Anna and Norma Lindborg in Sweden, 1938

The Hobart Index-Commonwealth of May 26, 1938, carried this article on the front page:

Ainsworth Ladies Embark Saturday For Visit In Sweden With Relatives
Planning to embark on the "S.S. Gripsholm" from New York City this Saturday, for a trip to Sweden and other European countries, Mrs. Gust Lindborg and daughter, Norma, and Miss Bernice Taber, left Wednesday morning for the east. They will be accompanied on their motor trip as far as New York City by Mrs. Lindborg's son, Raymond, daughter, Gladys, and Miss Evelyn Wolf,[1] who plan to return home in about a week, after a motor trip through the eastern states.

Mrs. Lindborg expects to visit until the latter part of August with her aged parents, brothers, and sisters and also with her husband's brothers and sisters, who all reside in the southern part of Sweden in and near the city of Malmo. This will be the first time she has seen any of them in 38 years, since she came to America from her homeland, when she was a young girl.

After a short visit with Miss Lindborg's relatives in Sweden, she and Miss Taber will continue their tour through Sweden, Holland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, and England. The two young ladies plan to return to the United States about August fifth by way of Montreal, Canada.

Mrs. Lindborg will spend all of her time in and near Malmo returning home the latter part of August on a different boat.

The Hobart Historical Society recently received a donation of a scrapbook/photo album put together by Mildred Lindborg Lute, Anna Lindborg's eldest daughter. It included photos from that trip to Sweden in 1938. We know that thanks to Mildred's happy penchant for identifying her photos — otherwise, we'd just be looking at the photos and saying, "Doesn't that look like Anna Palm Lindborg? But where on earth were these taken?"

The first photo shows Anna and her mother, Hanna Palm.[2]


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society, Hobart, Indiana.

The photo below shows both Anna and her daughter, Norma, with some relatives. (The fact that Mildred referred to her sister as Norma Berg means she was typing up these captions sometime after Norma's marriage in April 1949.)



For the rest of the photos, I will let Mildred's captions speak for themselves.













♦    ♦    ♦
The August 11, 1938 Index-Commonwealth reported:

Miss Bernice Taber and Miss Norma Lindborg, both of Ainsworth, returned recently from a three months tour of Europe. The girls motored, together with Mrs. Gust Lindborg, to New York where they embarked on the ship, Gripsholm of the Swedish-American lines. Landing in Sweden they took a trip up the Goda Canal to Stockholm, which is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. From there they went to Oslo, Norway, and through the fjords. The water in the fjords, Miss Taber reports, is a very clear, marked green, but the air has a definite bluish cast and gives the surrounding scenery a hazy look, which even accents its beauty. From Norway, the travelers journeyed to Copenhagen, Denmark, and from thence through Germany by way of the Rhine. The Rhine, the girls said, is an exceptionally winding river and makes its many turns through the surrounding Alps. From Brussels, Belgium, they ferried to England across the English Channel, where they visited London, and Oxford University. Mrs. Lindborg, who remained longer to visit her sister in Sweden, sailed this week for the United States. Miss Taber and Miss Lindborg, however, returned two weeks ago by way of Canada, on the ship Express of Britain. Arriving in Canada, they visited Quebec and Montreal and then journeyed on home.

The August 25 Index-Commonwealth noted that Anna Lindborg had finally come home to Ainsworth, saying she'd had "a wonderful trip."

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[1] I have found an Evelyn Wolfe living in Portage Township, Porter County, who was about 17 in 1938, but I'm not sure she's the right person.
[2] Although the newspaper article mentions Anna's "aged parents," none of the photos include her father. I don't have international Ancestry.com to find out if he was still living then.

A Young Lady from Ainsworth

Today would have been Norma Lindborg Berg's 101st birthday.

Here is a studio portrait showing her around the age of 19.


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Image courtesy of Norma Lindborg Berg.

She had done her hair carefully and put on her best dress, and traveled up to Gary to sit for this photo; I wonder if it was intended to mark some special occasion … perhaps her going off to college, or coming home for a visit from college?

Norma told me that her parents did not consult her about her career plans. They simply informed her, after her graduation from high school in 1934, that she would be attending Indiana State University at Terre Haute and would become a teacher. Norma was not thrilled about that — she had dreams of pursuing a musical career — but she wasn't ready to disobey her parents. They had scraped together the money to send her off, and off she went.

Ross Township Trustee's Report for 1922

Too many familiar names to index them all here, but I will add this to my list of Ross Township Trustee's reports and someday, someday, I will get around to creating an index.


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Hobart Gazette 12 Jan. 1923.

Looking at the Dog Fund Disbursements, I learned that Gust Lindborg kept rabbits … which I'm guessing were destined for sale, or for the Lindborg family's dinner table. On other farms a lot of geese were killed — on the Harms farm, the William Foreman farm, and the farm of Albert Weiler.

But where (I ask myself) was the farm of Albert Weiler? — and I realize I don't know. I shall have to spend some time in the near future trying to find out.

Back in '02, When the Vincent School Burned

Here's an interesting little event that I didn't know enough to pay attention to the first time I was reading through the 1902 microfilm.


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Hobart Gazette 28 Feb. 1902.

So when Gust Lindborg "bought the old Sullivan schoolhouse" in 1912 — assuming "Sullivan" and "Vincent" are two names for the same school — it wasn't really all that old, was it? — nine or ten years.

The property records for the former Vincent schoolhouse still standing at Clay St. and Harms Rd. give a construction date of 1925. If that's correct (and assuming Sullivan = Vincent), why was the Vincent school building available for purchase in 1912? Were they building a new wooden one then? This is getting complicated.

I wish the story had identified "Miss Burge" better. In the 1900 Census, (Winfield) Scott and Mary Burge had six daughters and two sons living at home. I suppose either of the two eldest daughters, May (born circa 1881) and Bertha (born circa 1882), could have become a teacher by 1902, and maybe even the next eldest, Libbie (born ca. 1885). The census shows the Burges owning their own farm; my guess at its location is marked on this image from the 1908 Plat Map, which also shows how conveniently close for the burned-out students the Goodrich house was.


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The yellow X marks the present location of the brick house that used to be the Vincent schoolhouse. This map places the 1908 schoolhouse* on the north side of present-day E. 83rd Ave.

The Goodriches were Charles and Caroline. They had five children of their own who likely attended the Vincent school: Cora, Ida, Arthur, Clarence, and Harold. (The two youngest would later go to war, and Harold would not come home.)

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*Which would be the one that ended up as the Lindborg home on Ainsworth Road, as I currently understand it all.

Ross Township Graduates

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Hobart Gazette 19 May 1922.

Judging by the names, District 2 was the W.G. Haan School. Laverne Niksch was the son of Edward and Tillie. Gilbert was the orphan boy adopted by Lee and Lena Hunter. Edwin Paine, brother of Alice, is listed in the 1920 Census as "Alfred E." and in the 1930 Census and "A. Edwin." Franklin Lindborg — well, we even have his graduation photo (wish I knew who the friend was). Gordon Argo was the son of George and Rachel "Rae" Argo.

The only one I don't really know is Andy Meyer. After poking around a bit on Ancestry.com, I think he might be the son of John and Martha Meyers, as the 1920 Census enumerator spelled it, who then lived in Hobart Township on the "East Gary Road near Cemetery" — which sounds like N. Lake Park Avenue near Crown Hill Cemetery, but I'm not sure about any of this.


As for the other districts, I'm don't know which schools they meant. Part of the problem is that I don't know which schools were still operating. The Merrillville and Vincent schools, of course, and maybe the Adams school …but who knows what else?

Easter Cantata

This public-sale notice has me stumped: I can't find a Doepping farm 3.5 miles southwest of Hobart, and I never heard of Nathan Bosen before.


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Hobart News 13 Apr. 1922.

The 1920 Census shows a Nathan Bosen in Union Twp., Porter County — a Russian immigrant working as a dry cleaner. If he moved into Lake County and changed careers, I didn't hear about it.


Less mysterious is the appearance of two members of the music-loving Harms family as soloists in the cantata performed at Trinity Lutheran Church on Easter Sunday 1922.


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Hobart Gazette 21 Apr. 1922.

I think Henry Harms was Henry Sr. (Henry Jr. was musical, too, but he lived in Chicago and likely had his own church to sing at on Easter Sunday.) Herman, of course, just drove up from the farm east of Ainsworth.

… and then, in the "Local Drifts" column, who should appear but "N. Bosen," presumably Nathan Bosen, who is now renting Elmer Arment's 20 acres and brand-new house on S.R. 51.

I am not sure whether Miss Elizabeth Bruebach was the lovely Liza whose photographs we've seen … but Liza, or Eliza, had been born in April 1890 per the 1900 Census (and her mother, née Elise Manteuffel, had married George Bruebach in 1887 per the Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index).

In the lower right-hand corner of the page above, we find an announcement that a League of Women Voters meeting will be held in Lindborg hall — the dance hall over the blacksmith shop.


Elsewhere in the same issue of the Gazette, we find "Lee & Rhodes announc[ing] that their drinking fountain is now in working order" — that would be the public fountain in front of their shop, I'm guessing, which likely had been shut down for the winter. I have lost track (if I ever knew) where Lee & Rhodes' shop was by 1922.

Norma Lindborg Berg, 1916-2015

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Image courtesy of Norma Lindborg Berg.

The songbird of Ainsworth has flown.

Or maybe that is not a good metaphor — it's true that Norma loved to sing, and retained her sweet soprano even into her nineties; but "songbird" suggests something flighty and elusive, and that wasn't Norma. She was reliable. She was a worker.

Norma Lindborg Berg was one of the first people I talked to when I started my historical research. She was 93 when I met her. I was a stranger asking for her help; she received me graciously, and spent many hours talking with me about her family, her neighbors, and her long life in Ainsworth. In the process, we became friends.

I admired her. She was intelligent and strong-willed, but with a sense of humor; she was kind, conscientious, and tactful, and cheerful in spite of the difficulties of old age and the troubles she had gone through in her life.

But what I think of most when I think of her is this: sometimes, when we went outdoors, whether to work in the yard or to go grocery shopping, she would stop and look up at the sky — and that cost her some effort, as her spine was bent from osteoporosis, and her eyesight was dimming — she would look up and say, in a voice full of wonder, "What beautiful clouds!" Later, lying in her bed at a nursing home, she would gaze out the window, up to the blue sky and those beautiful clouds. At the age of 93, 95, 97, she was still amazed by the everyday beauty of the world — that really struck me, and stays with me.

Now the songbird has flown, or the worker has left the vineyard, but always, when I look up to the sky and think how beautiful the clouds are, I will remember Norma.

Ross Township Trustee's Report, 1921

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Hobart Gazette 13 Jan. 1922.

So many of our acquaintances here, I can't index them all. Gus Lindborg was still the go-to man for bus repairs, among other things. Bus drivers included C.S. Guernsey, Paul Fredrick, William Springman, John Miller, and Thomas Sullivan. Schoolteachers included Elsie Gruel, Olive Wood, and Evelyn Fredrick (Paul's daughter). Charles Goldman sold unspecified merchandise to the township. Robert Harper provided "advisory service." And under "Road Fund Disbursements," many familiar names.

Charles Popp and a Series of Dances

I believe this is the first I've seen of Charles Popp doing anything in Ainsworth: a series of dances in the Ainsworth hall, which I suppose means Gust Lindborg's dance hall.


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"Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 18 Nov. 1921.

The identity of the members of the Bruebach orchestra is a mystery, though I'm assuming it was named for one or more members of the George and Eliza Bruebach family of Hobart, whose mausoleum graces Crown Hill Cemetery. An item in 1912* described the orchestra as having three members, which might mean George Sr. and his sons, George Jr. and Paul; or it might just mean one of the Bruebachs led it.


In other news, Harvey Carey (former Ainsworth-area resident and stepson of Augusta Stolp Rossow Carey) is renting his Wheeler farm to some guy who had somehow got onto the Blachly farm earlier without me hearing about it.

And as for the birthday party for Mary Passow (who had told the 1920 census-taker she was only 89), I suppose it would be Bertha Ols, aka Mrs. Henry Ols, who baked the cake.

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*"Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette 25 Oct. 1912.

Master Horseshoers

Walter Veal, Gust Lindborg, and William Waldeck — master horseshoers!


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From the Hobart News 7 Apr. 1921.

Over a hundred such representatives attended the convention, according to the Gazette.

(And no, the Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Daley who visited the Raschkas were not the future mayor's parents.)


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 7 Apr. 1921.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 8 Apr. 1921.

Caroline Abel and Her Carpenters

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From the Hobart Gazette 1 Apr. 1921.

Aside from being an early settler, Caroline (Feiler) Abel was the wife and mother of carpenters who were responsible for a lot of building in the vicinity of Ainsworth; my notes are full of "Contractor Abel" and "F. Abel" shipping lumber to Ainsworth and putting up this house and that barn in the surrounding area. Problem is, I'm not sure exactly which Abel is being referred to, since all these references are after the 1900 census, in which both Frank Abel, Sr. and his son, Frank, Jr., described themselves as carpenters. In 1910 they both described themselves as contractors doing carpentry work (Frank Jr. being married with his own household), and 16-year-old Edward Abel also called himself a carpenter.

Let's just take a look at what we can attribute to one or more of the Abels:

• Nov. 1901: "Walter Blachely [Blachly] will build an addition to his barn on the Mid Harper farm. Frank Abel sold him a carload of lumber with which to do the work."
• March 1902: "On Wednesday Contractor Abel began building a house for John Miller at Ainsworth, having the contract for the labor and the furnishing of lumber."
• April 1902: "Contractor Abel … has just shipped a carload of lumber to Ainsworth for C. Hill for repairs on a house and several outbuildings, which he will shortly build."
• May 1902: "Contractor Abel received another carload of lumber this week for his contracts. He is building an addition to the house of Wm. Foreman, south of Ainsworth."
• May 1902: "Contractor Abel has just shipped two carloads of lumber to Ainsworth to be used in a large barn that he will build for Frank Bayor…."
• June 1902: "Contractor Abel this week finished Fred Miller's new house at Ainsworth."
• September 1902: "An old-fashioned barn raising was held at John Gruel's yesterday and both of his new barns were raised. Quite a number from town attended. Contractor Abel is doing the carpenter work."
• May 1903: "Contractor Abel has had three cars of lumber shipped to Ainsworth, to be used in the construction of a new barn for Howard Smith who lives south of Deepriver."
• August 1904: "Contractor Abel is building the new Deepriver church."
• June 1906: "A week ago Contractor Abel began building a big barn for Chas. Sievert who lives southwest of town. The building will be 34 by 84 feet, with 20-foot posts."
• September 1906: "Contractor Abel has begun the erection of a new barn, 32 by 48 feet and 18 feet high, on the Mike Ormond farm southeast of Hobart. The dwelling is also to be raised about eighteen inches and a new addition built thereto."
• October 1909: "Contractor Abel who is building a new barn on the Kramer farm south of town hopes to have the structure completed within a few days."
• March 1911: "Abel & Sons have been doing a lot of repair work on the Chas. Chester farm near Ainsworth and are now doing work for Ed Batterman."

… and those are just the projects I happened to make note of over the years.

Frank Sr. died in 1915; Edward died in 1918; and Frank Jr. died in 1919 of tuberculosis.

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Just look at all those Ross Township names in the "Notice of Road Petition" on the Gazette page above. Many acquaintances, some farmers, some Ainsworth businessmen such as Gust Lindborg and Charles Goldman, and even William Wollenberg, who I suppose still owned the saloon building in Ross Township though he lived in Chicago.

I suppose the road in question is E. 101st Avenue.


Sources:
♦ 1880 Census.
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ "Early Settler Passes Away." Hobart Gazette 1 Apr. 1921.
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette 8 Nov. 1901; 21 Mar. 1902; 4 Apr. 1902; 2 May 1902; 23 May 1902; 15 May 1903; 26 Aug. 1904; 8 June 1906; 21 Sept. 1906.
♦ "Hobart." Hammond Lake County Times 22 Jan. 1919.
♦ Indiana WPA Death Records Index.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 27 June 1902; 19 Sept. 1902; 29 Oct. 1909; 10 Mar. 1911.

Three Little Kids

This small, faded photo was loose in the back of Mildred Lindborg's photo album.


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Image courtesy of N.B.

I don't recognize the girl at left, but the other two are probably Norma and Raymond Lindborg, and, judging by their ages, I'd guess the date to be around 1920 or '21.

And with this, folks, we come to the end of Mildred's album. I always feel, when we come to the end of a collection, that we're saying goodbye to a friend! I wish I were able to thank Mildred for putting this all together and captioning so many of the pictures; she has allowed us a glimpse of life in Ainsworth some 80 or 90 years ago.

Baring His Sole

From Mildred Lindborg's photo album.


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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.

Happy to Be in Hegewisch

From Mildred Lindborg's photo album.


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Image courtesy of E.H.

Here we are again, at the same house in Hegewisch we've seen twice before, though not on the same day.

The guy on the stairs is Franklin Lindborg, that's Gust in the hat, and the young woman is uncertainly identified by the album's owner as Ollie Larson.

And Gust is smiling! So is Franklin, of course, but that is not quite so rare.

Questions for Palm Relatives and Inquisitive Genealogists

I have received an inquiry concerning Hulda Palm from a genealogist in Sweden, who writes:

Some of my grandmother's siblings emigrated to America from Öland, Sweden in the late 1800s - early 1900s. Their surname was Sten and in USA they translated their name to Stone. I've got information from one of my now living relatives that Hulda Stone perhaps is the daughter of John Stone, a brother of my grandmother, and that Hulda married Peter Palm and they got three children: Helen, Ester and Elmer. I was so surprised to find this family on a picture from Labour Day on your blog. The thing is, that according to what I've found out, Hulda is probably not the daughter of this John Stone, because the dates doesn't agree. I think perhaps you could be the person who would know who Peter Palm's wife Hulda was, her background and where she came from. If you do so, I would be so grateful if you would take time and write back to me telling me what you know. Perhaps she is one of my ancestors, perhaps not.

Unfortunately I don't know enough about Hulda Palm to settle this question. Her maiden name was Stone, of that I'm convinced, as Peter Palm lived in Chicago and the Cook County marriage records show him marrying Hulda Stone in 1910; their ages in that record correspond with their ages in later censuses, and their children were all born after 1910.

But who was this Hulda Stone? Was she the daughter of John Sten? Did she come to this country from Öland, Sweden? I can only hope that someone who knows the answers to these questions will see this post and respond.

Aunt Larson's Other Awesome Dress

From Mildred Lindborg's photo album.


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Image courtesy of N.B.

No caption, no date. Fortunately we recognize these two: at left, Anna Lindborg; at right, Aunt Larson, wearing a variation on the winged skirt.

That building behind them looks like the one behind the smiling Gust.

Ainsworth Business District

From Mildred Lindborg's photo album.


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Image courtesy of N.B.

Mildred did not caption this picture. The album's owner thinks the girl, at left, might be Mabel Larson. The boy is Franklin Lindborg.

For the rest, this gives us another view of the little cluster of businesses that constituted the village of Ainsworth (except you can't see the railroad depot). At left, Gust Lindborg's blacksmith shop; behind it, the saloon building; between the girl and boy, a glimpse of the Raschka/Shearer warehouse; at the right edge of the picture, the Ainsworth general store.

That contraption in the road in front of the general store is a horse and buggy, I believe, not an automobile. We don't have a date for this, but the girl's fashions suggest the WWI era more than the 1920s, I think.

Oil Truck v. Lincoln Highway Mud

We've already heard about the bad condition of the Lincoln Highway east of Ainsworth. In January 1921 came news that the Federal Paving Company intended to bring its equipment from Chillicothe, Ohio, to commence work as soon as weather permitted, with hopes of completing the paving across Lake County by the middle of the summer.

But the summer of 1921 was a long way away for people who had to get somewhere in the winter of 1921.


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Late in February the Gazette brought the "cheering news" that paving work might start in the near future: "Workmen are busy repairing machinery at Ainsworth and Merrillville and getting things in shape for an early start, 'tis said. It is stated that construction work will proceed both ways out of Ainsworth and Merrillville."

I expect that any machinery repair in Ainsworth was going on at Gust Lindborg's blacksmith shop.

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When I read that story above, about the oil truck, I naturally wondered where the "Ols corner" was, and proceeded to waste about an hour of my life trying to figure it out. My best guess is that it was the intersection of present-day Clay Street and E. 73rd Avenue, because I think that Charles Ols then owned the parcel of land shown on the 1908 Plat Map as belonging to Orrin Pierce:


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I've previously noted that in 1908 Charles Ols bought a farm from Reuben Pierce, and while I can't find a plat map showing that parcel in Charles Ols' hands (the 1926 Plat Book attributes it to A.D. Paine), I still think Charles owned it for some time after 1908 because (1) Orrin Pierce was Reuben's son, and (2) some newspaper reports about Charles' land purchases suggest that location: February 1908, Charles bought a farm from "Reuben Pierce, who live[d] west of Ainsworth," but rented it out while he continued living on another farm that he was renting; in November 1908, Charles advertised for rent his farm "one mile west of Ainsworth"; October 1916, Charles, having previously "bought a part of the Orrin Pierce farm," now "purchased from Chas. Chester 23 acres, a part of the original Pierce farm, which join[ed] his farm on the north across the Grand Trunk railroad."

So that's my theory.


Sources:
♦ "Additional Local News." Hobart Gazette 27 Oct. 1916; 28 Jan. 1921.
♦ "Cheering News." Hobart Gazette 25 Feb. 1921.
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette 14 Feb. 1908.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 13 Nov. 1908.
♦ "The Lincoln Highway Through Lake Co. to Be Finished This Year." Hobart News 20 Jan. 1921.

Two by Two in Gardens

The next page in Mildred Lindborg's photo album has two portraits taken in gardens. The first we've seen before — we don't know who these two women are (probably Lindborg relatives), but we know they are standing among Anna's flowers.


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Images courtesy of N.B.

The second shows Anna and Gust Lindborg in somebody else's garden, but we don't know whose.

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.