Come Down Our Way … and Bring John Sapper

From the steamer trunk.


(Click on images to enlarge)
This image and the one below courtesy of Eldon Harms.

Here we have (at right) Martha Granzow. The woman at left is unidentified; she looks too young to be Martha's mother, but might be her older sister, Alma.

This is the message Martha sent to Herman Harms:



My transcription: "Say Kid come down our way next Sunday night rather late. You will find us at my house or at Lily Buchfuehrers or walking down Deep River. Answer this card. Matz." At the top she added: "Send me one of your pictures. Let me know if you are coming." And up the left margin: "Bring John Sapper along."

I sense a vivacious personality behind this card. The postmark was 1911, so Martha was then about 15 years old, her friend Lillie Buchfuehrer maybe a year younger. Herman Harms and John Sapper were both about 17.

♦    ♦    ♦
If I've found the right family, the Granzows had come to Indiana from Wisconsin after 1900. The family in 1900 consisted of father Carl (42), mother Minnie (43), and the children: William (17), Fred (16), Albert (14), Paul (11), Alma (7) and Martha (3). Carl's mother-in-law, Christiana Voss, lived with them.

It appears they first moved to Hobart Township, as the 1908 plat map shows 80 acres in the very southwest corner under the Granzow name. In April 1906, Carl bought from Mary Giese 30 acres near Deepriver — perhaps part of this land still attributed to August Giese in 1908:



In 1908 the Buchfuehrers bought the Casbon land, so the two families were neighbors. While the Granzow household had shrunk to just Carl, Minnie, Alma and Martha by 1910, Fred Granzow was around enough to fall in love with Louise Buchfuehrer. Fred and Louise were married in April 1911; they moved first to Hobart, then to Milwaukee in 1912. I do not know what became of the other Granzow brothers, and by 1920 Alma had vanished, too — either I've not been paying attention in my newspaper reading, or they carried on their lives with little publicity.*

In 1918 the Granzows sold their farm to Michael Baessler, Jr. and moved to Lake Street in Hobart, occupying a house and four acres they bought from L.E. Maxwell.

___________________
*It doesn't help that their last name turns up in several different spellings, e.g., Granzow, Granzov, Granson, Granzon; and Carl is also called Charles.


Sources:
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1908 Plat Map.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Deepriver Items." Hobart Gazette 16 Apr. 1909.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 31 Jan. 1918.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 16 Apr. 1909; 3 May 1912.
♦ "Married." Hobart News 20 Apr. 1911.
♦ "Personal Mention." Hobart News 6 Apr. 1911.

Mr. Baessler Buys the Farm

And, for a change, we have a long-timer coming into the Ainsworth area: Michael Baessler, Jr. That is to say, I have hopes of his being a long-timer — his name will still be on that farm when the 1939 Plat Book goes to press, and I call 20 years a fairly long time,* and furthermore I may yet learn that he owned the land even longer than that.

The land in question is a parcel of about 30 acres on the north side of the Lincoln Highway, just west of the Village of Deep River.


(Click on image to enlarge)

Michael bought the land from Charles Granzow. Charles had bought it nine years earlier from Mary Giese, widow of August Giese. The Gieses owned the land as early as 1891, but I don't know when they bought it. In 1874 it appears that the land was owned by some member of the Wood family.

Anyway, Charles Granzow decided he'd rather live in Hobart, so he put the farm up for sale. Michael decided he wanted a smaller farm than his father's old place, where he'd been farming, so he bought Charles' 30 acres, and sold off some of his livestock and equipment in preparation for the downsizing.

The old Baessler farm was just over the line in Porter County. I don't know when the family arrived there — sometime between 1855 (when Michael Sr. came over from Germany) and 1870. I'm having a hard time figuring out how many wives Michael Sr. had. In 1870 he was married to a Wilhelmina; in 1880 his wife's name was Lowesia, but she was the same age as Wilhelmina would have been. Lowesia was Michael Jr.'s mother (or maybe they both were). By 1890 Lowesia and Wilhelmina were dead (or was dead), and Michael Sr. married Johanna, widow of John Schumacher and mother of Augusta Schumacher Sauter Fiester. Michael Jr.'s older brother, John, had been farming in the Ainsworth vicinity for some time. In 1915 John's daughter Minnie married Henry Bodamer, George's son and Ben's nephew.**

So now we have Michael Jr. and his nice little family joining the population of the Ainsworth-Deep River area. In 1918 Michael Jr. was about 43 years old. He and his 40-year-old wife, Emma (maiden name unknown) had been married since 1899, and had four children, Irma, Walter, Martha and Helen, ranging in age from 17 to about two.

I don't know much about them. Since I haven't heard of any scandal in the family, I'll assume for the moment that they are the sort of respectable, law-abiding and fortunate people who make for very boring blogs. But we can always hope for better things.

____________________
*Except when it applies to me. I moved here 20 years ago, and I'm a newbie.
**I'm so glad I'm not a genealogist.

♦    ♦    ♦
[8/25/2013 update: The Dewell Family archivist writes in with the following information:

My research indicates that the first wife of Michael Baessler Sr (1839-1920) was Wilhelmine Stutman (Stuthman, Stuttman). I believe she was the eldest sister of Anna Stutman who was married to Frederick Schavey. So Henry C. Schavey and Michael Baessler Jr were cousins.

It appears that all these guys traded farms among cousins, sons, and every relative they could find.

I think Michael Baessler Sr did have three wives. 1) Wilhelmine (1847-1875), 2 ) Louisa Hendricks (1841-1889) and 3) Johanna Schumacher (1835-1913).

Also, the Indiana Marriage lists show that Michael Baessler Jr's wife was Emma Sonntag. They married 1 Oct 1898 in Lake County.

Sources:
♦ 1870 Census.
♦ 1874 Plat Map.
♦ 1880 Census.
♦ 1891 Plat Book.
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1926 Plat Book.
♦ 1939 Plat Book.
♦ "Bodamer-Baessler." Hobart Gazette 15 Oct. 1915.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 17 Jan. 1918.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 25 Jan. 1918.
♦ "Mrs. Baessler Passes Away." Hobart Gazette 6 June 1913.
♦ "Public Sale." Hobart Gazette 18 Jan. 1918.
♦ "Public Sale." Hobart News 17 Jan. 1918.
♦ "Public Sale." Hobart News 24 Jan. 1918.