The Lost Cemetery of Ainsworth Road

This post is based on research by local historian Michael White, who first pieced together the bits of information from various sources that pointed to an unaccounted-for old cemetery in Ross Township along with its general location. He was kind enough to clue me in.


The Rev. T.H. Ball, our legendary Lake County historian, in 1872[1] compiled a list of all the cemeteries he knew of in each township in the county. In the list for Ross Township, he included six cemeteries, five of which clearly correspond to ones we can identify today and can find in the Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society's Ross Township Cemeteries. But one item in Ball's list is a puzzler:

An old burial place near the Wilkinson Ford of Deep River, from which some bodies have been removed, but where many yet remain. This old spot is now part of a cultivated field. It seems a pity that the little ground required to receive the dust of human forms may not remain undisturbed. This spot ought yet to be rescued from the plowshire [sic], consecrated, as it has been, by the burial of old settlers; or the human remains there resting should be removed to a quiet cemetery which is sacred to repose.

Elsewhere in the same book, in listing early settlers of Lake County in the 1830s, Ball says: "The third family arriving was that of Robert Wilkinson, who settled on Deep River, where the only ford known in early times was situated."[2] (I have previously discussed my reasons for thinking that Ainsworth Road was part of the old Sauk Trail, predating white settlement. The indigenous people may have established the trail because there was a natural ford in the Deep River where Ainsworth Road crosses it — a natural ford that the white settlers would then have used as they trickled in along the trail during the 1830s.)

In another of his books, Ball tells us that in the 1830s a bridge "across Deep River at B. Wilkinson's crossing near the Porter county line [was] built by Amsi L. Ball, cost[ing] four hundred dollars."[3] So far we've heard only of Robert Wilkinson; who was B. Wilkinson? To find that out we have to turn to the "History of Lake County, 1833 – 1847" by Solon Robinson, as printed in 1929:[4]

The first family that came after Childers and myself [Solon Robinson] was that of Robert Wilkinson, (at the place where his brother Benijah now lives on Deep River; at that time, the only known crossing place.) He settled about the last of November, 1834. … Wilkinson lived a few years where he settled, when he moved off and his brother took his place.

So "B." stands for Benijah — or, as it is sometimes written, Benajah — and he succeeded his brother Robert on the settlement near the ford of the Deep River.[5]

Robinson's account includes, among a list of bridges built in 1837, a bridge "across Deep River at Benajah Wilkinson's [built] by A. L. Ball, for $400, besides several smaller ones, by means of the 3 per cent fund."[6]

Goodspeed and Blanchard's 1882 county history also mentions this $400 bridge built by A.L. Ball, and specifies that it was in "Section 16, Township 35, Range 7."[7]

Here is that section as it appears on the 1874 plat map:[8]


(Click on image to enlarge)

The only road that crossed the Deep River in Section 16 was Ainsworth Road, aka the old Sauk Trail.

Incidentally, Goodspeed and Blanchard tell us that in 1837 three township trustees were appointed for Twp. 35, Range 7 (Ross Township): John Wood, whom everybody knows; Robert Wilkinson; and William Hodson (whose orphaned sons I believe we've already met).[9] So Robert Wilkinson was still in Ross Township some three years after settling there.

The only early land purchase record I could find pertaining to the Wilkinson brothers and Section 16 shows Benajah buying 38 acres described as "Part Lot No. 5" on July 27, 1840.[10] That may have been the year Robert moved on.

Benajah appears in the 1840 census for the Ross Township area of Lake County;[11] his brother does not.


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

In August of 1849, Benajah Wilkinson died.


(Click on image to enlarge — a bit; sorry about the quality)
Image from Indiana State Library Digital Collections, U.S. Census Mortality Schedule for Indiana, 1850, Counties L-Z.

There is now no record of where he was buried. I am willing to bet that it was in the lost Wilkinson cemetery.

The 1850 census shows his widow, Prudence, and her children still in Ross Township.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image from Ancestry.com. Evidently the family was in Michigan in 1836 when their daughter, Electa, was born. The first of their children to be a native Hoosier was born in 1839.

Sometime after that they left Indiana.[12] Prudence died in 1885 in Minnesota.

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So where, exactly, is the lost cemetery? It was somewhere along Ainsworth Road, near the Deep River — but how near? which side of the road? which side of the river? I'm thinking that it would probably be on the west side of the river, because on the east side there is a long stretch of river bottom that often floods — but further east the land rises again, and we're back to not knowing how T.H. Ball measured his "near the Wilkinson Ford of Deep River."

It's just possible that his lament about plowing over consecrated ground might have spurred action. I have done a little searching in the on-line newspapers from 1873 onward for any story about relocating the remaining bodies from the Wilkinson cemetery, but I have found nothing.

Some of the land where the cemetery could possibly be now belongs to the Lake County Parks Department. In the years that I have lived here, I have spent many hours walking my dogs all over that land without ever seeing any evidence whatsoever of a cemetery — and, believe me, I am always on the lookout for interesting artifacts in the underbrush.

I suppose this will have to be one of the mysteries of Ainsworth.

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[1] T.H. Ball, Lake County, Indiana, from 1834 to 1872 (Chicago: J.W. Goodspeed, 1873). The Ross Township burial places are listed at pp. 139-140.
[2] Ibid., p. 26.
[3] T.H. Ball, Encyclopedia of Genealogy and Biography of Lake County, Indiana, with a Compendium of History 1834 – 1904 (Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1904) (hereinafter, "Lake County Encyclopedia"), p. 10.
[4] Lake County Historical Association (John O. Bowers, Arthur G. Taylor, and Sam B. Woods, eds.), History of Lake County, Vol. 10 (Gary, Ind.: Calumet Press, 1929) (hereinafter, "Lake County, Vol. 10"). Solon Robinson's "Lake County, 1833 – 1847" starts on p. 35.
[5] Research on Robert Wilkinson is complicated by the fact that there were two early settlers by that name; in Ball's discussion in Lake County Encyclopedia at pp. 2-3 he mentions both, apparently distinguishing them. The one we're concerned with settled on Deep River for a short time, then gave his farm over to his brother and disappeared from history; the other settled in West Creek Township, and since he was more prominent in society and politics, more is written about him.
[6] Lake County, Vol. 10, p. 48.
[7] Weston A. Goodspeed and Charles Blanchard (eds.), Counties of Porter and Lake Indiana. Historical and Biographical. Illustrated (Chicago: F.A. Battey & Co., 1882), p. 422.
[8] Hardesty's Sectional Map of Lake Co. Indiana (Chicago: Rufus Blanchard, n.d. (the map's date is estimated at circa 1874)).
[9] Goodspeed and Blanchard at p. 421.
[10] Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society, Early Land Sales and Purchases, Lake County, Indiana, 1837 – 1857 (Valparaiso: Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society, 2006), p. 41.
[11] Yes, his name is written as "Benjamin," and no, the census does not specify the township, but among his neighbors are John Wood and some of the people who appeared in the NWIGS' listing of 1840s land purchases for Section 16, Twp. 35 N, Range 7 W.
[12] On Ancestry.com, I have found some records of Prudence Wilkinson buying land in Minnesota in 1860, but I cannot find the family in the 1860 census.

"A Very Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year"

A greeting card from one friend to another in Hobart, sometime around (I'm guessing) 1944.


(Click on images to enlarge)



If we unfold the card, we find that Margaret wrote her friend a longer message:



The recipient was Lowell Eugene Enslen.



No stamp, no helpful postmark (it may have been hand-delivered or sent inside a package). It appears that Lowell and his family lived in Gary through the 1940 Census, and I haven't been able to place him in Hobart except from 1943 (when he appears in the Hobart High School Aurora yearbook), through 1947 (per his draft registration card dated February 3, 1947; also the Enslens are listed in Hobart in my 1947 directory). He graduated from Hobart High School in 1945, where he was voted the most humorous boy:



By 1950 he was living in Valparaiso, attending the university there.

Who was Margaret? She never included her last name, and the envelope had no return address. My best guess is Margaret "Maggie" Pearson, who signed Lowell's 1945 Aurora yearbook:



I think the handwriting looks similar.

Concerning Lowell Enslen's life and careers, you can find information and photos at his entry on findagrave.com.

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I don't know much about greeting card styles. From the looks of this one, I would have guessed anywhere from the 1930s through the 1950s. I'm posting this scan of the back of the card in case anyone can find out anything from the little characters in the lower right-hand corner. I already tried and failed.

Daddy's First Church, and Daddy's Subsequent Career

After my recent post about the Deep River church history, I decided to dig out a postcard that I have been ignoring ever since I bought it a couple years ago because dealing with it would require research, and I'm lazy.

Here it is:


(Click on image to enlarge)



I thought it would take a long time to identify pastors of the Deep River church, especially a neophyte who served there circa 1918 as his first church. I was wrong.

Just a little bit of searching in the on-line newspapers turned up a Deep River pastor who apparently started at that church around May 1916 (at least, that was the first mention of him I could find):


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Porter County Vidette (Valparaiso, Ind.), 17 May 1916.

And that was not a one-time appearance. The local social columns in the Porter County Vidette continued throughout 1916 and into the spring of 1917 to report the Rev. Gerald Smith preaching at the Deep River church and being entertained at local homes.[1]

In this March 1917 account of a church-related box social, we learn that the Rev. Smith's mother lived in Viroqua, Wisconsin:


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Porter County Vidette (Valparaiso, Ind.), 14 Mar. 1917.

In mid-May of 1917, the Rev. Smith gave notice that he was resigning as pastor of the Deep River church …


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Porter County Vidette (Valparaiso, Ind.), 16 May 1917.

… but he continued to act in that capacity for a few more weeks, at least:


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Porter County Vidette (Valparaiso, Ind.), 13 June 1917.


So I, in my innocence, typed "Gerald L.K. Smith" into my Google search and … oh, dear. How is it that I never heard of him before?

A brief biography appears on Wikipedia. An Indiana website mentions Deep River among his earliest preaching experiences; apparently it was, in fact, "Daddy's first church." He has written books and had books written about him, some still available to buy on Amazon.com.

He died in 1976. Here is one of many obituaries that were printed in newspapers across the U.S.:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Miami Herald, 17 Apr. 1976.
(The year of his marriage it wrong: it was actually 1922.)

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Photographs of Gerald L.K. Smith abound on the internet, mostly from later in his career. The earliest I could find was this, from 1926, when he served as pastor of an Indianapolis church:


Image from the Indiana Album, Joan Hostetler Collection.

Here is a later photo (undated).


Image from https://www.4029tv.com/article/arkansas-presidential-candidates/43698269.

Let us go back to the postcard above and take a better look at the young man standing at the left end of the back row:


(Click on image to enlarge)

Is that the same person as in the two photos above? I don't know. I have run these photos through three free on-line facial comparison programs; two said these photos are all the same person, a third said they are not.

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And now let's look at the notes on the back of the postcard.

"Daddy's first church" was written during the ballpoint-pen era — that is, after World War II. The handwriting looks, to me, like a woman's.

The notes in red pencil may be the Rev. Smith's own writing, but I have failed to locate an on-line specimen to compare. I think these notes were written some time after the photo was taken. I imagine that Gerald Smith and his wife, Elna, were going through some of his old things and making notes for the benefit of posterity.[2] Thus, Gerald Sr.'s memory might have been a little off about the year.[3]

I had heard, of course, about the Moody Bible Institute and Moody Church of Chicago; what I did not know of, prior to researching this postcard, was the Moody connection to Cedar Lake, Indiana. In the timeframe of this postcard, one or both of those institutions held classes and events at Cedar Lake, eventually purchasing the former Monon Park for that purpose.

Here is a sampling of local articles about Moody events at Cedar Lake from 1916 to 1919:


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Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 24 Jan. 1916.


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"Lowell," Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 28 June 1917.



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Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 27 June 1919.


The point of this Cedar-Lake discursion is that I suspect our postcard photo was taken at a Moody event there. The group in the photo is standing in wooded grounds, and the autos behind them suggest they drove there (as opposed to taking a train, as they might have for a Chicago event). While I have failed to turn up, in the on-line newspapers, any specific mention of Deep River church members attending such an event with the Rev. Gerald Smith, they may have done it without publicity.

That would have been a bit unusual, though, wouldn't it? I think the Rev. Smith himself was responsible for so many items about the Deep River Church making their way into the local papers — after he left, the church seems to have dropped from the columns of the on-line papers to such an extent that I can't even find out who succeeded him as pastor there.


But at this point my laziness kicks in again. I'm pretty sure I have identified who "Daddy" was, and I've come up with a plausible hypothesis about the photo on the postcard. Anyone who wants more research done can do it themselves.

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[1] For example, the "Driftwood from Deepriver" columns of 24 May 1916, 21 June 1916, 12 July 1916, 16 Aug. 1916; and the "Southeast Ross" columns of 8 Nov. 1916, 22 Nov. 1916, 17 Jan. 1917, 11 Apr. 1917.
[2] They had one child, an adopted son named Gerald Jr., but as far as I have been able to find out Gerald Jr. left no surviving children.
[3] Nothing about either the fashions or the automobiles says exclusively 1918 or later.

A Very Short History of the Deep River Church

I came across this article in the May 14, 1975 issue of the Hobart Gazette about the Christian Church of Deep River, whose original building is now the Deep River County Park visitors' center.


(Click on image to enlarge)

It's interesting that the old-timers of 1975 did not remember Contractor Abel, unless he was one of the volunteers mentioned. But I believe he and his family belonged to the German Lutheran Church in Hobart, so it isn't likely that he was volunteering his services to the Deep River church.

The article does me a favor by explaining the "Willing Workers," as I was unclear about its origin. I have seen that ladies' aid society mentioned numerous times in the early 20th-century newspapers (for example, a 1922 social column previously posted announced their fund-raising sale and supper). The earliest such mention I can find in my notes was in June 1906,[1] so I guess the 1975 old-timers' memories were off by just one year. Which is remarkably good.

I only wish the article were clearer about the location of the dance hall!


The photo of the Sunday School class includes some familiar names as well as some I have scarcely looked into.

Mrs. Flora Maxwell, presumably the Sunday-School teacher, had been born into an old Ross Township family, the Sturtevants, and had married Douglas Maxwell. Thus Olive Maxwell, in the first row, was her stepdaughter.

We already know of Philip Waldeck and his untimely death. Through his mother, he was a cousin of Clarence Maybaum ("Maybawm" is a mistake).

George Casbon, born in 1897, was a child of Thomas and Ella Casbon[2] and lived in a brick house on the north side of what is now 73rd Avenue (later owned by the Buchfuehrers).

Raymond Wood was the son of William and Martha Wood, and a great-grandson of John and Hannah, who founded the village of Deep River. The "Ford agency in town" mentioned in the article was run by William and Raymond.

Floyd Yager was born in 1897 to George and Anna. The extended Yager clan has already furnished considerable material for this blog, from Floyd's eccentric uncle, Fred, to his elegant brother, George Jr., but Floyd himself seems to have led a pretty quiet life. His family's farmhouse on 73rd Avenue is still standing.

Now we get to the less familiar names.

I believe that George Sandburg's father, John, bought Huffman's mill in 1903, and his mother, Lucy, had been a Baker.[3] George remained a Porter County resident through the 1940 Census, but by 1950 had moved with his wife to Tennessee, where he is buried.

Thus far I have indexed the surname Ditlow only in connection with "South of Deepriver" social columns (1921 and 1922). Raymond and Cecil Ditlow were brothers, born into a Union Township farming family. This 1942 article about their parents' 50th wedding anniversary gives a little of the family history …


(Click on image to enlarge)
"Mr. and Mrs. Abe Ditlow Celebrate Golden Wedding," Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 21 Sept. 1942.

.. as does their father's 1947 obituary:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 17 Mar. 1947.

Raymond and Cecil are both buried in Mosier Cemetery.

As for the surname Riley, I have found it several times in my notes, in connection with minor social news, and once it got into the blog, but I am confused about the relation of the various Rileys to one another, if any. The Riley in this photo, Marion, was the daughter of Edwin Stanton[4] and Rose (Miller) Riley and was born in 1897. In 1917 she married Reid Peck and lived out the rest of her life in Valparaiso. She, too, is buried in Mosier Cemetery.

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[1] "Thursday, June 21st, from two to four o'clock, there will be a ten-cent Tea served by Mrs. B.H. Wood at Deepriver and by other members of the Willing Workers society on Mrs. W.M. Waldeck's lawn. Everybody invited. Mrs. Casbon, President." "General News Items," Hobart Gazette, 15 June 1906.
[2] Per his entry on Findagrave.com, his middle name was Perry — the maiden name of his grandmother.
[3] The surname appears as both "Sandburg" and "Sandberg." Since George himself used "Sandberg" when he signed his WWI draft card, I will be indexing it that way.
[4] He seems to be variously referred to as "E.S.," "Edwin S.," and "Stanton," which contributes to my confusion.

Unidentified Scenic Beauty, 1911, East Gary

I bought these postcards (postmarked 1911) on Ebay because, at first glance, they seemed to show the view from the hill where I think the Bijou resort was located (now Riverview Park). Once I received them and had a chance to look more carefully at them, I started doubting my first impression. But if not there — where?


(Click on images to enlarge)



"Bend of Deep River" — the Deep River has lots of bends, but one of the most significant is near Riverview Park, where there would also be a bridge carrying a road (now S.R. 51) over the river. But wouldn't you expect to see some evidence of "downtown" East Gary, if the photographer were on the Riverview Park hill pointing the camera more or less north?

He might not have been on a hill. He might have climbed somebody's windmill to get that aerial view.

I scanned these at 1200 dpi to bring out the details. The trees along the road have been planted at such regular intervals that, viewed from a distance against the road, they give the illusion of a line of railroad cars. In the second image (where you can see some farm outbuildings), there's a man working in the field near the right edge. I think the cattle are the same in both pictures — they just moved a bit while the photographer was adjusting the camera's position.

Here's what I get when I put the two images together through Hugin (free panorama software):




The location of the third postcard is even more of a mystery:



This one shows two bridges over the Deep River. I can't tell if the far one is a road or a railroad.

Although there's a spot where Central Avenue crosses a river near a railroad bridge, I can think of at least two problems in the way of identifying this image as showing those two bridges: one, the river by that point is the Little Calumet — the Deep River has already flowed into it and lost its own identity. (On the other hand, the photographer and the person who commissioned the photos might not have known or cared about exactly which river they were looking at.) Two, I'm not sure Central Avenue extended that far in 1911, or had such a nice bridge. Oh, and third, since even today this location is outside the Lake Station city limits, I'm not sure anyone in 1911 would have attached "East Gary" to the description. (On the other hand, it wasn't inside any other city, so why not attribute that scenic beauty to East Gary?)

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Thanks to Steve Shook's research, we already have information about the Crose Photo Co. But what about the person who commissioned the photos, W.E. Ashton?

I believe he was William E. Ashton, shown here in the 1910 Census:


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

As the proprietor of a general store, he might have wanted his own exclusive line of postcards.

William was born in Illinois and grew up in DuPage County, I gather. We find him in the 1870 Census in Downers Grove, his father describing himself as a day laborer, and in Hinsdale in the 1880 Census, by which time his father was working as a butcher.

The 1900 Census showed William out on his own, farming in Liberty Township, Porter County. His household included no family, but three boarders — all female; two widowed, one single. The single one was Mabel Lester,[1] whom William married in 1901 (Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index). A 1905 directory out of Valparaiso shows them still living along a rural route, and the 1906 plat map of Liberty Township shows their 30-acre farm (I hope I labeled the roads correctly):


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image from https://www.inportercounty.org/Data/Maps/1906Plats/Liberty-1906.jpg.

It appears that the move to East Gary happened sometime between 1906 and 1910. Thus, the Ashtons' stay in East Gary probably was no more than 14 years, at most. The 1920 Census records them in Gary. William worked as a laborer then, employed by a "Bridge Works."

Assuming I've found the right people, by the 1930 Census William and Mabel had moved to Mississippi! There William described himself as a carpenter. Then they came to their senses and moved back to Indiana — to Hobart, in fact, where the 1940 Census recorded them living on West Third Street. William and Mabel described themselves as a retired owner/manager and clerk, respectively, of a grocery store. Later, they moved to Crawfordsville, Indiana (1950 Census).

William died in 1951, Mabel in 1973, and they both were laid to rest in Hobart.

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The three postcards were all sent by the same person. Here they are in the same order as above.


(Click on images to enlarge)





Ellen (last name/maiden name probably Carlson) first sent postcards to her mother, Mrs. J.A. Carlson, and her father (or stepfather), J.A. Carlson. Two days later she sent a third to her sister/maiden aunt/cousin/whatever, Miss Anna Carlson. I have found households with most of those names or initials, but none with all of them, so the Carlsons remain unidentified for now.


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[1] One of the widowed boarders was Mabel's mother, Linna ("Linnie").

Bruce Mitchell Times Two

This postcard is postmarked 1955:


(Click on images to enlarge)



It introduces us to a father-and-son team of entrepreneurs who operated businesses in Hobart for some three decades. They sold a whole lot more than sporting goods, as we are told by this advertising flyer bound into the Classifieds section of the 1952-53 Hobart directory:[1]


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society, Hobart, Indiana.

Wellington Bruce Mitchell was the father, and Thomas Bruce Mitchell the son. The father usually went by "W.B."; the son almost always went by his middle name.

According to W.B.'s obituary, their business connection to Hobart started in 1932.


(Click on image to enlarge)
"Deaths," Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 22 Dec. 1964.

But their emotional connection to Hobart started even earlier. In April 1910 W.B. married Mary Blaemire (Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index), a daughter of William and Isabell Blaemire,[2] who were Hobart residents as early as the 1880 Census, and who are now buried in Hobart Cemetery.

The 1910 Census, taken a couple of weeks before his wedding, recorded W.B. living with his parents in Chicago's Ward 8 — the furthest southeastern part of Chicago, bordering on Indiana. W.B. and his father both worked in steel mills.

W.B.'s draft card, filled out June 1917, stated that he and Mary, with their two children (the youngest being Thomas Bruce), lived in southeast Chicago while he commuted to a job in Gary, Indiana. Three years later, per the 1920 Census, they still lived in the same area, W.B. working as a millwright at an unnamed construction company.

In July 1929 we find this little personal item about the family in a south Chicago newspaper's social column: "Mr. and Mrs. Wellington Bruce Mitchell and their children, 7842 Paxton ave., left last week for a visit to their summer home at Hobart, Ind."[3] Their owning a summer home implies a fairly comfortable financial situation. In the 1930 Census, W.B. described himself as a self-employed real estate broker who owned his residence in south Chicago.

Two years after that, as we know, the family moved to Hobart. We start to find directory listings for them in the 1936-37 directory,[4] which shows them renting the house at 769 E. Third Street. We are told that W.B. is a merchant with a business called Hobart Paint & Glass, but there is no separate listing for that business. It was probably operating out of the Guyer Building, where the old-timers in 1979 remembered it, and where it was listed in the October 1940 directory.[5] A slightly later directory, for 1940-41,[6] showed Mitchell's Hobart Service Supply Co. (listed under "Paint Dealers") at 151 Illinois Street.[7]

In 1938 Thomas Bruce Mitchell got married.


(Click on image to enlarge)
"Hobart," Hammond Times, 26 Sept. 1938.

The two Mitchell families set up separate households near each other on Kelly Street. Bruce (Jr.) worked in his father's stored; W.B. described himself as the owner of a lumber company (1940 Census) and a building contractor (1940-41 directory).

The sporting goods business makes its first appearance in Hobart's January 1946 directory,[8] with "Mitchell's" at 151 Illinois Street being listed in the Classified section under "Sporting Goods — Retail." The same business at the same address is also listed under "Hardware Stores" and "Paint — Retail." Under the latter heading we also find Hobart Paint & Glass at the same address. All these businesses shared one phone number: Hobart-75. In 1949, according to a photocopied newspaper article in the Hobart Historical Society museum files, a Mitchell appliance store was opened[9] (possibly at 225 Center Street, as listed in the 1952-53 directory insert posted above).

In the 1950 Census, W.B. is described as a "proprietor" in the "retail lumber & coal" industry, while Bruce is likewise a "proprietor," in the "retail sporting goods" industry.

As we already learned from his obituary, W.B. retired from business in 1952.

The 1956 directory[10] has a listing only for "Mitchell Bruce Sports" [sic] — no indication that any of the lumber, paint, or hardware business continued. But the Hobart Historical Society's file contains a photocopied newspaper article from 1957 about the "grand opening of Mitchell's Hardware store in its new location at 225 Center St."[11]

In 1962[12] Mitchell's of Hobart was operating at 151 Illinois. By 1968[13] it had moved across the street to 154 Illinois. That was the year of Thomas Bruce Mitchell's death, and, so far as I can tell, the end of the Mitchell business empire in Hobart. The 1970 directory has no business listings for any Mitchell business, and Bruce's widow, Loretta, is listed in Ogden Dunes.[14]

Bruce and Loretta (who died in 2005) are buried in Mosier Cemetery.

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As for the recipient of our postcard, Lloyd Schroeder — he lived a long, eventful life and now rests in Valparaiso.

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[1] 1952 — Directory — 1953 (Hobart – Wheeler – New Chicago – Ainsworth – Green Acres – Deep River – South Hobart Twp. – South Portage Twp.), published by Advance-News, Nappanee, Indiana (copy at the Hobart Historical Society museum).
[2] Indiana Death Certificates.
[3] "Personals," Southtown Economist (Chicago, Ill.), 19 July 1929.
[4] City Directory/Hobart, Ind./1936-37 ["Compiled by House-to-House Canvas"]. 1936: Mrs. Sherlock Hope (copy at the Hobart Historical Society museum).
[5] Hobart/Chesterton/East Gary/Kouts/Ogden Dunes/Valparaiso/Wheeler. Indiana Associated Telephone Corporation, October 1940 (copy at the Hobart Historical Society museum).
[6] City Directory/Hobart, Indiana/1940 – 1941 (copy at the Hobart Historical Society museum).
[7] Per the county records, the gas station now on that site was built in 1979. I have not been able to find any bird's-eye or aerial views showing whatever buildings may have been there before 1979.
[8] Valparaiso/Chesterton/East Gary/Hobart/Kouts/Ogden Dunes/Wheeler. Indiana Associated Telephone Corporation, January 1946 (copy at the Hobart Historical Society museum).
[9] "Mitchell's To Hold Grand Opening Of New Appliance Center On Saturday, Oct. 1," Hobart Gazette, 15 Sept. 1949.
[10] Robinson's Hobart, Indiana City Directory. George C. Robinson Directory Service (Hillsdale, Mich.), 1956 (copy at the Hobart Historical Society museum).
[11] "Many Prizes Awarded at Grand Opening of Mitchell's Hardware," Hobart Gazette, 28 Mar. 1957.
[12] Polk's Hobart (Lake County, Ind.) City Directory 1962. R.L. Polk & Co. (Detroit, Mich.).
[13] Polk's Hobart (Lake County, Ind.) City Directory 1968. R.L. Polk & Co. (Detroit, Mich.) (copy at the Hobart Historical Society museum).
[14] Polk's Hobart (Lake County, Ind.) City Directory 1970. R.L. Polk & Co. (Detroit, Mich.) (copy at the Hobart Historical Society museum).

Dime Store, Hobart, Indiana, 1957

The photographer climbed up on the checkout counter, I think, to shoot this nice overview of a store interior:


(Click on image to enlarge)

Apparently, if you were a little kid in Hobart in 1957, you wore Buster Brown or nothing. Well, maybe you could get something else at Stommel's.

I like the assortment of goods packed into that small space. In the foreground, tissues; then sewing supplies, like cards of buttons and seam binding, and rolls of ribbon. Beyond the Buster Brown display, shelves full of yarn and socks. Saddle shoes and loafers. Ladies' nylons with reinforced heels. Then more children's clothing against the back wall. Up on the wall, kites and curtains.

The notes on the back of the photo don't tell us which dime store:




It might have been Harvey's, which, contrary to what the old-timer(s) remembered in 1979, didn't burn down until 1961:


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Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 27 Dec. 1961.

But then again we have photos of Elinor's from the 1957 Hobart High School yearbook, supposedly in that same location, so I'm confused.

I believe the Schultz Bros. Variety Store was operating on Main Street in 1957; that's another possibility. It is listed at 313 Main in my 1962 Hobart directory, and according to this 1940 column of Hobart-related news, had been operating in Hobart at least since 1939 (exact location unknown):


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Hammond Times, 5 Aug. 1940.

(So why did Almira Kramer and Claude Nelson get married secretly? Anybody know the story?)