Racing News, and the Boys with the Yellow Paint

The Hobart Motorcycle Club was confident enough to place this ad in the News ten days before the scheduled race although, according to the Gazette, its members were still working to get the new track ready — the "low places [were] being tiled and the grading [was] progressing."

Three days before the race, the News reported that the work was nearly done: all topsoil had been removed, the curves were banked properly, and the three-quarter-mile track would indeed be ready for the races on Decoration Day, 1920.

The town's memorial ceremony was scheduled for 1:30 p.m., so the races' 2:30 p.m. starting time would allow people to engage in solemn remembrance and then go have fun.

And indeed they did have fun. The racetrack's opening day was a great success.


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It's not that I think you're interested in all the details of the race, Dear Reader; I just wanted an excuse to include that totally irrelevant story about the murderous farmhand.

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The News of May 20, 1920, which carried the ad shown above, also carried a small and mystifying item in its social column: "It is said that the boys with the yellow paint were at work again one night this week."

That the "boys" had no names and were working at night leads me to speculate that this was a case of vandalism, similar to the events of the autumn of 1918. But if this vandalism was likewise in protest — then in protest of what, I wonder? The war was over, and so were its gasless Sundays and rabid anti-German paranoia; thus there was no excuse, anymore, for denouncing "slackers" or persons of German origin. I wonder if perhaps this time the "boys" were trying to denounce Prohibition-flouters?


Sources:
♦ Advertisement. Hobart News 20 May 1920.
♦ "Hobart's New Speedway Will Be Opened Sunday Afternoon." Hobart News 27 May 1920.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 20 May 1920.
♦ "Motorcycle Races Well Attended." Hobart Gazette 4 June 1920.
♦ "Motorcycle Races Will be Held at 2:30 Sunday, May 30." Hobart News 20 May 1920.
♦ "Motorcycle Races." Hobart Gazette 21 May 1920.
♦ "Nearly 5,000 See Motorcycle Races Sunday Afternoon." Hobart News 3 June 1920.

Clifford Blachly, Race Car Driver

Another report on the exploits of some area speed demons. Behind the wheel of a racing car was Clifford Blachly, who had left Ainsworth, along with his parents (J.B. and Belle), not quite two years earlier. And those crazy Hoovers are winning motorcycles races, as usual.


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From the Hobart Gazette of October 3, 1919.

(I think George "Demons" might have been George Demmon.)

Daylight Squandering Time

The August 28, 1919 Hobart News, which carried the Ainsworth column buried in its middle pages, had several stories on its front page that caught my attention.


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A baseball game coming up for the Ainsworth Cubs! I don't know who Bakalar or Hudson were, but then I'm not a fan. The "Ainsworth base ball park" sounds pretty grand, but I expect it was just an open field.

A report on the further exploits of Marvin and Willard Hoover, the Hobart motorcyclists.

And daylight saving time is ending, for the present.

Notice the story entitled, "Judge Gary* Refuses Demands of Union Leaders." This is just one episode in a lot of labor troubles through the Calumet Region during the summer of 1919.** Gary, Hammond, South Chicago and Indiana Harbor all experienced strikes. By early August, some 12,000 workers from steel mills, tin mills, railroad shops and the American Bridge Co. were striking for higher wages, shorter working hours and better conditions. Later that month, when workers at a Hammond steel car manufacturer threatened to strike, Indiana's governor — at the request of the Lake County sheriff — sent in the state militia. In commenting on that story in its August 22 issue, the editor of the Gazette said, "The leaders of the strikers are mostly alien Reds and the government has agents there to arrest them with the view of deportation. The women are worse than the men." However, the "Local Drifts" column noted: "Deputy Sheriff Collver was scouring this vicinity the past week, enlisting citizens to guard the peace in Hammond. He was unable to get very many." Since some Hobartites may have been among the Gary strikers, I suspect there was more sympathy for the unions among Hobart's millworkers than in the office of the Gazette.

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*Elbert H. Gary, for whom the city is named.
**Any attempt on my part to better understand and relate the history of these labor troubles would involve me in much more research than I have time for, so I'll just pass over them with these brief comments, based on stories I skimmed through in Hobart's two weekly papers.

New Homes for the Mackeys

Very soon after his arrival home from France, Dr. Dwight Mackey got busy with houses. According to the Hobart News of July 24, 1919, Dr. Dwight had "given the contract to Wm. Halsted for a modern five-room bungalow on his lot on Lincoln avenue." The next day's Gazette stated: "Dr. Dwight Mackey has broken ground on his lot on Lincoln avenue for a five-room frame bungalow, thoroughly modern. W.O. Halstead will have charge of the carpenter work."

I believe the Gazette is more correct on one detail — it was Willard (W.O.) Halsted doing the work. Willard describes himself as a carpenter to the 1920 census-taker, while I cannot find any William Halsted in Hobart at all (and I don't think 6-year-old Wilbur Halsted is in the running). Willard was then about 61 years of age, so if he was still capable of handling the carpentry on a five-room, thoroughly modern house, that's pretty good.

The young Mackeys intended to make this house their home, but they soon changed their minds. By the end of July, the News said that the Mackeys had purchased a lot in the Hobart Park subdivision and intended to build a house there shortly. Then in mid-August, the same paper reported that the Mackeys had purchased the Don Frace residence in Hobart Park. The Gazette backed up that report, with more detail:


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Note also the story about the motorcycle races in Valparaiso — the Gazette is back to calling Marvin Hoover "Marion," and it also tells us that the heretofore-unidentified "Brick" was a Ballantyne.


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 24 July 1919; 31 July 1919; 14 Aug. 1919.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 25 July 1919; 15 Aug. 1919.

Where the Marshal Could Find Him

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A motorcycle racer (Ralph Hepburn) in 1919.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Now I understand why I could not find Marion Hoover in the census: his name was actually Marvin. In less than a month's time, Marvin went from outlaw biker to something of a local hero. And if Marshal Rose was still after him, he could find him in the winner's circle at the Crown Point racetrack on Independence Day.


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A week later, the News reported another victory for Marvin at Crown Point, although this time he won only the first race.

Inspired, perhaps, by Marvin's successes, local bikers organized themselves into the Hobart Motorcycle Club "for pleasure, profit and mutual benefit," and no doubt Marvin was one of the two dozen initial members. I'm surprised he was not one of the officers — Emerson Whisler was president, Milton Ballantyne vice-president, Bert Hoff secretary, and Elmer Ballantyne treasurer. (As to what relation, if any, this club bears to these guys, I can only speculate.) The club leased the Valparaiso Fairgrounds as the venue for their races.

The July 31 News, which reported on the motorcycle club, also carried this article:



as well as this notice:



I suppose this would be the Hoover Motorcycle Shop recalled by an old-timer in 1979.

The 1920 census shows a W. Frank Hoover living in Hobart, married to Ida; his sons Marvin, then 21, and Willard, 18, had probably been the "& Sons" part of the business — four-year-old Robert was just a bit young to be involved. However, W. Frank and Marvin both told the census-taker they were carpenters, while Willard described himself as a wage-earning machinist in a shop, so we shall see what becomes of the motorcycle business.

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And here's what was playing across the street from the motorcycle shop:


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From the Hobart News of July 31, 1919.

I'd heard of Harold Lockwood, but I did not know until just now that he died of the Spanish influenza.

Hadn't heard of Elsie Ferguson.


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 10 July 1919; 17 July 1919.
♦ "Notice to the Public." Hobart News 31 July 1919.
♦ "The Hobart Motorcycle Club, Organized with Two Dozen Members." Hobart News 31 July 1919.
♦ "W.F. Hoover & Sons to Open a Motorcycle and Repair Shop." Hobart News 31 July 1919.

Outlaw Bikers, 1919

Speaking of those motorcycle-riding Ballantyne boys, one of them was a wanted man by June 1919:


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From the Hobart Gazette of June 17, 1919.

I don't know who Marion Hoover was, nor why the article would be headed "Motorcyclist Arrested" when the story doesn't say one has been yet.

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Speaking of automotive matters, the Roper Bros. are planning a new building for their auto sales business.


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From the Hobart Gazette of June 20, 1919.

The Hobart News of June 26, 1919, included this item in the "Local and Personal" column:

Roper Bros. last week sold their garage on Third street to E.E. Whisler and a Mr. Donovick of Gary, who will take charge the first of July. Roper Bros. will build a garage on their own lot at the corner of Third and School street, work to begin within the next few days.

I've been wondering where "School street" was ever since an obituary of Fred Thompson located his home there. Now I gather it was East Street, or perhaps just the part of it closest to the Hobart Township High School.

This 1922 map shows both the Brahst Bros. building and the new Roper building.