(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News, July 12, 1923.
… but it's the first time I've taken the trouble to figure out exactly where it was. Turns out it's almost as bad now as it was in 1923:
It probably got its name from H.W. Traeger, who owned the parcel of land in Union Township, Porter County, where the Pennsy and Nickel Plate Railroads crossed what is now County Road 600 N (10th Street in Hobart), according to the 1921 Union Township plat map:
(Click on image to enlarge)
Image from https://www.inportercounty.org/Data/Maps/1921Plats/Union-1921.jpg.
He had bought that land sometime between 1895 and 1906, again per the plat maps.
I expect that in 1923, the Traeger crossing had no gates or signals. There was no State Road 130 for easy travel between Hobart and Wheeler or Valparaiso; dealing with that crossing was more of a necessity than it is now. And, of course, there were no interstates to get you from Custer, Michigan, to Lombard, Illinois, without having to drive on these country roads with their dangerous crossings.
But who (I ask myself) was this H.W. Traeger? The 1910 Census shows a Henry Traeger living in Union Township on the "North Township Line Road," which corresponds with 600 N. But then the account of this 1923 accident in the Hobart Gazette refers to the "William Traeger crossing."[1] Henry's middle name was William; perhaps he went by that — or perhaps the Gazette got it wrong. Henry also had a sibling named William Henry. Henry William and William Henry each married a woman named Anna.
Henry William and his Anna are buried in Hobart Cemetery.
All I know is, you have to be careful at the Traeger crossing.
The little story in the lower left-hand corner tells of that dairy showplace, the the Gruel farm, becoming even more impressive with the addition of 20 Wisconsin Guernseys.
_______________
[1] "One Killed, Three Hurt," Hobart Gazette, July 13, 1923.
3 comments:
There was no State Road 130 in 1923?
No, it was put through sometime in the 1930s (per the folks at the Hobart Historical Society, who were told by an old-timer who remembered the road being built). That seems to match up with the older plat maps I've got -- the ca. 1926 and earlier ones don't show it, but the 1939 and 1950 ones do. If I can manage to keep up with my newspaper reading that long, maybe I will find out exactly when it was built.
Must have taken quite some time to get from Hobart to Valpo before that road was built . . .
Post a Comment