"The Pleasure of Motoring, 1928"

… he wrote sarcastically.


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

"He" being Lester Harms, probably, as this photo came from the Lester Harms collection. I'm posting it now because I just recently came across a relevant newspaper item from the Hobart Gazette of July 6, 1928:

Clarence Harney and Lester Harms were to motor to Yellowstone Park, but they encountered muddy roads in the Black Hills section and gave up going further and returned via Minnesota and Wisconsin, visiting the points of interest enroute. Mr. Harney, who works at the local postoffice, had to return last Saturday at the close of his two-weeks' vacation.

The way Eldon Harms told me the story, they were heading to California. In both stories, they turned back because of the bad roads.

If Yellowstone Park was their destination, I wonder if they traveled on the Yellowstone Trail?

Lester Harms and Clarence Harney were cousins, born in 1904 and 1907, respectively. (Lester's father, John, was a half-brother of Clarence's mother, Mamie.) With the photo being so out-of-focus, it's hard to say which one of them is fixing the flat, but I am inclined to think it's Clarence. Here is his high-school senior portrait from 1925 for comparison:



And a photo of Lester from 1932 can be found here.

♦    ♦    ♦
This story got me wondering whether they were in the Black Hills area in hopes of seeing the Mount Rushmore monument, which led me to research how much of the monument there was to see in 1928. As it turns out: very little. The enormous work of carving the mountain had only begun in October 1927. I found some early photos here — if you scroll down, you will find one from about 1928 in which only the rough planes of Washington's face can be distinguished from nature.

John and Mamie Harms, by Henry Iverson of Chicago

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

This photograph is undated, but on the back of the original is the imprint of the photographer, Henry Iverson, 2176 Archer Ave., Chicago. So, thanks to the information about him compiled by the Chicago Historical Society, we can date the photograph between 1881 and 1885.

And since we know the birth dates of the subjects, we can narrow that down, based on their apparent ages in this photo, to 1884 or 1885.

John was born August 26, 1877 (Indiana Death Certificates) to Henry and Sophia (Reimer) Harms. Sophia died just a week later, of "milk fever," as the family oral tradition has it — probably puerperal sepsis.

In 1879 Henry Sr. married Johanna Springman (Indiana Marriage Collection). They had a baby daughter who was born and died in 1881. Maria aka "Mayme," born June 1, 1882 (Indiana Death Certificates), was the first of their children to live to adulthood. (As we know, she married Fred Harney.)

I have no clue why Henry and Johanna took their children to Chicago for this photograph, nor why they chose this particular photographer; but I like to imagine that this encounter had something to do with Mr. Iverson's moving down to Hobart within a couple of years, as I believe he did.

Lots of Them

On Christmas Day 1922, over there at 61st and Arizona, the family of William and Louisa Lute had an intimate family dinner, just the 37 of them.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart Gazette 29 Dec. 1922.

Over in the left-hand column we find a summary of "a splendid year's growth" — all the buildings that went up in Hobart in 1922, as well as repairs and remodeling.

Henry Smith (whoever he was) built his house of Kellastone, something I had never heard of before. A little Googling turned up the ad below, which tells us that Kellastone is "imperishable stucco." I wish I knew the location of Henry's house so I could check on that "imperishable" part … if it's still there. I don't suppose they meant that Kellastone could resist the wrecking ball.


Image credit: stuccometrics.com

Hey, search engine, over here: Banks, Baumer, Brahst, Bruhn, Burris, Campbell, Carey, Carlson, Ciesilski, Demmon, Dewell, Fasel, Fasel, Ferren, Fleming, Flick, Gransow, Gresser, Gruel, Harney, Henderson, Jahnke, Kasonovich, Kibler, Killigrew, King, Kozub, Kramer, Kucaba, Lutz, McAfee, Metaxis, Miscevich, Mundell, Newman, Niksch, Norris, Palm, Peddicord, Phillips, Popp, Ream, Scharbach, Scholler, Schuelke, Schuknecht, Schwuchow, Scull, Smith, Smith, Sohn, Thompson, Verplank, White, Zelibor

Hobart Harmony House

Here is the southwest corner of the intersection of 7th and Lincoln, in 1970:


(Click on images to enlarge)
First two images in this post courtesy of Eldon Harms.



As we can tell from the signs, this was the Hobart Harmony House Conservatory of Music. Here is a listing for that business in a 1962 Hobart directory:



The house had been built long before, however, on a farmer's town lot, and for many years was the home of Henry (Sr.) and Johanna Harms.

How long before, I do not know, but I did find this intriguing item in the "Local Drifts" of the Hobart Gazette of Nov. 15, 1901: "Paul Newman is building a brick foundation for Henry Harmes' new house that will be built next spring just west of Main street and south of the 'J' railroad." If the Harmses had previously built a house on that lot, you would expect that item to describe the new house as being next to the present house. Early in March 1902, the Gazette mentioned that the house was nearing completion, and the Harmses planning to move into it soon.

The 1901-02 house is no longer standing. The house that now occupies that corner was built in 1970, according to the county records, so perhaps the two photos above show the old Harms house in its last days.

The second house from the corner was built in 1925, per the county records. That one, I believe, the Harmses built so that they could live in one and rent out the other … but I haven't got that far in my newspaper reading yet.

The records give 1918 as the building date of the third house from the corner; that's the one that Fred and Mayme (Harms) Harney moved into in July 1920.

♦    ♦    ♦
As for the Hobart Harmony House, I don't know much about it, except that if you went there seeking to learn to play the bagpipes, you were out of luck.

Gladys Harney

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

This is little Gladys Harney at the age of six months, according to notes on the back of the original, which would date to photo to January or February of 1923.

A Dance and a Daughter

The Niksches were planning yet another dance for July 12, 1922, in the old Deep River schoolhouse; and the day after Independence Day, Mayme Harney gave birth to a baby daughter … unnamed at the time, apparently, but she would soon be Gladys.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart Gazette 7 July 1922.

♦    ♦    ♦
From the same issue of the Gazette, some random news — Calvin and Howard Shearer had a contract for sewer work; Old Settlers Cemetery on S.R. 51 was in sorry shape; someone had run a car down the "steep embankment" near the George Lutz farm (which steep embankment you can still run a car down, if you are so inclined); and on the Peterson farm, a big family reunion … but no list of surnames that might help a genealogist.


(Click on image to enlarge)

Your Aunt Mayme

Advice from Aunt Mayme Harney to little Lester Harms via his autograph album.


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

Irene Esther

John and Lillie (Buchfuehrer) Call had their first child in January 1921.


(Click on image to enlarge)
From the Hobart News, 20 Jan. 1921.

… Plus a few minor news items, including poor George Sauter being ill again.

He wasn't the only one on the sick list.


(Click on image to enlarge)
From the Hobart News, 20 Jan. 1921.

Some happier news about Fred and Mayme (Harms) Harney. And it took that item about Paul Newman to teach me that there ever was (and is) such a thing as the Yellowstone Trail — a coast-to-coast highway similar to the Lincoln Highway, I gather, only for some reason not nearly as famous.

Clarence Harney

From the steamer trunk.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of E.H.

This photo is printed on the front of an unused postcard. On the back someone has written "Clarence Harney." Clarence was the son of Fred and Mamie (Harms) Harney, born 1907. With no date on the postcard, I have to estimate his age here — maybe ten years old? That would put us at around 1917.

I believe that's a Boy Scout uniform he's wearing … though if this dates to the patriotic fervor of World War I, perhaps military-style clothing was the fad for boys. His outfit looks quite new and fresh.

Auntie Mayme

From the steamer trunk.


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

Christened Maria at her birth in 1882, the eldest daughter of Henry and Anna Harms was known throughout her life as Mayme or Mamie. In 1903 she married Fred Harney. I think the young couple lived in Ainsworth, while Fred worked in the blacksmith shop of Ed Sauter. Around 1905 they moved to Hobart, and then to Miller. The 1910 census, taken in May, showed them back in Ross Township, farming rented land — probably her parents' farm east of Ainsworth. Just a month later they moved again to Hobart. That's where the 1920 census found them; Fred was working as a blacksmith, and they lived in a rented house. But in July 1920 they moved to their own house.


(Click on image to enlarge)

Their new home lay on the south side of her parents' town lot. Its address was 708 Lincoln Street, as you will find in the 1930 directory. And that, I believe, was their last move … until the eternal one.


Sources:
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Ainsworth Pick-Ups." Hobart Gazette 24 Nov. 1904.
♦ Indiana Marriage Collection.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 20 Nov. 1903; 29 Sept. 1905; 10 June 1910; 30 July 1920.