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:


(Click on image to enlarge)
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):


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hammond Times, 5 Aug. 1940.

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

Carpe Carpem

Rex Roll and his friend caught a whole lot of carp in Lake George, but they are not going to tell you where the lucky fishing spot is.


(Click on image to enlarge)

That is all.

Deep River Then and Now: International Dairy Co.

1936 and 2024:




(Click on images to enlarge)
Historical images courtesy of R.F.
2024 images from Google street view.

Per a 1936 history of Union Township written by Wheeler High School students and teachers:

The Pure Milk station was built in the fall of 1925 by the Midwest Dairyman's Company, but there have been several improvements made in the equipment since then. There have been no decreases in the shipment of milk; rather it has increased gradually from 10,000 pounds daily in 1925 to 36,000 daily in 1936. It is owned by the International Dairy Company and all members that belong are Pure Milk members.[1]

I must take their word for the construction date, since I have not been able to find any relevant information in the newspapers I have access to. Indeed, I read through the whole of 1925's Hobart Gazette without finding any mention of what must have been a big event in the village of Deep River. On the other hand, the Porter County Assessor's records have 1950 as the build date. I think that may be a mistake, unless the dairy building burned to the ground and an identical version was built anew in 1950. Possibly that was the date the two back sections were added on; they were not original, as we can see in the second 1936 photo, and as the relevant 1939 aerial photo confirms.

The earliest newspaper article I have found about the dairy dates to January 1931:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 24 Jan. 1931.

Pretty exciting event, but I don’t think it made the Gazette.

This article, from later the same year, does establish that the dairy was operating at least as early as January 1930:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 13 Apr. 1931.


This photo, also from 1936, was taken in an unknown location.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of R.F.

We don't know who the smiling man was, either — presumably a truck driver for dairy. This photo has the name "Vina Serafinski" in its file name, but I haven't been able to identify such a person, nor anything about the name Serafinski that would help I.D. this location.

From this photo, dated 1938, I gather that someone was really proud of the dairy building and its pretty landscaping:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of R.F.

And lastly, a few random articles naming several employees of the International Dairy Co. over the years:


(Click on images to enlarge)
Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 12 Dec. 1930.


Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 27 Jan. 1941.


Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 21 Feb. 1967.


_______________
[1] From the "Industrial Development" section of WHEELER HIGH'S WINNING HISTORY OF UNION TOWNSHIP As Compiled By History Class and Instructors For The Vidette-Messenger, printed in the Porter County Centennial, 1836-1936, Special Edition, 18 Aug. 1936, as transcribed at https://www.inportercounty.org/Data/PorterCountyCentennial/Sec3-4-6_UnionTwpHistory.html.

The Robbed Grave of Sturdevant Cemetery

Artist's facial reconstruction of Esther Ann Granger Peck.

A fellow member of the Merrillville-Ross Township Historical Society alerted me to a story (which is now being reported by numerous sources and even being discussed on Reddit) about the identification of a skull that had been found during the 1978 remodeling of a home in Batavia, Illinois. DNA testing did not exist in 1978, of course, so means of identifying the skull were limited at that time. Now we have not only DNA testing but a lot of people who have submitted their DNA for genealogy purposes.

And so we have learned that a young woman's grave, marked in the little Sturdevant Cemetery in eastern Ross Township, has been at least partially empty for a long time.


(Click on image to enlarge)
From Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society, Ross Township Cemeteries (1995).

The full story is here: Kane County Coroner’s Office and Batavia Police Department Team with Othram to Identify 1978 Jane Doe. This video story shows the house in Batavia where Esther's skull was found.

Esther's listing on Findagrave.com, which formerly led to Sturdevant Cemetery, now shows her as being buried in Batavia.

Granger was her maiden name. She married Zalmon Peck on December 20, 1864 (Indiana Marriage Collection) when she was about 16 years old and he about 27. A Reddit user has even come up with a copy of the marriage record:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Comment by cassodragon to thread titled, "After 45 years, Kane County Jane Doe (1978) is Identified." Reddit, Oct. 24, 2024. https://www.reddit.com/r/gratefuldoe/comments/1gb57iy/after_45_years_kane_county_jane_doe_1978_is/


A look at the 1874 Plat Map shows why the cemetery was also known as the Dennis Cemetery: the Dennis and Sturdevant farms were next to each other on what is now 89th Avenue:



I do not know exactly where the cemetery is. Findagrave.com describes it as being 0.7 miles east of Randolph on 89th. That sounds like Sturdevant, not Dennis, land. (In the census records, the Dennis family appears only in the 1870 Census — Thomas (41) and Mary (26) and a couple possible in-laws.[1] The Sturdevant/Sturtevant name is more pervasive.)

The cemetery can't be seen on modern satellite view. It can't be seen on the 1978 aerial view from the Lake County GIS website, either:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image from https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/18676999665349e492506de765490541/page/Parcel-Info/.

That's just a screen shot. You can enlarge the 1978 aerial view more if you go to the website yourself, but you still can't see the cemetery. By the way, per the GIS info, all that land now belongs to the Lake County Parks Department.

I will try to get the 1939 aerial view, but that's not as easy as it used to be.

_______________
[1] I came across an item in the "Hobart" column of the Crown Point Register of September 30, 1886: "The other day we met our friend, Thos. Dennis, formerly of Lake Co. He is as fleshy and good natured as ever and lives in Chicago."

Hey, You Guys, Let's Go Harass Somebody Else to Death!

In the years after they drove one Ainsworth-area farmer to suicide, the local bored teenagers went after his brother as well.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart Gazette, 4 Feb. 1971.

I'm not sure how wise the Gazette was to print a photo of Walter's house: that's a little too helpful to any area jerks who didn't already know which house it was.

♦    ♦    ♦
When I left off with Walter in my previous Wiernasiewicz post, he was reported in the 1950 Census as living on the Randolph Street/S. Hobart Road farm with his wife, Lily, whom the Indiana Marriage Certificates recorded him marrying in 1952 (or maybe it was 1953 or 1955).

That marriage ended, one way or another. In March 1960, we hear from a Benton Harbor, Michigan, newspaper that a marriage license had been issued to "Walter Weir, 38, of Hobart, Ind., and Ardith Lucille Wyant, 25, of Merrillville, Ind."[1]

Somewhere among all that marrying, at least four children were born, as we later learn, but I don't know when or by which wife.

The local jerks did not succeed in harassing Walter to death. He died of natural causes on April 5, 1980. From his death certificate, I gather he collapsed and died at the Lake Street boat landing in Marquette Park, the cause being "coronary occlusion."

The death certificate described him as "divorced."

His obituary listed the children I mentioned above:

Walter Weir, a life-long area resident, died April 5, at the age of 58.

He is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Lee (Cheryl) Thrush of Greenville, Mich., and Mary Ann Weir of Calif.; two sons, Wayne, attending the U.S. Naval Academy in Anapolis, Md., and Wendell, of Greenville, Mich., and two grandchildren.

Funeral services were April 12 from the Pruzin Funeral Home, Rev. Kenneth Albright officiating. Burial was at Calvary Cemetery.[2]

In my 1962 Hobart directory, he was listed twice: once as Weir, again as Wiernasiewicz. I can't find a listing for him under either name on findagrave.com, in Calvary Cemetery or anywhere else.

Incidentally, he was born Władysław, if I'm reading his birth certificate right:


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

_______________
[1] "Marriage Licenses," Herald-Palladium (Benton Harbor, Mich.), 5 Mar. 1960. According to a family tree on Ancestry.com, she was a granddaughter of Albert B. "Abe" Wyant.
[2] "Obituaries," Hobart Gazette, 16 Apr. 1980.

Independence Day Parade Float ca. 1909

Here's a postcard I bought recently.


(Click on images to enlarge)

Despite the caption, I don't think this is the parade itself, but a float preparing to take its place in the parade. I don't see any signs on the float to tell who or what it represents. The wagon is full of girls in white waving American flags.

Someone with time on their hands might be able to figure out, based on the houses and roads in the background, exactly where this was taken.

The postmark is 1909.



Seeing the recipient's name made me think, of course, of our own Annie Peterson, but as far as I know she never lived in Chicago (unless she was on a long visit), and the world was crawling with Annie Petersons in 1909.

♦    ♦    ♦
I have been bitten by the Garage-Cleaning Bug. It seldom bites — maybe once in 25 or 30 years — but its venom is far more potent than the Blogging Bug's. Hence the lack of posts lately.

The Gambling Kingpin's Country Hideaway

This Gazette article from 1978 introduced me to a once-notorious Hobart resident whom I had never heard of before:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart Gazette, 29 Mar. 1978

This article included enough information (home on Lake George, reached by a private road from 61st Avenue) for me to identify a likely location for Fred Mackey's home, and reference to the 1972 Plat Book confirmed that I had the right place:


(Click on image to enlarge)

According to one newspaper article, the house cost $200,000 when it was built[1] — per the county records, in 1958. That would be about $2.2 million in today's money.[2]

Here is an aerial view of the house from 1978:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image from the Lake County Surveyor GIS Website.

That's a lot of driveway to plow in the winter, isn't it? But I'm sure Fred could afford to hire someone to do that.

The recent construction of the Amber Creek subdivision has eaten up some of the private road, making the property only slightly less isolated.

♦    ♦    ♦
Fred Mackey's murder made the front page of the Sunday Post-Tribune, which ran this article summarizing his career in Gary:



(Click on image to enlarge)
"Gary Policy Baron Murdered," Post-Tribune (Gary, Ind.), 26 Mar. 1978.

His story seems to be the classic American success story gone awry, something like Al Capone's: poor boy works his way to millionaire status, but on the wrong side of the law. Like Al, Fred seems to have been known for his generosity to poor people. Also like Al, Fred went to prison for tax evasion, not for the criminal activity that built his wealth.

My research in the online newspapers did not reveal that anyone was ever convicted of Fred's murder, although police did have suspects.[3]

♦    ♦    ♦
Among the property Fred owned, according to one source, was a "farm in Arkansas."[4] Was it the farm where he had been born in 1902? I wish I knew — I can't find any on-line plat maps for Hickory Ridge Township, Phillips County, Arkansas, to figure that out. But let's visit that farm, and see what else we can find out about Fred's background from the census and other records, shall we?

The 1900 Census shows his parents on the farm where Fred would be born two years later. In May 1900, 37-year-old Bruce Mackey married 16-year-old Jennie Davis. The census, taken the next month, shows the newlyweds along with Bruce's two sons, 18 and 16 years of age, from his previous marriage.[5] The household also includes a boarder. Bruce owned the farm himself.

The enumerator of the 1910 Census may have made a mistake: Bruce and Jennie's oldest child is listed as an 8-year-old daughter named Leler, who is never heard from again. That probably should have been an 8-year-old son named Fred. Jennie and Bruce had four more children by then (Bruce Jr., Ruby, Fanny, and Bob).

By the 1920 Census — if we can trust the enumerator — Fred, 18, had left the family farm in Arkansas. But where he went and what he was doing, I do not know. The rest of his family, which now included three more children, was still on the farm.

The next trace I can find of Fred is in September 1929, when he appears in this list of Lake County, Indiana court cases (compiled by Hobart's own Alvina Killigrew):


(Click on image to enlarge)
Alvina M. Killigrew (comp.), "County Court Calendars," Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 26 Sept. 1929.

And so the 1930 Census records Fred as a prisoner in the "Indiana Reformatory" in Madison County. By then, his parents and some siblings had come up north to Gary. His parents ran a grocery store and lived with their daughter, Fannie, and her husband, Ardie Jenkins (a medical doctor).

By 1940 Fred was free again, living in Gary with his widowed mother (along with other family members, including his now-divorced sister, Fannie) and working in an unspecified "mill." But two years later, we find Fred as some kind of entrepreneur, a member of his own firm:


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

This may have been his first insurance firm. In a 1948 Gary directory,[6] we find him listed as an insurance agent. Sometime between 1942 and 1948 he married Ella Esmond.

He was the proprietor of an insurance company in the 1950 Census. He was also father: his five-year-old son, Fred Jr., was living with him — but his wife was not, apparently. At least, she is not recorded there. A widowed woman was boarding in Fred's house.

In the online newspapers, I came across the son's name a few times in connection with high-school sports in the early to mid-1960s. He was on the track team at Roosevelt High School in Gary.

In 1957, per the county records, Fred built the Gibraltar Building. In 1958, as mentioned above, he built the limestone house on Lake George.

And that brings us nearly to the start of his legal troubles, where the Post-Tribune article above picked up. I would like to know more about the missing years, but I don't suppose I ever will. I'm not the person to tell that story, anyway, given that I know absolutely nothing about illegal gambling in Gary. And very little about legal gambling anywhere.


_______________
[1] David Mannweiler, "To Many, It Was More Than Just a House ("IRS Auction Set")," Indianapolis News, 17 Mar. 1975.
[2] Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI Inflation Calculator, https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl.
[3] "Ex-Gang Leader Linked to Slaying," Times (Hammond, Ind.), 15 June 1978; "Lake Drops Charges," Times, 15 May 1979.
[4] Mannweiler, supra.
[5] Per a family tree on Ancestry.com, in 1881 Bruce married Josie Woods, who died in 1885.
[6] Polk's Gary (Lake County, Ind.) City Directory 1948 (Detroit: R.L. Polk & Co., 1948), via Ancestry.com.