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.


(Click on image to enlarge)
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.

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

The Humane Society and its Shelter

These articles, from August 1954 through September 1955, tell the story of the Humane Society of Hobart's formation, and the building of its shelter on Rte. 130.


(Click on images to enlarge)
"Humane Society Organized Here," Hobart Gazette, 19 Aug. 1954.


Hobart Gazette, 7 July 1955.


Hobart Gazette, 22 Sept. 1955.

I suppose these kind people have all gone to their reward by now. Their president, Morris Cox, died in 1978 and is buried in Evergreen Memorial Park.

The Humane Society is still operating out of the 1955 building. The size of the property is now less than three quarters of an acre; if it's true that Bertha Jacoby originally donated several acres of land, some of it may have been sold off to raise money for construction or operating expenses.

The Harpers, the Other Harpers, and the Other Other Harpers

I thought I would just quickly research Calvin and Mary (Underwood) Harper of the brick house beside the Deep River, and figure out what (if any) relation they had to Ainsworth's other Harpers (Benjamin; Middleton; Robert; and Robert's aunt, Ellen, who married Cyrus E. Smith). I did research them, but it wasn't quick.

So first let me just get the basic facts about Calvin and Mary Harper, who built the brick house.

Calvin was born in Ohio on September 24, 1819, to William and Deborah (Thompson) Harper. William was a native of New York, Deborah of Vermont, but they had moved to Ohio by the time of their marriage in 1818.

Calvin married Mary Underwood in September of 1843, in Ashtabula County, Ohio. Mary had been born in 1822[1] to Harmon and Mary (Mather) Underwood, in New York. The family must have moved to Ohio by the 1840s, although I can't find them in the census. By 1850 Harmon, Mary, and several of their children had gone to Lake County, Illinois.

But their daughter Mary, now a Harper, did not go with them. Here we see her and Calvin, with their only child, Mayvorite, in Ashtabula County, Ohio, in the 1850 Census:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image from Ancestry.com.

You will note that their neighbors include Harpers and Thompsons, any of whom may have been relatives. The family of Benjamin and Ruth Harper is particularly interesting. Ruth was Mary's sister, who married Benjamin Harper in 1842 (in Ashtabula County). But what was Benjamin to Calvin? — per a family tree I've found on Ancestry.com, Benjamin was Calvin's uncle, but that tree doesn't cite any definitive sources.

In my earlier post about the land now occupied by Southlake Mall, I noted its purchase in October 1852 by Daniel Underwood. He must have been some a relation to Mary (Underwood) Harper — brother, probably, or uncle. According to Early Land Sales, Lake County, in that same month and year, her father, Harmon Underwood, bought at least 160 acres in Ross Township.

Calvin and Mary Harper came to Ross Township in 1850, according to her 1916 obituary;[2] if so, that must have happened after July 1850 when the census was taken. The land they eventually owned was purchased by James Halsted in June 1852. The 1860 Census records Calvin and Mary in Ross Township. While (as we know) early censuses don't give addresses, the Harpers appear as neighbors (on the census, at least) to Carter and Charlotte Castle, who owned land adjacent to James Halsted's 1852 purchase. This suggests that the Harpers were already on their farm on what is now Grand Boulevard, living in a predecessor to the brick house.

In 1868, Mayvorite Harper married Admiral[3] Rodney Castle. He was the son of Lysander and Maria Castle, born in Ohio in 1841 (Indiana Death Certificates). Lysander had died in 1851[4], and his widow married Samuel Lathrop. The 1860 census and the 1874 Plat Map show the Lathrop-Castle blended family as neighbors of the Harpers.

As for Benjamin and Ruth Harper, they were still in Ohio in 1860, but within the decade they also came to Ross Township, where the 1870 Census found them. According to the 1874 Plat Map, they owned a good chunk of land at the tiny village of Hickory Top (later Ainsworth). They probably lived in, and may have built, the house at 6305 Ainsworth Road, built in 1869 per the county records.

The children of Benjamin and Ruth were Mary, Ellen, and Frank.

Ellen married Cyrus Smith in 1861 in Erie County, Pennsylvania;[5] in 1863[6] they moved to the farm in Ross Township where they would settle permanently.

Ellen's brother, Frank Harper, married Ella Hopkins in 1878, here in Lake County, and they had two children: Cassie and Robert. Thus, Robert was Ellen Smith's nephew.


When it comes to Middleton Harper, things get murky. From his obituary and his grave marker, we know he was born in Montgomery County, Indiana, on December 10, 1850. Per his death certificate, his father was John Harper, born in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, and his mother was Sarah Frazier, born in "East Tenn." or maybe "East Penn."

Middleton first appears as a nine-year-old boy in the 1860 Census of Tippecanoe County. The household consists of his grandfather (I'm guessing), Middleton, born circa 1795 in Maryland, and his 27-year-old mother, who is described as widowed. (She has several children besides Middleton, and there is a 21-year-old William who may be her brother-in-law.)

The next glimpse I catch of Middleton Harper is not the 1870 Census — I can't find him in it — but the Indiana Marriage Collection, which shows him in Lake County, Indiana, marrying Anna Goodrich in 1872. You'd expect to find them in the 1880 Census, but you'd be disappointed.

We do find Anna Harper in the 1900 Census. By then she was widowed. We also find her in 1910 and 1920, living with her married daughters.

But that doesn't help us figure out if Middleton Harper was any relation to all these other Harpers. I just don't know.

♦    ♦    ♦
All of this was put together with online sources. If I ever get the time to go through microfilm and other offline sources, I may find out more.


_______________
[1] Indiana Death Certificates.
[2] "Descendant of Cotton Mather Dies at Miller," Porter County Vidette (Valparaiso, Ind.), 19 Apr. 1916.
[3] Yes, that was his given first name.
[4] He is buried on the south bank of the Deep River west of State Road 51; according to legend (as noted in the NWIGS's Ross Township Cemeteries), at the time of his funeral and even after two days' wait, the river was too swollen to carry his coffin across to the cemetery up the road in Hobart Township.
[5] This is according to his obituary ("Death of a Ross Township Citizen," Hobart Gazette, 8 Oct. 1915); I can't find a record of their marriage on Ancestry.com. I do wonder if this means that Ellen's family spent some time in Pennsylvania, between the time they left Ohio and the time they came to Indiana.
[6] Also from Cyrus' obituary.

The Harper-Carlson-Grabowski-Pike House

I came across this article, in the Hobart Herald of September 9, 1954, summarizing the history of the house at 6430 Grand Boulevard.


(Click on images to enlarge)



According to the county records (which tend to be imprecise when you get back into the 19th century), the house was built in 1879: a date not inconsistent with this article. I am so curious to know what the author was told that led her to say that the house was built "sometime after 1863" — not that I doubt it; I'm just curious. I'm guessing she talked with old-timers to get this information.

The article doesn't mention William Blumenthal's brief ownership, but of course he was a mere passer-by, wasn't he?

Considering that the Grabowskis' addition to the house was begun in 1923, it's possible the old timers' memories were not serving them well if they thought it hadn't been completed yet by 1930.

The "Verne Manteuff" whose identification of a shoe is said to have been so important after the accident that killed the Grabowskis was LaVerne Manteuffel.

I want to get into more detail about some of the people mentioned in this article, and I will do that in future posts.


By the way, the photo at the top of my second image above doesn't relate to the house, but to a monument I posted about 'way back in 2010, which (according to the program John Dorman had printed up) was erected in 1931.

Ainsworth School-Year Souvenir, 1897-98 (Part 2)

(continued from Part 1)

As we now turn our attention to the pupils listed on the souvenir, I find there are more names here than I can index, so I'm going to have to split this up still further.


(Click on image to enlarge)

I'll deal first with the names I've encountered before.

Blachly — Earl and May were siblings, the children of Morgan and Amelia. Earl had been born in 1882, May in 1884. By the way, I think the house at 4301 E. 73rd Ave. was the Blachly house, built in 1905[1] to replace whatever the family had been living in until then.

Bullock — Hubert probably met up with the Blachly kids as he walked down from the Bullock home, unless he walked along the Grand Trunk Railroad tracks or cut across the fields … but the latter would be some rough walking.

Chase — I thought this would be easy, since I know of a Chase (aka Chace) family recorded in Ross Township in the 1870 Census and 1880 Census, members of whom were residing in Hobart into the 1920s (Minnie Chase Smith and Gust Chase). But I can't place Gracie in any census. She might not have belonged to the local Chases, but to some Chase family just passing through.

Coyle — Nina, Stella, and Arlie were the daughters of Ainsworth's postmaster, Frank Coyle. Nina, the youngest, was the only one born in Indiana (1892). Her older sisters had been born in Kansas. Why the family moved from Kansas to Ainsworth, Indiana, is a mystery, but I suspect it might have something to do with Frank's wife, Susanne, having been born a Chase — possibly she had some relation to the local Chases. The Coyle family left this area probably around 1904 (when Frank resigned as postmaster) and moved permanently to Kansas City, Missouri.

Halsted — Howard lived above the Ainsworth general store with his parents, Willard O. and Barbara (Fiester) Halsted. He probably was a promising student, since he went on to law school. As we know, he died before his time.

Kagabein aka Kegebein — Frieda lived on a farm north of Ainsworth. Her parents were John and Carolina "Lena" (Eick) Kegebein. Frieda was born in 1891. In 1911, she became Mrs. Albert Witt.

Maybaum — There were so many Maybaums around here that I can't keep them straight. These two, Louis and Hattie, were cousins, I believe. Hattie was the youngest child of Charles and Caroline, born in 1886. In 1907 she became Mrs. R.D. Sizelove. Charles and Caroline's (I believe) eldest child, August, begat Louis in 1891. The 1900 Census shows the family — August and Dora, with Louis and his two younger brothers, Harold and Clarence — farming rented land among southeast Ross Township neighbors such as Bragington, Campbell, and Doepping.[2] In 1916 Louis married Ruby Man in Porter County. By 1917 they had moved to Battle Creek, Michigan,[3] and by the 1930 Census they were running an "oil station" in San Antonio, California.

Ols — Edward was the grandson of John and Charlotte Ols, born in 1890 to their son, John Jr., and Alta (Whittemore/Whitmer). Based on the 1900 Census, I believe they owned the 80-acre parcel in the southeast corner of Section 7 that later passed to Henry Chester, then Charles Chester, then John Berndt. The census records after 1900 show Edward in various places like Starke County and Gary, Indiana; as far as I know he never lived in Ainsworth after the family sold their 80 acres.

Pierce — Ruth (b. 1882) and Jennie (b. 1884) lived with their father, Reuben, and stepmother, Catherine. Their mother, Caroline (née Kegebein), had died in June 1895, not quite a week after their grandfather, Orrin Pierce, who had owned the farm where they lived as far back as 1874:


(Click on image to enlarge)
From the 1874 Plat Map.

I don't know what, if any, relation they had to their Pierce neighbors.

Ruth Pierce married William Kelleher in Chicago in 1908; they lived and raised their family in Chicago. All I know about Jennie is that she is buried in the Hobart Cemetery under her maiden name.

Smith — Pearl Smith was the adopted daughter of Cyrus and Ellen Smith. So she was also the adopted cousin of the teacher, Mabel Smith Peterson.

Wojohn aka Wojahn — Frieda, Emil, Gust and Paul were some of the children of Julius and Alvina Wojahn. These four were born between 1884 and 1889. We've already met another of their children — Elsie, who married Howard Shearer. The Wojahn family lived on Ainsworth Road just west of the Lindborgs.[4] The schoolhouse was an easy walk west.

[to be continued]

_______________
[1] Per the county records; also in my notes I find a reference in 1907 to Morgan Blachly's "new" house being blown off its foundation during a storm ("General News Items," Hobart Gazette, Mar. 29, 1907).
[2] From that location, they may have been attending a different school, such as the Deep River school, or the Hurlburt school if it was still operating.
[3] "General News," Hobart Gazette, Dec. 21, 1917.
[4] I believe the house at 6222 Ainsworth was built for the Wojahn family, in 1930 according to the county records, so it would have replaced an earlier house.

Visions of Concrete

The new year, 1923, brought dreams of pavement:


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Hobart News 4 Jan. 1923.

From the Lincoln Highway to Lincoln and Tenth would be the route of today's State Road 51. From the brickyards and the Chicago road to Miller would be Lake Park Avenue.

Speaking of pavement — the next column we find William Raschka winning a lawsuit against the Federal Paving Co. — the same company that had recently lost a court battle with some Ross Township farmers.

The story in the right-hand column about the lecture course interested me mainly because of who was selling tickets — among Hobart's high society, we find Lovisa Chester Nelson in her little house in the village of Ainsworth.

There Goes Charles Peterson

Here and there in my notes there will be a name that I've come across in my reading in connection with the Ainsworth area, and without understanding who that person was, I just catalog the reference and leave it up to chance that I will eventually come across something to enlighten me. In this case it was the announcement that Charles Peterson was leaving Ainsworth forever that enlightened me.


Hobart Gazette 17 Nov. 1922.

In this item we learn that he lived on the Halsted farm south of Ainsworth:


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Hobart Gazette 17 Nov. 1922.

And where might that be? This image from the 1926 Plat Book shows a farm south of Ainsworth owned by Barbara Halsted:*


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The 1908 Plat Map shows that land owned by Barbara's husband, W.O. Halsted.

As you can see, the Halsted farm is conveniently near the farm of Frank Peterson. A brief item in a later Gazette[1] tell us that Frank was Charles' brother. So was John Peterson of Hobart. Charles had come into the area in 1885 with his parents and resided locally ever since. But now he was leaving Indiana for Illinois, and farming for carpentry — a transition that stuck, apparently, as I can find him carpentering in Rockford, Illinois, through the 1940 Census.

You will notice I have highlighted the name Bragington, east of the Halsted and Peterson farms. I did that because the earliest mention of Charles in my notes has him repairing buildings on the "old Bragington farm" in 1910.[2] In January 1911, we come upon this:

Antone Peterson who has lived upon and operates the Bragington farm south of Ainsworth for the past eight years has decided to move back to Chicago next spring. He will dispose of his personal property at public sale. His brother Chas. the carpenter who lives upon the same farm contemplates moving to Hobart to reside.[3]

So there was another Peterson brother.

It seems Charles did indeed leave the Bragington farm, as he rented the "H. Scholler cottage on East street" in Hobart.[4]. The next time Charles and family show up in my notes is in February 1918, when they are again living "south of Ainsworth,"[5] which may have referred to the Halsted farm.

And now Charles and family are leaving, and the Halsted farm is being rented by S.E. Bowman. Who S.E. Bowman is, I don't know, but I hope eventually to come across something that will enlighten me.

♦    ♦    ♦
Let's look at the Gazette page from November 1922 that contained Charles Peterson's public sale notice — it includes a couple of other interesting (to me) things …


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart Gazette 17 Nov. 1922.

… regular Wednesday night dances at Deepriver Hall (which may have been the former schoolhouse), evidently well enough attended that it was worth Clarence Howell's (who??) time to operate bus service between Hobart and the hall.

(And below the dance item, another mention of the old Lutz house's new life.)

________________

[1] "Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette 1 Dec. 1922.
[2] "Ainsworth Pick-Ups," Hobart Gazette 24 June 1910.
[3] "Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette 20 Jan. 1911. The third brother's name also shows up spelled "Anthon" (e.g., "PublicSale," Hobart Gazette 3 Feb. 1911).
[4] "Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette 17 Feb. 1911.
[5] "Births," Hobart News 21 Feb. 1918.

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.


(Click on image to enlarge)

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.)

The Death of Harold Boyd

After the heartbreak of her early widowhood, Lizzie Sauter Boyd Epps' life had gone more happily, as she raised her two sons and eventually found love again. But the summer of 1922 brought her fresh and indelible grief.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News 3 Aug. 1922.

Additional Source: "Harold Boyd Drowns in Michigan." Hobart Gazette 4 Aug. 1922.

Oklahoma!

Just out of high school, Leona Raschka dashed off to spend June 1922 in Oklahoma, of all places. According to a brief genealogy at findagrave.com, Grace Short was the daughter of Leona's father's sister, but I have no clue who the "relatives and friends" in Oklahoma were.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News 8 June 1922.

I wonder whence the strawberries would come for the social in the Ainsworth school — from Jake Yager, perhaps, or the Carlson brothers?

The item about little Elmer Palm's christening is interesting to me because this could well be the celebration memorialized in the photo in Mildred Lindborg's album.

♦    ♦    ♦
On the morning of June 7, 1922, Hazard Halsted performed an immortalized haircut, and that afternoon Louis Kramer and Myrtle Scharbach were married.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart Gazette 9 June 1922.


The front page of that issue mentioned Lee & Rhodes' "fine new delivery car" with no further details, alas, and yet another dance at the old Deep River schoolhouse, but it also had some interesting stories about nobody we know, such as a false report of a mass drowning, and a pastor ejected from a church for assault and battery:


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Hobart Gazette 9 June 1922.

Ford v. Cement Truck

Apparently, if you were bored in Hobart, you could go hang around the Nickel Plate Garage and wait for something to happen. Just one day after the barber-v.-barber grudge match, a cement truck showed what it could do to a Ford car out in front of the Nickel Plate Garage. The Ford belonged to our friend Roland Dolphus Sizelove.


(Click on image to enlarge)
"Local and Personal," Hobart News 11 Aug. 1921.

In news of other acquaintances — yet another relative for the mysterious Mary Kipp. "Mrs. Wm. Halsted" may have been W.O.'s widow, Barbara; that was how the Gazette of August 12 identified a woman beginning a new house on Garfield Street, though there could have been two such women.

And Vera Quinlan had a job in Gary. From the next day's Gazette, we learn that her brother, Lester, who was then about 16 or 17, had joined the National Guard:


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"Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette 12 Aug. 1921.

… and yes, Mrs. Gottfried Mayer was Oscar's sister-in-law.

Brawling Barbers

Passersby near the Nickel Plate Garage on the evening of August 9, 1921, were provided free entertainment courtesy of Hazard Halsted and Clifford O. Mize.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart Gazette 12 Aug. 1921.

Scarlet Fever

Adding to the miseries of the winter of 1919-20 — on top of influenza and smallpox — we now find scarlet fever. By early March, it had caused the quarantine of three homes in Hobart: those of Albert Witt, Henry Ittel and Alvin Shafer.

The miseries of the approaching spring threatened to include Albert Halsted, a Ross Township farmer, running for Lake County sheriff.

♦    ♦    ♦
This little item caught my eye, as it concerns two of our acquaintances — William Schavey (Hattie's husband and Mable's uncle) and John Harms.


(Click on image to enlarge)

According to the 1930 census, the address where William and Hattie Schavey were living was 750 Lincoln Street. (I can't find them in the 1920 census.)


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 11 Mar. 1920.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 12 Mar. 1920.

Fun and Farm-Moving

From the cold and wet (one presumes) late winter of 1920, some do-it-yourself entertainment news, including the fact that the mysterious Jolly Four was now hosting dances in Hobart as well as Ainsworth.


(Click on image to enlarge)

The "Ainsworth social" had been held the evening of Friday, February 20, at Gust Lindborg's hall, to raise money for the Ainsworth school.

… And some manufactured-entertainment news.



"Hearts of the World" was a war film released in 1918. Both Lillian and Dorothy Gish had roles in it.



I can't find any images relating to "Desert Gold" or its star, Edward Kline Lincoln.

♦    ♦    ♦
Some people had no time for entertainment, manufactured or otherwise. Some people were too busy moving farms:

Ray Halstead [or Halsted] and family will move Friday [March 5, 1920] to the farm owned by his father, A.E. Halstead, located near Merrillville, which has been occupied by F.B. Price and family. Mr. Price moves to his own farm recently purchased, on which he is erecting a complete set of buildings. Bert Bartholomew will occupy the residence vacated by Mr. Halstead and family.

As you can see on the map in this post, Ray's father farm was just west of the Price's farm. I do not know where Ray's previous residence was, so I don't know where dear Bert Bartholomew (whoever he was) would soon be living.


Sources:
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 5 Feb. 1920; 4 Mar. 1920.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 27 Feb. 1920.

A Clean Shirt Forever

It was just ten days into the new year, into the new decade, and our old friend Willard Halsted, the former Ainsworth storekeeper, no longer needed a clean shirt every Sunday.

His death at 62 years of age came as a shock to all who knew him. He had been so active — only the previous summer we saw him doing the carpentry work on a new home for the Dwight Mackey family, and no doubt he had other work not reported on. (I am not sure if he was one of the "Halsted brothers" working on the Chandler barn in November 1919.)

Only recently he had suffered some unspecified ailment (the newspapers being uncharacteristically reticent about its nature) serious enough to warrant surgery at Mercy Hospital in Gary. His operation took place on January 7, 1920; the next day's News reported that he was "doing nicely." Bad news was not expected, but it soon came.


(Click on images to enlarge)

(His daughter, Hazel, had married Byron Findling in June 1917, and his namesake grandson was now just over a year old. Per the News, his surviving siblings were brothers Albert, Wallace and J.M. (James?) of Hobart, and sister Ruby Rhodes of Gary.)

W.O. lies in Crown Hill Cemetery, near the son who had gone before.



Also nearby, the family monument:




Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ Indiana Marriage Collection.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 8 Jan. 1920.
♦ "Prominent Hobart Citizen Dies Suddenly." Hobart Gazette 16 Jan. 1920.
♦ "W.O. Halsted, Hobart Contractor, Passes Away." Hobart News 15 Jan. 1920.

Meanwhile, At the Weilers' …

There were a whole lot of Weilers farming around Ainsworth, and I haven't yet figured out their relations to each other, if any.

One of them, Mrs. Mary Weiler, announced in the autumn of 1919 her intention to quit farming:


(Click on image to enlarge)

This Weiler, I believe, was the widow of the Christian (Christ) Weiler who bought some Blachly land in 1912. Christ died May 28, 1916.



I am mystified by "Mrs. Louise Weiler of Chicago" — she sounds like the widow of a deceased son, but the only children recorded in the census are the four boys named in this obituary. If they had an older brother, he must have left home early, before the 1900 census. And he must have died before 1912, since Louis, when he married Martha Klemm in that year, was described as the eldest Weiler son. The youngest, Will, may have been the soldier lately returned from overseas.

On the 1908 plat map, I find more than one parcel labeled "C. Weiler," plus there was the 1912 purchase.


(Click on image to enlarge)

From the directions in the sale notice, I think the sale happened at the southernmost parcel. The Vincent schoolhouse was well south of present-day U.S. 30.

Once the sale was over, Mary would lease the farm to her son George, who would carry on with farming, while Mary would "make her home with her children," in the cryptic words of the News.

♦    ♦    ♦
Next to Mary's public sale notice, above, ran a similar notice placed by Eugene Chandler. His sale, as we know, was in preparation for the move to his new farm.

Construction was still underway on the new farm. The News listed the buildings going up: "a modern brick house, barn, granary and chicken house." Eugene had even hired Lee & Rhodes to install a "Standard" electric lighting plant, to give his farm electricity at about half the cost of town power.

The new brick house, built by James Carpenter, Walter Boal and Willard Stevens, was now ready for the plasterers. The Halsted brothers were building the barn. Who had the honor of building the granary and chicken house is not recorded.


(Click on image to enlarge)
I believe this is the Chandler farm as it appeared in 1926. I wonder if the lovely old brick house at 5501 S. Liverpool Road is the "modern brick house" that the Chandler family moved into?


Sources:
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1908 Plat Map.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1926 Plat Book.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 13 Nov. 1919; 20 Nov. 1919.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 14 Nov. 1919.
♦ "Public Sale." Hobart News 13 Nov. 1919.

Election and Expansion

I'm sure you're dying to know the results of that Hobart election I mentioned earlier, so here they are.


(Click on images to enlarge)
From the Hobart News of Nov. 6, 1919.

Our own Hazard Halsted is Treasurer. (Deering Melin was one of Andrew Melin's sons.)

The same issue of the News carried an ad for the Ainsworth General Store, as the Goldmans held a sale to celebrate their expansion. Any excuse for a sale!



Whoever owned this copy of the newspaper did not feel the need to clip those coupons.

The Commute Was Killing Him

(Click on images to enlarge)
I believe this was the Julius Triebess farm, as it appeared in 1926 Plat Book.

For over two years, Julius Triebess had been a commuter: a trip to Chicago, 24 hours as a fireman, then a trip to Ainsworth and 24 hours as a farmer. It was a life of perpetual tiredness. (I know; I myself used to commute between Chicago and Ainsworth.) After two years and a few months, Julius couldn't take it anymore. He had to choose whether to be a fireman in Chicago or a farmer in Ainsworth.

He chose Chicago, but not so completely as to sell his land. His livestock and his farming equipment, yes …

… but the land he would hang on to, renting it out to a couple of brothers, Charles and Lee Harris, who up until then had been renting the Albert Halsted farm northwest of Ainsworth.

And so Julius and Sophie, and their two teenaged children (Evelyn and Raymond), would be living at 6936 S. Michigan Avenue in Chicago in January 1920, when the census came around.

♦    ♦    ♦
The Gazette of October 31, 1919, aside from its comments on Julius, mentions a few other people we know, or wish we knew:



I must have missed some news about Earl Blachly: as far as I knew, he was living on his own farm, having moved back there in 1914. Apparently that didn't last long! But now he's going to try farming once again.

"Miss Chester" would be Jennie, now about 21 years old. Her position must have been in one of Hobart's elementary schools, as I don't see her among the high-school faculty in the 1920 Aurora yearbook.

As for the "Jolly Four," I don't know who they were, but I wish I did.


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1926 Plat Book.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 16 Oct. 1919.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 31 Oct. 1919.
♦ "Public Sale." Hobart News 30 Oct. 1919.

Dick Wheaton, Ham (Random Old Photo)

This is pretty much all Greek to me. All I understand of it is that Dick Wheaton operated a ham radio in Hobart in 1937.


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This message was written on the back:



The 1940 Census shows Dick Wheaton as 32 years old, living on 8th Street in Hobart, with Hazard and Alta Halsted. He is described as Hazard's stepson, and his occupation is given as "electrical manager" in a "retail department store." He is similarly described in a Hobart city directory for 1940-41 as a "Dept. Mgr." living at 759 E. 8th Street. (The 1930 Census shows Robert and Alta Wheaton having a 22-year-old son, Russell. I suppose it's possible that Alta Wheaton of 1930 might have become Alta Halsted by 1940, but in that case I don't know what happened to the Wheaton marriage, nor how to account for Russell's becoming Richard/Dick, if indeed he did.)

A 1936-37 directory describes Dick as a salesman for Sears-Roebuck and gives his address as 433 Center Street.

A 1955 directory lists "Wheaton, R E" at 614 E. 3rd Street, with the notation "Television & Appliance."

Farm Buildings and Buyings

The Price family set about improving the farm they had recently bought. By early August 1919, they had hired numerous local contractors to do work for them:

F.B. Price of Ross township has given the contract to Wall & Fleming for the building of a new house and barn, including half a dozen outbuildings on his farm which he recently purchased from W.O. Halsted. The cement contract goes to Vincent Boyd and the electrical wiring to Henry Kegebein. He will install a private electric generating outfit, making his farm one of the most up-to-date in the vicinity.

I'm not sure if any of that glorious work has survived. I've gone out there and tried to spot anything that suggested 1919, but then I have trouble applying those boundaries, so clear in the plat maps, to the real land outside the window of my car.

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A little distance northeast of the Price farm lay some 200 acres that had been known as the Clinton farm for decades — as early as 1874 we find most of that land under Eli Clinton's name, and by 1919 it all belonged to Steve Clinton. Now it passed into the hands of David and Agnes Frank. Those 200 acres touched on the 167 acres that the Franks had farmed since at least 1908 (I can't find any earlier records of them).


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From the 1908 Plat Map: outlined in red, the Frank farm in Hobart Township; outlined in green, the Clinton 200 acres in Ross Township.

David Frank intended to continue farming all his land, with the help of his 20-year-old son, John. His other son, Robert, was 17 years old and probably still in school.

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If we look again at that 1908 map, we will notice the Bullock land due north of Ainsworth, 160 acres bordering State Road 51 and divided by the Deep River.



In 1919 this land changed ownership on paper only. Since 1912, Claude and Mary Ann (Chandler) Bullock had lived and farmed there. Now they bought out the shares in that land belonging to Claude's brother, Hubert, and sister, Ruth Mackey.

Claude was then about 39 years old, Mary Ann 34. They had two sons: three-year-old Kenneth, and little Gilbert, just past his first birthday.


Sources:
♦ 1908 Plat Map.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 7 Aug. 1919; 14 Aug. 1919.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 8 Aug. 1919.