Phone 289 for Moehl's Garage

I bought this little cigarette lighter some time ago; finally got around to attempting to photograph it, not very successfully, since it's little and round and has a heavy side and a light side and always wants to lie heavy side down. This is as good as it's going to get.


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There's still a spark in the old thing!



… but no fuel, probably, so no flame.

The building that once housed Moehl's Garage was at the northeast corner of the junction of Second and East Streets. I believe it was the one recently demolished and replaced by another building on the same site. Thank goodness for Google street view, which lags behind real time — they haven't sent their cameramobile down that street since the demolition, so I went in there and nabbed this picture:*



I have checked local directories; the earliest Moehl's Garage appears is 1947, and the latest, 1974. A 1956 directory gives the proprietor's name as Elmer, a 1962 directory has it as Lowell, but I think they might be the same guy.


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*Why didn't I think to do that with the Crisman house right away? It's too late now. The cameramobile has gone down 73rd Avenue again.

Phil Making a Face

Among Lillie Newman Barnes' miscellaneous photos was this one:


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Image courtesy of Diane Barnes.

The only ID is a cryptic note on the back: "Phil was making a face at Marci when she took this snapshot." But since Lillie's sister, Bliss — known to the family as well as to census-takers and county registrars as "Dollie" — married Philip Roper, Jr., we can guess at this Phil's identity. If that's Dollie's husband, that may be Dollie herself standing so close to him.

But I can't even guess at who this Marci was, taking the snapshot.

I tried to find a picture of Phil Roper for comparison. The only one I could find was this, from the Roper genealogy file at the Hobart museum:


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Under this photo are handwritten notes:

Top Row  Robert & Phil
Bottom   Luther & Ernest

Those are indeed Phil's brothers' names. Taken at Showman's Gallery, the photo probably dates to sometime between 1893 and the turn of the century; Phil was born in 1884 — that seems consistent, since the kid at the top right looks about 14 years old.

But I can't say I see any resemblance! — and I'm not sure there would be much, between a serious adolescent boy, and a face-making man of perhaps 40 or 45.

How the Andersons Didn't Party

When 18-year-old Louise Rossow got married on February 20, 1921, it was a quiet celebration, nothing like big sister Minnie's wedding.


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I wonder why the difference?

(Incidentally, the News gives the witness' name as Gladys Humes, not Hill, and I don't know which is correct.)

A 1922 Gary directory shows the young Andersons living at 235 Tyler Street, he working as a telegraph operator.


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ Ancestry.com. Polk's Gary (Indiana) City Directory 1922. R.L. Polk & Co., 1922.
♦ "Anderson-Rossow Wedding." Hobart Gazette 25 Feb. 1921.
♦ "Anderson-Rossow." Hobart News 24 Feb. 1921.

Happy to Be in Hegewisch

From Mildred Lindborg's photo album.


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Image courtesy of E.H.

Here we are again, at the same house in Hegewisch we've seen twice before, though not on the same day.

The guy on the stairs is Franklin Lindborg, that's Gust in the hat, and the young woman is uncertainly identified by the album's owner as Ollie Larson.

And Gust is smiling! So is Franklin, of course, but that is not quite so rare.

Baity's Motel and Restaurant

Another matchbook cover from another Merrillville business I know nothing about.


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This one says it was on U.S. 30 west of Broadway. And it had TV!

I think I need to have a guardian appointed for myself, so I don't go around squandering my money on stuff like this.

Ice Cream and Soft Drink Parlor

Imagine my surprise to discover that in February 1921 there was an ice cream and soft drink parlor in Ainsworth!


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I suspect this parlor occupied the former saloon building, rented from the Wollenbergs.

Harry Sherman is a mystery. There was someone by that name who grew up on a farm in Ross Township, but he apparently spent the early 1920s living and working in Gary. Another possibility would be some Chicago relative of the Wollenbergs — I find a 1911 reference to the Wollenberg boys visiting an aunt in Chicago, "Mrs. Sherman" … perhaps she had a son named Harry who wanted to try running a business in Uncle Bill's defunct saloon. Makes sense, doesn't it? — even it's if all in my imagination.

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There are too many Fasels around for me to feel sure that the Frank Fasel who is mentioned on the page above is the same one who once faced a "serious charge" by Christ Ols, or who was little Mable's uncle, or even the Frank Fasel who turns up in the 1920 census running a dairy farm on his own land in Ross Township — why would he leave his own farm to move to the "old Bodamer farm"? If he did, it was an ill-fated move; in January 1921, while the Fasel family was away from home, the barn caught fire and burned down, taking with it other outbuildings, as well as some pigs and chickens, and hay and grain.

Where exactly was said "old Bodamer farm," anyway? The 1921 Union Township plat map shows several Bodamer parcels along the Lincoln Highway.

You know what? I hope Frank goes and lives happily ever after east of Chesterton so I don't have to worry about him anymore.




Sources:
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Ainsworth." Hobart News 17 Aug. 1911.
♦ Ancestry.com. Polk's Gary (Indiana) City Directory 1922. R.L. Polk & Co. (1922).
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 13 Jan. 1921; 24 Feb. 1921.

Questions for Palm Relatives and Inquisitive Genealogists

I have received an inquiry concerning Hulda Palm from a genealogist in Sweden, who writes:

Some of my grandmother's siblings emigrated to America from Öland, Sweden in the late 1800s - early 1900s. Their surname was Sten and in USA they translated their name to Stone. I've got information from one of my now living relatives that Hulda Stone perhaps is the daughter of John Stone, a brother of my grandmother, and that Hulda married Peter Palm and they got three children: Helen, Ester and Elmer. I was so surprised to find this family on a picture from Labour Day on your blog. The thing is, that according to what I've found out, Hulda is probably not the daughter of this John Stone, because the dates doesn't agree. I think perhaps you could be the person who would know who Peter Palm's wife Hulda was, her background and where she came from. If you do so, I would be so grateful if you would take time and write back to me telling me what you know. Perhaps she is one of my ancestors, perhaps not.

Unfortunately I don't know enough about Hulda Palm to settle this question. Her maiden name was Stone, of that I'm convinced, as Peter Palm lived in Chicago and the Cook County marriage records show him marrying Hulda Stone in 1910; their ages in that record correspond with their ages in later censuses, and their children were all born after 1910.

But who was this Hulda Stone? Was she the daughter of John Sten? Did she come to this country from Öland, Sweden? I can only hope that someone who knows the answers to these questions will see this post and respond.