Michigan Avenue circa 1909

(Click on images to enlarge)

This is Michigan Avenue in Hobart, according to the caption on the postcard. I'd do a then-and-now post, if only I knew where on Michigan Avenue. You can't see enough of any of the houses, or anything else, to identify the exact location.

The photographer was trying to capture an inviting scene: a wide, straight street lined with well grown trees all leafed out in their summer greenery. And sidewalks, even! But it doesn't translate very well to black and white, or sepia.

I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out who sent the postcard …



… only to conclude that there wasn't enough evidence to identify this Bessie. Hobart and the surrounding countryside was crawling with Bessies.

The recipient had been born Harriet Quirk. Here is a description of her wedding to James Scudder from the Hobart Gazette of November 4, 1904:

Scudder-Quirk Nuptial.

James F. Scudder from Ohio and Miss Harriet J. Quirk, daughter of Mrs. Chas. Estelle, of this place, were united in marriage yesterday, Nov. 3d, 1904. The ceremony was performed by Rev. Geo. B. Jones, pastor of the M.E. church, at the bride's home two miles east of town at high noon, in the presence of a few friends and relatives. The young couple departed on the afternoon train via Chicago for Colorado where they will reside for the present.

The groom is engaged in the mining business, and the bride is one of Hobart's accomplished and highly esteemed young ladies, possession many warm friends.

On Wednesday evening the bride was accorded a reception and given a bundle shower at the home of Dr. and Mrs. [Fred] Werner.

The Gazette joins the bride's numerous friends in extending hearty congratulations and well wishes.

The 1900 Census had counted Hattie twice: in Hobart, working as a "family domestic" in the home of William and Mary Devonshire; and in Portage Township, working as a milliner and living with her stepfather, Charles Estelle, and her mother, Sarah. Hattie had been born in Kansas, where her parents were married and where her father died; I wonder how the widow and child came to Indiana, and how Harriet met this Ohio man.