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.

How the Class of 1921 Partied

Hobart High School's Class of 1921 had its class dinner on the Paine farm, west of Ainsworth. From the report, I gather that Ethel Paine did much of the hard work of preparing the food and décor — surprising, given her health problems, but then again not so surprising, given that Alice was her only daughter.


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I am mystified as to why the cars were left at the Frank residence.

The above article is from the News; the following day's Gazette ran the same article next to an ad for the class play, A Modern Ananias.




Sources:
♦ "Class Dinner Given by the Senior Class Hobart High School." Hobart News 28 Apr. 1921.
♦ "Class Dinner." Hobart Gazette 29 Apr. 1921.
♦ "Senior Class Play" (advertisement). Hobart Gazette 29 Apr. 1921.

The Mover Moves On

When last we saw William Croan, it was a summer morning in 1915 and he was moving a whole house to Linda Street.

Now we meet him again on a spring morning in 1920, and it will be the last time we meet him.

Once again he had joined forces with Oscar Carlson. About 8:45 a.m. on May 13, William and Oscar were already hard at work on the Claude Bullock farm, north of Ainsworth on the banks of the Deep River.

The men were dismantling a barn, I gather, so that it could be moved. They were about to remove a large portion of the roof by sliding it down an incline. William was standing on the ground to one side of the incline when a large, heavy beam — six by six inches — suddenly slid sideways and caught William on the side of the head. He fell to the ground senseless.

When the witnesses (Claude and Mary Ann Bullock as well as Oscar) could not revive him, they sent for Dr. Dwight Mackey. The doctor arrived only to find himself useless. He judged that William had died instantly, or nearly so. Nothing was left to do but notify the family, and take the dead man to Alwin Wild's funeral parlor.

Neither Hobart newspaper, in reporting on the tragedy, was able to give William's exact age, nor did they later print any more extensive obituary; according to his grave marker, he was born in 1864. He had survived a wife, and was survived by another; one daughter from his first marriage (now Mrs. Oscar Meyers of Chicago), and three more daughters still at home, as well as two step-daughters (one of whom was Edna Schiel of Toledo, Ohio).*

The funeral was held the afternoon of Sunday, May 16, under the direction of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and William was laid to rest in Hobart Cemetery, never to move again.

Calvin C. Shearer was appointed administrator of his estate, and a month later offered William's house-moving business, as well as some personal property, for sale to the public.


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William Croan's grave marker in Hobart Cemetery.


The grave marker of Phoebe, a wife who preceded him in death.


These stones are now illegible, but earlier readers (per the Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society's compilation of Hobart Township Cemeteries) were able to decipher inscriptions (on the central obelisk, I assume) for a baby boy, Walter D. Croan, who died May 18, 18?? [last two digits illegible] at the age of 8 months and 6 days, and a little girl, Lilly M. Croan, who died October 25, 1888, aged 6 years, 11 months and 11 days, as well as the initials "W.D.C." and "L.M.C." — probably on the two little stones flanking the obelisk.

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*This information comes from combining the accounts of the two Hobart newspapers. Other sources raise some questions. The 1900 Census shows William, as of June 1900, married to May for four years, although the grave marker of the wife who died in September 1900 bears the name Phoebe; May claims to be the mother of one child only, living or dead; William claims an 11-year-old daughter, Mamie, and a 9-year-old stepdaughter, Edna Hanes. The Indiana Marriage Collection shows him marrying, in Lake County, Phoebe (last name illegible) in 1896, and Ellen Johnson in 1902, but also shows a William Croan marrying (in Marion County) an Amanda Adams, in 1888, which could account for the 11-year-old daughter — except that the Marion County William and Amanda seem to be still alive and married in 1900. Little Lilly's grave being in this group suggests she was William's daughter or step-daughter, but she was born in 1881 or '82. I leave it up to genealogists to figure this all out.


Sources:
♦ "Funeral of William Croan Held Last Sunday Afternoon." Hobart News 20 May 1920.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 24 June 1920.
♦ "Notice of Administration." Hobart News 20 May 1920.
♦ "William Croan Killed Instantly This Morning." Hobart News 13 May 1920.
♦ "Wm. Croan Killed." Hobart Gazette 14 May 1920.

Calvin's High Chair

Yet another artifact of Calvin Shearer's infancy, preserved in the Hobart Historical Society museum.

The display includes a typewritten account of the chair's history.


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The chair is both beautiful and functional.





If this bowl and holder also date back to 1914, it's a miracle they survived the years unbroken.



The rhyme on the left side is one I never heard before:

One, two, three, four, five,
Catching fishes all alive:
Why did you let them go?
Because they bit my finger so.
Which finger did they bite?
The little finger on the right.

The rhyme on the right side I did learn, at least partially, as a child.

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe:
She had so many children, she didn't know what to do.
She gave them some broth without any bread,
Then whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.

… That is to say, I remember the first two lines, but somehow I think the last two might have been dropped by the time it reached to me.

An Evening for the Books

The Victoria Hotel in Gary, Indiana, circa 1910. Image courtesy of the Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society.

The Victoria Hotel was the venue for a dance on the evening of October 2, 1917, sponsored by the staff of the Gary public library. Its purpose was to raise money for a library fund to benefit soldiers and sailors. Bessie Banks of Hobart had been on the Gary library staff for three years, and she probably urged her Hobart friends to attend.

A dozen young people from the Hobart-Ainsworth area came to dance the night away, including our own Will Wollenberg, Jr. With his musical and athletic talents, Will Jr. was probably a good dancer. Frank Ferguson, George Barnes, William and Howard Krull, and Ralph Banks went with him. Perhaps those six paired up with the half dozen young Hobart ladies who also attended — Harriet Morris, Bessie Banks, Vera Barnes, Maude Scholl, Myrtle Wild and Florence Pio. (Myrtle Wild and Howard Krull married about three months later.)

I don't know what it says about Will Jr.'s military ambitions that in September he accepted a position with the American Trust and Savings Bank in Hobart. Had he given up on his West Point hopes? — or was he just trying to make a little money while waiting for that nomination to come through?

Anyway, by mid-October Will had left the bank, hired by his own father to "look after coal yards" in Chicago. Back in March 1915 Will Sr. had expanded his business operations to include coal sales, having built some storage sheds at Ainsworth, so perhaps Will Jr. was to act as a purchasing agent; or perhaps Will Sr. actually owned coal yards in Chicago.


Sources:
♦ "Krull-Wild." Hobart News 17 Jan. 1918.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 13 Sept. 1917; 4 Oct. 1917.
♦ "Many Changes of Employes Taking Place in Hobart." Hobart News 18 Oct. 1917.
♦ "Miss Bessie Banks Resigns From Gary Library Staff." Hobart News 10 Jan. 1918.
♦ "Personal and Local Mention." Hobart News 11 Mar. 1915.

Our Musical Postmaster

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Advertisement from the Hobart Gazette of May 13, 1904.

Hugh Dotzer came to the United States from Germany in 1881 or 1882 at about 20 years of age. In 1888 he married Eva Peck in Porter County, Indiana. By 1900 they were living in Union Township, Porter County, and had three children: Matilda, 11; John, 6; and Valeska, 2. Hugh called himself a farmer, but out among the cows and the corn he worked with the soul of a musician.

Sometime between 1900 and 1904 he began selling Adam Schaaf pianos. I do not know precisely when he moved to Ainsworth, or if there were intervening residences between Union Township and Ainsworth — the family's later history showed a tendency to move around.

On January 28, 1904, Hugh was appointed postmaster of Ainsworth, succeeding Frank Coyle, who had resigned.

The appointment apparently caused some disruption to Hugh: a month later, he announced: "Having taken charge of the Post Office at Ainsworth, I will be selling stock of Adam Schaaf pianos and organs at cost, warranted ten years. This offer good for a few days only."

He may have sold them at cost for only a few days, but he continued selling them at a profit for the remainder of his stay in Ainsworth. He ran ads like the one pictured above regularly throughout 1904 and early 1905.

In May 1904, when the people of Ainsworth organized a Sunday school, Hugh served as organist. That same month he began advertising to give piano and organ lessons every Friday to students in Ainsworth and Hobart.

Hugh's tenure as postmaster was brief. By late May he asked to be released from his duties "for the good of the service" because, as far as I can tell, the quarters he occupied did not offer suitable space for a post office. He recommended William Raschka to replace him, and William was appointed postmaster on May 24, 1904.

Hugh's living space must have been small, or else overrun with pianos and organs. The Grand Trunk's Ainsworth agent, P.H. Swain, and his wife lived for a time with the Dotzers. In September, Swain announced that because the "Dotzer house [was] too small" he and his pregnant wife were going to move to the "Chester house." If he meant they were going to live with Henry Chester, the crowding chez Dotzer must have been terrible indeed to make a man willing to run such a risk.

When the Ainsworth baseball team gave a dance at Ed Sauter's hall in June, Hugh was among the musicians.

At the late-summer Lake County fair, Hugh had the largest musical display — four Adam Schaaf pianos, an organ and over a thousand pieces of sheet music — beating even the Lion Store and the Kimball Co. He had to cancel his usual Friday lessons that week so he could supervise his fair display. In September, he reported that he had sold pianos to Frank Abel, a Hobart builder; Sedley's James Hardesty; and Frank Graves, who lived near Valpo.

That same month, he also announced that he had purchased ten acres in Crown Point and intended to move there in March 1905.

His musical business went on as he made improvements to his Crown Point property. In October he furnished the new Deep River church with an organ; in November he made a trip to Hammond to sell pianos; in December, Christ Heck bought a piano and Miss Martha Heck became one of Hugh's pupils.

On New Year's Day 1905, the Dotzer family hosted a large dinner, the guests including the Morgan Blachly family, Mr. and Mrs. J. Watts and the Frank Graves family. In the evening Mr. and Mrs. Fred Harney and the whole Michael Foreman family visited the Dotzers.

Hugh assured his students that he would continue to teach them after his move to Crown Point. He planned a class recital to take place on February 18.

In January 1905, a "Notice of Commendation" appeared in the Hobart Gazette, placed by some of Hugh's students or their parents:

We, the undersigned patrons of Mr. H. Dotzer, hereby express our esteem and regard for him as a teacher. We are sorry to see him move away from our midst, yet are glad to know that he will continue as our teacher, and heartily recommend him to all.

Elsie Piske, May Abel, Mrs. D. Owens, Ella Jonas, W. Wilson, Dr. Morton, C. Heck, S. Lightner, C. Schnabel, M. Blachly, W. Raschka, M. Wagoner, John Gruel, Miss T. Triebess, John Springman, H. Carey, Clara Sauter, Etta Mander, H. Stevens.

Early in the afternoon on Saturday, February 18, two sleighloads of pianists and spectators drove from Ainsworth to the spacious home of Mr. and Mrs. Seward Lightner in Hobart, where the recital began at 2:00 p.m. It was well attended, with about 20 student performers from Hobart and Ainsworth, and an audience of their family and friends; fortunately Alwin Wild, a Hobart undertaker, had furnished additional chairs.

March came and Hugh went to Crown Point, suspending lessons for three weeks while he got settled.

Whether he resumed them, and for how long, I do not know. In May of 1907 the Gazette mentioned, rather off-handedly, that Hugh had moved to Danville, Illinois. November of 1907 found him in Fort Wayne, Indiana, offering piano and organ lessons as well as the tuning and repairing of instruments.

After that we lose sight of him. It seems he stayed in Fort Wayne; he died there in March 1918. The 1920 census reports the widowed Eva Dotzer working as a live-in servant in a Fort Wayne home.

Sources:
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Ainsworth Pick-Ups." Hobart Gazette 9 Sept. 1904; 23 Sept. 1904; 30 Sept. 1904; 7 Oct. 1904; 21 Oct. 1904; 4 Nov. 1904; 25 Nov. 1904; 23 Dec. 1904; 6 Jan. 1905; 13 Jan. 1905; 27 Jan. 1905; 17 Feb. 1905; 24 Feb. 1905.
♦ Ballantyne, Dorothy and Robert Adams. Along the Route: A History of Hobart, Indiana, Post Offices and Postmasters. Hobart: The Hobart Historical Society, Inc., 1992.
♦ Dotzer, Hugh. Advertisement. Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette 24 Nov. 1907.
♦ Dotzer, Hugh. Advertisement. Hobart Gazette 13 May 1904.
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette 26 Feb. 1904; 27 May 1904; 3 June 1904; 10 June 1904; 26 Aug. 1904; 9 Sept. 1904; 9 Dec. 1904; 10 May 1907.
♦ Indiana Marriage Collection.
♦ Indiana WPA Death Records Index.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 5 Feb. 1904; 10 Mar. 1905.
♦ "Notice of Commendation." Hobart Gazette 6 Jan. 1905.
♦ "Sunday School Organized at Ainsworth." Hobart Gazette 20 May 1904.