Kids These Days! (1924)

Some things never change …


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart Gazette, 28 Mar. 1924.

… but some things do, let us hope.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News, 13 Mar. 1924.

The "School Notes" reporter that week was Florence Ewigleben, whom we've met before.

The Ewigleben Family

Back when I was posting about the Ewiglebens, I completely forgot I had this photograph.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

Fred Ewigleben, Sr., is standing at center, and his wife, Tillie (née Blanchard) is seated in front of him. The photo is undated, but based on the fact that it was taken by the Hallberg Studio, as well as the fashions and apparent ages of the subjects, I'm guessing it dates to about 1920. Per the 1920 Census, Fred and Tillie had four children: Raymond (19), Fred Jr. (17), Emil (15), and Florence (13). Emil and Florence are seated on either side of their mother; the older boys are standing on either side of their father, but I don't know which is which. [2/18/2020 update: Thanks to Rita McBride of the Hobart Historial Society and an Ewigleben descendant, we now know that Fred Jr. is the young man standing at right. Raymond is standing at left.]

I'm having trouble sketching out Tillie's family background. Per her death certificate from 1946 (she died on November 21, her birthday), she was born in Chicago in 1875; her father's name is given as Charles Blanchard, but the informant apparently did not know her mother's maiden name — not even her first name. There was a Charles Blanchard in Hobart who was near Tillie's age and also born in Chicago, but his death certificate gives his father's name as John, mother's name unknown. Where the information in both cases was so lacking about the decedent's ancestry, I'm not inclined to rely too much on the death certificates. I think it's highly likely that Charles Blanchard, Sr. (he also had a son named Charles) was Tillie's brother.

♦    ♦    ♦
2/15/2020 update — I came across this item in the "Local Drifts" column of the Hobart Gazette of January 24, 1919:

Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Blanchard and Mr. and Mrs. Fred Ewigleben were in Chicago the forepart of the week to attend the funeral on Monday of Mrs. Anna Carleton, a sister of Mr. Blanchard and Mrs. Ewigleben. Mrs. Carleton is survived by husband, a daughter and three sons, one of whom is in France.

That establishes Tillie and Charles Sr. as siblings. The Cook County, Illinois, Deaths Index gives Anna Carleton's parents' names as John Blanchard and W. Russell. The three Carleton sons were Harold, Adolph, and William, and the daughter, who was about 12 when Anna died, was named Eva (1910 Census) or Eveline (1920 Census).

And They Lived Happily Ever After

On September 23, 1923, Miss Leona Raschka became Mrs. Fred Ewigleben, Jr.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News, Sept. 27, 1923.

We just recently met Leona's bridesmaid, Florence Ewigleben. We've also met the best man, Walter Miller.

In all these years that I've been hearing that wonderful name, Ewigleben — it means "live forever" in German — I've never looked into the family much; I was content to know that they were a farming family from somewhere west of Hobart. Now I'd like to find out exactly where that farm was. Let's look at the 1908 Plat Map:


(Click on image to enlarge)

Why, you may ask, should I be interested in the land owned by "C. Erigleton"? — because that land coincides with the land owned by Christ Ewigleben as shown in the 1891 Plat Book. My theory is that Erigleton is a butchered spelling of Ewigleben.

I've often wondered about that big parcel on the northwest corner of Liverpool and 49th, which seems like a throwback to the old rural days of this area, almost untouched by the development that has transformed the old Hayward farm on the east side of Liverpool Road. The farmhouse that sits on that land was built in 1890 according to the county records, so perhaps it is the old Ewigleben home.

Christ Ewigleben, the patriarch of this family, was a German immigrant. It appears that he married and had some children in the old country; I do not know what happened to his first wife. In 1865 Christ came to the U.S. (1900 Census). In Cook County, Illinois, in 1873, he married a woman named Johanna, whose surname is listed as Hillmann or Maas.[1]

The earliest I can find the Ewigleben family in Hobart Township is in the 1880 Census, on the same page with (among others) Berndts, Boldts and Mummerys, which suggests that they were in the area west of Hobart where the 1891 Plat Book places them. Christ's wife is listed as "Teressa" or some such thing, not Johanna; it's a mystery.

Their son, Frederick — the father of the groom in our 1923 story above — was born in Hobart in 1878 (Indiana Death Certificates). He married Tillie Blanchard in 1898 (Indiana Marriage Collection); and their son, Frederick, was born in 1902 (Indiana Death Certificates).

Frederick Jr. and Leona's home at 520 E. Fourth Street seems to be a bank parking lot now.

♦    ♦    ♦
Elsewhere on the same page of the News, above, we find Clifford O. Mize going to prison for the attempted murder of his mother-in-law back in July 1923.

We also find the Gem Theater receiving a letter demanding that it stop showing movies on Sunday evenings. Just remember how recently we Hoosiers could not buy alcohol on Sunday.

_______________
[1] "Hillmann" per Ancestry.com, Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index, 1871-1920 [database on-line], Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. "Maas" per Ancestry.com, Illinois, Marriage Index, 1860-1920 [database on-line], Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.

The Scharbach-Kramer Wedding Party

Long ago, I posted a photo of Louis Kramer on the morning of his wedding to Myrtle Scharbach, getting a haircut from Hazard Halsted. Later I posted a newspaper account of the wedding.

Now, thanks to a modern-day Scharbach, the Hobart Historical Society has a photo of the whole wedding party.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Mr. Scharbach knew only the identities of the bride and groom. To identify the rest of the wedding party, who were all named in the newspaper story, we have to use other means. So, I believe we have, standing, from left to right: Florence Ewigleben (by process of elimination), Elmer Scharbach (cousin of the bride and looks a bit like her), George Kramer (brother and spitting image of the groom), Erna Piornack (confirmed by living relatives), and Mary Grace Barnard.

Florence Ewigleben was related to the bride: Myrtle Scharbach's mother, Caroline, had been an Ewigleben. Florence was born in 1906 to Fred and Tillie (Blanchard) Ewigleben. In 1927 she would marry Erna Piornack's brother, George (Indiana Marriage Collection).

Elmer Scharbach, born 1906, was the son of Emil and Emma (Busse) Scharbach.

George and Louis Kramer were sons of Conrad and Louise (née Wischman).

I do not know if Erna Piornack was actually related to the bride or anyone else in the party, or just a good friend. As I mentioned above, she was Florence Ewigleben's future sister-in-law.

As for little Mary Grace Barnard of Mishawaka, her mother was born Gertrude Scharbach. Gertrude's father was Frank — the bride's uncle — and her grandfather William Sr. of the lumber yard.

A Rossow by Any Other Name

In June 1923 the Rossow family held its first annual reunion. There were so many different names with a Rossow connection that I can't index them all, much less explain the connections.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News, June 28, 1923.

The home of "Taylor" aka Theodore Rossow was on the southeast corner of County Line Road and Tenth Street.

We've already met the eldest attendee, Augusta Carey. The youngest, Betty Maxine Harms, was a daughter of Henry and Minnie (Rossow) Harms, born March 24, 1922.

Clara Davy is a misprint for Davies.


Additional Source: "Rossows Hold Reunion," Hobart Gazette, June 29, 1923.

Hobart Class of 1922: Leona Raschka

(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Apparently she had a beau with a "flivver," but whether that beau was Fred Ewigleben, whom she married circa 1924, I do not know.


Her father bought an ad in the annual, of course.

Bus Drivers

We see some familiar names among the bus drivers (Hobart Township, I believe) as the 1921-22 school year begins. Also, a Lincoln Highway progress report, and general social news. "Mrs. Bertha Bodamer" and "Mrs. Ben Bodamer" are the same person.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News 1 Sept. 1921.

The previous year's annual report for Hobart schools gives us an idea of how much extra money bus-driving brought into a household. Beyond that, lots of people we know earned money by work or supplies furnished to the schools.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News 15 Sept. 1921.