Dime Store, Hobart, Indiana, 1957

The photographer climbed up on the checkout counter, I think, to shoot this nice overview of a store interior:


(Click on image to enlarge)

Apparently, if you were a little kid in Hobart in 1957, you wore Buster Brown or nothing. Well, maybe you could get something else at Stommel's.

I like the assortment of goods packed into that small space. In the foreground, tissues; then sewing supplies, like cards of buttons and seam binding, and rolls of ribbon. Beyond the Buster Brown display, shelves full of yarn and socks. Saddle shoes and loafers. Ladies' nylons with reinforced heels. Then more children's clothing against the back wall. Up on the wall, kites and curtains.

The notes on the back of the photo don't tell us which dime store:




It might have been Harvey's, which, contrary to what the old-timer(s) remembered in 1979, didn't burn down until 1961:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 27 Dec. 1961.

But then again we have photos of Elinor's from the 1957 Hobart High School yearbook, supposedly in that same location, so I'm confused.

I believe the Schultz Bros. Variety Store was operating on Main Street in 1957; that's another possibility. It is listed at 313 Main in my 1962 Hobart directory, and according to this 1940 column of Hobart-related news, had been operating in Hobart at least since 1939 (exact location unknown):


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hammond Times, 5 Aug. 1940.

(So why did Almira Kramer and Claude Nelson get married secretly? Anybody know the story?)

The Sykes House

This is the house on the Sykes farm, where the Charles Chester family (among others) once lived.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Merrillville/Ross Township Historical Society.

The house is still standing today, but this picture was taken sometime in the 1970s or early 1980s, I think. It's one of a number of photos, now at the Merrillville museum, that someone took of local old houses, and I just have the loosey-goosey impression that they date to the 1970s/early 1980s. Whoever took the photos made only very rough notes on the back, sometimes only a name, and if any reference was made to location, it was vague. Whenever I look at those photos, I feel grateful that someone took the trouble to take them, and frustrated that the notes on the back aren't more informative.

On the back of this photo, someone wrote: "Sykes house — also where Shult lived." I did not understand who "Shult" was until Suzi Emig clued me in, telling me that in the late 1960s or early 1970s a family named Schultz had lived and farmed there, and Mr. Schultz had been murdered there, apparently by robbers. I have not been able to find any newspaper articles about the incident.

According to A Pictorial History of Merrillville, the house was built circa 1875 by Charles Sykes. That book, written in 1976, described the Sykes house as nearly hidden by surrounding trees, which is certainly isn't now, and apparently wasn't in the above photo … although the trees were leafless when the photo was taken.

With a Friend Like This, He Didn't Need Enemies

The violent robbery of George Bruebach, Jr., is the most attention-grabbing story on this page …


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart Gazette 16 Dec. 1921.

… but we should also note the wedding of Irma Baessler to Helmuth Kasch, Jr.

Irma, about 20 years of age, was the eldest child of Michael (Jr.) and Emma Baessler, who had bought their farm on the Lincoln Highway in 1918.

I have not paid the slightest attention to the Kasch family yet, but in 1920 they were Ross Township residents, renting a farm that seems to have been in the general area of Clay Street and E. 83rd Ave. At that time the family consisted of Helmuth Sr. (45 years old), his wife, Emma (43), and their children, Helmuth Jr. (20), Edward (19), and Vera (16). Helmuth and Emma had brought their family to the Indiana countryside from Chicago. (Also in the household in 1920 were William Dewell and his little son Conrad. William's wife, Martha, who had died of the Spanish flu in December 1918, had been Emma Wischman Kasch's sister.)

Apparently, by December 1921 the Kasch family had moved to "the old Lincoln farm south of East Gary," which I cannot identify.

By 1930 the elder Kasches would be back in Ross Township. Helmuth Jr. and Irma became residents of Hobart.


Sources:
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ Indiana Marriage Collection.
♦ "Kase-Baessler [sic]." Hobart News 15 Dec. 1921.

Ross Township Graduates

There are several familiar names among the Ross Township graduates — and this was graduation from the eighth grade, not high school; none of these schools (save Merrillville, mentioned at the end of the article) had high-school classes, and a brief check on some of these children shows them in the age range of 12 to 14 years.

This article predicted that the new Ainsworth school would be ready for the next school year, which I suppose means the autumn of 1920.


(Click on image to enlarge)

You will also notice Charles Goldman's ad, at right.

Here's another ad, in case you were wondering who the local sellers of United States Tires were:




Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ Advertisement. Hobart Gazette 21 May 1920.
♦ "Ross Township Schools." Hobart Gazette 21 May 1920.

Another Invalid

Like Charles Maybaum, an invalid who survived his mother less than a year, August Schultz, Jr. followed his father to the grave — but even more quickly, and at a younger age.

I have only this brief, confusing death notice to go by, which suggests that in spite of being an invalid August Jr. was not in the family home when he died.


From the Hobart Gazette of 7 Nov. 1919.

Wherever he may have died, we know where he is now: beside his father in Mosier Cemetery, and but for the dates of birth you might think the two stones marked one grave.


(Click on images to enlarge)


♦    ♦    ♦
On a less depressing note, here's a story about Marshal Fred Rose, Sr., and a woman who was ready to kill for her sewing machine.


(Click on image to enlarge)
From the Hobart Gazette of 7 Nov. 1919.

A Shocking Death

I'm sure that headline crossed the mind of the Gazette's editor, but human decency forbade him to use it. I am under no such constraint.


(Click on image to enlarge)
From the Hobart Gazette of July 11, 1919.

In spite of August Schultz's being "a well-known citizen" of Ross Township, I have not found anything in my notes about him. Perhaps because I tend to overlook people who aren't doing interesting things like getting arrested or having their houses burn down.

This page from the Gazette is full of news of other acquaintances — the untimely death of Mary Zobjeck, the popularity of Lee & Rhodes' public drinking fountain, a visit from the young Mr. and Mrs. George Yager, a move by Charles Maybaum from farm to city, etc.

Hobart Then and Now: 10th and Lincoln

1942 and 2011



(Click on images to enlarge)
1942 images courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

It was an afternoon in 1942 and someone was busy with a camera at Howard and Cal Shearer's Sinclair gas station, on the southwest corner of 10th and Lincoln. The resulting photos have come down to us, and blessings be upon the hand that noted the date, location and subjects' names on the backs of those photos.

Above we have (left to right): Dick Mackin, Tom Farlow and Cal Shearer.

Below, left to right: Dick Mackin, Tom Farlow, Cal Shearer and Lowell Enslen.



This fellow pumping gas at 14.5 cents per gallon is Melvin Schultz.



I am told that they also sold groceries here.