Automobile Humor (1924) and the Old Abel Place

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Hobart News, 31 Jan. 1924.

And I'm sure some people clipped it out and put it on their windshield, and the next time they were out driving, they kept glancing over smugly at their passengers just waiting for them (the passengers) to say something.

This prompted me to investigate the origin of the term "backseat driver." One source found it as early as 1891 in the U.S. The phenomenon had to exist before the automobile; it's just human nature; but I haven't been able to find information about what people called it.

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A social column in the same issue of the Hobart News contained an update on the ownership of the old Abel homestead:

A deal was recently completed whereby the former Abel property, together with a couple of Gary properties, was transferred by the late owner, Steve Dolato of this city, in exchange for a farm of 320 acres located about 8 miles north of Renssalaer, Ind. owned by Michael Jungles, consideration $44,800. The Dolato family, who have resided here for the past seven months, will move the first of the week to Gary, where they have purchased a home at Eighth and Georgia streets and the Jungles family will remove to their new residence, the old Abel homestead, as soon as it is vacated by Mr. Dolato and family.

The new owners' name was actually spelled Jungels. Michael and Josephine (Gerlach) Jungels were both Illinois natives who had married in 1884. After many years of farming in Jasper County, Indiana, they were approaching retirement age and chose the old Abel place, which still had over 10 acres attached to it. A later Hobart News social column (4 Apr. 1924) mentions a couple of their married daughters' surnames …

Mrs. Michael Jungles came Sunday to the old Abel homestead, which she and Mr. Jungles purchased about the first of the year to be occupied by them as a future home. Mr. and Mrs. Otto Ritter of this city, her son-in-law and daughter, motored to Renssalaer for the purpose of bringing Mrs. Jungles back with them to Hobart. Mr. Jungles will join his wife later. Another daughter and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. Peer, have resided at the former Abel home since the first of March.

Elizabeth Jungels had married Volney Peer in 1907, and Anna Jungels and Otto Ritter were married in 1916, all in Jasper County; but with this move they and the elder Jungelses would become Hobart residents for decades. It is Elizabeth's name that shows up as the owner of the property on the 1926 Plat Map:


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Let us skip ahead to the end of Michael's and Josephine's residence — they departed Hobart, and this world, within three weeks of each other in March 1952.


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Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 3 Mar. 1952


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Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 21 Mar. 1952

Elizabeth Peer and Anna Ritter remained Hobart residents to the end of their lives as well. Anna died in 1969, and Elizabeth — who still occupied the old homestead — in 1980.

Merrillville Then and Now: 73rd Avenue at Madison

Yet another view of the Walter Bros. garage, from a postcard I bought a few months ago. The photographer, C.R. Childs, stood along present-day 73rd Avenue and pointed his camera east toward Madison.


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Here's a screenshot from Google street view, 2024:

Image courtesy of Google Maps.

In spite of its stylish design, which I totally love, the back of the postcard is not helpful for purposes of fixing its date …



… but we know it dates to 1913 or later, since the photo is captioned "Lincoln Highway."

I consulted the Ainsworth vintage-car expert for further help, and he tells me:

There are a couple of cars (like the one closest on the right) that appear to be Model T Fords (not new looking). Ford's last year for gas headlights was 1914. Headlights were electric after 1914 and the car on the right appears to have gas lights. Walter Brothers sold Buicks and the truck in the doorway could be a late teens Buick delivery truck. The cars on the highway fit the 1916/1917 timeframe.

So I'm estimating the date of this photo to be circa 1917.

Concerning the starting date of the Walter Bros. garage business, A Pictorial History of Merrillville says this:

Like their father, Ernest "Cheese Henry" Walter, the three sons, Howard, Leslie, and Clarence, were capable business men who undertook their enterprise in 1917 when they were only 18, 20, and 21 years of age, respectively.

At first, the young entrepreneurs operated out of Elbert's Garage, an old wooden building; later they relocated to the Keilman building on the southwest corner West 73rd Avenue and Madison Street [i.e., where this photo was taken].

But in the on-line local newspapers, I found this 1913 item:


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Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 2 Dec. 1913, p. 6.

This seems to say that they were already running a car-rental business in 1913, at which time Howard (b. 1893) was 20, Leslie (b. 1895) was 18, and Clarence (b. 1897) was 16.

I also found this 1915 item:


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Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 10 Apr. 1915, p. 7.

So they were selling Fords and Overlands already.

But I found nothing to specify where their business was located at any particular time.

Deep River Then and Now: International Dairy Co.

1936 and 2024:




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Historical images courtesy of R.F.
2024 images from Google street view.

Per a 1936 history of Union Township written by Wheeler High School students and teachers:

The Pure Milk station was built in the fall of 1925 by the Midwest Dairyman's Company, but there have been several improvements made in the equipment since then. There have been no decreases in the shipment of milk; rather it has increased gradually from 10,000 pounds daily in 1925 to 36,000 daily in 1936. It is owned by the International Dairy Company and all members that belong are Pure Milk members.[1]

I must take their word for the construction date, since I have not been able to find any relevant information in the newspapers I have access to. Indeed, I read through the whole of 1925's Hobart Gazette without finding any mention of what must have been a big event in the village of Deep River. On the other hand, the Porter County Assessor's records have 1950 as the build date. I think that may be a mistake, unless the dairy building burned to the ground and an identical version was built anew in 1950. Possibly that was the date the two back sections were added on; they were not original, as we can see in the second 1936 photo, and as the relevant 1939 aerial photo confirms.

The earliest newspaper article I have found about the dairy dates to January 1931:


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Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 24 Jan. 1931.

Pretty exciting event, but I don’t think it made the Gazette.

This article, from later the same year, does establish that the dairy was operating at least as early as January 1930:


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Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 13 Apr. 1931.


This photo, also from 1936, was taken in an unknown location.


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Image courtesy of R.F.

We don't know who the smiling man was, either — presumably a truck driver for dairy. This photo has the name "Vina Serafinski" in its file name, but I haven't been able to identify such a person, nor anything about the name Serafinski that would help I.D. this location.

From this photo, dated 1938, I gather that someone was really proud of the dairy building and its pretty landscaping:


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Image courtesy of R.F.

And lastly, a few random articles naming several employees of the International Dairy Co. over the years:


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Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 12 Dec. 1930.


Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 27 Jan. 1941.


Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 21 Feb. 1967.


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[1] From the "Industrial Development" section of WHEELER HIGH'S WINNING HISTORY OF UNION TOWNSHIP As Compiled By History Class and Instructors For The Vidette-Messenger, printed in the Porter County Centennial, 1836-1936, Special Edition, 18 Aug. 1936, as transcribed at https://www.inportercounty.org/Data/PorterCountyCentennial/Sec3-4-6_UnionTwpHistory.html.

Yet Another Car Crash at the Black Cat

This one has a twist.


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Hobart Gazette, 3 Apr. 1952.

The mention of Gilbert Bullock reminds me that this is supposed to be the Ainsworth blog, not the Crash-at-the-Black-Cat blog. This particular Gilbert was the son of Claude Bullock and his second wife, Mary Ann Chandler. The 1950 Census shows him living at Peter Bates' hotel, 314 Main Street.

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Also from yesterday's microfilm-reading and phone-photographing session:


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Hobart Gazette, 4 Jan. 1952.

The Gazette actually published bowling league scores weekly in this time frame, or at least in the late 1940s.

They Survived a World War …

I bought this postcard because I thought it was cute. I had no idea what a tragic story I would encounter when I started researching the sender.


The year was 1943, and, for the U.S., it was the middle of World War II. Carl Pequignot, a 21-year-old Hobart man, was in the Army, stationed somewhere out West, I gather. He had this gag photo taken and made into postcards to send to the home folks.


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He sent this one to a friend, 18-year-old Mary Olive Boudrot, who lived at 753 Garfield Street and preferred to go by her middle name.



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Two years later, the war ended. Carl and the rest of the soldiers and sailors from Hobart — those who had survived the war — were able to come back home. Their family and friends breathed a sigh of relief. At last, these young people were safe.

And then this happened.


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Hobart Gazette, 2 May 1946.



The appalling deadliness of the crash was a reminder, to us, of how little the designers and the users of car thought about safety in those days. Structural features that are so familiar to us, like the crumple zone, the safety cage, and the padded dash, didn't exist. Seat belts had been invented, but were not common, and even if Carl's car had any, I'm sure that young men out riding in the wee hours of the night would not have thought of wearing them.

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Olive Boudrot was a native of Canada. Her parents, Thomas and Margaret, brought her to the U.S. when she was just a baby. Here she is in 1942 as a senior at Hobart High, known to her classmates as "Frenchy":


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HHS Senior Edition, Hobart High School, 1942.

In August 1946, Olive married Richard Shaw.

"The Pleasure of Motoring, 1928"

… he wrote sarcastically.


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Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

"He" being Lester Harms, probably, as this photo came from the Lester Harms collection. I'm posting it now because I just recently came across a relevant newspaper item from the Hobart Gazette of July 6, 1928:

Clarence Harney and Lester Harms were to motor to Yellowstone Park, but they encountered muddy roads in the Black Hills section and gave up going further and returned via Minnesota and Wisconsin, visiting the points of interest enroute. Mr. Harney, who works at the local postoffice, had to return last Saturday at the close of his two-weeks' vacation.

The way Eldon Harms told me the story, they were heading to California. In both stories, they turned back because of the bad roads.

If Yellowstone Park was their destination, I wonder if they traveled on the Yellowstone Trail?

Lester Harms and Clarence Harney were cousins, born in 1904 and 1907, respectively. (Lester's father, John, was a half-brother of Clarence's mother, Mamie.) With the photo being so out-of-focus, it's hard to say which one of them is fixing the flat, but I am inclined to think it's Clarence. Here is his high-school senior portrait from 1925 for comparison:



And a photo of Lester from 1932 can be found here.

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This story got me wondering whether they were in the Black Hills area in hopes of seeing the Mount Rushmore monument, which led me to research how much of the monument there was to see in 1928. As it turns out: very little. The enormous work of carving the mountain had only begun in October 1927. I found some early photos here — if you scroll down, you will find one from about 1928 in which only the rough planes of Washington's face can be distinguished from nature.

Road Trip #Whatever, I've Lost Count

Those enthusiastic road-trippers, Charles and Constance Chester, hit the road again in the autumn of 1923.


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"Local and Personal," Hobart News, Nov. 15, 1923

Sela Chester was one of Charles and Constance's children; he was about 24 years old.

Raymond and Maud McClain, Constance's brother and sister-in-law nephew and his wife, had traveled with the Chesters on a 1,000-mile road trip in 1919.

Mamie Hull was the teenaged sister of Charles and Constance's son-in-law, Homer.

Sudden Deaths

Not two years after Alvah Fisher was killed in an accident at the Lincoln Highway crossing south of Ainsworth, that dangerous intersection took another life.


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Hobart News, Aug. 23, 1923.


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Hobart News, Aug. 23, 1923.

Both articles mention tall corn on the northeast corner blocking the view. I take this to mean that there was no building there yet, at the future site of the Tonegals' business.[1] The article below the main story in the Gazette implies that there was not so much as a stop sign at this intersection.

I can't identify the driver of the local car involved in the wreck. The News gives his name as John Myers; the Gazette gives him no name but says he is the son of John H. Meyer; both describe his home as being in Winfield Township. I've found the death certificate of a John Henry Meyer, gored to death by a bull in Winfield Township in 1927 (Indiana Death Certificates), but I can't find him there in the 1920 Census, or any other census for that matter. The 1920 Census does show a Meyer family farming in Winfield Township, but no John among them.


Speaking of dangerous corners — a couple weeks earlier, a fatal accident occurred near Valparaiso, at a location the Gazette described as "the Clifford turn west of [Valparaiso], called the 'death corner'" ("Auto Accidents," Hobart Gazette, Aug. 17, 1923). "Clifford" was probably a major landowner nearby. If I go looking for Cliffords owning land just west of Valpo in 1923, I find a lot of them. The most dangerous-looking "Clifford turn" is circled in red below on the 1928 plat map (which I'm using because it shows the road better than the 1921 map), on a stretch of road now called Clifford Road:


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Image from https://www.inportercounty.org/Data/Maps/1928Plats/Center-1928.jpg.

The intersection and crossing at the southeast end of that road look even more dangerous, but I don't know that they would be linked to the Clifford name. A couple less dangerous corners by Clifford land are circled in green. There must have been more than one fatal accident at the "Clifford turn" to earn it the name of "death corner."

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President Warren G. Harding died unexpectedly on Thursday, August 2, 1923, just when he seemed to be recovering from an illness. Eight days later (the day of his burial), a memorial service was held in the auditorium of the Hobart High School on Fourth Street. "The attendance of citizens was disappointingly small. The room should have been crowded but it wasn't. … Attorney John Killigrew, who had met the president on two occasions in 1920, spoke praisingly of his personal attainments as he saw and judged him at those times." ("Hobart Holds Memorial Services," Hobart Gazette, Aug. 17, 1923.)


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[1] The county records state that the building now housing Sharp's School Services was built in 1980, but we know that is incorrect.

Hit-and-Run on the Lincoln Highway

Two accounts of a serious accident that happened on July 8, 1923, along the Lincoln Highway just west of Randolph Street.


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Hobart News, July 12, 1923.


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Hobart Gazette, July 13, 1923.

Donald was the son of Edward and Tillie Niksch, who had turned the former Deep River schoolhouse, on the northwest corner of Randolph and E. 73rd Avenue, into a dance hall.

I find that casual hospitality interesting: strangers from Gary traveling along the Lincoln Highway just happened to stop at the Niksch place for water, and for the lady to amuse herself playing the piano in the dance hall, though no dance was going on. Then she got thirsty again and gave the little boy a dime(!) to fetch her another glass of water. That's when everything went bad.

But little Donald recovered from his injuries and went on to live a full life.

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Below that story in the Gazette we find another accident, caused by drunk driving, involving Charles and Etta (Sohn) Kisela, who were a few weeks short of their first wedding anniversary.

The story in the News about camping along the Deep River mentions Camp 133, which we know about, but also some other camps that I've never heard of. The early summer's hot weather probably helped drive people out of their stuffy homes and into tents by the river.

His Vintage Ford

Louis Wojahn won a prize in June of 1923 for his vintage Ford — dating to 1910!


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Hobart Gazette, June 29, 1923.

Burning Crosses

Several nights in early May 1923 were lit up with burning crosses in Ainsworth, Hobart, and East Gary (Lake Station).


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"Local and Personal," Hobart News, May 10, 1923.

Since the Klan parade three months earlier had featured a burning cross, the writer probably understood the association. But we don't know if any of these displays were aimed at anyone in particular. (Henry Paulus, many years later, recalled a cross being burned on his lawn in 1924.)

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Above that item we find a description of a pretty nasty wreck that fortunately did not injure Ainsworth's Robert Harper.

Not in Our Back Yard! (Smallpox, That Is)

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Hobart Gazette, March 30, 1923.


First question: where was "the Peddicord brick north of Cleveland avenue"? — near Illinois and Kelly Streets, apparently, but that doesn't narrow it down very much.

Second question: why did the Hobart Health Department think that neighborhood a better place for a smallpox patient than Lake Street? Less crowded, maybe?

George Maybaum was not one of the Ainsworth Maybaums, but we still hope he gets over his smallpox, don't we?[1]

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At the bottom of that column, we find William H. Wood & Son (Raymond, I believe) selling used Fords at their dealership in the village of Deep River. I've mentioned that enterprise at least once — more than once, I thought, but I can't find any other reference. According to my notes, it went back at least to 1916, when the "Local Drifts" column of the November 24 Gazette said: "Wm. H. Wood, the Deepriver merchant, who is sales agent for the Ford auto, is building a garage 40 by 60 feet for storage of new cars and a repair shop." I have been told that this business was located about where the fire department station is now.

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[1] SPOILER ALERT! — he did, according to the 1930 Census. The neighbors' objections were settled by moving George "to a smallpox barracks in Cook county, Ill." ("Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette, April 6, 1923), where presumably he was nursed back to health.

South of Deepriver, March 22, 1923

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Hobart News 23 March 1923.


Among all the other social news, we find Maybelle Guernsey marrying Lloyd Moreland of Sedley, who thus far has figured in this blog only as a visitor in other "South of Deepriver" columns. But looking into his background a little, I find that his family goes back to the 1870s in Union Township, Porter County. His grandparents were Joshua and Margaret Anna. I believe that Joshua, born in Ohio in 1834 (Indiana Death Certificates), shows up in Union Township in the 1870 Census with his name spelled Moorland. The following year he went back to Ohio to marry his sweetheart, Margaret Anna McConkey.[1]

The young couple probably returned to Indiana soon after their marriage. The 1876 plat map for Union Township shows a J. Moreland owning a nice big parcel of land not far southeast of where Sedley would be after the Grand Trunk Railroad came through.

Around 1874, Joshua and Margaret had a son named Harrison (1880 Census). In 1896, Harrison married Jessie Wilson (Indiana Marriage Collection). Their son Lloyd was born in 1898 (Indiana Death Certificates).

Per the Union Township plat map of 1921, Harrison Moreland owned nearly 200 acres around Sedley.


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Image from http://www.inportercounty.org/Data/Maps/1921Plats/Union-1921.jpg.


The 1930 Census shows Lloyd and Maybelle farming rented land in roughly the same vicinity (to judge by their neighbors); it may have been his father's land. By then they had three children.


To the left of the "South of Deepriver" column is an open letter from William O. Sievert. He may or may not be somehow related to the Ainsworth-area Sieverts — I don't know. I believe he was a Hobart resident; the 1920 Census shows a 25-year-old steel-mill employee by that name in Hobart with his widowed mother, Anna. The Charles Carlson (who was allegedly to blame for the accident) was a son of Swan Peter and Hedwig Carlson, and per the 1920 Census lived in Ross Township, farming on part of the old Carlson place on S.R. 51, roughly across S.R. 51 from the present-day Indian Ridge Golf Course.

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[1] Ancestry.com. Ohio, County Marriages, 1774-1993 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. Original data: Marriage Records. Ohio Marriages. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, UT.

Bull Calves and an Exploding Radiator

Allow me to get back to my adopted quiet family, the Noltes — two of its surviving members have some pure-bred bull calves to sell in March of 1923:


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Hobart Gazette 9 Mar. 1923.


Above that ad, we find Charles Chester selling oak fence posts, which I expect he made from oak trees felled in his own woods, nowadays the domain of horse-riders, dog-walkers and track-meeters.

Elsewhere, we learn about Christian Heck's arrival in this country in 1860, and James Chester's hard lesson about patching a radiator with cement.

In the last column, the report about Wayne Nelson's appendicitis describes his mother as living "north of Ainsworth," which is news to me. Either that is a mistake, or she moved out of the village when I wasn't looking.

E.R. and Zora

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Dr. E.R. Gordon, circa 1908.
Image credit: "KatharineMRedmond," Ancestry.com.

This item in the "Local Drifts" of the Hobart Gazette of Feb. 28, 1908, tells of Dr. E.R. Gordon making a surprise visit to Hobart with his new bride, Zora (Knopsnyder).


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He is described as "head house physician in one of the Health Homes at the [Bernarr] Macfadden Sanatorium, Battle Creek, Mich." Earlier, we saw in his obituary that he had been a patient at an unnamed sanitarium in Battle Creek, where he met his future wife. The Bernarr Macfadden Sanitarium definitely existed, but I haven't been able to confirm E.R.'s association with it in any source except the Gazette.



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Zora Knopsnyder, as a student at Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, Virginia, circa 1903. Image credit: Ancestry.com


Zora Knopsnyder was born in 1882, which means we have no census record of her until the 1900 Census, where we find her in Ridgway, Pennsylvania, boarding in the home of Edward and Mattie Sowers — who may or may not be related to her; I don't know. In a family tree on Ancestry.com, her parents are listed as Jackson Wynkoop and Margaret (Catz) Knopsnyder; the 1908 paperwork for E.R. and Zora's marriage names her parents only by their initials: J.W. and M.J. In 1900, if I've found the right people, J.W. and M.J. were living in West Virginia. I wonder why Zora chose not to live with them? She was then 18 years old and the enumerator recorded no occupation for her.

E.R. and Zora were married February 19, 1908, in Elk County, Pennsylvania.[1].

After their visit to Hobart, the young couple returned to Battle Creek for several months. In May, Zora came down alone for a visit to her in-laws, staying with them in the house on Second and Center Streets.[2]

In July 1908, E.R. came home to Hobart for good.


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Hobart Gazette 24 July 1908.


(There's another make of car I never heard of before. Looking at the 1908 models on this page, they look so exposed. I'd hate to go out on a call on a cold, rainy night with only that flimsy convertible roof to shield me.)

With E.R. came a 15-year-old boy, formerly a bell boy at the sanatorium, who would work as office boy (in E.R.'s office, I expect).[3] The Gazette gives his name as Ormer Thaker, the 1910 Census as Omar Thenker. I can't find him elsewhere.

E.R. rented an office in the First State Bank building and went about his business as doctor and coroner.


(Click on image to enlarge)Hobart Gazette 2 Oct. 1908.


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[1] Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Marriages, 1852-1968 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. Original data: Marriage Records. Pennsylvania Marriages. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, UT.
[2] "Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette 22 May 1908.
[3] "Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette 31 July 1908; 1910 Census.

A.B. Colkitt Buys an Olds Roadster

This sales contract somehow found its way into Eva Thompson's collection.


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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

My best guess at the identify of this person is an Alfred Colkitt who shows up in a Gary city directory in 1920:


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Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

… and who gave his name to a draft board in 1942 as Alford Byron Colkitt (WWII Army Enlistment Records).

But what connection did Mr. Colkitt have to the Thompsons, that his auto sales contract should end up in their hands? — I do not know. The contract was inside an envelope addressed to Nancy Thompson in Hobart, postmarked in December 1933 from Nappannee, Indiana. Was it sent to her in that envelope, or did that envelope just turn out to be a convenient storage place?

In looking around for an image of a 1921 Oldsmobile Roadster, I discovered that something similar to Alfred's car, modified into a truck, was the vehicle that carried the Beverly Hillbillies.

I also learned that a 1921 Olds Roadster was involved in the development of the "automobile exception to the Fourth Amendment search warrant rule, … less formally referred to as the Carroll doctrine."

Sweethearts Wrecked

The country roads in Winfield Township were dark and icy on the evening of January 13, 1923, when a car full of young people bound for Ainsworth skidded and overturned. Among its occupants were Lynn Peterson and Grace Nelson.


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Hobart News 18 Jan. 1923.

Grace's brother, Wayne, must have been driving his own car (or a borrowed one) if he could take the young ladies home.


And in Hobart, that forward-thinking entrepreneur (and former Ainsworthite), George Sauter, was looking to put the ice-man out of a job.

She That Was Sophie Mankey

Thus far I haven't learned much about Julius Triebess and his family, but thanks to this little item from January 1923, I have learned that Sophie Triebess' maiden name was Mankey.


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Hobart Gazette 12 Jan. 1923.

With that information, I can be pretty sure Julius and Sophie were married in Chicago on June 11, 1901 (Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index). According her Indiana Death Certificate, her parents were William and Dorothea* (Brockmiller) Mankey … but they are proving elusive in the census records.

Her brother, William Mankey, farmed the east side of Randolph Street south of the Grand Trunk tracks.


Reported at the bottom of that column, Dr. L.M. Friedrich had minor car crash somewhere south of the intersection of Randolph Street and E. 73rd Avenue, where the Ed Niksch place lay.

Over in the left-hand column is a (partial, maybe) listing of who was in the local dairy business in January 1923.

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*In death certificates of other relatives, her name is given as Dorothy or Doris.