Where Alice Lived

I have discovered that my favorite house in Hobart has an Ainsworth connection.


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Hobart Gazette, 3 Sept. 1953.

Gilbert and Alice Estella (Markham) Bullock had left their Ainsworth-area farm and retired to Hobart before house numbers were in use,[1] so it wasn't until Alice died that I realized they had lived in a house I have always loved.

As we know, Gilbert died in March of 1916. The newly widowed Alice put the Center Street house up for rent[2] and went to live with her daughter and son-in-law, Ruth and Dwight Mackey, on Connecticut Street, where the 1920 Census records her. By 1930, however, she had moved back to 404 Center and was living with her other daughter and son-in-law, Margaret and William Killigrew, and their children.

The Bullock farm described in the obituary as being across from what is now Indian Ridge Golf Course was bought sometime after 1890, when it fails to appear in the 1890 Plat Book, and 1908.[3]

I do not know why Alice's grave marker shows 1952 as the year of her death. The Gazette and her death certificate say 1953.

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The newspaper page above brings in another Ainsworth connection: the death of Pauline Hunter. With her husband, Lee, having died in 1947 and their son, Gilbert, now a resident of Chicago, all connection between the Hunters and Ainsworth was at an end.

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[1] I believe they moved to Hobart in 1902, not 1899 as stated in the obituary, based on contemporary newspaper reports (see "Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette, 17 Jan. 1902; "General News Items," Hobart Gazette, 21 Mar. 1902). Per the Lake County records, the house was built in 1880.
[2] "Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette, 17 Mar. 1916.
[3] Possibly as early as 1901; see "Bullock-Lambert Nuptial," Hobart Gazette, 5 Apr. 1901; see also "Obituary," Hobart Gazette, 10 July 1903.

Ross Township Graduates

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Hobart Gazette 19 May 1922.

Judging by the names, District 2 was the W.G. Haan School. Laverne Niksch was the son of Edward and Tillie. Gilbert was the orphan boy adopted by Lee and Lena Hunter. Edwin Paine, brother of Alice, is listed in the 1920 Census as "Alfred E." and in the 1930 Census and "A. Edwin." Franklin Lindborg — well, we even have his graduation photo (wish I knew who the friend was). Gordon Argo was the son of George and Rachel "Rae" Argo.

The only one I don't really know is Andy Meyer. After poking around a bit on Ancestry.com, I think he might be the son of John and Martha Meyers, as the 1920 Census enumerator spelled it, who then lived in Hobart Township on the "East Gary Road near Cemetery" — which sounds like N. Lake Park Avenue near Crown Hill Cemetery, but I'm not sure about any of this.


As for the other districts, I'm don't know which schools they meant. Part of the problem is that I don't know which schools were still operating. The Merrillville and Vincent schools, of course, and maybe the Adams school …but who knows what else?

South of Deep River

First of all, I think that the reference to "Mrs. Carl Harper" as the secretary of the League of Women Voters' Ainsworth chapter was the newspaper's mistake for Pearl Harper, aka Mrs. Robert Harper. In the April 6, 1922 issue of the Hobart News, we find her placing a "Notice to Women Voters of Ainsworth" to announce a meeting at Lena Hunter's house, and signing herself as Secretary. Mystery solved.

Now, on to the social news from the countryside south of Deep River:


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Hobart News 6 Apr. 1922.

I suppose M.J. Guernsey was Melvin Guernsey, son of D.L. (David) and Stella Guernsey.

I'm having a little trouble identifying this newcomer, John Arnson. I suspect that the un-Americanized version of his name was Anders Johan Aronson, and the land he bought was in Union Township, Porter County, near Huffman's mill.


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Union Township plat map, 1928, from http://www.inportercounty.org/Data/Maps/1928Plats/Union-1928.jpg, courtesy of Steven R. Shook.

If I've identified him correctly, he was born in Sweden circa 1868, came to the U.S. circa 1886, and married Cora Burge on August 17, 1910. I suppose she was related to the Burges, a large family that went back to the 1830s locally, but I can't identify her precisely. As far as I can tell, John and Cora had no children. She died in 1939, he in 1944.


Additional Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Hold Rites for Mrs. Aronson." Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso), 26 May 1939.
♦ Indiana Marriage Collection.
♦ "Johan Aronson, Age 74, Dies Sunday Night." Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso), 21 Aug. 1944.

Ross Township Trustee's Report for 1919

Many familiar names in this report!

Pearl Ols, Elsie Gruel, Olive Wood and Wilma Cullman teaching school … wagon repairs by Gust Lindborg … coal from Shearer & Emery, supplies from Charles Goldman, merchandise from William H. Wood … draying by James Chester and Lee Hunter, teams and labor from Mike Foreman and John Miller. Sam Campbell cut brush. Thomas Sullivan, William Springman, James Frame drove buses. Just to name a few.


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From the Hobart Gazette of Jan. 30, 1920.

He Couldn't Go Home Again

Charles Maybaum might return to the farmhouse south of Ainsworth where he had spent practically all his life, but he could never go home again, for his mother was gone.

Caroline Wagner Maybaum died on the morning of Friday, March 7, 1919, after some eight weeks' illness. She was 77 years old, the mother of 10 children, grandmother of 15 and great-grandmother of eight. She had come from Germany with her husband, Charles, in 1871. By 1891 they were settled on the Ainsworth farm, and there she spent the rest of her life.

Beyond that I know little about her. With so many children to raise, a farm household to run, and then grandchildren and great-grandchildren to help out with, she was no doubt a busy woman, but she spent her time quietly so far as the newspapers are concerned.

And now she sleeps in Crown Hill Cemetery beside her husband, who preceded her in death.

Their eldest son, August, was appointed executor of the estate. Roscoe Peddicord acted as his attorney.

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In looking over my notes on the Maybaums, I realize that I was not fair in describing Charles Jr. as "unadventurous." There are other ways of being adventurous besides moving out of your parents' house and marrying.

For example: a Charles Maybaum was elected Ross Township road supervisor in November 1902 — but I suppose that may have been Charles Sr.; the report did not specify. It was definitely Charles Jr. who was elected road supervisor in 1907. In 1911 he ran for re-election; this time he lost to Lee Hunter. He filed a petition to get on the ballot in 1914, but I don't know what happened in that election.

Charles Jr. was something of an inventor. In January 1903, the Gazette reported: "Chas. Maybaum, Jr., near Ainsworth has invented an attachment to a thrashing machine, which he thinks of having patented. He also has another invention which promises to remunerate him handsomely." A month later he was seeking capital investors:


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If anything came of these plans, I haven't heard about it, but the point is that he made the venture.

In the autumn of 1903 Charles Jr. left for Mississippi with two other Ainsworth men, Ed Mankey and Mike Foreman, "on a prospecting tour." A month later Charles Jr. was back with a new scheme: "I have returned from Mississippi and would be pleased to talk to anyone who wishes to know more about Mississippi farm land and a home for himself, or cheap rates he can get."

In 1908 Charles Jr. had a five-room house built, apparently as a rental property. I don't know for certain where it was — or perhaps he had two such houses, for he once refers to such a house in Ainsworth, and then again he offers for rent a five-room house on Water Street. In July 1918, he sold the Water Street house to William Thiede.

That is the summary of his public activities thus far. You can see why I want to retract the "unadventurous."


Sources:
♦ "Additional Local News." Hobart Gazette 16 Oct. 1914; 23 Apr. 1915; 26 July 1918.
♦ "Ainsworth." Hobart News 21 Dec. 1911.
♦ "Are You Interested?" Hobart Gazette 13 Feb. 1903.
♦ "Deaths for the Week." Hobart Gazette 14 Mar. 1919.
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette 16 Jan. 1903; 20 Nov. 1903; 20 Dec. 1907.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 20 Nov. 1908; 8 Dec. 1911; 30 Mar. 1917.
♦ "Mrs. Caroline Maybaum." Hobart News 13 Mar. 1919.
♦ "Notice of Administration." Hobart News 20 Mar. 1919.
♦ "Republicans Victorious." Hobart Gazette 7 Nov. 1902.
♦ "Road Supervisors Elected." Hobart Gazette 22 Dec. 1911.

Ross Township Trustee's Annual Report: 1918

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From the Hobart Gazette of January 31, 1919.

If I hadn't heard of any of these people, this would make for very dry reading. (I suppose for some of you, it makes for dry reading anyway.) But I like to hear what old friends have been up to, and to be reminded of the existence of some people who've been quiet lately.

I see our friends Jennie Chester, Elsie Gruel and Pearl Ols are still teaching (as well as Pearl's older sister, Bessie); also Olive Wood.

Gust Lindborg is still repairing school busses. Charles Goldman furnished the schools with two brooms and other unspecified supplies, and the schoolrooms were kept warm with coal and wood from Shearer & Emery, and William Wollenberg.

So many familiar names working on the roads, shoveling snow, driving school busses. Apparently even Charles Chester got involved in "extra buss service," whatever that might be.

Lena Hunter and Owen Nelson, among others, lost chickens to roaming dogs.

There are a few local names that I'm surprised to find absent from the report, such as Gruel (aside from Elsie), Nolte and Waldeck.

Better Than Sunny California

After all these stories about people leaving Ainsworth, I thought I'd just mention Lee Hunter. Remember him? — no? Perhaps that's because I've only mentioned him once, briefly, in a whole course of the blog thus far.

Yes, he was the barber of Ainsworth who left in 1904 for sunny California. Then he wrote back in December of that year to say he wasn't impressed with what he found there. And he wasn't kidding. Eventually he left sunny California, came back to Ainsworth and (as far as I know at the moment) lived out the rest of his life here. He is buried in Woodvale Cemetery beside his wife, Pauline, known as Lena.


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Lena was the sister of John Miller, who also lived in Ainsworth. She married Lee in 1892. The 1900 census finds the Hunters living just over the Porter County line, earning their living growing fruit. By 1904, as we know, he was barbering in Ainsworth.

Whether Lena went with him to California, I do not know. Between 1904 and 1910 there is no mention of either of them in the newspapers. From 1910 on they show up now and then in the social news, apparently leading a stable, quietly sociable life. The last news I've seen of Lee in my reading was in July 1915, when he and William Wollenberg took an auto trip into Canada. (The country, not the northern part of Hobart.)

Lee described himself to the 1910 census-taker as a road supervisor, and he was re-elected in 1911, winning against Charles Maybaum, Jr. In 1920 he gave his occupation as barber again; in 1930, he said he was a public-school janitor.

The Hunters were childless, it seems, but by 1920 they had adopted an orphan boy named Gilbert, then 11 years old. He had left their home before the 1930 census. But they were still in Ainsworth. So there!


Sources:
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ "Ainsworth." Hobart News 21 Dec. 1911.
♦ "General News." Hobart Gazette 30 July 1915.
♦ "Obituary." Hobart Gazette 8 Mar. 1912.

A Great Fall

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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

I think there was a barbershop on the second floor of the brick part of Ed Sauter's blacksmith shop, reached by means of that external wooden staircase you see in the picture. The reason I think so is because the stairs leading to "the barbershop upstairs in the Sauter building" once collapsed, and if I had to choose which part of these structures looked most likely to collapse, I'd definitely say that outdoor staircase.

The accident happened in May 1904, after Ed had sold his saloon to Claus Ziegler.

On the evening of Saturday, May 21, several young men were standing on the staircase outside the barbershop when the structure gave way beneath them and they all fell to the ground below. Some of them were badly injured, including 18-year-old Eugene Chandler, whose collar bone was broken. Apparently none of the injuries were fatal, however.

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The barber, or one of the barbers, of Ainsworth was named Lee Hunter. A few months after this incident he moved to California, and wrote back in December 1904 to say that he was not impressed with that part of the country. And that's the kind of random, useless information you can get from reading old newspapers.

Oh, and Eugene Chandler was the nephew of N.P. Banks, a Hobart farmer apparently so well known that the Gazette simply gave his name with no further identifying information.


Sources:
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ "Ainsworth Pick-Ups." Hobart Gazette 16 Dec. 1904.
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette 27 May 1904.

[3/16/10 update: D'oh! Maybe N.P. Banks was well known because he was an officer and director of the First State Bank and a school trustee as well as a farmer.]