Baring His Sole

From Mildred Lindborg's photo album.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of N.B.

Mildred didn't give us a caption for this one.

The background is the west side of the Lindborg house in Ainsworth.

In the back row, from left to right, we can recognize Gust Lindborg and his daughters, Mildred and Gladys. I'm not sure who the next two women are; the album's owner thinks they might be Edna and Mickey Kimball/Goyette, but looking at the full-size scan of the photo, I wonder — they seem too far apart in age to be sisters — so I'm going to call them unidentified for now. At right are Norma and Anna Lindborg.

In the front row, the kid at left with his foot to the camera is Frank Hanson; crouching next to him is his father, and then Raymond Lindborg.

I am told that the Hansons were friends of the Lindborgs who lived in Gary. The 1930 Census shows a Peter and Josephine Hanson in Gary, with a 15-year-old son, Franklin. (Irene Hanson's parents were also named Peter and Josephine, and their ages correspond to Franklin's parents', but I can't find any intersection of Irene and Franklin.)

As to the date of the photo — judging by the mixture of 1920s and 1930s waistlines among the women, and by the apparent age of Raymond Lindborg, I would guess it was taken about 1931 or '32.

Ainsworth General Store, Side View

From Mildred Lindborg's photo album.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of N.B.

The photographer was aiming at the little family group (left to right: Anna Lindborg, Aunt Elma Kimball/Goyette, and Gust Lindborg) but accidentally got a rare side view of the Ainsworth general store, behind the group and stretching out towards the right. It looks so big! But the photo being strangely grainy and unclear, details are lacking.

At left in the background, of course, is the Lindborg house, with the heart trellis on the side of the front porch.

Visiting in Chicago

(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of N.B.





The next three photos in Mildred Lindborg's photo album were taken at the home of a friend in Chicago, whose identity has been forgotten. There are no captions.

The first is the whole Lindborg family: back row, left to right: Franklin (looking very grown-up with his glasses and his pipe), Anna, Mildred and Gust; front row, left to right: Raymond, Gladys and Norma. It appears that those poor girls have recently had the worst haircuts of their lives.

The woman at left in the second photo is unknown. I certainly don't recognize her. At right, of course, is Anna Lindborg.

The third photo shows Gust Lindborg and his niece, Edna Kimball/Goyette. This photo surprised me because no one ever told me that Gust had lost the index finger on his left hand. (Which means I probably misread the caption on this photo — what looked like "Bud" was actually "Dad," unless Mildred was making a joke.) But since his line of work involved sharp tools and heavy objects, Gust had plenty of opportunities for injury.

Framed by Flowers

From Mildred Lindborg's photo album.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of N.B.

Mildred gave this photo no caption or date, but the album owner recognized everyone in it.

Standing in back, left to right: Edna Lindborg (Franklin's wife); Franklin, Anna and Gust Lindborg; and Clarence Lute (Mildred's husband).

Front row, left to right: Emil Lindborg; Norma, Gladys and Raymond Lindborg; Mickey Kimball/Goyette; and Mildred Lindborg Lute.

I am not sure that Mildred and Clarence were already husband and wife in this photo. They were married in October 1935, I believe ("New Licenses," Hammond Times 15 Oct. 1935, via newspaperarchive.com). (Franklin and Edna were married probably a year or two earlier.) Judging by the fashions and the apparent ages, I would date this photo to the mid-1930s, making it one of the most recent in the album. It probably was taken the same day as the one of Anna and her trellis, since her hair and dress are the same in both photos.

I like how the photographer (Aunt Lid maybe? Aunt Elma?) included Anna's flowers in the picture, as a sort of frame for the family.

Another Lot of Kimball/Goyette

The next two-and-a-half pages of Mildred Lindborg's photo album are taken up with Kimball, or is it Goyette pictures from Idaho (Mildred's captions are in bold italics):

Out in "Rockies"


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Images courtesy of N.B.
Feeding the cat.



Sisters



Kimball's home



Pocatello in background



Ed & her cat

A Lot of Kimball, or Is It Goyette?

Obviously this aunt and these cousins were important to Mildred Lindborg, as she included so many photos of them in her album,* and they do have some Ainsworth connection … and so I present to you two album-pages' worth of Kimball/Goyette pictures (taken in Idaho), with Mildred's captions.


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of N.B.
Mickey [aka Helen Kimball/Goyette, Mildred's cousin]


Aunt Elma


Mickey


"Ed" [Edna Kimball/Goyette, Helen's older sister]


"Ed"

_________________
*Except that, so far as I know, we never see Uncle William Kimball.

Mickey and Edna

From Mildred Lindborg's photo album.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of N.B.

I have just spent an awful lot of time trying to figure out the Kimball family, and I would not be able to justify it except that history records two occasions on which William and Elma Kimball set foot on the sacred soil of Ainsworth — in August 1911, "Mrs. Wm. Kimball of Hegewisch visited Mr. and Mrs. Gust Lindborg," and a couple weeks later, "Wm. Kimball of Hegewisch spent Sunday with Gust Lindborg." So there.

Here's what I've gathered so far: Gust Lindborg had a younger sister, Elma. She came over from Sweden in 1906. The following year she married William Kimball, a railroad man who lived in Chicago. In 1908, they had a daughter, Edna; another daughter, Helen, was born around 1915.

I suppose it's these two girls, cousins to our Ainsworth Lindborgs, who are pictured above. How Helen came to be called "Mickey" I have no clue, nor can I identify the girl sitting on the ground in the photo at left.

These photos were taken in Pocatello, Idaho, where the family had moved sometime between the First World War and the 1920 census. By 1930 Edna had left the household — I have not been able to find out what became of her. In 1940 we find Elma Kimball in San Bruno, California, in the household of Helen (aka Mickey), who is now the wife of John Ellis. In the marital-status column, the census-taker first wrote "M" for Elma, but that was crossed out and someone wrote in something that looks like "7." I can't find William in 1940; however, when the Second World War broke out, he showed up in Pocatello, listing his daughter, Helen Ellis, as his contact. That's all I've got, and I'm not entirely sure I have found the right people.

Further confusion comes from the fact that the owner of this photo album gave me the surname "Goyette" in connection with these people. I have yet to discover how that fits in.


Sources:
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ 1940 Census.
♦ "Ainsworth." Hobart News 24 Aug. 1911; 7 Sept. 1911.
♦ Cook County, Illinois, Marriage Index.
♦ WWI Draft Cards.
♦ WWII Army Enlistment Records.