Ainsworth School-Year Souvenir, 1897-98 (Part 1)

Here is the first page of another recent acquisition.


(Click on image to enlarge)

This program must date back to the era when the old Ainsworth school had only one room — otherwise, there would have been more than one teacher.

The teacher, Mabel Peterson, was the daughter of William and Cassie (Booth) Smith (and niece of Cyrus Smith). She had been born in 1872. In 1896 she married Frank Peterson (Indiana Marriage Collection), but in 1897-98 they had no children yet (1910 Census). I believe they were living somewhere near the Ainsworth schoolhouse: according to the 1908 Plat Map, they hadn't yet bought the farm in southern Ross Township; and the 1900 Census shows them farming rented land near her father and Uncle Cyrus — possibly her father's farm on 73rd Street (where Exceptional Equestrians Unlimited is now). From there, it was a walk of perhaps 2,000 feet up (present-day) Greene Street and Ainsworth Road to the schoolhouse.

Dr. Homer L. Iddings, Ross Township trustee, was a practicing physician in Merrillville, and himself a former schoolteacher, according to a 1904 biographical sketch.

Francis "Frank" Ebenezer Cooper, the Lake County superintendent of schools, was likewise a former schoolteacher (1880 Census), and a resident of Crown Point, where he is buried.


Next, we'll get to the pupils.

School-Year Souvenir

From the steamer trunk.


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of E.H.



I'd really like to think that this souvenir was from the Ainsworth school. Just three things make me question that: first, the number of pupils is so small, and (to the extent I know where their families lived) they all come from east of Ainsworth; secondly, there is only one teacher, and I believe that by the 1900-01 school year the Ainsworth school had two rooms; and thirdly, I know that there used to be a schoolhouse on the corner of present-day Ainsworth Road and Spencer Street (known as the Green school, I think), quite suitable for east-of-Ainsworth children to attend. I don't know when that school was decommissioned.

The first reference I find in my notes to Mary Herlitz as a teacher comes in 1904 and places her at the Ainsworth school, teaching one room while Silas Zuvers taught the other. But, of course, my notes are anything but comprehensive.

So — there we are, for now.

Many of these names are already familiar; only a few I don't remember seeing before. Clarence and Vivian Casper were grandchildren of Reuben Bridle (father of Edith and Blanche Bridle), who in 1907 was farming "one and one-quarter miles north of Deepriver on the county line road"; I wish I knew the story behind the absence of Clarence and Vivian's parents. I can't identify the Cooper children in the 1900 census, nor Robert Lydle.

It's touching to see Alvena Nolte there, just a schoolgirl, about 12 years old. Another three years and tuberculosis would cut her life short.


Sources:
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette 29 Nov. 1907.
♦ "Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette 11 Mar. 1904.