A Stealth Dentist

I bought this postcard because I didn't have this exact view of the 300 block of Main Street.


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It is the east side of Main Street, looking south from Third Street. The postcard is postmarked February 1, 1911.

We've seen all of these things before. What interests me in particular is the second story of 301-305 Main, where we see several awnings and a sign jutting out, all with the word "Dentist." At street level, under the big sign for the law partnership of Bozarth & Bozarth,[1] there is a small plaque with the nearly illegible name of a dentist.

The 1910 Census shows two dentists in town — Fred Werner and Charles Kenward — and of those two names, I think Kenward looks more likely.

But I never heard of Charles Kenward before. How is it possible that I've read so many issues of Hobart newspapers from this era and never heard of one of the two town dentists?

His obituary, from the Hobart Gazette of June 10, 1943, says that he moved to Hobart in 1905 and practiced his profession here until 1918.


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Image from findagrave.com

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I already covered most of the other businesses in this photo in another post about a similar postcard, dated the same year, but looking at this side of the 300 block from the other direction.

Notice that the awning of Scheddell's Drug Store reads "The Mackey Drug Store."

Turning the postcard over, we find it signed "Evea" — I think that's Evea Miller, whom we've met before.



The Floyd with a cold was her toddler-age son. I wonder whom she was planning on leaving him at home with? As for poor Nora, she is a mystery to me.

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[1] I'm not sure who the lawyers were; possibly Nelson and William Bozarth, father and son, who were Valparaiso residents in 1910 but might have had an office in Hobart.

Fats-v.-Leans Baseball

This game in June of 1923 was not the first fats-against-leans game that I've seen. And on holidays such as Independence Day, you might also find foot-races going on — one for the "fats" and one for the "leans." Anyway, in this case the News has left us with a record of the body type of a number of Hobart's male citizens, in case we had no photograph and were wondering!


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Hobart News, June 28, 1923.

Sorry I failed to get the beginning of the story.

As we see from the little item below the summary of the game, Hobart had another team called the Cardinals.

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Back when I was talking about the Frank family, I wondered about the Mulfinger connection. This item in the right-hand column helps a little. Not much.

Saved for the Wrecking Ball

Thank goodness for the fine work of Hobart's fire department and its "most splendid motor fire truck" in March 1923 — or what would there have been to raze 17 years later?


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Hobart Gazette, March 30, 1923.


The "Fasel fire" was the subject of an earlier post.

Notice Axel Strom's advertisement lower down in the right-hand column. I suppose he had to move all his things back from the Fleck residence.

E.R. and Zora

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Dr. E.R. Gordon, circa 1908.
Image credit: "KatharineMRedmond," Ancestry.com.

This item in the "Local Drifts" of the Hobart Gazette of Feb. 28, 1908, tells of Dr. E.R. Gordon making a surprise visit to Hobart with his new bride, Zora (Knopsnyder).


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He is described as "head house physician in one of the Health Homes at the [Bernarr] Macfadden Sanatorium, Battle Creek, Mich." Earlier, we saw in his obituary that he had been a patient at an unnamed sanitarium in Battle Creek, where he met his future wife. The Bernarr Macfadden Sanitarium definitely existed, but I haven't been able to confirm E.R.'s association with it in any source except the Gazette.



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Zora Knopsnyder, as a student at Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, Virginia, circa 1903. Image credit: Ancestry.com


Zora Knopsnyder was born in 1882, which means we have no census record of her until the 1900 Census, where we find her in Ridgway, Pennsylvania, boarding in the home of Edward and Mattie Sowers — who may or may not be related to her; I don't know. In a family tree on Ancestry.com, her parents are listed as Jackson Wynkoop and Margaret (Catz) Knopsnyder; the 1908 paperwork for E.R. and Zora's marriage names her parents only by their initials: J.W. and M.J. In 1900, if I've found the right people, J.W. and M.J. were living in West Virginia. I wonder why Zora chose not to live with them? She was then 18 years old and the enumerator recorded no occupation for her.

E.R. and Zora were married February 19, 1908, in Elk County, Pennsylvania.[1].

After their visit to Hobart, the young couple returned to Battle Creek for several months. In May, Zora came down alone for a visit to her in-laws, staying with them in the house on Second and Center Streets.[2]

In July 1908, E.R. came home to Hobart for good.


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Hobart Gazette 24 July 1908.


(There's another make of car I never heard of before. Looking at the 1908 models on this page, they look so exposed. I'd hate to go out on a call on a cold, rainy night with only that flimsy convertible roof to shield me.)

With E.R. came a 15-year-old boy, formerly a bell boy at the sanatorium, who would work as office boy (in E.R.'s office, I expect).[3] The Gazette gives his name as Ormer Thaker, the 1910 Census as Omar Thenker. I can't find him elsewhere.

E.R. rented an office in the First State Bank building and went about his business as doctor and coroner.


(Click on image to enlarge)Hobart Gazette 2 Oct. 1908.


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[1] Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Marriages, 1852-1968 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. Original data: Marriage Records. Pennsylvania Marriages. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, UT.
[2] "Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette 22 May 1908.
[3] "Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette 31 July 1908; 1910 Census.

Mary Munch's Sorrows

I can't figure out Mary Munch. In my notes I find a report[1] from the autumn of 1922 that the barn at her home "in South Hobart" had burned, although the fire department managed to save the house and the chicken coop; the fire was allegedly caused in her absence by her son-in-law burning rubbish. If she had a son-in-law, she must have had a daughter. But I can't find her daughter in a census.

A few weeks later, Mary traveled to Battle Creek, Michigan, to bring her son to a hospital in Gary.


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Hobart Gazette 24 Nov. 1922.

Her son's surname being Wilson suggests a previous marriage, but in the 1910 Census, Mary Munch is described as being in her first marriage, and having no living children. In the 1920 Census, Mary was widowed and no questions about children were asked.

Joseph Wilson died December 23, 1922 (Indiana Death Certificates). The informant was Mary Munch, who gave her maiden name as Mary Maurice and Joseph's father's name as Paul Wilson. I can't find the Wilson family in the 1900 Census, the earliest place I would have any hope of finding them (since Joseph was born in 1891). The death certificate states that Joseph was married to a Josephine, about whom I know nothing.

After the loss of her son, Mary had a little more than a month of peace before she was caught up in a Prohibition raid.


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Hobart News 22 Feb. 1923.

According to the next day's Gazette, Mary claimed she was only storing the unused still on her place as a favor to Nick Drakulich.[2] If that was true, then she suffered for a crime without having had the fun or the profit from it.

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Over in the right-hand column of that Feb. 22 News, we see that Mary was not the only one having bad times that week. The old Wesley Spencer homestead may have been on Center Street near the Nickel Plate tracks — that location seems to be associated with the Spencer name. And I never heard of Thomas Scott before, but I can't help but be interested in a suicide whose wife, according to her death certificate, died of "acute alcoholism."

I'm a bit confused about what Paul Newman was planning to build (left-hand column above). That sounds like the building on the southeast corner of Third and Center, but the county records don't give 1923 as the year it was built. The 1922 Sanborn map shows a substantial building already there.

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[1] "Barn Burns in South Hobart," Hobart Gazette 3 Nov. 1922.
[2] "Locate Two Stills," Hobart Gazette 23 Feb. 1923.

Lots of Them

On Christmas Day 1922, over there at 61st and Arizona, the family of William and Louisa Lute had an intimate family dinner, just the 37 of them.


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Hobart Gazette 29 Dec. 1922.

Over in the left-hand column we find a summary of "a splendid year's growth" — all the buildings that went up in Hobart in 1922, as well as repairs and remodeling.

Henry Smith (whoever he was) built his house of Kellastone, something I had never heard of before. A little Googling turned up the ad below, which tells us that Kellastone is "imperishable stucco." I wish I knew the location of Henry's house so I could check on that "imperishable" part … if it's still there. I don't suppose they meant that Kellastone could resist the wrecking ball.


Image credit: stuccometrics.com

Hey, search engine, over here: Banks, Baumer, Brahst, Bruhn, Burris, Campbell, Carey, Carlson, Ciesilski, Demmon, Dewell, Fasel, Fasel, Ferren, Fleming, Flick, Gransow, Gresser, Gruel, Harney, Henderson, Jahnke, Kasonovich, Kibler, Killigrew, King, Kozub, Kramer, Kucaba, Lutz, McAfee, Metaxis, Miscevich, Mundell, Newman, Niksch, Norris, Palm, Peddicord, Phillips, Popp, Ream, Scharbach, Scholler, Schuelke, Schuknecht, Schwuchow, Scull, Smith, Smith, Sohn, Thompson, Verplank, White, Zelibor

Augusta Juhnke Lewin

The day after Christmas 1922, Augusta Lewin passed away at home in the Shearer house.


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Hobart News 28 Dec. 1922.

Here we learn that in addition to her daughter, Ida, and her son, John, she had suffered the loss of three other children.

See also "Death of Mrs. Lewin," Hobart Gazette 29 Dec. 1922.

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The News of December 28 also carried this less depressing item:

Hobart's Yellowstone Trail Members

Here's something for you Yellowstone Trail fans: a list of Hobart people and businesses who in December 1922 promised five years' support for the Trail's maintenance and promotion.


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Hobart News 28 Dec. 1922.

I can't index that many names, so here they are for the search engine: S.E. Henderson, O.L. Pattee, Brahst Bros., Hobart Bank, A.J. Newman, First State Bank, Albert Orcutt, Dwight Mackey, Clara Faulkner, Frank Reissig, Busse & Long, Phillips & Byall, Nick Ehrhardt, National Oil & Supply Co., Hobart Lumber Co., R.R. Peddicord, George Watkins, Roper Bros, Emil Scharbach, Hobart Filling Station.


Below that story is one about a wedding anniversary that draws our attention to some Deep-River-area history.

Mary (Ferguson) Hanna was a niece of Catherine Mereness Crisman, but her immediate family is elusive. The earliest I can find her parents, Ezra and Anna (aka Christiana) Ferguson, in a census is 1900, where they are recorded farming in Union Township, Porter County; yet they were married in Lake County in 1861 (Indiana Marriage Collection), and the Civil War draft registration records Ezra in Union Township in 1863. Mary had been born in 1862 (Indiana Death Certificates).

Thomas Hanna was born in Michigan in 1858. I find it interesting that his death certificate (1953) has a blank for his father's given name, and "Unknown" for his mother's name. Either the person who completed the certificate was a bit offhand about it, or his daughter Eva, who reported his death, did not know much about her paternal grandparents.

In the 1900 Census, which shows the Hanna family living in Hobart, Thomas gives his occupation as "R.R. Towerman." By the 1910 Census he had become a teamster — a drayman, as the article says — but the 1920 Census shows him back on the railroad, as a section worker.

Mary died in 1928. I can't find Thomas in 1930. If I've found the right person in the 1940 Census, Thomas had remarried, and his second wife was named Mary, too. I believe the second Mary Hanna died in 1950. Apparently nobody knew her maiden name at that time; from clues on Ancestry.com I'm guessing that it was Moffitt and that her first husband's surname was Smith. I think I need obituaries for all of these people if I'm ever going to figure this out.

As for this Davis Peck — the Deep River justice of the peace from 1882 — I wonder if he was any relation to the Pecks who keep showing up in those "South of Deepriver" columns, but at the moment I don't know anything about him.

… And finally, burgling the home of a grieving widower is pretty darn low.

130 Center Street

In the Hobart News of September 28, 1922, we find this little notice: "Wanted — Roomers and boarders. Mrs. W.G. Fisher, 130 Center Street."

Her giving the address settles the question of where the Fisher family lived. Evidently even a family of eight left space in the two-story Stocker house for roomers and boarders.

And Jennie Fisher may have felt the need to supplement the family income after her husband's disappointment with the Nickel Plate Garage business.

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Elsewhere in the same issue of the News, Everett "Mickey" Newman declared that he intended to quit racing. We shall see.

Main Street, 300 Block, circa 1909

I mentioned having a circa-1909 view of the 300 block of Main Street, so I suppose I had better cough it up now.


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This is the east side, from mid-block north to Third Street. The First State Bank is at the near corner of Main and Third.

I suppose one or two of those awnings next south of the bank cover the Main Street entrance to Scheidt & Keilman's Bee Hive, but there's nothing legible to confirm that.

Two narrower awnings are marked "Buffet," if my eyes don't deceive me, but I don't know who ran that business.

Next we see the two-story building housing the drugstore, with "DRUGS" on the awning (and "Mackey Drug Store" on the front border of the awning). On the south side of that building is what appears to be a ramshackle fence plastered all over with signs, on some of which I can see something about "4th of July" and "Hobart."

South of the fence is the office of the Hobart Gazette.

On the south side of the newspaper office is a two-story building with a saloon operating at street level. The saloon's awnings bear the name "E. Ahrens," but the sign sticking out over the sidewalk reads "Schavey & Ahrens."

The awning at the right edge of the photo is probably the same one that reads "PUMPS, PLUMBING & WELL(?) SUPPLIES" in the 1911 photo, marking Newman's hardware store.

The postmark is October 1909:

"Our Store"

This view of Main Street comes from a postcard postmarked 1911. The sender has drawn an arrow pointing to "our store":


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The arrow points to a building with a sign reading "Drug Store," topped by a curved embellishment bearing a name that is not legible. That building once housed a drug store operated at various times under the names Mackey and Scheddell.

Having written "our store," the writer then turned the postcard over and clearly signed herself "Edna":



So far as I have been able to determine, there was no Edna in the Scheddell family or the Mackey family.

However, there was an Edna in the Scheidt family, and Scheidt & Keilman's Bee Hive store was just slightly north of the drugstore.

On this image, blown up to 1200 dpi on the scanner, it's clear which building is marked, but on the original 3.5" x 5.5" postcard, it's not nearly so clear. I think it quite possible that Edna Scheidt marked the wrong building by mistake. That's my theory, and I'm sticking to it.

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Moving south from the drugstore, let's see what we have here:



(1) A one-story wooden building, probably housing the Gazette office.*

(2) A two story building with a sign advertising Blatz beer, suggesting that it houses a saloon, which I think is operated by Fred Ahrens and Fred Schavey, Jr.*

(3) Newman's Hardware, operated by Paul Newman, who is more generally associated with his later location at Third and Center Streets. (This leads me to wonder if I wrongly categorized the interior shot of the hardware store; it could have been taken inside this Main Street location.)

(4) A saloon, "Hogan's Place," operated by Hugo Zobjeck, who seems to have been called "Hogan" as a nickname.

(5) The bakery operated by Severin Baumer** and, later, his son Fred Baumer.

(6) Real estate and insurance office operated by Lewis E. Barnes.

(7) Real estate office operated by a retired Ainsworth farmer, Gilbert Bullock.

(8) A billiard-and-pool business operated by Calvin L. Fleming, where the cigars he sold may have been of his own making.

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*I'm cheating by looking at another postcard that hasn't been posted to the blog yet, but more clearly shows the mid-block area circa 1909.
**He is recorded as "Siegfried" in the 1910 Census.

Hobart Harmony House

Here is the southwest corner of the intersection of 7th and Lincoln, in 1970:


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First two images in this post courtesy of Eldon Harms.



As we can tell from the signs, this was the Hobart Harmony House Conservatory of Music. Here is a listing for that business in a 1962 Hobart directory:



The house had been built long before, however, on a farmer's town lot, and for many years was the home of Henry (Sr.) and Johanna Harms.

How long before, I do not know, but I did find this intriguing item in the "Local Drifts" of the Hobart Gazette of Nov. 15, 1901: "Paul Newman is building a brick foundation for Henry Harmes' new house that will be built next spring just west of Main street and south of the 'J' railroad." If the Harmses had previously built a house on that lot, you would expect that item to describe the new house as being next to the present house. Early in March 1902, the Gazette mentioned that the house was nearing completion, and the Harmses planning to move into it soon.

The 1901-02 house is no longer standing. The house that now occupies that corner was built in 1970, according to the county records, so perhaps the two photos above show the old Harms house in its last days.

The second house from the corner was built in 1925, per the county records. That one, I believe, the Harmses built so that they could live in one and rent out the other … but I haven't got that far in my newspaper reading yet.

The records give 1918 as the building date of the third house from the corner; that's the one that Fred and Mayme (Harms) Harney moved into in July 1920.

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As for the Hobart Harmony House, I don't know much about it, except that if you went there seeking to learn to play the bagpipes, you were out of luck.

South of Deepriver

Random bits from the countryside south of Deepriver, late July-early August 1922.


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Hobart News 3 Aug. 1922

I don't know exactly what a separator canvas is, but the wording of that item suggests that the farmers of southeastern Ross Township had chipped in to buy themselves a communal farm machine — a sensible thing to do — and it was getting a workout in that summer's wheat threshing.

… Here's a little article about a threshing machine that has a separator and a canvas, somehow or another.


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From the Chilton Tractor Journal, Vol VIII, No. 4 (April 1, 1922). Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?id=xsZMAQAAMAAJ&lpg=RA3-PA14&ots=pSADxxAJwL&pg=RA3-PA14&ci=80%2C816%2C899%2C500&source=bookclip#v=onepage&q&f=false.

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Elsewhere in the August 3, 1922 issue of the News, we find out that the strikebreaker has still not recovered …



… and among the familiar names in the second column, we also find Miss Jeanette Peterson, daughter of Lena and George. The Hugo Zobjeck at Camp Knox in Kentucky was Hugo Jr., now about 17 years old.

In the third column are a couple of obituaries. The first concerns the untimely death of Ida (Heck) Carlson, who probably grew up on the old Heck place. The second brings me to consider the Wilson family of Union Township, Porter County, whom I have considered very little up to now. Mrs. Jane Harwood would have been Aunt Jane to "Miss Leola Wilson of Blachly's corners," and also, I believe, to Ralph Wilson, who in his youth took music lessons from Ainsworth's own Hugh Dotzer ("Ainsworth Pick-Ups," Hobart Gazette 6 Jan. 1905). In my notes and in the blog, I find several references to Wilsons, and some day when I retire and have time on my hands, perhaps I shall investigate which of them belonged to the Wilson family of Union Township.

Here is the farm of Jane's parents, Amos and Hannah Wilson, as it appeared on the 1876 plat map:


From http://www.inportercounty.org/Data/Maps/1876Plats/Union-1876.jpg, courtesy of Steven R. Shook.

To Yellowstone Park via Yellowstone Trail

It was only fitting that Paul Newman, local trailsman, should travel the Yellowstone Trail himself. He and his wife, Margaret, set out from Hobart on June 26, 1922, driving west on the Trail. They were halfway to Yellowstone Park when they sent a progress report back home:


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Hobart News 13 July 1922.

They completed the westbound journey on the Yellowstone Trail. The return trip followed an alternate route that included parts of the Lincoln Highway. After six weeks of traveling, the Newmans arrived back home in Hobart.


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Hobart News 10 Aug. 1922.

Of Garages and Grief

At Newman's garage in Hobart, on a July day in 1922, a car was brought in by some men who didn't have sense enough to keep from getting rowdy and attracting attention when they were carrying moonshine.


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Hobart News 13 July 1922.

Meanwhile, the Nickel Plate Garage slipped out of William Fisher's reach. We shall see if he continues operating out of the old whip factory with his surviving eldest son, Floyd. (He had two more sons, but they were still schoolboys.)


Additional Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Lands Four in Jail." Hobart Gazette 14 July 1922.

Harriet Towl Ragen

An early resident of Ross Township, Harriet Ragen died in June 1922, just short of her 79th birthday.


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Hobart Gazette 30 June 1922.

Here is the Ragen farm as it appeared on the 1874 Plat Map.



This map suggests a house in the approximate location of 4012 E. 73rd Ave., where there now stands a house and large barn along with other outbuildings, most of which date to 1921 if the county property records are correct.

After moving to Hobart in 1896, the Ragens rented out their farm. Charles and Lovisa (Chester) Nelson rented it in the spring of 1903; by August of that year, the Ragens had rented it to a Wilhelm Neuman (or Newman), reportedly for a five-year term. By December 1908 George Ragen was advertising for a new tenant. In September 1914, the widowed Harriet, now living in Gary, offered it for sale or rent. She sold it in January 1915 to May Blachly (who sold it to S.J. Craig, who sold it to Emil Wojahn … who probably built that house and barn, etc.).

I believe "Mrs. Cora Maybaum of Gary" was married to Louis Maybaum, the streetcar motorman whose photo we've seen.

Harriet Ragen's husband, George, was not only a veteran of the Civil War but also a brother of Amanda Ragen Bullock, as we learn from his obituary:


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Hobart Gazette 1 Mar. 1912.

That would explain why Joseph (aka Josiah) Halladay came down from Chicago in June 1922 to attend Harriet Ragen's funeral — he was the husband of Amanda Ragen Bullock's daughter, Ruth. (I don't know why Ruth did not accompany him.)

From George's obituary, also, we also learn that the "Mrs. Mary Stevens of Gary" who survived Harriet was the wife of Hobart's one-time baker and restaurateur, Willard Stevens (so I suppose she is the Mate Stevens identified in one of the photos in that first link).

In closing, I will add this random item I came across in the 1901 microfilm: "A carload of laborers, men and women of the African type, have pitched camp upon George Ragon's farm near the Grand Trunk railroad and will be engaged in work on the double track grading. They are said to be a jolly crowd."

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The second story marked on the 1922 image above tells us that the elder Severances, George and Anna, had celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary. I believe Bunge is a misprint for Burge — the married name of their daughter, Mary.


Additional Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "For Sale or Rent." Hobart Gazette 25 Sept. 1914.
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette 19 Apr. 1901; 24 Apr. 1903; 28 Aug. 1903; 11 Mar. 1904; 11 Dec. 1908.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 6 July 1922.

A Big Tent

When last we met the Amlong family — Ossie,* Lottie, and their daughter, Martha — they were living on Lake Street in Hobart, in a rented house. That was the autumn of 1921. Now it's the spring of 1922, and the Amlongs, unable to find a house they like, have decided to leave behind the summer heat and fragrances of town to camp out in a country setting.


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"Local and Personal," Hobart News 1 June 1922.

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Meanwhile, more mundanely, Charles and Amelia Goldman are selling potatoes in Ainsworth, at what I suppose was a good price for 1922.


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"Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette 2 June 1922.

At the moment I'm guessing that Everett Newman went by the nickname "Mickey." It would be nice if someone could confirm that for me.

And yet another party at the Fasel home on East 10th Street.

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*I've just learned his given name was Osceola: small wonder that he chose "O. Amlong" as his public name.

A Garage at Deep River

As the summer of 1922 approaches, we find the 68-year-old Thomas Strong putting his carpentry skills to work in the village of Deep River … I just wish I knew whose garage it was.


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Hobart News 1 June 1922.

Below that, we learn that the Hubert and Daisy Bullock family (with their recently graduated son, Elmer, and younger son, Cecil)* are leaving my bailiwick, while (in the "Births" column) John Charles Sapper and Vernon Charles Bothwell are entering it. The "Local Drifts" of the June 2 Hobart Gazette noted that Hubert Bullock had already closed up his auto repair shop in Crown Point and moved the family to South Bend. The W.B. Owen family was still in Hobart, but "Mr. Owen has opened a Paige sales station [in South Bend] and spends most of the time there." Hubert Bullock was to be in charge of the Paige service station.

The two other items marked concern the campground in the McAfee woods, along the Yellowstone Trail. Paul Newman felt compelled to warn his fellow citizens that if they mistreated the campground (e.g., by stealing its pump) or the travelers on the Trail, they were giving their town bad publicity nationwide. On a happier note, the Trinity Lutheran school was planning to hold a grand picnic at the campground.

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*In the 1920 Census I find a Chas. Hendricks living in Hubert's household, but the scan on Ancestry.com is not legible enough for me to determine whether he could be Laura's father. Whoever transcribed the page for Ancestry.com read his relationship to Hubert as "brother-in-law," but I don't think that transcription is correct.

New Location for Old Schoolhouse

In April 1922 came the time for Hobart's first schoolhouse to make way for a new Masonic hall.


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Hobart Gazette 28 Apr. 1922.

The News reported on the schoolhouse's move a little more quietly.


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"Local and Personal," Hobart News 27 Apr. 1922.

The family who had occupied the old schoolhouse until its move may have included Irene Slaughter, who appeared in the 1920 Census as a 37-year-old widow supporting herself by dressmaking; she was then living alone in a rented house on Center Street near the Mackey home. (In an overwhelmingly white town, she was the only person in that vicinity with a "B" marked in the "Color or Race" column.)


Above that item, we learn that William Newman (whoever he may have been) had visited "Hogan" Zobjeck, better known as Hugo, whose Porter County farm I still have not identified.

Superior Farms and Certified Milk

Jumping around in time as I do with the blog, I've long associated the Gruel farm with the name Superior Farms, but apparently it did not get that name until early in 1922:


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Hobart Gazette 27 Jan. 1922.

(And apparently Fred Scharbach objected to his mention in the previous week's letter from Canada.)



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Hobart News 9 Feb. 1922.


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Hobart Gazette 24 Mar. 1922.