Hobart Then and Now: The Pennsy Bridge

This is an update to my 2013 post.

Circa 1906, and 2020


(Click on images to enlarge)

The original Pennsy Railroad bridge over the Deep River, dating to the 1850s, had charmed generations of Hobart residents and visitors. With its graceful arches, it was a favorite of photographers and artists.

In 2018/2019, it was demolished and replaced by a new bridge that has plenty of water capacity but zero charm.

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I have two real-photo postcards with this view of the original bridge. The one above is the clearer of the two, but the year in its postmark is illegible. Here is the other one, postmarked 1906:



I find this one interesting for its message — the writer says "these views" are taken by one of her "old pupils." So evidently she is or was a teacher, and her name is Maude. I went looking in the 1900 and 1910 censuses for a schoolteacher named Maude, and found Helen Maud Quinnell (she was Maud in 1900 and Helena in 1910). She appeared among the faculty in the first Hobart High School annual in 1908.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

In the 1900 census she described herself as a schoolteacher, but in the 1910 census, she gave her occupation as "none."

I remember coming across that name — Quinnell — now and then in my newspaper reading, but never in connection with anything juicy. Helen Maud was born in 1880 in Illinois. Her father was H(arry) T(homas) Quinnell, her mother Anna (Bridgman). She had two younger sisters, Beatrice and Blanche (we've previous seen a photo of Blanche as a member of Hobart High's class of 1904). The family left Illinois sometime after 1888;[1] the 1891 Plat Book shows them owning a farm of some 30 acres just southeast of Lake Station. They still owned it per the 1908 Plat Map:


(Click on image to enlarge)

After the 1910 census, I lose track of all the Quinnells.


As for the photographer, the "old pupil" whose hand may have written the caption on both postcard images — I don't have a clue.

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[1] That is the latest date when I can find H.T. registered to vote in Cook County, Illinois, per Ancestry.com.