Thursday, February 29, 2024

Puppy Vacation III: Snack Attack

2024-03-01. Twix outside
(Click on images to enlarge)

2024-03-01. Snickers outside

Twix and Snickers are on loan from the Humane Society of Hobart for a couple of weeks. They are such good boys, I might actually be able to get something done on this puppy vacation.

Here they are playing with one of my dogs:

2024-03-01. Snickers, Twix and Buddy

Monday, February 26, 2024

Another Branch on the Bodamer Tree

But who (I asked myself) was this John Bodamer who in 1930 sold his 34 acres to the Wiernasciewicz family? — who exactly, I meant, since obviously he was one of the many Bodamers who farmed in eastern Ross Township over so much of its history.

It didn't take much research to figure out that he was a brother of George and Benjamin, and the son of Christopher F. and Elizabeth (Lortz) Bodamer.

According to information someone has added to Christopher's findagrave.com entry, the family came to Lake County from New York in 1854. John was born in 1855. The 1860 Census shows the Bodamer family farming in Ross Township — exact location unknown, but to judge by the names recorded near them, they probably already occupied the Randolph Street (S. Hobart Rd.) area that would be continue to belong to Bodamers well into the 20th century. On the 1874 Plat Map, I believe the "C. Batlmer" who owned 160 acres in Section 9 was just C. Bodamer with his name misspelled:

2024-02-26. Bodamer 1874
(Click on image to enlarge)

The 1876 plat map of Union Township in Porter County shows that Christopher and Elizabeth also owned two good-sized farms near Union Center.

In 1878, John Bodamer married 18-year-old Adelia Nicholas of Center Township, an Ohio native whose family had come to Porter County sometime after 1867. With all those Bodamer farms around here, I was surprised to find John and Adelia in the 1880 Census farming in St. Joseph County, Indiana. They had one baby son, Alvah. They would go on to have two more sons, Vernon (b. 1882) and Herman (b. 1887).

In 1894, John's father, Christopher, died and was buried in Jasper County, Indiana, where he had been living separately from his wife (or former wife), Elizabeth. I do not know whether John and Adelia returned to this area soon after his father's death, as I cannot find them at all in the 1900 Census. But the 1906 Union Township plat map shows two farms under the name of J.F. Bodamer …

2024-02-26. Union-1906
Image from https://www.inportercounty.org/Data/Maps/1906Plats/Union-1906.jpg.

… and by the 1910 Census, they were living on their own farm in Union Township, described as being on the Joliet Road.

By then their three children were grown and out of the house. In 1907, their eldest, Alvah, had married Carrie Wolfe. In 1910 that young couple were farming rented land in Ross Township, with Alvah's unmarried brother, Vernon, in their household. It was in this time frame that we've encountered Alvah and Vernon, the "Bodamer brothers," hiring themselves and their machinery out to do threshing for their Ross Township neighbors. In 1915, Vernon married Anna Murray. Per the 1920 Census, Vernon and Anna took over farming the rented land in Ross Township (apparently part of the Randolph St. land of their grandparents); Alvah and Carrie moved to Porter County and the youngest brother, Herman, lived with them. (Herman never married, and apparently was a bit of a loner. When he died in 1957, some ten days passed before his body was found.[1])

In 1920, John and Adelia were still farming their Union Township land. I haven't found any evidence that John and Adelia, after their marriage, ever actually lived on the Ross Township farm. I suspect he just inherited it or bought it from his father's estate, and rented it out.

In February 1925, Adelia died at the age of 64. She is buried in the Mosier Cemetery.

I think the 1926 Plat Map contains an error, in that it fails to show John's Ross Township farm:

2024-02-26. Bodamer 1926
(Click on image to enlarge)

The highlighted "B.B." would be John's brother, Benjamin — or rather, his widow, Bertha, since Ben died in 1917. John's 34-acre farm lay on the south border of B.B.'s. John owned those 34 acres in 1930 when he sold them to the Wiernasciewiczes, and the 1939 Plat Map shows the subject of that sale. I have a hard time believing John Bodamer sold the land to John Gruel sometime after 1908, then bought it back in time to sell it again in 1930.

In the 1930 Census, John was living alone in his farm home in Union Township. Alvah and Carrie and their three foster children lived nearby. As much as I'd like to think all was family harmony and bucolic peace around Union Center, I have found suggestions otherwise; for example:

2024-02-26. Punished For Attack on Whiting Man, Hammond-Times-June,22-1925-p-1
(Click on image to enlarge)
Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 22 June 1925.


Was John always like that, I wonder, or did his wife's death, several months earlier, change him for the worse?

And a few years later, we have conflict in the family:

2024-02-26. Note Holder Loses Case, Vidette_Messenger_of_Porter_County_Thu__May_9__1929_
(Click on image to enlarge)
Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 9 May 1929.



But all such concerns came to an end for John in 1932.

2024-02-26. John Bodamer Dies at 82, Valparaiso-Vidette-Messenger-November,25-1932-p-1
(Click on image to enlarge)
Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 24 Nov. 1932.


(He was 77, actually, and it had been seven years since Adelia died.)

_______________
[1] "Herman Bodamer's Body Is Found; Dead About 10 Days," Vidette -Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 11 Mar. 1957.

Monday, February 19, 2024

A Tough Old Bird

In the wee hours of Sunday morning, February 10, 1963, three armed robbers went up against the 70-year-old Peter Bates. Guess who won?

2024-02-19. Bates, Gazette, 2 Feb. 1963
(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart Gazette, 14 Feb. 1963.


This story prompted me to look into Peter's background more than I ever had before. He was born Batestes Batistatos in Greece in 1893.[1] Sometime after coming to the U.S. around 1908,[2] he started Anglicizing his name. When he became a naturalized citizen in 1936, he officially changed his name to Peter Bates.[3]

The first record I can find after his immigration is the 1930 Census, where he is living in Hobart and running his own confectionery store. According to the Hobart Historical Society's 1979 oral history, Peter first operated in the candy store in the east side of the Guyer building, then moved to Main Street.

By that time he was married. I know very little about his wife, Lena. She was born in Canada in 1888, but I do not know her maiden name. She told the 1930 census enumerator that she came to the U.S. in 1921, and that she and Peter had been married around 1924. I haven't been able to find a record of their marriage. Her 1959 death certificate states that her husband, the informant, did not know who her parents had been. Her brief death notice mentioned a sister …

2024-02-19. Bates, Lena, obit, Gazette, 07-23-1959
(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart Gazette, 23 July 1959.
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.


… but since there was more than one Helen Harney in the Los Angeles area[4] in that time frame and I don't know which was Lena's sister, I can't use the sister as a source for Lena's background.

I don't doubt that Peter and Lena were still living in Hobart when the 1940 census came around, but I can't find them on Ancestry.com — probably a transcription issue. Peter's 1942 draft card lists his residence as 314 Main in Hobart.

They do appear in in the 1950 Census, of course, still living at 314 Main Street, where they operated their hotel and tavern. It does not appear that the couple ever had any children.

As we know, Lena died in 1959. Peter bought an ornate memorial stone for her.

Peter died in 1970:

2024-02-19. Bates, Peter, obit, Gazette, 12-03-1970
(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart Gazette, 3 Dec. 1970.
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.


The Hobart Historical Society museum has a file on him with several articles about his impressive collection of weapons.

♦    ♦    ♦

The story about the robbers mentions someone else we've met before: Rex Roll. Obviously, if he lived at the Bates Hotel, he and Alice had split up; by that time, she might have already been married to her second husband. Rex, apparently, was not remarried.

_______________

[1] Some sources give his birth year as 1895 (e.g., the 1950 census and his death certificate); his WWII draft card shows his date of birth as February 10, 1892.
[2] That is the date he gave the 1930 census enumerator. Ancestry.com turns up a record of a Batestes Batistatos arriving in New York in 1910 (INDEX TO THE NATURALIZATION RECORDS OF DUPAGE COUNTY, ILLINOIS. Lombard, IL: Dupage County (IL) Genealogical Society, 1999. 248p).
[3] Naturalization record per Ancestry.com.
[4] I think that for "Montre Park" in the obit we can read "Monterey Park."

Friday, February 2, 2024

Puppy Vacation II: The Yappening

Walter and Seymore are on loan from the Humane Society of Hobart for two weeks. They specialize in yapping.

2024-02-02. Walter and Seymore
(Click on image to enlarge)

I can't tell them apart without seeing their collars.

This is Seymore:

2024-02-02. Seymore