Home-Brew Joints, and Wandering Charles

The Gazette is again dropping hints about Prohibition scofflaws,* without naming any names. And an update on Wandering Charles Dewell as he wanders to a new home.


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From the Hobart Gazette of Oct. 8, 1920.

On a 1960 map of Hobart, I find a McClaran's Addition south of Eighth between Lake and State Streets:


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The 1930 directory shows Charles Dewell at 815 Lake Street — within McClaran's Addition — so perhaps that's what the Gazette meant.

I don't have a clue where the "Findling flat on Lake street, formerly the Nitchman house," was. As far as the Gazette is concerned, it sounds as if poor Billy Krull has been handing out house numbers in vain.

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*Reader, did you know that the word "scofflaw" was coined in 1924 precisely to describe people who flouted the Prohibition laws?

Community and Communicable

The former Hobart House, remodeled and with a new hardwood floor in its dance hall, was now to re-open as the Community Building. It was thus "Hobart's oldest and newest hall," since the third floor had been a dance hall half a century earlier, before being partitioned into hotel rooms. The building's basement, also newly remodeled and painted, was expected to be used for a soft drink and ice cream parlor. All in all, the old building seemed prepared as the site of much sociable fun for the town.

Speaking of sociable fun, the M.E. Church on Fourth Street had just seen a lively celebration, as Bertha Messick hosted a joint birthday party honoring her daughter, Dalia, and a boy names James Hawke (poor little overshadowed thing!). Some 34 children and unnumbered adults crowded into the church basement for three hours.

Community Hall's first dance took place on Wednesday, April 23, and thereafter the hall was opened to the public every Saturday night. A mid-May notice read: "You who enjoy dancing on a fine floor to good music, are assured a pleasant and enjoyable evening in Community hall every Saturday. Admission: Gentlemen, 50 cents. Ladies, 25 cents."

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The day after the hall's first dance, the News reported that an "epidemic" of typhoid fever "raging" in Hammond had taken the life of an uncle of Hobart's Charles Nitchman. Early in May, the Gazette noted that an "epidemic of scarlet fever" was apparently underway in Valparaiso. A month later, measles, chicken pox and whooping cough were reported in Hobart.


Sources:
♦ "Additional Local News." Hobart Gazette 9 May 1919.
♦ "Community Hall Will Be Formally Opened to the Public on April 23rd." Hobart News 17 Apr. 1919.
♦ "Grand Opening of Community Hall, Hobart, Ind., Wednesday Evening, April 23rd, 1919." Hobart Gazette 18 April 1919.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 24 Apr. 1919; 15 May 1919; 12 June 1919.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 18 Apr. 1919.

A Mild but Sickly Winter

The winter of the new year was proving milder than usual. With an average temperature of 40 degrees, January 1919 was the warmest on record at Purdue University's meteorological station — a great contrast to the previous January, with its blizzard and its 12 days of below-zero temperatures.

In mid-February, Indiana's fuel administrator sent word to all local fuel administrators (including William Killigrew in Hobart) that their positions were being terminated at the end of the month. They were directed to wrap up the affairs of their offices and make a final report by Washington. The Gazette commented, "This means that after the end of this month all dealers in fuel will be permitted to conduct their business as they please. You may look for cheaper coal."

As the fuel administrators closed down their offices, the mild weather continued.

Unfortunately, so did the Spanish influenza. It defied common wisdom. Back in December, the Gazette's editor had seen some local children, hatless and wearing thin coats, out playing in chilly weather, and chided his readers with an article titled, "No Wonder the 'Flu' Spreads"; but early February found him suggesting that a week of unseasonably warm weather might be responsible for a recent increase in flu cases.

Southeast of Hobart, flu invaded the family of Edward and Louise Schavey — their two little daughters fell ill, and so did the 30-year-old Ed. The girls recovered, but Ed, after some ten days of illness, died on February 13.

February's last Gazette reported that Charles Nitchman had been down for a week with influenza, and Professor Albert Wolkenhauer, the "German teacher," was finally able to leave his house after three weeks' illness and convalescence. On February 25, Mr. and Mrs. John Gray of Hobart lost their eldest son to pneumonia following influenza; the 29-year-old Jesse Gray, who had been farming in Winfield Township, left a widow and a three-year-old child, both sick with flu.

The March 7 Gazette noted that three-year-old Harriet Livingston had "been ill for over a week with peculiar symptoms, bordering on 'sleeping sickness', which is said to be prevalent in some cities following influenza," but she seemed to be improving. (The "sleeping sickness" referred to was encephalitis lethargica, and we still do not know whether it was caused by, or only happened to coincide with, the Spanish influenza.)


Sources:
♦ "Deaths for the Week." Hobart Gazette 21 Feb. 1919.
♦ "'Flu' Increases Death Rate 100 Per Cent in Indiana for Year 1918." Hobart News 6 Mar. 1919.
♦ "Fuel Administrators to Quit." Hobart Gazette 14 Feb. 1919.
♦ "Funeral of Ed Schavey Held Sunday." Hobart News 20 Feb. 1919.
♦ "January Mildest in History of Purdue Weather Bureau." Hobart News 6 Feb. 1919.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 7 Feb. 1919; 14 Feb. 1919; 28 Feb. 1919; 7 Mar. 1919.
♦ "Mildest Winter in Thirty-nine Years, Says Forecaster." Hobart News 6 Mar. 1919.
♦ "No Wonder the 'Flu' Spreads." Hobart Gazette 6 Dec. 1918.