A Sunday-School Christmas Program circa 1873

From the Union Sunday School minute book that begins in 1873 come these notes on the letterhead of Mathew W. Jory, giving the program for a Christmas pageant.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The "Address by Superintendent" would probably be delivered by Mathew himself.

The names of the children performing, as best I can read them, are: Eva Harrison (can't identify); Louisa Black (b. ~1864 to Joseph and Catherine Black); Amelia Briggs (can't identify); Annie Gadsby (b. ~1869 to George and Sylvia Gadsby); Minnie Wadge (b. ~1867 to Richard and Electa Wadge); and Lillie Harrison (b. ~1870 to Thomas and Jennie Harrison). Was a three-year-old really performing in the pageant? — maybe this was more like 1875 or '76.

I wonder who dressed up as Santa Claus?

Mathew W. Jory Resigns

The last time we met Union Sunday School Superintendent Mathew W. Jory was in 1873 when he was dealing with tobacco-juice spitters. Here he is four years later, resigning as superintendent.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Perhaps his business took up so much of his time that he couldn't give proper attention to the Sunday School. Or … perhaps … there was a big fight among the Sunday School officers, and this letter is all exquisite sarcasm.

Profane Language on the Streets

William H. Rifenburg was the Union Sunday School superintendent who, on September 23, 1877, had to lecture "the Boys on the disgrace some of them brought on the school by using profane language on the streets."


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

William was then a vigorous man in his 40s, a Civil War veteran, former township trustee and justice of the peace,[1] so I imagine he was pretty impressive to these young people. Maybe he got them to stop using profane language for a week or two.


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[1] See his biographical sketch in the Lake County Encyclopedia: http://www.archive.org/stream/encyclopediaofge00ball#page/494/mode/2up

A Band Wagon

On August 20, 1876, the Union Sunday School officers were planning the annual picnic as usual, and apparently had considered the usual destination, Robertsdale, but suddenly they changed their minds, and the venue of the picnic became our own Wood's Mill.


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

Further down on the same page, we see a committee appointed to procure teams for the excursion — that is, horses to pull the wagons that the attendees would ride to Wood's Mill; we also see the Hobart Cornet Band being invited to go along and provide music.

The next Sunday (August 27), the officers make arrangements to raise money for a team of horses to pull the "band wagon" carrying the Hobart Cornet Band.



I take that to mean that the band played music all along the way from Hobart to Wood's Mill. That must have been pleasant for the others in the wagon train, and for the people they passed along the way, to whom mobile music was a rare treat — not an everyday convenience as it is to us. I expect the wagon train went from the Unitarian Church south down (to use the modern-day names) Lincoln Street, west on Tenth Street, south again on Grand Boulevard down to the Joliet road (73rd Avenue), thence east to Wood's Mill. All of those were dirt roads. I can only imagine the difficulty of trying to play a wind instrument as you jolt along a rutted country road. Those were some hardy musicians on the band wagon!

At least there were no railroad tracks to cross. The Grand Trunk Railroad came through in 1880, and as for the EJ&E, I'm not sure but I think it came through sometime later in the 1880s.

A New Home for the Union Sunday School

Somehow I thought Hobart's Union Sunday School was meeting in a church from the start. I just learned I was wrong: in its early years, it met in the Hobart schoolhouse — the old wooden structure, I suppose, on Center Street.

By January 1876 the Sunday School had outgrown the schoolhouse. This page from the record book tells us that the "leading members" of the M.E. Church had been asked to allow the Union Sunday School to meet in their building, and they had refused. (This was the original M.E. Church, built in 1871.)

So the Sunday School appointed a committee to approach the Unitarian Church leadership for permission to meet in their brand-new house of worship, which had just been finished that very month.[1]


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Of the committee members, Mr. Hansen is a mystery to me. Elsewhere in the record book we find a reference to H.C. Hansen being appointed to another committee, but I cannot find anyone with those initials in the censuses of 1870 or 1880. I do find a John Hanson in the 1880 Census (with daughters whose names appear in the Sunday School records: Lena, Mary, and Sarah).

Jessie Spray was the older sister of Jane Spray. Her name appears again and again in the records as a teacher of the Sunday School classes. According to her grave marker, she did not have long to live.

Mary Lambke,[2] I believe, belonged to a Valparaiso family. She and her siblings appear in the Union Sunday School records, here and there, as both students and teachers. The 1870 Census of Valparaiso shows the family consisting of Christian and his wife, Caroline (both of whom, along with their eldest son, were German immigrants), Christian Jr., Caroline Jr., Mary, Henry, Eddie, Charles, Minnie, and William. But the family seems to have stayed in Valparaiso; I can find no record of them ever moving to Hobart, so why did the children attend Sunday School here? I'm mystified. Anyway, Mary Lambke married Michael Burkhardt in 1886 (Indiana Marriage Collection), died in Chicago in 1941, and is buried in Valparaiso.

♦    ♦    ♦
At the meeting on February 13, the committee reported that the Unitarian Church leadership had responded favorably to their request, so starting February 20, 1876, the Union Sunday School would have a new home.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.


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[1] Elin B. Christiansen, Hobart's Historic Buildings (Hobart Historical Society, 2002).
[2] This surnames appears in various spellings — Lambke, Lembke, Lampke. I am going to index it as Lembke.

"Hickory Grove" and Other Mysterious Places

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


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

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

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

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


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Image courtesy of the Merrillville-Ross Township Historical Society.

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

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

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

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.

Death of a Sunday Scholar

While indexing the Union Sunday School record book from the 1870s, I came across this draft of a resolution memorializing the late Clarence Spencer Albee.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.


That these people, so sadly familiar with the loss of children, should mention that Clarence was taken by "death in one of its most terrible forms" really makes me wonder what happened to the poor boy.

One might expect a fair copy of this undated draft to appear in the Sunday School minutes, giving us a rough date for Clarence's death, but so far I have not been able to find it.

Naturally, I set about trying to find out where he is buried … and got nowhere. Neither the NWIGS books of Hobart Township and Ross Township cemetery readings, nor findagrave.com record him. I believe he died in 1878, since the pages immediately before and after this resolution record events in 1878. The death records on Ancestry.com do not go back that far. Nor was there any newspaper in Hobart then that survives today. A search on two historical-newspaper sites[1] doesn't turn up anything. I expect I shall have to start scrolling through various other local microfilm someday, when I have time.

Clarence was born circa 1866 (1870 Census) to Jesse B. Albee and his fourth wife, Caroline (Spencer) Carpenter. Among his wives, Jesse had several offspring. But their final resting places, like Clarence's, are a mystery to me — and so is Jesse's, which is surprising given how prominent a figure he was locally in the mid-19th century.

I shall have to post a bit more about the Albee family in the future.

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[1] Newspaperarchive.com and Newspapers.com.

Lushia Trumper Gordon

This is the last of the Gordon family obituaries that I have on hand. Lushia, aka Lucy, was the mother of E.R., among others.


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Hobart News, Sept. 30, 1926.



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Hobart Gazette, Oct. 1, 1926.


The News gives her maiden name as Trumper, the Gazette as Trumber, and I couldn't tell you which is correct.

We catch a glimpse of Lushia in this 1881 photograph, where she is standing on the porch of her brick house, on the southwest corner of Center and Second Streets.

Like her sister-in-law, Hettie, she taught in Hobart's Union Sunday School.

The obituaries say that she was buried in Hobart Cemetery (and her death certificate indicates burial in Hobart), but neither the Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society's index of Hobart Township cemeteries nor findagrave.com records a grave marker for her, or her husband.

Hettie Rifenburg Gordon

Here is another Gordon-related obituary — Hettie, wife of Pliny P. Gordon; mother of Howard (and Mildred, who died in infancy); sister of William H. Rifenburg:


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Hobart Gazette Aug. 7, 1891.


She made quite a few appearances as a teacher in the early-1870s Union Sunday School record book that I indexed.

She is buried in Hobart Cemetery.

Sunday School Is Cancelled

That's the good news. The bad news is: you have smallpox.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.


The cancellation lasted two Sundays — March 24 and 31, 1872. I suppose the Superintendent who made that decision was the same person as on April 7: Orsemus H. Spencer, brother-in-law to Harriet Hanks Chester.

A Mysterious Case

Or: When an Amateur Historian Runs Out of Microfilm Material

I have been too busy to get over to the library and read more in the 1923 newspapers, so I have to post random things, such as from the digitizing project (which is a part of what's been keeping me busy).

In the Union Sunday School records of August 1868, I came across a Madora Case:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

I had not encountered Madora before, but naturally I wondered if she was one of the Ross Township Cases.

After some quick research, all I can say is: maybe.

We first find Madora in Ross Township in the 1860 Census, where she is four years old. Her father, Hiram A. Case, is a 36-year-old farm laborer. Her mother, Amanda, is 26. Her sister Eunice is 7.

Also is the household is a 21-year-old Derias Case, who surely can't be Hiram and Amanda's son. In the 1850 Census, we find a ten-year-old Darias in the household of David and Daty Case … who live near the young married couple, Hiram and Amanda. All of this suggests a family relationship between Hiram and Darias — perhaps they were brothers? But I can't find a record to prove that.

Looking forward to the 1870 Census, we find our Madora Case, along with Eunice and a little seven-year-old Hiram, in Joliet, Illinois; Amanda is there, with her new husband, C.J. Coburn — Cornelius J., that is, whom she married in Lake County in either 1865 or 1868, depending on which record in the Indiana Marriage Collection you want to believe.

So something happened to the elder Hiram … but we're not sure exactly what. Turning to Alice Flora Smedstad's book, Soldiers & Veterans Memorialized at the Merrillville Cemetery, we learn that Hiram enlisted in the 99th Indiana Regiment during the Civil War. Per the official regimental history, he died on March 10, 1863. Around that time, Alice reports, the 99th was near LaGrange, Tennessee, guarding a railroad. "Conditions were very hard and over fifty men died of typhoid fever. Most likely this group included Hiram Case."

According to the Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society's index of Ross Township Cemeteries, there was a grave marker in the Merrillville Cemetery bearing the name of Hiram Case, but without birth or death dates, so it could possibly be for another Hiram. On a recent visit to the cemetery I could not find the grave marker at all.

The widowed Amanda Case, with three minor children to support, likely could not afford to bring Hiram's body back from Tennessee. If she placed a stone in the cemetery, it probably marked his memory, not his earthly resting place.

As for Madora, I believe she married Byron S. Frey of Joliet in 1871* and never returned to this area.

Finding out for sure how these Cases were related to the other Cases, not to mention what exactly happened to Hiram, would require more research than I have time for.

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* Ancestry.com. Illinois, Marriage Index, 1860-1920 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.
Original data: Illinois State Marriage Records. Online index. Illinois State Public Record Offices.

What Is This Name????

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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

This page in the Union Sunday School record book probably dates to 1869.

The surname name looks like "Heterman" or "Hetirnan" or something, but I can't find anything resembling that in the 1870 or 1860 census. As for the first name, I'm not sure if it's "Fritz" or "Trity," the latter of which sounds like a nickname for — what?

How am I supposed to index when people won't write legibly?


(On the other hand, it's nice to see little six-year-old Calvin Shearer going to Sunday School.)

Nuts to You

While indexing the Hobart Historical Society's earliest Union Sunday School record book, which appears to begin in 1868, I came across this page. Some earnest person carefully recorded something (attendance?) about these young* Sunday scholars … and then some irreverent person came and scrawled "nuts to you" and perhaps left those smudges with his or her dirty hands.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The expression, "nuts to you," seems out of place in 1868. We know it was in use in 1930s-40s — I keep running across this example:

"Please eliminate the expression 'nuts to you' from Egbert's speech." [Request from the Hays Office regarding the script of "The Bank Dick," 1940]**

However, my internet research doesn't turn up any information about how far before 1940 it goes back. So I shouldn't jump to conclusions. But I picture a bored 13-year-old circa 1940 nosing around in the attic when the adults were away, finding this ancient record of good little children, and writing something impertinent for the sheer fun of it.

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*Just to look at a few: John Shearer would have been about 12 years old in 1868; George Shearer, 10; John Frank, 11 (he was the son of William and Salinda Frank; and Simeon Brown, 13.
**E.g., http://www.dictionary.com/browse/nuts.