A 5 and 10¢ Marriage

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The Thompson 5 and 10¢ Store is at right in this circa-1920 view of Third Street.

I have spent about an hour trying to figure out what relation Henry Sievert had to John Sievert (Sr. and Jr.) and Carl Sievert, all of whom flitted in and out of Ainsworth history. My conclusion at the moment is that he had none.

The first mention I find in my notes of Henry Sievert comes in 1901, when he moved from Porter County to "Robt. Randhan's farm near Ainsworth," which I have not been able to locate. It was not just Henry who moved, but also his wife, Ida, and their little daughter Elsie. Henry and Ida would continue to farm rented land. From the 1910 and 1920 censuses, they appear to be neighbors of Charles Ols, which would place them just northwest of Ainsworth. By 1910 a little boy, Walter, had joined the family.

My attention was drawn to this little Sievert family just now by the announcement that their daughter, Elsie, 19 years old, had quietly gone to Crown Point on July 16, 1919, and come back the wife of Burt Thompson, Jr., who was 21.

Burt Thompson, father and son, operated the Thompson Co. 5 and 10¢ Store, which occupied the Friedrich building in Hobart and advertised heavily in the Hobart papers. Their business also had a Crown Point location, and Burt Jr. found himself commuting between Hobart and Crown Point nearly every day. The young couple were considering moving to Crown Point, but for the present they lived with his parents in the Joryville area.

Apparently they decided to remain in Hobart, for the 1920 census finds them there, in their own household though still near his parents. Burt is described as the manager of a "10¢ store." The census-taker, writing in January 1920, describes their daughter Lorraine as three months old.


Sources:
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette 8 Mar. 1901.
♦ Indiana Marriage Collection.
♦ "Thompson-Sievert." Hobart Gazette 25 July 1919.
♦ "Thompson-Sievert." Hobart News 24 July 1919.

Finnis (WWI-Era Photo Album)

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Images courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Here our photographer managed to get everything out of focus — foreground, background, everything. Even so, we can recognize a couple of the young women, though we still don't know their names. (No identifying notes on this one.)

In the background at left is the library on Fourth Street, so I suppose they are standing on the sidewalk leading up to the high school.



I don't know quite what to make of this caption. "Finnis" is not unknown as a man's name around this time, but I can't track down any women by that name, and with no further information about this young woman, I'm stuck.

On the other hand, given that this is the last in a long sequence of shots around the high school and M.E. Church on Fourth Street, it may simply be the album-owner's devil-may-care way of spelling finis, i.e., the end.

Barn Swallows and Cats (Random Pointless Photos)

Nesting barn swallows hate cats. All a cat has to do is come into the yard, and the barn swallows start chirping angrily and diving at it.

Occasionally they will half-heartedly dive at a dog in the yard, and as for a person outdoors in the vicinity of the nest, they will come over and inspect said person, scold a bit and generally give the stink-eye.

But a cat, they will enthusiastically harass for a quarter of an hour, until the cat gets tired of the hassle and goes away.

My cat Sammie slipped out the door this afternoon. One barn swallow spotted her, sounded the alarm and attacked. Within a few minutes there were three of them dive-bombing her. Sammie occasionally flailed out, trying to catch one, but the barn swallows are much too fast for her.


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Sammie eventually gave up and went and hid between the house and the garage.

My other cat, Birdie, won't even try to cross the yard in daylight, for fear the barn swallows will get him. But then he's always been a scaredy-cat.

Bricky and Bally

And with a little more research, we confirm that "Bricky" was Milton Ballantyne, our source being this page from Hobart High School's Aurora yearbook for 1915:


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Images courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

But we don't know which of those freshmen is Bricky.

As we know, during World War I Milton and Elmer Ballantyne belonged to Co. K, Hobart's home guard. Here is Milton in uniform:



Handwritten notes on the back read:

1917
Milton Ballantyne
Walter MacPherson
Pat Clifford

The writer does not specify left to right, so we still don't know for sure.

Here is brother Elmer (in 1918, according to a handwritten note on the back):



I think I perceive a resemblance between Elmer and the man on the left in the previous photo, so maybe that is Milton.

And I suppose if Milton was "Bricky," Elmer was "Bally."

Don Frace

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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

I thought I'd post his picture, since just lately the young Mackeys bought his house as he prepared to leave Hobart for Michigan City. This lovely portrait is from the Hobart High School Aurora yearbook for 1919.

Independence Day

In honor of Independence Day, here's a photograph of a parade on Main Street in Hobart circa 1895-6 (one of several linked to on the Street Views page of the Downtown Hobart blog).


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

New Homes for the Mackeys

Very soon after his arrival home from France, Dr. Dwight Mackey got busy with houses. According to the Hobart News of July 24, 1919, Dr. Dwight had "given the contract to Wm. Halsted for a modern five-room bungalow on his lot on Lincoln avenue." The next day's Gazette stated: "Dr. Dwight Mackey has broken ground on his lot on Lincoln avenue for a five-room frame bungalow, thoroughly modern. W.O. Halstead will have charge of the carpenter work."

I believe the Gazette is more correct on one detail — it was Willard (W.O.) Halsted doing the work. Willard describes himself as a carpenter to the 1920 census-taker, while I cannot find any William Halsted in Hobart at all (and I don't think 6-year-old Wilbur Halsted is in the running). Willard was then about 61 years of age, so if he was still capable of handling the carpentry on a five-room, thoroughly modern house, that's pretty good.

The young Mackeys intended to make this house their home, but they soon changed their minds. By the end of July, the News said that the Mackeys had purchased a lot in the Hobart Park subdivision and intended to build a house there shortly. Then in mid-August, the same paper reported that the Mackeys had purchased the Don Frace residence in Hobart Park. The Gazette backed up that report, with more detail:


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Note also the story about the motorcycle races in Valparaiso — the Gazette is back to calling Marvin Hoover "Marion," and it also tells us that the heretofore-unidentified "Brick" was a Ballantyne.


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 24 July 1919; 31 July 1919; 14 Aug. 1919.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 25 July 1919; 15 Aug. 1919.