Bale's Island

At the Hobart Historical Society museum, I asked to be shown, on the Google satellite view of Hobart, where Bale's Island was. Here is my attempt to reproduce what I was shown:


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Image from Google Maps.

We're looking at an area south of Sixth Street, just east of Gilbert Court.

It wasn't an island, but a swimming hole used by kids such as Elinor Ferren, born in 1911, who grew up in Hobart and told stories to her daughter about swimming there on the girls' days (as opposed to the boys' days).

According to a 1970 Gazette article, Bale's Island was "completely surrounded by water" when B.B. and Emily Bale settled in that area and built their first home, a log cabin, circa 1866.[1] I seem to recall reading elsewhere (if I could only remember where!) that the "island" became an island only on occasions when Duck Creek was running high.

The 1970 article was accompanied by this letter of reminiscences, written by Dorothy Mellon Gant, born in 1912.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The Mellon family lived at 1001 Georgianna Street (1930 and 1940 censuses). Here is Dorothy Mellon as a senior in high school, from the 1930 Aurora.


Image from Ancestry.com.


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[1] "Here's Bale's Island," Hobart Gazette, 21 May 1970.

Mary Ellen (Mellon) Halfman

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Image courtesy of the Merrillville-Ross Township Historical Society.


About a year before the Civil War broke out, Mary Ellen Mellon became Mrs. Henry Halfman.

Her descendants compiled some notes to go with this photo, including the interesting fact that the land for what is now St. Peter and Paul Cemetery was donated to the church by her father.


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Image courtesy of the Merrillville-Ross Township Historical Society.


Mary Ellen's obituary had little to add:


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Hobart Gazette, June 3, 1910.


The portrait above is undated. Per the Chicago Historical Society's Chicago Photographers 1847 Through 1900 as Listed in Chicago City Directories (1958), John B. Wilson was at 389 State Street from 1887 through 1900 (excluding the year 1890), so Mary Ellen could be anywhere from 50 to 63 years old in that photo.

Henry Halfman

This is Henry Halfman, who farmed on the northeast corner of Broadway and 61st.


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Image courtesy of the Merrillville-Ross Township Historical Society.


The photo is undated. Although I can't find a listing for the photography partnership of Iverson & Boyd, the Chicago Historical Society's index of photographers places Henry Iverson at 2176 Archer Avenue from 1881 to 1885. In that timeframe, Henry Halfman, who was born in 1837, would have been in his late forties, which looks about right.

For a sketch of his life, we turn to his obituary:


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Hobart Gazette, March 24, 1905.

From God's House to Men's Houses

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Hobart Gazette 24 June 1921.

This is what Joe E. Mellon was offering for sale:



By 1921 this frame building had been moved from Main Street onto the parsonage lawn along Front Street.

Mr. Mellon found a buyer whose name we don't know — just an ordinary man who contributed as best he could to Hobart's long tradition of demolishing its historical buildings.


Hobart Gazette 22 July 1921.


(Happier news of some other acquaintances: John Kegebein already planning to rebuild his burned barn, and Ruth Miller visiting her family on their farm south of Ainsworth.)

A Faithful and Valuable Employee

Deering Melin as a high-school senior in 1909.
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

In April 1921, Deering Melin left his job with the Hobart Bank. Both local papers used such words as "faithful," "valuable" and "valued" to describe him as a bank employee; I wonder if perhaps there was gossip about him and the previous year's embarrassment that they wished to contradict.

Deering was not going far: only a stone's throw, to the Kulage Brick Works, where he would take up an office position.


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The Kulage Brick Works circa 1920.
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

He stayed on with the bank a few days after handing in his resignation in order to train his successor, Joseph E. Mellon.


Sources:
♦ "D.D. Melin Resigns — Jos. E. Mellon to Take Position at Hobart Bank." Hobart News 28 Apr. 1921.
♦ "Deering Melin Quits Bank." Hobart Gazette 29 Apr. 1921.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 5 May 1921.