W.G. Haan Staff

We've seen these people before. Now we get to see them in front of the great emptiness that used to inhabit the west side of State Road 51, opposite the W.G. Haan school.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Notes on the back of the original identify them as "Mr. Garland, Mrs. Zieseniss, Miss Frame, Miss Tabor."

Mr. Garland was, I believe, George Bronson Garland, born in 1904. I can find him locally in the 1930 Census, but not at all after that. If I've found the right person, he married a woman named Esta, and they both rest in Adams County, Indiana.

Ella Zieseniss was born Ella Kretschmar (Indiana Death Certificates) in 1899. She married Wayland Zieseniss, a farmer, about 1929 (1930 Census). She became a schoolteacher after Wayland's untimely death in July 1930 (Indiana Death Certificates). More than half a century later, she joined her husband in Maplewood Cemetery, in Crown Point.

Allene Frame was born in 1915 to James and Rose (Stegmeier) Frame (Indiana Birth Certificates). She is the only one of these four whom I can find in the 1940 Census. At that time she was a teacher, single and living with her parents, but according to information transcribed from her 2010 obituary on Ancestry.com, the following year she married George Chermak, and they had five children.

Bernice Tabor descended from a long line of locals. The 1850 Census shows her great-grandparents, George and Chloe, living in Ross Township near the Guernseys and Strongs (in the neighborhood that would eventually be chronicled in the "South of Deepriver" columns). In their household is a five-year-old Charles — Bernice's grandfather. In 1865 Charles married Margaret Hooseline (Indiana Marriage Collection), and in 1884 they became the parents of Grover Cleveland "Cleve" Tabor. Cleve married Clara Klemm in 1908 (id.), and eight years later Bernice came into the world. According to information on findagrave.com, after some years of teaching, Bernice married Dr. Arthur Nelson (a chiropractor), and operated the Hobart Employment Agency at 449 E. Third Street.

Merry Christmas from the Ainsworth School!

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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

There is no date on this program, but one of the participants estimates that it took place in the very late 1930s, or 1940 at the latest. The Ainsworth school had a Christmas program every year (she tells me), as well as a Halloween masquerade party and some sort of program in the spring. And every month during the school year, a "community meeting."

I wish I could index every surname, but Blogger won't let me. So I will just type them out for the search engine: Baldner, Bergman, Blimel, Bodamer, Bowers, Bryant, Buchfuehrer, Bush, Busselburg, Carden, Collins, Dick, Doepping, Dorman, Engstrom, Ford, Gernenz, Harms, Hartin, Homeier, Johnson, Jones, Kissinger, Klemm, Kuntz, Lines, Madura, Maihofer, Mitchell, Moreland, Nelson, O'Brien, Olson, O'Neil, Peterson, Pike, Piske, Ready, Robb, Robinson, Schmidt, Shaw, Sullivan, Tonagel, Watts, Weiler, Wesley, Willy, Wise, Witham, Wojahn, Yager, Ziemanski.

Gernenz Report: More Land and More Trouble

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On this image from the 1926 Plat Book, the whole Gernenz farm is outlined in red; the parcels owned by Fred Gernenz at least since 1891 are outlined in green; and Charles' 80-acre purchase from Emil Klemm in 1917 is outlined in purple.

It's been a long time since we've heard from the Gernenz family.

Charles Gernenz's purchase during the summer of 1916 of an 80-acre parcel south of Ainsworth went unreported until February 1917. The land was known as the "old Watts farm," and the 1891 Plat Book shows 80 acres belonging to Joseph Watts sandwiched between two parcels belonging to Fred Gernenz, Charles' father. Sometime after 1891 the land passed into the hands of Otto Klemm, who sold it to Charles. Otto remained on the land for several more months, then announced that he was moving to a farm near Crown Point, and Charles would have possession of this parcel in March. He intended to farm it, along with his other 300 acres, with the help of his four sons, William, Martin, John and Carl, who then ranged in age from 21 to 12.

♦    ♦    ♦
There were two houses on the Gernenz farm, separate but not far apart. One was occupied by the Charles Gernenz family; the other by his elderly parents, Fred and Anna, and their oldest grandson, William.

Bright and early on a Monday morning, February 19, Charles went over to the other house to wake William up. No one answered when he knocked, or called out, so he opened the door to go in — and found himself breathing coal gas. The air inside the house was thick with it. Charles hurried in to check on his parents and son, and to his horror found all three of them unconscious.

He probably carried them out of the house — perhaps his other sons helped him — and laid them down in the warmth and safety of the other house. Several hours passed before Fred and William returned to their senses, and the 80-year-old Anna remained unconscious until evening.

Later they tried to piece together what had happened. William remembered smelling coal gas when he returned to the house around midnight on Sunday. He had checked the stove and found a door open on it, which he closed. Then he went to bed. As to how the stove door had fallen open again, they could only guess that Fred, hearing William come in, had gotten out of bed and bumped against the stove in his grogginess, then retired again without realizing anything was wrong.

All three recovered fully.


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Family of Three Nearly Asphyxiated." Hobart Gazette 23 Feb. 1917.
♦ "General News." Hobart Gazette 2 Feb. 1917.
♦ "Personal and Local Mention." Hobart News 22 Feb. 1917.

Two Styles of Wedding, 1912

December 1912 saw the weddings of two young couples from the Ainsworth area. On December 21, Martha Klemm married Louis Weiler; and on the 26th, Bertha Nolte married Claude Campbell.

The first made a great splash.




The second barely got mentioned.



That's it for poor Birdie Nolte. She didn't get a word in the Gazette or anywhere else that I've found. Henry's only surviving daughter! — I said these people were quiet, but on such an occasion, you'd think they could stand to make a bit more noise.

By the way, the "Klenn" in the first article is a misprint. And Martha was the sister of Emma Klemm, who had married John Chester in 1905.


Sources:
♦ "Ross Township." Hobart News 2 Jan. 1913.
♦ "Young Couple Marry." Hobart Gazette 27 Dec. 1912.