Her Soiled Bedding

Last Sunday at the Merrillville-Ross Township Historical Society museum, we received some items from the estate of the late Jean Halsted. Among them was a book of handwritten probate records recording the settlement of local estates, mostly in the 1920s. Many of the names are familiar to me, from Hobart and from Ross Township. For example, I previously wrote about this young man's accidental death at the Hobart motorcycle racetrack.


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Image courtesy of the Merrillville-Ross Township Historical Society.
I took this picture with my phone. I hope to get better images if I post any more of these.

I was surprised to see that Mary McAuliffe charged the estate quite a bit of money — $26 would be about $400 in today's terms (CPI Inflation Calculator) — "for bedding soiled by decedent, etc." He had lain in a McAuliffe bed for some 24 hours, until he died the afternoon following the accident[1]. New sheets circa 1919 cost about $2.00 each. This makes me wonder what the "etc." could have been.

Three doctors tried to save him, and failed.

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[1] "Dies as Result of Accident," Hobart Gazette, 27 Aug. 1920; also Indiana Death Certificates.

A Case for 23andMe

I haven't done much looking into the extended Ols family mainly because they have their own local historian/genealogist, but to get it all straight in my own mind I'm going to write a little summary.

We've already met (briefly) the families of four Ols siblings: Christ(ian), Charles, Henry, and Sophia. These, and a few additional siblings, were the children of John and Charlotte (née Kegebein), who were born and married, and had their first five children, in Germany (Prussia). They came to the U.S. circa 1871. The 1880 Census shows them farming in Hobart Township. I can't find them owning land on the 1874 Plat Map, but the 1891 Plat Book shows a John Ols (who may have been either father or son) owning an 80-acre parcel just north of Ainsworth. (By 1905 that parcel belonged by Henry Chester.[1])

Charlotte Ols died in 1885, per the local Ols expert. I can't find John in any census after 1880. They are both buried in Hobart Cemetery.


The event that prompted all this attention happened in November 1923 and concerns John and Charlotte's grandson, Herman (son of Henry and Bertha Ols). Herman was born circa 1894. In 1916 he married Katherine Yandow (Indiana Marriage Collection), about whom I know nothing. Gary city directories from 1918 and 1920 show the young couple living at 2136 Adams Street. But in 1923 they were living in Hobart, according to this news item:


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Hobart Gazette, Nov. 23, 1923.

The News gave a few more details:


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Hobart News, Nov. 22, 1923.

Yes, they got Herman's name wrong.

No clue as to the baby's biological parents has come down through the family. Her birth was local enough, it seems, to have involved Dr. Friedrich — which could mean Hobart, of course, but also Gary and other places.

The little girl would be named Mary Geraldine (or vice versa; I'm not sure), and commonly went by Geraldine. The 1930 Census records her with her parents on East Third Street, living next door to Grandma and Grandpa:


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Image from Ancestry.com.

For the birthplaces of her mother and father, the enumerator used Katherine's and Herman's.

Geraldine graduated from Hobart High School in 1942. Here is her senior portrait:


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The caption reads: "Gerry had an urge for drama and took the lead in many of the Dramatic Club's productions. She belonged to the band for two and a half years."

In 1944, Geraldine married a young Hobart widower named Robin Cliff.[2] Here is his senior photo:


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Geraldine and Robin still have living descendants — so I am told by the local Ols genealogist. This makes me wonder what biological relatives a genetic test might turn up for them.

♦    ♦    ♦
The page from the News, above, includes an item about the "road leading from the Lincoln highway at Ainsworth to the Dunes highway at Miller" possibly being taken over by the State Highway Commission. That stretch of road corresponds to present-day State Road 51. We shall see.

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[1] "Barns and Contents Destroyed," Hobart Gazette, Jan. 6, 1905.
[2] He had married Eunice Edith Peterson in 1938 (Indiana Marriage Collection); she died in 1943 (Indiana Death Certificates).

She That Was Sophie Mankey

Thus far I haven't learned much about Julius Triebess and his family, but thanks to this little item from January 1923, I have learned that Sophie Triebess' maiden name was Mankey.


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Hobart Gazette 12 Jan. 1923.

With that information, I can be pretty sure Julius and Sophie were married in Chicago on June 11, 1901 (Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index). According her Indiana Death Certificate, her parents were William and Dorothea* (Brockmiller) Mankey … but they are proving elusive in the census records.

Her brother, William Mankey, farmed the east side of Randolph Street south of the Grand Trunk tracks.


Reported at the bottom of that column, Dr. L.M. Friedrich had minor car crash somewhere south of the intersection of Randolph Street and E. 73rd Avenue, where the Ed Niksch place lay.

Over in the left-hand column is a (partial, maybe) listing of who was in the local dairy business in January 1923.

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*In death certificates of other relatives, her name is given as Dorothy or Doris.

Cursing, and Other Unpleasantness

Some nice local news … a new silo on the Gruel farm, innocent social activities South of Deepriver, blah, blah, blah …


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Hobart News 5 Oct. 1922.

… but also some juicy stuff, like "Mr. Traeger" cussing out Dr. Friedrich, a city health officer.

I do not want to guess at the identity of Mr. Traeger, whose first name is not given; but the location, I suppose, was the building at 235 Main Street. In 1922 it was only a former "saloon," as we use the word, since liquor could not legally be sold there.

And in the next column, we have a report of a big Ku Klux Klan recruitment rally in Hammond which gives us a look at how the Klan presented itself at that time and place. The open avowal of white supremacism is jarring, but otherwise the speaker was saying things that you can still commonly hear in both public and private discussions, and his concern that "a foreigner can come in here with a bomb in his hand" could have been voiced five minutes ago.

The Old Folks at Home Drove Her 'Round the Bend

On August 25, 1922, at their farm on Liverpool Road, Eugene and Carrie Chandler had a birthday party for their daughter, Mildred. A few days later, John and Ella Dorman hosted a Sunday school picnic on their lovely farm overlooking the Deep River, now the Indian Ridge Golf Course.

And the Kemerley family took a long motor trip that included a visit to Mrs. Kemerley, whose first name I still do not know, and whose hard work at the restaurant and boarding house in Hobart had shattered her nerves.


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Remember that undated photo of Hazard Halsted in the car sales and service business? The item in the right-hand column gives us a starting date for that venture.

Just above that … well, I know young people weren't angels even before the 1960s, but I am surprised at the number of extramarital births locally. (An article in the Gazette on the same topic explained that the area in question was Hobart and East Gary, and the time covered was the past six months; see "Shocking Birth Conditions," Hobart Gazette 1 Sept. 1922.)

Babe Ruth, and the Chicken-Fight Referee

While Paul Emery got to see the Sultan of Swat in Chicago on June 9, 1922, back home in Hobart, Dr. L.M. Friedrich was carrying out his health-board duties, which included the usual negotiating of peace in neighborhood chicken fights, and attending to various dead animals lying around in the summer heat.


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Hobart News 15 June 1922.

One hundred people crowded into the old Deep River schoolhouse to honor Dewey and Evalene (Ols) Thomas; I wonder they had any room to dance.


(I had never heard of the Flying Rollers before. The things I am learning!)

Bad Conditions

During the "City Council Proceedings," as related by the Hobart News of June 8, 1922, Dr. Louis M. Friedrich, now on Hobart's Board of Health, reported "a considerable amount of trouble about chickens among neighbors." He also "reported having made an investigation of the Mike O'Hearn place and found it in very bad condition," but the News gave us no further details.

The same issue of the News had a story about Mike O'Hearn finding someone else in a bad condition:


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Hobart News 9 June 1922.

The Chicago road, as you may remember, was Old Ridge Road.

He Let a Sleeping Dog Lie …

I like how the newspaper takes pains to point out that it was a "foreigner" who allowed a dog to nap atop the fruit he was selling.


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Hobart News 30 March 1922.

The "Mr. DeKalb" who bought 15 acres was Charles DeKalb of Gary, not Chesterton (1920 Census; "Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette 7 Apr. 1922). Charles was in his early 30s and worked as a foreman in a tin mill. He had a wife, Esther, and an eight-year-old daughter, Mildred. The 1926 Plat Book does not give names for the small parcels along S.R. 51, but here is the DeKalb 15 in the 1939 Plat Book:


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As for Guy Crisman, his accident shows that while the village of Deep River may have been tiny, it wasn't sleepy, sitting there on the Lincoln Highway. The newspaper describes Guy as the eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. John Crisman; per the census records, I thought their eldest son was named John, but I suppose "Guy" could have been a nickname.


Not on the print-out above but elsewhere in the same issue, we learn that Alice Paine was home from the Blaker college, aka Teachers College — on spring break, it appears, and intending to go back to college on April 2.


Additional Source: "Health Department Wins Approval." Hobart Gazette 31 March 1922.

First City Government

The Hobart News of November 10, 1921, gave the results of Hobart's first city election.


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The Hobart Historical Society has a photo-portrait of all those who made up the first city government of Hobart:


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.


Additional Source: "Henderson Honored as First Mayor." Hobart Gazette 11 Nov. 1921.

Auto Mayhem Report

Side by side in the Hobart Gazette of June 3, 1921, two happy escapes, and one sad ending:


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The story on the left mentions the names without explanation, as if the Gazette's readers should know them, but I can't identify those exact people.

As for poor Dan Slachelska, he was indeed buried at Porter County's expense, in Crown Hill Cemetery. "It is said," the Gazette commented, "he possessed no means nor friends to defray burial expenses" — or to buy a marker for his grave, apparently, as none was found by the Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society's readers. Unless some family or friends later turned up to claim his remains, perhaps he sleeps there anonymously to this day. ("Additional Local News," Hobart Gazette 10 June 1921.)

The Camp Ground in McAfee's Woods

Since January 1921 the Hobart Commercial Club had been working with Paul Newman, trailsman, to develop a camping ground near Hobart for tourists on the Yellowstone Trail. At a Commercial Club meeting in March, the camping-ground committee reported on its progress: it had entered negotiations with William McAfee to rent four acres of his "7-acre wood lot east of town"; it had planned what improvements would be built and roughly how much those improvements would cost (about $250, to be raised by subscription); it had already received donations of over $100.

I do not know exactly where these four acres were. William McAfee had owned land along the south side of Cleveland Avenue, east of town, for many years (indeed, his parents had owned land there at least since the 1870s), but it's in different places per the 1908 Plat Map …


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…and the 1926 Plat Book.



Nor can I see anything recognizable as a camping ground in the 1939 aerial photos, though we do see what looks like a wooded tract on the southeast corner of Cleveland and S.R. 51. But it's a long time between 1921 and 1939, and the camping ground may not have been in existence by then, even if it could be identified from the air.


Anyway, work went forward during the spring of 1921, and by the end of April, the camping ground was nearly completed.



The Commercial Club had exceeded its own goal in raising money. So many local individuals and businesses had contributed that I can't index them all. The Kulage Brick Works even donated bricks.




Sources:
♦ "Commercial Club Holds Good Meeting." Hobart Gazette 11 Mar. 1921.
♦ "Report on Tourists' Camp Ground." Hobart News 19 May 1921.
♦ "Tourists' Camp Ground About Ready." Hobart Gazette 29 Apr. 1921.

How the Class of 1921 Partied

Hobart High School's Class of 1921 had its class dinner on the Paine farm, west of Ainsworth. From the report, I gather that Ethel Paine did much of the hard work of preparing the food and décor — surprising, given her health problems, but then again not so surprising, given that Alice was her only daughter.


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I am mystified as to why the cars were left at the Frank residence.

The above article is from the News; the following day's Gazette ran the same article next to an ad for the class play, A Modern Ananias.




Sources:
♦ "Class Dinner Given by the Senior Class Hobart High School." Hobart News 28 Apr. 1921.
♦ "Class Dinner." Hobart Gazette 29 Apr. 1921.
♦ "Senior Class Play" (advertisement). Hobart Gazette 29 Apr. 1921.

Dr. Friedrich's Family

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Nice-looking family, but I would never have recognized them had not some benefactor of humanity scrawled on the back, "Dr Fredricks Family" — and that, along with the "J.J. Naumann, Hobart, Ind." embossed on the front, allows us to make the identification. And once you know it, you do see the resemblance, don't you?

After looking over the 1910 and 1920 censuses and estimating the children's ages here, I think this photo dates to about 1915. Left to right (with approximate year of birth): Maria (1909), Dr. Louis M. Friedrich (1874), Martin (1905), Emma (1907), Dorothea (1912), Minnie (née Batterman) (1879), and Edna (1911).

There's a "Merry Christmas" sticker on the back; possibly the doctor and his wife distributed this card as holiday greetings, though this one did not go through the mail — uncovered, at any rate.

Dr. Friedrich's Instruments

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Dr. L.M. Friedrich circa 1955.
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Photos taken inside the Hobart Historical Society museum.

The museum has a collection of medical instruments that belonged to Dr. Louis M. Friedrich, whose building still stands on Third Street.


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They look scary.





I have no idea what any of these things are. My understanding is that Dr. Friedrich practiced dentistry as well as general medicine, so that widens the range of possibilities.



Don't you get a thrill when you come across a fingerprint on something old — thinking that perhaps it's the fingerprint of the original owner? Totally irrational, of course, but still …

Fire in the Five-and-Ten

Burt Thompson, Jr. closed up the 5 and 10¢ store shortly after 6:00 in the evening on Monday, January 26, 1920, and went home to his young wife, the former Elsie Sievert, and their new baby. And supper, and so to bed, and all was well.

A few hours later, all was not well.

Above the Thompsons' store, Dr. L.M. Friedrich and family lived on the second floor of the building that bore his name. Around 11:00 p.m., Mrs. Friedrich — sleeping badly because of a cold — awoke to the strong smell of smoke. She and her husband soon realized that somewhere on the first floor was a serious fire. The whole Friedrich family, including five children and the doctor's elderly father, fled the building and alerted the fire department.

The town's "fire whistle sounded twice, signifying urgency," and the firefighters arrived to find flames pouring out of a rear window, from fire in the back rooms on the first floor. Once attacked, the blaze was beaten down quickly — the Gazette "warmly commended" Chief Fred Rose, Sr. and his men for "efficient work." They had saved the building, and without flooding the basement, where the Thompsons stored merchandise.

Still, there was considerable damage, from both water and heat. The fire had consumed some merchandise and singed even more; it had burned the labels off the canned goods; it had even cracked the plate glass in the front windows of the store. Everything, of course, reeked of smoke. By the next morning, the store that Burt Thompson had carefully locked up the previous evening was a shambles. About 80 percent of the total merchandise was destroyed or damaged. Fortunately, the store was insured, as was the building itself.

But the fire had closed down the Thompsons' business, and even the second floor was uninhabitable at the moment. The store would need repair and redecoration before it could open again, and the Friedrichs had to find another home temporarily.

The Thompsons set about reconstructing their business. The next week's Gazette carried their announcement of a "salvage sale" of their damaged merchandise, which would allow them to recoup some of their loss. And they took the forced closure of their store as an opportunity to do some remodeling and redecorating; another six weeks, perhaps, and they hoped to re-open the "ten-cent store" with a bright new look and a fresh stock of merchandise.

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Below its report on the fire, the Gazette's front page carried a couple items bringing us the news that (a) Lee & Rhodes, the plumbers, were selling electric washing machines now, and (b) the proud new owners of the Deep River general store had just become the proud parents of a new baby girl as well.


Sources:
♦ "Births." Hobart News 30 Jan. 1920.
♦ "Fire Ruins 10¢ Store Stock." Hobart Gazette 30 Jan. 1920.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 18 Mar. 1920.
♦ "Salvage Sale." Hobart Gazette 6 Feb. 1920.
♦ "Thompson Co. Store Damaged by Fire Monday Evening." Hobart News 29 Jan. 1920.
♦ "You Need a Washing Machine?" Hobart Gazette 30 Jan. 1920.

Health Care Costs, 1919 (and More)

A few stories on this page from the Hobart Gazette of October 3, 1919 — first, doctors' fees have gone up a bit since 1907.

Then we have the marriage of 19-year-old Martha Mackey to 21-year-old Donald B. Gilger (ages per the 1920 Census. It is not surprising that Lee & Rhodes employed Martha, since her sister Helen was Mrs. Rhodes.

And last but not least, a story about one of the orphan boys adopted by William and Minnie Springman, who had done his foster parents proud.


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More Trouble for a Corn-Husker Victim

A month after he lost his older brother John to tuberculosis, William Witt found himself with a medical problem of his own.

We first met William when he lost an arm to a corn husker in November 1901. Fifteen years later, we find him, in spite of his loss, able to earn a living as a teamster, managing a team of horses and a wagon. But in August 1916, he began suffering such severe pain in the amputated arm that Dr. L.M. Friedrich of Hobart decided to take him to Chicago to be seen by a specialist.


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Dr. L.M. Friedrich circa 1955. He is standing on Main Street opposite the office of the Hobart Gazette. Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The Gazette did not report the results of that visit. But it may be significant that a month later William began placing ads to sell his team and wagon "Team of bays," one of his ads said; "weight about 2,800, good pullers, good wind, gentle, drive single or double, also harness in good condition, and Birdsell wagon and 2-yard Studebaker dump box. Price right."

Early in November he sold the whole outfit to William Raschka.

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Meanwhile, farm machines continued their bloody harvest. For example, on September 30, 18-year-old Kenneth Humes was working a corn shredder on the Walter Blachly farm west of Ainsworth when he got his fingers too near the machine's blades. That mistake that cost him part of his right index finger and all of his left middle finger. His left index finger was severely cut up, but his doctor hoped it could be saved.


Sources:
♦ "Gets Fingers in Shredder." Hobart Gazette 6 Oct. 1916.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 29 Sept. 1916; 20 Oct. 1916; 10 Nov. 1916.
♦ "Personal and Local Mention." Hobart News 26 Oct. 1916.
♦ "To Consult Specialist." Hobart Gazette 18 Aug. 1916.

Health Care Costs, 1907

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Several Hobart doctors ran this notice in the Hobart Gazette of November 1, 1907.

So that's about what they charged to finish what the corn huskers started. And apparently you had to pay an extra $2.00 if the doctor came out to Ainsworth to do it.


Dr. Richard C. Mackey, date unknown. Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.


Dr. Clara Faulkner, date unknown. Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Hobart Then and Now: Third Street

The fact that I persist in calling this area "Ainsworth" does not mean I have anything against Hobart or feel any resentment over the annexation. I like Hobart. It's a pretty town with many nice people, interesting old buildings and charming lakeside parks.

And you can find material about its history a lot more easily than Ainsworth's, so forgive me if I stray sometimes into Hobart.

Here we have Third Street, 1920 and 2009:




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I date the first picture to 1920 because it's on a card postmarked 1920, but the picture was probably taken earlier. We're looking west on Third Street, toward the intersection of Third and Center, and beyond that Third and Main.

In the 1920 photo, the building in the right foreground has a sign at the top reading:

1910
FRIEDRICH BLOCK
It has now lost the "1910" part of that sign. The five-and-ten-cent store is gone and an insurance agency lives there now. According to Tim Arends, the builder was L.M. Friedrich, the five-and-dime's owner was named Thompson, and this building once housed the town's post office.

I can't tell from the postcard what was in the building in the left foreground. Nowadays it's a used furniture store.

The building on the northwest corner of the Third and Center intersection still stands. Here's a close-up of it now:


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The legend at the top reads:

1897
E H GUYER
The corner bay window has lost its magnificent pointed top. The building is now occupied by a tanning salon. Mr. Arends tell us that Hobart's peripatetic post office once lived here too.

Third Street has been paved and traffic is now so heavy that, even early on a Saturday morning, you have to look for a break to hurry out into the street where the 1920 photographer stood, and quickly take your picture. And the hitching posts are gone, of course.


See also Northwest Indiana Views from the Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society.