I'm Quitting the Dairy Business! I'm Serious, You Guys!

Thus far I've mentioned William Shults only for his effort to oust County Agent S.J. Craig. I don't know much about him. Sometime between 1900 and 1910, he and his wife, Vena, moved into Ross Township from Porter County. By then they had only a son, Alfred, having lost a little daughter, Dora, in early childhood.

(William also had two brothers, Charles and Fred. I've heard of Charles farming the Kramer land south of Hobart, and the Coffey land somewhere between Ainsworth and Merrillville. As for Fred, in 1910 he was 16 years old and living in William's household; two years later he married Miss Emily Schnabel, and the young couple started their life together in "the B.B. Bale residence near the Penna depot" before taking up farming again in Ross Township.)

For a while William and Vena rented the Clinton land northwest of Ainsworth and farmed it. In 1913 they bought for themselves the "Kruse farm," a large spread of land bordering on the Lincoln Highway.


(Click on image to enlarge)
This excerpt shows the land owned by William Kruse in 1908. Image courtesy of the Merrillville-Ross Township Historical Society.

In 1917, we find William elected to the "Trouble Committee" of the Ainsworth branch of the Lake County Milk Producers' Association. Two years later, he decided the dairy business was too much trouble.



It sounds serious, doesn't it? But I've seen the 1920 census; I've seen William and family living on their own farm in Ross Township, William calling himself a dairy farmer, so I know this is only temporary.


Sources:
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1908 Plat Map.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Ainsworth Farmers Elect Officers." Hobart Gazette 26 Jan. 1917.
♦ "Kramer Barn Burns." Hobart Gazette 10 Sept. 1909.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 29 Oct. 1909; 30 Sept. 19101; 22 Nov. 1912.
♦ "Personal and Local Mention." Hobart News 25 Dec. 1913.
♦ "Public Sale Today." Hobart Gazette 28 Mar. 1919.
♦ "Ross Township." Hobart News 13 Jan. 1913.