A Sunday-School Christmas Program circa 1873

From the Union Sunday School minute book that begins in 1873 come these notes on the letterhead of Mathew W. Jory, giving the program for a Christmas pageant.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The "Address by Superintendent" would probably be delivered by Mathew himself.

The names of the children performing, as best I can read them, are: Eva Harrison (can't identify); Louisa Black (b. ~1864 to Joseph and Catherine Black); Amelia Briggs (can't identify); Annie Gadsby (b. ~1869 to George and Sylvia Gadsby); Minnie Wadge (b. ~1867 to Richard and Electa Wadge); and Lillie Harrison (b. ~1870 to Thomas and Jennie Harrison). Was a three-year-old really performing in the pageant? — maybe this was more like 1875 or '76.

I wonder who dressed up as Santa Claus?

Lewis Hammond's Tavern

The 1979 collection of memories about downtown Hobart that forms the basis of my Downtown Hobart 1979 blog includes the assertion that at some unspecified time in Hobart's history, a man named Lewis Hammond ran a tavern on the site of the Hobart library. I would have been delighted to find evidence of that in the ledgers I've been indexing, but so far all I can establish is that a Lewis Hammond ran a tavern in Liverpool.

First we find him, in October 1847, renting a house in Liverpool from George Earle.


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Images courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

In November of that year, he paid the rent for a tavern in Liverpool.



Throughout that ledger, Lewis shows up here and there, paying rent — or buying big sacks of flour, as he did on March 15, 1848:



The daybook of the Hobart sawmill records him making numerous purchases of lumber throughout 1848 and 1849. This page shows him buying lumber on May 10, 1849; and the "L. Hammond" of May 5 is probably our Lewis as well.



The latest reference I have found in the ledgers to Lewis Hammond (full name) is October 1849; to "L. Hammond," December 1849. There's also an entry in April 1850 that shows I. Wheeler paying money on a Hammond account that may or may not have been Lewis'.

Naturally I went to Ancestry.com to try to find some background on Lewis Hammond, but background on him is remarkably scarce. I can't identify him positively in any local records.

The 1850 Census of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has an interesting entry:


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Image from Ancestry.com

Could that be our tavernkeeper? — an inmate of the Allegheny County jail?

Mary Munch's Moonshine

When Mary Munch was caught with a still back in February 1923, she had claimed it wasn't hers. Seven months later, caught with two stills and 15 gallons of moonshine, she apparently didn't think anyone would buy the same story.


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Hobart Gazette, Oct. 19, 1923.

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In the "Local Drifts" column above, we find a couple of locals leaving the countryside to become town dwellers.

While we've encountered the name Hooseline in several "South of Deep River" columns, I've looked into the family only in connection with the suicide of John's father-in-law. But looking a little more closely now, I gather that John's father, Michael Hooseline, came into this area with his parents (Michael Sr. and Rebecca) sometime between John's birth in 1842 (Maryland) and the 1860 Census of Union Township, Porter County.[1] By the 1870 Census, Michael Jr. had married Laura Tabor and moved to Ross Township, Lake County. Our John was born in the south-of-Deep-River countryside in 1871. The 1874 Plat Map shows the "Hooseline & Tabor" farm straddling Randolph Street at the divide between Ross and Winfield Townships, but from the 1891 Plat Book on, I can't find any land under the Hooseline name in Ross Township.

Here is John Hooseline's obituary from 1944:


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Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso), Feb. 28, 1944.

The article fails to mention John's first wife, Rhoda Smith, whom he married in 1896. Rhoda was the daughter of Homer and Rachel Smith, although the 1880 Census doesn't list her (unless she is the "Rudie" whom the enumerator called a son; the birth dates match). Rhoda bore John Hooseline two sons, Harold and Hubert/Herbert (1900 Census), and died in 1902. In 1904 John married Emma Carbein Phillips. Their children were Kenneth and Velma (1910 Census, 1930 Census).


The other country-dweller getting out of the country was Simon Small, of Small's Crossing. From what I can find in the census and death records, he was a son of John and Mary (Riley) Small; odd that he wasn't mentioned in Mary's obituary. His children were all by his first wife, Cora Deardoff, whom he married in 1883 (Indiana Marriage Collection) and who died in 1902. He married his second wife, Anna Bean, in 1906 in Cook County, Illinois, where he may have been living already, as he was in the 1910 Census and 1920 Census. Apparently he moved back to Small's Crossing after 1920 just to leave it a few years later.

Here's his obit from 1945:


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Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso), Nov. 20, 1945.

I wonder if this leaves any Smalls at Small's Crossing? The Union Township plat maps shows that the old Small farm changed its name between 1921 and 1928.

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[1] That's assuming the enumerator made an error in recording John's age.

Threshing Circa 1919

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Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

There is no date on this photograph. I'm guessing at roughly 1919 based two things: first, the tractor is an International Harvester Titan 10-20, a model produced between 1915 and 1921 according to online information.

Secondly, the men in the photo are named on the back …



… and the three I've been able to identify lived in the vicinity of the Sela Smith farm in Ross Township, where Eva Thompson (who gave the photo to Eldon Harms, who let me scan it) moved with her family in 1918.

Spade was the Americanized spelling of the German name Spaeth. Richard was born in 1874 to Edward and Alvina Spaeth (1900 Census). In 1897 he married Minnie Keiser (Indiana Marriage Collection). The Spaeth family lived and farmed on the west side of Clay Street at 83rd Avenue.

Albert Wilier, I'm willing to bet, was actually Albert Weiler.

Gust Kaiser is a mystery to me at this point. It seems possible that he was related to Mrs. Richard Spade, née Minnie Keiser, whom I think I've found in Hanover Township, Lake County, in the 1880 Census, but I can't find a brother or other relative of hers named Gust (August).

We've met Harry Sullivan before; he was Arthur's brother.

We Tried to Warn You

In spite of the new warning signs and the trimming of corn and hedge at the dangerous crossing of the Lincoln Highway south of Ainsworth, another wreck happened there early in October 1923. But this time, no one died.


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Hobart Gazette, Oct. 5, 1923.

This is the first I've heard of "Dr. Willard Smith, the Winfield veterinarian," and I can't identify him exactly. The 1920 Census of Winfield Township shows a "Williard" Smith farming there, with two sons who are veterinarians (Harvey and Walter), but none who is an auctioneer.

Zobjeck Mystery Photos

From descendants of Hugo and Mary (Kucaba) Zobjeck, we have received digital images of three photographs that are largely a mystery. The originals, I'm told, are about 5" x 7" on heavy black cardstock without photographer identification.

The first is the only one we know anything about. We know that the man second from the right is Hugo Zobjeck, Sr.


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We also know (thanks to a local vintage-car expert) that the vehicle is a "high wheel pick up truck, circa 1909," likely made by International Harvester although some other companies produced similar vehicles.

These fellows seem to be ready for a parade, perhaps on Independence Day, with all those flags and bunting. I don't see anything in the background to help us place this photo.


We know absolutely nothing about this next photo.



I will only say that the man in the black bowtie, in front, looks like the man standing second from the left (dark shirt) in the first photo.


The people in this last photo are too far away to be identified. The setting looks reasonably like Lake George, of course, but with no helpful smokestacks, bridges, or buildings in the background, I'm not going to jump to that conclusion.

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.