Report Card, 1910-11

Minnie Rossow spent the eighth grade, like the seventh, in the classroom of Sena Borger.


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.



This is the last year for which we have a Hobart public school report card for Minnie.

Report Card, 1909-10

After the sixth grade with two teachers, Minnie Rossow spent the seventh grade in the classroom of Sena Borger.


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images above and immediately below courtesy of Eldon Harms.



Sena Borger, born in 1886, was the elder daughter of Charles and Henrietta (Batterman) Borger. Her only sibling, Edna, was born six years later.

The Hobart Historical Society has a photograph of Sena, nearly hidden in the back row of Hobart High School's graduating class of 1904:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.
Back row, L to R: Sena Borger, Ann Fleck, Cora Saxton, Frank Reissig.
Middle row: Blanche Quinnell, Bess Hayward, Howard Carlson, Ellen Malone, Lena Michelson.
Front row: Hartley Mundell, Cora Maybaum (Regon), William Warches, Paulina Marquardt.


Sena went into teaching early, but I have just recently come across a little information about her later career, in the Hobart Gazette of Oct. 7, 1921:



She appears in Indianapolis city directories* for 1922 through 1926. I can't find her in the 1930 census, but in 1940 she was back in Hobart, living with her parents and her married sister and selling insurance for a living. In 1945, according to a Gary city directory,* she was living in Hobart and working as a "welfare visitor" for the Lake County Dept. of Public Welfare. She had moved to Gary by 1955,* and continued with her welfare work into 1958.* Sometime during that year, it appears, she moved to California,* and spent her remaining years there. She died in California in 1968, and her ashes were brought back to Indiana for burial.

Here is her obituary, dated July 18, 1968:**

News was received by Hobart friends late last week that Miss Sena M. Borger had passed away July 2nd in her apartment at Arcadia, California. Miss Borger was a native of Hobart, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Borger and sister of Mrs. Edna Borger Lenz. She has been a resident of Arcadia for the past nine years living in an apartment near Mrs. Lenz.

Miss Borger was a native of Hobart, attending schools here and graduating from Hobart High School in 1904. She taught school here for a short time following her graduation. She became active in social service working in Hammond and later became the director of the family Welfare Program in Racine, Wis.

Because of illness in the late thirties she went to Albuquerque, N. Mex., where she regained her health. In the early 1940's she returned to the Borger home on East 3rd Street. She was active in the Red Cross and other civil affairs.

Later she became a member of the staff of the Lake County Department of Public Welfare. Upon her retirement from the Department she moved to Arcadia, Calif. where her sister and huer husband and young daughter had taken up residence.

She was a member of the Unitarian Church of Hobart and the Order of the Eastern Star of Hobart.

Cremation followed the funeral services and Mrs. Lenz has written that Miss Borger's ashes will be sent to Brunswick in the south Lake County to be buried beside those of her mother and father in the cemetery there.

_________________________
*Per city directories on Ancestry.com.
**Exact source unclear; apparently a Hobart newspaper.

Bad Times

From the heart-rending down to the merely annoying, bad news packed the front page of the Hobart Gazette of May 20, 1921.


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The Gazette overestimated George Neimeyer's age. The 1920 Census information and the dates on his grave marker indicate that he would have been 13 years old at the time of his death.

I think the "old Scot Burge farm" straddled present-day U.S. 30 on the west side of Colorado Street, as seen on the 1908 Plat Map (Mary Burge being Winfield Scott Burge's wife):



George Niemeyer's parents, Fred and Eda, also had three teen-aged daughters, and a five-year-old son.


The Ridge Road Gardens was a restaurant, and I have the impression that it was near the site of the Black Cat — i.e., on Ridge Road where I-65 now passes over it. "Proprietor" Oleska's first name was Mike, and his wife was Anna.

H.W. Paxton was, I believe, Harry Windle Paxton of Hobart, who worked as a coal and lumber salesman (WWI Draft Cards, 1930 Census).

Hobart Then and Now: Union Block/MainSource Bank

Circa 1911, and 2012.



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Here we have the southwest corner of Third and Center Streets in downtown Hobart, Indiana. The first image comes from a postcard postmarked 1911. At the east (left) end is the Wm. Stommel & Co. Spot Cash Store; to the west of that is Charles Borger's harness shop; and at the west end, if I'm reading the lettering on the window correctly, is Charles Gruel's store — probably a meat market, since he so describes his business in the 1910 Census. And the next building down the street would be The Hub, John Hillman's saloon.

I feel lucky to have got this postcard, as I don't believe I've seen this particular view of the Union Block before. The details are wonderful, so I scanned the living daylights out of this thing; while the image above links to a reduced version, you can view the "Original" size on Flickr to see details — but I warn you, it's a very large file.

Here are a couple details I especially liked. First, two women(?) watching the photographer from the second-story bay window to the right of the Spot Cash Store sign.



On the door below the Spot Cash Store sign, we can see the names Mackey and Faulkner. I expect the two doctors had offices on the second story.



And the fancy lettering on Charles Borger's windows!



The left windows reads: "C.A. Borger/Whips." On the right window, we can partially see what I think is "Harness," and below that, smaller, "Blankets." Which latter would account for those blankets festooning the entrance.

A Mustache and a Circus; Also, Bums

Just catching up with a couple of old friends …

Chas. Borger made his appearance last week minus his mustache, which he had worn for about thirty-five years. This was surely a case of parting with an old friend. Those who have noticed the change have remarked that it has caused him to look ten years younger.

This comment from the News in January 1919 suggests that Charles Borger had already lost his beard. Alas, we have no photos of him clean-shaven. We do know he eventually let the mustache grow back.

Recent price increases had led to a boom in one aspect of Charles' business: oiling and repairing harnesses. Within a the last few years, according to the Hobart News, the cost of new harnesses had just about doubled, going from $45 or $50 to $80 or $100. Charles was now so busy during the winter months keeping farmers' old harnesses in working condition that he had hired an assistant.

In February we get news of our friend with the circus.

Ellsworth Humes, who for the past few seasons has traveled with the advertising cars of the Hagenbeck-Wallace shows, has been offered a similar position with the Sells-Floto circus for the coming season.

No mention here of his having worked for Thurston the magician.

As he waited for the circus-advertising season to begin, Ellsworth occupied himself with lettering windows and signs for businesses around town.

♦    ♦    ♦
Meanwhile, the Hobart area was beginning to notice effects of the post-World War I recession, but laid-off workers were getting little sympathy from the News:

Since the slackening up of the industries, letting out large numbers of men, tramps and bums are beginning to make their appearance. All we have to say is, the ordinarily healthy individual out of work and no money is entitled to very little consideration. For two years everyone who wanted work in this locality, or almost any other for that matter, could have all the work he wanted at high wages, and if he did not save a small portion of it he should go to South America and live under the cocoanut tree.

Sources:
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 30 Jan. 1919; 13 Feb. 1919; 27 Mar. 1919.
♦ "Oiling and Repairing Harness Has Now Become a Regular Occupation." Hobart News 27 Feb. 1919.

Charles Borger at Work

(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Charles Borger working in his harness shop in later years.

The photo is undated, but it's timeless.

Charles Borger's Harness Shop, Exterior

(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Here we have a view of the exterior of Charles Borger's harness shop in Hobart.

This photo is not dated, and with it being so blurry, faded and splotched, you can't really get a lot out of it. That would be Charles with the beard, I suppose, and that little girl may be one of his daughters.

Charles Borger's Harness Shop, 1895

(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

If this photo was indeed taken in 1895, Charles was about 34 years old. He and wife Henrietta had been married for 11 years and had two young daughters, Sena and Edna.

I am told that in the 1940s the harness shop was in the Hub building, but I don't know where it was before that. (Or it may have been in the back, because I've heard from someone else that it was in the back of a building on Third Street in about that vicinity.)