Indiana Takes Over the Yellowstone Trail

I don't particularly care about Indiana taking over the Yellowstone Trail in November 1923 …


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Hobart Gazette, Nov. 16, 1923.

… but I'm interested in that bit about the Liberty Highway, as I'm now clearer about some of the roads involved. The first time I encountered the Liberty Highway — in 1921 — its route was being moved from "the North Hobart-Wheeler road [W 700 N] and Cleveland avenue" to "the south Hobart-Wheeler road." I didn't know what the latter was.

But here we are in 1923 and the Liberty Highway route has been moved back to Cleveland Ave./W 700 N "to eliminate the bad crossing of the Pennsy and Nickel Plate railroads" — now, what could that be but that awful Traeger crossing? So the south Hobart-Wheeler road was Tenth Street/W 600 N.

I still don't know where the Liberty Highway started or where it stopped.

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Later in the month, when Alwin Wild is trying to sell property from someone's estate, he thinks it helpful to mention that the property is on the Yellowstone Trail … not a word about the Liberty Highway.


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Hobart Gazette, Nov. 30, 1923.

Also, a child born to Walter and Hazel (née Thompson) Veal … and a dance at Deepriver Hall, which I believe is the former schoolhouse.

Klan Labor-Day Theatrics

About two and a half acres of wooded land described variously as "the Mundell grove west of the city" or "the Mundell picnic grounds" or "the Mundell free camp grounds" lay somewhere on the 120-acre Mundell farm, which straddled Old Ridge Road in the vicinity of Strack & Van Til. In 1922 Joseph Mundell had opened up those two and a half acres for free use by the general public, whether area residents or passing tourists.[1]

On Labor Day 1923, two different organizations held gatherings there.

One of those organizations was the Ku Klux Klan. As many as 12,000 people attended the Klan picnic, which lasted from mid-morning until midnight. Out-of-towners came in automobiles or streetcars. The festivities included refreshments, speeches, songs, initiation ceremonies "amid flaming crosses," and a nighttime parade through downtown Hobart headed by an automobile decorated with a cross and American flags, and consisting of about 140 Klansmen and a band. As the parade was forming, a plane took to the air with a huge cross strapped to its underside, illuminated by red light bulbs. The plane spent about 45 minutes in the air over northwest Indiana. At a time when flying machines were still uncommon, that surely caught the attention of people on the ground.

Less theatrically and less controversially, the Modern Woodmen of America (a fraternal benefit society) held their picnic further south and east in the Mundell grove.

The Lutherans used the Yellowstone Trail campgrounds east of town.


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Hobart News, Sept. 6, 1923.


Hobart Gazette, Sept. 7, 1923.

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[1] Joseph Mundell, his bees, and his campground will be discussed in more detail in the near future.

Fowl Fraud

I don't know why I thought this story about a poultry-related scam was worth printing out … but print it out I did, and I'm not going to let 15 cents go to waste.


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Hobart Gazette, Aug. 3, 1923.

Maybe I printed it out for the sake of the next story down, about Hobart travelers to Valparaiso being advised to take the Ainsworth route rather than the Yellowstone Trail, which was undergoing repairs.

The story in the middle column about the Gary hospital has so many familiar names that I can't talk about them all, but the one that jumps out at me is "W. Wagoner" — this reminds me that while reading the March 28, 1913 Gazette on microfilm recently (looking for other stuff), I came across the mention of Wilmont Wagoner, which in turn reminded me of that mysterious W.N. Wagoner who briefly operated the Ainsworth saloon and whose first name has eluded me. Well, now I have a theory: "W.N." = Wilmont Nelson. Can't prove it, of course, but who cares? Here's Wilmont Nelson Wagoner's death notice from 1938:


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Hammond Times, Sept. 11, 1938.

That story about the giant still at McCool is pretty interesting, too.


But getting back to the 1923 newspaper — over in the next column, George Hagerty's obituary reminds me that I've been seeing that name (Hagerty) here and there without really knowing who those people were. I think the son Albert is the one who lost his young wife to the Spanish influenza in January 1919. I wonder if this family has a connection to the George Haggerty/Hegerty who worked in the Reuben Bridle household in 1910 and attended Reuben's funeral in 1922? — but the age of that George in 1910 (24) doesn't match up to George Hagerty's son mentioned in the obituary, who was born in 1902 per the 1910 Census (which shows George Sr. living and working on his own farm).

Below that, Albert Orcutt's father has died.

Tent to Tent in Three Generations

Maybe Grandpa George Earle did not actually sleep in a tent when he first came to the Liverpool area in the mid-1840s, but I'm sure he "roughed it" to some degree out of necessity. Here's Grandson George Earle, visiting the same area and roughing it for fun in 1923.


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Hobart Gazette, May 18, 1923.

Does anyone know where Pine Street was (or is)? I can't find it on the present-day map.

Over in the right-hand column, we see that the campgrounds on the Yellowstone Trail (Cleveland Avenue) were open for another tourist seasons.

Hobart's Yellowstone Trail Members

Here's something for you Yellowstone Trail fans: a list of Hobart people and businesses who in December 1922 promised five years' support for the Trail's maintenance and promotion.


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Hobart News 28 Dec. 1922.

I can't index that many names, so here they are for the search engine: S.E. Henderson, O.L. Pattee, Brahst Bros., Hobart Bank, A.J. Newman, First State Bank, Albert Orcutt, Dwight Mackey, Clara Faulkner, Frank Reissig, Busse & Long, Phillips & Byall, Nick Ehrhardt, National Oil & Supply Co., Hobart Lumber Co., R.R. Peddicord, George Watkins, Roper Bros, Emil Scharbach, Hobart Filling Station.


Below that story is one about a wedding anniversary that draws our attention to some Deep-River-area history.

Mary (Ferguson) Hanna was a niece of Catherine Mereness Crisman, but her immediate family is elusive. The earliest I can find her parents, Ezra and Anna (aka Christiana) Ferguson, in a census is 1900, where they are recorded farming in Union Township, Porter County; yet they were married in Lake County in 1861 (Indiana Marriage Collection), and the Civil War draft registration records Ezra in Union Township in 1863. Mary had been born in 1862 (Indiana Death Certificates).

Thomas Hanna was born in Michigan in 1858. I find it interesting that his death certificate (1953) has a blank for his father's given name, and "Unknown" for his mother's name. Either the person who completed the certificate was a bit offhand about it, or his daughter Eva, who reported his death, did not know much about her paternal grandparents.

In the 1900 Census, which shows the Hanna family living in Hobart, Thomas gives his occupation as "R.R. Towerman." By the 1910 Census he had become a teamster — a drayman, as the article says — but the 1920 Census shows him back on the railroad, as a section worker.

Mary died in 1928. I can't find Thomas in 1930. If I've found the right person in the 1940 Census, Thomas had remarried, and his second wife was named Mary, too. I believe the second Mary Hanna died in 1950. Apparently nobody knew her maiden name at that time; from clues on Ancestry.com I'm guessing that it was Moffitt and that her first husband's surname was Smith. I think I need obituaries for all of these people if I'm ever going to figure this out.

As for this Davis Peck — the Deep River justice of the peace from 1882 — I wonder if he was any relation to the Pecks who keep showing up in those "South of Deepriver" columns, but at the moment I don't know anything about him.

… And finally, burgling the home of a grieving widower is pretty darn low.

What Was It About Seattle?

The "Local and Personal" column of the Hobart News of October 5, 1922, included this item: "Lee Thompson, residing south of Ainsworth, formerly of Hobart, left Monday evening for Seattle, Wash. where he expects to be employed in the markets in that city."

I think "south of Ainsworth" referred to their rented farm near the Vincent schoolhouse.

Perhaps Lee had heard from the Hazelgreens how great Seattle was. Or maybe there was some boom going on there in 1922 that could draw him out of Indiana.

This might explain why I couldn't find him around here in the 1930 Census; on the other hand, we already know he was back in Hobart by 1940.

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The fact that 60 property owners were petitioning for an "asphaltic concrete top dressing" for Cleveland Avenue in October 1922 suggests that it was still a gravel road at the time … if not a dirt road.


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Hobart Gazette 6 Oct. 1922.

That was the route of the Yellowstone Trail, competing for traffic against the Dunes Highway (still under construction, I think) to the north and the Lincoln Highway to the south. And crews had been at work on the Lincoln Highway during summer of 1922, pouring fresh cement.

The "south road … between Hobart and the Lincoln Highway" refers State Road 51.

Yellowstone Trail Campground Report

Here's something for you Yellowstone-Trail fans …


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Hobart News 21 Sept. 1922

… and something for you baseball-and-ice-cream fans:


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Hobart News 21 Sept. 1922.

I wonder whether anyone in Hobart saved enough wrappers to get a baseball autographed by Babe Ruth. Such a baseball would sell for five figures these days, but even the ice-cream wrapper might be worth something.

A Busy Season at the Yellowstone Trail Campground

The last I heard about Lee & Rhodes' public fountain was in April 1922, when it had been put in working order. Evidently by August it had gotten out of working order and people were going thirsty under the glaring sun.

While the story about Yellowstone Trail campground doesn't say so, I suppose that the registration box had been set out there when the camp officially opened on May 6, 1922.


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Hobart Gazette 25 Aug. 1922.

I don't know where exactly the Harmon house was, but it doesn't matter since apparently you couldn't get any moonshine there. (I wonder if the Harmon who lived there had any connection to the Rush Harmon who had been hanging around with Carrie Peas.)

And lastly, the bereaved Alfred Ingram and Anna Fleck left to close up the empty house in Boston.

Lost Sight

This poor kid — he lost the sight in one eye, and no one knew (or cared to tell) more about him than his surname.


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Hobart News 27 July 1922.

The Gazette described him as an "orphan boy." I think he might possibly be the orphaned Raymond Brink whom the 1920 Census shows living in the household of Marcene and Helen Haxton, in Union Township, Porter County. If so, he was about 20 years old at the time of this accident. He had a twin brother, Roy, who has already caused me some confusion.

(At the bottom of that column is an item about the newly established Little Red Hen restaurant, with most of its business from out-of-town tourists, which makes me wonder if it was located along the Yellowstone Trail. Its proprietor was Hobart's first librarian, by this time married to the man with whom she had climbed the water tower.)

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Elsewhere in the same issue of the News, we find Carrie Raschka spending a week at Koontz Lake with her daughters and (I believe) her mother-in-law …


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Hobart News 27 July 1922.

… while Charlie DeWell and the former Anne Fleck (now Mrs. Alfred G. Ingram) were dealing with health problems.

Last and least, drainage was being installed on the east side of the Ainsworth road, now known as Grand Boulevard/State Road 51 — this would be near the township line, where the road had been in a bad condition the previous spring.


Additional Sources:
♦ "General News." Hobart Gazette 28 July 1922.
♦ "Raymond Brink Dies at Age 71." Hobart Gazette 4 Oct. 1973.

To Yellowstone Park via Yellowstone Trail

It was only fitting that Paul Newman, local trailsman, should travel the Yellowstone Trail himself. He and his wife, Margaret, set out from Hobart on June 26, 1922, driving west on the Trail. They were halfway to Yellowstone Park when they sent a progress report back home:


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Hobart News 13 July 1922.

They completed the westbound journey on the Yellowstone Trail. The return trip followed an alternate route that included parts of the Lincoln Highway. After six weeks of traveling, the Newmans arrived back home in Hobart.


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Hobart News 10 Aug. 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.

A Triangle, Two Rectangles, and a Little Sunshine

Albert Verplank ventured into the business world of Hobart in May 1922, when he purchased the "triangle" bounded by Main, Center, and Front Streets. The seller's name was given as William Foreman; I assume he was the Hobart William Foreman, not the Ainsworth one. (See "Albert Verplank Buys Triangle of Wm. Foreman For Sum of $2,000," Hobart News 25 May 1922.)


Elsewhere, we find the Scharbach lumber people building large rectangular signs for the McAfee woods campground, one of which will be placed along the Lincoln Highway south of Ainsworth — which makes sense; with that highway being closed for construction, why not send the detoured traffic to the Yellowstone Highway?


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"Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette 26 May 1922.

Two weeks after being stolen, John Killigrew's car is still missing.

I believe the Ed Sauter leaving Gary for South Bend and its Studebakers is Edward Sauter, Jr., now almost 30 years old. I haven't been able to find him in the 1920 Census, but we know he was living and working in Gary when the U.S. entered World War I (WWI Draft Cards).

George and Pearl (Severance) Yager were celebrating the christening of their little "Sunshine," born January 25, 1922.

Pump and Circumstance

I don't know what exactly went on to mark the formal re-opening of the McAfee woods campground — a ceremonial installation of the new pump to replace the stolen one?


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Hobart Gazette 12 May 1922.

The Schavey Farm Changes Hands

Henry Schavey had quit farming in the autumn of 1920; a year later, we find him selling his farm:


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Hobart News 10 Nov. 1921.

"Frank Shoemaker" is better known to us under the name Schumacher. He had a connection to the Schaveys by marriage — his sister, Hattie, had married Henry's brother, William. Until now Frank and his wife, Eliza, had farmed rented land, so this purchase was a milestone for them. But the pride and happiness of finally owning their own farm would be tempered, I expect, by the grief of having lost their only child in February 1921.

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The same newspaper column carried news of others we know: Julius Schavey moving from one unidentified place to another; Paul Newman planning to attend the state-wide Yellowstone Trail meeting; and the Walter Bros. prospering.

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.

Fasel Family Reunion

The "Local Drifts" column in the Hobart Gazette of Aug. 19, 1921 included this item:

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Fasel, Sr., south of town, was the scene of a big family reunion last Sunday, in honor of and in celebration of Mr. Fasel's 76th birthday. About 170 were present, those from Chicago being Messrs. Chas. Liger, Julius Wegner, August Smith, Henry Fowlin and Mr. Grewnoff and their families, and Raymond Metzen.

That's a lot of people. Fortunately the Fasels had some 80 acres of land to accommodate them, as well as a large farmhouse which (I am told) is still standing on East 10th Street. This is the Fasel land as it appeared on the 1908 Plat Map:


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Elsewhere in the same issue appeared this article about the continuing popularity of the tourist campground in McAfee's woods on Cleveland Avenue:


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Ice-Cream Plumbing

Our plumbing friends, Lee & Rhodes, got to spend some of their summer days inside Sherman Henderson's ice-cream factory.


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"Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 8 July 1921.

The "Mrs. Wm. Carey" who mothered young picnickers at the campground was born Augusta Stolp; the widow of Henry Rossow, she became the second wife of William H. Carey in 1903, and was widowed again in 1916.

"Camp Grounds in Much Favor"

The Cleveland Avenue campground's first summer was proving its value to travelers.


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From the Hobart Gazette 10 June 1921.


How I wish I had the picture taken May 10, 1921:


From the Hobart Gazette 17 June 1921.

(Also: Wood-Rose genealogy revealed in the "Local Drifts"!)


Here a Gary newspaper mentions a Chicago newspaper's praise of the Hobart campground:


From the Hobart News 23 June 1921.

(Also, the obituary of William Scharbach, Sr.)


Local people found the campground a convenient and pleasant spot for outings, too, and Augustana Lutheran Church held its annual picnic there on June 30, 1921.


From the Hobart Gazette 8 July 1921.

The "Local Drifts" column of the same issue noted the entrepreneurial spirit of the McAfees' 15-year-old son, Warren:

Warren McAfee has established a refreshment stand near the park entrance, and is meeting with very good success supplying tourists with refreshments. His stand is also well patronized by campers.

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.

The Camp Ground in McAfee's Woods

Since January 1921 the Hobart Commercial Club had been working with Paul Newman, trailsman, to develop a camping ground near Hobart for tourists on the Yellowstone Trail. At a Commercial Club meeting in March, the camping-ground committee reported on its progress: it had entered negotiations with William McAfee to rent four acres of his "7-acre wood lot east of town"; it had planned what improvements would be built and roughly how much those improvements would cost (about $250, to be raised by subscription); it had already received donations of over $100.

I do not know exactly where these four acres were. William McAfee had owned land along the south side of Cleveland Avenue, east of town, for many years (indeed, his parents had owned land there at least since the 1870s), but it's in different places per the 1908 Plat Map …


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…and the 1926 Plat Book.



Nor can I see anything recognizable as a camping ground in the 1939 aerial photos, though we do see what looks like a wooded tract on the southeast corner of Cleveland and S.R. 51. But it's a long time between 1921 and 1939, and the camping ground may not have been in existence by then, even if it could be identified from the air.


Anyway, work went forward during the spring of 1921, and by the end of April, the camping ground was nearly completed.



The Commercial Club had exceeded its own goal in raising money. So many local individuals and businesses had contributed that I can't index them all. The Kulage Brick Works even donated bricks.




Sources:
♦ "Commercial Club Holds Good Meeting." Hobart Gazette 11 Mar. 1921.
♦ "Report on Tourists' Camp Ground." Hobart News 19 May 1921.
♦ "Tourists' Camp Ground About Ready." Hobart Gazette 29 Apr. 1921.