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]


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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.













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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.

Frederick and Fredericke

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Fredericke and Frederick Suhr. Images from findagrave.com.

Returning to the Harms 73rd Avenue farm, we left off in 1873 when Mary Chester bought the lower forty of the 80-acre parcel.

In September 1874, Mary lost her husband, Charles. In November, she sold her 40 acres to a German immigrant family by the name of Suhr, lending them $921 of the $1,000 purchase price.


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Image courtesy of the Eldon Harms family.

I did not recognize that name at first, but I should have: from the early days of this blog, when I was researching the Chester Cemetery, as that is the final resting place of the couple who bought these 40 acres. Back then, I was able to find very little information on them: just the 1880 Census showing Frederick and Fredericke, along with their 27-year-old son, Henry, farming somewhere in Ross Township.

Since 2009, I have discovered findagrave.com, which, through the collective effort of many people, has become a remarkable resource. From information there, I can now fill in some of the missing background, as well as post photos of the Suhrs (above) from the same source.

Frederick and Fredericke (Lichtwarle) Suhr had been married in Germany, their native land, where Frederick worked as a miller. (It was Fredericke's second marriage; her first had produced one son, Charles Schmidt, named for his father.[1]) They came to the U.S. in 1870, evidently just missing the census, and brought with them their three children: Fredrika, Henry, and Emma.[2] They lived in South Chicago at first, but, as we see from our documents above, by 1874 the family moved to Indiana.

Their children all married — most importantly, Emma, in 1887, to Conrad Bender, a man prominent enough in Porter County to rate a biographical sketch in a regional history book, whence I have gleaned some of this information.[3] The other children, Fredrika and Henry, appear to have spent much of their married lives in Illinois.

The Suhrs evidently did well enough on their farm to pay off their mortgage by 1880.

In 1882, at only 65 years of age, Fredericke Suhr died. She was buried in the Chester Cemetery, west of their farm. Frederick then sold the farm and left Indiana to spend the next 15 years in Illinois, probably with one or both of his married children there. He died in 1897, and they brought his body back to Ainsworth, to rest beside Fredericke.

Through their daughter, Emma Bender, their descendants were spread around northwest Indiana. Emma, who died in 1918, was survived by seven children: "Edward F. Bender, of Gary; Mrs. Martha Lute, of Hobart; Mrs. Ida Schenelter of Crown Point; Mrs. Bertha Malone, who lived with her mother in Hobart; Albert C. Bender and Frank J. Bender, who live on and operate the Bender farm in Portage township and Walter F. Bender, of Chesterton."[4]

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The real estate transaction we're looking at brought up two other names I recognize from past posts. The mortgage of the land in October 1874 was acknowledged before Justice of the Peace Horace Marble, whose 140-acre parcel just south of Ainsworth included the cemetery. (He was listed there, as a farmer, in the 1870 Census, but by 1880 had moved to Hobart and become a "commission merchant.")


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The Horace Marble farm as it appeared on the 1874 Plat Map. Hickory Top had not yet been renamed "Ainsworth."

The assignment of the mortgage, in December 1874, by Mary Chester to her son, Henry, involved J.P. Jesse B. Albee.

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[1] Pictorial and Biographical Record of La Porte, Porter, Lake and Starke Counties, Indiana. Chicago: Goodspeed Brothers, 1894.
[2] "Long Illness Proves Fatal to Mrs. E. Bender," Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso), Oct. 20, 1933 (transcribed at findagrave.com).
[3] Goodspeed (1894).
[4] "Long Illness Proves Fatal," 1933.

Lots of Them

On Christmas Day 1922, over there at 61st and Arizona, the family of William and Louisa Lute had an intimate family dinner, just the 37 of them.


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Hobart Gazette 29 Dec. 1922.

Over in the left-hand column we find a summary of "a splendid year's growth" — all the buildings that went up in Hobart in 1922, as well as repairs and remodeling.

Henry Smith (whoever he was) built his house of Kellastone, something I had never heard of before. A little Googling turned up the ad below, which tells us that Kellastone is "imperishable stucco." I wish I knew the location of Henry's house so I could check on that "imperishable" part … if it's still there. I don't suppose they meant that Kellastone could resist the wrecking ball.


Image credit: stuccometrics.com

Hey, search engine, over here: Banks, Baumer, Brahst, Bruhn, Burris, Campbell, Carey, Carlson, Ciesilski, Demmon, Dewell, Fasel, Fasel, Ferren, Fleming, Flick, Gransow, Gresser, Gruel, Harney, Henderson, Jahnke, Kasonovich, Kibler, Killigrew, King, Kozub, Kramer, Kucaba, Lutz, McAfee, Metaxis, Miscevich, Mundell, Newman, Niksch, Norris, Palm, Peddicord, Phillips, Popp, Ream, Scharbach, Scholler, Schuelke, Schuknecht, Schwuchow, Scull, Smith, Smith, Sohn, Thompson, Verplank, White, Zelibor

Stop Signs on Main Street

Is it possible that traffic through the intersections of downtown Hobart was not controlled until the autumn of 1922, when Fred Rose, Sr. installed six stop signs?


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Hobart Gazette 3 Nov. 1922.

In the next column we learn that Charles Shults, having quit farming, moved to the Buchfuehrer house on Lillian Street, and I hope someone comes along pretty soon to tell me where that was.

We also learn that Charles' wife had been a Lute. Per the Indiana Marriage Collection, Charles Shults married Lydia Lute in Porter County in March 1897. The same source tells us that William Shults married Vena Lute in February 1896. I wonder if these were two brothers marrying two sisters?

In the far-right column, we recognize our friend, John Killigrew. I believe he won that election.

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Elsewhere in the "Local Drifts" of the same issue, we find this little item:

Jacob Yeager [Yager] and son, Adam, and John Sturtevant of near Deepriver, left Monday in a Ford touring car for Frederick and Baltimore, Md. They were equipped for camping out, and may not return for several weeks.

Jacob Yager was in his mid-60s, John Sturtevant about 52 (1920 Census); if they could stand camping out, well, good for them.

Lincoln Highway Update, and a Party at the Lutes'

Aside from road workers nearly killing each other, work on the Lincoln Highway was "progressing very nicely" in the late spring of 1921.


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From the Hobart News 12 May 1921.

The right-hand column includes a few items about acquaintances of ours. Dr. Mary Faulkner and Mary Kipp had arrived at Millertown, Pennsylvania (where they had also stopped on their previous year's road trip), and William Jahnke demonstrates how much it cost him to serve on a jury in Crown Point.

We haven't talked too much about the Lutes yet, but "Will Lute and family" probably included the 12-year-old Clarence Lute, Mildred Lindborg's future husband. William Lute, Sr. had come over from Germany in 1868, at about 14 years of age. His wife, Louise, was a native Hoosier with German-immigrant parents. They lived in LaPorte County, Indiana, when the 1880 Census came around, and in Porter County (Portage Township) for the 1900 Census. The 1908 Plat Map shows them in Hobart Township, on the farm at 61st Avenue and Arizona Street, where they would remain.


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I'm guessing the Shults, Schnabel and Berndt connections came about through marriages of the Lute daughters. I know nothing about Fritz Miller of LaPorte.

What the Heck?

Now the 1926 Plat Book has me confused again because it shows some land being owned by Christian Heck that he reportedly sold in April 1921:


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From the Hobart News 14 Apr. 1921.

Here it is in 1926:



I don't know why I care, except that (1) Christian, with his parents, Frederick and Doretta, lived in Ross Township (northwest of Ainsworth) in 1870 and 1880; and (2) in 1900, when he farmed his own land south of Tenth Street, he shows up as a neighbor of Augusta Rossow, the second wife (and by then the widow) of Henry Rossow, who was Minnie Rossow Harms's grandfather. Augusta was renting (I believe) the land shown on the above map as belonging to William Lute, but in her time the land had belonged to Jacob Fiester, so it was known as the Fiester farm.

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In other news, John and Goldie Ensign had a new baby, John Jr.




Sources:
♦ 1870 Census.
♦ 1880 Census.
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ "Births." Hobart News 14 Apr. 1921.
♦ "C.F. Heck Sells His 187-Acre Farm to Louis Kelle of Gary." Hobart News 14 Apr. 1921.

Framed by Flowers

From Mildred Lindborg's photo album.


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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.