Breakfast and Love

This typical ad for the Bass Restaurant appeared in the Hobart Index-Commonwealth of October 21, 1937:


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Fred's Bakery was operated by Fred Baumer. Apparently his rolls were so celebrated around town that H.C. and Martha Bass expected them to lure people into the Bass restaurant.

Among the Basses' customers in the mid-1930s was Herbert Ols — a resident of Hobart, a 1932 graduate of Hobart High, and now a working man, single, who lived with his parents on Linda Street. Every Saturday morning, he enjoyed breakfast at the Bass Restaurant.

His waitress was often Joyce Malone, who had been helping out at her mother and stepfather's restaurant since her graduation from high school.

Saturday after Saturday, the young people got to know each other, and to like each other … very much indeed.

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The wedding took place on October 20, 1937.


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Hammond Times, 25 Oct. 1937.

Hobart's Index-Commonwealth[1] specified that the newlyweds would be living in an apartment at 54 Main — evidently the house was broken up into separate units.


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Image courtesy of Fred Ols.

I wondered at first why only Mrs. Henry Clinton Bass, and not Mr. and Mrs., was announcing the marriage. It's true that Joyce was not Mr. Bass's biological daughter, but a close and happy family might well have ignored that technicality. Then I learned that this was not a close and happy family. The Bass marriage was troubled. In fact, Joyce thought her stepfather treated her mother cruelly. For Joyce, the happiness of starting a new home with the man she loved was enhanced by the relief of getting away from a man she didn't even like.

This explains another thing that had puzzled me — the fact that while Joyce's mother is buried in Hobart, her stepfather is buried in downstate Illinois.

Martha and H.C. Bass eventually separated. They were recorded in the same household in the 1940 Census, but two years later, when H.C. filled out his draft card, the contact name he gave was not his wife but a relative back in Illinois[2]. And in the 1950 Census, H.C. was living alone in Illinois — calling himself widowed — while Martha and her son Carl Malone were in the crowded but (I hope) harmonious household of Herbert and Joyce Ols, who by then had two little sons, the younger of whom would grow up to share many interesting pictures and stories with Hobart history enthusiasts.

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This photo from the spring of 1938 shows Herbert and Joyce some six months into their marriage and looking very happy about it.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society and Fred Ols.


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[1] "Herbert Ols and Joyce Malone Wed at Quiet Ceremony," Index-Commonwealth, 24 Oct. 1937.
[2] Fred Bass of Grayville, Illinois, whom I believe to be H.C.'s younger brother, James Fred Bass.

Valedictorian, Class of 1935

Since I attended a high-school graduation ceremony a few days ago, it seems an apt time to present to you a high-school graduate whom we last saw out front of her home on Central Avenue: Joyce Malone, valedictorian of the Class of 1935 of Edison High School in East Gary (Lake Station).


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society and Fred Ols.

This is the speech she gave at the ceremony:

Good Bye and Good Luck

During the past year we have listened to the Byrd broadcast and the thrilling communications between America and Little America[1] and as we heard the announcer, Harry von Zell, sign off with his "Good bye and good luck" we have thought that those men in the expedition must have been reluctant to hear those words for it meant that a whole week would elapse before they would again have the same opportunity of communicating with home folks. Harry von Zell was given a special privilege in the opportunity to say for all the people in the United States, "Good bye and good luck."

I feel that mine is a special privilege when I am permitted to voice the farewells for the class to teachers, fellow school mates, school associations and class members. We have enjoyed our years of fellowship together, particularly this last year of school, and we are reluctant to say the last good bye. We have enjoyed many sessions in this school. Some of us have been here for years and others but a comparatively short time and we hope that we have been able to give something to the school as well as to take so much from it. What we take from the school has not lessened its usefulness nor its material content but is measured in our training and in our character and our abilities. In giving to us the school has not lessened its efficiency but rather it has given us something that money cannot buy and that nothing can take from us.

Today we come to the last program together. Soon we will separate and go our several ways, some to one thing and some to another and will attempt to put into practice some of the knowledge and abilities we have secured while in school. Education is something to be desired and thinking people are anxious to give the young graduates a chance to do something with their training. We need education to live worthwhile lives in this great democracy, and democracy needs educated men and women and thinking boys and girls.

As we say good bye and good luck to old school friends and go out into the world of business and adult living we need to consider what our part will be in the future and what is needed from us in the present. While it is true that we will doubtless have difficulty in securing what we commonly call "paying positions"[2] there will be work of one sort or another for each and every one. It may be that we will be able to do something to make life easier for our parents who have denied themselves in order that we might complete our school work and now may be our "golden opportunity" to repay them in a small measure. Our community offers many opportunities for service in leading young people's activities or assisting with adult organizations. There is no need of our simply sitting down with folded hands, waiting for something to turn up.

As we say "good bye" to schoolmates who remain in the school for another year or more we do so with a feeling of sadness. You will be going on in the old ways that are no longer ours, you will tread the stairs and enter into the school activities but we will be out and away. We trust you to carry on the school spirit and traditions and to make us proud that we once belonged to this school. We are sorry to leave but such is the decree of progress. We would no longer remain once we are fitted for higher things but still we are saddened at the parting. As another school year opens before you, fellow school mates, we shall be watching you with pride and anticipation.

Teachers of this school, to you we must also say "good bye and good luck." Faithfully you have performed your duties and more, for you have gone outside your regular work to help us and to guide us. We may have seemed ungrateful at times and often you have questioned if it was worth all it cost you. In the future we hope to make up to society if not to you for what you have given the members of this class. Will you accept our heartfelt thanks and our "good bye and good luck."

As we come to the parting of the school ways we look back over our school life and wish that we might have done some things differently but this is no time for hashing our past mistakes.

Tonight we are looking into the future with eagerness, and with joyous anticipation of what life may hold in store for each of us. Tonight we are starting forth in a new life, a new world in which each one is to be the master of his fate and the captain of his soul. Parents, school mates, officials and friends, we hope that this new life may bring to each of the members of the class of 1935 some of the richer blessings, some of the finer things of life and that each member of this class may succeed in life to such an extent that we justify the confidence which you have placed in us. Trusting that our ambitions and ideals of tonight may not prove to be empty dreams I bid you all "good bye and good luck."

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[1] The "Little America" exploration base established in Antarctica set up the first radio station on that continent in 1933 and continued broadcasting until January 1935.
[2] Joyce and her classmates were, of course, beginning their adult lives in the midst of the Great Depression.

The Girls in Their Summer Dresses

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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society and Fred Ols.

I've had this photo for years but didn't post it because I had so little information about it, and couldn't even definitely place it in Hobart beyond oral tradition. However, just recently I came across an article in the Index-Commonwealth of March 26, 1936, entitled, "Mitchell's Restaurant Sold to E. Gary Couple," which named the buyer as Henry C. Bass, "who formerly operated the Bass Confectionary and Lunch Room on Park[update] Street in East Gary [Lake Station]." Not named in the article was his wife, Martha, who is standing in the restaurant's doorway in this photo.

The seller was Flora Belle Mitchell, who went by her middle name. She had been operating a restaurant in Hobart since 1930, perhaps earlier. She and her husband, Tymon, had left farming in Porter County (1900 Census) to open a restaurant in Valparaiso by 1910 — the "Farmers Restaurant," according to a 1911 directory. [1] Presumably Belle was involved in operating that restaurant, although she had some seven children to look after as well. After moving to Indiana Avenue, the Mitchells left Valpo in 1916 to relocate to Gary;[2] but the 1920 Census shows Tymon managing a hotel in Wheatfield, Jasper County. Tymon died in 1928. The 1930 Census finds the widowed Belle in Hobart, "cook and manager" of a restaurant, located at 231 Main Street per our 1930 directory. The 1936 article about the restaurant's sale gives its address as 216 Main Street.

And now I have spent so much time talking about the Mitchells that I shall have to leave Martha and the rest of the Basses for another time.
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[4/30/2022 update] I forgot to add that Ainsworth's vintage-car expert thinks that the car parked in front of the restaurant is probably a 1935 or '36 Pontiac.

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[3/29/2023 update] Fred Ols tells me that Parke Street in Lake Station was much closer than Park Street to the Basses' home, and also that Martha did not drive a car. It's quite possible that whoever wrote the article for the Hobart paper confused Parke and Park Streets in Lake Station.
[1] Valparaiso, Indiana, City Directory, 1911. Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
[2] "Do You Remember the Day?" Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 16 Apr. 1931.

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.

Vern, There's A Man at the Door, Wants to Gas Up His Flying Machine

It wasn't quite true that people no longer bothered looking up at airplanes — witnesses reconstructed the route of this plane as it ran out of gas, came down in an oat-field, and eventually took off again. But probably the path of the plane's flight, or the sound of its engine, alerted people that it was in trouble, and who can resist looking, under those circumstances?


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From the Hobart Gazette of Sept. 3, 1920.


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My reconstruction of the incident. Think the NTSB will hire me?

The Bodamer who supplied the gas is not specified, and while the 1920 Census shows two Bodamer households nearby (on what's now South Hobart Road), Vernon Bodamer seems a more likely candidate than his widowed Aunt Bertha.

(Below the plane story, a little news about work on the Lincoln Highway.)