Fred and his Fire Truck

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Images courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Two views of Fred Rose, Sr., and the Hobart Fire Department's fire truck. Notes on the back of one of them read:

Fire Station at Fourth Street and Lake George. Fred Rose, Senior became town fire marshal and town marshal in 1901, becoming fire chief and chief of police when Hobart became a city in 1921. In 1936 the jobs were split and Rose retained the fire chief post until 1941.

In the top picture, in the background at left you can see what I believe is the Nickel Plate bridge over Lake George, which gives you some idea of where this fire station was.

Neither picture is dated, but this is probably Hobart's first fire truck. From the Hobart Fire Department's 50th anniversary program:

Proud indeed was the city of Hobart when the American LaFrance 500 gallon pumper engine was purchased in 1920. This truck is used today [1943] as an auxiliary to the American LaFrance 750 gallon pumper and booster tank streamlined truck which the city bought in 1940.

If this is that first truck, the photos must date between 1920 and (probably) 1940; judging by Fred's clothes and apparent age, I would put the first one closer to 1920 (Fred was then 53 years old), the second perhaps 10 or 15 years later.

I don't doubt he was proud of that fire truck; in his place, I would have been, too.

Raymond

[continued from here]


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Gust Lindborg's draft registration card from September 1918. Image from WWI Draft Cards.

Back in Ainsworth, Gust Lindborg's blacksmith shop was doing well, and he continued to make a little extra money renting out his dance hall for special events — including monthly meetings of the Ainsworth milk producers, and the wedding reception when the Baesslers' daughter, Emily, married Henry Schultz.

Life in the Lindborg home seems to have gone in its usual way — quietly busy — in spite of the war excitement. The blacksmith who kept the farm machines in working order played a part in the agricultural production that had become so vital to the war effort, and with a wife and four small children dependent on him, Gust could hope for leniency from the draft board.

But disease cares nothing for dependents. In late January 1918 Gust developed appendicitis. His case was so acute that he was taken to a hospital in Valparaiso (probably Christian Hospital) and underwent surgery there. For several days he lay dangerously ill. Anna Lindborg no doubt tried to put on a brave face for the children, but she had all the more reason to be frightened as she was then nearly five months' pregnant with their fifth child.

The danger passed, however; Gust began to mend, and by February 1 the Gazette could report that he was "doing nicely." Anna breathed a sigh of relief; Gust came home; life picked up where it had left off.

In April the Lindborg dance hall was the scene of a "box social and entertainment" intended to raise money to buy a Victrola — for whom, the report did not say.

And then the Lindborgs dropped out of the news for over a month. The next news we hear is good: on June 12, 1918, Anna gave birth to a baby boy. He would be named Raymond.

To 11-year-old Mildred, her new baby brother must have seemed like a living doll. About a decade later, she put together a little album of family photos, all captioned by hand in gold ink. The album included a photo of Raymond as a toddler — perhaps two years old — and the special attention Mildred gave that photo hints at how she doted on the little boy:


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Image from a private collection.

"Waiting patiently" — "School" — "The rag-pickers" — "Don't cry" — family in-jokes, probably, of the kind we've all developed out of the silly little things said by and to children we love.

The Lindborg family was now complete, although of course they didn't know it.


Sources:
♦ "Ainsworth Farmers Elect Officers." Hobart Gazette 26 Jan. 1917.
♦ "Births." Hobart Gazette 14 June 1918.
♦ "Births." Hobart News 13 June 1918.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 18 Apr. 1918.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 1 Feb. 1918.
♦ "Schultz-Baessler Nuptial." Hobart Gazette 20 Apr. 1917.

Hobart Fire Department Racing Team

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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

No names attached to this photo. No date, either, but the mounting board is embossed: "A. Haase/Hobart, Ind." August Haase operated a photo studio in Hobart from late 1902 through 1911 (perhaps a little into 1912, I'm not sure).

We learned from the history written for the department's 50th anniversary that in the early days, when a team of horses "was not handy" the firemen themselves had to pull the equipment, so, although this occasion looks festive (maybe part of a July 4 celebration?), there were times when they weren't racing for fun.

I can't identify the location. It looks quite civilized, with a nice sidewalk or footpath beside the road. There's a house in the far background, but I don't recognize it.

Female Alien Enemies

After the February 1918 registration of all male "alien enemies", the federal government extended that requirement to females, fixing the ten days beginning June 17 as the window for completing the process. In its final May issue, the Gazette reminded its women readers of the upcoming deadline.

The requirements are the same as they were for the men. Besides filling out the questionnaire, finger prints must be made, and each registrant must furnish the postmaster three* late pictures of herself. This order embraces the wives of all German aliens; all unmarried women over 14 years of age who were born in Germany, provided their father was or is unnaturalized; all women, whether they were born in Germany or America, if they are married to a German alien.

That was this difference between the men and the women: "the wife takes automatically the civil status of her husband," and the unmarried woman, I gather, took the civil status of her father.

♦    ♦    ♦
The Gazette's June 14 issue reported on the case of Henry Wolf, a 61-year-old naturalized German immigrant and a justice of the peace in Laporte County, who had just received a two-year sentence in federal court. Wolf, who was alleged to have said that he was "doing more good for the Kaiser than any other man in his neighborhood," was convicted of "irregularities in making out questionnaires for men subject to conscription."

This case is notable for the remarks by the sentencing judge. The Gazette identified him only as "Judge Anderson"; I believe he was the jurist of whom one historian has said that "few federal judges displayed judicial insensitivity and intransigence more boldly than Indiana's U.S. District Court Judge Albert B. Anderson." If so, then the judge was in typical form in Henry Wolf's case, as reported by the Gazette:

"I sometimes wonder if any of your people (meaning Germans) are square with the United States," Judge Anderson declared before sentencing Wolf. "You are like a good many others. When you read a paper, you either smile or frown, according to who is looking at you. Some of you people take out citizenship with a string attached to it."

_________________________________
*The News said four photographs were required.


Sources:
♦ "Alien Women Must Register." Hobart Gazette 31 May 1918.
♦ "All German Alien Women Must Register June 17 to 26." Hobart News 6 June 1918.
♦ Tuohy, Martin. "Interurban Railroaders and Changing Work Conditions on the South Shore Line, 1908-1938." Indiana Historical Society. Web. http://www2.indianahistory.org/ihs_press/web_publications/railroad/tuohy.html (accessed 8 Mar. 2011).
♦ "Wanatah Justice Gets Prison Sentence." Hobart Gazette 14 June 1918.

Bird's-Eye View of Hobart, 1901

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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

This bird's-eye view, probably taken from the top of the water tower, is dated 1901 so it's probably about 16 years older than the similar one I posted earlier. This is a large file, but it's worth it. The laundry hanging on the lines! The backyard privies! The scrap piles! The windmill behind that building on Main Street! The white horse in motion in the foreground! Not to mention the acres and acres of open fields on the west side of Lake George.

Notice the bell between the white frame building and the white frame house just below the center of the scene — that was the fire alarm bell. (And doesn't that white frame building resemble the Red Front building I was wondering about … just with some 13 years' worth of remodeling? On the other hand, it's not very distinctive — anyone, anytime could throw up a building like that.)

Where Main Street runs off the right edge of the photo, I think that's the original St. Bridget's Church, the original frame church that was eventually replaced by the second one (seen in this post), which was then replaced by the present one. Am I right?

A Flag for Company K

For their home-grown militia, the proud residents of the Hobart area had raised $80 to buy a company flag. They chose the E.A. Armstrong Mfg. Co. of Chicago as the supplier. In the latter part of May 1918, the flag and its accoutrements were delivered to Hobart. The Gazette described the outfit in some detail:

"[The flag] is composed of the finest banner silk, grown in America, but hand loomed in France, the best that money can buy for the size. The size is U.S. regulation, 4.4 feet by 5.6 feet. The outfit comprises, besides the flag, a jointed ash staff, nickeled, a rain cover, a dust cover and a leather belt.

Awaiting Decoration Day and its formal presentation to Company K, Herman Pflughoeft put the flag on display in the window of his furniture store. Hundreds of people came by to look at it.

Undoubtedly, Decoration Day had special significance this year, with the war raging overseas, 100 Hobart-area men in the service and one dead, and the war-related worries, shortages, work and drives overshadowing every waking moment (and many dreaming moments, too, I'm sure).

The town was preparing for its ceremonies and parade. The team of C.C. Shearer and Marshal Fred Rose, Sr., who had served so well for the Liberty Loan parade, would once again be in charge for the day. Although Company K's officers had already received their state-supplied uniforms, the rank and file had not; Captain Charles Reeves and First Lieutenant Walter MacPherson investigated the situation and learned that the men's uniforms were languishing in storage in Indianapolis, with no hope of delivery before the big event. On May 28 the two officers hopped aboard a train bound for the capital, intending to take matters into their own hands.

In fact, they managed to bring back enough uniforms to outfit most of the men. When Decoration Day finally arrived, Company K "presented a fine appearance," largely in uniform and shouldering rifles.

Early-morning rain clouds had cleared away by 9:45, when the flag ceremony took place near the school on Fourth Street, in the presence of the assembled parade participants and spectators. Seven "old soldiers" (probably Civil War veterans) had carried the flag to the site. At Captain Reeves' command, Company K assembled itself. Town board president James Carpenter took the flag from the old soldiers and, with a brief speech of presentation, handed it to Company K's color-bearer, Robert Roper.

The parade then formed itself and began marching. Everyone who was not in the parade was standing on the sidewalks, watching. In the lead were Marshal of the Day C.C. Shearer and his assistant, Marshal Fred Rose; then came the Commercial Club band, playing its heart out; then Company K, with its new flag gleaming in the sunshine, and the "old soldiers"; they were followed by wreath-bearing girls, boy scouts, members of the Order of the Eastern Star, a crowd of schoolchildren, and, finally, ordinary citizens driving autos.

The column wound its way to the Hobart Cemetery and stopped. N.P. Banks came forward to conduct the ceremonies honoring the Civil War veterans who lay there — 48 of them, according to the News. General John Logan's Memorial Day Order was read, wreaths were laid on the veterans' graves, and Company K shouldered its rifles and solemnly fired off three volleys.

Afterward the parade re-formed and marched back to the schoolhouse. People crowded into the auditorium to hear a speech on war events, a reading of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and patriotic songs.

In the afternoon, Company K took its new uniforms and flag to march in the parade at Gary.

I do not know what has become of the flag.


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The Roll of Honor as it appeared in the Hobart Gazette of May 17, 1918.

♦    ♦    ♦
On June 10, Reeves and MacPherson, along with Second Lieutenant Franklin Fetterer and Captain Dwight Mackey, M.D., once again departed for Indianapolis, this time to attend officers' training school. (The Sunday before they left, Company K's baseball team played a game against the East Gary team. History does not record who among Company K served on the team, nor the outcome of that game.)

The officers returned from Indianapolis on June 12 to report what Governor James Goodrich had told them:

The governor addressed the officers and intimated that owing to the serious Mexican troubles it would probably be only a matter of a brief period until the state troops would be asked to volunteer for border service and in the event of war with that country where 400 German officers are in active service, the state would be asked to raise an army for government defense. If Mexico places a chip on her shoulder, United States would be compelled to brush it off, and she would.

But for the moment Company K's greatest concern was its third fund-raising dance, scheduled for June 15 in Odd Fellows' Hall. All the men who had uniforms were to wear them to the dance, to "give the affair a military bearing." A military bearing was just what people wanted these days.


Sources:
♦ "Capt. Reeves and Lieut. McPherson Go After Uniforms." Hobart News 30 May 1918.
♦ "Company K Notes." Hobart Gazette 7 June 1918.
♦ "Decoration Day Patriotically Observed in Hobart." Hobart News 6 June 1918.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 6 June 1918; 13 June 1918.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 17 May 1918; 31 May 1918; 7 June 1918; 14 June 1918.
♦ "Memorial Day Observance." Hobart Gazette 7 June 1918.
♦ "Militia Flag Has Arrived." Hobart Gazette 24 May 1918.

Hazard Halsted "in the Car Sales and Service"

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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The title of this post is how the notes identify this photo. No date. A Wikipedia article says that the Jewett Six was manufactured between 1922 and 1926.

No location given. I'm not even sure this was Hazard's own shop, or if he was just moonlighting from his barbering, or taking a break from it, or what.