Bruce Mitchell Times Two

This postcard is postmarked 1955:


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It introduces us to a father-and-son team of entrepreneurs who operated businesses in Hobart for some three decades. They sold a whole lot more than sporting goods, as we are told by this advertising flyer bound into the Classifieds section of the 1952-53 Hobart directory:[1]


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society, Hobart, Indiana.

Wellington Bruce Mitchell was the father, and Thomas Bruce Mitchell the son. The father usually went by "W.B."; the son almost always went by his middle name.

According to W.B.'s obituary, their business connection to Hobart started in 1932.


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"Deaths," Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 22 Dec. 1964.

But their emotional connection to Hobart started even earlier. In April 1910 W.B. married Mary Blaemire (Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index), a daughter of William and Isabell Blaemire,[2] who were Hobart residents as early as the 1880 Census, and who are now buried in Hobart Cemetery.

The 1910 Census, taken a couple of weeks before his wedding, recorded W.B. living with his parents in Chicago's Ward 8 — the furthest southeastern part of Chicago, bordering on Indiana. W.B. and his father both worked in steel mills.

W.B.'s draft card, filled out June 1917, stated that he and Mary, with their two children (the youngest being Thomas Bruce), lived in southeast Chicago while he commuted to a job in Gary, Indiana. Three years later, per the 1920 Census, they still lived in the same area, W.B. working as a millwright at an unnamed construction company.

In July 1929 we find this little personal item about the family in a south Chicago newspaper's social column: "Mr. and Mrs. Wellington Bruce Mitchell and their children, 7842 Paxton ave., left last week for a visit to their summer home at Hobart, Ind."[3] Their owning a summer home implies a fairly comfortable financial situation. In the 1930 Census, W.B. described himself as a self-employed real estate broker who owned his residence in south Chicago.

Two years after that, as we know, the family moved to Hobart. We start to find directory listings for them in the 1936-37 directory,[4] which shows them renting the house at 769 E. Third Street. We are told that W.B. is a merchant with a business called Hobart Paint & Glass, but there is no separate listing for that business. It was probably operating out of the Guyer Building, where the old-timers in 1979 remembered it, and where it was listed in the October 1940 directory.[5] A slightly later directory, for 1940-41,[6] showed Mitchell's Hobart Service Supply Co. (listed under "Paint Dealers") at 151 Illinois Street.[7]

In 1938 Thomas Bruce Mitchell got married.


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"Hobart," Hammond Times, 26 Sept. 1938.

The two Mitchell families set up separate households near each other on Kelly Street. Bruce (Jr.) worked in his father's stored; W.B. described himself as the owner of a lumber company (1940 Census) and a building contractor (1940-41 directory).

The sporting goods business makes its first appearance in Hobart's January 1946 directory,[8] with "Mitchell's" at 151 Illinois Street being listed in the Classified section under "Sporting Goods — Retail." The same business at the same address is also listed under "Hardware Stores" and "Paint — Retail." Under the latter heading we also find Hobart Paint & Glass at the same address. All these businesses shared one phone number: Hobart-75. In 1949, according to a photocopied newspaper article in the Hobart Historical Society museum files, a Mitchell appliance store was opened[9] (possibly at 225 Center Street, as listed in the 1952-53 directory insert posted above).

In the 1950 Census, W.B. is described as a "proprietor" in the "retail lumber & coal" industry, while Bruce is likewise a "proprietor," in the "retail sporting goods" industry.

As we already learned from his obituary, W.B. retired from business in 1952.

The 1956 directory[10] has a listing only for "Mitchell Bruce Sports" [sic] — no indication that any of the lumber, paint, or hardware business continued. But the Hobart Historical Society's file contains a photocopied newspaper article from 1957 about the "grand opening of Mitchell's Hardware store in its new location at 225 Center St."[11]

In 1962[12] Mitchell's of Hobart was operating at 151 Illinois. By 1968[13] it had moved across the street to 154 Illinois. That was the year of Thomas Bruce Mitchell's death, and, so far as I can tell, the end of the Mitchell business empire in Hobart. The 1970 directory has no business listings for any Mitchell business, and Bruce's widow, Loretta, is listed in Ogden Dunes.[14]

Bruce and Loretta (who died in 2005) are buried in Mosier Cemetery.

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As for the recipient of our postcard, Lloyd Schroeder — he lived a long, eventful life and now rests in Valparaiso.

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[1] 1952 — Directory — 1953 (Hobart – Wheeler – New Chicago – Ainsworth – Green Acres – Deep River – South Hobart Twp. – South Portage Twp.), published by Advance-News, Nappanee, Indiana (copy at the Hobart Historical Society museum).
[2] Indiana Death Certificates.
[3] "Personals," Southtown Economist (Chicago, Ill.), 19 July 1929.
[4] City Directory/Hobart, Ind./1936-37 ["Compiled by House-to-House Canvas"]. 1936: Mrs. Sherlock Hope (copy at the Hobart Historical Society museum).
[5] Hobart/Chesterton/East Gary/Kouts/Ogden Dunes/Valparaiso/Wheeler. Indiana Associated Telephone Corporation, October 1940 (copy at the Hobart Historical Society museum).
[6] City Directory/Hobart, Indiana/1940 – 1941 (copy at the Hobart Historical Society museum).
[7] Per the county records, the gas station now on that site was built in 1979. I have not been able to find any bird's-eye or aerial views showing whatever buildings may have been there before 1979.
[8] Valparaiso/Chesterton/East Gary/Hobart/Kouts/Ogden Dunes/Wheeler. Indiana Associated Telephone Corporation, January 1946 (copy at the Hobart Historical Society museum).
[9] "Mitchell's To Hold Grand Opening Of New Appliance Center On Saturday, Oct. 1," Hobart Gazette, 15 Sept. 1949.
[10] Robinson's Hobart, Indiana City Directory. George C. Robinson Directory Service (Hillsdale, Mich.), 1956 (copy at the Hobart Historical Society museum).
[11] "Many Prizes Awarded at Grand Opening of Mitchell's Hardware," Hobart Gazette, 28 Mar. 1957.
[12] Polk's Hobart (Lake County, Ind.) City Directory 1962. R.L. Polk & Co. (Detroit, Mich.).
[13] Polk's Hobart (Lake County, Ind.) City Directory 1968. R.L. Polk & Co. (Detroit, Mich.) (copy at the Hobart Historical Society museum).
[14] Polk's Hobart (Lake County, Ind.) City Directory 1970. R.L. Polk & Co. (Detroit, Mich.) (copy at the Hobart Historical Society museum).

The Second One Didn't Count

I came across the 1952 obituary of Belle (Norton) Mitchell, former restaurant owner of Hobart and Valpo, and found that she died as the wife of Miles Garland …


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Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 9 June 1952.

… but she was buried as the wife of Tymon Mitchell.

As the obituary states, she died while visiting one of her children. It occurs to me to wonder whether Miles Garland went with her on this visit, and whether he paid for the funeral, and whether he put up any kind of a fight about the name she would be buried under. Perhaps he understood how the children felt about their mother being Belle Mitchell for eternity.

He had children of his own. His first marriage, in 1899, was to Ida May Martin. But it appears that Miles and Ida divorced some time after the 1930 Census — the last census where they are recorded living together. By 1940 they were living apart, and Ida described herself as widowed. (In the 1950 census, she was listed as divorced.)

In fact, the first Mrs. Garland died shortly before the second.


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Courier and Press (Evansville, Ind.), 20 Apr. 1952.

Normally, a husband would be mentioned, either as surviving or as having "preceded her in death."

Divorce was not common in those days, as we all know — there had to be something seriously wrong in the marriage. Now I'm wondering whether Belle went to Hebron to get away from her unbearable second husband.

This stuff is like a cross between putting together a jigsaw puzzle and writing a novel.

H.C. Bass' Restaurant

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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 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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[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.

Boy Scout Troop Charter

Since we've struck a Boy Scout tangent, let's look at another treasure from the steamer trunk — a charter for Ainsworth's own Boy Scout troop:


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Image courtesy of E.H.