Schavey Family Photos

These photos of some of our Schavey friends later in life were sent to me by a Schavey descendant.

This one shows six of the seven children of Henry and Frances (Springman) Schavey.


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Images courtesy of Rachel White Hein.

Front row, left to right: Clarence Schavey, Mabel Schavey Breyfogle, Henry C. Schavey.
Back row, left to right: Loretta Schavey Van Meter, Frank Schavey, Louis Schavey.
Not shown: Julius Schavey.

The photo is undated. Based on the fashions and apparent ages, I would guess that it was taken sometime in the 1950s. [Update: probably 1951-1957; see Heather's comment below.]

The same goes for this photo: undated, but looking 1950s-ish.



Left to right: Clarence, Henry ("Hank"), Louis, Carl, and Frank.


This time of year I am spending all my time and energy outdoors, so I am grateful when people send me material for the blog that doesn't involve me having to do research!

A Surprise Klan Parade

Darkness had fallen on that Saturday evening, February 24, 1923, when dozens of out-of-town vehicles, including a LaPorte bus, streamed into Hobart and disgorged their cargo of Klansmen — some 400 of them. A cross burned as the Klansmen marched from Lincoln and Tenth up through downtown Hobart and circled back to their starting point, watched by silent townspeople.


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Hobart Gazette, Mar. 2, 1923.

The "triangular park opposite the Kibler filling station," where the cross burned, is now the site of the Doughboy statue.

I like how the report includes all the rumors floating around: that no one in the parade was recognized (certainly not any Hobart citizens!); that the marchers were from Michigan City, Laporte, Valparaiso, Gary, and Hammond; that many in Hobart were frightened by this bizarre display.

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As we see in the next column, Hobart had also been invaded by a more familiar illness: smallpox. Our friend Harry Breyfogle had it. Last I heard, the young Breyfogles were living in the Guyer building; they must have moved. I have no idea which of the many houses around the intersection of East and Second Streets they occupied.

Wedding Bells for Mabel and Harry

Isn't it lovely? — our friends have gotten married.


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Hobart News 31 Aug. 1922.

(Below that, a wedding involving Charles Kisela, which may or may not interest the Kisela-related person who contacted me a few years ago. Also, I did not know that Terre Haute was the standard by which Indiana bootlegging was judged in 1922.)

Glen Nelson Quits Farming

Though Ross Township would pay him to haul pupils to the W.G. Haan School, Glen Nelson had to buy his own bus. The item doesn't tell us whether the bus was horse-drawn or motorized.


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Hobart News 24 Aug. 1922.

A couple of showers for our friend, Mabel Schavey, soon to be Mabel Breyfogle, one at the home of Uncle Henry and Aunt Christine Springman of Hobart. As you may remember, Mabel's mother, Frances, had been born a Springman.

(And we all know where to go to locate Walter Miscevich's Sunnyside Addition, don't we?)

A week later, Glen Nelson announced the planned sale of all his many accoutrements of the farming life:


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Hobart News 31 Aug. 1922.

To find the "old Wm. Burkely farm," let us look at the 1908 Plat Map:


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That land is still ascribed to William Burkley in the 1926 Plat Book, so Glen apparently was farming a nice parcel of nearly 160 acres. I believe that land would have been on a Crown Point rural delivery route, which may explain the reference in October 1921 to the Nelsons and Crown Point.

On the 1874 Plat Map, we find some land in that area owned by "G. Burkle," which I believe to be Gottlieb Bürkle, William's father. At some point the surname got Americanized.

Order in the Court!

I wish these "Local Court Notes" gave more of the juicy details.

We know all the people in the first case. The last I heard, Nathan Bosen was renting Elmer Arment's new house on S.R. 51.


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Hobart News 24 Aug. 1922.

In the swearing case, I guess the point of where he lived was that the swearing wasn't done within Hobart city limits.

And of course we know Harry Cole, alias Harry Breyfogle. But I'm not sure which of the local John Petersons was suing him.

South of Deepriver

A social column from the countryside south of Deep River …


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Hobart News 13 Oct. 1921.

… and a full obituary for Harry Breyfogle's foster grandma.

Also a little more information about the Yellowstone Trail.

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Elsewhere in the same issue of the News, one heck of a chicken dinner …



If the Nelson family was our own Glen and Elsie Nelson (and their two little boys, Delmer and Melvin), I wonder if their being "of Crown Point" was only in terms of mail delivery routes. The 1920 Census seems to place them on Grand Blvd./S.R. 51 between Ainsworth and the Deep River, and I haven't seen any news since then of their moving.

Of Threshing and Road Trips

Since we don't have an Ainsworth social column in the newspapers anymore, the next best thing is the "South of Deepriver" column.


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From the Hobart News of July 29, 1920.

You may remember "Mr. and Mrs. Ed Cole" as the foster parents of the orphaned Harry Breyfogle.

The same issue of the News mentioned that important matter, the commencement of wheat threshing.



(The Frank Popp who had a newborn son was brother to Charles. And I think a certain someone out there has a Moehl family connection.)

What wouldn't fit on that print-out was a little story about a road trip by someone outside the Chester and Faulkner families:

Mr. and Mrs. Chris Ols, in company with Mr. and Mrs. Herman Harms and Bruce McCable motored to Lafayette Sunday, that being Bruce's former home. They report the crops in excellent condition down there and about three weeks in advance of Lake county. While there they also visited the Indiana State Soldiers' home — a beautiful place.

Judging by a collection of images from 1901, the Soldiers' Home was indeed a beautiful place. It is now called the Indiana Veterans' Home.

The Time of Reaping

From the Schavey envelope collection.


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Images courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Handwritten on the back of this photo: "Mable & Harry Breyfogle/Union St., Hobart." Here they look a good deal older than in the 1920s-era photos we've been looking at. If the Breyfogles ever had a farm, I haven't learned of it yet; so the wheat (or oats, or whatever) may not be their own harvest, but the still-holding-hands-after-decades-of-marriage … that is their harvest.

Another, unidentified photo may show the same field.



And with these two photos, folks, we have brought in the harvest of the Schavey envelope. It's time to move on to some other excuse for not reading microfilm.

Mable, Harry and Friend

From the Schavey envelope collection.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Thank goodness there are notes on the back of this photo — "Harry & Mable" — otherwise I would never have known. The dog is unidentified.

No date, but I have a feeling that this is later than most of the photos we've been looking at. A little hasty research suggests that asphalt siding was particularly popular in the 1940s and into the 1950s (though once put on a house it could stay there for decades).

Mable and Kenny Breyfogle

From the Schavey envelope collection.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Handwritten on the back: "Mable & Kenny Breyfogle 1931(?)"

That's definitely Mable at left in the back row, and I'm guessing that she's resting her hands on Kenny's shoulders. No one else is identified.

(Earlier we saw a picture of a baby identified as Kenny in 1931 — both IDs can't be right.)

Here's Something About Harry

There I was, when I should have been writing something relevant, instead poking around trying to find out where Harry and Mable Schavey Breyfogle have their final resting place. By chance I came across something that actually ties Harry to Ainsworth … well, "south of Ainsworth," anyway — this, from the Valparaiso Vidette-Messenger of May 5, 1955:



So I checked Ancestry.com for the Coles. The 1910 Census shows Edward and Ella Cole on a farm in Winfield township; with them lives Harry Breyfogle, an orphan boy of eight, whose birthplace is unknown. The reason my direct searches on "Breyfogle" didn't turn him up is because the enumerator's handwriting caused Ancestry.com's indexer to misread his last name.

I still can't find Harry in the 1920 Census. By the 1930 Census, he was giving his birthplace as Indiana.

Here is the Cole land that lay just below the boundary between Winfield and Ross Townships, as shown in the 1939 Plat Book, with my attempt to mark the 80 acres that lay adjacent in Ross Township:


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The Coles were thus neighbors of Sam and Carrie Campbell, whose son Claude married Bertha Nolte, who was born and raised in that tragic house east of Ainsworth. Another Ainsworth connection!

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… And there went all the time I had for writing. I wish I were one of those people to whom research and writing come easily, but I'm not. I follow one tangent, and waste two hours. Hence all those posts of unidentified people photographed in unknown places on unknown dates: that doesn't take two hours.

Gimme a Beer, I've Had a Rough Day

From the Schavey envelope collection.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Per handwritten notes on the back: "Kenny Breyfogle in stroller 1931." Little Kenny there looks as if he's bellying up to the bar, signaling to the bartender for a drink.

However, I'm not sure that's actually Kenny; or if it is, then the year is probably not 1931. Kenneth was born to Harry and Mable Breyfogle in November 1924, which would make him about 6 years old in 1931. But they had another son, Dwayne, born September 1930 — a more likely candidate to be in a stroller in 1931. So maybe that's Kenny in 1925, or Dwayne in 1931.

Harry and Mable andWho's-It and What's-His-Name

From the Schavey envelope collection.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Handwritten notes on the back: "Harry & Mable Breyfogle (left) 1923(?)" Well of course! — I'd recognize them anywhere! What I'm wondering is who those two on the right are. Could that be Flower Girl and Hat Guy? Maybe if the photographer had managed to focus the camera, I might be willing to stick my neck out and say yes.

Anyway, that's a pretty dress Who's-It has on.

Mable and Harry and Flower Girl and Hat Guy

From the Schavey envelope collection.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Handwritten on the back of this photo: "(left) Mable ___? Breyfogle 1926(?)" That's what I transcribed, anyway. Now I can't remember if that blank line was a blank line in the original, or just illegible. And since nobody reads this thing, I don't have to be meticulous.

Yes, that's Mable Schavey Breyfogle, and we can recognize Harry Breyfogle beside her. As for the two unidentified, they are still unidentified, but I think we've seen them before as Flower Girl and Hat Guy. I'm pretty sure about Hat Guy, not so sure about Flower Girl.

Kissing? Who, Me?

From the Schavey envelope collection.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Handwritten on the back: "[illegible] Mable Breyfogle 1928(?)"

I swear that's the same driveway where we just saw those unidentified young folks kissing, and if Mable were dressed the same as that lip-locking lass, I'd say we had an ID … but she's not, and here she looks as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.

Harry at Work

From the Schavey envelope collection.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

On the back of this photo, someone has written: "Harry (right) 1918." Well, I believe Harry Breyfogle is in that picture, but I think he's the one on the left. And in 1918 Harry was about 15 years old; could anyone in that picture pass for 15? I don't know. Maybe he is at right and simply hasn't grown into his true Breyfogle mouth, which is so evident on his father, at left. Which is pure speculation on my part.

They all look dressed to work. This may be at home on the Breyfogle farm. But somehow, to me, this scene has a more industrial look.

Mable, Unstable

From the Schavey envelope collection.

It's not my fault if you feel dizzy looking at this picture. The house is melting in the original. I can only suppose something went wrong with the film.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

A handwritten note on the back identifies this as "Mable 1920." Which would mean she was still a Schavey, not yet a Breyfogle.

Look! Down on the Ground!

From the Schavey envelope collection.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Handwritten on back: "Mable & Harry (right) 1923(?)" I don't doubt that's Mable and Harry, but I wonder about the date. The first photo I posted from the collection, dated 1924, showed them wearing (so far as I can tell) the same clothes, in roughly the same setting. On how many occasions did these people hang around the railroad tracks in their Sunday best?

Harry seems to be pointing out something on the ground, saying, "Look at that!" — perhaps that large piece of paper.

Mable had only one sister, Loretta, born 1914; if this is 1923 or 1924, that little girl at left could be Loretta. But that's just a wild guess. I have no clue who the woman in the plaid skirt is.

The configuration of railroad tracks and structures ahead of them doesn't look quite right to be southeast of the Pennsy Depot, so I'm in the dark about that too.

Mable in a Buggy

From the Schavey envelope collection.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

On the back of this tattered and faded photograph, someone has written: "Mable Schavey Breyfogle – 1921(?)" The question mark is in the original, which must have been written later, since, in 1921, she was Mable Schavey.

The young woman at left certainly looks like Mable, so I suppose the question is about the exact date. If it's off, I don't think it's off by much. The fact that they are in a buggy doesn't rule out the 1920s; people still used horse-drawn buggies and wagons into the 1930s and even 1940s, or so I am told. The style of their clothing looks pretty much consistent with 1921.

Mable 1918, or Was it 1924?

From the Schavey envelope collection.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Handwritten on back: "Middle: Mable 1918(?)" Yes, that's Mable Schavey Breyfogle in the middle, but I have some doubts about that date, partly because the Mable of this photo looks almost identical to the Mable of 1924. She is dressed alike in both pictures, but for the hat; she's carrying the same bouquet, and wearing the same ring on her left hand.

Secondly, the fashions in this photo look more like the fashions of 1924 than 1918.

Mable's companions are not identified.