Yet Another View of the Pennsy Bridge

All my research time is still going to puppies, so here's a research-free post.


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We've previously seen views from about the same location, but not with those people fishing on the riverbank, and certainly not with that kid in the foreground all dressed up in a white sailor middy and knee pants. It must be Sunday.

The verso carries a heartwarming message:



The year in the postmark is not quite legible — "191"-something, a number with round outlines; could be any round year between 1910 and 1919.

I have no clue who Ray was. He gives his return address as "c/o Ira B. Wyant" in Hobart. I can't identify any such person in Hobart.[1]

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[1] There was an Albert B. Wyant, aka "Abe", but I have no reason to think this was the same person.

The Pennsy Bridge and the Spell of Nostalgia

This postcard joins a view of the Pennsy Railroad bridge with a little nostalgic poem …


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… but it seems the typesetter wasn't much of a speller. Eyes dimmed with nostalgic tears, maybe? Or should I say nostalgic "ears"?

Here's a high-resolution scan of the tiny (about 1.5" x 2") photo.



I think it's a reproduction of another photo postcard.

The postmark on the verso is nearly illegible, but the year looks to me to be 1912.



It was sent from Wheeler to Hobart by someone who saw no need to sign a name, counting on the recipient to recognize the handwriting.

The recipient, Pete Schaller, was a local whom I've never paid any attention to before. Here is his obituary from the Vidette-Messenger of October 12, 1954:



His family shows up in Union Township, Porter County, in the 1880 Census; by the 1900 Census Pete and his widowed father, August, were the only ones still in the household. They were farming rented land. August died in 1905.

By 1910, Pete was living in the home of Paul and Elizabeth Fredrick, probably in the big white house on the east side of S.R. 51 midway between Ainsworth and Hobart (it's still standing). He is described as Paul's cousin. So far the only explanation I can find of this relationship is — if I've found the right people — Elizabeth Fredrick's maiden name was Gross, like Pete's mother's (Paul and Elizabeth having been married in Chicago in 1899 per the Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index).

Peter remained a part of the Fredrick household through the 1920 Census, at least; I cannot find him in the 1930 Census. By the 1940 Census he had become a lodger in a rooming house in Valparaiso.

Pete's obituary reveals another connection to a local family, the Frames. Anna M. Schaller married Irvin G. Frame in April 1905, in Porter County (Indiana Marriage Collection). But I don't know exactly how Irvin (who seems to show up sometimes as Irving or Erwin) fits into the Frame family that I have previously mentioned in the blog. Irvin and Anna show up occasionally in "South of Deepriver" columns and the announcement of the birth of their son Thomas describes them as living "east of Deepriver."[1] But strangely, I haven't been able to find them in any census.


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[1] "General News," Hobart Gazette, Aug. 20, 1915. I have found, on the 1921 plat map of Union Township, a farm southeast of Deepriver under the name of Anna E. Frame. It's across the road from Henry Schaller's farm.

Hobart Then and Now: The Pennsy Bridge

This is an update to my 2013 post.

Circa 1906, and 2020


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The original Pennsy Railroad bridge over the Deep River, dating to the 1850s, had charmed generations of Hobart residents and visitors. With its graceful arches, it was a favorite of photographers and artists.

In 2018/2019, it was demolished and replaced by a new bridge that has plenty of water capacity but zero charm.

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I have two real-photo postcards with this view of the original bridge. The one above is the clearer of the two, but the year in its postmark is illegible. Here is the other one, postmarked 1906:



I find this one interesting for its message — the writer says "these views" are taken by one of her "old pupils." So evidently she is or was a teacher, and her name is Maude. I went looking in the 1900 and 1910 censuses for a schoolteacher named Maude, and found Helen Maud Quinnell (she was Maud in 1900 and Helena in 1910). She appeared among the faculty in the first Hobart High School annual in 1908.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

In the 1900 census she described herself as a schoolteacher, but in the 1910 census, she gave her occupation as "none."

I remember coming across that name — Quinnell — now and then in my newspaper reading, but never in connection with anything juicy. Helen Maud was born in 1880 in Illinois. Her father was H(arry) T(homas) Quinnell, her mother Anna (Bridgman). She had two younger sisters, Beatrice and Blanche (we've previous seen a photo of Blanche as a member of Hobart High's class of 1904). The family left Illinois sometime after 1888;[1] the 1891 Plat Book shows them owning a farm of some 30 acres just southeast of Lake Station. They still owned it per the 1908 Plat Map:


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After the 1910 census, I lose track of all the Quinnells.


As for the photographer, the "old pupil" whose hand may have written the caption on both postcard images — I don't have a clue.

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[1] That is the latest date when I can find H.T. registered to vote in Cook County, Illinois, per Ancestry.com.

Valpo Dummie at the Pennsy Station, 1977

Here's another addition to my collection of Depressing Photos of the Pennsy Station, this one from a slide imprinted with the date April 8, 1977.


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According to handwritten notes on the slide, standing on the track is the "Valpo Dummie," a commuter train that ran between Valparaiso and Chicago.

I have no idea what the correct spelling of dummie/dummy is. If a colloquialism like that could be said to have a correct spelling.

That Awful Traeger Crossing

This isn't the first time I've heard about the Traeger crossing …


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Hobart News, July 12, 1923.

… but it's the first time I've taken the trouble to figure out exactly where it was. Turns out it's almost as bad now as it was in 1923:



It probably got its name from H.W. Traeger, who owned the parcel of land in Union Township, Porter County, where the Pennsy and Nickel Plate Railroads crossed what is now County Road 600 N (10th Street in Hobart), according to the 1921 Union Township plat map:


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Image from https://www.inportercounty.org/Data/Maps/1921Plats/Union-1921.jpg.

He had bought that land sometime between 1895 and 1906, again per the plat maps.

I expect that in 1923, the Traeger crossing had no gates or signals. There was no State Road 130 for easy travel between Hobart and Wheeler or Valparaiso; dealing with that crossing was more of a necessity than it is now. And, of course, there were no interstates to get you from Custer, Michigan, to Lombard, Illinois, without having to drive on these country roads with their dangerous crossings.

But who (I ask myself) was this H.W. Traeger? The 1910 Census shows a Henry Traeger living in Union Township on the "North Township Line Road," which corresponds with 600 N. But then the account of this 1923 accident in the Hobart Gazette refers to the "William Traeger crossing."[1] Henry's middle name was William; perhaps he went by that — or perhaps the Gazette got it wrong. Henry also had a sibling named William Henry. Henry William and William Henry each married a woman named Anna.

Henry William and his Anna are buried in Hobart Cemetery.

All I know is, you have to be careful at the Traeger crossing.

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The little story in the lower left-hand corner tells of that dairy showplace, the the Gruel farm, becoming even more impressive with the addition of 20 Wisconsin Guernseys.

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[1] "One Killed, Three Hurt," Hobart Gazette, July 13, 1923.

"Hickory Grove" and Other Mysterious Places

In August of 1874, Hobart's Union Sunday School made plans for its annual picnic. The date was set for Thursday, September 3. The organization's secretary, John Blackhall, wrote to neighboring Sunday schools inviting them to join in the fun. Two of them accepted the invitation: the Underwood school and the Hickory Grove school.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

I have come across the Underwood name before. There was a one-room schoolhouse by that name in Ross Township, exact location unknown, which may have been associated with a Sunday school as well. But in all my research, I have never come across the name Hickory Grove in this area. Was that a mistake for Hickory Top — the village that eventually became Ainsworth? And then again, was it actually a mistake? Perhaps some people called the village Hickory Grove, while others called it Hickory Top, and somehow the former was overshadowed by the latter in collective memory.

That's just a theory. You know how I love theories.

Anyway, it sounds as if the picnic went off well. The Hobart Cornet Band came along to provide music. The attendees rode in two excursion cars — on the Pennsy Railroad, I'm guessing, since during the planning stages the location was set for Robertsdale, which got its name from George Roberts' giving the Pennsy Railroad right of way through his land.[1] But below the reference to Hickory Grove on the page above, the writer gives "Sheffield" as the location of the picnic. Perhaps those were pretty much the same place. These days you can find Robertsdale on Google maps, but not Sheffield. We do find Sheffield on this section of the 1874 Plat Map showing the west end of North Township:


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Image courtesy of the Merrillville-Ross Township Historical Society.

At the eastern border of Sheffield, we find a parcel of land belonging to George Roberts, with the Pennsy Railroad (the southernmost of those three lines) crossing it. Further to the southeast lay another George Roberts, also crossed by the Pennsy Railroad. I don't know which of those gave Robertsdale its name — maybe both?

But all of that area is in Hammond now, and this is as far as I intend to go into Hammond history.

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[1] Gayle Faulkner Kosalko, "Robertsdale has a history all its own," April 3, 2008, NWI Times, https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/robertsdale-has-history-all-its-own/article_df6cf958-2db8-540f-aff0-8f3ea0fe5f81.html

Death at the Rossow Crossing … Again

Two years after witnessing a deadly train-vs.-automobile wreck at the Pennsy crossing near his home on present-day Wisconsin Street, William Rossow was among the first on the scene of another, equally horrifying, at the same crossing.


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Hobart Gazette, June 22, 1923

This story establishes that it was indeed Herman Harms who bought the cottage being moved from New Street, although here its destination is given as the "H. & S. subdivision." So Herman, along with his father Henry, his father-in-law William Rossow, and his brother-in-law Ed Niksch (Miksch is a misprint) were at work on the house a short distance southeast of the Wisconsin Street crossing.

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An item in the next column to the right mentions the filming of a 1915 celebration in Hobart. That film still exists, I am told, somewhere in the archives of the Hobart Historical Society. It hasn't been digitized, and trying to run the original through a projector would be foolhardy. Someday, perhaps, when both the film and the money to digitize it are found, we'll be able to view motion pictures of Hobart in 1915.

In the right-hand column, we find T.H. Grabowski building an addition to his home — an addition that, fortunately, is identifiable on this current sketch from the Lake County Assessor's website.



This confirms what I conjectured: that the old Carlson house is at 6430 Grand Boulevard. Per the county records, it was built in 1879.

Finally, a new bridge was going up over the Deep River where Ainsworth Road crosses it, known as the Nolte bridge since the road passes through the Nolte property there. When I first moved out here in 1990, there was a metal truss bridge similar to the one at 73rd Avenue — I wonder if that could have been the 1923 bridge? It was replaced within about a year of my moving here, and I never thought to take a photo of it.

I am curious to know what sort of bridge was there before 1923.


Additional Source: "Two More Victims of Grade Crossing Saturday When Mrs. John Clark and Daughter Margery Meet Death," Hobart News, June 21, 1923.

A Burgling Spree

As clocks in Hobart ticked into the last day of January 1923, houses in Hobart were being burgled.


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Hobart News 1 Feb. 1923.

The story in the next column about the accident on the Pennsy Railroad still calls the Wisconsin Street crossing "the Rossow crossing" even though the farm next to it was no longer the Rossow farm.

Steam Engine Running Beside a Plowed Field

Here's another entry in my series, "Not Ainsworth But Could Be."

When I first saw this photo, I thought: That's how the Grand Trunk steam engines must have looked running past my field, back when Henry Chester farmed it!


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Unfortunately, the notes on the back give Grand Haven, Michigan as the location and 1947 as the year …



… so I was way off as to place and time. But still — let exactitude fall to the side, let our eyelids droop, and that's a westbound Grand Trunk train slowing down for the Ainsworth depot.


The first car behind the tender belongs to the Pennsylvania Railroad, the third one to the C&O Railroad — both lines that would have been a part of life in Ainsworth, though not quite as large a part as the Grand Trunk Railroad.

Anne Fleck Ingram

Her surgery for gallstones had gone well, and Anne Fleck Ingram seemed on the road to recovery. But on August 11, 1922, suddenly and unexpectedly, she died.


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Hobart News 17 Aug. 1922.

The cause of death, according to the Gazette, was a blood clot. Anne was only 37 years old.

I am not sure where the "old Fleck homestead" was, but my guess is a parcel of land northwest of Hobart, shown here on the 1874 Plat Map as belonging to Peter Fleck, Anne's grandfather:



Peter had owned 80 acres in that vicinity as early as 1854. (I suppose he lost a little acreage to the Pittsburgh, Ft. Wayne and Chicago Railroad when it came through in 1858.) So it was possible for Anne's father, Michael, to have been born there in 1862.

If you look at that parcel now, some of it looks as empty as Peter might have found it in 1854.



Additional Sources:
♦ "Mrs. Anne Ingram Dies Suddenly." Hobart Gazette 18 Aug. 1922.
♦ Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society. Early Land Sales and Purchases, Lake County, Indiana, 1837 – 1857. Valparaiso: Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society, 2006.

What Happened to the Strikebreaker

The Great Railroad Strike of 1922, which began on July 1, was marred by violence on both sides. One act of violence took place in Hobart on July 17.


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Hobart News 20 July 1922.

The following day's Gazette described the victim as "Ross Gray, the Valparaiso car inspector."

By early August, trains had entirely stopped running on the EJ&E Railroad due to the strike ("E., J. & E. Trainmen on Strike — No Trains Running," Hobart News 10 Aug. 1922), but the strike would last only a few more weeks before collapsing.

Another View of the Pennsy Bridge

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Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

I hadn't seen this photo before I came across this postcard that had strayed from the steamer trunk and got itself into a little random collection hidden away in a closet. You never know!

I believe the photographer is standing on the northerly-westerly bank of the Deep River (everything runs at angles in this section of Hobart), pointing his camera northerly-easterly toward the bridge. And there those people are standing on the railroad tracks waiting to be run down.

The postmark is November 17, 1914.



I have no clue about that cryptic message.

A Unique Utility Pole

[This post is by guest blogger Lloyd Puchek.]


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I found this downed utility pole at the address of 501 N. Colorado Street in Hobart laying along side of the Pennsy rail road tracks just west of the Wisconsin Street railroad crossing. When I saw this, I was totally stunned. I knew approximately what time period this pole came from and when this utility pole was in use. The two story house on the property of 501 N. Colorado St. is unusual in itself. The front door of this house faces the railroad tracks. The house itself was built in the year 1938. As you look at the second photo take a look at the utility poles in this photo, they are the exact same type of utility poles as the utility pole in the first photo.


From Mildred Lindborg's photo album, courtesy of N.B.

Death at the Rossow Crossing

Late in the evening of April 22, 1921, William Rossow and his family witnessed a horrifying accident on the Pennsy Railroad where it crosses present-day Wisconsin Street.


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From the Hobart Gazette 29 Apr. 1921.

The Parker family had only recently lost its oldest member. And Benjamin Harrison Parker had been the youngest.

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From an item in the social column on the Gazette page above, we learn a little more about the mysterious Miss Kipp — that she had a sister, Mrs. Hatten. I do find a George and Ida Hatten living in Hobart in 1920, but can't determine what Ida's maiden name was. That the Gazette gives first names to Dr. Faulkner and Miss Kipp, but calls the sister simply "Mrs. Hatten," suggests that the editor did not know the first name of either Mr. or Mrs. Hatten.


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Benj. H. Parker Killed by Train." Hobart Gazette 29 Apr. 1921.
♦ "Benjamin Parker Killed at Rossow Crossing, Hit by Pennsy Fast Train." Hobart News 28 Apr. 1921.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 29 Apr. 1921.

Hobart Then and Now: Pennsy Bridge over Deep River

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I don't have a date for the "then" view, since the postcard is unused, and I'm hard put to even guess, since there's no photographer's name and no identifiable fashions. I can say only that the postcard was printed after February 1907.

The photographer seems to have caught another photographer, at right near the tracks, who appears to be using a tripod-plus-black-cloth apparatus, which might be informative to someone who knows more than I do about historical cameras.

Pennsy Ticket, 1913

Miss Minnie Rossow got a reduced fare on the Pennsy line because she was under 18 — 16 years old, to be exact. It was April 1913 and she was commuting between Hobart and Gary to attend Gary Business College. If the train stopped to pick her up near her parents' home, close by the crossing of the tracks over (present-day) Wisconsin Street, that was very convenient. The streetcar would have been likewise convenient — I don't know why she preferred the Pennsy.


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Images courtesy of E.H.



This little note identifies the ticket (there is only one) and the examination questions we've already seen, although, as I've said, it doesn't make the chronology clear. There was no little leather billfold, by the way: these items were loose in the steamer trunk.

Pennsy Depot, 1987 (Random Old Image)

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It's not all that old, but it's pretty darn random. Per handwritten notes on the slide this is scanned from, this photo was taken August 1, 1987.

Did people still use slides in 1987? … I suppose so; what else was there then? What on earth did we do before computers???

Anyway, you can now see the above slide at the Hobart Historical Society museum, if you want to hold it up to the window and squint, because it's quite small.

Pennsy Depot 1974

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I bought this depressing view of the Pennsy depot on Ebay. It is a slide stamped April 27, 1974. The original slide is now at the Hobart Historical Society museum.

I added this image, plus a few others previously published in this blog over the last few weeks, to the Downtown Hobart 1979 blog (see the December 7 entry in What's New in Old Hobart if you're interested).