A Stealth Dentist

I bought this postcard because I didn't have this exact view of the 300 block of Main Street.


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It is the east side of Main Street, looking south from Third Street. The postcard is postmarked February 1, 1911.

We've seen all of these things before. What interests me in particular is the second story of 301-305 Main, where we see several awnings and a sign jutting out, all with the word "Dentist." At street level, under the big sign for the law partnership of Bozarth & Bozarth,[1] there is a small plaque with the nearly illegible name of a dentist.

The 1910 Census shows two dentists in town — Fred Werner and Charles Kenward — and of those two names, I think Kenward looks more likely.

But I never heard of Charles Kenward before. How is it possible that I've read so many issues of Hobart newspapers from this era and never heard of one of the two town dentists?

His obituary, from the Hobart Gazette of June 10, 1943, says that he moved to Hobart in 1905 and practiced his profession here until 1918.


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Image from findagrave.com

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I already covered most of the other businesses in this photo in another post about a similar postcard, dated the same year, but looking at this side of the 300 block from the other direction.

Notice that the awning of Scheddell's Drug Store reads "The Mackey Drug Store."

Turning the postcard over, we find it signed "Evea" — I think that's Evea Miller, whom we've met before.



The Floyd with a cold was her toddler-age son. I wonder whom she was planning on leaving him at home with? As for poor Nora, she is a mystery to me.

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[1] I'm not sure who the lawyers were; possibly Nelson and William Bozarth, father and son, who were Valparaiso residents in 1910 but might have had an office in Hobart.

Main Street, 300 Block, circa 1909

I mentioned having a circa-1909 view of the 300 block of Main Street, so I suppose I had better cough it up now.


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This is the east side, from mid-block north to Third Street. The First State Bank is at the near corner of Main and Third.

I suppose one or two of those awnings next south of the bank cover the Main Street entrance to Scheidt & Keilman's Bee Hive, but there's nothing legible to confirm that.

Two narrower awnings are marked "Buffet," if my eyes don't deceive me, but I don't know who ran that business.

Next we see the two-story building housing the drugstore, with "DRUGS" on the awning (and "Mackey Drug Store" on the front border of the awning). On the south side of that building is what appears to be a ramshackle fence plastered all over with signs, on some of which I can see something about "4th of July" and "Hobart."

South of the fence is the office of the Hobart Gazette.

On the south side of the newspaper office is a two-story building with a saloon operating at street level. The saloon's awnings bear the name "E. Ahrens," but the sign sticking out over the sidewalk reads "Schavey & Ahrens."

The awning at the right edge of the photo is probably the same one that reads "PUMPS, PLUMBING & WELL(?) SUPPLIES" in the 1911 photo, marking Newman's hardware store.

The postmark is October 1909:

Fires on the Farms

On the evening of May 23, 1921, a glow in the sky over northern Ross Township drew hundreds of gawkers from Ainsworth, Hobart, Merrillville and the surrounding countryside toward a farm south of Turkey Creek. They found its source in a raging barn fire, too big for any amateur firefighting efforts. Fire trucks from nearby towns responded, or tried to, but without water mains their efforts were limited. Only Hobart's truck had the equipment to pump water from Turkey Creek.

The farmhouse was saved, but all in all it was a terrible loss for Calvin Beltzhoover (formerly of Hobart).


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I'm having trouble identifying the farm in question. Calvin Beltzhoover was only renting it. The current owner's name is given as "Landfields" by the Gazette (which also describes him as Calvin's brother-in-law; I think he was Henry Landfield, who in 1909 had married Stella Kent, sister of Calvin's wife, Pearl). Previous owners' names include Keilman (Gazette) and D.M. Heiney (News). On the 1908 Plat Map, we do find a large farm in the Turkey Creek area belonging to Phillip Keilman, but it's not south of the creek as described by the Gazette (which may simply have got its geography a little confused); we also find some farms belonging to people by the name of Hein, but not D.M. Heiney.



I can't find Calvin Beltzhoover at all in the 1920 Census. (By the way, I'm now convinced that Calvin and Frank Beltzhoover were two different people, which leaves me deeply confused over which of them owned the Nickel Plate Garage, and whether they were any relation to each other.)

Also, in the "Public Sale" notice under the fire story above, we find James Chester auctioneering again.

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Two days early, the roof of the John and Ella Crisman farmhouse, near the village of Deep River, caught fire somehow. Luckily the fire was put out quickly, so the rest of the house was not harmed, and the outbuildings never in danger. The Crismans had insurance to cover the damaged roof.


Sources:
♦ "17 Head of Cattle and Horses Burned Up in a Fire at Turkey Creek." Hobart News 26 May 1921.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ Indiana Marriage Collection.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 26 May 1921.
♦ "Two Barns Burn." Hobart Gazette 27 May 1921.

W.G. Haan School Opens

If "last Tuesday" means the Tuesday before the newspaper went to press, then the first day of classes in the new W.G. Haan School was September 7, 1920.

(Also, a crime story involving our old friend William Raschka.)


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In other school news, Lillian Keilman began teaching at the Vincent school, which I believe was located at the intersection of (present-day) Clay St. and 83rd Ave.


Sources:
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 9 Sept. 1920.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 10 Sept. 1920.

Lillian Keilman

From the Busse autograph collection.


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Images courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Estelle's big sister, Lillie, was about 12 years old when she wrote out this arch little poem (which was in general circulation at the time, but I can't identify any specific source). You can see the family resemblance in the two sisters' handwriting, though Lillie's naturally is under better control.

Here is Lillie's senior portrait, from the Hobart High School Aurora yearbook for 1916:



Lillian's obituary, which ran in the Hobart Gazette of March 26, 1980, described her as "a retired Hobart Elementary School teacher and a Hobart resident prior to her retirement twelve years ago to Phoenix, Ariz." She had died March 18 in Phoenix. Her husband, John Gresser, had died the previous September; his obituary (Hobart Gazette, Sept. 26, 1979) described him as "a popular Hobart barber for 40 years and a resident for 71 years." I do not know when they married. It appears that they had no children.

Interior, Bee Hive, circa 1919

We just seen the exterior of the Bee Hive. Now here's a beautiful shot of the interior. (It's a pretty large file — some of these scans I don't like to reduce too much because the details seem to get lost in the smaller size. I'm sorry to cause problems for people with dial-up connections; I used to have one; I know how it is.)


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The notes attached to and written on the back of the original:

Grocery Dept. Scheidt & Keilman
Hobart Indiana

George Stocker in front

Entrance on 3rd St. (back) next to First State Bank

Not shown — in separate room
Dry goods dept.
Around corner to right faced on Main St.

Scheidt and Keilman's Bee Hive was a popular shopping place for Hobart citizens in 1919. Located behind the First State Bank offices on Third at Main, the Bee Hive carried everything from groceries to dry goods.

I believe the proprietors were Henry Keilman (age 44 in the 1920 Census) and Edward Scheidt (age 48).