The Pennsy Bridge and the Spell of Nostalgia

This postcard joins a view of the Pennsy Railroad bridge with a little nostalgic poem …


(Click on images to enlarge)

… but it seems the typesetter wasn't much of a speller. Eyes dimmed with nostalgic tears, maybe? Or should I say nostalgic "ears"?

Here's a high-resolution scan of the tiny (about 1.5" x 2") photo.



I think it's a reproduction of another photo postcard.

The postmark on the verso is nearly illegible, but the year looks to me to be 1912.



It was sent from Wheeler to Hobart by someone who saw no need to sign a name, counting on the recipient to recognize the handwriting.

The recipient, Pete Schaller, was a local whom I've never paid any attention to before. Here is his obituary from the Vidette-Messenger of October 12, 1954:



His family shows up in Union Township, Porter County, in the 1880 Census; by the 1900 Census Pete and his widowed father, August, were the only ones still in the household. They were farming rented land. August died in 1905.

By 1910, Pete was living in the home of Paul and Elizabeth Fredrick, probably in the big white house on the east side of S.R. 51 midway between Ainsworth and Hobart (it's still standing). He is described as Paul's cousin. So far the only explanation I can find of this relationship is — if I've found the right people — Elizabeth Fredrick's maiden name was Gross, like Pete's mother's (Paul and Elizabeth having been married in Chicago in 1899 per the Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index).

Peter remained a part of the Fredrick household through the 1920 Census, at least; I cannot find him in the 1930 Census. By the 1940 Census he had become a lodger in a rooming house in Valparaiso.

Pete's obituary reveals another connection to a local family, the Frames. Anna M. Schaller married Irvin G. Frame in April 1905, in Porter County (Indiana Marriage Collection). But I don't know exactly how Irvin (who seems to show up sometimes as Irving or Erwin) fits into the Frame family that I have previously mentioned in the blog. Irvin and Anna show up occasionally in "South of Deepriver" columns and the announcement of the birth of their son Thomas describes them as living "east of Deepriver."[1] But strangely, I haven't been able to find them in any census.


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[1] "General News," Hobart Gazette, Aug. 20, 1915. I have found, on the 1921 plat map of Union Township, a farm southeast of Deepriver under the name of Anna E. Frame. It's across the road from Henry Schaller's farm.

President and Mrs. Grabowski

This photo, dating to 1928, shows Teofil and Wanda Grabowski inside the American State Bank in Gary, Indiana, at which time Teofil was the bank's president.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of Aneta and Zenon Grabowscy.

To judge by the way the lobby is filled with flowers, this photo must have been taken on some special occasion — maybe a national holiday, or a significant event for the bank.

The bank's shell is still standing at 1710 Broadway in Gary, Indiana, and I believe that would have been the address in 1928, as that building was erected in 1924 per the county records. I have been looking through "urban explorer" videos on Youtube showing the interior of the bank building as it is now. Here is a shot of the lobby from 2017:


(Click on image to enlarge)
From https://youtu.be/KbRs_VdM_pY; another video can be found at https://youtu.be/pfSQ60Qe3T0?t=541.

These videos spend some time looking at the massive round door of the vault, which may be the same vault door that you can see in the 1928 photo, in the center background behind the metal bars (still photo here).

A Big Pile of Snow

I bought this photo because I think it shows the aftermath of the Great Blizzard of January 1918:


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Notes on the back identify the location as Chicago, somewhere along the Grand Trunk Railroad …



… but it looks like my driveway today.


(John Le Grand shows up in the 1920 Census as a railroad foreman living in Chicago. Philmore, or Fillmore, was his son.)

The Grabowski Home

(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of Aneta and Zenon Grabowscy.

This photo shows the home of Teofil and Wanda Grabowski at 6430 Grand Boulevard in May of 1928. The handwritten caption translates (via Google) to something like "Spring — estate of T.H. Grabowski." The photo shows the park-like grounds in bloom, and right in the middle, there's Wanda (I'm guessing) with baby Edwin.

The photographer (was it Teofil himself?) stood southwest of the house, pointing the camera northeast. Behind mother and baby we see the driveway that goes down to Grand Boulvard/S.R. 51, flanked by three brick pillars, two of which are still standing. Further north are a couple more brick pillars, which haven't survived. In the background, above that bench in front of Wanda, I believe we are looking at John Dorman's stone pillars.

The Grabowski home was as close to Ainsworth as to Hobart, but the caption associates the property with Hobart — by then incorporated as a city — rather than with the tiny unorganized Ainsworth.