Little Bijou Updates

I have added a couple of scraps to our little heap of knowledge about the Bijou.

Zobjeck Family Portraits

Until this summer, we had no photograph of Hugo Zobjeck, the Hobart soda bottler and town trustee. But through a network of Zobjeck descendants, we have recently received two lovely portraits of the young Zobjeck family.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of Mary Zobjeck Steffey.

The two adults are Hugo (senior) and Mary Zobjeck. The oldest girl, standing in back, is Carolyn, known as Carrie (per the 1910 census, born ca. 1900). The baby is Edward (born 1908). The little boy at left is Hugo Jr. (born 1905), and the little girl at center is Marguerite* (born 1907).

In this photo Edward appears to be about one year old, so we can date it roughly to 1909.

Another photograph shows the same family members, probably taken at the same sitting:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of Mary Zobjeck Steffey.

Before the family assembled for these portraits, the Zobjecks had lost at least one child, a little girl, in 1904. The newspaper account of her death does not mention her name, only that she was buried in "the Lake [Station] cemetery." I cannot find any Zobjeck buried in Lake Station; however, in the Zobjeck family plot in Crown Hill Cemetery, we find an Emma Zobjeck, who must be the little girl in question.


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This image, and the ones below, were photographed in Crown Hill Cemetery, Hobart, Indiana.

In the same area in Crown Hill Cemetery, we find a Frank Zobjeck (1903-1904), and the death records show Frank Zobjeck dying on February 16, 1904 — but I have been through the Hobart Gazette around that time without finding any mention of him to confirm that he was indeed the child of Hugo and Mary.** His being buried in the Zobjeck family plot would very strongly suggest it, though.




As if that weren't heartbreak enough, the Zobjecks would lose three more babies after these portraits were taken. In 1913, a daughter, Mabel Frances, was born November 20 and died December 14.




A son, Wilbur, was born January 19, 1915, and died on January 31.




On February 22, 1917, a ten-month-old son, Robert, "died rather suddenly."




As we've seen, in July 1919 Mary Kucaba Zobjeck was laid to rest with her little ones. She was survived by eight children: Carrie, Hugo Jr., Marguerite, Edward, Marie, Helen, Annie, and Claire.




Hugo Sr. later remarried, but in death he rejoined his first wife and children.



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The Hobart Historical Society has a number of bottles from Hugo Zobjeck's enterprises on display at the museum. The Zobjeck home on Water Street, along with the building where the bottling was done, are both still standing. (The Hobart Historical Society has the information about their location, but I will leave its publicity to their discretion.)

_________________________
*I'm not sure of the correct spelling; the census-takers in 1910 and 1920 spelled it Margaret.
**I may have missed it, and should probably go back and read through the microfilm, but that will have to wait until I can get myself cloned.


Sources:
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Births." Hobart Gazette 22 Jan. 1915.
♦ Cook County, Illinois Marriages Index.
♦ Indiana WPA Death Records Index.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 19 Dec. 1913; 5 Feb. 1915; 2 Mar. 1917.
♦ "Mortuary Record." Hobart Gazette 12 Feb. 1904.

Anything to Get Out of Paying the Road Tax!

Here's an odd little thing I recently acquired:


(Click on images to enlarge)

All joking aside, the loss of bone in his leg may have happened in the Civil War — W.G. Cook was a veteran — or a train may have done it: he worked in the vicinity of trains, as a railroad telegrapher.

That's assuming I've identified him correctly as the William G. Cook who was recorded in the 1880 census as 37-year-old Ohio native living in North Township, his occupation described as telegraph operator and agent. He then had a wife, Christina, and three young sons, Karl, Clarence, and Horace.

From his obituary, I gather that two daughters were born later, and one son had preceded him in death when W.G. died on August 16, 1897:

W.G. Cook, a prominent and well-known citizen of this township, died at his home in Miller at 2 o'clock Monday afternoon, of consumption, aged 54 years. Mr. Cook had been a citizen of Miller for about 30 years and occupied the position of station agent during that time for the B. & O. and L.S. & M.S. railroads. The funeral services were conducted at Miller on Wednesday at 2 o'clock by Rev. H.A. Young, and the interment occurred at that place. The deceased was born and raised in Ohio, where his relatives still reside.

He was an old veteran, having served his country faithfully during the Civil War.

Miller has lost a most obliging and enterprising citizen and the railroads have been deprived of a faithful servant.

It was thought last fall that Mr. Cook was suffering from cancer on the tongue but an operation at the Rush Medical College in Chicago proved such not to be the case. The patient never recovered from the operation and gradually declined in health until death ended all. A wife, two sons and two daughters are left to mourn his loss.

The trustee who signed this exemption was on friendly enough terms with W.G. to send it to him with his compliments …



… perhaps because (among other things) they were both Civil War veterans.

Michael J. Cooke had been elected Hobart Township Trustee (for the second time) in 1882, at the age of about 52. We can learn more about his life from his obituary:


(Click on image to enlarge)

I wish I knew which four-room schoolhouse the article refers to.


Sources:
♦ 1870 Census.
♦ 1880 Census.
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ "Death of M.J. Cooke." Hobart Gazette 31 July 1914.
♦ "Hobart." Crown Point Register 6 Apr. 1882.
♦ "W.G. Cook." Hobart Gazette 20 Aug. 1897.

Red Admiral

One source I use for information about butterflies is Butterflies of Indiana: A Field Guide by Jeffrey E. Belth. In the back there is a section on photographing butterflies, where the author says: "Butterfly photography requires not only patience and technique but also the equipment to record your vision." Well, I've got no patience, no technique, and not very good equipment, but I managed to get a few pictures sufficient to identify this critter in my field as a Red Admiral.


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It is nectaring at goldenrod blossoms.

Mary Funk Yager

We last heard of Mary Yager when she hosted a dinner for her former pastor in the spring of 1921.

The next spring, she died.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Hobart News 4 May 1922.

The earliest I can find Jacob and Mary in Ross Township is 1880, where (to judge by their neighbors) they seemed to be southeast of Ainsworth, perhaps along present-day 73rd Ave. Their daughter Clara was 5, and they had a one-year-old son, Theodore, who never appears again. Presumably he died, but I cannot find his grave in the NWIGS listings for Ross, Union or Hobart Townships.

By 1900 the Yagers had bought their own farm in Union Township, Porter County. Again, to judge by their neighbors, it was this small farm just north of Huffman's mill shown on a 1921 plat map:


Image from http://www.inportercounty.org/Data/Maps/1921Plats/Union-1921.jpg, courtesy of Steven R. Shook.

That parcel looks like about 10 acres. I believe the Yagers concentrated on strawberries.

The "Mrs. Robert Anders" mentioned in the obituary was probably our Deep River grocer.

♦    ♦    ♦
In the "Local and Personal" column to the left of the obituary above, we find minor news of some acquaintances: Louis and Gertrude Dunham and their troublesome boy, Richard Chapman, have moved from one house I can't identify to another I can't identify; and Jessie Quinlan is feeling better.


Additional Sources:
♦ 1880 Census.
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Death of Mrs. Yager." Hobart Gazette 5 May 1922.

Unidentified Caterpillar (Random Pointless Photo)

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This thing looks a bit like a tobacco hornworm that washed when it should have dry-cleaned, but it's also got those four horns or fleshy filaments near its head that I can't find in any other pictures of tobacco hornworms. I certainly can't find it in my caterpillar book. I give up.

Switching Tower

This photo has nothing to do with Ainsworth or Hobart, but I like it.


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

The identifying notes read: "Ollie James — Wanatah. Aunt Clara's husband."

According to the Wanatah Historical Society's website, two railroads — the Pennsy and what eventually came to be called the Monon — ran through Wanatah, crossing there. In fact, the switching tower above looks much like the one on their railroad history page, but I don't suppose that switching towers were the playground of architects' imaginations.

This picture is undated. It was printed on a postcard with a divided back (thus manufactured after March 1907).

I think Aunt Clara was Clara Rhoades, sister of the Ralph Franklin Rhoades who married Elizabeth Ols (daughter of Henry and Bertha (Wischman) Ols). I believe Clara Rhoades married Oliver James in Michigan in 1908, when he was about 31 and she 27. I can't find them in the 1910 Census; the 1920 Census shows them in Whitley County. Not until the 1930 Census do we find them in Wanatah (he working as a railroad telegraph operator). In the 1940 Census, if I've got the right Oliver James (this time his wife's name is Cecelia and their age gap is wider; they live in Wanatah/Cass Township), his job is described as a railroad operator-leverman.