(Click on image to enlarge)
I suppose, after all, there was no particular story behind the 1911 plate. The Stoltzes just handed out calendar things in the hope that people would consult and calendar and be reminded of the store.
Showing posts with label Stoltz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stoltz. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 22, 2026
Stoltz 1941 Advertising Novelty
Let me end my Stoltz obsession with this photo of an advertising novelty with a 1941 calendar, on display at the Merrillville History Museum:
(Click on image to enlarge)
I suppose, after all, there was no particular story behind the 1911 plate. The Stoltzes just handed out calendar things in the hope that people would consult and calendar and be reminded of the store.
(Click on image to enlarge)
I suppose, after all, there was no particular story behind the 1911 plate. The Stoltzes just handed out calendar things in the hope that people would consult and calendar and be reminded of the store.
Sunday, September 20, 2026
Stoltz Family Stories: The Tragedy
While searching in the online newspapers for any explanation of 1911 plate from the John Stoltz store of Merrillville, I came across a story of a 1914 tragedy that devastated another branch of the Stoltz family.
It's odd that I was shocked to find that story. I must have seen it before: it was reported on by both of the Hobart newspapers, which I had read on microfilm long ago. Not only did I neglect the story the first time, I forgot I that my eyes had ever swept over it. The fallibility of human memory is a topic that comes up sometimes in this blog, and I have to say that my own memory heads the list of the fallible.
But let us proceed.
Among John Stoltz's many siblings was an older brother, Joseph, born in Illinois (like John) in 1868. By the time we catch up with Joseph in the 1880 Census, with the family living in Hammond, he was 12 years old and already gainfully employed. In what capacity, the census doesn't say; I hope he wasn't working in the slaughterhouse with his father.
In February 1891, Joseph married Mary Diedrich, and the young couple quickly started a family. In the 1900 Census, they were the parents of five children, four of whom were still living. Joseph described himself as an "express man." Trying to find out exactly what that meant took me on a side trek and I'm still not sure exactly what his job entailed. But evidently it didn't pay a great deal, as the household included two boarders.
Joseph and Mary lived more quietly than his brother John, so I'm not sure when they moved their family from Hammond to rural Ross Township. But that is where we find them in the 1910 Census. They were farmers, not storekeepers. Their rented farm appears to have been south of Merrillville (to judge by those of their neighbors who were not also renting). The household included seven children: Daniel (15), Cora (13), Margaret (9), Philomena (6), Fredrick (4), and Theresa (1); their oldest daughter, 17-year-old Katherine, is not listed with them (which may be a mistake by the enumerator).
A couple years after the census, Joseph's mother, Elizabeth — widowed in 1899 — came to live with them.
On October 2, 1914, tragedy struck the family.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 3 Oct. 1914.
The reference to "Tracy Stoltz, aged 6," is to little Theresa, who was one year old in the 1910 census.
Two days later, the Times reported on the funerals and burials of the victims.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 5 Oct. 1914.
Besides adding some heart-rending details, the article mentions a "passing Chicago autoist." Some days later, he and his wife, who also helped, were identified:
(Click on image to enlarge)
North Judson News, 15 Oct. 1914.
As mentioned in the October 5 article, all the children were buried in SS. Peter and Paul Cemetery. Their entry on FindAGrave does not include a photo of a grave marker; nor does NWIGS' Ross Township Cemeteries note their grave in its listing, so it may be unmarked.
The grandmother, Elizabeth Weis Stoltz, is buried in Hammond.
♦ ♦ ♦
The exact location of the Stoltz farmhouse is unclear. The family was probably still on rented land. One of the newspaper articles describes the house as "about a quarter of a mile south of the four corners in Merrillville" — the "four corners" being the intersection of 73rd and Madison. That would translate to a bit south of the intersection of 75th and Madison, which means Section 16, or Section 21 if the article's writer underestimated the distance south from the "four corners."
If we look at the 1908 Plat Map, we find some interesting names on the east side of Madison in Section 16, and just below its southern boundary:
(Click on image to enlarge)
Andrew Popp was Elizabeth Weis Stoltz's brother-in-law. And her own brother, John Weis, was among the "et al." in the "Elizabeth Weis et al." who owned 120 acres south of the Popp land. (John and Elizabeth Weis were the parents of Michael, whom we met in my previous post as the manager of the Marion Pierce store that preceded the Stoltz store.) It seems likely to me that the Stoltz family would rent land from relatives. However, according to A Pictorial History of Merrillville, both the Popp home and the Weis home were (and still are) the original structures — there is no mention of either burning in 1914.[1] There may have been another house on the land, or the Stoltzes may have rented on the west side of Madison. In short, I don't know the location of the farmhouse that burned.
Nor do I know where the surviving family lived after the loss of their rented home. The 1920 Census shows them living in their own home in Merrillville. It was probably a home in town, or close to town with a much smaller lot, as the 1926 Plat Book doesn't show any parcel belonging to them. Joseph was no longer farming; he had gotten work in the steel mills. The family was again taking in boarders.
♦ ♦ ♦
At the Merrillville History Museum is a three-ring binder full of notes that we believe were gathered through interviews conducted by Jan Clemens (and any helpers she may have had) in the mid-1970s in preparation for writing A Pictorial History of Merrillville. The 1914 Stoltz tragedy is not mentioned in A Pictorial History, but it is mentioned in the notes in the three-ring binder, along with another tragedy in the family.
(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of the Merrillville-Ross Township Historical Society.
I think there were two interviewees, one of whom comes in on the third page with only a few lines. The first interviewee, covering the first two pages plus the top of the third, is surprisingly familiar with the tragedy some 60 years after it happened, naming all the young victims of the fire.
There is one odd detail in the story — the house that burned is described as "the old cheese factory." Now, among the people who run the Merrillville-Ross Township Historical Society, the old cheese factory in Merrillville is thought to be still standing at 7200 Madison Street. According to A Pictorial History, that house/cheese factory was built in 1880 to replace an earlier cheese factory on Walter Avenue. (The county records give it a build date of 1900, which is often a way of saying, "We don't know the exact year, but it was a long time ago.") The only other cheese factory mentioned in A Pictorial History was one built in 1855 by Dudley Merrill along 73rd Avenue — that one was donated to the Methodist Church's Ladies Aid Society by Charles Merrill (1850-1913).
So, was the interviewee confused, or was there yet another cheese factory south of Merrillville that has been lost to memory?
The second interviewee has only a few remarks on the tragedy: "Grandmother [Mary Diedrich Stoltz?] had to jump out the window; broke both ear drums — stone deaf. Spark from train set house on fire." Although the Times article of October 5, 1914, describes the house as one story high, I suppose a fall from a first-story window could rupture eardrums. The detail about the fire's originating with a spark from a train is more confusing — there were no train tracks between 73rd and (present-day) U.S. 30, so if the newspapers were correct about the Stoltz house being south of Merrillville, this detail could not be true. The "old cheese factory" house was close to train tracks, but it (so far as we know) never burned.
Could the second interviewee's memory have been shaded somehow by that other family tragedy mentioned on the first page of notes — Mary Stoltz's death on the C&O train tracks?
(Click on image to enlarge)
Hammond Times, 24 Sept. 1943.
It's interesting how this event is retold by the first interviewee in the 1970s notes:
It is just possible, of course, that the odd details in these retellings resulted from confusion on the part of the note-taker!
_______________
[1] Per the county assessor's records, both the Popp home (7489 Madison), and what I believe to be the Weis home (7883 Madison) were built in 1870. Build dates in the 19th century are often approximations. Incidentally, A Pictorial History does not give an address for the Weis home, but says that it is south of U.S. 30; I believe this to be an error. No plat map shows John and Elizabeth Weis owning any land south of what is now U.S. 30.
It's odd that I was shocked to find that story. I must have seen it before: it was reported on by both of the Hobart newspapers, which I had read on microfilm long ago. Not only did I neglect the story the first time, I forgot I that my eyes had ever swept over it. The fallibility of human memory is a topic that comes up sometimes in this blog, and I have to say that my own memory heads the list of the fallible.
But let us proceed.
Among John Stoltz's many siblings was an older brother, Joseph, born in Illinois (like John) in 1868. By the time we catch up with Joseph in the 1880 Census, with the family living in Hammond, he was 12 years old and already gainfully employed. In what capacity, the census doesn't say; I hope he wasn't working in the slaughterhouse with his father.
In February 1891, Joseph married Mary Diedrich, and the young couple quickly started a family. In the 1900 Census, they were the parents of five children, four of whom were still living. Joseph described himself as an "express man." Trying to find out exactly what that meant took me on a side trek and I'm still not sure exactly what his job entailed. But evidently it didn't pay a great deal, as the household included two boarders.
Joseph and Mary lived more quietly than his brother John, so I'm not sure when they moved their family from Hammond to rural Ross Township. But that is where we find them in the 1910 Census. They were farmers, not storekeepers. Their rented farm appears to have been south of Merrillville (to judge by those of their neighbors who were not also renting). The household included seven children: Daniel (15), Cora (13), Margaret (9), Philomena (6), Fredrick (4), and Theresa (1); their oldest daughter, 17-year-old Katherine, is not listed with them (which may be a mistake by the enumerator).
A couple years after the census, Joseph's mother, Elizabeth — widowed in 1899 — came to live with them.
On October 2, 1914, tragedy struck the family.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 3 Oct. 1914.
The reference to "Tracy Stoltz, aged 6," is to little Theresa, who was one year old in the 1910 census.
Two days later, the Times reported on the funerals and burials of the victims.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 5 Oct. 1914.
Besides adding some heart-rending details, the article mentions a "passing Chicago autoist." Some days later, he and his wife, who also helped, were identified:
(Click on image to enlarge)
North Judson News, 15 Oct. 1914.
As mentioned in the October 5 article, all the children were buried in SS. Peter and Paul Cemetery. Their entry on FindAGrave does not include a photo of a grave marker; nor does NWIGS' Ross Township Cemeteries note their grave in its listing, so it may be unmarked.
The grandmother, Elizabeth Weis Stoltz, is buried in Hammond.
The exact location of the Stoltz farmhouse is unclear. The family was probably still on rented land. One of the newspaper articles describes the house as "about a quarter of a mile south of the four corners in Merrillville" — the "four corners" being the intersection of 73rd and Madison. That would translate to a bit south of the intersection of 75th and Madison, which means Section 16, or Section 21 if the article's writer underestimated the distance south from the "four corners."
If we look at the 1908 Plat Map, we find some interesting names on the east side of Madison in Section 16, and just below its southern boundary:
(Click on image to enlarge)
Andrew Popp was Elizabeth Weis Stoltz's brother-in-law. And her own brother, John Weis, was among the "et al." in the "Elizabeth Weis et al." who owned 120 acres south of the Popp land. (John and Elizabeth Weis were the parents of Michael, whom we met in my previous post as the manager of the Marion Pierce store that preceded the Stoltz store.) It seems likely to me that the Stoltz family would rent land from relatives. However, according to A Pictorial History of Merrillville, both the Popp home and the Weis home were (and still are) the original structures — there is no mention of either burning in 1914.[1] There may have been another house on the land, or the Stoltzes may have rented on the west side of Madison. In short, I don't know the location of the farmhouse that burned.
Nor do I know where the surviving family lived after the loss of their rented home. The 1920 Census shows them living in their own home in Merrillville. It was probably a home in town, or close to town with a much smaller lot, as the 1926 Plat Book doesn't show any parcel belonging to them. Joseph was no longer farming; he had gotten work in the steel mills. The family was again taking in boarders.
At the Merrillville History Museum is a three-ring binder full of notes that we believe were gathered through interviews conducted by Jan Clemens (and any helpers she may have had) in the mid-1970s in preparation for writing A Pictorial History of Merrillville. The 1914 Stoltz tragedy is not mentioned in A Pictorial History, but it is mentioned in the notes in the three-ring binder, along with another tragedy in the family.
(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of the Merrillville-Ross Township Historical Society.
I think there were two interviewees, one of whom comes in on the third page with only a few lines. The first interviewee, covering the first two pages plus the top of the third, is surprisingly familiar with the tragedy some 60 years after it happened, naming all the young victims of the fire.
There is one odd detail in the story — the house that burned is described as "the old cheese factory." Now, among the people who run the Merrillville-Ross Township Historical Society, the old cheese factory in Merrillville is thought to be still standing at 7200 Madison Street. According to A Pictorial History, that house/cheese factory was built in 1880 to replace an earlier cheese factory on Walter Avenue. (The county records give it a build date of 1900, which is often a way of saying, "We don't know the exact year, but it was a long time ago.") The only other cheese factory mentioned in A Pictorial History was one built in 1855 by Dudley Merrill along 73rd Avenue — that one was donated to the Methodist Church's Ladies Aid Society by Charles Merrill (1850-1913).
So, was the interviewee confused, or was there yet another cheese factory south of Merrillville that has been lost to memory?
The second interviewee has only a few remarks on the tragedy: "Grandmother [Mary Diedrich Stoltz?] had to jump out the window; broke both ear drums — stone deaf. Spark from train set house on fire." Although the Times article of October 5, 1914, describes the house as one story high, I suppose a fall from a first-story window could rupture eardrums. The detail about the fire's originating with a spark from a train is more confusing — there were no train tracks between 73rd and (present-day) U.S. 30, so if the newspapers were correct about the Stoltz house being south of Merrillville, this detail could not be true. The "old cheese factory" house was close to train tracks, but it (so far as we know) never burned.
Could the second interviewee's memory have been shaded somehow by that other family tragedy mentioned on the first page of notes — Mary Stoltz's death on the C&O train tracks?
(Click on image to enlarge)
Hammond Times, 24 Sept. 1943.
It's interesting how this event is retold by the first interviewee in the 1970s notes:
Mary … was killed by a train while walking from Walter Demmon's grocery store. She used to walk on the railroad track to the store…..they had a path worn from their house to the store…..she had thought about stopping to visit next to the store but changed her mind and decided to take the short-cut home.How on earth could anyone have known what she was thinking in those last minutes before she was killed?
It is just possible, of course, that the odd details in these retellings resulted from confusion on the part of the note-taker!
_______________
[1] Per the county assessor's records, both the Popp home (7489 Madison), and what I believe to be the Weis home (7883 Madison) were built in 1870. Build dates in the 19th century are often approximations. Incidentally, A Pictorial History does not give an address for the Weis home, but says that it is south of U.S. 30; I believe this to be an error. No plat map shows John and Elizabeth Weis owning any land south of what is now U.S. 30.
Thursday, September 10, 2026
Stoltz Family Stories: The Merrillville Store
This 1911 calendar plate was recently donated to the Merrillville-Ross Township Historical Society museum.
(Click on image to enlarge)
I started looking into the newspapers of the time to figure out if this plate marked any special occasion, or if the Stoltz store was simply in the habit of handing out yearly promotional items, as this might have been. I didn't find the answer, but I did find some stories that I had previously overlooked.
Many years ago I posted a brief history of the Stoltz store in Merrillville. I was relying on A Pictorial History of Merrillville, which seems to be largely based on oral history — in other words, human memory. As so often happens, memory got it close but not 100% correct.
Memory was off by only a couple of years regarding the year when the store at 40 W. 73rd Avenue was built — it was not 1905, as per A Pictorial History, but 1907. The project started in July 1906 with the destruction by fire of the building that previously stood there:
(Click on image to enlarge)
Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 3 July 1906, p. 1
That earlier store may have been built circa 1860: that is the build date listed for the current structure in the Lake County assessor's records, which apparently were not updated to reflect the fire. Perhaps the destruction was not complete enough.
Mike Weis had been born around 1873 to immigrant parents, John and Elizabeth, who spent some time in St. John Township before relocating to Ross Township around the time of the Civil War. In 1902 Mike had married Elizabeth Gerlach.
The "Weis" store, we soon learn, was actually owned by Marion F. Pierce:
(Click on image to enlarge)
Marion gave his occupation for the 1900 Census as "general merchant." Writing in 1904, T.H. Ball described him as a "merchant and well-known business man of Merrillville, Ross township, [and] one of the oldest native sons of Lake county still engaged in the active pursuits of life. Three generations of the Pierce family have been identified with the industrial and commercial affairs of the county, covering a period of seventy years…"[1]
Mike Weis' health, incidentally, was a serious matter. He had tuberculosis. His visit to Rome City may have involved the Kneipps Springs sanatorium, but he did not find a cure there. After relocating to St. John, he and his family went to New Mexico and Texas, probably in search of a climate cure that failed to materialize. They were on their way back to St. John when Mike died in Topeka, Kansas, on April 3, 1910.[2]
But to return to the store: by April 1907, Carl Gerlach had purchased the land from Marion F. Pierce and announced his plan to rebuild the store, possibly in partnership with John Stoltz.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 10 Apr. 1907, p. 1.
Carl Gerlach, born in St. John in 1887, was one of a large family. Among his sisters were Elizabeth Weis (Mike's wife) and Margaret Stoltz, wife of John Stoltz. So there were family connections around the store, even before the original one burned.
John Stoltz's parents were Gottfried Franciscus ("Frank") and Elizabeth, both German (or Prussian) by birth but U.S. residents from childhood. Frank Stoltz served in the Civil War, then came home and married Elizabeth Weis (yet another family connection to the store?). The family moved around a bit between Illinois and Indiana, then settled in Hammond, where Frank worked in the slaughterhouse (1880 Census). With the 1890 census missing and John Stoltz unidentifiable in the 1900 census, I don't know exactly what he was doing in his early adulthood.[3] He married Margaret Gerlach in the summer of 1900. They lived in Hammond, as we can gather from a few Hammond social-column items from 1906 into early 1907. His story, as far as we can tell it, starts in 1907 with the proposed new store in Merrillville.
The new store was completed in May 1907.[4] Per this social column, by September 1907 John Stoltz had become "the merchant" to Merrillville, and Margaret was part of Merrillville's social news.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 14 Sept. 1907, p. 6.
According to A Pictorial History: "Business was good but the operation was not profitable enough to support two families, so John and Margaret bought her brother [Carl Gerlach] out …." The buyout happened only a few months after the store's opening — by August 1907.[5] Carl moved to St. John; the 1910 Census finds him there, working as a salesman for a general store.
The Stoltz store was a Merrillville fixture for decades. My earlier post gives an outline of its subsequent history per A Pictorial History, and I'm not going to double-check all the dates because the Stoltz store is not really what I came in here to talk about! — that is another story I came across while researching the 1911 plate that started this whole thing. But it will have to wait for another post, because I have worn myself out with this origin story.
_______________
[1] Lake County Encyclopedia, p. 218. See also his entry in Alice Flora Smedstad's Soldiers & Veterans Memorialized at the Merrillville Cemetery, pp. 40-41.
[2] "Death of Mr. Weis," Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 6 Apr. 1910, p. 6; "Funeral of Mr. Weis," Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 8 Apr. 1910, p. 1.
[3] Per a Hammond directory of 1891-92, he might have been working for the "C&E Ry" (Hammond, IN, 1891-92. Hammond, IN, USA: Frank E. Gero, 1891, via Ancestry.com).
[4] "St. Johns News," Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 8 May 1907.
[5] "It is reported that Carl Gerlach has sold his interest in the new store to his partner, John Stultz." "Merrillville News," Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 1 Aug. 1907.
(Click on image to enlarge)
I started looking into the newspapers of the time to figure out if this plate marked any special occasion, or if the Stoltz store was simply in the habit of handing out yearly promotional items, as this might have been. I didn't find the answer, but I did find some stories that I had previously overlooked.
Many years ago I posted a brief history of the Stoltz store in Merrillville. I was relying on A Pictorial History of Merrillville, which seems to be largely based on oral history — in other words, human memory. As so often happens, memory got it close but not 100% correct.
Memory was off by only a couple of years regarding the year when the store at 40 W. 73rd Avenue was built — it was not 1905, as per A Pictorial History, but 1907. The project started in July 1906 with the destruction by fire of the building that previously stood there:
(Click on image to enlarge)
Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 3 July 1906, p. 1
That earlier store may have been built circa 1860: that is the build date listed for the current structure in the Lake County assessor's records, which apparently were not updated to reflect the fire. Perhaps the destruction was not complete enough.
Mike Weis had been born around 1873 to immigrant parents, John and Elizabeth, who spent some time in St. John Township before relocating to Ross Township around the time of the Civil War. In 1902 Mike had married Elizabeth Gerlach.
The "Weis" store, we soon learn, was actually owned by Marion F. Pierce:
(Click on image to enlarge)
Marion gave his occupation for the 1900 Census as "general merchant." Writing in 1904, T.H. Ball described him as a "merchant and well-known business man of Merrillville, Ross township, [and] one of the oldest native sons of Lake county still engaged in the active pursuits of life. Three generations of the Pierce family have been identified with the industrial and commercial affairs of the county, covering a period of seventy years…"[1]
Mike Weis' health, incidentally, was a serious matter. He had tuberculosis. His visit to Rome City may have involved the Kneipps Springs sanatorium, but he did not find a cure there. After relocating to St. John, he and his family went to New Mexico and Texas, probably in search of a climate cure that failed to materialize. They were on their way back to St. John when Mike died in Topeka, Kansas, on April 3, 1910.[2]
But to return to the store: by April 1907, Carl Gerlach had purchased the land from Marion F. Pierce and announced his plan to rebuild the store, possibly in partnership with John Stoltz.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 10 Apr. 1907, p. 1.
Carl Gerlach, born in St. John in 1887, was one of a large family. Among his sisters were Elizabeth Weis (Mike's wife) and Margaret Stoltz, wife of John Stoltz. So there were family connections around the store, even before the original one burned.
John Stoltz's parents were Gottfried Franciscus ("Frank") and Elizabeth, both German (or Prussian) by birth but U.S. residents from childhood. Frank Stoltz served in the Civil War, then came home and married Elizabeth Weis (yet another family connection to the store?). The family moved around a bit between Illinois and Indiana, then settled in Hammond, where Frank worked in the slaughterhouse (1880 Census). With the 1890 census missing and John Stoltz unidentifiable in the 1900 census, I don't know exactly what he was doing in his early adulthood.[3] He married Margaret Gerlach in the summer of 1900. They lived in Hammond, as we can gather from a few Hammond social-column items from 1906 into early 1907. His story, as far as we can tell it, starts in 1907 with the proposed new store in Merrillville.
The new store was completed in May 1907.[4] Per this social column, by September 1907 John Stoltz had become "the merchant" to Merrillville, and Margaret was part of Merrillville's social news.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 14 Sept. 1907, p. 6.
According to A Pictorial History: "Business was good but the operation was not profitable enough to support two families, so John and Margaret bought her brother [Carl Gerlach] out …." The buyout happened only a few months after the store's opening — by August 1907.[5] Carl moved to St. John; the 1910 Census finds him there, working as a salesman for a general store.
The Stoltz store was a Merrillville fixture for decades. My earlier post gives an outline of its subsequent history per A Pictorial History, and I'm not going to double-check all the dates because the Stoltz store is not really what I came in here to talk about! — that is another story I came across while researching the 1911 plate that started this whole thing. But it will have to wait for another post, because I have worn myself out with this origin story.
_______________
[1] Lake County Encyclopedia, p. 218. See also his entry in Alice Flora Smedstad's Soldiers & Veterans Memorialized at the Merrillville Cemetery, pp. 40-41.
[2] "Death of Mr. Weis," Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 6 Apr. 1910, p. 6; "Funeral of Mr. Weis," Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 8 Apr. 1910, p. 1.
[3] Per a Hammond directory of 1891-92, he might have been working for the "C&E Ry" (Hammond, IN, 1891-92. Hammond, IN, USA: Frank E. Gero, 1891, via Ancestry.com).
[4] "St. Johns News," Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 8 May 1907.
[5] "It is reported that Carl Gerlach has sold his interest in the new store to his partner, John Stultz." "Merrillville News," Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 1 Aug. 1907.
Monday, April 6, 2015
Ross Twp. Farmers' Institute
I gather that in January 1922 Mary Baird Chester McDaniel was still living on the Chester farm, or somewhere in Ross Township, with her granddaughters, since one of them — Helen, now about 13 or 14 years old — walked away with three first prizes at the Ross Township Farmers' Institute.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News 2 Feb. 1922.
Glen Peterson didn't do so badly either. About 13 years old, he was the youngest son of Mabel Peterson, Secretary of the Institute and writer of this report.
Vernon and Emery Hurlburt were the only children of Jacob and Augusta, who farmed some 80 acres at the northeast corner of E. 73rd Ave. and Grand Blvd.
Irvin Wojahn was the oldest child of Louis and Lena (Fasel) Wojahn, who had supposedly retired from farming in 1917 — but I can't find them in the 1920 census to see what they were up to.
Dorothy Mankey was the only daughter of William and Lena (Springman) Mankey.
Additional Sources:
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Ross Twp. Farmers Hold Big Meeting." Hobart Gazette 3 Feb. 1922.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News 2 Feb. 1922.
Glen Peterson didn't do so badly either. About 13 years old, he was the youngest son of Mabel Peterson, Secretary of the Institute and writer of this report.
Vernon and Emery Hurlburt were the only children of Jacob and Augusta, who farmed some 80 acres at the northeast corner of E. 73rd Ave. and Grand Blvd.
Irvin Wojahn was the oldest child of Louis and Lena (Fasel) Wojahn, who had supposedly retired from farming in 1917 — but I can't find them in the 1920 census to see what they were up to.
Dorothy Mankey was the only daughter of William and Lena (Springman) Mankey.
Additional Sources:
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Ross Twp. Farmers Hold Big Meeting." Hobart Gazette 3 Feb. 1922.
Monday, January 26, 2015
A Menu of Death
This page from the Hobart Gazette of November 25, 1921, offered up varied styles of death, from the horrifyingly sudden to the tragically premature.
(Click on image to enlarge)
I'm guessing that Bertha Stoltz's mother was Gust Busse's sister (Bertha's maiden name being Heiman, not Busse). Bertha had married Robert Stoltz in 1908, and early in their married life they rented a house on Center Street in Hobart, convenient to Robert's work in a brickyard. By 1920 they had moved into Morgan Township, Porter County, and were farming rented land.
The Gazette's version says the shooting was accidental, but a couple of articles I have tracked down from other sources, including a Wanatah newspaper, say it was intentional, though impulsive.
♦ ♦ ♦
Minnie Chase Smith had been born November 9, 1865, on her parents' farm, which I believe I have found on the 1874 Plat Map:
(Click on image to enlarge)
I wish I had figured out earlier that Sela Smith had this local connection; I could have talked about him more — not that he's done anything particularly interesting, but I think his name has popped up in the newspapers more than his wife's … which isn't saying much. They seem to have led a pretty quiet life. (Minnie's brother, Gust, is the one who would be killed in a car crash in 1927.)
♦ ♦ ♦
We saw this coming for poor Harold Guernsey, who had been seriously ill for many months. Incidentally, I have never heard of Putout, Indiana, where Otis Guernsey is described as living, nor can I find any information on such a place. (And "Mrs. Carrie Sondong" in the last sentence is a misprint for "Santonge.")
Additional Sources:
♦ 1880 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Funeral of Mrs. Sela Smith Held at Her Home Saturday Afternoon." Hobart News 24 Nov. 1921.
♦ Indiana Marriage Collection.
♦ "Mrs. Robert Stoltz Killed by Shot Gun in Hands of Orphan Boy." Wanatah Mirror 24 Nov. 1921 (newspaperarchive.com).
♦ "Obituary." Hobart News 17 Nov. 1921.
♦ "Youth Slays Woman." Indianapolis Star 23 Nov. 1921 (newspaperarchive.com).
(Click on image to enlarge)
I'm guessing that Bertha Stoltz's mother was Gust Busse's sister (Bertha's maiden name being Heiman, not Busse). Bertha had married Robert Stoltz in 1908, and early in their married life they rented a house on Center Street in Hobart, convenient to Robert's work in a brickyard. By 1920 they had moved into Morgan Township, Porter County, and were farming rented land.
The Gazette's version says the shooting was accidental, but a couple of articles I have tracked down from other sources, including a Wanatah newspaper, say it was intentional, though impulsive.
Minnie Chase Smith had been born November 9, 1865, on her parents' farm, which I believe I have found on the 1874 Plat Map:
(Click on image to enlarge)
I wish I had figured out earlier that Sela Smith had this local connection; I could have talked about him more — not that he's done anything particularly interesting, but I think his name has popped up in the newspapers more than his wife's … which isn't saying much. They seem to have led a pretty quiet life. (Minnie's brother, Gust, is the one who would be killed in a car crash in 1927.)
We saw this coming for poor Harold Guernsey, who had been seriously ill for many months. Incidentally, I have never heard of Putout, Indiana, where Otis Guernsey is described as living, nor can I find any information on such a place. (And "Mrs. Carrie Sondong" in the last sentence is a misprint for "Santonge.")
Additional Sources:
♦ 1880 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Funeral of Mrs. Sela Smith Held at Her Home Saturday Afternoon." Hobart News 24 Nov. 1921.
♦ Indiana Marriage Collection.
♦ "Mrs. Robert Stoltz Killed by Shot Gun in Hands of Orphan Boy." Wanatah Mirror 24 Nov. 1921 (newspaperarchive.com).
♦ "Obituary." Hobart News 17 Nov. 1921.
♦ "Youth Slays Woman." Indianapolis Star 23 Nov. 1921 (newspaperarchive.com).
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Emil Scharbach and Emma Busse
Yesterday we read about an unpleasant experience that involved Emil Scharbach, so today let's look at one of his more pleasant experiences.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.
Emma Busse (sister of Adeline) married Emil Scharbach on June 27, 1903, when she was about 18 and he 20.
August Haase photographed the happy couple.
The Hobart Gazette of July 3, 1903, described the wedding ("Scharbach-Busse Nuptial"):
(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.
Emma Busse (sister of Adeline) married Emil Scharbach on June 27, 1903, when she was about 18 and he 20.
August Haase photographed the happy couple.
The Hobart Gazette of July 3, 1903, described the wedding ("Scharbach-Busse Nuptial"):
The German Lutheran church was packed last Saturday evening, June 27th, 1903, to witness the marriage of Mr. Emil Scharbach, son of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Scharbach, and Miss Emma Busse, daughter of Marshal and Mrs. Gust Busse, both of Hobart. The ceremony was performed by the Rev. Peter Claussen, pastor of the German Lutheran church at Valparaiso, at the hour of eight. The bride was handsomely attired in crepe de chine and carried a large bouquet of roses. The young couple were attended by Miss Martha Busse as Maid of Honor and bridesmaids — Miss Wanda Busse, Miss Lizzie Lentz and Miss Ida Stoltz, and groomsmen — Bernard Scharbach, John Kruse, Henry Bewersdorf and Art Newman.
After the conclusion of the services at the church, the young couple and a large number of relatives and friends assembled at the bridge's home on Main street to celebrate the event. An abundance of everything good to eat and drink was provided for the guests and the occasion was most enjoyable for all.
The bridge received many beautiful and costly presents. The young couple have already begun housekeeping in the Swedish Lutheran parsonage. We join their many friends in extending best wishes and congratulations.
The relatives present from abroad to attend the wedding were: From Chicago — Mr. and Mrs. Henry Sachtbeben, Mrs. Hannah Schroeder, Louis Scharbach and daughter and Mr. and Mrs. Henry Schroeder; From Wanatah — Mr. and Mrs. Herman Busse, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Stoltz, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Rozenbaum, Mr. and Mrs. Louis Pratt, Mrs. Wm. Hermann and Emil Lawrence; From Evanston — Miss Ida Busse.
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Merrillville Then and Now: Stoltz's Store
(Click on images to enlarge)
Top image courtesy of the Merrillville/Ross Township Historical Society.
No date on the earlier photo, but by the looks of that truck, maybe 1940s?
The original building still stands at 40 W. 73rd Ave. It went up in 1905, according to Jan Clemens' A Pictorial History of Merrillville, as a combined store and home when John and Margaret (Gerlach) Stoltz went into the grocery business in partnership with her brother, Carl Gerlach. The Stoltzes later bought out Carl's interest and operated the business on their own. After John Stoltz died in 1945, Margaret continued the business, with the help of her daughter and son-in-law, Mabel and Joe Derrenbacker, for another five years.
Per Jan Clemens:
The Stoltz store advertised fresh meat — a claim that was a bit of an understatement, for upon request for chicken, Margaret would go out back, kill a bird, come in carrying it with the blood still flowing from the headless fowl. On one occasion a customer good-naturedly inquired, "Are you sure it's fresh?" The fresh meat advertisement also included beef which Margaret butchered by herself in the rear of the shop.In 1950 Margaret's family sold their building and business to Ray Bohne of Gary.
The Merrillville/Ross Township Historical Society has a couple nice photos of the interior of the Stoltz store. According to handwritten notes on the back, these photos date to circa 1917; in the first one, you will notice a calendar showing the month of January that is consistent with 1920 (or 1913).
Left to right: Margaret Stoltz, unknown, Alice Mundell, unknown, and John Stoltz.
Left to right: Mabel Derrenbacker, Margaret Stoltz, and Anna Schmitz.
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