Merrillville Then and Now: 73rd Avenue West of Broadway

Circa 1909, and 2024:


(Click on images to enlarge)
Second image from Google street view.

"Main Street," also known as the Joliet road, had not yet become the Lincoln Highway when this photo was taken sometime before July 17, 1909. The road is dirt, but electrical wires (or are they telephone?) run along it.

We are standing more or less abreast of the Merrillville school building (now the Merrillville History Museum).

The Burge-Underwood house would be to the left, but just out of range of the camera. The first house visible on the left is the Floyd Pierce home, according to A Pictorial History of Merrillville. The next house is the Coffey (or Coffee) house. I do not know what families occupied any of the other houses.

On the right, of course, we can see the steeple of the Methodist Church.

In the distance on the right, I believe you can see a couple of businesses: the Stoltz general store, and next to it the Old California Exchange Hotel:


(Click on image to enlarge)

♦    ♦    ♦
The verso includes a postmark, thank goodness, and a friendly message from Howard Walter of Merrillville to Ruth Casbon of Valparaiso:


(Click on image to enlarge)

It's interesting how he spells the town's name; is that evidence that he pronounced it "Valpo-RISE-o" rather than "Valpo-RAYS-o"?

Howard and Ruth were both about 16 in 1909. Howard was one of the Walter brothers of Merrillville.

Ruth was the daughter of Thomas and Ella (Downs) Casbon. She had been named Mable Ruth but preferred her middle name. She spent her early childhood on a farm in the vicinity of Deep River. Sometime after the 1900 census the family relocated to a Porter County farm, where the 1910 Census, and by 1920 they lived in the city of Valparaiso.

In January 1924, Thomas and Ella held a party to celebrate Ruth's engagement to a man named Joseph Albert Bancroft,[1] a native of Chesterton about 4 years older than Ruth. He had previously been married, in 1914, to Fay Smith (Indiana Marriage Collection); that marriage lasted at least through June 1917 (WWI Draft Cards), but must have ended in divorce at some point, since Fay lived to marry again.[2]

Ruth Casbon and Joseph Bancroft were married in April 1924:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart Gazette, 2 May 1924.

The marriage was not happy, apparently, as the couple were divorced within two years, according to a Chesterton newspaper item posted to Joseph's Findagrave.com entry.

Joseph moved to Michigan and married again. Ruth resumed her maiden name and lived out the rest of her life as a single woman in Valparaiso. She died in 1989.

For some surprising background information about Ruth, I refer you to the Casbon expert.


_______________
[1] "Local and Personal," Hobart News, 31 Jan. 1924.
[2] I have come across a record of a 1907 marriage in Lake County between a Joseph N. Bancroft and a Lillian Miller, but the record does not include enough information for me to say that this was or wasn't our Joseph.

Schavey Family Photos

These photos of some of our Schavey friends later in life were sent to me by a Schavey descendant.

This one shows six of the seven children of Henry and Frances (Springman) Schavey.


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of Rachel White Hein.

Front row, left to right: Clarence Schavey, Mabel Schavey Breyfogle, Henry C. Schavey.
Back row, left to right: Loretta Schavey Van Meter, Frank Schavey, Louis Schavey.
Not shown: Julius Schavey.

The photo is undated. Based on the fashions and apparent ages, I would guess that it was taken sometime in the 1950s.

The same goes for this photo: undated, but looking 1950s-ish.



Left to right: Clarence, Henry ("Hank"), Louis, Carl, and Frank.


This time of year I am spending all my time and energy outdoors, so I am grateful when people send me material for the blog that doesn't involve me having to do research!

Pond Sliders and Good Girls of Ainsworth

It's turtle-rescuing season again, and this time it was a pond slider that got stuck by my fence.


(Click on images to enlarge)





The folks in the IN Nature Facebook group are divided on whether it's a red-eared slider or a yellow-bellied slider. Too bad I couldn't get a picture of its face.


Maisie alerted me to its presence. Maisie is a good girl.

Automobile Humor (1924) and the Old Abel Place

(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News, 31 Jan. 1924.

And I'm sure some people clipped it out and put it on their windshield, and the next time they were out driving, they kept glancing over smugly at their passengers just waiting for them (the passengers) to say something.

This prompted me to investigate the origin of the term "backseat driver." One source found it as early as 1891 in the U.S. The phenomenon had to exist before the automobile; it's just human nature; but I haven't been able to find information about what people called it.

♦    ♦    ♦
A social column in the same issue of the Hobart News contained an update on the ownership of the old Abel homestead:

A deal was recently completed whereby the former Abel property, together with a couple of Gary properties, was transferred by the late owner, Steve Dolato of this city, in exchange for a farm of 320 acres located about 8 miles north of Renssalaer, Ind. owned by Michael Jungles, consideration $44,800. The Dolato family, who have resided here for the past seven months, will move the first of the week to Gary, where they have purchased a home at Eighth and Georgia streets and the Jungles family will remove to their new residence, the old Abel homestead, as soon as it is vacated by Mr. Dolato and family.

The new owners' name was actually spelled Jungels. Michael and Josephine (Gerlach) Jungels were both Illinois natives who had married in 1884. After many years of farming in Jasper County, Indiana, they were approaching retirement age and chose the old Abel place, which still had over 10 acres attached to it. A later Hobart News social column (4 Apr. 1924) mentions a couple of their married daughters' surnames …

Mrs. Michael Jungles came Sunday to the old Abel homestead, which she and Mr. Jungles purchased about the first of the year to be occupied by them as a future home. Mr. and Mrs. Otto Ritter of this city, her son-in-law and daughter, motored to Renssalaer for the purpose of bringing Mrs. Jungles back with them to Hobart. Mr. Jungles will join his wife later. Another daughter and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. Peer, have resided at the former Abel home since the first of March.

Elizabeth Jungels had married Volney Peer in 1907, and Anna Jungels and Otto Ritter were married in 1916, all in Jasper County; but with this move they and the elder Jungelses would become Hobart residents for decades. It is Elizabeth's name that shows up as the owner of the property on the 1926 Plat Map:


(Click on image to enlarge)

Let us skip ahead to the end of Michael's and Josephine's residence — they departed Hobart, and this world, within three weeks of each other in March 1952.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 3 Mar. 1952


(Click on image to enlarge)
Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 21 Mar. 1952

Elizabeth Peer and Anna Ritter remained Hobart residents to the end of their lives as well. Anna died in 1969, and Elizabeth — who still occupied the old homestead — in 1980.

Bold Jumping Spiders of Ainsworth

This itsy-bitsy spider swung down from the top of the garage doorframe on a single thread of silk.


(Click on images to enlarge)



It is a Bold Jumping Spider. Their scientific name is Phidippus audax — audax, Latin, meaning bold, daring; and Phidippus, a Greek name meaning "one who spares horses." So, while they are day-hunting carnivores, the horsies need not fear them. It didn't bite me either, even while I was "persuading" it to move off the sidewalk by brandishing a leaf at it.

Easter Greetings

(Click on images to enlarge)

I know, it doesn't say "Easter," but it says "Greetings" and it's got flowers and it's the best I can do.

The verso reintroduces the mysterious Cora Harms …



… only this time she's in Hobart, not Logansport. I still can't figure out who she is and how she's connected to anyone in this area. I think her maiden name was Dempsey. She worked as a dressmaker until marrying Charles W. Harms in 1907, when she was about 42, if she was born in 1865 as she told the enumerator of the 1910 Census. Then this happened:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Logansport Pharos-Reporter, 29 May 1917.

Later Logansport directories list her operating a fur and dressmaking business as Cora Dempsey. But I can't find her in censuses or fill in the rest of her story. She may have remarried one or two times.

As for the postcard's sender, Marie Strong — you'd think that with all the Strongs around here I could connect her to someone local, but you'd be wrong. I can't even figure out for sure who she was.

A New Ainsworth Baby

I came across this little announcement and thought today was a good day to post it, this being Eldon Harms' 102nd birthday anniversary.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News, 3 Apr. 1924.

Above the Harms announcement, another Ross Township birth introduces a name I haven't heard before — Herter. If I've found the right people, Peter and Anna Herter, along with little Indiana-born Madeline, were in Wisconsin by the 1930 Census. I shall see if we get any more news of them before they leave Ross Township.

Random items from the same issue — electricity problems in Deepriver, and isn't it nice to have your own Delco plant? Also, road problems around S.R. 51 and 61st Avenue.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News, 3 Apr. 1924.