Adeline's Autograph Album

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The front cover of Adeline's autograph album.
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.


Let us begin a new set of images, taken from an autograph album belonging to Adeline Busse. I believe she received it as a gift for her 13th birthday, January 11, 1909. She wrote on the front flyleaf:


Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The only photograph I've been able to find of Adeline, or Lena as she was known to family and friends, is this blurred one from her childhood:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.
(Lena is at right. At left is her older sister, Bertha.)

The album was a gift from Lena's father, as we know from this inscription inside the back cover:


Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

"Papa" was Gustav John Busse.


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The caption doesn't indicate which is Gust Busse; for the moment I'm assuming he's on the left.
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The sad thing is that less than one year after he gave Lena the album, "Papa" died.

Ex-Marshal Dies

Ex-Marshal Gustav John Busse who has been conducting a saloon in Hobart for several years died suddenly Sunday morning, Jan. 2, 1910, at his home on Main street. Apparently Mr. Busse had been enjoying reasonably good health and New Year's evening while eating supper with his son-in-law, Emil Scharbach, he sustained a stroke of apoplexy which caused him to become unconscious within a short time and died about six o'clock the next morning, never having regained consciousness. Dr. Gordon was called within ten minutes after he was stricken and remained with him all night and Dr. Bulhand was called in consultation but nothing could be done to help his condition.

Mr. Busse was born in Germany on June 13, 1854, and came to America in 1877. In Oct. 1882, he was married to Miss Augusta Hundt at Laporte. Four years later he moved his family to Glen Park and there had charge of a section for the Nickel Plate until 1891 when he moved to Hobart and engaged in the saloon business, which he since followed except for seven years that he was Town Marshal.

Mr. Busse was a kind-hearted and liberal citizen and was never known to refuse a friend an accommodation. He had been a supporter of and a member of the local German Ev. Lutheran church for twenty-four years and from which edifice the funeral was conducted by Rev. Schuelke on Tuesday of this week at 2 o'clock. The interment took place at Crown Hill.

He is survived by a wife, one son and six daughters, besides a brother, Herman Busse, who lives near Knox, Ind., and six sisters, Mrs. Wm. Stoltz, of Wanatah, and the balance who live in Germany.

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In April 1910, the census-taker found the widowed Augusta running a boarding-house on Main Street. In addition to the four of the Busse children still at home — William (20), Edith (18), Bertha (16), and Adeline (14) — the house was crammed with ten male boarders.

Lena's story had a sad ending, as she died quite young.

Death of Miss Busse

Miss Adeline Busse who had been ailing for about five weeks and was operated upon Feb. 14 for gangrenous appendicitis passed away at 7:30 on Monday evening, Feb. 25, 1918, at the Mercy hospital in Gary. The remains were conveyed the same evening by Undertaker Wild to the saddened home of her mother on Center street.

Miss Busse was the youngest daughter of Mrs. Augusta and the late Gustav Busse and was a most highly respected young lady. She was born in Hobart and was 22 years old the 11th of last January. The many friends of the family sympathise with them in their dark hour of affliction. Her death in the prime of girlhood is extremely sad.

Besides her mother, she is survived by five sisters — Mrs. Emma [Emil] Scharbach of Hobart, Mrs. Martha [Fred] Gardner and Miss Minnie Busse of Chicago, Mrs. Edith [Kelly] Norris of Hobart, and Miss Bertha Busse who lives at home, and one brother, William, who resides in Chicago.

The funeral was held yesterday (Thursday) at 3 o'clock at the German Ev. Lutheran church and the burial was made at the Crown Hill cemetery.

Lena's little grave marker is fading into illegibility.


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… Having spent so much time on the background, we will leave the autographs for the future.


Sources:
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ "Death of Miss Busse." Hobart Gazette 1 Mar. 1918.
♦ "Ex-Marshal Dies." Hobart Gazette 7 Jan. 1910.
♦ "Funeral of Miss Matilda Adeline Busse Held This Afternoon." Hobart News 28 Feb. 1918.