Who Was Delia? (Unidentified Glass-Plate Image)

(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The top image is identified only as "Delia"; the second not identified at all, but it's obviously the same young woman. Who was Delia? What was she, that our glass-plate photographer tried twice to reproduce her image? — local beauty? literary character represented by nameless model? flash-in-the-pan celebrity?

And if she was a local girl, why wasn't Delia herself available for photographing? And then who asked for the reproduction? I can think of several sad, romantic stories to explain all that … but people don't come here for fiction.

In the second image, you can see there's something printed in fancy lettering on the lower right of the page, but it's hopelessly out of focus and no amount of monkeying with the image can make it legible. At least, not with the poor monkeying tools I've got.

"He Won't See France"

(Click on image to enlarge)

This August 1918 list of local men bound for the army training camps contained some familiar names. Frank Booty was the son of Constance McClain Booty Chester; I don't know whether he was living apart from his mother and stepfather, or the News simply didn't bother to acknowledge Ainsworth's existence. Edward Louis Gruel was, I believe, the 21-year-old son of Ainsworth's John and Louisa Gruel. We've already seen George Sauter trying once again to take a rest before going off to war. And we've seen Fred Rose, Jr. in uniform; now I know why.

George's sister Lizzie came down from Grand Rapids with her second husband, Alfred Epps, probably to bid her brother farewell. Now both Sauter boys would be in the army.

The shipment of men leaving on August 26 for Camp Sherman in Ohio included Frank Booty and Edward Gruel. On the 28th, George Sauter and Fred Rose, Jr. were among the 30-some men who left for Camp Custer in Michigan. The local draft board (which included former Hobartite Lewis E. Barnes) appointed George "Marshal" of the group by — his responsibilities included arranging transportation to the camp (they traveled on the Michigan Central Railroad) and otherwise having "full charge of the quota." Three men failed to appear at the designated departure time, but they would be "apprehended," the Gazette assured its readers.

Just as George was leaving, Augusta Sauter Fiester received a letter from his younger brother, Edward, now near the front, with a hopeful message: George would "never see France" — the Allies were "going so strong" that the war would be over before he got out of training.

♦    ♦    ♦
Word came that our flyboy, George Severance, Jr., had been doubly honored since going overseas. First, he and the rest of his company had been received by the King of England before leaving for the front. More importantly, he had been promoted to lieutenant.

George had been "on the firing line in France since May 25," according to the Gazette. "While we are not permitted to say exactly where his company is fighting, we are pleased to learn that he was with the first American soldiers to plant foot upon German soil."


Sources:
♦ "Boys Leave in Good Spirits." Hobart Gazette 30 Aug. 1918.
♦ "Boys Off to War." Hobart Gazette 30 Aug. 1918.
♦ "Crown Point District Quota Called for August 26th." Hobart News 22 Aug. 1918.
♦ "Hobart Boy Honored." Hobart Gazette 30 Aug. 1918.
♦ "Hobart Boys Leave for Different Cantonments This Week." Hobart News 29 Aug. 1918.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 29 Aug. 1918.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 23 Aug. 1918.

Wildflowers of Ainsworth: Doorweed

(Click on image to enlarge)

AKA Common Knotweed. Found in my garden. None of the pictures I took came out very well, but I don't intend to devote any more of my life to photographing this ugly little thing.

Phil Roper with Team and Wagon

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

Notes on the back of the original read: "Philip Roper mail carrier/Phil Roper dairy wagon." Whether he used this wagon for both purposes, I don't know. There is no date on the photo. <> Along the Route (Ballantyne and Adams) mentions Philip Roper as a mail carrier during the time that Harry Carlson was postmaster (1929 – 1933); I wonder whether rural mail was still being delivered by horse-drawn wagon at that late date.

Notice the long fringes on the horses' harness. What a fancy get-up, just to deliver the mail or the milk.

♦    ♦    ♦
Here is Philip Roper Sr.'s obituary, from the Hobart Gazette of October 11, 1918. (I think it was Philip Jr. who carried mail.)


(Click on image to enlarge)

More Than a Farmhand

(Click on image to enlarge)

Wandering around in Woodvale Cemetery, you may come across this lonely grave, not part of any family plot, the only one in the graveyard with that surname.

Louis Mains was a farmhand, working for the Buchfuehrers southeast of Ainsworth. They had taken him from "a home in Terre Haute" — whether private or institutional isn't clear — when he was just 11 years old. His parents were both living, but separated, and apparently neither could provide him a home. At the same time Louis came to Ainsworth, his older sister, Lucile, went to stay with the Frank Schumacher family in Hobart.

When Louis and Frederike Buchfuehrer retired from farming in 1917, their son Emil kept Louis on at the farm. Over the years, Louis had so impressed the Buchfuehrers with his good character and serious work ethic — he "was a splendid boy to work," they would later say — that they had grown quite fond of him. They probably expected him to make a success of his life, in spite of its rather shaky start.

The end came on August 11, 1918. It was a bright Sunday afternoon. Louis and a friend, Ralph Edwards (a hired hand on the Julius Triebess farm), walked over to the Deep River to go swimming. Ralph knew how to swim, but Louis didn't, so he wore "wings" — probably a cork version of our modern-day inflatable water wings. The boys plunged into the water, heading toward the opposite bank. And then something went wrong. Louis yelled; Ralph looked back; Louis' arms flew up; the "wings" had slipped off and were floating away; suddenly Louis disappeared under the water. It all happened so fast — Ralph couldn't reach his friend before he sank, and once he sank, he was lost.

Ralph ran to get help. As the alarm spread, a number of men left their Sunday-afternoon activities to join in the search. After about an hour, William Wood found Louis' body, in about 10 feet of water, and with Robert Thorpe's help pulled it out. They carried the drowned boy home to the Buchfuehrers. Dr. C.C. Brink was summoned from Hobart, but it was as deputy coroner — there was no hope.

The Buchfuehrers, deeply grieved, behaved as if Louis had been their own son. They hired Alwin Wild as undertaker, arranged for the funeral to be held in the Deep River church, and laid the boy to rest in Woodvale Cemetery, near their home.

The funeral was "largely attended." Among the mourners was Louis' father (name unknown); he came up from Covington, Indiana. If sister Lucile was still living with the Schumachers in Hobart, she likely made the short trip down to Deep River that day. But the boy's mother, who resided in either Covington or Terre Haute (depending on which newspaper you read), apparently did not attend.

I don't know who bought that nice grave marker for Louis. I'm inclined to think it was the Buchfuehrers.


Sources:
♦ "Boy Drowns in Deep River." Hobart Gazette 16 Aug. 1918.
♦ "Louis Mains Loses His Life by Drowning Sunday Afternoon." Hobart News 15 Aug. 1918.

When an Amateur Historian Has a Good Day(Random Pointless Photos)

… It has nothing to do with being an amateur historian. I finally got the mortise lock on my kitchen door replaced. It only took three days and one trip to Hobart Lumber for new chisels and wood filler.

They make these old-fashioned-looking doorknob/lock sets, where they even pre-scratch the finish for you to make it look all worn and historical.

(No, I cannot paint my door! If I painted it, it wouldn't be shabby chic anymore; now, would it?)

I hate to lose any original part of my house, but with this old doorknob I had gotten to where I was afraid to close the door all the way for fear I wouldn't be able to get it open again.

The Blaemire Kids (Unidentified Glass-Plate Image)

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

The photographer identified this image only as "Blamire Kids." Obviously, one of them isn't a kid. If she's the kids' mother, perhaps she's Jessie Blaemire, or Annie Blaemire. Without a date, there's no point in trying to get more specific. And it's difficult to judge the date on this one; I can only get a general impression, mainly from the clothing, of the first decade of the 20th century.