Evelyn's 14th

From the Triebess scrapbook.


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

Ninety-three years ago today, at about this time, Evelyn Triebess was at a dinner party.

Letters from Elma's Mama

Eathel Westbay was born May 25, 1888, to Leander and Jerusha Westbay of Lake County, Indiana. On January 7, 1907, she married Forrest Gradle, an 18-year-old railroad section hand. The May 1910 census found them living in Porter Township, Porter County. By then Eathel had borne two children, but only one survived — their daughter, Elma.

I would never have heard of any of them, I suppose, had I not happened to buy a couple of letters Eathel wrote in the winter of 1910-11, to her own mother. In them, she tells little stories about the two-and-a-half-year-old Elma, on whom she clearly dotes, and on her now 21-year-old husband, Forrest. The letters were mailed from Merrillville, so I suppose the Gradle family had moved there sometime after May 1910.

The first letter was postmarked December 10, 1910.

Gradle letter 12-10-1910 by AinsworthIN

The fourth page of the above PDF is just the reverse of the third page of Eathel's letter, on which someone has scribbled the address of Eathel's sister, Alice. (The 1910 census, taken in April, showed Alice in Meridian, Mississippi, teaching in a "mission school"; evidently she had moved on to Alabama by December.) I think Alice is the "Auntie Awus" whom little Elma points out in the picture. Goodwin and Philenus are Eathel's brothers. I have not been able to identify the "Uncle Goodwin" whose death Eathel asks about.

The second letter was dated January 5, 1911.

Gradle letter 1-5-1911 by AinsworthIN

Eathel died November 22, 1956. Here is her obituary from The Vidette-Messenger of November 23.

Wildflowers of Ainsworth: Buffalo Bur

All of a sudden I find this stuff growing in my front yard.


(Click on images to enlarge)

It's a member of the nightshade family. Even more thorny than horse nettle. Jack Sanders says it's a good thing this plant is so prickly; otherwise animals might eat it, and the leaves are "very toxic."

The fruits (seed pods) are said to be prickly as well. I'm not sure this specimen has any fruit yet, unless this little prickle-studded bulb is a baby fruit:

Big and Little

From the steamer trunk.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of E.H.

There is no identification or date on the original. The photographer was August Haase, which suggests it was taken sometime between 1902 and 1912 or so.

I've been wondering if these might be two of the three Rossow sisters. Minnie was born in 1897, Ella in 1899 and Louise about 1903. I would judge the girls in the photo to be more than two or three years apart, so I don't think we've got Minnie and Ella here. We might possibly have Minnie and Louise, except the older girl doesn't look that much like Minnie, and why on earth would the Rossows leave out their middle daughter from such a well planned, formal portrait? (Let's call that the fallacy of the excluded middle.) A similar question arises if we assume these are Ella and Louise. So I think I have to abandon the Rossow-sisters hypothesis, and considered these girls unidentified.

Enforcing Solidarity

Harve Carey had been actively involved with the area milk shippers' union back when the new tuberculin-testing requirements threatened heavy costs to dairymen. Now it appears that he and his son, Lee, were being viewed as scabs by some.

The union's tri-state marketing arm, which began operating in February 1919, was intended to work for the benefit of the dairymen; however, not everyone was completely satisfied with its prices and terms. First Harve, and then Lee when he took over the family farm, made private arrangements with milk dealers, outside the union marketing cooperative, on terms that suited them better.

In September 1920 some union members confronted Lee about what they saw as his benefiting himself to the union's detriment.


(Click on image to enlarge)
From the Hobart Gazette of Sept. 24, 1920.

I don't know the exactly meaning of that last comment (about Uncle Sam's view of boycotts) except that it's an example of how the Gazette seems to me to be getting more authoritarian in its views, especially since the World War.

Greetings from Guess Who

From the steamer trunk.


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of E.H.



A pretty good guess is Herman Harms, playing coy with his friend. While the year in the postmark is not clear, to me it looks like 1912 — at which time, according to Minnie's account many decades later, they weren't "going steady" yet.

I don't think the picture on the front is intended to represent the Hobart mill. It's just a generic picturesque scene, on a generic "Greetings From" card on which the manufacturer stamps the town according to the order — in this case, "Hobart, Ind."

Ugly Mushrooms of Ainsworth(Random Pointless Photos)

Found these mushrooms growing next to my house. They don't look like anything in my mushroom book, so I don't know what they are, other than ugly.


(Click on images to enlarge)

They are low-growing, about an inch in diameter, covered with a light grayish-brown purple-tinged veil that ruptures to reveal a slimy white blob.





I will watch to see if they turn into anything recognizable as they mature.