Another View of Chester's Camp

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Image courtesy of Russell S. Rein.

Here we have a view of Chester's Camp different from the one I previously posted — the photographer is standing further to the west. This photo may have been taken the same day as the first; the main buildings look the same, and there's that guy in the apron, who may be John Chester but I have little hope of ever knowing for sure.

Here we can see a little more of the camping area. Someone has set up a tent. Perhaps the Chesters have not yet built the cabins that would eventually house their guests … or the people with the tent just liked roughing it.

The highway itself looks so small and narrow!

The owner of this image, Russell S. Rein, kindly sent it to me after coming across my blog. He is webmaster of the Indiana Lincoln Highway Association site — which is still under construction, but you can already see that the Association has a number of interesting historical images from along the Lincoln Highway in Indiana. They are seeking additional information and images relating to tourist camps like John and Emma Chester's.

Stopping by Chester's Camp, 1929

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I finally got my own Chester's Camp postcard. Trouble is, it's printed in that dot way (somebody tell me the proper term for it?) that means it doesn't scan well.

I wonder if that's John Chester in the cook's uniform; that guy looks rather proprietary. Or maybe he's the guy to the left, in shirt sleeves and tie. Anybody know what's in those bottles standing just to the right of the gas pump platform? Could that be motor oil?

From the message on the back, I gather that a pair or group of travelers driving west along the Lincoln Highway on a road trip from Ohio, apparently heading for Colorado, stopped at Chester's Camp overnight on September 9, 1929. One of them wrote the card and mailed it the next day from Joliet, Illinois.



Not easily legible; here's what I can make out:

Sept. 9th We are on our way left Adrian [Ohio?] 9:30 this morn. we are just out of Valparazo Ind. about 50 mi from Chi. tonight. expect to get an early start in morning expect Myrtie[?] is there long ago. will be if everything goes alright by Sat. [illegible signature — maybe "Em" or "Earl" or "Esme"?]

I can't decide which museum to give this to, so maybe I'll just keep it until I die and let my estate decide.

Chester's Camp Location: Newspaper Testimony

I took some photos this morning of Old Lincoln Highway in the vicinity of Dekalb Street so that those who aren't familiar with that section of the road will have a better idea of how it looks.

Starting a little more than one-tenth of a mile east of Dekalb Street, moving west along 73rd Avenue (Old Lincoln Highway):


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On the north side of the street, there's a piece of flat land that would make a nice place for a tourist camp, if you know what I mean:



The camera seems to flatten the road out somewhat. The road dips through this curve:



A shallow creek runs under the road at the lowest point of the dip:



We've gone around the curve; now we're looking up toward the crest of a hill to the west, and that's Dekalb Street on the right:



Turning around at Dekalb Street (which goes off to the left now) and looking back east, there's the dip-curve again:






Unsurprisingly if Chester's Camp was indeed located near this curve, there were numerous car wrecks in the vicinity. Below are excerpts from the Valparaiso Vidette-Messenger describing some of the accidents:

[Jul. 1929] West Lincolnway at Chester's Camp Dip Curve is Scene of Crash Sunday Morning … Chester's Camp is on an "S" curve with a dip in the road adding further hazard to the drive.

[Jan. 1930] Argie Weider … was approaching the brow of a Hill at the Chester camp, when he was blinded by the lights of an approaching automobile.

[Feb. 1930] The accident occurred … near the Chester camp, between Deep River and Merrillville. Mehok, according to witnesses, rounded the curve at high speed ….

[Jan. 1932] An unidentified man was killed Thursday morning when the automobile he was driving skidded into the ditch on Lincoln Highway, near Chesters' camp, eight miles west of Valparaiso. … [Witnesses] saw the other machine run into a ditch as it rounded a curve near them.

[Oct. 1934] Cars Driven by Chicago and Gary Drivers Crash Early Today Near Chester's Camp on Road 30. … The accident is said to have resulted when one of the cars attempted to cut around another car.

What we can gather from these descriptions is that Chester's Camp was on a dangerous section of road that involved a sharp, dipping curve and a nearby hill — all of which sounds remarkably like the section of 73rd Avenue pictured above.

All the same, I'm not quite ready to invoke the Unscholarly Blogger's Fiat and declare myself satisfied. I don't know what I'll require to do that.

Sources:
♦ "Bright Lights, 'Skiddy' Road Causes Crash." Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.) 9 Jan. 1930. Access Newspaper Archive. Lake County (IN) Public Library 16 Nov. 2009.
♦ "Car Skids Into Ditch, Driver Not Identified." Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.) 29 Jan. 1932. Access Newspaper Archive. Lake County (IN) Public Library 16 Nov. 2009.
♦ "Dean Family Trapped When Making Curve." Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.) 24 Feb. 1930. Access Newspaper Archive. Lake County (IN) Public Library 16 Nov. 2009.
♦ "Hammond Man Held; Drunk at Wheel?" Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.) 8 Jul. 1929. Access Newspaper Archive. Lake County (IN) Public Library 16 Nov. 2009.
♦ "9 Hurt When Autos Collide West of City." Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.) 15 Oct. 1934. Access Newspaper Archive. Lake County (IN) Public Library 16 Nov. 2009.

Location of Chester's Camp: Census Testimony

Let us now praise the name of Elizabeth L. Fredrick, Enumerator in the Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930. Thanks to her notes on the enumeration schedule that includes the John Chester household, we can get a notion of where Chester's Camp was.

On the left side of the sheet, she notes that it represents the north side of State Road #30 (i.e., the Lincoln Highway). She notes that while the entire sheet is devoted to State Road #30, only the first 17 lines represent Deep River households.

The theory that she is moving west from Deep River, along the north side of State Road #30, is supported by the 1939 plat map of the Ainsworth area. On the census schedule, we find the Hallowell, Baessler and Eason households owning land; looking at the 1939 plat map, we find those same landowners, in that same order, east to west on the north side of State Road #30.

The next name we encounter on the census sheet that matches the 1939 plat map is Hurlburt. We've already met Jacob and Augusta Hurlburt, and we know they owned land on the northeast corner of the intersection of Grand Boulevard and the Old Lincoln Highway.

Continuing west, Mrs. Fredrick records two renters who wouldn't show up on any plat book, and then the Chester household, operating a tourist camp.

West of the Chesters, there are two more renters. The next landowner listed is Albion D. Paine. We've now moved out of Range 7 into Range 8 and my copy of the 1939 plat book seems to be missing the relevant page, so we have to go to the Plat Books of Indiana Counties of uncertain date, estimated on the IUPUI website to be between 1925 and 1941, in order to find Mr. Paine. Here is an excerpt from the undated plat book, showing the Hurlburt and Paine land outlined in pink:


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So Chester's Camp is west of the Hurlburts and east of the Paines (assuming the land ownership has not varied greatly between the plat book and the census), on the north side of the street.

Here's an aerial view of the area, with the Hurlburt and Paine land holdings marked.

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I can't determine where Chester's Camp was using the aerial photos for two reasons. First, when you enlarge them to try to see things at ground level, they become so fuzzy as to be almost useless unless you already know what should be there and you're just trying to confirm it. Secondly, I don't know what should be there. We've already learned that John Chester left this location in 1935, moving his tourist camp operations to the vicinity of Tremont. What became of this Chester's Camp after 1935, whether any part of it was still standing in 1939, and, most importantly, what its layout was, what I should expect to see from the air — I simply don't know.

♦    ♦    ♦
Still to come: newspaper testimony about the location of Chester's Camp.

Sources:
♦ Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls.
♦ Lake County Title Co. Plat Book of Lake County 1939. n.p., n.p., n.d. Print.
♦ Plat Books of Indiana Counties, Vol. 3, p. 253. Lombard: Sidwell Studios, n.d. IUPUI University Library Program of Digital Scholarship. Historic Indiana Plat Books. Indiana University-Purdue University Indiana. 16 Nov. 2009 .

Chester's Camp: Purchase of Land

I notice that the Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society moved its photograph of Chester's Camp from "Unknown Lake County" to "Ainsworth." You're welcome, NWIGS. (I'm kidding! I doubt anyone affiliated with NWIGS even knows this blog exists.)

In the following little item from the Vidette-Messenger of July 7, 1926, I think we see John and Emma Chester buying the land where Chester's Camp would be built: "Helmuth Foreman wid to John Chester and wf Emma pt 18-35-7…………..1.00." In other words, part of Section 18, Township 35 North, Range 7 West of the second Principal Meridian — one of the sections comprising Ainsworth, and bisected by the Lincoln Highway. Too bad the newspaper item doesn't say how much land was transferred; that would be helpful to know. Here is Section 18 as it appears in my 1939 plat book:


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In the northwest quarter of Section 18, on the east side of the T-intersection of Lincoln Highway and Dekalb Street (the latter not labeled), is a two-acre parcel without an owner's name. For reasons that I will explain in a later post, I am going to focus on that two-acre parcel.

One of the reasons it will have to be in a later post is because there are so many lines of inquiry branching out from this topic, and I think I have adult ADD. I can feel my brain overheating. I'm not a very adept historian. I have to go take the dog for a walk and let my brain cool off. Maybe tomorrow I can start afresh.

Sources:
♦ Lake County Title Co. Plat Book of Lake County 1939. n.p., n.d. Print.
♦ "Real Estate Transfers." Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.) 7 Jul.1926. Access Newspaper Archive. Lake County (IN) Public Library 15 Nov. 2009 .

John Chester

John Jarvis Chester was the eighth of Henry Chester's nine children, and the second of three borne by Mary E. (Baird) Chester, Henry's third wife. We've looked at his legal difficulties and his bereavements and final tragedy; now let's go to the governmental records to sketch out the less newsworthy facts of his life.

Although his gravestone gives his birth year as 1888, all the official records I could find accord with a birth date of September 11, 1885.

Reader, did you know the 1890 federal census had been destroyed? I didn't, until I started doing this research. In January 1921 there was a fire in the Washington, D.C. building that housed the 1890 census, and the records were so damaged by water as to be deemed unreadable and thrown out.

That is why the first official glimpse we get of John Chester is in the 1900 census, when he was a boy of 15 living in his parents' house along with his little sister, Daisy. (Big brother Jerome had already moved out.)

On August 31, 1905, at the age of 20, he married Emma A.B. Klemm.

The 1910 census found him living in Ross Township, farming in a general way and renting the house where he, Emma and their two little girls lived.

When World War I came, John was living on Harrison Street in Gary, Indiana, employed at Illinois Steel Company as a rougher. His draft card notes that he had grey eyes and brown hair, and was of medium height with a slender build. He did not serve in the army — deemed ineligible, it seems, because of his physical problems, described by the examiner as: "Loss of left vision, 1 finger on left hand crippled, thumb, left limb short."

I have not found anything to explain how he received those injuries, but both lines of work he had followed up to this point — farming and steel working — were dangerous.

In 1920 he was working in a Gary steel mill as an oiler (that's what it looks like on the census sheet, and a pox on census takers with bad handwriting). He and Emma now had four children: three daughters and a son. The family had prospered well enough to buy their home.

Sometime in the 1920s John and Emma left Gary to open their tourist stop along the Lincoln Highway. As we've seen, by 1927 the lunch stand was in business. In the 1930 census John described himself as a tourist camp operator; he employed his son William as an attendant, but no other family member is listed as working there. John's widowed mother had joined the household, while their eldest daughter, Mamie, had married and moved out in 1928. The Chesters owned their home.

And there the official record ends. Neither Emma, nor Ella Mae (John's second wife), nor John himself would survive to be counted in the 1940 census.

Sources:
♦Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls.
♦Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1910. T624, 1,178 rolls.
♦Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920; (National Archives Microfilm Publication T625, 2076 rolls); Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington, D.C.
♦Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls.
♦Ancestry.com. Indiana Marriage Collection, 1800-1941 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Original data: Works Progress Administration, comp. Index to Marriage Records Indiana: Indiana Works Progress Administration, 1938-1940.
♦Ancestry.com. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Original data: United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls. Imaged from Family History Library microfilm.
♦"Former Local Man Marries." Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.) 30 Mar. 1928. Access Newspaper Database. Lake County Public Library 10 Nov. 2009 .

The Bootlegger and the Nosy Neighbor

From the Valparaiso Vidette-Messenger of Wednesday, September 7, 1927:

Liquor violators fared ill in local courts Tuesday.

*   *   * John Chester, owner and operator of a lunch stand on Lincoln Highway,† near Deep River, was arrested Monday by Deputy Sheriff Thomas Platt, of Crown Point, on a warrant charging him with violating the state liquor law. The warrant on which Chester was arrested was signed by a neighbor. He was released on $1,000 bond.

_________________________
†This is probably part of what later became known as Chester's Camp.

Source:
♦ "Kouts Booze Sellers Get Stiff Fines." Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.) 27 Sept. 1927. Access Newspaper Archive. Lake County Public Library. 3 Nov. 2009.


Can't a man do a little bootlegging in peace?

I find John Chester's character intriguing. Indeed, all of these people I've been researching intrigue me, probably more so because I can get only stray, disjointed bits of information about them, just the right foundation for building rampant speculation.

And I must say, conjecture is fun.

The excerpt above shows us that John Chester wasn't above violating the law — but then again, he had plenty of company during Prohibition. I could find only this one article on the topic, so probably he was just a casual law-breaker.

From the information in my earlier post about his bereavements and his suicide, we can leap to a couple conclusions:
♦ Since he was an entrepreneur, first operating Chester's Camp on the Lincoln Highway, then moving on to open another tourist camp on U.S. 12, he must have had some degree of business acumen and initiative, and to operate a business involving so much customer interaction he probably had a gregarious personality (unless he was a Basil Fawlty type).
♦ He seems to have had a deeply emotional side. The gravestone that he chose for his first wife in 1935 emphasizes their relationship and gives the exact dates of her birth and death, which I (untrained in psychology) interpret as a sign of emotional attachment. He was only 47 when he was widowed, and had at least one child still at home; in such cases remarriage might be a matter of convenience as much as anything else, but he formed such a deep attachment to his second wife that upon her death he was distraught and spoke to friends of wanting to kill himself — and finally did so, though it meant abandoning his youngest child, a schoolgirl of 13. We could possibly construe his suicide as the result of some mental illness such as depression, but that's really wild speculation, entirely without evidence.

And thus ends my conjecture for today.

Another Chester Family Tragedy

CHESTERTON. March 14.—Funeral services for Mrs. Ella Mae Chester, 38, of Tremont, who died Friday at midnight in Clinic hospital, were held Monday afternoon. ... Surviving is her husband. John Chester, and five step-children, the youngest daughter, 13, being at home.

The Chesters have been proprietors for the past four years of the Chester Camp east of Tremont on U. S. 12. They formerly operated a camp on the old Lincoln highway, about four miles west of Valparaiso. [Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), Mar. 14, 1939.]

* * *
John Chester, age 54, operator of Chester's camp, tourist station on U. S. 12, one-half mile east of Tremont, attempted suicide this morning by shooting himself in the head with an automatic pistol.

The shooting occurred at 9:10 o'clock, and resulted from despondency resulting from the death of his second wife, Goldie, two months ago. Friends said he had threatened to kill himself on several occasions.

A daughter, Betty Lou, age 13, only one of five children who lives at home, had just left for school and a tourist in one of the cabins discovered Chester after the shooting.

Chester was rushed to Clinic hospital. Michigan City, by State Policemen Walter LaHayne and Arthur Keller, who were called. Hospital attaches report his condition as critical with small chances for recovery. The bullet entered the head behind the right ear.

Chester is well known by many Valparaiso people, having operated a camp on Lincoln Highway, eight miles west of Valparaiso, for a number of years before locating on the Dunes four years ago. [Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), Apr. 12, 1939.]
* * *
MICHIGAN CITY, April 14. — (Special) — John Chester, 50, Chesterton tourist camp operator found shot through the head Wednesday, remained unconscious at Clinic hospital here today. Little hope is held for his recovery. Chester was found in his home. A .22 calibre bullet had passed through his head above the temples. He has operated a tourist camp near Tremont for several years. He formerly operated Chester's Camp at Ainsworth. [Hammond Times (Hammond, Ind.), Apr. 14, 1939.]

* * *
Memorial services were held this afternoon at 2 o'clock in Pflughoeft's chapel in Hobart for John J. Chester, age 52, who died Sunday in Clinic hospital, Michigan City, from a bullet wound in the head, self-inflicted, last Wednesday at his home at Tremont, on Dunes highway. Chester was said by relatives to have been depressed since the death of his wife, Goldie.

Surviving are four daughters, Mrs. Mamie Feightner, and Mrs. Daisy Bullock, both of Gary; Miss Marie Chester, of Hobart, and Miss Betty Louis Chester, of Tremont; a son, William, of Hobart; three brothers, Charles and James of Hobart, and Jerome, of LaMoille, Ill., and three sisters, Mrs. Ella Olson, of Fort Wayne; Mrs. Lovisa Nelson and Mrs. Carrie Raschka, both of Hobart. Burial was in Crown Hill cemetery. [Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), Apr. 18, 1939.]

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The First Mrs. Chester

LONG ILLNESS CAUSES DEATH EMMA CHESTER

Mrs. Emma Chester, age 47, died Thursday at her home on Lincoln Highway, near Ainsworth, following an extended illness. She is survived by her husband, John; a son William; four daughters, Mrs. Mamie Fleighner, of Gary; Mrs. Daisy Bullock, of Ainsworth, and Mary and Betty Lou Chester; a sister, Mrs. Louis Weiler, and three brothers, Emil, Albert and Otto Klemm.

Memorial services will be held in Pflughoeft's funeral home in Hobart Monday afternoon at 2 o'clock, following brief rites at the residence at 1 o'clock. Rev. G. H. Hentschel, of Hobart, will officiates. Burial will be in Crown Hill cemetery.

Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), Apr. 12, 1935.

John and Emma are buried together in the Crown Hill Cemetery.


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The second Mrs. Chester lies in Chesterton Cemetery.

Chester's Camp

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The historic Lincoln Highway crossed northern Indiana, and a two-lane remnant still curves away from the present-day Route 30 to wind through Merrillville, Ainsworth and Deep River before rejoining Route 30 east of Deep River.

Members of the Chester family opened a tourist stop along the Lincoln Highway, west of Deep River and about half a mile south of Ainsworth, according to the Valparaiso Vidette-Messenger. By 1929 Chester's Camp was well established, offering camping grounds, a barbecue stand and a filling station.


Source: Jan Shupert-Arick. The Lincoln Highway Across Indiana. Arcadia Publishing, 2009.