She Was a V, A, M, P …

My only memory of the Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour is Cher's recurring vamp song, which comes to mind now that I'm delivering on my promise to dish the dirt about Emma Shearer.

I will let this newspaper article from October 2, 1908, tell the story:



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Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.) 2 Oct. 1908.

Although the article gives her earlier husband's name as James Adams, per the county records it was Anthony S. Adams, and the date of their marriage February 28, 1901. She was then about 34 years old, he about 28 — old enough to know what he was doing, you'd think. But what "disclosures" could he have made to provoke her to kick him out of the buggy? My guess is that he hadn't gotten around to divorcing a previous wife … or perhaps had a lot of debt.

After divorcing Mr. Adams, Emma appears not to have married anyone else until November 17, 1906, when she and John Kroledge joined their hearts together. He was ten years her junior. Their marital bliss lasted almost two years, it seems.

Several weeks after the above publicity about their impending divorce, another disgruntled hired man came forward:


Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.) 20 Nov. 1908.

I have not been able to learn the outcome of any of these cases. I assume the divorce came through, since John Kroledge married again during Emma's lifetime.

But I did come across this tantalizing tidbit from the spring of 1909 …


Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.) 13 Apr. 1909.

… which stirred up in my mind a vague memory of Emma and Michael O'Hearn being connected somehow, long ago; so I went searching among my notes and found that yes, indeed, they had been closely connected. I don't know exactly when it started, but by the spring of 1895 they were secret lovers. She was about 29, he about 33. In the spring of 1896 their quiet romance ended — loudly.


Hobart Gazette 17 Apr. 1896.


Hobart Gazette 8 May 1896.

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I have yet to learn much about the rest of Emma's life, but at the moment it appears there were no more marriages. In 1910, Emma — living alone, apparently, on her farm on Tenth Street — gave her surname as Kroledge and her status as widowed (the enumerator was Charles A. Blank, who, as a resident of Miller, might not have heard the real story). In 1920, she was still Emma Kroledge, but now "divorced." In her household was a 51-year-old hired man; let us hope he was satisfied with his wages. I cannot find Emma in the 1930 Census.

Emma Kroledge, "widow," died in the Lake County Poor Asylum on May 7, 1932.


Hobart Gazette 12 May 1932.

What little I know of Emma's siblings suggests that all of them were, shall we say, unsettled. I believe brother Charles served a short time in prison in the 1890s; someday I will discuss him in more detail.

Her sister, Mary Ellen, had married John Mander in 1873, and, as we've learned, the marriage was not happy.

"Mrs. Nora Ensign" is somewhat mysterious, because I can't find that Emma ever had a sister named Nora; she did, however, have a sister named Elizabeth E., born in 1857, whose death certificate (1934) described her as the widow of William Ensign … who, according to the marriage records as transcribed on Ancestry.com, married "F. Ellen Shearer" in 1881. We've met Elizabeth Ensign before and learned that she described herself as widowed in 1910 and divorced in 1920. She had two sons, John and Walter (and through John she was the grandmother of Richard Ensign). I can't find Elizabeth in 1930, but I do find a Nora Ensign living in Hobart — about three years older than you would expect Elizabeth to be. Which leads to something else interesting: the marriage records show a Nora Ensign marrying a Fred Kappelman in 1899; and the 1900 census shows John and Walter Ensign living with their mother, whose name is nearly illegible but looks as if it could be "Kappelman, Norra" (you can see for yourself here), and who told the enumerator she had been married for one year. The question is: where was Fred Kappelman in 1900? I have no idea. I have reason to think he was still alive, though I can't find him outside of the local newspapers.

As for William Ensign, I don't know what became of him. I can't find any record of his death.

And as for the "family lot in the Hobart cemetery" mentioned in Emma Kroledge's obituary: I cannot find Emma, nor her parents, nor her sisters in Hobart Cemetery — or anywhere else, for that matter.


Additional Sources:
♦ 1880 Census.
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ 1940 Census.
♦ Indiana Death Certificates.
♦ Indiana Marriage Collection.

Turk's Melody Boys

"Music by Turk's Melody Boys," says the advertisement for a dance at Niksch's dance hall, providing no further detail, as if everybody knew who Turk's Melody Boys were … or as if they were so obscure that there was nothing to say about them.


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Hobart Gazette, 29 Sept. 1922.

Googling "Turk's Melody Boys" turns up only a few references to a band called Johnny Turk's Melody Boys, which got some air time on West Coast radio broadcasts circa 1926; for example:


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Eugene Guard (Eugene, Ore.) 27 July 1926 (via newspapers.com).

I wonder if Johnny Turk's Melody Boys got their start in such humble places as the old Deep River schoolhouse? But theirs wasn't a story of a rise from small beginnings to great fame: after a few radio broadcasts they seem to have disappeared, and have not resurfaced in any modern-day account of American musical history that I can find.

The woman whose obituary takes up most of the left-hand column of the Gazette page above was Christina (Blank) Hazelgreen's sister.

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Here's a summary of local auto accidents in the space of a week:


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Hobart Gazette 22 Sept. 1922.

Dr. Phillip Forsberg was a veterinarian, and I suppose his wife, Mary, was the "Mrs. Forsberg" whose identity eluded me when she sang in Ainsworth. They both rest in Hobart Cemetery, beneath a literary epitaph. Their "house by the side of the road" was at 56th and Broadway (WWII Draft Cards), which was in Ross Township (1940 Census). Phillip was a friend to man's best friend, anyway. And Mary, who gave her occupation in 1940 as assistant school principal, was a friend to children, we can hope.

The Carlson fruit farm and its melons were on the west side of S.R. 51, somewhere near what is now Indian Ridge Golf Course.

Before Elna Arrived

Here is a nice portrait of the Haken and Christine (Blank) Hazelgreen family:


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The only one missing is Elna, and that's because she hadn't arrived yet, as the identifying notes on the back explain:



Jeanette is a bit of a mystery: her birth predates H.S. Hazelgreen's marriage to Christine Blank (1874 per the Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index). Perhaps Christine was his second wife, but I don't know his first wife's name or what became of her. Jeannette's married name was Ahlberg.

Esther, in the little rocking chair, was born circa 1886, so judging by her apparent age we can date this photo roughly to 1888 or '89. By that time the family had come to Lake County.

Born around 1883, Albin (on the far left) was still in skirts — not unusual for a boy of five or six at that time.

The painted backdrop suggests a photographer's studio, but nothing on the original identifies the photographer.

"The First Automobile in Lake County"

Charles Fabian Blank (Elna Hazelgreen's uncle) died on March 4, 1922, of injuries he suffered when struck by a car — karmically, one might say, since his obituary in the Gazette credited him with owning the first automobile in Lake County.


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Hobart Gazette 10 Mar. 1922.

I do not know if that claim is precisely true, but Charles certainly owned one of the first in this area. In mid-April of 1901 the Gazette reported that "Mr. Blank of Millers" had placed an order for an automobile, which at the time was as much a novelty as a seven-man bicycle. The auto in question was a steam-powered Locomobile, which, when delivered in May 1901, proved to be "a very neat affair and a successful traveler." The news from Miller was soon full of Charles Sr.'s Locomobile. In July 1901 Charles and son drove it to Valpo; Charles and wife drove it to Crown Point ("They found good roads all the way except in Crown Point"); and Charles drove himself to Chicago. By then he had become Miller's Locomobile agent.

In September, Charles Jr. drove the Locomobile to Chicago to have "several new devices" installed — and what those new devices might have been, I cannot imagine.

In October, Charles Sr. and wife (her name was Johanna) drove their Locomobile on a flying trip to Valpo, leaving Miller at one o'clock in the afternoon and returning by 6:30 p.m.!


Here is a clip of a restored Locomobile in motion, and another one from the occupant's point of view.


Additional Sources:
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette 19 Apr. 1901; 26 July 1901.
♦ "Miller Murmurings." Hobart Gazette 31 May 1901; 12 July 1901; 19 July 1901; 26 July 1901; 13 Sept. 1901; 11 Oct. 1901.

A Bicycle Built for Seven

This little item appeared in the "Local Drifts" of the Hobart Gazette of October 4, 1901:

Chas. Blank and party of young men from Millers came to Hobart Saturday evening on their new Orient septet, a wheel that carries seven persons. The machine weighs about 200 pounds and is geared to 118. The young men have gotten so they can ride the wheel with perfect success and wherever they go they create quite a sensation."

I'll bet they did. I haven't been able to find a picture of the Orient septet, so just imagine this with three more riders:


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Image credit: Library of Conress.

Or this, with three fewer riders:


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Image credit: http://urbansimplicity.net.

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Since the item speaks of "young men," I'm guessing the Charles Blank in question was the 22-year-old Charles A., rather than his 45-year-old father, Charles F. As we learned recently, Elna Hazelgreen's mother, Christina, had been one of the Blanks of Miller. To Elna, this septet-riding youth was Cousin Charles.

Uncle Charles had his own locomotive distinction, which we shall get to in the future.


Sources:
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ Ancestry.com. U.S. Naturalization Record Indexes, 1791-1992 (Indexed in World Archives Project) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
♦ Cook County, Illinois, Deaths Index.

The Famous Hazelgreen

Here is a portrait of Elna's big brother, Malcolm — more formally known as A.M. (Alexander Malcolm) Hazelgreen.


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This isn't just any portrait; this is the one that got published in A Standard History of Lake County, Indiana, and the Calumet Region (1915), along with this biographical sketch:

For thirty or forty years a large amount of the railway construction work and of other similar types of contracting in this county has been performed through the Hazelgreen family. While the representative above named is one of the aggressive young business men and contractors, with his home in East Gary [Lake Station], it was his father who inaugurated that line of business in this county.

A.M. Hazelgreen was born in Chicago, January 14, 1879, but has lived in Lake County since infancy. His father, H.S. Hazelgreen, born in Sweden, January 20, 1838, and who died June 26, 1913, came to the United States at the age of thirty years, spent one year in New York, went west to Chicago, engaged in contracting, and did a large amount of pioneer railway construction in Northern Indiana. He had charge of the grading for the Baltimore & Ohio through this section, and also for the Wabash company. The mother's maiden name was Christina C. Blank, born in Sweden, June 26, 1849, and coming to the United States in 1863. She lived at Miller, Indiana, and she and her husband were married in 1873. Of their family there are four daughters and three sons still living. Mrs. Jeannette Ahlberg and Clara E. both reside in Seattle, Washington; Mrs. A. Esther Anderson lives at Laporte; and Elna J. lives at home. The other two sons are J. William and H. Albin, both of whom are unmarried and have their home in Seattle, Washington, and H. Albin is one of the leaders in the Luther League on the Northwest coast. The daughter Clara a number of years ago predicted the founding of the town and the development of the industrial center at East Gary, and just about twelve years ago drew a map on which the town was depicted, and since then East Gary has been growing rapidly up to the anticipations of Miss Hazelgreen.

When A.M. Hazelgreen was a year and a half old his parents located at Lake Station, and he lived at home, attending schools at East Gary and the high school at Hobart, until he was sixteen years of age. Since then his career has been almost entirely taken up with railway contracting, and he was with his father until his death. Mr. Hazelgreen is now president of the town board of East Gary, and has been instrumental in effecting many improvements for this community. He has led the way in getting the people to indorse and to vote the necessary bonds to establish a lighting plant. Mr. Hazelgreen was chiefly concerned in having the dedication celebration at the opening of the town hall, at which time a very elaborate program was held. Mr. Hazelgreen is fond of outdoor life, of baseball and fishing, is a republican in politics, and a member of the Swedish Lutheran Church.

The back of the original photo retains notes related to its use in the book, as well as the autograph that appeared below Malcolm's portrait in the book, ink blots and all.

Elna Hazelgreen at Twelve

For much of this blog's existence, I have managed to ignore Lake Station pretty thoroughly. Then last spring the coincidence of my buying a postcard of the Bijou resort and meeting some descendants of its one-time owners, Frank and Mary Kucaba, caused me to start paying a little attention to that area. And then this autumn I bought a collection of photographs and letters of the Hazelgreen family, who arrived in Lake Station circa 1880 and remained active and even prominent (though comparatively publicity-shy) for decades. This collection is too good not to share, and I suppose now I really have to acknowledge the existence of Lake Station.

The collection centers on the youngest daughter in the family, Elna Julia Johanna Hazelgreen. She was born October 24, 1894, in Lake Station, to Henry and Christina (Blank) Hazelgreen, delivered by Dr. Joseph C. Watson.

The earliest photographs we have of Elna are at age twelve (according to handwritten notes on the back), which would date the photos to circa 1906. A. Haase was the photographer.


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That second photo gives us some idea of how girls got those gigantic bows to stand atop their heads: by attaching them to combs. In her hand is a portrait of a woman — who, I wonder? Some random woman, or perhaps one of her older sisters?

You can compare her to the young woman I pointed out in that unidentified group photo and judge for yourself how much of a resemblance there is between them.


Sources:
♦ "Lake Station." Hobart Gazette 26 Oct. 1894.
♦ 1900 Census.