Hot Weather

The last two weeks of June 1923 were so hot that the strawberry crop withered and the M.E. church held its services in the basement. The Gem Theatre in Hobart enticed its patrons with "12 big fans" to cool them off. (The movies had not yet become the talkies so there was no spoken dialogue to be drowned out by those fans.) When sundown brought a little relief, you could go dancing at the pavilion just north of the old Liverpool schoolhouse, on the northeast corner of the Old Ridge Road-Liverpool Road intersection. The brave young people playing tennis on Stommel's lot did so early in the morning or late in the afternoon, I hope.

Nothing much was planned in Hobart for Independence Day, but on its eve Camp 133 promised a big fireworks display. If you didn't care for fireworks, you could go dance at the old Deepriver schoolhouse to music "with real pep" played by Perry's Big Six (I have no idea).


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Hobart Gazette, June 29, 1923.

Still, work had to go on. Planning for the future Roosevelt Gym building was going forward, and our favorite plumbers, Lee & Rhodes, as the only bidders for the plumbing work, were awarded the contract.

Some unpleasant business involving tuberculosis-testing of cattle occurred on "the big farm of Roper Bros." (and even more unpleasant business later at a Chicago slaughterhouse). I don't know where that farm was. I can't find any land owned by a Roper in Union Township on the Lincoln Highway in the 1921 or 1928 plat maps.

Fun with the Farm Bureau

The farming families of Ross Township enjoyed themselves in the Ainsworth school on the evening of July 17, 1922.


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Hobart Gazette 21 July 1922.

I don't know for sure who "President Krieter" was; my guess is the 66-year-old Frederick Krieter (1920 Census), who farmed in northeastern Ross Township under the name "Kreiter" per the 1926 Plat Book. The Gazette editor, of course, was Andrew J. Smith.

Caught in a Speed Trap

After passing through the "Christian utopia" of Zion City, Illinois, on June 9, 1922, Charles Chester and John C. Cavender had nothing good to say about its justice system or its roads.


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Hobart News 15 June 1922.

(You will notice in the left-hand columns of the page above the news of William Devonshire's death. A childless widower, he left everything he had to the Masons.)

The Gazette's telling of the speed-trap story did not turn out quite so well for Charles:


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Hobart Gazette 16 June 1922.

Over in the "Local Drifts" columns, we are reminded that in Hobart, at least, thievery is done in the dark of night rather than the light of day — and not nearly so methodically; and that in Merrillville, work is going forward to keep "dead man's crossing" from claiming any more victims.


Additional Source: "Oldest Mason Dies in Hobart." Hobart Gazette 16 June 1922.

A Rare Treat

Since the Ainsworth-area community had been holdings meetings and entertainments in the W.G. Haan school from the time it opened, I would guess that the entertainment of April 7, 1922 took place there as well, although the article gives no location.


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Hobart Gazette 14 Apr. 1922

Perhaps someone can tell me if "Lola" was Eleanor (Schuelke) Pflughoeft, Herman's wife; if so, she was then about 27 years old. I can't identify "Mrs. Forsberg." Thelma Fetterer was the daughter of Franklin (Sr.) and Harriet, about 24 years old. "Little Margaret Strong" was very little indeed — only about four years old, if I've identified her correctly (which isn't at all certain, since I can find her only in 1930, living with her grandparents in Winfield Township). Ellen Boyd was only a year older, the daughter of George and Addie (Guernsey) Boyd, who farmed near Merrillville.

I'm afraid "the Sunny South Girls," whoever they were, blackened their faces and spoke or sang in exaggerated dialect. Such treats as that were not as rare as we might like to think.


As for the meeting about the paving of what's now S.R. 51, I don't know where it took place. I can only imagine how "interesting and enthusiastic" it must have been, since just the previous month S.R. 51 had been described as "nearly impassable" around 61st Ave.


Additional Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.

Weekend Wreckage Report

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Hobart News 25 Aug. 1921.

The first accident occurred at the intersection of present-day E. 73rd Ave. and Grand Blvd./S.R. 51. That spot may have been particularly dangerous, with Lincoln Highway tourists adding to the traffic, and heaven knows if there was even a stop sign at the intersection.

William Fisher (husband of Jennie Hurlburt) was innocently getting the honey from Joe's bees when an anonymous driver struck his car on Old Ridge Road.

The column to the left of the "Week-End Accidents" relates the adventures of the local young men in the National Guard. I believe the John Fisher mentioned in that story was William's nephew.

♦    ♦    ♦
In other auto-related news, I now learn of yet another named highway that (like the Yellowstone Trail) I'd never heard of before; but the "Liberty Highway" is so obscure that I have not been able yet to determine whether it, too, was a cross-country route, or ran only between Kokomo and Chicago.


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Hobart Gazette 26 Aug. 1921.

In addition to a reminder of the hard times the nation was experiencing, the "Local Drifts" column notes the purchase by Joseph Wegesin of the Thomas Roper farm "south of Deepriver." The only farm I can find matching that description shows up in the 1891 Plat Book in the northeast corner of Winfield Township:


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Image from the 1939 Plat Book.

Blog-wise, I've ignored the Wegesin family up until now. In my newspaper notes, I've recorded only two mentions.* One was in 1911, when Mrs. Conrad Wegesin (Joseph's mother) came down from Chicago to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Fasel, Sr. for Mrs. Fasel's 54th birthday party. The second was in May 1920, when Joseph's oldest daughter, Gladys, attended a birthday party for Lillie Fasel, who was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Fasel, Sr. (I wonder if the Wegesins had a family connection to the Fasels?)

From a brief look at the official records, I gather that sometime after Joseph's birth in Ohio in 1881, his parents, Conrad and Mary, moved the family to Chicago, where 1900 census found them. About a year later, Joseph married Martha Semmer, who also went by the name Magdalen in some censuses. By 1910 Joseph and Martha-Magdalen had moved to Hobart. Ten years later, they had seven children of their own, plus a niece and a nephew living with them.

I'm not sure I'm going to have to pay much more attention to this family, as it appears that by 1930 they had moved to Muncie, Indiana.

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*There may have been more, but I did not record them.


Additional Sources:
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 3 Feb. 1911.
♦ "Young Lady Surprised." Hobart Gazette 28 May 1920.

Ford v. Cement Truck

Apparently, if you were bored in Hobart, you could go hang around the Nickel Plate Garage and wait for something to happen. Just one day after the barber-v.-barber grudge match, a cement truck showed what it could do to a Ford car out in front of the Nickel Plate Garage. The Ford belonged to our friend Roland Dolphus Sizelove.


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"Local and Personal," Hobart News 11 Aug. 1921.

In news of other acquaintances — yet another relative for the mysterious Mary Kipp. "Mrs. Wm. Halsted" may have been W.O.'s widow, Barbara; that was how the Gazette of August 12 identified a woman beginning a new house on Garfield Street, though there could have been two such women.

And Vera Quinlan had a job in Gary. From the next day's Gazette, we learn that her brother, Lester, who was then about 16 or 17, had joined the National Guard:


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"Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette 12 Aug. 1921.

… and yes, Mrs. Gottfried Mayer was Oscar's sister-in-law.

Liberty, Victory … Whatever

The leadership structure for the fifth Liberty Loan drive had been announced in March. In mid-April came the announcement of quotas for northwest Indiana's major towns, including Gary, East Chicago, Crown Point, and, of course, Hobart, with a quota of $109,800 in bonds. (Nobody bothered setting quotas for one-horse burgs like Ainsworth.)

The official opening of the drive itself — now called the "Victory Loan Drive" — would begin on Monday, April 21, 1919. Leading up to it would be a series of four-minute speeches at the Gem Theater, two given by those experienced speakers, the Rev. A.H. Lawrence and John Killigrew, and one by "some foreign speaker."

John Cavender, in charge of the Hobart part of the drive, expected a "war exhibit car" to pass through Hobart the Sunday before the drive — at least, he had "heard nothing so far to the contrary." And then on Monday, canvassers would go forth to ask for money.


From the Hobart News of April 24, 1919.

The Victory Loan Drive seems to have gone off like a damp firecracker. As May opened, the News complained that the drive was "lagging sadly to the rear in Hobart." Volunteer canvassers were in short supply, and so were volunteer subscribers. The Gazette chided those who sat back and waited to be solicited. "The resources of the three banks in Hobart for the first three months of this year increased over $100,000. This shows that there is money in this community, and plenty of it." Both papers conceded that the interest rates weren't as appealing as some stocks and bonds offered lately, but the Victory Bonds were a surer investment. And, of course, there was the appeal to patriotism: "Don't let the boys returning from France, where they fought your battles, learn that you have not subscribed for a bond," the Gazette warned. "The boys have shed their blood — let us all pay the cost."


From the Hobart Gazette of May 8, 1919.

There was no parade this time, and if the "war exhibit car" came through Hobart, its appearance was not reported on. Although volunteers were still in short supply, several unnamed local women worked steadfastly as canvassers. As the drive ended, Hobart limped "over the top." Subscriptions in the town itself fell just short of $72,000, but many Hobart residents worked in Gary and had subscribed for bonds at their places of employment; those amounts, added to the total, brought Hobart over its quota.


Sources:
♦ Advertisement. Hobart Gazette 8 May 1919.
♦ Advertisement. Hobart News 24 Apr. 1919.
♦ "Have You Taken a Bond?" Hobart Gazette 2 May 1919.
♦ "Hobart Goes 'Over the Top' in the Victory Loan Campaign." Hobart News 15 May 1919.
♦ "Loan Drive Starts Monday." Hobart Gazette 18 Apr. 1919.
♦ "Victory Loan Drive Will Start Next Monday." Hobart News 17 Apr. 1918.
♦ "Victory Loan Is Not Progressing as Rapidly as Previous Loans." Hobart News 1 May 1919.

Fifth Liberty Loan Drive!

The war was over, but the paying for it wasn't. Late in March 1919 the Gazette announced the leadership organization for Lake County's part in the fifth Liberty Loan drive. John C. Cavender was chairman for Hobart Township. In Ross Township, the general chairman was Sam Wood, with Alex Boyd heading the effort in Merrillville, and William Wood in Deep River.

We shall see what parades, etc., may follow to whip up the bond-buying sentiment. For my own part and on behalf of these people, I'm tired of being harangued to buy Liberty Bonds — but I may be wasting my sympathy. Although many returning veterans said they were sick of war, I do not know that civilians felt the same way. It was still a time of fervent declarations of patriotism and a warlike hatred of all things German.

Such attitudes would be strengthened in anyone who caught one of the "special" shows at the Gem Theatre on April 5.

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"The Heart of Humanity" was war propaganda released in February 1919 — too late for the war itself, but in good time for the fifth Liberty Loan drive.

Go here to see a short clip from the film … now, don't you feel like buying some Liberty Bonds, just to show that evil Hun?


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ Advertisement. Hobart Gazette 4 Apr. 1919.
♦ "The Fifth Liberty Loan." Hobart Gazette 21 Mar. 1919.

First State Bank Letter, 1904

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Another random pointless thing bought on eBay. I'm glad the signer's name appears on the letterhead, because I would never have deciphered "Cavender" from that mess. I believe he was John C. Cavender, who shows up in the 1920 Census as a bank cashier in Hobart. I wonder why the 1910 census-taker missed him.

The town the addressees lived in was probably Ross Station, which you can see on the 1874 Plat Map in the northwest corner of Ross Township, well northwest of Merrillville.