Edward Clifford Stolp: A Mystery Solved

Among the many images in Minnie Rossow Harms' steamer trunk was this photo of a young violinist, taken probably circa 1912.


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

Handwritten notes on the back identify him as Clifford Stolp.



I've mentioned before that Clifford and his ultimate fate were a mystery to me. But recently I came across a short article in the Hobart Gazette of January 21, 1943, announcing, without much explanation, his death on January 9. However, that gave me a time frame, which made further research practical.
I found this article from the Nashville Banner of January 13:


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It helpfully explains who his wife and daughter were, as otherwise I would not have known. The only marriage record I had previously found for him was of his 1922 marriage to Dorothy Featherston (Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index) and that one, it appears from the 1930 Census, ended in divorce. Clifford and Estelle married sometime around April 1941.[1] I do not know what brought Clifford to Tennessee in the first place, but now he rests there forever.

Here is another article from the January 21 Oak Leaves (Oak Park, Ill.).


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Both articles, you will notice, give January 10 as the date of his death.

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The Gazette mentioned that Clifford Stolp "was an uncle to Billy and Carol Ann Stolp" of Hobart. Those were the children of his brother, Willard, who married Clara Shearer in 1929 (Indiana Marriage Collection). The Gazette added that Clifford had "numerous other relatives and friends in Hobart, having resided here at one time" — which we know, from the 1920 Census. He was, of course, related to the Rossows, and hence to the Harmses.

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[1] "Marriage Licenses," Nashville Banner, 14 Apr. 1941.

Unidentified Newlyweds, But I Have a Theory

For Valentine's Day, here's a lovely photo of two unidentified newlyweds.


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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

It comes from Minnie Rossow Harms' steamer trunk, which narrows the circle of possibilities.

I think the young man looks like Henry Harms, Jr. That would make the young lady the former Miss Grace Cook.

Here's an identified photo of Henry Jr. and another young woman (named Lena Clark):


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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

Cute, huh? "To Reno," because Reno, Nevada was known as a place where you could get divorced relatively quickly? — not very romantic. But you could get remarried the same day, apparently.

However, the point of the photo is: the Reno-bound Henry Jr. looks to me like the unidentified young husband above.


Although the newlyweds are not identified, their photographer is. He was T.E. Wood, of 6250 Wentworth, Chicago, Illinois. We know that Henry Jr. and Grace were married January 8, 1916; was Mr. Wood working as a photographer then? The 1910 Census shows Thomas E. Wood, at age 70, carrying on his profession while living at 6250 Wentworth. A 1911 Chicago directory, while advertising his photography business, also gives us his middle name: Evert.


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From The Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago 1911 (Chicago: The Chicago Directory Company, 1911), https://archive.org/details/lakesideannualdi1911unse/page/n3/mode/2up.

Mr. Wood died May 22, 1918. His brief death notice in the Chicago Tribune of May 23 doesn't say whether he was photographing to the end.

Chicago directories between 1911 and 1918 are remarkably scarce online, so I can't prove T.E. Wood was still working as a photographer in 1916. However, he seems to have been devoted to his art, and it's not unreasonable for a man of some 76 years of age to photograph a nice, orderly event like a wedding. I hereby pronounce my theory plausible.

The Ewigleben Family

Back when I was posting about the Ewiglebens, I completely forgot I had this photograph.


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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

Fred Ewigleben, Sr., is standing at center, and his wife, Tillie (née Blanchard) is seated in front of him. The photo is undated, but based on the fact that it was taken by the Hallberg Studio, as well as the fashions and apparent ages of the subjects, I'm guessing it dates to about 1920. Per the 1920 Census, Fred and Tillie had four children: Raymond (19), Fred Jr. (17), Emil (15), and Florence (13). Emil and Florence are seated on either side of their mother; the older boys are standing on either side of their father, but I don't know which is which. [2/18/2020 update: Thanks to Rita McBride of the Hobart Historial Society and an Ewigleben descendant, we now know that Fred Jr. is the young man standing at right. Raymond is standing at left.]

I'm having trouble sketching out Tillie's family background. Per her death certificate from 1946 (she died on November 21, her birthday), she was born in Chicago in 1875; her father's name is given as Charles Blanchard, but the informant apparently did not know her mother's maiden name — not even her first name. There was a Charles Blanchard in Hobart who was near Tillie's age and also born in Chicago, but his death certificate gives his father's name as John, mother's name unknown. Where the information in both cases was so lacking about the decedent's ancestry, I'm not inclined to rely too much on the death certificates. I think it's highly likely that Charles Blanchard, Sr. (he also had a son named Charles) was Tillie's brother.

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2/15/2020 update — I came across this item in the "Local Drifts" column of the Hobart Gazette of January 24, 1919:

Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Blanchard and Mr. and Mrs. Fred Ewigleben were in Chicago the forepart of the week to attend the funeral on Monday of Mrs. Anna Carleton, a sister of Mr. Blanchard and Mrs. Ewigleben. Mrs. Carleton is survived by husband, a daughter and three sons, one of whom is in France.

That establishes Tillie and Charles Sr. as siblings. The Cook County, Illinois, Deaths Index gives Anna Carleton's parents' names as John Blanchard and W. Russell. The three Carleton sons were Harold, Adolph, and William, and the daughter, who was about 12 when Anna died, was named Eva (1910 Census) or Eveline (1920 Census).

Huldah Shearer's Mother

This is Augusta Juhnke Lewin …


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Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

… or, as notes on the back identify her, Huldah Shearer's mother, and Ma's second cousin.



Now, who was "Ma"? Antonia Rossow? Minnie Rossow Harms? All I know is that Minnie's maternal grandmother's maiden name was Juhnke (and thank goodness I wrote that down because I would never have remembered it otherwise).

There is no date for this photograph. The stamp box on the back was in use between 1908-1924. I am inclined to place the photo circa 1910, based on Augusta's apparent age — she was born in 1841, and here I would say she looks about 70. The bodice of her dress is a timeless black silk that an elderly lady might have worn anytime in the later 19th or early 20th century.

I ought to have posted this photo back when I posted her obituary … but honestly, I forgot I had it.

Keep Smiling, Dad

This comic postcard shows a father whose fussy baby has gotten him out of bed in the middle of the night.


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Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

This postcard was glued into one of Minnie Rossow Harms' scrapbooks. I could lift only partially, but we can see enough of the back to learn that the card was sent to Herman Harms in Ainsworth, with the exhortation: "Keep Smiling."



The sender's initial look like G.H. — I can't even guess. The year is illegible, but presumably it was one in which the young Harmses became parents … perhaps for the first time.

'Twixt Love and a Car

The accident in my last post put me in mind of this postcard sent by Herman Harms to Minnie Rossow on March 4, 1915.


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Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.



I think this is the latest-dated card I have from their correspondence. Just about three months later, they would be married.

Wishing You a Merry Xmas

Christmas 1914 …


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Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

Herman Harms sends his best wishes to his sweetheart, Minnie Rossow.



Half a year later they would be married.

Honey

Here we have a young Minnie Rossow Harms, wearing an apron with a "HONEY" label pinned to it.


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Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

As I've mentioned, the Rossows and Mundells were neighbors, and the most likely explanation I can think of for the "HONEY" apron is that Minnie was working at Joe Mundell's honey-producing operation. However, if she did so, her son Eldon Harms could not recall her ever mentioning it, nor have I heard of it from any other source.

The photo is printed on a postcard with a stamp box style dating between 1904 and 1918.



Though I can't see much of her dress, her skirt nearly touches the ground, which moves the photo back from 1918;* but I don't think Minnie (born 1897) could be less than fourteen here … so I would guess at 1911-15 for the date of this photo.

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*That's assuming she hasn't got herself up in some sort of fancy-dress costume, to which current fashion would be less important.

A Trip to Casper

Late in the summer of 1922, Ella Rossow took a ten-day vacation to Casper, Wyoming …


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Hobart News 7 Sept. 1922.

… which would explain this postcard:


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Postcard courtesy of Eldon Harms.



"Just like Main St. in Hobart," she wrote to her sister, Minnie Harms.

By the time Minnie received this postcard, she was probably already worried about six-year-old Rheinhart's bad sore throat. But by the time Aunt Ella came back, Rheinhart was home from the hospital, minus his tonsils and adenoids.


And with the new school year, Esther Strong took up her first teaching position, at the Vincent school.

Alta

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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

This photo comes from Minnie Rossow Harms' steamer trunk. The young woman is identified only by a handwritten note on the photo's cardboard frame: "Alta." The frame also bears the stamp of the photographer, Krudup of Crown Point, Indiana, about whom I know nothing.

I think she resembles a young Alta Thompson, and since the families were friends, Alta might well have given Minnie a photo from her youth. If this is Alta Thompson, who was born circa 1905 and in this photo looks about — well, your guess is as good as mine; mid-teens to early 20s, maybe? — then this photo would date to somewhere from 1920 to 1927. I wish I could see more of her dress.

Wall Lake, Iowa

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Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.



What on earth was Herman Harms doing at Wall Lake, Iowa, in February? — ice fishing? awaiting the coming of Andy Williams? It's a trip of nearly 500 miles. If he wanted to go to a Wall Lake, there was a closer one in northeastern Indiana.

But then the card tells us what he was doing, doesn't it? — he was missing his Minnie.

Grace Rossow

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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

Grace was the youngest of Theodore and Annie Rossow's children, born circa 1911 (1920 Census), on their Union Township farm, perhaps.

I am told that she had a spinal deformity — a rounded back — and the family story that has come down to us is that Annie and Theodore were out driving in their car one day, with Annie holding the infant Grace, when they saw another car heading straight toward them. In a panic, Annie threw the baby out of the car window, clear of the smash-up … but when the baby hit the ground, she suffered injuries that caused her rounded spine.

I don't know if the story is correct about the cause of Grace's back problems, but it's bad enough that Annie felt (or was deemed) responsible.

The Harms Barn

The mention in my last post of the Harms barn reminded me that I have a couple of photos of it.*

This first photo is undated.


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

The barn stood across Ainsworth Road from the Harms farmhouse — in other words, on the south side of the road.

Hay was stored in the loft of this barn. Eldon Harms explained to me the laborious process by which hay, brought in from the fields on a wagon, was carried up to the loft:

You slid open those big doors at the center and drove your horses and wagon straight in. Once it was all inside, you unhitched your horses and brought them out through the small doors at right. Then you hitched them to a rope that ran up to a mechanism inside the top of the barn. The mechanism inside included a "fork" that moved up and down, and laterally along a track attached to the top beam of the barn. One person worked with that fork mechanism inside, while another handled the team outside. The inside person let the fork down into the load of hay on the wagon, then signaled to the person outside.

The outside person drove the horses forward toward the road (away from the barn). Their power lifted the "fork," now full of hay, upward. When it reached the top, a tripping mechanism caused it to move laterally, over the floor of the hayloft (still powered by the horses moving forward). When it reached the right spot, the inside person would make the fork stop and release its load of hay.

Then the horses had to retrace their steps backward, to bring the fork back across the loft and down to the wagon, where it would pick up another load of hay. Repeat until all of the hay had been transferred from the wagon to the hayloft.

Here's the second photo of the barn:



"The Old Red Barn in 1937," reads the handwritten caption. Not much is different from the first photo except that the big side doors have been replaced or resurfaced. I think this photo is later than the first one (just on general appearances); it couldn't be earlier (not much earlier anyway), since the Harmses left the farm in 1938.

I also scanned the 1937 photo directly from the negative.




No trace of the old barn remains.

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*I don't know for certain that this is the barn damaged in the window storm in 1922, but the barn in these photos was on the Harms farm.

His Former Valentine

If I'm reading the handwriting below this portrait correctly, this young woman's name was Tina Clark.


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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

Handwritten notes on the back tell a story of failed love: "Henry's girlfriend. He gave her a diamond ring. She gave it back to him. Grandmother H. had then. Who got it I don't know." "Henry" would be Henry Harms, Jr., who recovered from this disappointment and married someone else. "Grandmother H.," who had the returned ring, would be, I suppose, Anna Harms, wife of Henry Sr.

I have failed to identify Tina Clark and have no idea what became of her … or the ring.

Gladys Harney

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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

This is little Gladys Harney at the age of six months, according to notes on the back of the original, which would date to photo to January or February of 1923.

One Miss For Herman

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Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

The way those young women are showing off their ankles!

I think that by November of 1914, Minnie Rossow knew she was the only Miss for Herman Harms.

Pig Pics

Speaking of pigs — as we were in our last post — perhaps the time has come for me to post all the pig pictures I have at the moment, beyond the one I've already posted.

These two come from the Lester Harms collection.


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Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

On the back, someone has written: "Sow and 11 pigs. 1939." In 1939, Lester was living with his parents, John and Sophia, on their Cleveland Avenue farm. But, Reader, let us not rush to conclude that these were Harms pigs.

The next picture is unidentified. Well, yes, it's a man and 12 pigs. The man looks a bit like Lester Harms, if you ask me, but I need an eye exam.




This last one comes from Minnie Rossow Harms' steamer trunk. It was taken on the old Harms homestead on Ainsworth Road.



"Our Pigs," reads the caption. The photo was developed (per the stamp on the back) on July 16, 1934. The tile building in the background was the chicken house. It was on the north side of Ainsworth Road, between the farmhouse and the lake. There is a chicken-wire fence in front of the pigs.


That's all the pig photos I have right now. We can always hope for more.

Eunice Rhodes

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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

I was hoping Eunice might be related to our plumber, George Rhodes, but if she was I haven't found evidence of it.

She was born in July 1894, and in the 1900 Census, we find her family farming in Calumet Township, neighbors of William and Antonia Rossow, as well as the George and Ellen Roper family and the Gottlieb family.

So it's natural enough that Eunice would be a friend of the Rossows, and that her photo would end up in Minnie Rossow Harms' steamer trunk.

A Little Chicken On the Side

Here's Herman Harms sending a playful postcard to Minnie Rossow in October 1914.


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.



His use of a phrase known better in its less grammatically correct form — "how's tricks?" — made me wonder when that got started … which led me to a Dictionary of Catch Phrases that has found the phrase in writing as early as 1904.

I can't trace the source of the last sentence in Herman's message.

He Ain't Heavy, He's My Duck

(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

Handwritten on the back of the original:

Mayme Fleck and Mrs. Ed. Fleck
Centennial Parade
July, 1947.

We've previously met Mayme (Brand) Fleck. For the Hobart Centennial parade, she dressed up as a clown and had a duck walking with her. The poor duck got so tired that she had to carry it. She was pretty tired herself, as those big feet were hard to walk in — so her daughter tells me.

Mrs. Ed Fleck had been Auvergne Thomas when she married Edmund Fleck in Starke County in 1917 (Indiana Marriage Collection). They lived in Hobart from the 1920 Census onward.

This photo was taken on Third Street, west of the bridge. In the background you can see the sign of the Tower Mobilgas filling station.