Dear Aunt Lizzie (Random Old Photo)

The M.E. Church and parsonage in Hobart, from a postcard postmarked 1914.


(Click on images to enlarge)

I know, I know: we've seen this before. So why did I buy it? I don't know. But, turns out, it's part of the Elizabeth Lahayne collection. Here's the verso:



I don't know who Alvina was; I can't find her in either John's or Dora's family, but there was at least one other Lahayne sibling, and then in-laws as well, and people were pretty loose with the terms "aunt" and "uncle" in those days.

The postmark is Wheeler, as it was on Dora's postcard, so maybe Alvina was staying with Dora. And asking Aunt Lizzie to meet her at the Valparaiso Nickel Plate depot at 10 o'clock, and if she "haint" on that train she'll be on the 4 o'clock for sure.

I see that Alvina has picked up the family habit of using incorrect English to be playful. That is, I think it's just playfulness.

Hobart Then and Now: Augustus Wood House/St. Bridget Church

Circa 1911 and 2012.



(Click on images to enlarge)

Yes, by 1911 it was the Catholic parsonage, but it started out as the home of Augustus and Jessie Wood and family.*

I just recently bought this colorized version of a postcard I had already put up on the Downtown Hobart blog.

Here is an 1882 biographical sketch of the Wood family from Porter and Lake Counties (Goodspeed/Blanchard):

AUGUSTUS WOOD, son of John and Hannah E. (Pattee) Wood, was born in Danvers, Mass., in 1828, and in 1836 came with his parents to Lake County. At the age of twenty-one, he engaged in clerking at Crown Point and Michigan City; in 1855, he entered in business at Wood's Mill, carrying a stock of general merchandise until 1880, when he moved to Hobart, built a store, and resumed his trade in dry goods, notions, groceries, crockery, etc. He is a Knight Templar and belongs to the Valparaiso Commandery; he was married at Michigan City, in 1852, to Jessie M. Brown, a native of Cincinnati. They have three children living — Carrie M. Ryan, of Valparaiso; Abbie M. Bullock, of Hobart, and John J. Wood, now associated in business with his father.

Jessie Brown Wood, incidentally, was born in 1833, per the 1900 Census.

The photograph below comes from the Hobart Historical Society museum.


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

Handwritten notes on the back: "Augustus Wood house/Earle's Retreat/now St. Bridget church site/Photo guess approx 1890/From E. Reinerth [sp? the name is hard to read]."

I don't know what those big curving things are — maybe the jawbones of a whale??

♦    ♦    ♦
Here is the verso of the 1911 postcard:


(Click on image to enlarge)

So nice of Dora to spell out her relationship to Elizabeth for us!

The 1910 Census shows 22-year-old Elizabeth La Hayn living on Washington Street in Valpo, with her married brother, John, his wife and two young daughters. Elizabeth was employed in a laundry, which must have been miserable work.

Dora was her older sister. The 1900 Census shows John, Dora, Hattie (another sister) and Elizabeth living with their grandmother; John, the eldest, was only 19 — were they orphaned so young?

In 1902 Dora married Edward Jentzen (Indiana Marriage Collection). By 1910 they had two small children and were farming rented land in Porter County.

My impression is that "How you was?" and "We looked for youse" are just Dora's way of being playful.

_____________________
*Augustus and Jesse Wood's daughter, Abbie, married Simeon Bullock, brother of Gilbert Bullock → Ainsworth connection!