the News called him Hosea in the social columns. Which leads me to wonder if his parents intended to name him Hosea and/or that's how he pronounced it.
[3] His 1951 obituary says he left home in 1908 ("Hosa J. Groom, Former Resident, Dies in Indiana," Jefferson Republic (De Soto, Mo.), 5 Apr. 1951). If so, apparently he came back in time for the census.
[4] "New Marriage Licenses," Hammond Times, 26 Mar. 1936.
[5] Mary's 1988 obituary says she moved from Hobart to the Tampa area "32 years ago." ("Obituaries," Tampa Tribune, 14 Sept. 1988.)
The brothers had been born in (or near) DeSoto,[1] Hosa[2] around 1890 and Claude around 1898, to Jefferson and Sarah Ellen Groom. There were eight children in all. The 1910 Census recorded Hosa and Claude still with their family in Missouri, but sometime after that, Hosa left home.[3]
He was in definitely in Lake County, Indiana, by 1916, when he married Hazel Pinson (Indiana Marriage Collection), who was also a native of Missouri. Hosa and Hazel show up in the 1920 Census in Hobart, with no children.
Meanwhile, Claude remained in DeSoto at least until September 1918 (WWI Draft Cards). I can't find him anywhere in the 1920 census (taken in January), but likely he was in this area by then or soon after: in October 1920, he married a Hobart woman, Mary Kisela. Her family and Hosa's were neighbors.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Image from Ancestry.com.
Somebody at the Hobart Historical Society probably knows where "Earl[e]" street was (and Lightner street, too, which was the next one recorded), but I don't.
Mary was just short of 17 when she married Claude, but it was a lifelong marriage.
Hosa's marriage to Hazel was not.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News, 8 May 1924.
The divorce went through, evidently, as we find Hosa a single man in 1930 census. (I don't know anything about Hazel's subsequent life.) In 1936 Hosa married Lola Martin. She had been born, raised, and was living in Illinois when they married,[4] so don't ask me how they met. But this marriage lasted.
Hosa and Lola continued living Hobart, he working in the steel mills and she keeping house. By the 1950 Census, the household included Lola's 21-year-old niece, who was divorced, with a three-year-old son.
Hosa was still living in Hobart when he died in 1951. According to his death certificate, his body was sent back to DeSoto, Missouri, for burial. Lola died in 1979 and is buried with her parents in Palestine, Illinois.
As for Claude and Mary Groom, they were living in Hobart in 1930 (next door to Hosa on Lawrence Street), with two children, Claude and Robert. Claude (Sr.) was a wireman in the steel mills. By 1940 they had moved to Ross Township (the enumerator notes "61st Street"), with another son (David) and Mary's parents (Frank and Barbara) having joined the household. When Claude was selling milk-fed turkeys in 1942, he told buyers to come to him "3/4 mile north of Green Acres at 330" — that is, 73rd Avenue.
I cannot find Claude and Mary at all in the 1950 census. Around the mid-1950s, they relocated to the Tampa area of Florida,[5] where they died in 1986 and 1988, respectively.
The page of the News, above, where the divorce notice appears, includes an ad placed by Hattie Sizelove, who was selling life insurance from her farm east of Ainsworth. We already know that Hattie knew how to drive a car, so I'm getting the impression that she was quite an active person.
_______________
[1] Hosa so states in his WWI Draft Card; Claude's death notice says likewise ("Obituaries," St. Petersburg Times (Fla.), 30 Aug. 1986).
[2] Yes, his name shows up as Hosa on official documents, even if the Gazette and also the News called him Hosea in the social columns. Which leads me to wonder if his parents intended to name him Hosea and/or that's how he pronounced it.
[3] His 1951 obituary says he left home in 1908 ("Hosa J. Groom, Former Resident, Dies in Indiana," Jefferson Republic (De Soto, Mo.), 5 Apr. 1951). If so, apparently he came back in time for the census.
[4] "New Marriage Licenses," Hammond Times, 26 Mar. 1936.
[5] Mary's 1988 obituary says she moved from Hobart to the Tampa area "32 years ago." ("Obituaries," Tampa Tribune, 14 Sept. 1988.)
Monday, June 1, 2026
Sale on the Howard Smith Farm
For some reason I thought this notice about a sale on Howard Smith's farm in February 1924 was interesting enough to retrieve from the microfilm. Maybe because Howard Smith was dead, and dead people are my favorite people. Anyway, I'm going to slap this up here, because I'm still too busy to do any kind of post that requires research.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News, 31 Jan. 1924.
The last time we saw Melvin Guernsey, it was 1920 and he was planning to leave for Florida. If he did go, he was obviously back, and farming again. Melvin was not planning on quitting farming (unlike Barney Rhoda in the notice below his): he was just moving to the "Wm. Bixenman farm three miles east of Crown Point."[1]
The notice names "M. Hurlburt" as the administrator of Howard Smith's estate. That would be Milan Hurlburt, who was Howard's uncle.
♦ ♦ ♦
I did not realize when I was getting this page from the microfilm that the story in the left-hand column quotes Charles Chester of Ainsworth. If only I had! — I would have gotten the whole story, so we could have found out what Charles Chester of Ainsworth said about Calumet Electric company's proposal. Now we'll never know. But at least we now know that in 1924, the Chester farm was getting electricity from its own generating system.
_______________
[1] "Local and Personal," Hobart News, 31 Jan. 1924.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News, 31 Jan. 1924.
The last time we saw Melvin Guernsey, it was 1920 and he was planning to leave for Florida. If he did go, he was obviously back, and farming again. Melvin was not planning on quitting farming (unlike Barney Rhoda in the notice below his): he was just moving to the "Wm. Bixenman farm three miles east of Crown Point."[1]
The notice names "M. Hurlburt" as the administrator of Howard Smith's estate. That would be Milan Hurlburt, who was Howard's uncle.
I did not realize when I was getting this page from the microfilm that the story in the left-hand column quotes Charles Chester of Ainsworth. If only I had! — I would have gotten the whole story, so we could have found out what Charles Chester of Ainsworth said about Calumet Electric company's proposal. Now we'll never know. But at least we now know that in 1924, the Chester farm was getting electricity from its own generating system.
_______________
[1] "Local and Personal," Hobart News, 31 Jan. 1924.
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