Having a Gas, in Ainsworth and Elsewhere

This page from the August 23, 1923 issue of the Hobart News is dominated by Carlson news. First off, Charles Carlson, gassing up his automobile in Ainsworth, luckily avoided a conflagration.


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"Local and Personal," Hobart News, Aug. 23, 1923.

The automatic shut-off mechanism for gas pumps hadn't been invented yet.

I suppose this gas-pumping Charles Carlson and the corn-selling Charles Carlson in the item above are the same person. The other "Carlson brother" would be Richard, whom we've heard of before. The 1920 Census shows Charles, age 42, living in the vicinity of what is now the Indian Ridge golf course (to judge by his neighbors) with his 79-year-old mother, Hedvig (widow of Swan Peter). But the old Carlson house and the land surrounding it was now owned by Teofil and Wanda Grabowski.

Which leads me to wonder about the location of the "Carlson grove … on the banks of Deep river" where the family reunion (mentioned in the middle column) was to take place. The Carlsons' land (shown here on the 1939 plat map) no longer bordered on the river. Perhaps the Grabowskis let the Carlsons use a grove on their land for the reunion.

Looking at those planning to attend the reunion, I recognize only a couple of names. Russell Koehler was the Carlson brothers' nephew, son of their sister Augusta. Tekla Ceander used to be Tekla Anderson … but I don't know how she was related to the Carlsons.

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Now, who might have been selling gasoline in Ainsworth? Here is Henry Paulus, owner of the Ainsworth department store, listed among the sellers of Red Crown gasoline:


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Hobart News, Aug. 30, 1923.

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To end this post, we have news of that elegant young couple, George and Pearl (Severance) Yager, who eight years earlier had fled Ainsworth and never looked back.


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Hobart Gazette, Aug. 24, 1923.

A Rossow by Any Other Name

In June 1923 the Rossow family held its first annual reunion. There were so many different names with a Rossow connection that I can't index them all, much less explain the connections.


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Hobart News, June 28, 1923.

The home of "Taylor" aka Theodore Rossow was on the southeast corner of County Line Road and Tenth Street.

We've already met the eldest attendee, Augusta Carey. The youngest, Betty Maxine Harms, was a daughter of Henry and Minnie (Rossow) Harms, born March 24, 1922.

Clara Davy is a misprint for Davies.


Additional Source: "Rossows Hold Reunion," Hobart Gazette, June 29, 1923.

Magnus and the Mysterious Manuscript

I'm glad I corrected my mistake about John Blackhall, since I recently bought a photograph printed by him. Now we can date this photo to within about 20 years, rather than 40 — so, sometime between about 1873 and 1893.


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On that ornately printed back, we find two manuscript lines:

Magnus
fäd 1/2 1825

At first I thought it was a name and a birthdate, but via online translation, we learn that the Swedish word for born is född. Fäd translates to something like fading.

And yet … there is no reason why a Swedish-speaking person could not make a spelling error as easily as an English-speaking person. And what else could the writer possibly have meant?

If we assume that this is a birthdate, then the writer apparently has identified the subject of the photo as a man named Magnus, born on 1 February 1825. Do the census records turn up anyone of that description in the Hobart area?

Why, yes, they do. The 1860 Census shows a 35-year-old blacksmith named Magnus Anderson living in Hobart Township with his wife, Mary, and three children. No one else of that age, with either the first or last name of Magnus, shows up in the area.

I can't find Magnus Anderson in the 1870 Census, but I think I've found him in the 1880 Census — in North Township, age 55, wife named Mary (but her age is off by about three years). While none of the children from 1860 are still in the household, you wouldn't necessarily expect them to be. Magnus is no longer a blacksmith; now he is a "farmer and moss gatherer."

With no 1890 census records available, the next news I have of Magnus is his death, which occurred in Miller. This is what the Hobart Gazette of Dec. 25, 1896, reported:



Slightly more informative is this article from the Chesterton Tribune of Dec. 26, 1896 (downloaded from findagrave.com):



The penultimate sentence gives us a birthdate: January 1, 1825 (if not December 31, 1824). A New Year's Day (or Eve) birthday is certainly memorable … so why didn't the person writing on the back of the photograph get it right?

As much as I'd like to think the photo really is Magnus Anderson, that identification requires two assumptions: (1) that the manuscriptor didn't know how to spell "born"; and that (2) either (a) the manuscriptor couldn't remember that Magnus was born on New Year's Day, for goodness' sake; (b) the Chesterton Tribune got his birthday wrong; or (c) Magnus had gone around telling people he was born on New Year's Day because it was more interesting than being born on February 1, and the manuscriptor alone knew the truth.

Those are pretty big assumptions! I think I still have to classify this photo as unidentified.

Elna at Twenty-One

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Handwritten notes on the originals identify this young woman as Elna Hazelgreen at the age of 21. Since Elna was born in 1894, the photographs must have been taken in 1915. The photographer's imprint shows they were taken at the Koch Studio in LaPorte, Indiana (operated, I suppose, by Henry E. Koch).



I know that Elna's sister, Esther Hazelgreen Babcock Anderson, was living in LaPorte at the time of the 1920 Census. Perhaps she had already moved there by 1915, and Elna came for a visit, and during the visit had these photos taken.

Death at the Rossow Crossing

Late in the evening of April 22, 1921, William Rossow and his family witnessed a horrifying accident on the Pennsy Railroad where it crosses present-day Wisconsin Street.


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From the Hobart Gazette 29 Apr. 1921.

The Parker family had only recently lost its oldest member. And Benjamin Harrison Parker had been the youngest.

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From an item in the social column on the Gazette page above, we learn a little more about the mysterious Miss Kipp — that she had a sister, Mrs. Hatten. I do find a George and Ida Hatten living in Hobart in 1920, but can't determine what Ida's maiden name was. That the Gazette gives first names to Dr. Faulkner and Miss Kipp, but calls the sister simply "Mrs. Hatten," suggests that the editor did not know the first name of either Mr. or Mrs. Hatten.


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Benj. H. Parker Killed by Train." Hobart Gazette 29 Apr. 1921.
♦ "Benjamin Parker Killed at Rossow Crossing, Hit by Pennsy Fast Train." Hobart News 28 Apr. 1921.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 29 Apr. 1921.

How the Andersons Didn't Party

When 18-year-old Louise Rossow got married on February 20, 1921, it was a quiet celebration, nothing like big sister Minnie's wedding.


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I wonder why the difference?

(Incidentally, the News gives the witness' name as Gladys Humes, not Hill, and I don't know which is correct.)

A 1922 Gary directory shows the young Andersons living at 235 Tyler Street, he working as a telegraph operator.


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ Ancestry.com. Polk's Gary (Indiana) City Directory 1922. R.L. Polk & Co., 1922.
♦ "Anderson-Rossow Wedding." Hobart Gazette 25 Feb. 1921.
♦ "Anderson-Rossow." Hobart News 24 Feb. 1921.

At Melins' (Unidentified Glass-Plate Image)

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Images courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The notes on the envelope: "No. 70/Name: At Melins."

"Melins" may be the Andrew and Emma Melin family. The 1910 Census shows them living on Cleveland Avenue (or maybe Michigan, it's not perfectly clear). The 1900 Census shows them in Hobart, but the enumerator did not make note of the streets. Both were Swedish immigrants and by 1910 had three sons.

I believe the man in the chair is Andrew Melin, because of this photo at the Hobart Historical Society museum:



I think the lady in the polka-dot blouse (in the glass-plate image) is Tekla Anderson. The other two I can't identify.

We've seen these four people together before. (And would you believe I'm only just now noticing that there really are only four people in that earlier picture? The photographer did some double-exposure trick to get Mr. Cigar in there twice, which may account for the superimposed landscape.) And since they are all wearing the same clothes in both photos, both were probably taken the same day.

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[Update — 5/4/2012]

From CK Melin, this information about the glass-plate image:

Andrew Melin is seated at right. The young man standing on the left is William Olson, a "nephew" of either Andrew or Emma Melin. Also, see William Olson again in the family group photo of "the Melin family" that you have; standing at right.

In my Melin genealogy research, I can't make the family connection making him a nephew of Andrew. William Olson, in the Federal Census pages, is a Tinner which I suppose means he's in the plumbing & pipe fitting trade; but I'm not sure. Maybe a Tinner makes sinks and buckets. William Olson DID marry, so perhaps the lovely young lady is his wife. William died pretty young; I think of TB or perhaps asbestosis from all those pipes.

Now I see the resemblance between William Olson in the family portrait, and the umbrella-holding fellow in the glass-plate image. Sometimes I have to have things pointed out to me. (I don't know what a Tinner does, either.)

Grape-Eating Party (Unidentified Glass-Plate Image)

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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

None of these young grape-eaters is identified. But doesn't the woman standing at the right look like Tekla Anderson? And the man seated at right looks to me like Eric Carlson. And behind them is that familiar picket fence, so this might possibly be at the Carlson house on Michigan Avenue.

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7/11/2016 update: Another ID! The young woman standing second from the left has been identified as Mabel Carlson, daughter of Ida (Melin) and Axel Carlson, by C.K. Melin, who sent me this photograph for comparison:


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Image courtesy of C.K. Melin.

Looks like a match to me!

Don't Fence Me In (Unidentified Glass-Plate Image)

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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Unidentified friends or relatives, gathered under a shade tree on a summer's day. The focal point of their pose is that little book held by the women at center.

What's interesting is the transparent image haloed around her head. It may be the actual background of this scene; if you look at the far right, amidst all the overexposed glare you can make out the lines of a plank fence, which seems to continue in the superimposed image. A fence, then a road beyond it, and over the shoulder of the man standing at left, a utility pole with at least four crossbars.

But how did it all get superimposed like that? — just a double exposure? Maybe the camera's being in the shade caused the intense glare of the sun beyond to interact with the camera's curved lens somehow, to pick up and transpose part of the background. I don't know.

The center lady's miniature hat is quite unusual. It may be a joke.

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[Update — 5/4/2012]

Thanks to CK Melin, we have IDs on two of these people: Andrew Melin is seated at left, and standing in back (on both sides, since — as I eventually figured out — this is a double exposure) William Olson.

Also, by now I've seen Tekla Anderson enough that I believe I recognize her in this image, seated at right.

A Glimpse of Stocking

I mentioned that among the glass-plate negatives found at the Hobart museum was the original of the Old Maids' Basket Ball team 1907 portrait and that the negative was a little more racy, so here you go:


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Top row, left to right: Miss Gish (Latin), Anna Michelson Morton, Ann Fleck Ingraham, Ruth Bullock Mackey, Olga Neef Bullock
Bottom row: unknown, Lena Triebess, Bess Hayward, Tekla Anderson, Mary Portmess.

Can you image running around a basketball court in all those clothes?

I wonder if Olga Neef Bullock wore that turtleneck sweater when she was actually playing basketball … if she suffered from the cold, I suppose she wouldn't have minded the tropical heat when she and Oliver went to live in Panama Canal Zone.

Another glass-plate negative shows the same team in another pose, probably on the same day. That curve on the floor looks like a basketball court marking, so perhaps they played their games in this genteelly wallpapered venue.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.