Caroline Campbell

On October 29, 1922, Caroline Campbell died at home on the family farm in southern Ross Township.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart Gazette 3 Nov. 1922.

Her husband was Samuel, born ca. 1867; the son was Claude, born ca. 1889 (he married Bertha Nolte); but I can account for only two daughters — Fannie, born ca. 1897, and Nora, born ca. 1899.

The Campbells had been living on that farm since 1891, perhaps earlier.


In Hobart in the following weeks, several more long-time residents passed to a better world:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart Gazette 10 Nov. 1922.

Before moving to Hobart, Frank Bayor had spent some three decades in Ross Township; "the farm" belonged to his wife's parents, James and Mary Adams. Early Land Sales, Lake County shows James Adams buying, in 1847, the 80 acres shown here on the 1874 Plat Map:


(Click on image to enlarge)

The Bayors lived on the Adams farm from the 1880 Census through the 1910 Census. The 1926 Plat Book shows the farm owned by F.J. & M. Bayor — perhaps their son, Floyd James, and daughter, Mamie (for if Floyd was married by that time, I can find no proof of it).

Married 50 Years

Since we've been talking about the Sykes farm, this article about George and Mary (Sykes) Hayward caught my eye.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart Gazette 5 May 1922.

They were married May 1, 1872 (Indiana Marriage Collection). I'm guessing it was on the Colorado Street Sykes farm, but they probably weren't married in the big brick house, since it wasn't built until 1898 (per the county property records, which don't always tell the story in the way you'd expect). As for their home "south of town," having looked at the 1920 Census and the plat maps, I think they lived on this farm at S.R. 51 and 61st Ave.:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image from the 1926 Plat Book.

In other words, all traces of their farm are now buried under hospitals.

♦    ♦    ♦
That page of the Hobart Gazette includes a number of small items that also caught my eye.

Well, I'm not particularly interested in Homer Gradle except in that he was the brother-in-law of Eathel Westbay Gradle.

"Casborro" is a misprint for Casbon.

I wonder whether Henry and Anna Harms took a train, or drove a car, up to Chicago to visit Henry Jr.?

Mary Foreman left Ainsworth for Mercy Hospital in Gary. I'm afraid I've already looked in the back of the book and can tell you that this story will not have a happy ending.

Road improvements were planned on the Lincoln Highway through part of Porter County.

And yet another dance at the former Deepriver schoolhouse.

"A Small Ugly Looking Still"

The last I heard, Albert and Frieda Witt had come back to farm the Kegebein land north of Ainsworth. Now it's the spring of 1921 and the outbreak of pertussis at the Ainsworth school has infected all of their children — a little girl of eight and three boys ranging from six to three years old.

Happier news out of Crown Point, where 18-year-old Elmer Bullock has been demonstrating his musical abilities.

Beyond that, the news was disorderly drunks and a raid on a still.


(Click on images to enlarge)
From the Hobart News 14 Apr. 1921.

(I believe Floyd Bayor was a Ross Township native, son of Frank and Flora Bayor. In 1920, he was a 41-year-old bachelor living in Hobart with his parents, plastering houses for a living. As for Walter Hensel, he is a mystery to me.)

The Gazette's description of the seized still was a little more informative.


From the Hobart Gazette 15 Apr. 1921.

I believe that the previous still raid mentioned was in 1919.

Neither paper ever gives "Mr. Osborn" a first name, so I'm not going to try, either.

… And in other places, other Prohibition-flouters.


From the Hobart Gazette 22 Apr. 1921.

If "sand-hills" = "sand dunes," that seemed to be a popular location for illicit stills.


From the Hobart Gazette 27 May 1921.

I like the way they reassembled the still and put it on display so the public could come and get still-making tips.


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Capture Another Still in Hobart." Hobart Gazette 15 Apr. 1921.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 14 Apr. 1921.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 15 Apr. 1921; 22 Apr. 1921.
♦ "Was Making Good Whisky." Hobart Gazette 27 May 1921.

Caroline Abel and Her Carpenters

(Click on image to enlarge)
From the Hobart Gazette 1 Apr. 1921.

Aside from being an early settler, Caroline (Feiler) Abel was the wife and mother of carpenters who were responsible for a lot of building in the vicinity of Ainsworth; my notes are full of "Contractor Abel" and "F. Abel" shipping lumber to Ainsworth and putting up this house and that barn in the surrounding area. Problem is, I'm not sure exactly which Abel is being referred to, since all these references are after the 1900 census, in which both Frank Abel, Sr. and his son, Frank, Jr., described themselves as carpenters. In 1910 they both described themselves as contractors doing carpentry work (Frank Jr. being married with his own household), and 16-year-old Edward Abel also called himself a carpenter.

Let's just take a look at what we can attribute to one or more of the Abels:

• Nov. 1901: "Walter Blachely [Blachly] will build an addition to his barn on the Mid Harper farm. Frank Abel sold him a carload of lumber with which to do the work."
• March 1902: "On Wednesday Contractor Abel began building a house for John Miller at Ainsworth, having the contract for the labor and the furnishing of lumber."
• April 1902: "Contractor Abel … has just shipped a carload of lumber to Ainsworth for C. Hill for repairs on a house and several outbuildings, which he will shortly build."
• May 1902: "Contractor Abel received another carload of lumber this week for his contracts. He is building an addition to the house of Wm. Foreman, south of Ainsworth."
• May 1902: "Contractor Abel has just shipped two carloads of lumber to Ainsworth to be used in a large barn that he will build for Frank Bayor…."
• June 1902: "Contractor Abel this week finished Fred Miller's new house at Ainsworth."
• September 1902: "An old-fashioned barn raising was held at John Gruel's yesterday and both of his new barns were raised. Quite a number from town attended. Contractor Abel is doing the carpenter work."
• May 1903: "Contractor Abel has had three cars of lumber shipped to Ainsworth, to be used in the construction of a new barn for Howard Smith who lives south of Deepriver."
• August 1904: "Contractor Abel is building the new Deepriver church."
• June 1906: "A week ago Contractor Abel began building a big barn for Chas. Sievert who lives southwest of town. The building will be 34 by 84 feet, with 20-foot posts."
• September 1906: "Contractor Abel has begun the erection of a new barn, 32 by 48 feet and 18 feet high, on the Mike Ormond farm southeast of Hobart. The dwelling is also to be raised about eighteen inches and a new addition built thereto."
• October 1909: "Contractor Abel who is building a new barn on the Kramer farm south of town hopes to have the structure completed within a few days."
• March 1911: "Abel & Sons have been doing a lot of repair work on the Chas. Chester farm near Ainsworth and are now doing work for Ed Batterman."

… and those are just the projects I happened to make note of over the years.

Frank Sr. died in 1915; Edward died in 1918; and Frank Jr. died in 1919 of tuberculosis.

♦    ♦    ♦
Just look at all those Ross Township names in the "Notice of Road Petition" on the Gazette page above. Many acquaintances, some farmers, some Ainsworth businessmen such as Gust Lindborg and Charles Goldman, and even William Wollenberg, who I suppose still owned the saloon building in Ross Township though he lived in Chicago.

I suppose the road in question is E. 101st Avenue.


Sources:
♦ 1880 Census.
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ "Early Settler Passes Away." Hobart Gazette 1 Apr. 1921.
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette 8 Nov. 1901; 21 Mar. 1902; 4 Apr. 1902; 2 May 1902; 23 May 1902; 15 May 1903; 26 Aug. 1904; 8 June 1906; 21 Sept. 1906.
♦ "Hobart." Hammond Lake County Times 22 Jan. 1919.
♦ Indiana WPA Death Records Index.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 27 June 1902; 19 Sept. 1902; 29 Oct. 1909; 10 Mar. 1911.

Hello, I Must Be Going

I didn't even know these guys existed until they announced, in September 1920, that they were leaving.


(Click on image to enlarge)

The Bayor farm lay in Ross Township, on the northeast corner of 69th and Colorado, with the Grand Trunk Railroad crossing its southern acres. I can't even find Charles Szikora in any census earlier than 1930 (and that may not be the same Charles), and I do not know if he was related to John Szikora.

The only Deppe farm I can find is on the southern border of Hobart Township and is ascribed to Catherine, not Frank, Deppe. The 1920 census enumerator who recorded Michael Malz and his neighbors noted that they lived on the "South West Road out of Hobart Past Green House." The Malz household consisted of Michael, 55 years old, his 54-year-old wife Magdalen, and a five-year-old grandson — only those, to take care of 400 chickens and all those cattle!

♦    ♦    ♦
Across Colorado Street from the Bayor farm lay the Price farm. I mention that only because I just recently came across pictures of Fremont and Carrie Price (while babysitting the Merrillville museum). They are undated, and while to me they look earlier than 1920, I'm not going to try to guess at a date.

Fremont Benjamin Price

(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of the Merrillville/Ross Township Historical Society.

Carrie Belle Cunningham Price


And here's a totally random fact I just learned about F.B. Price — he had a grocery-store-running brother in Ludington, Michigan.


(Click on image to enlarge)


Sources:
♦ 1908 Plat Map.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1926 Plat Book.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 23 Sept. 1920.
♦ "Public Sale." Hobart News 23 Sept. 1920.