Fun and Farm-Moving

From the cold and wet (one presumes) late winter of 1920, some do-it-yourself entertainment news, including the fact that the mysterious Jolly Four was now hosting dances in Hobart as well as Ainsworth.


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The "Ainsworth social" had been held the evening of Friday, February 20, at Gust Lindborg's hall, to raise money for the Ainsworth school.

… And some manufactured-entertainment news.



"Hearts of the World" was a war film released in 1918. Both Lillian and Dorothy Gish had roles in it.



I can't find any images relating to "Desert Gold" or its star, Edward Kline Lincoln.

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Some people had no time for entertainment, manufactured or otherwise. Some people were too busy moving farms:

Ray Halstead [or Halsted] and family will move Friday [March 5, 1920] to the farm owned by his father, A.E. Halstead, located near Merrillville, which has been occupied by F.B. Price and family. Mr. Price moves to his own farm recently purchased, on which he is erecting a complete set of buildings. Bert Bartholomew will occupy the residence vacated by Mr. Halstead and family.

As you can see on the map in this post, Ray's father farm was just west of the Price's farm. I do not know where Ray's previous residence was, so I don't know where dear Bert Bartholomew (whoever he was) would soon be living.


Sources:
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 5 Feb. 1920; 4 Mar. 1920.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 27 Feb. 1920.

West Window

The west window of the Hobart Historical Society museum.


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I thank heaven for artsy photos; they've saved me so much writing.

Studio Portrait with Non-Studio Artwork

From the Schavey envelope collection.


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Images courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Unidentified young couple, probably in a photographer's studio, to judge by the formal pose, blank background, and excellent lighting and focus.

I can't judge the date; I hope it isn't from the 1920s, because I just got through ranting about how much I hate 1920s fashions, and yet I love her dress. More specifically, I love those crazy, off-the-wall decorations on her dress.

Some unknown child has used the blank back to draw in pencil.



Too bad most of that artwork was lost to glue and an album page.

Embarrassment at the Bank

This ad appeared in Hobart High School's Aurora yearbook for 1919.
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

It was an ordinary business morning — Wednesday, January 25, 1920 — and in the Hobart Bank, cashier William Killigrew and assistant cashier Deering Melin were going about their ordinary business when an official from the state banking department walked in and told them to close their doors and suspend all business. The bank was under investigation.

The news came as a shock to the two men, as they had no reason to think anything was wrong. The state official explained that the Farmers' State Bank of Valparaiso had likewise just been closed, and there lay the problem: the two banks shared a principal owner, one William H. Gardner of Valparaiso — so it was a case of suspicion by association.

State officials' examination of the Valparaiso bank's books, begun earlier in the week, had turned up a shortfall of $200,000. Examiners believed that bank funds were being used in stock speculation. The Farmers' State Bank cashier, Henry Winneguth, openly confessed to the shortfall; as for President Gardner, he had nothing to say — he was nowhere to be found.

The news, and the shock, spread locally. William Killigrew published a notice in the News asking for Hobart Bank patrons' "patience and good will until matters [were] straightened out." The Gazette had this to say:

Wm. J. Killigrew, the cashier, has been connected with the Hobart bank for some ten years, and D.D. Melin, the assistant cashier, for the past eight years. They have always retained the confidence of the general public, and through this confidence the bank has grown nicely, much to the credit of these two young men and the town. The Hobart bank was established here as a private bank in 1884 by the present owner's father, and was counted as solid as any institution.

By Friday, Mr. Gardner had turned up and surrendered all his property — hundreds of shares of stock, including all his stock in the Hobart Bank, his "magnificent home and all its luxurious fixtures" and "half a dozen other pieces of property"; Cashier Winneguth had also surrendered his home and personal property. Between the value of those assets and "financial soundness of [the bank's] backers," by the end of the week the Farmers' State Bank failure was apparently headed for a happy ending.

Meanwhile, the Hobart Bank, with a shortage of $46,000, faced either a winding up of its affairs with a possible loss of 30 percent to depositors, or a reorganization that would allow it to continue business with no loss to depositors. On Sunday morning a number of depositors, determined to reorganize, gathered at the bank and worked out the details with the help of state banking examiners. Quickly ("in ten minutes," according to one report) depositors bought $50,000 worth of stock, more than making up the shortage. By Tuesday morning, the Hobart Bank was open for business again.

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Many of those involved in the reorganization are acquaintances of ours. The bank's new officers were William Stommel (president); John J. Wood (vice-president); William Killigrew (cashier); and Deering Melin (assistant cashier). Its directors were Calvin Shearer, Emil Scharbach, Sherman Henderson, John Stocker and John Hillman. All officers (except Deering Melin) and directors were shareholders; additional shareholders were Andrew Melin, Armin Mackeldey, Paul Emery, Fred Rose, Lawrence Traeger, Alex Boyd, John Killigrew, Philip Thompson, Harry Parker, Siegfried Baumer, Robert Scholler, and Simeon Bullock.


Sources:
♦ "Bank Shortage to Be Made Good by the Backers." Kokomo Daily Tribune 27 Feb. 1920. http://www.newspaperarchive.com (accessed 12/7/12).
♦ "Doors of Hobart Bank Closed Wednesday Morning." Hobart News 26 Feb. 1920.
♦ "Hobart Bank Closed Wednesday by State Officials." Hobart Gazette 27 Feb. 1920.
♦ "Hobart Bank Involved in Crash, Will Reopen." Elkhart Review 1 Mar. 1920. http://www.newspaperarchive.com (accessed 12/7/12).
♦ "Hobart Bank Opened Tuesday." Hobart Gazette 5 Mar. 1920.
♦ "Hobart Bank Opens Under Reorganization." Hobart News 4 Mar. 1920.
♦ "State Auditor Closes Up Two Indiana Banks." Kokomo Daily Tribune 26 Feb. 1920. http://www.newspaperarchive.com (accessed 12/7/12).
♦ "Two Indiana Banks Closed By Auditor Shortage $200,000." Logansport Daily Tribune 26 Feb. 1920. http://www.newspaperarchive.com (accessed 12/7/12).

A Well Dressed Visit

From the Schavey envelope collection.


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Images courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.



One unknown couple visited another unknown couple in an unknown place at an unknown time, and all that remains of that happy day are these two photos testifying that these people knew how to dress, even though (I'm guessing) this was in the 1920s.

I say "even though…" because (in my personal opinion) women's fashions of the 1920s were aggressively unflattering. Dropped waists and flat silhouettes looked just passable on the ideal women in the catalogs; in real life, on real women, they rarely looked anything but unfortunate, and the brimless, close-fitting "cloche" hat had all the charm of a rubber bathing cap. Men's fashions were less extreme, though you could find men of the 1920s making themselves ridiculous with golf apparel or "Oxford bags."

But here we see a woman (in the first photo, and at left in the second) wearing a dress that is classic — simple, well cut, tasteful. Where the devil did she find it, in the 1920s? Only by those two dark stripes at her hip do we find this natural-waisted dress acknowledging the currently fashionable point of emphasis.

The other woman, at right in the second photo, is a bit more trendy, but I think her ensemble would be flattering if it fit her better. She's got excess fabric between her arm and her waist.

And these well-turned-out people are standing in front of a mud-caked car. Perhaps they had to travel on country roads for this visit.

I love the side curtains on the car, and the brick-paved street.

Wild Mushrooms of Ainsworth: Elm Oysters

I want to believe that these are elm oysters, as opposed to oyster mushrooms, because I had already found oyster mushrooms. It's no fun finding mushrooms you've found before.


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That is a dead elm stump they're growing out of! (But elm oysters do not grow exclusively on elms.) Said elm stump is at the edge of my backyard. The mushrooms in the foreground are growing out of a cut in the trunk.

Here's a bunch of them that I pulled off another elm stump nearby, to see whether they had stems. I see stems, don't you? Not exactly statuesque, but … stems.



And gills. Pretty, huh?



Yet another shot, because — hey, why not?

Loom

Photos taken in the Hobart Historical Society museum. Exhibit: loom.

Here is an artsy photo of the threads. (It's artsy because I reduced the saturation and increased the contrast.)


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Here's what the loom looks like when it's not looking artsy.







I have only the vaguest theoretical notion of how to operate a loom. That notion includes a lot of work and a backache.