The Lincoln Farm Again!

In the "All kinds of Wants" column of the Hobart Gazette of September 29, 1922, I came across this item:

FOR RENT — Farm, from March 1st, in East Gary, known as the Lincoln farm. Inquire of owner, John Keller, 2521 So. Lawndale avenue, Chicago.

The location of the Lincoln farm had eluded me thus far, but perhaps now we can pin it down. Here is the Keller farm as it appears on the 1908 Plat Map:


(Click on image to enlarge)

I'm not sure the he owned all the way up to where Old Hobart Road meets S.R. 51, which is why I drew the lines lightly there. The 1926 Plat Book shows the same ownership. All my other plat maps show different ownership, but not one shows anybody named Lincoln owning that farm. Which wasn't much of a farm if the land was as swampy and uneven then as it is now. But anyway, this would seem to be the farm owned by John Keller in 1922, and if he says it is known as the Lincoln farm, I'm in no position to dispute that.

Findagrave.com shows a John Keller, 1864 – 1951, buried in Evergreen Memorial Park in Hobart, but I don't know if this is our man.

The Old Lincoln Farm Again

(Click on image to enlarge)
Image from the Chicago Daily Tribune 12 Mar. 1901.

On the morning of March 11, 1901, a boiler explosion at a Chicago laundry killed eight people. Among the dead was the 15-year-old Bessie Kucaba, whose mutilated remains were identified by her brother-in-law, Hugo Zobjeck. Her parents, Frank and Mary Kucaba, resided "on the old Lincoln farm," according to the Hobart Gazette.

I have previously seen a reference to the old Lincoln farm describing it as south of East Gary (Lake Station). I have never been able to identify the Lincoln farm's location, not then and not now. But the fact that elsewhere I've seen references to the Kucabas living at the Bijou, which has also been described as being south of Lake Station, makes me wonder whether the Bijou's grounds had once been the old Lincoln farm.


Sources:
♦ "Boiler Bursts; Dead Number 8, the Injured 51." Chicago Daily Tribune (Chicago, Ill.) 12 Mar. 1901. Newspapers.com.
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette 15 Mar. 1901.
♦ "Laundry Explosion, Dead and Injured." Chicago Daily Tribune (Chicago, Ill.) 12 Mar. 1901. Newspapers.com.