Mary Funk Yager

We last heard of Mary Yager when she hosted a dinner for her former pastor in the spring of 1921.

The next spring, she died.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News 4 May 1922.

The earliest I can find Jacob and Mary in Ross Township is 1880, where (to judge by their neighbors) they seemed to be southeast of Ainsworth, perhaps along present-day 73rd Ave. Their daughter Clara was 5, and they had a one-year-old son, Theodore, who never appears again. Presumably he died, but I cannot find his grave in the NWIGS listings for Ross, Union or Hobart Townships.

By 1900 the Yagers had bought their own farm in Union Township, Porter County. Again, to judge by their neighbors, it was this small farm just north of Huffman's mill shown on a 1921 plat map:


Image from http://www.inportercounty.org/Data/Maps/1921Plats/Union-1921.jpg, courtesy of Steven R. Shook.

That parcel looks like about 10 acres. I believe the Yagers concentrated on strawberries.

The "Mrs. Robert Anders" mentioned in the obituary was probably our Deep River grocer.

♦    ♦    ♦
In the "Local and Personal" column to the left of the obituary above, we find minor news of some acquaintances: Louis and Gertrude Dunham and their troublesome boy, Richard Chapman, have moved from one house I can't identify to another I can't identify; and Jessie Quinlan is feeling better.


Additional Sources:
♦ 1880 Census.
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Death of Mrs. Yager." Hobart Gazette 5 May 1922.

Back Home Again

Richard Chapman was allowed to return to his foster home in time to celebrate his ninth birthday. If the Dunhams believed that Richard's stay at the "home of the friendless" had cured his problems, I expect they found out otherwise before long.


(Click on image to enlarge)
"Local and Personal." Hobart News 26 May 1921.

Also, a "South of Deepriver" social column.

♦    ♦    ♦
While I haven't discovered what Richard did to get sent away in the first place, I have learned where he went: to the Julia E. Work Training School in Plymouth, Indiana.

The records from that institution record only the barest facts about him.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Indiana State Digital Archives.

Friendless

Even knowing that he grew up to be a cold-blooded murderer, I can't help feeling sorry for the eight-year-old Richard Chapman, sent away from his foster home in the winter of 1921:


(Click on image to enlarge)
From the Hobart News, 24 Feb. 1921.

I haven't heard of any illness or other trouble that would make Louis and Gertrude Dunham unable to care for the boy. The problem may have been that they were at their wits' end in trying to deal with his behavioral problems; years later, Louis would testify in court about Richard's "early tendencies toward crime and his peculiarities."

I do not know exactly where this "Home of the Friendless" was, as that name was not uncommon for charitable institutions. A 1905 Chicago directory of such homes mentions two with "Home for the Friendless" in their names, and Chicago was a convenient distance.

Anyway, with Richard gone on Friday, he could not be blamed for the vandalism at the school the next Monday. From the wording of that news item, I get the impression that there might have been specific suspects for that and the earlier crime.

The Housekeeper's Social Life

The Nolte brothers' housekeeper, Sarah Read, had a more active social life than they did — which isn't saying much. In the summer of 1919, I suppose you could attribute the Noltes' quietness to grief over the death of their younger brother, but then they've been like that all their lives thus far. August 1919 brings two stories about Sarah's social life, and not a word about the Noltes'.

Sarah Read was a widow. She and her husband, William, had been married in England in 1881 and had come to the U.S. around 1889 (when William was 53 and Sarah 43). By 1900 they were in the Hobart area, farming in a small way on rented land near the Fox farm.

William died in September 1910. I do not know when Sarah joined the Nolte household, but the first mention I hear of her being there is this, in the Gazette of August 22, 1919: "Mrs. Wm. Read of near Ainsworth visited with relatives in and around Hobart this week." (I'm reading a lot into "near Ainsworth.")

If the Reads had any children, I don't know about them. Sarah did, however, have a sister, as we learn from this article in the next week's Gazette:


(Click on image to enlarge)

Ann Jeffery (or Jeffrey) and husband John were in Hobart as early as 1880.

That obituary is a lot of newspaper space to devote to someone with a very tenuous connection to Hobart; I suppose it is evidence of the sisters' love for their brother-in-law, or pride in him.

♦    ♦    ♦
Speaking of tenuous connections, here's a story about an early encounter Louis Dunham had with a criminal:


(Click on image to enlarge)


Sources:
♦ 1880 Census.
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ "Additional Local News." Hobart Gazette 22 Aug. 1919.
♦ Indiana WPA Death Records Index.
♦ "Obituary." Hobart Gazette 29 Aug. 1919.
♦ "Pickpocket Caught." Hobart Gazette 22 Aug. 1919.

Put Your Hands — er, Corners Up!

The Gazette reported that a strange arrest had gone down on the morning of September 4, 1917: "Marshal Rose saw fit to close the saloon on the ground floor of the Hobart House by arresting the license. The action taken by Marshal Rose is quite unusual, and the first time such has been attempted in Hobart."

At the town board meeting the following week, the Marshal explained his action and the board voted to approve it. The Gazette displayed its usual discretion about the reasons for the closure, saying only that that saloon had not been "run according to law." The News was less tactful: "For some time complaint has been made, quietly if not openly, that the orgies taking place at the cabaret were not conducive to the good of the town or of the morals of our young people." Still, the News took pains to make clear that the technical licensee, Louis Dunham,* only held the license on behalf of the saloon's owner, W.L. Helm ("a common practice heretofore") and had nothing to do with the saloon's operations, or its orgies.

The Gazette that reported on the town board's approval of the closure also carried Louis Dunham's notice of intent to renew the saloon's license.

______________________
*A couple of years later Louis Dunham would become the foster father of Richard Chapman.


Sources:
♦ "Application for Renewal of Liquor License." Hobart Gazette 14 Sept. 1917.
♦ "Hobart House Bar Following Complaint Is Closed Up Tight." Hobart News 6 Sept. 1917.
♦ "Marshal Rose Closes Saloon." Hobart Gazette 7 Sept. 1917.
♦ "Town Board Doings." Hobart Gazette 14 Sept. 1917.