We've already met (briefly) the families of four Ols siblings: Christ(ian), Charles, Henry, and Sophia. These, and a few additional siblings, were the children of John and Charlotte (née Kegebein), who were born and married, and had their first five children, in Germany (Prussia). They came to the U.S. circa 1871. The 1880 Census shows them farming in Hobart Township. I can't find them owning land on the 1874 Plat Map, but the 1891 Plat Book shows a John Ols (who may have been either father or son) owning an 80-acre parcel just north of Ainsworth. (By 1905 that parcel belonged by Henry Chester.[1])
Charlotte Ols died in 1885, per the local Ols expert. I can't find John in any census after 1880. They are both buried in Hobart Cemetery.
The event that prompted all this attention happened in November 1923 and concerns John and Charlotte's grandson, Herman (son of Henry and Bertha Ols). Herman was born circa 1894. In 1916 he married Katherine Yandow (Indiana Marriage Collection), about whom I know nothing. Gary city directories from 1918 and 1920 show the young couple living at 2136 Adams Street. But in 1923 they were living in Hobart, according to this news item:
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Hobart Gazette, Nov. 23, 1923.
The News gave a few more details:
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Hobart News, Nov. 22, 1923.
Yes, they got Herman's name wrong.
No clue as to the baby's biological parents has come down through the family. Her birth was local enough, it seems, to have involved Dr. Friedrich — which could mean Hobart, of course, but also Gary and other places.
The little girl would be named Mary Geraldine (or vice versa; I'm not sure), and commonly went by Geraldine. The 1930 Census records her with her parents on East Third Street, living next door to Grandma and Grandpa:
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Image from Ancestry.com.
For the birthplaces of her mother and father, the enumerator used Katherine's and Herman's.
Geraldine graduated from Hobart High School in 1942. Here is her senior portrait:
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The caption reads: "Gerry had an urge for drama and took the lead in many of the Dramatic Club's productions. She belonged to the band for two and a half years."
In 1944, Geraldine married a young Hobart widower named Robin Cliff.[2] Here is his senior photo:
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Geraldine and Robin still have living descendants — so I am told by the local Ols genealogist. This makes me wonder what biological relatives a genetic test might turn up for them.
The page from the News, above, includes an item about the "road leading from the Lincoln highway at Ainsworth to the Dunes highway at Miller" possibly being taken over by the State Highway Commission. That stretch of road corresponds to present-day State Road 51. We shall see.
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[1] "Barns and Contents Destroyed," Hobart Gazette, Jan. 6, 1905.
[2] He had married Eunice Edith Peterson in 1938 (Indiana Marriage Collection); she died in 1943 (Indiana Death Certificates).
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