Sunday School, Dandelion Wine, and a "Period of Retrenchment"

After Daisy Raschka became Mrs. John Fleck, Lesta was the oldest daughter still at home; but in the spring of 1921, at about 22 years of age, she was making plans to leave — destination: marriage. She was engaged to Otto Maicke.

On the evening of Friday, March 4, Daisy hosted a shower for Lesta at the Raschka home on Lake Street. "The evening was spent in social converse, during which a dainty luncheon was served," said the Hobart News. "Miss Raschka was the recipient of many beautiful gifts."

On Monday evening, Lesta brought her Sunday School class over to the house, and I hope her parents were home from their missionary board meeting in time for the fun:


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That social column is packed with news of people we know — brothers Christ and Tony Springman drunk on dandelion wine; Albion Paine traveling from his farm west of Ainsworth to seek medical help in Chicago; and Paul Newman busying himself with a proposed tourist camp for travelers on the Yellowstone Trail where it ran with Cleveland Avenue into Hobart.

The last item in the column mentions the local effects of a depression the nation was going through. Among the men laid off by the Pennsy Railroad was our friend Peter Palm. I am not sure what his job with the railroad was, as the 1920 census is illegible on that point — but he described himself then as a farmer as well as a railroad employee, and he took the layoff in stride, saying that he had plenty of work to do on his small farm.


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 10 Mar. 1921.

Lois Harms

Speaking of John and Sophia Harms' children (as we were yesterday), here's one of them: Lois.


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Image courtesy of E.H.

Cute as a button! … And on the topic of buttons, look at her high-top shoes. How did a mother ever do up all those buttons for a wriggly toddler?

Lois was born in 1915, I believe, and here she looks to be about three years old.

Ellen's 78th Birthday

It's a collection of Ainsworth old-timers, as two Chester sisters — Carrie Raschka and Lovisa Nelson — visit Mrs. C.E. Smith, née Ellen Harper. Carrie and Lovisa must have known Ellen from their childhood, as she and her husband Cyrus were already their neighbors when they came into the world.


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From the Hobart News of 3 Mar. 1921.

Also, it's the farm-moving season, and John and Sophia Harms, with their two children, at last are occupying the land they bought in August 1919.

Baring His Sole

From Mildred Lindborg's photo album.


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Image courtesy of N.B.

Mildred didn't give us a caption for this one.

The background is the west side of the Lindborg house in Ainsworth.

In the back row, from left to right, we can recognize Gust Lindborg and his daughters, Mildred and Gladys. I'm not sure who the next two women are; the album's owner thinks they might be Edna and Mickey Kimball/Goyette, but looking at the full-size scan of the photo, I wonder — they seem too far apart in age to be sisters — so I'm going to call them unidentified for now. At right are Norma and Anna Lindborg.

In the front row, the kid at left with his foot to the camera is Frank Hanson; crouching next to him is his father, and then Raymond Lindborg.

I am told that the Hansons were friends of the Lindborgs who lived in Gary. The 1930 Census shows a Peter and Josephine Hanson in Gary, with a 15-year-old son, Franklin. (Irene Hanson's parents were also named Peter and Josephine, and their ages correspond to Franklin's parents', but I can't find any intersection of Irene and Franklin.)

As to the date of the photo — judging by the mixture of 1920s and 1930s waistlines among the women, and by the apparent age of Raymond Lindborg, I would guess it was taken about 1931 or '32.

Steam Broke His Ribs

The early automobiles had their bad points, but among their advantages over horses was that automobiles could not get scared.


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From the Hobart News of 3 Mar. 1921.

When They Are Married

From the steamer trunk.

Has Herman Harms already decided that he wants to marry Minnie Rossow? This postcard was playful, of course; perhaps nothing more than playful.


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Images courtesy of E.H.

Don't you wonder about the models in these postcards? — Who they were, how they found themselves sitting for such photos, where their lives led them afterwards? — no? I'm the only one? OK.

(And who, having jotted down that doggerel at the bottom, said to himself/herself: "Perfect!" or even "That'll do"?)

… Just look at this beautiful Ainsworth postmark. May 11, 1912.

Aunt Molly

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From the Hobart Gazette, 25 Feb. 1921.

I hope I've got this right: Molly Schavey Ahrens was the sister of Henry Schavey, who was the father of our Mable Schavey Breyfogle.

Molly had married Fred Ahrens in 1906. Their children were quite young at her passing — Helen about 11, Fred Jr. about 6.

(Above Aunt Molly's is the obituary of Jennie Clifford, whose son, Claude, was once a Hobart plumber.)


Additional Sources:
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index.