Day of Destruction

Interesting views from the Ainsworth crossing today. To the north, Sapper's Corner is burning.


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To the south, William Raschka's 110-year-old grain warehouse is being demolished.

Fire at the Sapper House

History repeats itself, except that this 1924 fire was unintentional. Any fires that may happen on the old Sapper place just lately are intentional, for training purposes.


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"Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette, 7 Mar. 1924.

The bungalow that is still standing (just barely) was built in 1925 per the county records.

Not Guilty

The big Prohibition trial in Indianapolis in the spring of 1923 ended well for the locals — mostly. Mike Drakulich had pled guilty to one charge and was found guilty on another, but all the other Hobart defendants were acquitted: Fred Rose (marshal), Laurence Traeger (night marshal), George Fleck and William Busse (soft drink proprietors). ("Jury Renders Verdict of Guilty for 55 Conspirators," Hobart News, April 5, 1923.)

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On a totally unrelated note, Charles Sapper appeared at a meeting of the Hobart City Council and "notified the city that the fence around the abandoned cemetery near his place was in bad condition. St[reet] Com[missioner] Tyler was instructed to repair same." ("City Council Proceedings," Hobart News, April 5, 1923.) The cemetery in question was Old Settlers Cemetery. So Charles is telling us that by 1923 it was "abandoned" and neglected. Scanning over the NWIGS listing from its book of Hobart Township cemeteries, I find the most recent date of death for someone in that cemetery to be 1933, but he's an outlier. All the other death dates are before 1871.

Turk's Melody Boys

"Music by Turk's Melody Boys," says the advertisement for a dance at Niksch's dance hall, providing no further detail, as if everybody knew who Turk's Melody Boys were … or as if they were so obscure that there was nothing to say about them.


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Hobart Gazette, 29 Sept. 1922.

Googling "Turk's Melody Boys" turns up only a few references to a band called Johnny Turk's Melody Boys, which got some air time on West Coast radio broadcasts circa 1926; for example:


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Eugene Guard (Eugene, Ore.) 27 July 1926 (via newspapers.com).

I wonder if Johnny Turk's Melody Boys got their start in such humble places as the old Deep River schoolhouse? But theirs wasn't a story of a rise from small beginnings to great fame: after a few radio broadcasts they seem to have disappeared, and have not resurfaced in any modern-day account of American musical history that I can find.

The woman whose obituary takes up most of the left-hand column of the Gazette page above was Christina (Blank) Hazelgreen's sister.

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Here's a summary of local auto accidents in the space of a week:


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Hobart Gazette 22 Sept. 1922.

Dr. Phillip Forsberg was a veterinarian, and I suppose his wife, Mary, was the "Mrs. Forsberg" whose identity eluded me when she sang in Ainsworth. They both rest in Hobart Cemetery, beneath a literary epitaph. Their "house by the side of the road" was at 56th and Broadway (WWII Draft Cards), which was in Ross Township (1940 Census). Phillip was a friend to man's best friend, anyway. And Mary, who gave her occupation in 1940 as assistant school principal, was a friend to children, we can hope.

The Carlson fruit farm and its melons were on the west side of S.R. 51, somewhere near what is now Indian Ridge Golf Course.

Wedding Bells for Mabel and Harry

Isn't it lovely? — our friends have gotten married.


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Hobart News 31 Aug. 1922.

(Below that, a wedding involving Charles Kisela, which may or may not interest the Kisela-related person who contacted me a few years ago. Also, I did not know that Terre Haute was the standard by which Indiana bootlegging was judged in 1922.)

A Garage at Deep River

As the summer of 1922 approaches, we find the 68-year-old Thomas Strong putting his carpentry skills to work in the village of Deep River … I just wish I knew whose garage it was.


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Hobart News 1 June 1922.

Below that, we learn that the Hubert and Daisy Bullock family (with their recently graduated son, Elmer, and younger son, Cecil)* are leaving my bailiwick, while (in the "Births" column) John Charles Sapper and Vernon Charles Bothwell are entering it. The "Local Drifts" of the June 2 Hobart Gazette noted that Hubert Bullock had already closed up his auto repair shop in Crown Point and moved the family to South Bend. The W.B. Owen family was still in Hobart, but "Mr. Owen has opened a Paige sales station [in South Bend] and spends most of the time there." Hubert Bullock was to be in charge of the Paige service station.

The two other items marked concern the campground in the McAfee woods, along the Yellowstone Trail. Paul Newman felt compelled to warn his fellow citizens that if they mistreated the campground (e.g., by stealing its pump) or the travelers on the Trail, they were giving their town bad publicity nationwide. On a happier note, the Trinity Lutheran school was planning to hold a grand picnic at the campground.

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*In the 1920 Census I find a Chas. Hendricks living in Hubert's household, but the scan on Ancestry.com is not legible enough for me to determine whether he could be Laura's father. Whoever transcribed the page for Ancestry.com read his relationship to Hubert as "brother-in-law," but I don't think that transcription is correct.

Cousin Caroline

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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

We met Caroline Sapper earlier when she signed Lena Busse's autograph album.

I'm not sure exactly how Caroline was Lester Harms' cousin, but I think it might have something to do with the Springman connection.

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.

South of Deepriver

A social column from the countryside south of Deep River …


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Hobart News 13 Oct. 1921.

… and a full obituary for Harry Breyfogle's foster grandma.

Also a little more information about the Yellowstone Trail.

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Elsewhere in the same issue of the News, one heck of a chicken dinner …



If the Nelson family was our own Glen and Elsie Nelson (and their two little boys, Delmer and Melvin), I wonder if their being "of Crown Point" was only in terms of mail delivery routes. The 1920 Census seems to place them on Grand Blvd./S.R. 51 between Ainsworth and the Deep River, and I haven't seen any news since then of their moving.

A Six-Room Bungalow

The first I ever heard of the "E.L. Arment 20 acres" was in March 1918, when Charles Sapper and his son, John, rented that land for some unnamed purpose, probably agricultural. The land lay on the east side of present-day Grand Boulevard, south of the Bracken land that is now Barrington Ridge, north of the Dorman land that is now the Indian Ridge golf course. The 1908 Plat Map ascribes it to "E.L. Armett":


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I do not know when E.L. Arment purchased these 20 acres. The 1891 Plat Book has Annie Ford written in as the owner, over a crossed-out "A.R. Castle." If we go back to the 1874 Plat Map, we find another Castle owning the land.

Anyway, now — at September 1921 — comes the announcement that E.L. Arment intends to construct a six-room bungalow on his 20 acres, and has given Frank MacPherson the contract to build it.

I am having some trouble positively identifying Mr. Arment. I suspect he may have been Elmer Livingstone Arment, who in November 1900 had married Maud Rifenburg of Hobart. Elmer had worked as a guard at the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City from 1900 (or earlier) on through the first World War, but by 1920 he had gone to work at a steel mill in Gary. It appears he managed to get himself counted twice in the census — once at home in Michigan City, where Maud naturally enough gave his name to the census enumerator as the head of the household; and on the same day in Gary, where he was listed as a lodger in a steelworker's home.

The six-room bungalow may have been intended as a new home for his family, but I have yet to confirm that they ever lived in it. Or even that it was ever actually built, much less still standing.

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One report on the Arment land described it as "opposite the Richard Carlson fruit farm." As you can see from the image above, opposite the Arment place is the 80-acre farm that once belonged to Swan Peter and Hedvig Carlson. We know that 20 acres of that parcel were sold in 1919 by a daughter of the Carlsons, at which time I wasn't sure what had become of the other 60 acres. Per the 1910 census, among the Carlson children was a son named Richard, who would have been about 35 years old in 1921; perhaps he owned another parcel carved out from the original 80 acres, and used that land to raise fruit (although no census describes him as a farmer). If that's the case, it suggests the old homestead was divided up among the survivors after S.P.'s death. (The 1926 Plat Book shows that land in several small parcels — too small to show the owners' names — while one of the small parcels was owned by a Carlson per the 1939 Plat Book.)


Sources:
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ Indiana Marriage Collection.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 8 Sept. 1921.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 29 Mar. 1918; 9 Sept. 1921; 16 Sept. 1921.
♦ WWI Draft Cards.

On the Ainsworth Stone Road

We know it as Grand Boulevard or State Road 51, but to the 1920 census enumerator it was the "South Hobart Road to Ainsworth," and to editor of the Hobart News, writing in 1921, it was the "Ainsworth stone road." Edwin and Carry Humes had been living in a rented house along that road, with their four children, when the 1920 Census recorded them. In June 1921 they bought that house — the "Hettie Ryan residence," which was in Hobart Township, but since the plat maps don't show parcels of three acres, I don't know exactly where.

Further south on the same road, in Ross Township, the Grabowskis continued their improvements to the old Carlson place. My current theory is that the red brick house on the west side of S.R. 51, on the north bank of the Deep River, is the old Carlson place, but that's just my current theory.

Also, the Yellowstone Trail got re-routed through the heart of Hobart …


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"Local and Personal," Hobart News 16 June 1921.

… and a Buick report.

A Double Sapper Wedding

The last of April 1921 was a joyous day in the home of Charles and Minnie Sapper, as two of their daughters, Matilda and Rosella, became wives.


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I don't know what Caroline (Sapper) Nelson did about her nine-day-old infant — perhaps she wasn't able to attend her sisters' wedding. On the other hand, I'd be surprised if Albert and Frieda Witt didn't drive up from the Kegebein farm to see his brother married.



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Photos courtesy of the Ewen family.
Back row: Wilbert Wagener, Lillian Fasel, unidentified, Annabel Sapper, Albert Kraft, unidentified. Front Row: Emil Henschel, Rose Sapper, Matilda Sapper, Paul Witt.



Emil and Rosella (Sapper) Henschel.

I don't know much about Emil Henschel. He was born in Germany in 1890 and came to this country in 1905. I can't find him in the 1920 census.


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ "Double Wedding." Hobart Gazette 6 May 1921.
♦ WWII Army Enlistment Records.

A Bairn and a Barn

In April 1921, Owen and Caroline (Sapper) Nelson welcomed their first daughter, after two sons. The 1920 census shows the family farming rented land in southern Hobart Township, which may still be the "Hoffman farm."

And the Gruels put a lot of thought into planning a new barn, which I believe will be their glorious cow barn.


(Click on image to enlarge)


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 28 Apr. 1921.

Come Down Our Way … and Bring John Sapper

From the steamer trunk.


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This image and the one below courtesy of Eldon Harms.

Here we have (at right) Martha Granzow. The woman at left is unidentified; she looks too young to be Martha's mother, but might be her older sister, Alma.

This is the message Martha sent to Herman Harms:



My transcription: "Say Kid come down our way next Sunday night rather late. You will find us at my house or at Lily Buchfuehrers or walking down Deep River. Answer this card. Matz." At the top she added: "Send me one of your pictures. Let me know if you are coming." And up the left margin: "Bring John Sapper along."

I sense a vivacious personality behind this card. The postmark was 1911, so Martha was then about 15 years old, her friend Lillie Buchfuehrer maybe a year younger. Herman Harms and John Sapper were both about 17.

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If I've found the right family, the Granzows had come to Indiana from Wisconsin after 1900. The family in 1900 consisted of father Carl (42), mother Minnie (43), and the children: William (17), Fred (16), Albert (14), Paul (11), Alma (7) and Martha (3). Carl's mother-in-law, Christiana Voss, lived with them.

It appears they first moved to Hobart Township, as the 1908 plat map shows 80 acres in the very southwest corner under the Granzow name. In April 1906, Carl bought from Mary Giese 30 acres near Deepriver — perhaps part of this land still attributed to August Giese in 1908:



In 1908 the Buchfuehrers bought the Casbon land, so the two families were neighbors. While the Granzow household had shrunk to just Carl, Minnie, Alma and Martha by 1910, Fred Granzow was around enough to fall in love with Louise Buchfuehrer. Fred and Louise were married in April 1911; they moved first to Hobart, then to Milwaukee in 1912. I do not know what became of the other Granzow brothers, and by 1920 Alma had vanished, too — either I've not been paying attention in my newspaper reading, or they carried on their lives with little publicity.*

In 1918 the Granzows sold their farm to Michael Baessler, Jr. and moved to Lake Street in Hobart, occupying a house and four acres they bought from L.E. Maxwell.

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*It doesn't help that their last name turns up in several different spellings, e.g., Granzow, Granzov, Granson, Granzon; and Carl is also called Charles.


Sources:
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1908 Plat Map.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Deepriver Items." Hobart Gazette 16 Apr. 1909.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 31 Jan. 1918.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 16 Apr. 1909; 3 May 1912.
♦ "Married." Hobart News 20 Apr. 1911.
♦ "Personal Mention." Hobart News 6 Apr. 1911.

The Spanish-Flu Marriage

The Spanish-flu epidemic had taken William Dewell's wife the day after Christmas 1918; several weeks later it widowed Louise Sapper Schavey. In November 1920, these two bereaved people found solace in each other.


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From the Hobart Gazette of Nov. 12, 1920.

I suppose the Mackey house was the one Dr. Dwight Mackey had built in 1919 "on the south side of Third street."


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Image courtesy of D.E.
William and Louise DeWell. Undated, but looks like 1920s.

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You may have noticed, toward the top right corner of the above newspaper page, the news about Ruth Miller's having "returned to her work at Battle Creek, Mich." The 1920 Census shows the 23-year-old Ruth employed as a sanitarium nurse, lodging somewhere on Sanitarium Ave.

Agnes Gottlieb

From the steamer trunk.

Agnes was Anna's sister, younger by two years.


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Image courtesy of E.H.

Doesn't she look ethereal, just a wisp of loveliness in white, with her ribbons and flowers, and curling tendrils of hair? Like an angel!

Then she goes and writes like this:



She expects Minnie to be mystified or frightened to see her dressed up so — oh, just kidding, "youse" understand.

The year in the postmark is illegible, but if this is Agnes' 8th-grade graduation picture, she would probably be around 14 or 15 years old, which means the year would be circa 1913.

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[8/25/2013 update: The Dewell Family archivist supplies us with some additional information through the obituary of Walter Gottlieb (brother of Agnes and Anna, husband of Annabelle Sapper): "I just found an obit for Walter Gottlieb from the Vidette Messenger dated 28 Aug 1967. It lists his parents as John and Mary (Lidke) Gottlieb. Survived by siblings Arthur, Herman, Mrs Anna Teer, Mrs Evelyn Whitcomb and Mrs. Agnes Cauley." So now we have married names for both of these girls.

Charles and Minnie (Springman) Sapper

Another contribution from the DeWell family archivist: a wedding portrait of Charles and Minnie (Springman) Sapper.


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Image courtesy of the DeWell Family Archives.

They were married July 11, 1888, so that poor girl had to wear all those clothes in the middle of the Indiana summer. Let's hope the weather was being uncommonly kind.

This picture also has a connection to the rabbit-hunting tragedy, since Charles Sapper was among the hunters that day, and they all rode in his sleigh.

Nelson Twigs on the Chester Tree

On May 25, 1920, a son was born to Glen and Elsie (Henning) Nelson. They named him Melvin Robert. He was their second son — little brother to Delmer, who had passed his fourth birthday.

Owen and Caroline (Sapper) Nelson also had two little boys, Charles and Edward.

I can't tell you for sure how many little twigs there now were on this branch of the Chester family tree, since I can't find Ernest and Myrtle (Nelson) Sitzenstock in the 1920 census. The last I heard of them they were farming in Ross Township; the 1930 census shows them with a girl of 12, Alice, and a ten-year-old boy, Raymond, but I can't be sure exactly when Raymond was born. [3/8/13 update: It was 1919; see Comment.]

But Lovisa Chester Nelson was now a grandmother at least five times over, if not already six.


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ "Births." Hobart Gazette 4 June 1920.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 3 June 1920.

Caroline Sapper

From the Busse autograph collection.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

We already know that six years after she signed Lena's album, Caroline became Mrs. Owen Nelson.

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[2/6/2013 update] From the DeWell Family Archives come the following two photos of Caroline Sapper Nelson. The first is undated.


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This next one was taken in 1980, on the occasion of Caroline and Owen's 65th wedding anniversary. From left to right: Caroline, Owen, Howard Ewen, Ruth Schavey Ewen, and Annabelle Schavey Larson.



Ruth and Annabelle were Caroline's nieces (the daughters of her sister Louise Sapper Schavey DeWell by Louise's first husband, whom she lost to the Spanish influenza). Howard Ewen was Ruth's husband.

The archivist tells us this story:

The Sappers lived in Chicago when the kids were young. Their dad owned a grocery near the Pullman area. My mom remembers hearing that Aunt Caroline, and her brother Uncle John (of the farm market in Hobart) were little scrappers. They said they had to fight their way home every day from school through a line of other kids (probably the German Sappers vs. the Italians or Irish). Caroline and John probably barely topped five feet as adults, but I have no doubt they were tough!

Many thanks for these contributions!

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[2/9/2013 update] Thanks to Marilyn (granddaughter of Caroline Sapper), we now have some images of Caroline in her youth.

This first one is not dated, but I'm guessing circa 1900, since she looks roughly five years old here, and she was born in 1895.


(Click on images to enlarge)

We have tried to decipher these handwritten notes on the back of the original:



Here's my interpretation thus far:



It seems to be a description of the details of Caroline's portrait that would be lost in the black-and-white version. I wonder if perhaps her mother gave instructions to the photographer to produce another version, retouched with some color?

Moving along, here is Caroline's confirmation class at Trinity Lutheran Church, undated, but we're guessing circa 1910. Caroline is in the middle row, third from the right.



No one else is identified — a pity, since it's a great photo. Perhaps someday there will be time for research on that.

Last but not least, we have Caroline's wedding photo, taken February 14, 1915:



She was a beautiful bride, but she seems to be staring down the photographer … while Owen is gazing dreamily off-camera. (I have also added this photo to the previous post about their wedding.)

Lights on the Ainsworth Road

One of the matters up for discussion at Hobart's town board meeting on March 10, 1919, was a petition from residents along the Ainsworth road, i.e., State Road 51 between Hobart and Ainsworth. The petition was signed, according to the News, by "S.R. Collver, Chas. Sapper, Dave Vinegar, Harvey Auton, David Cox, M.H. Smith, H.W. Bracken, W.G. Bracken, J.C. Kellen, Jos. Hudson, H.L. Ryan, Robert Reichert, V. Miscevich, Mike Drakulich, and George Hayward." They were asking for four electric lights to be installed on the part of the Ainsworth road described as lying "between the Sapper corner and the Peddicord farm." I suppose the Sapper corner is about where S.R. 51 turns south from 10th Street. The 1926 Plat Book doesn't show enough detail in that area to be helpful, so let us turn to the 1939 Plat Book, in which some holdings may have grown, shrunk or changed hands, but we can see some names that correspond to the 1919 report.


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This excerpt from the 1939 Plat Book shows, at the top, 10th Street intersecting with Lake Park Avenue, aka S.R. 51, formerly known as the Ainsworth road.

The town board accepted the petition and instructed the superintendent of Hobart's power plant, Robert Wheaton, to draw up an estimate of the project's cost.

He did so within two weeks, and at the March 24 meeting, the town board faced the question whether they ought to spend $76.32 on lights for the Ainsworth road. After due consideration, they ordered that the lights be installed.


Sources:
♦ "Town Board Doings." Hobart Gazette 14 Mar. 1919; 28 Mar. 1919.
♦ "Town Board Doings." Hobart News 13 Mar. 1919.