Tressy Leaves Ainsworth

Early September 1919 took Theresia Chester away from Ainsworth, as she became the wife of Robert Shaw:


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The "Sept. 5" in that article is a typo — the wedding took place on September 3, 1919, and I gather it was in Chicago.

I notice, from another story on that page, that the area had a dry summer in 1919, as we've been having, and that the Gazette's editor felt free to use the word "drouth," which seems to nowadays to have fallen away in favor of "drought."

The Border Wireless had been released in September 1918; its story line managed to combine the Great War with the Wild West.


Sources:
♦ Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index.
♦ "Shaw-Chester." Hobart Gazette 5 Sept. 1919.

Dick Wheaton, Ham (Random Old Photo)

This is pretty much all Greek to me. All I understand of it is that Dick Wheaton operated a ham radio in Hobart in 1937.


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This message was written on the back:



The 1940 Census shows Dick Wheaton as 32 years old, living on 8th Street in Hobart, with Hazard and Alta Halsted. He is described as Hazard's stepson, and his occupation is given as "electrical manager" in a "retail department store." He is similarly described in a Hobart city directory for 1940-41 as a "Dept. Mgr." living at 759 E. 8th Street. (The 1930 Census shows Robert and Alta Wheaton having a 22-year-old son, Russell. I suppose it's possible that Alta Wheaton of 1930 might have become Alta Halsted by 1940, but in that case I don't know what happened to the Wheaton marriage, nor how to account for Russell's becoming Richard/Dick, if indeed he did.)

A 1936-37 directory describes Dick as a salesman for Sears-Roebuck and gives his address as 433 Center Street.

A 1955 directory lists "Wheaton, R E" at 614 E. 3rd Street, with the notation "Television & Appliance."

Babies of August

In Hobart, the second Mrs. Scroggins gave birth on August 16 to a little girl, Mabel Louise. Mabel's five-year-old brother, Edward Jr., was there to help celebrate, but her stepsisters were living with their grandmother, Mary Chester McDaniel, in Chicago.

On a farm southeast of Ainsworth, James and Iva Pecinka also had a new daughter: Lois, born August 26. She was their fifth child.

I've scarcely mentioned the Pecinkas, aside from James' signing of the high-school petition. They appear sometimes in the social and birth columns — a quietly sociable farming family; no scandals or tragedies. In August 1917, when their fourth child was born, they had been living near Deer Creek in Winfield Township. In March 1918, they moved into Ross Township, to rent the D.L. Guernsey land. I believe they were still there in 1920, as the census seems to place them near Milon Hurlburt and Otis Guernsey.


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From the 1926 Plat Book.

I think that land belonged to David L. and Stella Guernsey, Iva Pecinka's parents.


Sources:
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Births." Hobart Gazette 3 Aug. 1917; 29 Aug. 1919.
♦ "Births." Hobart News 28 Aug. 1919.
♦ Indiana Marriage Collection.
♦ "South of Deepriver." Hobart News 7 Mar. 1918.

Good for 5¢ in Trade (Random Old Image)

Still catching up on several months' purchases.

At some point I may get educated enough to assign a date to this little token from the Bates Grill & Hotel. Right now I can't.


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The original is just slightly larger than a penny.

♦    ♦    ♦
[8/7/2012 update] See this post for a Bates Grill menu.

George's New Dodge

Yet another item from the August 28, 1919 News! Our friend, George Sauter, gets a new van to go with his new grocery store.


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I think this might be the van in question:


Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The Gazette went so far as to call it "beautiful."

(By the way, I wonder if the Earl Ramsey mentioned in the item just below the one about George's van has any relation to the elusive Wm. Ramsey?)


Sources:
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 28 Aug. 1919.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 29 Aug. 1919.

Third Anniversary (Random Pointless Photos)

In honor of my blog's third anniversary, here are some sappy cloud pix from a few days ago:


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I can't believe I've been carrying on with this nonsense for three years! Blogging, I mean, not taking sappy cloud pix — that I've been doing since I first got my hands on a camera.

Young Woman with Glasses (Random Old Photo)

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We don't know who she is — nothing written on the back of this photo.

According to the Gazette souvenir edition of 1898, L.K. Showman opened his photography business in Hobart in 1893. It was still operating in 1898. I haven't yet found out when it ceased to operate; at the moment I'm guessing around the turn of the century.

Though the portrait doesn't show much of our young woman's dress, her sleeves look like the leg-o'-mutton style popular for much of the mid-1890s. I think she is in her teens — her face looks almost childish, but then she wears earrings and that elaborate dress; her hair is up, but adorned with a bow in back.