Merrillville Then and Now: 73rd Avenue West of Broadway

Circa 1909, and 2024:


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Second image from Google street view.

"Main Street," also known as the Joliet road, had not yet become the Lincoln Highway when this photo was taken sometime before July 17, 1909. The road is dirt, but electrical wires (or are they telephone?) run along it.

We are standing more or less abreast of the Merrillville school building (now the Merrillville History Museum).

The Burge-Underwood house would be to the left, but just out of range of the camera. The first house visible on the left is the Floyd Pierce home, according to A Pictorial History of Merrillville. The next house is the Coffey (or Coffee) house. I do not know what families occupied any of the other houses.

On the right, of course, we can see the steeple of the Methodist Church.

In the distance on the right, I believe you can see a couple of businesses: the Stoltz general store, and next to it the Old California Exchange Hotel:


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The verso includes a postmark, thank goodness, and a friendly message from Howard Walter of Merrillville to Ruth Casbon of Valparaiso:


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It's interesting how he spells the town's name; is that evidence that he pronounced it "Valpo-RISE-o" rather than "Valpo-RAYS-o"?

Howard and Ruth were both about 16 in 1909. Howard was one of the Walter brothers of Merrillville.

Ruth was the daughter of Thomas and Ella (Downs) Casbon. She had been named Mable Ruth but preferred her middle name. She spent her early childhood on a farm in the vicinity of Deep River. Sometime after the 1900 census the family relocated to a Porter County farm, where the 1910 Census, and by 1920 they lived in the city of Valparaiso.

In January 1924, Thomas and Ella held a party to celebrate Ruth's engagement to a man named Joseph Albert Bancroft,[1] a native of Chesterton about 4 years older than Ruth. He had previously been married, in 1914, to Fay Smith (Indiana Marriage Collection); that marriage lasted at least through June 1917 (WWI Draft Cards), but must have ended in divorce at some point, since Fay lived to marry again.[2]

Ruth Casbon and Joseph Bancroft were married in April 1924:


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Hobart Gazette, 2 May 1924.

The marriage was not happy, apparently, as the couple were divorced within two years, according to a Chesterton newspaper item posted to Joseph's Findagrave.com entry.

Joseph moved to Michigan and married again. Ruth resumed her maiden name and lived out the rest of her life as a single woman in Valparaiso. She died in 1989.

For some surprising background information about Ruth, I refer you to the Casbon expert.


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[1] "Local and Personal," Hobart News, 31 Jan. 1924.
[2] I have come across a record of a 1907 marriage in Lake County between a Joseph N. Bancroft and a Lillian Miller, but the record does not include enough information for me to say that this was or wasn't our Joseph.

And They Lived Happily Ever After

On September 23, 1923, Miss Leona Raschka became Mrs. Fred Ewigleben, Jr.


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Hobart News, Sept. 27, 1923.

We just recently met Leona's bridesmaid, Florence Ewigleben. We've also met the best man, Walter Miller.

In all these years that I've been hearing that wonderful name, Ewigleben — it means "live forever" in German — I've never looked into the family much; I was content to know that they were a farming family from somewhere west of Hobart. Now I'd like to find out exactly where that farm was. Let's look at the 1908 Plat Map:


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Why, you may ask, should I be interested in the land owned by "C. Erigleton"? — because that land coincides with the land owned by Christ Ewigleben as shown in the 1891 Plat Book. My theory is that Erigleton is a butchered spelling of Ewigleben.

I've often wondered about that big parcel on the northwest corner of Liverpool and 49th, which seems like a throwback to the old rural days of this area, almost untouched by the development that has transformed the old Hayward farm on the east side of Liverpool Road. The farmhouse that sits on that land was built in 1890 according to the county records, so perhaps it is the old Ewigleben home.

Christ Ewigleben, the patriarch of this family, was a German immigrant. It appears that he married and had some children in the old country; I do not know what happened to his first wife. In 1865 Christ came to the U.S. (1900 Census). In Cook County, Illinois, in 1873, he married a woman named Johanna, whose surname is listed as Hillmann or Maas.[1]

The earliest I can find the Ewigleben family in Hobart Township is in the 1880 Census, on the same page with (among others) Berndts, Boldts and Mummerys, which suggests that they were in the area west of Hobart where the 1891 Plat Book places them. Christ's wife is listed as "Teressa" or some such thing, not Johanna; it's a mystery.

Their son, Frederick — the father of the groom in our 1923 story above — was born in Hobart in 1878 (Indiana Death Certificates). He married Tillie Blanchard in 1898 (Indiana Marriage Collection); and their son, Frederick, was born in 1902 (Indiana Death Certificates).

Frederick Jr. and Leona's home at 520 E. Fourth Street seems to be a bank parking lot now.

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Elsewhere on the same page of the News, above, we find Clifford O. Mize going to prison for the attempted murder of his mother-in-law back in July 1923.

We also find the Gem Theater receiving a letter demanding that it stop showing movies on Sunday evenings. Just remember how recently we Hoosiers could not buy alcohol on Sunday.

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[1] "Hillmann" per Ancestry.com, Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index, 1871-1920 [database on-line], Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. "Maas" per Ancestry.com, Illinois, Marriage Index, 1860-1920 [database on-line], Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.

Arthur Loves Elsie

Just a month after his brother's wedding, Arthur Hahn tied the knot with Elsie Fifield.


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Hobart News, April 26, 1923

Elsie was the daughter of Zacheus H. and Harrietta Fifield. Her brother, Leo, owned an ice-cream parlor in Hobart, and in October 1920 Elsie had been an attendant at his wedding — she was photographed in the wedding party, standing at the left.


Coincidentally, since we have recently mentioned the Wolf family in the early days of this area — below the Hahn-Fifield announcement, another tells of a wedding on "the Wolf farm east of Hobart in Porter county." Just glancing over the 1921 Portage Township plat map, I see three Wolf farms that seem to have homes on them.

Quietly Married

On September 1, 1922, the 15-year-old Marie Hardesty quietly married a 28-year-old Yugoslavian immigrant, Vaso Stambolija.*


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Hobart Gazette 15 Sept. 1922.

That she is described as the daughter of Mrs. John Hardesty makes me think that her father was the John Hardesty who had been accidentally killed about four months earlier. Out of my puzzlement about his children, I have finally drawn the conclusion that she had been christened Marie Rebecca, and the 1910 Census recorded her under her middle name, either by mistake or because she preferred her middle name at the time — but later she changed her preference. Evidence that Marie and Rebecca were the same person includes the fact that both were born in 1907 (per the 1930 Census in Marie's case and the 1910 Census in Rebecca's); and according to her death certificate, Marie's middle initial was R (Indiana Death Certificates.)

I've already stumbled across the premature end of Vaso's story:


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The Hammond Times 4 May 1939.

To judge by her death certificate, which gives her surname as Coppock, Marie's story included another marriage and another widowhood.

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In other news, farmer-turned-bus-driver Glen Nelson was planning to make a little money with his newly purchased bus.


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Hobart News 14 Sept. 1922.

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*The Gazette spells it Stanbolija, but the vital records spell it Stambolija, so that is how I am going to index it.

Wedding Bells for Mabel and Harry

Isn't it lovely? — our friends have gotten married.


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Hobart News 31 Aug. 1922.

(Below that, a wedding involving Charles Kisela, which may or may not interest the Kisela-related person who contacted me a few years ago. Also, I did not know that Terre Haute was the standard by which Indiana bootlegging was judged in 1922.)

A Funeral and a Wedding

At 6:30 on the morning of June 21, 1922, Marie Halfman and Martin J. Powers were quietly married by Father Fred Koenig of Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church at Turkey Creek. "The ceremony was quite private," reported the Gazette, "owing to the recent death of the bride's father, invitations for a big wedding having been cancelled."

In fact, William Halfman had been buried only the day before.


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Hobart Gazette 23 June 1922.

"[T]he farm where he was born 48 years ago" would probably be the Henry Halfman farm on the northeast corner of 61st Ave. and Broadway.

The widow's name was Clara, as was the eldest daughter's ("Mrs. A.J. Prott"). The rest of the children were still at home, and Marie, even as Mrs. Martin J. Powers, intended to remain at home for some time.

This young (about 22 years old) Martin J. Powers came from Gary. His father, who worked in a steel mill, and his mother were both the children of Irish immigrants. Reading a little into the census information, I think his two older brothers, William and John, worked in (or perhaps even owned) a plumbing shop, and Martin worked with them as a "plumber helper."

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Two columns over on the page above, we find the Chicago-area dairy farmers gamely hoping to reorganize their troubled cooperative marketing organization.


Additional Sources:
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Powers-Halfman Nuptial." Hobart Gazette 23 June 1922.

Love on Wheels

When I first mentioned the Crystal Roller Rink, I never dreamed I'd someday have photographic evidence of the wedding that (people tell me) took place there.


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Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.



On the back of that first photo, someone has jotted down what I think is the groom's name, Davy Smyth (pronounced with a long i).



I could not get any additional information, such as the bride's name or the date of the wedding, from the usual on-line sources.


Update: Thanks to the kindness of relatives/descendants of this happy couple, I have learned that the wedding of David Smythe and Margaret Yager took place on December 18, 1948.

What God Hath Joined Together …

This magnificent marriage certificate comes from the Hobart Historical Society museum. We know the bride and groom well: Edward Sauter and Augusta Schumacher.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The first witness listed, Johann Schumacher, may have been Augusta's father, or her 17-year-old brother. I don't know who Louise Schumacher was. (Augusta's mother's name was Johanna; she went by "Annie" in the 1880 Census, but if she ever went by "Louise" I haven't heard about it.)

Herman Tabbert was then about 17. I believe he was the H.C. Tabbert who ran a shoe store in Hobart. He married Emma Wettengel in 1891 (Indiana Marriage Collection).

Among the scripture and verses scattered around the certificate, we find the German equivalent of that familiar injunction: "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." But, as we know, these two did put themselves asunder.

The Lye Accident, and an Update

I was nosing around in old issues of the Hobart Gazette, looking for any mention of Daisy Chester's marriage to E.D. Scroggins that I might have missed the first time around, when I came across this item in the January 4, 1907 issue that I definitely missed the first time around:

A week ago last Sunday the 2-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Chester who live on the Dick Sykes farm pulled from a table a can of concentrated lye which flew upon the little fellow's face and severely burnt him. The right eye seemed to be the worst for the accident and for several days it was feared he would lose its sight but it is now thought the eye will be all right in time.

Based on the 1910 Census, I conclude that the unnamed two-year-old was Robert Chester.

I do not know where the Dick Sykes farm was. Per the 1891 Plat Book, there had been farms belonging to Sykeses in Ross, Hobart and Winfield Townships — not to mention any that may have been in Porter County — but which was known as the "Dick Sykes farm," I do not know.

[7/20/2015 update] Suzi Emig has solved the mystery of the Dick Sykes farm! She writes:

Climb into the time machine ... we are going back to April of 1912. I have attached the newspaper account of my dad's parent's wedding. It was extremely yellowed and fragile when I got it years ago from my aunt. Fortunately she laminated it, so it survives. You will see many familiar names in the list of wedding guests. There is one error. The bride's mother, Mrs. Susan Casey, was a sister to Constance Chester, not to Mr. as stated. If you refer to the 1908 plat map (which you so conveniently provide!) the SE corner of 61st and Colorado is owned by a William Sykes ... maybe Dick was a nickname or he was incorrectly named in the lye incident article. William is shown in the 1880 census to be living on this property as a 21 year old with his mother and siblings, 3 brothers and a sister. Their neighbors are the John Schnabels. Their main house was on the SW corner of the intersection. It appears that William and his family were living here per the 1900 census, as the Fred Schnabels are listed as neighbors. Evidently William decided to give up farming and leased his home and land ... he is in Mississippi, working as a public road contractor in 1910, then in 1920 is back up north residing in Gary as a city clerk, and a garage owner there in 1930. He died in 1940 in CA. My dad always referred to that SE property as "the old Sykes farm", so I guess to the old timers that name stuck. The Charles Chesters were living in Stark Co., IN per the 1900 census. In 1910 they were somewhere in Ross Twp., and evidently relocated by 1912 to the Sykes property. By 1920 they were in the old house that Henry built.

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I believe this clipping is from the Hobart Gazette of April 19, 1912.

Here is the William "Dick" Sykes farm on the 1908 Plat Map:


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Here's a clipping from the "General News Items" of the Hobart Gazette of July 5, 1907 (I didn't miss it the first time around; I just didn't post it) in which "Dick" is enclosed in quotes, as if to mark that it is a nickname.



Here ends this update. If I find out how William got his nickname, I will update again.

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Thanks to our identifying-est commenter ever, we now have IDs on the people in the Chester-house-then-and-now pictures. (I have also added Chuck's IDs to each picture's description on Flickr, for ease of reference.)

Shults-Kasch

When last we met Alfred Shults, on a summer's night in 1921, he was being held up by highwaymen.

Now it's noon on Saturday, January 21, 1922, and if we go to the German Lutheran parsonage in Hobart, we shall meet Alfred under much happier circumstances, as he stands before the Rev. E.R. Schuelke to exchange wedding vows with Miss Vera Kasch. The groom is 20 years old, the bride only 17.

Just a month earlier, Vera's older brother, Helmuth Jr., had married into the Baessler family. Now her second brother, Edward, witnesses her marriage, along with "Miss Leola Wilson of Blachly's Corners," about whom I know nothing except that she was the same age as the bride.

The young couple planned to live at Alfred's parents' home, and he would "assist his father in farming the Shults farm, near and southeast of Ainsworth." Their residence in 1930 was on the north side of the (old) Lincoln Highway, so the Shults farm may be the former Kruse farm.

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Elsewhere in the same issue of the Gazette, some random items … including the happy news that after nearly seven years of marriage, George and Pearl Yager have a baby. Also, some miscreant stole the pump from the Cleveland Ave. campground, and the Roper Bros. hold a tractor-bobsled party.


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Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 3 Feb. 1922.
♦ "Quietly Married." Hobart Gazette 3 Feb. 1922.

Ruth Miller's Wedding

On December 24, 1921 Ruth Miller of Ainsworth became Mrs. Powell of Battle Creek.


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Hobart Gazette 30 Dec. 1921.

As we know, Ruth had been working as a sanitarium nurse. Her new husband (as best I can determine) was Gleason A. Powell, a 21-year-old railroad fireman.

Following the couple through the 1930 Census and 1940 Census, they remained in Battle Creek. Ruth left her nursing work to become a gas-company bookkeeper. Gleason remained a railroader. It appears they had no children.

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The same issue of the Gazette, in an article titled, "Hobart Builds 32 Dwellings," gave a summary of 1921's new construction, as well as repairs and remodeling of existing construction. While in general "rural improvements" were "not enumerated," the article mentions the new barn on the Gruel farm.




Cut off from the above print-out was an interesting little item in the "Local Drifts" column:

With a Friend Like This, He Didn't Need Enemies

The violent robbery of George Bruebach, Jr., is the most attention-grabbing story on this page …


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Hobart Gazette 16 Dec. 1921.

… but we should also note the wedding of Irma Baessler to Helmuth Kasch, Jr.

Irma, about 20 years of age, was the eldest child of Michael (Jr.) and Emma Baessler, who had bought their farm on the Lincoln Highway in 1918.

I have not paid the slightest attention to the Kasch family yet, but in 1920 they were Ross Township residents, renting a farm that seems to have been in the general area of Clay Street and E. 83rd Ave. At that time the family consisted of Helmuth Sr. (45 years old), his wife, Emma (43), and their children, Helmuth Jr. (20), Edward (19), and Vera (16). Helmuth and Emma had brought their family to the Indiana countryside from Chicago. (Also in the household in 1920 were William Dewell and his little son Conrad. William's wife, Martha, who had died of the Spanish flu in December 1918, had been Emma Wischman Kasch's sister.)

Apparently, by December 1921 the Kasch family had moved to "the old Lincoln farm south of East Gary," which I cannot identify.

By 1930 the elder Kasches would be back in Ross Township. Helmuth Jr. and Irma became residents of Hobart.


Sources:
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ Indiana Marriage Collection.
♦ "Kase-Baessler [sic]." Hobart News 15 Dec. 1921.

Edward and Tillie (Harms) Niksch

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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

It was Thanksgiving Day 1964, and someone took this photo of Mathilda "Tillie" and Edward Niksch at the celebration of their 60th wedding anniversary.

As I was writing about their purchase of the former Deep River schoolhouse (yesterday's post), I realized that I've scarcely mentioned these folks in the blog, and I had better take some time to make up for that oversight. They were Ainsworthites, after all: Tillie grew up in the Harms farmhouse east of Ainsworth, and she and Edward moved onto the Lincoln Highway/Randolph St. farm in the spring of 1912.

Tillie was born November 12, 1884, so she had just turned 20 when she married Edward Niksch.


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Numerous unnamed Ainsworth-area residents also attended the wedding. (The "bride's home on south Main street" probably refers to Harms house at the southwest corner of Lincoln and 7th.)

Minnie Rossow Harms' family history gives us a brief summary of the next 16 years:

After Mathilda (Tilly) and Ed were married in 1904, they moved into his home on Devonshire street* in Hobart (Leona and son still** live there). Tilly had attended Valparaiso University and worked as a compositor for the Hobart Gazette. Leona was born December 28, 1907 and Laverne April 9, 1909. They had a great desire to go farming and soon Grandfather Harms purchased his Lincoln Highway farm where they raised their family. Donald was born July 3, 1916 and Edward Jr. July 28, 1920.

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I've talked a lot about the Harms family in this blog, but what about Edward Niksch and his people?

Edward was born May 13, 1882, in Hobart, one of ten children of Louis and Minnie (Niemann) Niksch, who by 1891 owned and farmed this land northeast of town:


Image from the 1908 Plat Map.


His mother died in June 1909.



(Yes, it was Edward's sister, Rosa, who had conquered the heart of the redoubtable Michael O'Hearn.)


Louis Niksch followed his wife to the grave in January 1912.



(While the 1900 enumerator recorded Louis' immigration year as 1860, the 1910 enumerator agreed with the obituary on 1854.)


Edward Niksch is described in the 1900 census as a farm hand, living and possibly working on his parents' own farm. Sometime between then and his marriage in 1904, he went to work in the brickyard, and bought that house in town. He remained a brickie through 1910 — probably until 1912, when he and Tillie moved onto the farm. After that, he stuck with farming, even through the Great Depression, as the 1940 census records him still farming on the Lincoln Highway land.

My notes record only pleasant events for the Niksches until 1917, when Edward became ill. Early in November he was in Chicago getting medical treatment for "serious affection of the eyes." The November 15 News included these unpleasant details:

Edward Niksch, who has been suffering with his eyes, underwent an operation at Dr. Dahlman's hospital in Chicago last Saturday for affected glands and another operation on Monday for pus forming on his face and for his jaws being set. Late reports were that he was some better.

In early December the Gazette reported that, after a couple weeks' treatment and much suffering, he was back home:

Edward Niksch who was operated upon Nov. 9th at the South Shore hospital by Drs. Werelius and Dahlberg for necrosis of the upper jaw bone and joint was able to return home the forepart of last week and indications are that he will meet with a full recovery. His head was so bandaged when he came home he was scarcely recognizable, except by voice. He has been returning every third day to the city for dressing of the wound. He says the pain he suffered before the operation was almost unbearable.

Either he recovered in good time or I was negligent in taking notes, as I have no further information on that illness.

So Edward and Tillie quietly got on with life in the neighborhood of Ainsworth, farming and raising their family. In May 1921, their eldest child, Leona, took part in the first commencement at the new W.G. Haan school.

Late that autumn, the Niksches bought the old Deep River schoolhouse, which started this digression.


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*1019 Devonshire, per Polk's Hobart City Directory 1962.
**I believe Minnie wrote this in 1952.


Sources:
♦ 1880 Census.
♦ 1891 Plat Book.
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ 1940 Census.
♦ "Ainsworth Pick-Ups." Hobart Gazette 2 Dec. 1904.
♦ Harms, Minnie Rossow. As It Was Told to Me. 1952 – 1978. MS. Hobart Historical Society, Hobart, Indiana.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 8 Nov. 1917; 15 Nov. 1917.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 16 Mar. 1912; 16 Nov. 1917; 7 Dec. 1917.
♦ "Niksch-Harms Nuptial." Hobart Gazette 2 Dec. 1904.
♦ "Obituary." Hobart Gazette 25 June 1909.
♦ "Two Pioneers Pass Away." Hobart News 11 Jan. 1912.
♦ WWII Army Enlistment Records.

Just Another Airplane Falling Out of the Sky

It wasn't as close to Ainsworth as usual when a U.S. mail plane fell out of the sky on November 18, 1921.


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Hobart News 24 Nov. 1921.

The Gazette said that the plane came down in "Wm. Mohl's field," and members of the Louis Boldt family were first on the scene. I can't find the Mohl, or Moehl, land; I can't find a farm owned by Louis Boldt; but here, for what it's worth, is the William Boldt farm on the 1908 Plat Map.


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Speaking of William Boldt (who was Louis' brother, I believe) — he was up to his own activities at this time: he had just sold his house in Hobart, and was holding an auction to sell off some of its contents.


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"Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 25 Nov. 1921.

I haven't talked about the Wesley family since the autumn of 1920, when John's sister, Anna, had married William Gernenz — except for a "South of Deepriver" column in June 1921 mentioning that John Wesley was pressing hay for H.H. Smith, and I don't know whether that's John Sr. or Jr. John Sr. was farming in the vicinity, of course, but John Jr., although a townie, earned his living by threshing and pressing hay for others with his own machinery.

Here is the Wesley land as shown in the 1926 Plat Book (it was identical in 1891 and 1908, and substantially the same in 1939):


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Anyway, it's John Jr. who is now going to farm in Ross Township, and maybe he will provide us with better gossip than his father did (not that I have any reason to hope).

John Jr., born May 25, 1889, was the middle son of three from John Sr.'s first marriage. By the age of 21 he had moved out of his father's house and hired on to work on the farm of William and Jennie Fisher. I'd be tempted to draw an interesting conclusion from that fact (for example, that he couldn't get along with his young stepmother, or, what is worse, got along with her too well), except that it was not uncommon for young men from farming families to hire on with neighbors.

Late in June 1917, John Jr. married Frances Mattmiller in Chicago. I'd be tempted to suppose that his having filled out his draft card a few weeks earlier had given him marriage fever, but really I have no evidence of that and I ought to stop thinking such things. And furthermore, he stayed married to Frances through 1940 at least, so no doubt it was a true love match. Anyway, in 1920 there they were in Hobart with one little son, being utterly respectable citizens.

By 1940 they had three children. Let us hope at least that one of the children will commit a youthful indiscretion.


Additional Sources:
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1940 Census.
♦ Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index.
♦ WWI Draft Cards.

Minnie Harms and John Berndt

To complement yesterday's post, let's look at the wedding photos of Minnie Harms and John Berndt.


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Photographs courtesy of Eldon Harms.

The Hobart Gazette of April 23, 1909, gave some details about that gorgeous dress of hers.



They were photographed by August Haase. A second photo included the flower girls, Dorothy Leiger and Minnie Bassauer (notes on the back of the original suggest that Minnie may be on the left and Dorothy on the right, but it's not clear).

Adjourned Sine Die

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Hobart News 17 Nov. 1921.

I find something touching about the last meeting of the old Hobart town board, with such attention to correct procedure, being adjourned sine die — as if someday its business might be taken up again.

But that's not what we're here for. We're here to celebrate the marriage of Samuel Lathrop, the son of George and Eva, named for his grandfather. The last news I had of Samuel goes back to 1903, when he and his father moved to Michigan. Evidently, Samuel had come back to the area by 1920, when the census-taker recorded him boarding in the Gary home of Osce Amlong and working as a railroad engineer. In fact, I find a Samuel G. Lathrop listed in a 1913 Gary city directory, and again in 1918 — by which time it appears he has a spouse named Lula, so if that's our Samuel, this is not his first marriage.

However, from what I can see in the records on Ancestry.com, Samuel and Nellie stayed married. They remained in Gary for a couple more decades at least, and then I gather they retired to Florida. At present all the Lathrops are out of my bailiwick and it doesn't look as if they intend to come back, so, in spite of my peculiar fondness for them, I shall have to consider my writing about them adjourned sine die.

Fred and Olga (Foreman) Rossow

Just recently we encountered this young couple moving onto the Ella Roper farm in Ross Township in 1921. Today let's go back five years and look at their wedding portrait.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.
Photographer: J.J. Naumann, Hobart, Ind.

They were married February 20, 1916, when both were 21 or 22. Olga, whom we've met once before, was the daughter of William and Emma (Manteuffel) Foreman of Hobart; Fred was the son of Theodore and Anna (Bergman) Rossow, whom we've also met.

Here is the Gazette's report of their wedding:


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I am wondering whether the "Burkman" in the article is a mistake for "Bergman" — Olga's mother's maiden name.

Per the 1920 census, Fred and Olga were renting land in Porter County, apparently near the Gottlieb family.


Sources:
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ Indiana Marriage Collection.
♦ "Rossow-Foreman Nuptials." Hobart Gazette 25 Feb. 1916.

Emil Scharbach and Emma Busse

Yesterday we read about an unpleasant experience that involved Emil Scharbach, so today let's look at one of his more pleasant experiences.


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

Emma Busse (sister of Adeline) married Emil Scharbach on June 27, 1903, when she was about 18 and he 20.

August Haase photographed the happy couple.

The Hobart Gazette of July 3, 1903, described the wedding ("Scharbach-Busse Nuptial"):

The German Lutheran church was packed last Saturday evening, June 27th, 1903, to witness the marriage of Mr. Emil Scharbach, son of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Scharbach, and Miss Emma Busse, daughter of Marshal and Mrs. Gust Busse, both of Hobart. The ceremony was performed by the Rev. Peter Claussen, pastor of the German Lutheran church at Valparaiso, at the hour of eight. The bride was handsomely attired in crepe de chine and carried a large bouquet of roses. The young couple were attended by Miss Martha Busse as Maid of Honor and bridesmaids — Miss Wanda Busse, Miss Lizzie Lentz and Miss Ida Stoltz, and groomsmen — Bernard Scharbach, John Kruse, Henry Bewersdorf and Art Newman.

After the conclusion of the services at the church, the young couple and a large number of relatives and friends assembled at the bridge's home on Main street to celebrate the event. An abundance of everything good to eat and drink was provided for the guests and the occasion was most enjoyable for all.

The bridge received many beautiful and costly presents. The young couple have already begun housekeeping in the Swedish Lutheran parsonage. We join their many friends in extending best wishes and congratulations.

The relatives present from abroad to attend the wedding were: From Chicago — Mr. and Mrs. Henry Sachtbeben, Mrs. Hannah Schroeder, Louis Scharbach and daughter and Mr. and Mrs. Henry Schroeder; From Wanatah — Mr. and Mrs. Herman Busse, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Stoltz, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Rozenbaum, Mr. and Mrs. Louis Pratt, Mrs. Wm. Hermann and Emil Lawrence; From Evanston — Miss Ida Busse.

The Mystery of Harriet

Ever since I started looking into the Henry Chester family, I've been puzzled as to why there was no gravestone for his first wife, née Harriet Perry, in the Chester Cemetery. Obviously their marriage had ended — he did take a second wife — and the usual way of ending marriages in those days was death.

It took some detective work by one of Henry's descendants, Linda Pearson, to establish that Henry's first marriage had likely ended in the unusual way: divorce.

We knew that Henry had married Harriet, daughter of Ezekiel Perry of Porter County, in 1859. But Linda has tracked down a biography of Sylvester Casbon (whose fine brick house we have already seen), which states that after his first wife died in 1868, Sylvester married again, to "Miss Harriet Perry, daughter of E. Perry." Per the Indiana Marriage Collection, Sylvester married Emmeline H. Perry on October 21, 1869; I guess we know what the "H." stood for.

Back in 1913, when Henry's will was being contested, I was mystified by the mention of "Mrs. Etta Wood" as a daughter of Henry, since I had never seen, in census or newspaper article, any daughter named Etta. However, Linda points out that there is a Henrietta Chester in the 1870 census, in the household of Sylvester Casbon:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image from Ancestry.com.

Unlike later ones, this census does not help us by listing each person's relationship to the head of the household. But now we can deduce that Henrietta was Sylvester Casbon's stepdaughter. Her age means that she was born circa 1862, too late to appear in the 1860 census, where we find Henry and Harriet and their two small daughters, Mary (who went on to become Mrs. Marchant), and Olive (who died in infancy and now rests in Chester Cemetery). "Etta," then, is likely short for Henrietta (but at present I can't explain any Wood connection).

The marriage of Sylvester and Harriet ended in the usual way, and a lovely stone marks Harriet's grave in Mosier Cemetery.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of Linda Pearson.

Henrietta Chester went on to marry a Charles Stroman, according to the 1918 marriage certificate of her son, Martin:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of Linda Pearson.

Martin Stroman was Linda's grandfather; he was also described by the Hobart News in 1913 as the son of Mrs. Etta Wood, who was the daughter of Henry Chester.

I'd like to know how the surname Wood got in here, but otherwise I'm convinced we've solved the mystery of Harriet. Many thanks to Linda Pearson, History Detective!

Rose and Fritz

I recently came across an article about their wedding (while looking for something else), so I may as well post this lovely wedding photo of Rose Kietzman and Fred (aka Fritz) Scharbach taken by August Haase:


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

From the Hobart Gazette of 24 June 1910, an article entitled, "Hobart People Marry":

Fred Scharbach, youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Scharbach, and Miss Rose Kietzman, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Kietzman, were united in marriage on Wednesday of this week, June 22d. The ceremony was performed at 2 o'clock at the bride's home on Kelly street in the north part of town by Rev. E.R. Schuelke and in the presence only of members of the two families.

The bride was attended by the groom's cousin, Miss Helen Scharbach of South Chicago and the groom by the bride's brother Charles.

The happy young couple left that evening for Chicago but returned on the late train to take up their residence on Devonshire street where their new home has been furnished for their occupancy.

Both have been raised in Hobart and possess a large circle of friends who wish them a happy wedded life. The Gazette extends hearty congratulations.

Rose was then just 17 years old, and Fred 21. According to the 1910 Census, in spite of Fred's father owning a lumber yard, Fred himself worked for a railroad as a section "boss."