She Was a V, A, M, P …

My only memory of the Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour is Cher's recurring vamp song, which comes to mind now that I'm delivering on my promise to dish the dirt about Emma Shearer.

I will let this newspaper article from October 2, 1908, tell the story:



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Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.) 2 Oct. 1908.

Although the article gives her earlier husband's name as James Adams, per the county records it was Anthony S. Adams, and the date of their marriage February 28, 1901. She was then about 34 years old, he about 28 — old enough to know what he was doing, you'd think. But what "disclosures" could he have made to provoke her to kick him out of the buggy? My guess is that he hadn't gotten around to divorcing a previous wife … or perhaps had a lot of debt.

After divorcing Mr. Adams, Emma appears not to have married anyone else until November 17, 1906, when she and John Kroledge joined their hearts together. He was ten years her junior. Their marital bliss lasted almost two years, it seems.

Several weeks after the above publicity about their impending divorce, another disgruntled hired man came forward:


Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.) 20 Nov. 1908.

I have not been able to learn the outcome of any of these cases. I assume the divorce came through, since John Kroledge married again during Emma's lifetime.

But I did come across this tantalizing tidbit from the spring of 1909 …


Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.) 13 Apr. 1909.

… which stirred up in my mind a vague memory of Emma and Michael O'Hearn being connected somehow, long ago; so I went searching among my notes and found that yes, indeed, they had been closely connected. I don't know exactly when it started, but by the spring of 1895 they were secret lovers. She was about 29, he about 33. In the spring of 1896 their quiet romance ended — loudly.


Hobart Gazette 17 Apr. 1896.


Hobart Gazette 8 May 1896.

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I have yet to learn much about the rest of Emma's life, but at the moment it appears there were no more marriages. In 1910, Emma — living alone, apparently, on her farm on Tenth Street — gave her surname as Kroledge and her status as widowed (the enumerator was Charles A. Blank, who, as a resident of Miller, might not have heard the real story). In 1920, she was still Emma Kroledge, but now "divorced." In her household was a 51-year-old hired man; let us hope he was satisfied with his wages. I cannot find Emma in the 1930 Census.

Emma Kroledge, "widow," died in the Lake County Poor Asylum on May 7, 1932.


Hobart Gazette 12 May 1932.

What little I know of Emma's siblings suggests that all of them were, shall we say, unsettled. I believe brother Charles served a short time in prison in the 1890s; someday I will discuss him in more detail.

Her sister, Mary Ellen, had married John Mander in 1873, and, as we've learned, the marriage was not happy.

"Mrs. Nora Ensign" is somewhat mysterious, because I can't find that Emma ever had a sister named Nora; she did, however, have a sister named Elizabeth E., born in 1857, whose death certificate (1934) described her as the widow of William Ensign … who, according to the marriage records as transcribed on Ancestry.com, married "F. Ellen Shearer" in 1881. We've met Elizabeth Ensign before and learned that she described herself as widowed in 1910 and divorced in 1920. She had two sons, John and Walter (and through John she was the grandmother of Richard Ensign). I can't find Elizabeth in 1930, but I do find a Nora Ensign living in Hobart — about three years older than you would expect Elizabeth to be. Which leads to something else interesting: the marriage records show a Nora Ensign marrying a Fred Kappelman in 1899; and the 1900 census shows John and Walter Ensign living with their mother, whose name is nearly illegible but looks as if it could be "Kappelman, Norra" (you can see for yourself here), and who told the enumerator she had been married for one year. The question is: where was Fred Kappelman in 1900? I have no idea. I have reason to think he was still alive, though I can't find him outside of the local newspapers.

As for William Ensign, I don't know what became of him. I can't find any record of his death.

And as for the "family lot in the Hobart cemetery" mentioned in Emma Kroledge's obituary: I cannot find Emma, nor her parents, nor her sisters in Hobart Cemetery — or anywhere else, for that matter.


Additional Sources:
♦ 1880 Census.
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ 1940 Census.
♦ Indiana Death Certificates.
♦ Indiana Marriage Collection.

Bad Conditions

During the "City Council Proceedings," as related by the Hobart News of June 8, 1922, Dr. Louis M. Friedrich, now on Hobart's Board of Health, reported "a considerable amount of trouble about chickens among neighbors." He also "reported having made an investigation of the Mike O'Hearn place and found it in very bad condition," but the News gave us no further details.

The same issue of the News had a story about Mike O'Hearn finding someone else in a bad condition:


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Hobart News 9 June 1922.

The Chicago road, as you may remember, was Old Ridge Road.

Forty Years a Veterinarian

The big news on May 19, 1922, was Thomas Casbon's surprising win in a lawsuit stemming from his car wreck at Main and Second …


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Hobart Gazette 19 May 1922.

… but we also learn Mike O'Hearn could remember, forty years later, the exact day on which he began his career as a veterinarian — at which time, if we calculate by his age as given in the 1930 Census, he would have been a mere 20 years old.

And John Killigrew's new car got stolen right outside the county courthouse.


Additional Source: "Thos. Casbon of Valpo Given Verdict of $2,250 Against City of Hobart." Hobart News 18 May 1922.

Edward and Tillie (Harms) Niksch

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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

It was Thanksgiving Day 1964, and someone took this photo of Mathilda "Tillie" and Edward Niksch at the celebration of their 60th wedding anniversary.

As I was writing about their purchase of the former Deep River schoolhouse (yesterday's post), I realized that I've scarcely mentioned these folks in the blog, and I had better take some time to make up for that oversight. They were Ainsworthites, after all: Tillie grew up in the Harms farmhouse east of Ainsworth, and she and Edward moved onto the Lincoln Highway/Randolph St. farm in the spring of 1912.

Tillie was born November 12, 1884, so she had just turned 20 when she married Edward Niksch.


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Numerous unnamed Ainsworth-area residents also attended the wedding. (The "bride's home on south Main street" probably refers to Harms house at the southwest corner of Lincoln and 7th.)

Minnie Rossow Harms' family history gives us a brief summary of the next 16 years:

After Mathilda (Tilly) and Ed were married in 1904, they moved into his home on Devonshire street* in Hobart (Leona and son still** live there). Tilly had attended Valparaiso University and worked as a compositor for the Hobart Gazette. Leona was born December 28, 1907 and Laverne April 9, 1909. They had a great desire to go farming and soon Grandfather Harms purchased his Lincoln Highway farm where they raised their family. Donald was born July 3, 1916 and Edward Jr. July 28, 1920.

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I've talked a lot about the Harms family in this blog, but what about Edward Niksch and his people?

Edward was born May 13, 1882, in Hobart, one of ten children of Louis and Minnie (Niemann) Niksch, who by 1891 owned and farmed this land northeast of town:


Image from the 1908 Plat Map.


His mother died in June 1909.



(Yes, it was Edward's sister, Rosa, who had conquered the heart of the redoubtable Michael O'Hearn.)


Louis Niksch followed his wife to the grave in January 1912.



(While the 1900 enumerator recorded Louis' immigration year as 1860, the 1910 enumerator agreed with the obituary on 1854.)


Edward Niksch is described in the 1900 census as a farm hand, living and possibly working on his parents' own farm. Sometime between then and his marriage in 1904, he went to work in the brickyard, and bought that house in town. He remained a brickie through 1910 — probably until 1912, when he and Tillie moved onto the farm. After that, he stuck with farming, even through the Great Depression, as the 1940 census records him still farming on the Lincoln Highway land.

My notes record only pleasant events for the Niksches until 1917, when Edward became ill. Early in November he was in Chicago getting medical treatment for "serious affection of the eyes." The November 15 News included these unpleasant details:

Edward Niksch, who has been suffering with his eyes, underwent an operation at Dr. Dahlman's hospital in Chicago last Saturday for affected glands and another operation on Monday for pus forming on his face and for his jaws being set. Late reports were that he was some better.

In early December the Gazette reported that, after a couple weeks' treatment and much suffering, he was back home:

Edward Niksch who was operated upon Nov. 9th at the South Shore hospital by Drs. Werelius and Dahlberg for necrosis of the upper jaw bone and joint was able to return home the forepart of last week and indications are that he will meet with a full recovery. His head was so bandaged when he came home he was scarcely recognizable, except by voice. He has been returning every third day to the city for dressing of the wound. He says the pain he suffered before the operation was almost unbearable.

Either he recovered in good time or I was negligent in taking notes, as I have no further information on that illness.

So Edward and Tillie quietly got on with life in the neighborhood of Ainsworth, farming and raising their family. In May 1921, their eldest child, Leona, took part in the first commencement at the new W.G. Haan school.

Late that autumn, the Niksches bought the old Deep River schoolhouse, which started this digression.


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*1019 Devonshire, per Polk's Hobart City Directory 1962.
**I believe Minnie wrote this in 1952.


Sources:
♦ 1880 Census.
♦ 1891 Plat Book.
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ 1940 Census.
♦ "Ainsworth Pick-Ups." Hobart Gazette 2 Dec. 1904.
♦ Harms, Minnie Rossow. As It Was Told to Me. 1952 – 1978. MS. Hobart Historical Society, Hobart, Indiana.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 8 Nov. 1917; 15 Nov. 1917.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 16 Mar. 1912; 16 Nov. 1917; 7 Dec. 1917.
♦ "Niksch-Harms Nuptial." Hobart Gazette 2 Dec. 1904.
♦ "Obituary." Hobart Gazette 25 June 1909.
♦ "Two Pioneers Pass Away." Hobart News 11 Jan. 1912.
♦ WWII Army Enlistment Records.

For Stud Service, Go to Mike O'Hearn's House

We haven't heard from our old friend Mike O'Hearn since 1918. Now we find him offering the stud services of a golden sorrel stallion — apparently at his own property, where you venture at your risk.


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From the Hobart Gazette 24 June 1921.

In the next column, we get some details about the Gruel cow barn, which has been under construction for nearly a month.

Veterinarian Stories

Just a couple random stories about what our favorite veterinarian, Mike O'Hearn, was up to in the late summer of 1918.

1. The Horse Fell Dead

One August morning, Mike drove south of Deep River to the Ted Johnson farm. Ted had asked him to look at a horse of his that was "acting queerly" and losing weight. Eyeballing the horse, Mike could see nothing obvious wrong with it, so he began a closer examination. He pried the creature's mouth open and looked inside, while Ted stood nearby watching. Suddenly Ted yelled, "Look out, Mike!" and all at once the horse fell over dead.

Having narrowly escaped being crushed, Mike apparently was determined to solve the mystery, so he autopsied the horse. When he opened the chest, he found "layer upon layer of fat around the heart."

2. Karma Is a Cow

A frantic call summoned Mike to the Liverpool area on the afternoon of September 14 — cows shot! He hurried out and found seven gunshot victims, all of them cows belonging to local residents. Mike did what he could for his patients, but one died that evening, and two more the next morning.

The shooter turned out to be one William H. Hayes. Although he worked as a barber in Gary, his home was a tent on the banks of the Deep River near Liverpool. He lived with a female companion. They had planted a garden nearby: there lay the source of the trouble. The neighbors' cows kept getting into William's garden. When they got in yet again that September afternoon, William flew into a rage, grabbed his rifle and went on a rampage.

That proved to be his downfall. He was immediately arrested, of course, for damaging the neighbors' property (the cows). But once the authorities directed their attention to him, they began to discover more unsavory facts about him. First of all, his female companion was not his wife. His wife was in Chicago and was divorcing him on grounds of desertion; he had abandoned her six years earlier. William and his girlfriend had apparently come out from Chicago to live together without benefit of marriage — an illegal and immoral purpose for which William had brought a woman across a state line in violation of the Mann Act.

Furthermore, a little checking with the draft board revealed that William had applied for exemption from military service, stating that he had a wife who needed his support. That was false — his wife in Chicago had lived without his support for six years, and though his girlfriend may have needed his support, she wasn't his wife.

In short, William found himself in big trouble. If only he had shared his garden with the cows, or found a less brutal way of driving them out, he might have stayed on for years in his little country love-nest. Now he was facing prison. The cows had the last laugh.


Sources:
♦ "Barber Shoots Several Cows Near Liverpool, Gets In Trouble." Hobart News 19 Sept. 1918.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 5 Sept. 1918.
♦ "Shoots Seven Cows." Hobart Gazette 20 Sept. 1918.

His Brother's Keeper

Perhaps Dennis O'Hearn's 1914 drunken horse-swap was followed by other such incidents, and Mike got tired of seeing the damage his brother was doing to himself — hence this notice in September 1917. I don't understand on what grounds Mike proposed to prosecute people buying articles from a consenting adult, unless he had some sort of guardianship over Dennis. (Which is possible. A few months later we find two sisters in Hobart applying to have a guardian appointed for their father because he is "a habitual drunkard" and unable to "judiciously care for his estate.")


Sources:
♦ "Notice to the Public." Hobart Gazette 7 Sept. 1917.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 21 Feb. 1918.

Almost a Century

February 10, 1917 saw the passing of Bridget O'Hearn, mother of our favorite veterinarian, Mike O'Hearn. She was 99 years old. Had she been able to last another two months, she would have reached the century mark.

She was born in County Clare, Ireland on April 2, 1817; came to the United States in 1840; in 1850 married Roger O'Hearn in Chicago; and in 1864 came with him to Hobart.

She outlived her husband and four of her six children, being survived only by her sons Mike and Dennis. She also left five grandchildren and two brothers.

She rests now in St. Peter and Paul Cemetery (known at the time of her burial as the Turkey Creek cemetery). She has not quite reached the century mark of her death.


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Bridget O'Hearn's grave marker. All the O'Hearn grave markers, except for Rosa's, are badly weathered and nearly illegible.


Source: "Mrs. Bridget O'Hearn Passes Away at Age of Nearly 100 Years." Hobart News 15 Feb. 1917.

Don't Drink and Swap

The household of our veterinarian friend, Mike O'Hearn, included his older brother, Dennis, a bachelor who earned a living as a day laborer.

One autumn morning in 1914, Dennis awoke with a hangover and a troubling memory of having swapped his horse, which he valued at $150, for … well, for something that wasn't worth $150. In fact, a piano. He'd gotten drunk and swapped his horse for Jesse Long's piano. Could he even play the piano, I wonder? — because he had sold the piano right back to Jesse for $20.

Dennis wasn't happy. Even when his hangover wore off, he wasn't happy. He hired a lawyer and sued Jesse to get his horse back. Jesse, it turned out, had sold the horse to William Juhnke for $65. So William was dragged into the case as a defendant as well.

The matter came up for hearing before Justice of the Peace John Mathews on November 21, 1914. Dennis was represented by attorney D.P. Blake, the defendants by R.R. Peddicord. The substance of Dennis' case was that Jesse and William had conspired to get him drunk, and while his mind was befogged by spirits, they had induced him to make that lopsided trade. He was perfectly willing to return the $20 he'd made by selling the piano back to Jesse, and in fact had already tendered it to the court. Now he just wanted his horse back.

Judge Mathews heard all the evidence and retired to consider the case. After several hours' deliberation, he decided in favor of the defendants. Dennis may well have been drunk when he made the trade, said the judge, but there was no evidence that Jesse and William had gotten him into that condition. So William could keep the horse, Jesse could keep the piano, and as for the $20, Attorney Peddicord immediately issued an attachment to hold it for payment of court costs. "The $20 will look pretty sick when the costs are all paid," said the Gazette.

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A couple months after this case, Judge Mathews announced his resignation as justice of the peace, a position he had held for 28 years continuously except for a four-year term when M.W. Jory served. Mathews, a Civil War veteran, was then 80 and "beginning to feel the weight of the years." Henceforward he intended to do only notarial work. His resignation left Hobart Township with only one justice of the peace, John Killigrew.

If any of his docket books ever reached the Hobart Historical Society, I haven't found them yet.


Sources:
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ "Horse Case Settled." Hobart Gazette 27 Nov. 1914.
♦ "Justice John Mathews Retires After 28 Years of Service." Hobart News 11 Feb. 1915.
♦ "Resigns as Justice." Hobart Gazette 12 Feb. 1915.

The Bandit of Joliet Road

It was a Tuesday evening in mid-December, 1911, when alarming reports started coming in to the Lake County sheriff. One was from the Hobart veterinarian, Dr. Mike O'Hearn, who had been traveling along the Joliet road (present-day 73rd Avenue) around 7 p.m. when out of the darkness a stranger in a buggy hailed him. It was only after he had stopped that he noticed the stranger held a gun. The man demanded to know if Mike had a watch, and then peppered him with questions, all the while pointing the gun at him. At the approach of a couple other rigs, the stranger whipped up his horse and moved on, to Mike's great relief. As soon as he could get to a telephone, Mike called in to Sheriff Thomas Grant with a description of the man.

Two similar reports came in that evening of Deep River-area residents being accosted by a man with a gun on the Joliet road.

The December 14 edition of the Hobart News recounted Mike's experience with a sober warning: "Everybody take notice and keep off the roads at night."

The next day, the Gazette cleared up the mystery:

A deputy sheriff from Laporte county who was delivering a horse and buggy to a deputy sheriff at Merrillville Tuesday evening imbibed too freely at some thirst parlor enroute and in stopping several people, among whom were Mike O'Hearn from here and young Granzow and young Buchfuehrer, nearly scared the lives out of the gentlemen. They fancied they were "held up" and so reported the incident but the deputy simply stopped the three different ones to learn the time of day, which was about 6:30 p.m.

I wonder if the Bandit of Joliet Road arrested himself when he found out who he was.

Sources:
♦ "Ainsworth." Hobart News 14 Dec. 1911.
♦ "Deputy Sheriff In Hold-Up." Hobart Gazette 15 Dec. 1911.

Mike O'Hearn Away From Home

A number of people came to Hobart on July 3, 1909, for the pre-Independence Day celebration. Among them was a young Chicago fellow about 16 or 17 years old. When the day's fun had finished and this young man wanted to catch the train back to Chicago, he discovered that he was eleven cents short of the price of his ticket.

Of all the people milling about the station, the one he happened to ask for the money was the ferocious Mike O'Hearn. What did Mike do? — break the young man's arm? Knock him down?

No. He gave him the money.

Sometime later Mike received a thank-you note from the young man, along with eleven cents in stamps.

I think that was the end of the story. It got cut off on my print-out because I wasn't printing the page for that story, but that's another story. But it does seem to back up my earlier speculation that Mike could be a perfectly decent guy away from home.

Source: "Favor Appreciated." Hobart Gazette 6 Aug. 1909.

Just Don't Go To Mike O'Hearn's House

Mike O'Hearn, the Hobart veterinarian, may have been a nice guy if you met him on the street, but apparently going to his house was asking for trouble. We first met him in 1901 when he was found guilty of breaking the arm of Charles Chester, who had made the mistake of going to Mike's house to retrieve his stepson.

Fast-forward to August 14, 1908. On that day, into the yard of Mike O'Hearn came a neighbor, Mira Cheney, bearing some young chickens. She "enquired if they belonged to Mike, and some words passed between the two neighbors."

Now, how do "words" follow from such a benign inquiry? Did it go like this:

Mira: Good morning, Mike! Are these your chickens? I found them for you.
Mike: Why, yes, thank you for returning them.

Or more like this:

Mira: Are these your [lovely] chickens?
Mike: Maybe; what of it?
Mira: Well, they've pecked my [blessed] tomatoes to pieces, and if they come on my place again I'll wring their [sweet little] necks, and yours too!
Mike: Why, you [charming] old [lady]…

Mike ended the argument by ordering Mira off the premises. In leaving, Mira somehow fell to the ground and sprained her wrist. She went to the prosecutor and filed an affidavit claiming that Mike had pushed or hit her, causing her to fall. Charges of assault and battery were brought against him.

The case was heard on September 1. Judge John Mathews recused himself and appointed attorney F.T. Fetterer as a special judge. Mira repeated her accusation; Mike denied ever touching her, and he had two witnesses who backed him up. With the weight of evidence on his side, Mike was found not guilty.

Perhaps he really was innocent this time. But I think the moral of the story is, just don't go to Mike O'Hearn's house.

Source: "General News Items." Hobart Gazette 4 Sept. 1908.

ID on Mike O'Hearn?

Plodding persistence pays off. Almost a year's worth of microfilm after the Mike O'Hearn/Charles Chester face-off, I found a brief announcement that "Mike O'Hearn, the Hobart veterinarian," had married Miss Rosy Niksch. A couple of months later, Mike was running for Ross Township constable. He didn't win, however, which was probably a good thing in view of how bad he was at keeping the peace.

How many Mike O'Hearns could there have been in Hobart? It figures that he would be a pretty well known guy — the original story started off just saying, "Sunday afternoon Charley Chester … went over to the O'Hearn residence," as if all Gazette readers would know who Mike O'Hearn was and where they could find him if they wanted their arm broken.

Sources:
♦ "Democratic Ticket." Hobart Gazette (Hobart, Ind.) 17 Oct. 1902.
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette (Hobart, Ind.) 16 Aug. 1901.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette (Hobart, Ind.) 4 July 1902.
♦ "Official Returns." Hobart Gazette (Hobart, Ind.) 7 Nov. 1902.

Sticks and Stones Will Break My Bones (Another Chester Family Tragedy)

On the afternoon of Sunday, August 11, 1901, Charles Chester went out on a mission: he was going to retrieve his twelve-year-old stepson from the house of one Mike O'Hearn. According to the Hobart Gazette, the boy "had been away from home about a week," which sounds as if he'd gone AWOL.

The boy in question was probably Frank Booty, who (if the 1900 census can be relied on) was twelve years old in 1901. As for this Mike O'Hearn, I haven't been able to find any official information on him.

The encounter did not go well. For reasons unknown to the Gazette, Mike grabbed a piece of wood and went on the attack, hitting Charles several times. The worst was a blow to the left arm that caused a compound fracture at the elbow.

Charles retreated to get medical attention. No word of whether the stepson came away with him.

Naturally, Charles complained to the authorities. Mike had the nerve to complain right back, saying that Charles had used profane language to him.

The profanity case against Charles came up for jury trial in the court of Justice John Mathews on September 4. After three hours of deliberations, with the votes stuck at nine for conviction, three for acquittal, the jurymen declared themselves hopelessly deadlocked and were dismissed.

The assault case against Mike was tried in Hammond on Saturday, September 7. He was found guilty. The court required him to pay a fine of $5.00, plus $20.85 in costs. Mike declared his intention to appeal to the Superior Court.

Sources:
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette (Hobart, Ind.) 16 Aug. 1901.
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette (Hobart, Ind.) 9 Sept. 1901.
♦ "More Swearing." Hobart Gazette (Hobart, Ind.) 13 Sept. 1901