Paula Moll

From the Busse autograph collection.


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

When Martha Moll's little sister, Paula, got around to signing Lena's album, she didn't offer any sentimental stuff about green leaves upon the pine, but rather some practical advice about what to do when you are old and in harm(?). And she took a rather casual approach to how she got the words onto paper. Not your typical 13-year-old schoolgirl.

This undated portrait of Paula may have been made to commemorate her confirmation, so perhaps it was taken a year or two after she wrote about boots.



Per the Indiana Marriage Collection, Paula married Herbert Shearer in October 1917. The 1920 Census finds the young couple living in Hobart, he working at a brickyard, she staying home to care for their toddler daughter. All I know about Herbert is that he was not one of the Ainsworth Shearers.

Martha Moll

From the Busse autograph collection.


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

While I fail to see any connection between the color of pine needles and the choice of friends, evidently this little poem was popular in this place and time for autograph albums — we shall see it again.

Martha was 14 years old and the middle child of Gustav and Huldah Moll. The 1910 Census shows the family of eight — counting Huldah's elderly mother — living on Kelly Street (possibly neighbors of our friends Charles and Anna Lee). Gustav worked as a section foreman for one of the railroads.

At this point I don't know what became of Martha. The 1920 Census shows her still single, still living with her parents, and I think I've found a 1925 phone directory that shows her working as a bookkeeper in Gary, still living in Hobart … and beyond that I can't trace her.

Here she is in a formal portrait that is undated, but I would guess it was taken within a few years of her signing Lena's album.

Lee Family Matters

Concerning Charles A. Lee's employment: Item from the "Personal Mention" column of the Hobart News of December 21, 1911.

Concerning the death of Frederick Lee:

• Article from the Hobart News of January 18, 1912.
• Article from the Hobart Gazette of January 19, 1912.
• Card of Thanks from the Hobart Gazette of January 19, 1912.

Concerning the plumbing shop in the Hobart House: Article from the Hobart Gazette of November 2, 1939.