The Pennsy Bridge and the Spell of Nostalgia

This postcard joins a view of the Pennsy Railroad bridge with a little nostalgic poem …


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… but it seems the typesetter wasn't much of a speller. Eyes dimmed with nostalgic tears, maybe? Or should I say nostalgic "ears"?

Here's a high-resolution scan of the tiny (about 1.5" x 2") photo.



I think it's a reproduction of another photo postcard.

The postmark on the verso is nearly illegible, but the year looks to me to be 1912.



It was sent from Wheeler to Hobart by someone who saw no need to sign a name, counting on the recipient to recognize the handwriting.

The recipient, Pete Schaller, was a local whom I've never paid any attention to before. Here is his obituary from the Vidette-Messenger of October 12, 1954:



His family shows up in Union Township, Porter County, in the 1880 Census; by the 1900 Census Pete and his widowed father, August, were the only ones still in the household. They were farming rented land. August died in 1905.

By 1910, Pete was living in the home of Paul and Elizabeth Fredrick, probably in the big white house on the east side of S.R. 51 midway between Ainsworth and Hobart (it's still standing). He is described as Paul's cousin. So far the only explanation I can find of this relationship is — if I've found the right people — Elizabeth Fredrick's maiden name was Gross, like Pete's mother's (Paul and Elizabeth having been married in Chicago in 1899 per the Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index).

Peter remained a part of the Fredrick household through the 1920 Census, at least; I cannot find him in the 1930 Census. By the 1940 Census he had become a lodger in a rooming house in Valparaiso.

Pete's obituary reveals another connection to a local family, the Frames. Anna M. Schaller married Irvin G. Frame in April 1905, in Porter County (Indiana Marriage Collection). But I don't know exactly how Irvin (who seems to show up sometimes as Irving or Erwin) fits into the Frame family that I have previously mentioned in the blog. Irvin and Anna show up occasionally in "South of Deepriver" columns and the announcement of the birth of their son Thomas describes them as living "east of Deepriver."[1] But strangely, I haven't been able to find them in any census.


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[1] "General News," Hobart Gazette, Aug. 20, 1915. I have found, on the 1921 plat map of Union Township, a farm southeast of Deepriver under the name of Anna E. Frame. It's across the road from Henry Schaller's farm.

Quitting Farming: Part XVIII or Whatever

Now we learn that back in the autumn of 1921 when an airplane fell into "William Moehl's field," it was technically George Hayward's field on the northeast corner of Liverpool Road and 49th Avenue.


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Hobart News, 19 Oct. 1922.

The renters vacating the flat were, I believe, Lloyd and Mamie Arnold (1920 Census). I have mentioned Lloyd before in passing. He was from Wheeler, where his father had been a blacksmith (1900 Census). I don't know anything about Mamie (maiden name unknown). Lloyd seems to have spent just a few years in Hobart, then moved to Gary to stay.

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Elsewhere in the same column on the page above, we have some teacher news — Elsa Gruel teaching in Chicago, and Evelyn Fredrick entertaining her colleagues in the Fredrick home on S.R. 51. Bunco, in case you didn't know (and I didn't), is played with dice.

Ainsworth School Teachers 1922

As the new school year began on September 5, 1922, the W.G. Haan school in Ainsworth was staffed by: "Primary, Miss Elsie Brennon; intermediate, Miss Frieda Stark; 7th and 8th grades, J.E. Drillette; high school, Miss Olive Wood."

Elsie's name shows up in the vital records as Brannon, so that is how I shall index it. She came from a farming family in Center Township.

The last time we met Frieda Stark, in June 1922, she was planning to attend the Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute. She had graduated from Hobart High School in 1921.


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From the Hobart High School Memories yearbook of 1921, via Ancestry.com.

J.E. Drillette was, I believe, Jacob Edward Drillette, about 49 years of age, who had been teaching in Lowell, Indiana, when he filled out his draft card in 1918. He was a Hoosier by birth, but not a local.

Olive Wood had been teaching since 1917 that I know of, and would continue teaching for many years.

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Evelyn Fredrick (who had taught at Ainsworth in the past) was now teaching in a Hobart school — "4A and 4B," which I take to mean the fourth grade.


Sources:
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 7 Sept. 1922.
♦ "Local Teaching Staff Complete for the Coming Year." Hobart News 7 Sept. 1922.
♦ "School Opens on Tuesday." Hobart Gazette 8 Sept. 1922.
♦ WWI Draft Cards.

Frederick Doepping

Frederick Doepping was an "aged Ainsworth citizen" when he died in March 1922.


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Hobart News 23 March 1922.

Per my own imaginative reading of the 1920 Census, I'm guessing Frederick and Mary occupied one of those little houses on the west side of Grand Blvd./S.R. 51 just north of the Canadian National tracks, either of which is old enough to accommodate them. But that's just a guess.

I am a bit confused about the Doepping family. According to the obituary, Frederick had no daughters (if a daughter had died before him, you'd still expect her to be mentioned). And yet the 1900 Census shows Frederick and Mary sheltering under their roof a schoolboy of 13 named Henry Kastner, described as their grandson. With only two sons, how did they get a grandson with a different surname? Or is that just a mistake by the census enumerator?

You may have noticed some mention in this blog of a Reinhart Doepping, most notably in connection with tree-related crime. I'm beginning to suspect that "Reinhart" was the newspaper's mistake for "Rheinholdt." It appears that the enumerator of the 1900 Census made the same mistake, while the 1910, 1920, 1930 and 1940 Census got the name more or less right.

Rheinholdt/Reinhart had a son named Richard Doepping (and I've encountered more than one reference in the newspapers to "R. Doepping," which isn't illuminating). In January 1919, Richard Doepping bought a farm belonging to Chester Guernsey — exact location unknown, but my guess is that it was somewhere close to the Ross-Winfield Township line and the Lake-Porter County line. ("South of Deepriver," Hobart News 23 Jan. 1919.)

The other son, Emil, is elusive. He may be the Emil Doepping born Dec. 24, 1880, who married a woman named Bertha between 1910 and 1920 (though I can't find the record of their marriage). But in that case, the official records would seem to place him in Chicago, not south of Ainsworth.

This is where I stop trying to figure out the Doeppings.

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Moving on to the items in the "Local and Personal" column, Mrs. Mike Foreman was married to a man who liked to confuse historians by going by Michael, Mike, or Helmuth, as his fancy took him. She had been born Mary Mau (Indiana Marriage Collection).

James Jeffrey had indeed bought some Guernsey land, but I wouldn't describe it as being near the old Deepriver schoolhouse.

Elizabeth Fredrick was my favorite census enumerator; Sadie Baker helped her husband, William, run their general store in Deep River. I have no idea who Mrs. Carl Harper was. Mrs. Lulu Crisman was married to Thomas, who was a son of John and Elizabeth (Small) Crisman of Porter County … which would, I think, make him a brother of John Crisman of Deep River.

And, of course, we all know the Raschkas and the Shearers.

Ross Township Trustee's Report, 1921

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Hobart Gazette 13 Jan. 1922.

So many of our acquaintances here, I can't index them all. Gus Lindborg was still the go-to man for bus repairs, among other things. Bus drivers included C.S. Guernsey, Paul Fredrick, William Springman, John Miller, and Thomas Sullivan. Schoolteachers included Elsie Gruel, Olive Wood, and Evelyn Fredrick (Paul's daughter). Charles Goldman sold unspecified merchandise to the township. Robert Harper provided "advisory service." And under "Road Fund Disbursements," many familiar names.

This Must Come and These Must Go

In October 1920, Albert Orcutt (who had an Ainsworth connection through his wife, née Etta Mander) had come to realize that his business building — this one, I suppose — must be renovated "sooner or later."

Also, the social activity of our friends South of Deepriver.


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From the Hobart News of Oct. 7, 1920.

Meanwhile, Edward Rohwedder is getting rid of his excess inventory as he prepares to move to a smaller farm.


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From the Hobart News of Oct. 7, 1920.

W.G. Haan School Opens

If "last Tuesday" means the Tuesday before the newspaper went to press, then the first day of classes in the new W.G. Haan School was September 7, 1920.

(Also, a crime story involving our old friend William Raschka.)


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In other school news, Lillian Keilman began teaching at the Vincent school, which I believe was located at the intersection of (present-day) Clay St. and 83rd Ave.


Sources:
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 9 Sept. 1920.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 10 Sept. 1920.

Ainsworth Items

Back in July 1919 the News ran one Ross Township column — now it's August and we have one actual Ainsworth column!


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From the Hobart News of August 28, 1919.

The excerpt from the 1926 Plat Book below shows (my best guesses at) a few of the locations mentioned in the column. At left, the Raschka land rented by Charles Henrichs; at center, Lovisa Nelson's 40 acres bought by Jacob Hurlburt (don't ask me why the 1926 Plat Book shows them still in Lovisa's name); at right, the James Chester land rented by William Shults, and just to the left of that land, the green dot shows approximately where Herman Harms was building his new silo.


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