Ainsworth School-Year Souvenir, 1897-98 (Part 5)

(continued from Part 4)


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Now I shall deal with the names Glattli and Mankey, because I think they are related. Why do I think that? First, here is Edward Mankey's 1963 death notice:


Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso), May 6, 1963.

Who on earth (I asked myself) was this surviving sister, Mrs. Louise Mounts? The only Mankey girl I knew of was Sophie Mankey Triebess. So I went looking for Louise, and eventually found her death certificate.


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Image from Ancestry.com.

Louise's mother was Dorothea Mankey.

Dorothea had become a widow in 1889, when her husband, William, died. William was the father of Henry, Eddie, and Willie, as well as Sophie.

William and Dorothea are elusive. I can't find them in the 1880 Census or any earlier one, nor can I find a marriage record for them. They likely were married around 1880, if Sophie, born in 1881, was their first child. Her birthplace was Indiana, while the boys all were born in Illinois (William, 1883; Edward, 1885; Henry, 1888). Dorothea had a local connection here: her sister, Minnie Brockmiller, became Mrs. Christ Passow in 1885 and resided in Hobart. That marriage had taken place in Cook County, Illinois, so perhaps the Brockmillers lived in the Chicago area.

After William's death, apparently Dorothea married Carl aka Charles Glattli — but again, I can't find a record of that marriage. According to a family tree someone compiled on Ancestry.com, Anna Glattli was born in November 1890, so Dorothea may have been her mother. (Anna died in Illinois in 1920; her death certificate is not online.) That would account for the Anna Glattli on our 1897-98 souvenir. Then Louise Antonie Glattli, the future Mrs. Mounts, was born in 1891.

Dorothea Brockmiller Mankey Glattli died in 1899 and is buried under the Mankey name. (She died in Chicago, but her residence was Ainsworth, Indiana, per the Cook County, Illinois, Deaths Index. I cannot find a death notice in the local newspaper.) Carl/Charles Glattli survived her, and apparently remarried soon and moved to Chicago, if I've found the right people in the 1900 Census (and if the enumerator made a mistake in the "How many years married" column).

The Mankey children did not go to Chicago with their stepfather. The 1900 Census shows them scattered. While I can't find Sophie at all, I suspect she was living with relatives in Chicago, where she married Julius Triebess in 1901. William, age 16, was a hired farmhand living in the household of Michael and Mary Foreman. The 14-year-old Edward was living in the home of a Calumet Township farmer named William Gallagher; Eddie is described as a "servant" but is also "at school." I can't find their younger brother, Henry, in 1900, but in the 1910 Census he turns up in Hobart, in the home of Aunt Minnie and Uncle Christ, employed in a brickyard.

William married Lena Springman in 1906, and they farmed in Ross Township through the 1920 Census, but it looks as if they moved to Chicago by the 1930 Census.

Edward married Alvina Koeppen in 1911. They farmed in Porter County through the 1940 Census, but then moved to Hobart.

Henry got out of the sticks, married and resided in Chicago, but had moved to Calumet City by 1974, when he died.

Anna Glattli married a man named Charles Mosel in 1911 and lived out the rest of her short life in Blue Island, Illinois.

Louise Glattli married a Joseph Jackson in Blackford County, Indiana, in 1916, and after his death in 1937, married the Rev. Claude Mounts in Gary, Indiana, in 1938.

I can't believe how many hours of my life went into figuring this all out.

Finally, here is the death notice of Dorothea Brockmiller Mankey Glattli's mother, from the "Mortuary Record" column of the Hobart Gazette of March 31, 1905:

Mrs. Dora Brockmiller, mother of Mrs. Christ Passow, Jr., of this place, died suddenly at 3948 State street, Chicago, on Tuesday, March 28, 1905, aged 71 years. Services were held at the late residence at 12:15 yesterday and the remains were shipped to Hobart on the Milk Train and taken to the German Lutheran Church where services were conducted by Rev. Schuelke. The interment occurred in the Hobart cemetery.

The deceased is mourned by three children, Mrs. Minnie Passow, Henry Brockmiller and Mrs. Ida Quade.

No mention of the daughter who predeceased her, the ever-elusive Dorothea.

[to be continued]

Here Comes the Triebess Family … Again

Julius Triebess had moved his family from Chicago to Ainsworth in 1917 — and I'm still not sure if that was a return for them, or their first attempt to live on the farm Julius owned.

Whatever it was, that experience ended when they moved back to Chicago in 1919.

Now it's 1923, and the family (what's left of it) is returning to Ainsworth …


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Hobart Gazette 16 March 1923.

… not to farm, apparently, since they have rented the land to Sophie Triebess's brother, but only to live.

Down in the right-hand column, we learn that the Triebess farm had previously been rented to John H. Meyer … which might explain why there was an Andy Meyer graduating from (I believe) the Ainsworth school in 1922.

And below that item comes a little news about the Ainsworth Department Store under its new proprietor, Henry Paulus. Verna Guernsey, the lucky winner of a bag of flour, may still be occupying the Howard H. Smith farm.

By the way, I'm guessing that the "Raschke" in the article in the left-hand column entitled "Ready to Bore for Oil" is our own William Raschka, formerly of Ainsworth.


Elsewhere in the same issue of the Gazette, an ad for the Ainsworth Department Store.

She That Was Sophie Mankey

Thus far I haven't learned much about Julius Triebess and his family, but thanks to this little item from January 1923, I have learned that Sophie Triebess' maiden name was Mankey.


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Hobart Gazette 12 Jan. 1923.

With that information, I can be pretty sure Julius and Sophie were married in Chicago on June 11, 1901 (Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index). According her Indiana Death Certificate, her parents were William and Dorothea* (Brockmiller) Mankey … but they are proving elusive in the census records.

Her brother, William Mankey, farmed the east side of Randolph Street south of the Grand Trunk tracks.


Reported at the bottom of that column, Dr. L.M. Friedrich had minor car crash somewhere south of the intersection of Randolph Street and E. 73rd Avenue, where the Ed Niksch place lay.

Over in the left-hand column is a (partial, maybe) listing of who was in the local dairy business in January 1923.

__________________

*In death certificates of other relatives, her name is given as Dorothy or Doris.

Ross Twp. Farmers' Institute

I gather that in January 1922 Mary Baird Chester McDaniel was still living on the Chester farm, or somewhere in Ross Township, with her granddaughters, since one of them — Helen, now about 13 or 14 years old — walked away with three first prizes at the Ross Township Farmers' Institute.


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Hobart News 2 Feb. 1922.

Glen Peterson didn't do so badly either. About 13 years old, he was the youngest son of Mabel Peterson, Secretary of the Institute and writer of this report.

Vernon and Emery Hurlburt were the only children of Jacob and Augusta, who farmed some 80 acres at the northeast corner of E. 73rd Ave. and Grand Blvd.

Irvin Wojahn was the oldest child of Louis and Lena (Fasel) Wojahn, who had supposedly retired from farming in 1917 — but I can't find them in the 1920 census to see what they were up to.

Dorothy Mankey was the only daughter of William and Lena (Springman) Mankey.


Additional Sources:
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Ross Twp. Farmers Hold Big Meeting." Hobart Gazette 3 Feb. 1922.

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.

Ross Township School Commencement

The new W.G. Haan school's first academic year was nearing its end. The auditorium — in the school's basement, I believe — would be the venue for Ross Township's eighth-grade commencement ceremonies in May 1921.


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From the Hobart Gazette, 20 May 1921.

We know the District 2 teacher, Elsie Gruel. I suppose District 2 was the W.G. Haan school, considering the number of graduating students in that district and the distribution of their homes around Ainsworth — for example, Vincent Chester came from the northeast, John Mankey from the southeast, Grace Sullivan from the southwest.

Mabel Henrichs, or Henricks, was Laura's sister.


… Also, a progress report on the Lincoln Highway improvements.

How Do You Spell Your Name, Again?

I just love these actions to quiet title. Here we have George Chester seeking to establish his perfect right to the farm his father, Charles, bought for him. From the length of this notice, it looks as if hundreds of people have had some claim on this land, but when you look closely you see there were not that many — it's just that they never spelled their names the same way twice, and due diligence requires every variation to be published.


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From the Hobart News of April 1, 1920.

So let's count:

1. Andrew L. Booth (or Andrew J. Boothe or Andrean J. Booth) and his wife, Sarah;
2. Winnefred Linsey (or Winfred Linsey) and her husband, name unknown;
3. Finette Gordon (or Finnet Gordon, or Finette Pierce) and her husband(s), name(s) unknown;
4. James Crawford and his wife, name unknown;
5. Horace Marble and his wife, Martha;
6. William Mankey (or Menkey or Menke) and his wife, Doris;
7. Frank Abel and his wife, name unknown;
8. Oswald Kleine (or Oswold Kline or Oswold Kleine or Oswald Kline or Oswald L.E. Kline) and his wife or wives, Christiana and Emeline;
9. Vincent Hassler (or Vencennes Hassler or Vincent Hasler) and his wife, whose name may be Anna;
10. Frank J. Smith (or Francis J. Smith) and his wife, whose name may be Hattie;
11. George Earle and his wife, name unknown;
12. George Earle & Son; and
13. Charles Maybaum and his wife, Carolina.

That's only 13 pairs, and there you have, for search-engine purposes, every name they ever called themselves when they were dealing with this land.

Below that notice, I see we are finally getting around to settling the estates of a couple of Ainsworth-area people who have left Ainsworth forever.

Farm Moving Time Again

John Kilmer had finally come home from overseas, from the army, to see again his wife — the former Hazel Price — and to see for the first time his one-year-old daughter, Juanita. By early January, the little family was together again on a farm in Iowa.

F.B. and Carrie Price, John's in-laws in Ainsworth, were making arrangements for him to earn his living much nearer their home. They rented "the George Hayward farm, on the Lincoln Highway," which, if it retained in 1920 its 1908 dimensions, was quite a spread. The plan was for John and Hazel Kilmer to begin farming that land in the spring.


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The Hayward farm in 1908; just a stone's throw to the northeast, the land the Prices bought in 1918.

And so it was time for Charles Shults, the Hayward farm's current tenant, to move on. Which he did, eastward to what was still known as the "Springman farm," though by 1920 it may have been already owned by William Springman's son-in-law William Mankey.


The 113-acre Mankey farm as it appeared in 1926; outlined in red, the original Springman 40 acres (per the 1908 map).

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In other moving news, "Mrs. Gib Bullock" (the widowed Alice Estelle Markham Bullock was offering for sale her "frame barn on Center street." She didn't mention the land it stood on, so perhaps she expected the seller to pick it up and move it.


Sources:
♦ 1908 Plat Map.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1926 Plat Book.
♦ "Additional Local News." Hobart Gazette 2 Jan. 1920.
♦ "All kinds of Wants." Hobart Gazette 9 Jan. 1920.

He Couldn't Go Home Again

Charles Maybaum might return to the farmhouse south of Ainsworth where he had spent practically all his life, but he could never go home again, for his mother was gone.

Caroline Wagner Maybaum died on the morning of Friday, March 7, 1919, after some eight weeks' illness. She was 77 years old, the mother of 10 children, grandmother of 15 and great-grandmother of eight. She had come from Germany with her husband, Charles, in 1871. By 1891 they were settled on the Ainsworth farm, and there she spent the rest of her life.

Beyond that I know little about her. With so many children to raise, a farm household to run, and then grandchildren and great-grandchildren to help out with, she was no doubt a busy woman, but she spent her time quietly so far as the newspapers are concerned.

And now she sleeps in Crown Hill Cemetery beside her husband, who preceded her in death.

Their eldest son, August, was appointed executor of the estate. Roscoe Peddicord acted as his attorney.

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In looking over my notes on the Maybaums, I realize that I was not fair in describing Charles Jr. as "unadventurous." There are other ways of being adventurous besides moving out of your parents' house and marrying.

For example: a Charles Maybaum was elected Ross Township road supervisor in November 1902 — but I suppose that may have been Charles Sr.; the report did not specify. It was definitely Charles Jr. who was elected road supervisor in 1907. In 1911 he ran for re-election; this time he lost to Lee Hunter. He filed a petition to get on the ballot in 1914, but I don't know what happened in that election.

Charles Jr. was something of an inventor. In January 1903, the Gazette reported: "Chas. Maybaum, Jr., near Ainsworth has invented an attachment to a thrashing machine, which he thinks of having patented. He also has another invention which promises to remunerate him handsomely." A month later he was seeking capital investors:


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If anything came of these plans, I haven't heard about it, but the point is that he made the venture.

In the autumn of 1903 Charles Jr. left for Mississippi with two other Ainsworth men, Ed Mankey and Mike Foreman, "on a prospecting tour." A month later Charles Jr. was back with a new scheme: "I have returned from Mississippi and would be pleased to talk to anyone who wishes to know more about Mississippi farm land and a home for himself, or cheap rates he can get."

In 1908 Charles Jr. had a five-room house built, apparently as a rental property. I don't know for certain where it was — or perhaps he had two such houses, for he once refers to such a house in Ainsworth, and then again he offers for rent a five-room house on Water Street. In July 1918, he sold the Water Street house to William Thiede.

That is the summary of his public activities thus far. You can see why I want to retract the "unadventurous."


Sources:
♦ "Additional Local News." Hobart Gazette 16 Oct. 1914; 23 Apr. 1915; 26 July 1918.
♦ "Ainsworth." Hobart News 21 Dec. 1911.
♦ "Are You Interested?" Hobart Gazette 13 Feb. 1903.
♦ "Deaths for the Week." Hobart Gazette 14 Mar. 1919.
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette 16 Jan. 1903; 20 Nov. 1903; 20 Dec. 1907.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 20 Nov. 1908; 8 Dec. 1911; 30 Mar. 1917.
♦ "Mrs. Caroline Maybaum." Hobart News 13 Mar. 1919.
♦ "Notice of Administration." Hobart News 20 Mar. 1919.
♦ "Republicans Victorious." Hobart Gazette 7 Nov. 1902.
♦ "Road Supervisors Elected." Hobart Gazette 22 Dec. 1911.

Burning Barns

About 5:00 a.m. on July 25, 1918, an auto party on its way to Kankakee was passing the Ed Cole farm three miles south of Ainsworth. One of the motorists noticed that the Cole barn was on fire. The driver stopped the car and they all spilled out, some running to the house to pound on the doors and rouse the family, others rushing into the barn to save whatever they could.

They managed to get the only livestock — a pony and a pig — out of the barn before it became completely engulfed in flame. Nothing more could be saved. Ten tons of hay went up in smoke, along with tools, binder twine and other miscellaneous articles.

The Coles suspected that the fire had been started by a tramp, who reportedly had been "tracked some distance from the barn," but he or she was never found.

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On August 5, Lena Mankey and her ten-year-old son Johnny were turning the cows out of the barn after the evening milking when they noticed that a separate barn holding some 60 tons of hay was on fire.

The hay barn was only 30 feet from the cow barn, which itself was attached to a horse barn, a machinery shed and a windmill. The growing fire threatened them all, and perhaps even the house should the wind shift. Lena and her husband William tried to fight the fire, with the help of dozens of neighbors who now came streaming in from the countryside, alerted either by the rising smoke or quick phone calls. But the hay barn fire outpaced all their efforts and spread to the cow barn. By the time the Hobart fire department came on the scene, both barns were blazing. There was little anyone could do but try to protect the house.

When it was all over, William and Lena had lost both barns, all their hay, their farm machinery and tools, harnesses, etc. But the wind had stayed favorable, and so their house was safe, as well as all their livestock. William estimated the loss at about $5,000; eventually his insurance paid out $2,017 on the claim. It was a severe blow, but the Mankeys intended to rebuild.

♦    ♦    ♦
In its report, the Gazette referred to the Mankey farm as the "old John Springman farm," and the 1890 Plat Book shows 40 acres of it owned by "John Sprinkman." I suppose that's why the part of Randolph Street north of Route 30 was called the Springman road into the 1930s or perhaps even later.


Sources:
♦ "Barn and Hay Burns." Hobart Gazette 9 Aug. 1918.
♦ "Barn on Ed Cole Farm South of Ainsworth Burns Sunday Morning." Hobart News 25 July 1917.
♦ "Ed Cole's Barn Burns." Hobart Gazette 26 July 1918.
♦ "Large Barn on Wm. Mankey Farm Destroyed by Fire Monday." Hobart News 8 Aug. 1918.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 16 Aug. 1918.