Cockfight at the Hobart House

I came across this strange story, printed in the Chicago Tribune of April 10, 1874, about a cockfight held at the Hobart House, which the article called the "Roper Hotel."


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According to Elin Christianson's book, Hobart's Historic Buildings, the Hobart House was built in 1870 by Edward Roper, so I suppose he is the proprietor mentioned in the article, who defied public opinion in hosting this "disgraceful exhibition."

I am not sure what the popular objection was to the cockfight — because it was inhumane to the animals? or because it attracted "Chicago roughs and gamblers"? The sub-headline of the article, "Another Gathering of Roughs at Hobart, Ind.," implies that this wasn't the first time.

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Now let me just remedy my ignorance about Edward Roper.

He was born in England in 1843 to James and Charlotte (Baker) Roper. The family came to the United States about 1851[1] and showed up in Hobart in the 1860 Census. In 1866 Edward married Margaret Rhodes (Indiana Marriage Collection). The 1870 Census records them in Hobart, Edward giving his occupation as saloon keeper. By the 1880 Census he had gone into farming.

Years ago I posted a photo in which the second-from-left subject is identified as Edward Roper:


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The approximate date of the photo is 1884, so this may be from Edward's farming years.

It appears that Edward quit farming to resume his old occupation by 1887, when we find his application for a license to sell liquor being rejected. According to the "County Board" column of the Crown Point Register of December 15, 1887: "Strong opposition to granting the license was made by citizens of Hobart. Evidence was introduced to show that Roper kept his saloon open Sundays and that he kept a disorderly house." (An item in the "Hobart" column says that his wife opposed his license as well.)

The next record I have of Edward and Margaret is the 1900 Census. At that time they were living in Hammond. Sometime later they were divorced, apparently, as that is Edward's marital status in the 1910 Census, when he was living in a Chicago hotel or boardinghouse and working for a meat packer. It's possible he married again (I'm not sure I've found the right person), but he was described as divorced in the record of his death in Chicago in January 1913, when "he was struck by a switch engine"[2] while on his way to work.

He and his former wife are buried in Ross Cemetery.

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[1] "Death of Philip Roper, Sr.," Hobart Gazette, 11 Oct. 1918.
[2] "Hobart," The Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 30 Jan. 1913.

Back to 1923 Temporari-Lee

I still have a couple of items from the 1923 newspaper, from back in the good old days when you didn't need an appointment to go to the library. May those days return soon.

Speaking of returning, that is what Lee Thompson, our barber, has done — from Seattle, where he had gone in October 1922. He was just in time to meet his brand-new niece.


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Hobart News, Nov. 29, 1923.

Below that, a surprise birthday party for Asa Strong, who was 54 years old. Born November 24, 1869 (Indiana Death Certificates) and named for his grandfather, he was the first child of Augustus and Sarah (Culver) Strong, who had been married in 1868. In 1900, Asa had married Ida Roper. They lived in Hobart (1920 Census). Mrs. Ross Graham was the former Ruby Roper.

The Dunes Highway Opens

Construction on the Dunes Highway had started in 1922. By mid-November 1923, the Highway was ready to be opened to public use. The dedication ceremony would be attended by some prominent Hobart citizens.


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Hobart Gazette, Nov. 9, 1923.

The following week's Gazette reported that the ceremony included an odd incident that was resolved with "a bottle" …


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Hobart Gazette, Nov. 16, 1923.

… which I'm inclined to interpret as a flouting of Prohibition, which (as we know) was not uncommon — but this case would be uncommonly open and public.

The "Local Drifts" of the same issue mentioned that "Paul Bruebach of this city was a member of Perry's Municipal Band that furnished music last Friday afternoon at the dedication of the Dunes Highway."

Incidentally, in spite of the November 9 issue's giving November 14 as the planned date of the ceremony, and the inclusion in the Route 12 Wikipedia entry of a picture of a historic marker also giving November 14 as the date of the highway's opening, the two November 16 items name "Friday," that is, November 16, as the date of the ceremony. So does this article from the Hobart News of November 22, 1923:


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Hobart News, Nov. 22, 1923.

The "Local and Personal" column of the same issue mentioned a few more locals who attended the ceremony: "Paul Emery, W.J. Killigrew, Evan Roper, Leslie Walters, A.J. Smith, O.L. Pattee; and John Dorman and Alex Boyd of Ross Township."

In the November 22 issue above, an article in the second column to the right mentions a "Bootjack extension" that was planned to connect the Dunes Highway and the Lincoln Highway. An online article about the Lincoln Highway in Indiana includes a map from 1924 showing the "Boot Jack Corner" near Rolling Prairie, and even today in that vicinity there is an "East Bootjack Road." Add this to the collection of random facts I have learned accidentally since I started the blog.

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Also in the November 22 issue, we see an announcement of a law-and-real-estate partnership between F.E. Demmon and C.L. Fleming. We've already met Calvin L. Fleming, former cigar-maker and billiard-room operator, now concentrating on real estate. The lawyer would be, I suppose, Floyd E. Demmon, whom the 1920 Census records as a 28-year-old lawyer for an unnamed railroad, living on Cleveland Avenue with his mother-in-law, Harriett Mundell. Floyd had married Alice Mundell in 1918 (Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index).

Hot Weather

The last two weeks of June 1923 were so hot that the strawberry crop withered and the M.E. church held its services in the basement. The Gem Theatre in Hobart enticed its patrons with "12 big fans" to cool them off. (The movies had not yet become the talkies so there was no spoken dialogue to be drowned out by those fans.) When sundown brought a little relief, you could go dancing at the pavilion just north of the old Liverpool schoolhouse, on the northeast corner of the Old Ridge Road-Liverpool Road intersection. The brave young people playing tennis on Stommel's lot did so early in the morning or late in the afternoon, I hope.

Nothing much was planned in Hobart for Independence Day, but on its eve Camp 133 promised a big fireworks display. If you didn't care for fireworks, you could go dance at the old Deepriver schoolhouse to music "with real pep" played by Perry's Big Six (I have no idea).


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Hobart Gazette, June 29, 1923.

Still, work had to go on. Planning for the future Roosevelt Gym building was going forward, and our favorite plumbers, Lee & Rhodes, as the only bidders for the plumbing work, were awarded the contract.

Some unpleasant business involving tuberculosis-testing of cattle occurred on "the big farm of Roper Bros." (and even more unpleasant business later at a Chicago slaughterhouse). I don't know where that farm was. I can't find any land owned by a Roper in Union Township on the Lincoln Highway in the 1921 or 1928 plat maps.

Fats-v.-Leans Baseball

This game in June of 1923 was not the first fats-against-leans game that I've seen. And on holidays such as Independence Day, you might also find foot-races going on — one for the "fats" and one for the "leans." Anyway, in this case the News has left us with a record of the body type of a number of Hobart's male citizens, in case we had no photograph and were wondering!


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Hobart News, June 28, 1923.

Sorry I failed to get the beginning of the story.

As we see from the little item below the summary of the game, Hobart had another team called the Cardinals.

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Back when I was talking about the Frank family, I wondered about the Mulfinger connection. This item in the right-hand column helps a little. Not much.

Conflict of Interest

I just can't get over the fact that ambulance service used to be provided by funeral homes rather than fire departments or other dedicated emergency responders.


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Hobart News, June 21, 1923

Also, the rural social news from south of Deep River. Ellen Smith, whom Emily Strong helped with housecleaning, was the widow of Cyrus and by now nearly 80 years old. Per the 1920 Census, she lived alone; if she still lived in that big farmhouse, I expect she could use help in cleaning it.

Thou Shalt Not Spit Tobacco Juice on the Floor

I'm back to indexing Sunday-school record books, which are usually pretty dull. But then you come across something like this:


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Evidently, the spitting of tobacco juice in Hobart's Union Sunday School was such a nuisance that the school's officers had to form a committee to collect all the offenders' names. Sort of brings you down from the realms of glory, doesn't it?

This meeting took place April 13, 1873, at which time Mathew W. Jory was superintendent. Of all the committee members, I can identify only P. Roper: I'm pretty sure he is Phillip Roper, who also shows up frequently in these records as a Sunday-school teacher. In 1873 he was about 27 years old. I have previously posted his obituary, and a photo of his sons, one of whom (Phillip Jr.) married Bliss "Dollie" Newman.

Phillip's father, James Sr., is described in the 1870 Census as a butcher, but there was also a James Jr. in the family; and James Jr., I believe, later took up his father's occupation and built the building at Main and Third.

Mrs. Meister was also a regular teacher of Sunday-school classes, and I believe her husband's initials were J.S., but that's as far as I can get with her.

South of Deepriver, June 7, 1923

Social news from the countryside.


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Hobart News, June 7, 1923

We previously encountered the story about little Vernon Fauser.

Over in the "Local and Personal" column, we find Ethel Paine traveling Indianapolis for the graduation of her daughter, Alice … who remained there to get even more educated.

Visions of Concrete

The new year, 1923, brought dreams of pavement:


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Hobart News 4 Jan. 1923.

From the Lincoln Highway to Lincoln and Tenth would be the route of today's State Road 51. From the brickyards and the Chicago road to Miller would be Lake Park Avenue.

Speaking of pavement — the next column we find William Raschka winning a lawsuit against the Federal Paving Co. — the same company that had recently lost a court battle with some Ross Township farmers.

The story in the right-hand column about the lecture course interested me mainly because of who was selling tickets — among Hobart's high society, we find Lovisa Chester Nelson in her little house in the village of Ainsworth.

Lake Station Schoolchildren, Autumn 1901

From the Elna Hazelgreen collection comes this photograph of Lake Station schoolchildren and staff in the autumn of 1901:


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The good news is that somebody wrote out all the names on the back.



The bad news is that the writer did not explain how the order of names related to the order of children. They seem to match up in terms of gender and apparent age if you start at the left side in the back row, go left-to-right in that row and the middle one, and then go right-to-left in the front row:



That would mean Elna Hazelgreen is at the far left of the front row.

Here's the information I found (if any) from the 1900 Census and 1910 Census about these people:

1901 Lake Station Students by AinsworthIN on Scribd

We've met Olga Foreman before. And Edna Seydel's dad once carried Claus Ziegler around the streets of Lake Station and Hobart in a wheelbarrow.

Blogger won't let me index all these names in one post, so here's something the search engines can read: Conroy, Erlandson, Fabian, Foreman, Fritche, Hazelgreen, Horn, Johnson, Killian, Lenburg, Marquardt, Matson, Miller, Nelson, Papka, Reich, Roper, Seydel, Thorne, Whent.

The Death of Calista Smith

Calista Jane Strong Smith was a native of Ross Township, born in the countryside south of Deep River in 1843. She favored voting rights for women and Prohibition, and lived long enough to see both become the law of the land.


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Hobart News 13 July 1922.

We have seen the Smith family farm before:


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That image is from the 1926 Plat Book. "S.A." was Sela, the son; on the 1874 Plat Map the name is "D.A." — Dorman, Calista's husband.

We've also located Calista's parents' farm.


Additional Source: "Life Sketch of Calista J. Smith." Hobart Gazette 14 July 1922.

Spring Piglets

Early in June of 1922 we find the Nolte brothers selling piglets born on April Fool's Day (or thereabouts); Mrs. Gilbert Robinson (whoever she was) selling her spring chickens; and Fremont B. Price selling a tractor and plows … maybe his insurance business was doing so well that he wasn't going to pretend to be a farmer anymore.


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Hobart News 8 June 1922.


On June 4 James and Effie (Spencer) Chester attended a Spencer family reunion.


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The guest of honor was the owner of the famous sidesaddle, and the label on that sidesaddle just saved me a lot of snooping around on Ancestry.com.

The late Eleazar Spencer owned a lot of land. On this image from the 1926 Plat Book, I have marked in red his land as it appeared in the 1891 Plat Book (the parcel marked in green belonged to his brother cousin(?), Orsemus):


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I believe the house at 3194 County Line Road (built in 1882 according to the county records) is the Eleazar Spencer residence.

Mrs. Robert Roper had been born Jessie Spencer circa 1879 (1880 Census) and married Robert Roper in 1899 (Indiana Marriage Collection). Mrs. Duffy DeFrance had been Myrtle Belle Swanson, daughter of Helena (Spencer) Swanson, and mother of Verva (DeFrance) Johnson.

Eunice Rhodes

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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

I was hoping Eunice might be related to our plumber, George Rhodes, but if she was I haven't found evidence of it.

She was born in July 1894, and in the 1900 Census, we find her family farming in Calumet Township, neighbors of William and Antonia Rossow, as well as the George and Ellen Roper family and the Gottlieb family.

So it's natural enough that Eunice would be a friend of the Rossows, and that her photo would end up in Minnie Rossow Harms' steamer trunk.

Hobart Class of 1922: Esther Strong

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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Esther was the granddaughter of Thomas and Phoebe Strong. In 1900 her father, Arthur, had married Mary Roper of Hobart (Indiana Marriage Collection). Esther was the oldest of four children. The family ran a dairy farm in southeastern Ross Township, renting land (1920 Census); in 1910 they had occupied "one of Chet Guernsey's farms south of Deepriver" ("Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette 30 Sept. 1910) but may have moved in the 12 years since. Esther had completed the eighth grade at the Deep River schoolhouse ("Ross Township Commencement," Hobart Gazette 18 May 1917).

Esther and her family turned up often in the social news, as they visited family and friends in the area. They had no great tragedies or triumphs.

The Lye Accident, and an Update

I was nosing around in old issues of the Hobart Gazette, looking for any mention of Daisy Chester's marriage to E.D. Scroggins that I might have missed the first time around, when I came across this item in the January 4, 1907 issue that I definitely missed the first time around:

A week ago last Sunday the 2-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Chester who live on the Dick Sykes farm pulled from a table a can of concentrated lye which flew upon the little fellow's face and severely burnt him. The right eye seemed to be the worst for the accident and for several days it was feared he would lose its sight but it is now thought the eye will be all right in time.

Based on the 1910 Census, I conclude that the unnamed two-year-old was Robert Chester.

I do not know where the Dick Sykes farm was. Per the 1891 Plat Book, there had been farms belonging to Sykeses in Ross, Hobart and Winfield Townships — not to mention any that may have been in Porter County — but which was known as the "Dick Sykes farm," I do not know.

[7/20/2015 update] Suzi Emig has solved the mystery of the Dick Sykes farm! She writes:

Climb into the time machine ... we are going back to April of 1912. I have attached the newspaper account of my dad's parent's wedding. It was extremely yellowed and fragile when I got it years ago from my aunt. Fortunately she laminated it, so it survives. You will see many familiar names in the list of wedding guests. There is one error. The bride's mother, Mrs. Susan Casey, was a sister to Constance Chester, not to Mr. as stated. If you refer to the 1908 plat map (which you so conveniently provide!) the SE corner of 61st and Colorado is owned by a William Sykes ... maybe Dick was a nickname or he was incorrectly named in the lye incident article. William is shown in the 1880 census to be living on this property as a 21 year old with his mother and siblings, 3 brothers and a sister. Their neighbors are the John Schnabels. Their main house was on the SW corner of the intersection. It appears that William and his family were living here per the 1900 census, as the Fred Schnabels are listed as neighbors. Evidently William decided to give up farming and leased his home and land ... he is in Mississippi, working as a public road contractor in 1910, then in 1920 is back up north residing in Gary as a city clerk, and a garage owner there in 1930. He died in 1940 in CA. My dad always referred to that SE property as "the old Sykes farm", so I guess to the old timers that name stuck. The Charles Chesters were living in Stark Co., IN per the 1900 census. In 1910 they were somewhere in Ross Twp., and evidently relocated by 1912 to the Sykes property. By 1920 they were in the old house that Henry built.

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I believe this clipping is from the Hobart Gazette of April 19, 1912.

Here is the William "Dick" Sykes farm on the 1908 Plat Map:


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Here's a clipping from the "General News Items" of the Hobart Gazette of July 5, 1907 (I didn't miss it the first time around; I just didn't post it) in which "Dick" is enclosed in quotes, as if to mark that it is a nickname.



Here ends this update. If I find out how William got his nickname, I will update again.

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Thanks to our identifying-est commenter ever, we now have IDs on the people in the Chester-house-then-and-now pictures. (I have also added Chuck's IDs to each picture's description on Flickr, for ease of reference.)

Shults-Kasch

When last we met Alfred Shults, on a summer's night in 1921, he was being held up by highwaymen.

Now it's noon on Saturday, January 21, 1922, and if we go to the German Lutheran parsonage in Hobart, we shall meet Alfred under much happier circumstances, as he stands before the Rev. E.R. Schuelke to exchange wedding vows with Miss Vera Kasch. The groom is 20 years old, the bride only 17.

Just a month earlier, Vera's older brother, Helmuth Jr., had married into the Baessler family. Now her second brother, Edward, witnesses her marriage, along with "Miss Leola Wilson of Blachly's Corners," about whom I know nothing except that she was the same age as the bride.

The young couple planned to live at Alfred's parents' home, and he would "assist his father in farming the Shults farm, near and southeast of Ainsworth." Their residence in 1930 was on the north side of the (old) Lincoln Highway, so the Shults farm may be the former Kruse farm.

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Elsewhere in the same issue of the Gazette, some random items … including the happy news that after nearly seven years of marriage, George and Pearl Yager have a baby. Also, some miscreant stole the pump from the Cleveland Ave. campground, and the Roper Bros. hold a tractor-bobsled party.


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Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 3 Feb. 1922.
♦ "Quietly Married." Hobart Gazette 3 Feb. 1922.

Three Spring Shoats

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Hobart Gazette 16 Dec. 1921.

If I hadn't already shot off my mouth about where I thought the Ella Roper farm was, I could have pretended that I knew all along it was northwest of Hobart, as Thomas Chandler says in his notice. The only problem is that I can't identify an Ella Roper farm northwest of Hobart … unless maybe it's the "E.S. Roper" land shown in this image from the 1926 Plat Book:



Anyway, this means that Fred and Olga Rossow are not going to become Ross Township residents when they move onto the Ella Roper farm.

South of Deep River

The social news from the countryside as November 1921 came to an end:


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Hobart News 1 Dec. 1921.

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In unrelated news, the Roper Bros. in Hobart suggest you buy a one-ton truck chassis and build your own truck.


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Hobart Gazette 2 Dec. 1921.

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Sarah Read's return to the Nolte farm in late October did not last long. She became ill again sometime in November, I gather, and had to go back to the home of her nephew, Benjamin Packham, in Hobart ("Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette 2 Dec. 1921). She spent most of December 1921 convalescing there, and not until after the New Year was she able to leave the house — only to go to downtown Hobart, though; not to the farm ("Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette 13 Jan. 1922).

Bungalow or No?

After the trouble I went to finding out who Elmer Livingston Arment was, I'm annoyed that suddenly in October 1921 he has to move half a state away and has no further need for a bungalow on Grand Boulevard … which means I've probably been wasting my time trying to figure out which of the houses in that area was his.


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"Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 21 Oct. 1921.


But wait! — up jumps the builder, Frank MacPherson, with an announcement:


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"Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 4 Nov. 1921.


Next door to that item, another interesting announcement about some people we know. I haven't blogged much about the Thomas Chandler family, although they show up here and there in my notes, in happy events of births or ordinary sociability. (I was just checking my notes from way back and found this little item from 1910: "A daughter was born Apr. 13th to Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Mosher who live at present with Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Chandler near Deepriver." The first time I read that, I had no clue who the Moshers were.)

Now that these Chandlers are leaving my bailiwick, I suppose I should finally talk about them! Thomas, born in 1878 and named for his grandfather, was one of seven children of Sylvester and Margaret Chandler — an older brother to Eugene Chandler, whom we've heard so much about.

In February 1900 Thomas married Maud Whittmer. Early on in their married life, it appears they lived in western Ross Township, and Thomas worked as a railroad section hand. In 1907 they were living near the village of Deep River — perhaps farming, as the 1910 census shows them farming rented land in the same area. In 1913, the family reportedly bought "the 52-acre farm of Charles E. and Maggie E. Barney at Palmer," and yet in 1919 they were "occupying the Cunningham farm of 116 acres six miles southeast from Ainsworth, for the third year" — and the last year, it seems, as their landlord was reportedly selling the farm out from under them. In 1920, they were farming rented land in Winfield Township. (By this time, Thomas and Maud had three children: Emery, Josephine, and Janet.) And now, in November 1921, the Chandlers were departing from the Ella Roper farm, which I believe lay on the west side of Clay Street, its southern border at present-day U.S. 30 (see 1908 Plat Map).

As so off go the Chandlers, and onto the Ella Roper farm come Fred and Olga Rossow.


Additional Sources:
♦ 1880 Census.
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Additional Local News," Hobart Gazette 29 Aug. 1919.
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette 30 Aug. 1907.
♦ Indiana Marriage Collection.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 22 Apr. 1910.
♦ "Personal and Local Mention." Hobart News 10 Apr. 1913.

The Unpleasantness with the Prohibition Officer

On an October afternoon in 1921, two prominent Hobart citizens mistakenly got into a car chase with a federal Prohibition officer.


(Click on image to enlarge)Hobart Gazette 12 Oct. 1921.*

The story suggests that the officer's car had no markings that would have made it identifiable as such. From what I've read about the early federal Prohibition enforcement effort, I gather it was grossly understaffed, with the officers poorly paid, often untrained and ill equipped.

Above that story, we have the news of the death of William Krausse (father of Carl), who had a more interesting life than I suspected.

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The "Local and Personal" column of the Hobart News of October 13, 1921, included this item:

O. Amlong and family have moved to the Chester Cooper residence on Lake street and Mr. and Mrs. Otto Maicke of Ainsworth have moved to the Humes flat vacated by Mr. and Mrs. Amlong.

… which leaves me knowing very little except that Ainsworth had lost its Maickes.

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*This issue of the Gazette is erroneously dated "Friday, Oct. 12, 1921." Friday was the usual day for the Gazette to come out, but that week's Friday fell on the 14th.