First Installment of Ledger Index

I have finished indexing one ledger, so I have added a new page over there on the right with the beginning of the index.

Some Guy On an Aermotor Windmill

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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

This man could be Roney Sauter's saner cousin — I don't know; he is not identified. But the photo was among Eva Thompson's, so he may be a Thompson.

Eldon Harms told me that the windmill on the old Harms homestead was 65 feet tall, and when he was a kid he'd once had to climb the ladder like the guy in the photo — and then climb out onto an arm, too — to retrieve a kite tangled up in the framing.

To my surprise, the Aermotor Co. is still in business. Here is a video of a 1935 Aermotor windmill in action.

Ice Storms of Ainsworth

Here's an artsy photo to commemorate the Great Ice Storm of '17.


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… OK, it wasn't that great.

John George Hoffman

John Hoffman came into Ross Township without so much as clothes on his back, and left it as the owner of four farms.


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Hobart Gazette 17 Nov. 1922.

We've already found one of his farms, in northeastern Ross Township: one-time home of the Sonntags, later owned by son Henry.

I'm not sure what counts as a farm, but the 1908 Plat Map seems to show five Hoffman farms just in the Turkey Creek area. But perhaps "J.G." wasn't John George.


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Blogging Break

My desktop had a breakdown and is in the hospital. I'm taking a break.

George with Scates

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Handwritten notes on the back of the original identify this young fellow as "George with scates" — no other information. Evidently this boy loved ice-skating.

The photographer being A. Haase, we can date the photo to sometime between late 1902 and 1913.

The Hobart area was crawling with young Georges during the first decade of the twentieth century, so I'm not even going to guess at his surname.

The painted backdrop looks similar to the one we've seen behind a couple of baseball players, which suggests they too might have been photographed by A. Haase. But I can't see enough of the backdrop to say whether it's identical, and again, we haven't answered the question whether such a backdrop would likely be unique.

There Goes Charles Peterson

Here and there in my notes there will be a name that I've come across in my reading in connection with the Ainsworth area, and without understanding who that person was, I just catalog the reference and leave it up to chance that I will eventually come across something to enlighten me. In this case it was the announcement that Charles Peterson was leaving Ainsworth forever that enlightened me.


Hobart Gazette 17 Nov. 1922.

In this item we learn that he lived on the Halsted farm south of Ainsworth:


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Hobart Gazette 17 Nov. 1922.

And where might that be? This image from the 1926 Plat Book shows a farm south of Ainsworth owned by Barbara Halsted:*


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The 1908 Plat Map shows that land owned by Barbara's husband, W.O. Halsted.

As you can see, the Halsted farm is conveniently near the farm of Frank Peterson. A brief item in a later Gazette[1] tell us that Frank was Charles' brother. So was John Peterson of Hobart. Charles had come into the area in 1885 with his parents and resided locally ever since. But now he was leaving Indiana for Illinois, and farming for carpentry — a transition that stuck, apparently, as I can find him carpentering in Rockford, Illinois, through the 1940 Census.

You will notice I have highlighted the name Bragington, east of the Halsted and Peterson farms. I did that because the earliest mention of Charles in my notes has him repairing buildings on the "old Bragington farm" in 1910.[2] In January 1911, we come upon this:

Antone Peterson who has lived upon and operates the Bragington farm south of Ainsworth for the past eight years has decided to move back to Chicago next spring. He will dispose of his personal property at public sale. His brother Chas. the carpenter who lives upon the same farm contemplates moving to Hobart to reside.[3]

So there was another Peterson brother.

It seems Charles did indeed leave the Bragington farm, as he rented the "H. Scholler cottage on East street" in Hobart.[4]. The next time Charles and family show up in my notes is in February 1918, when they are again living "south of Ainsworth,"[5] which may have referred to the Halsted farm.

And now Charles and family are leaving, and the Halsted farm is being rented by S.E. Bowman. Who S.E. Bowman is, I don't know, but I hope eventually to come across something that will enlighten me.

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Let's look at the Gazette page from November 1922 that contained Charles Peterson's public sale notice — it includes a couple of other interesting (to me) things …


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Hobart Gazette 17 Nov. 1922.

… regular Wednesday night dances at Deepriver Hall (which may have been the former schoolhouse), evidently well enough attended that it was worth Clarence Howell's (who??) time to operate bus service between Hobart and the hall.

(And below the dance item, another mention of the old Lutz house's new life.)

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[1] "Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette 1 Dec. 1922.
[2] "Ainsworth Pick-Ups," Hobart Gazette 24 June 1910.
[3] "Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette 20 Jan. 1911. The third brother's name also shows up spelled "Anthon" (e.g., "PublicSale," Hobart Gazette 3 Feb. 1911).
[4] "Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette 17 Feb. 1911.
[5] "Births," Hobart News 21 Feb. 1918.