Quietly Married

On September 1, 1922, the 15-year-old Marie Hardesty quietly married a 28-year-old Yugoslavian immigrant, Vaso Stambolija.*


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Hobart Gazette 15 Sept. 1922.

That she is described as the daughter of Mrs. John Hardesty makes me think that her father was the John Hardesty who had been accidentally killed about four months earlier. Out of my puzzlement about his children, I have finally drawn the conclusion that she had been christened Marie Rebecca, and the 1910 Census recorded her under her middle name, either by mistake or because she preferred her middle name at the time — but later she changed her preference. Evidence that Marie and Rebecca were the same person includes the fact that both were born in 1907 (per the 1930 Census in Marie's case and the 1910 Census in Rebecca's); and according to her death certificate, Marie's middle initial was R (Indiana Death Certificates.)

I've already stumbled across the premature end of Vaso's story:


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The Hammond Times 4 May 1939.

To judge by her death certificate, which gives her surname as Coppock, Marie's story included another marriage and another widowhood.

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In other news, farmer-turned-bus-driver Glen Nelson was planning to make a little money with his newly purchased bus.


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Hobart News 14 Sept. 1922.

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*The Gazette spells it Stanbolija, but the vital records spell it Stambolija, so that is how I am going to index it.

Main Street, 300 Block, circa 1909

I mentioned having a circa-1909 view of the 300 block of Main Street, so I suppose I had better cough it up now.


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This is the east side, from mid-block north to Third Street. The First State Bank is at the near corner of Main and Third.

I suppose one or two of those awnings next south of the bank cover the Main Street entrance to Scheidt & Keilman's Bee Hive, but there's nothing legible to confirm that.

Two narrower awnings are marked "Buffet," if my eyes don't deceive me, but I don't know who ran that business.

Next we see the two-story building housing the drugstore, with "DRUGS" on the awning (and "Mackey Drug Store" on the front border of the awning). On the south side of that building is what appears to be a ramshackle fence plastered all over with signs, on some of which I can see something about "4th of July" and "Hobart."

South of the fence is the office of the Hobart Gazette.

On the south side of the newspaper office is a two-story building with a saloon operating at street level. The saloon's awnings bear the name "E. Ahrens," but the sign sticking out over the sidewalk reads "Schavey & Ahrens."

The awning at the right edge of the photo is probably the same one that reads "PUMPS, PLUMBING & WELL(?) SUPPLIES" in the 1911 photo, marking Newman's hardware store.

The postmark is October 1909:

A New Feedstore and an Old Homestead

When I wrote about the 1910 death of Morgan Blachly, I didn't know the 1908 Plat Map existed, so I could not credit him with more than the 180 acres shown in the 1891 Plat Book … but now I know that the Blachly farm comprised 256 acres by 1908. After Morgan died, the land apparently was divided up among his heirs, and his three sons farmed their share, or rented it out for others to farm.

In February 1922, as we've seen, Earl Blachly announced that he had sold his share of the old homestead, but did not identify the buyer.

Now in September 1922 we have this announcement of a new feed store in Hobart, one of the owners of which had "last spring … bought the Morgan Blachly homestead."


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Hobart Gazette 15 Sept. 1922

I believe I've identified him as Mark Pembor, born in Massachusetts on July 7, 1880. The earliest I can connect him to this area is December of 1911, when he married Esther Denton in Lake County, Indiana. (Why there, I do not know; Esther was a Chicago resident in 1910.) While my 1927 telephone directory lists a number for his "farm residence," I can't otherwise establish that the couple ever lived there. In 1920 they lived in Chicago; I can't find them in 1930; and Mark's death in 1933 happened in Chicago.

Mark and Esther are buried in (of all places) Frankfort, Michigan.

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The "Local Drifts" on the Gazette page above includes a few items about acquaintances of ours — the family of Dalia Messick moving from one unknown place to another; William Rossow loving the improvements on Lincoln Street; and George Rhodes moving to Cleveland Avenue, somewhere east of Illinois Street.


Additional Sources:
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ Illinois Deaths and Stillbirths Index.
♦ Indiana Marriage Collection.
♦ WWI Draft Cards.

"Our Store"

This view of Main Street comes from a postcard postmarked 1911. The sender has drawn an arrow pointing to "our store":


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The arrow points to a building with a sign reading "Drug Store," topped by a curved embellishment bearing a name that is not legible. That building once housed a drug store operated at various times under the names Mackey and Scheddell.

Having written "our store," the writer then turned the postcard over and clearly signed herself "Edna":



So far as I have been able to determine, there was no Edna in the Scheddell family or the Mackey family.

However, there was an Edna in the Scheidt family, and Scheidt & Keilman's Bee Hive store was just slightly north of the drugstore.

On this image, blown up to 1200 dpi on the scanner, it's clear which building is marked, but on the original 3.5" x 5.5" postcard, it's not nearly so clear. I think it quite possible that Edna Scheidt marked the wrong building by mistake. That's my theory, and I'm sticking to it.

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Moving south from the drugstore, let's see what we have here:



(1) A one-story wooden building, probably housing the Gazette office.*

(2) A two story building with a sign advertising Blatz beer, suggesting that it houses a saloon, which I think is operated by Fred Ahrens and Fred Schavey, Jr.*

(3) Newman's Hardware, operated by Paul Newman, who is more generally associated with his later location at Third and Center Streets. (This leads me to wonder if I wrongly categorized the interior shot of the hardware store; it could have been taken inside this Main Street location.)

(4) A saloon, "Hogan's Place," operated by Hugo Zobjeck, who seems to have been called "Hogan" as a nickname.

(5) The bakery operated by Severin Baumer** and, later, his son Fred Baumer.

(6) Real estate and insurance office operated by Lewis E. Barnes.

(7) Real estate office operated by a retired Ainsworth farmer, Gilbert Bullock.

(8) A billiard-and-pool business operated by Calvin L. Fleming, where the cigars he sold may have been of his own making.

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*I'm cheating by looking at another postcard that hasn't been posted to the blog yet, but more clearly shows the mid-block area circa 1909.
**He is recorded as "Siegfried" in the 1910 Census.

Henry Fasel, Jr. Quits Farming

"Henry Fasel, Jr., has decided to quit farming," said the Hobart News of September 14, 1922, "and is advertising a sale of his farm implements for next Saturday, Sept. 16."

He certainly was:


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Hobart News 14 Sept. 1922.

I previously showed you where the Fasel farm was. The 1920 Census shows Henry Jr. and Henry Sr. both living and farming in that vicinity, Henry Jr. on rented land … which may have been rented from his father; I don't know.

In 1922 Henry Jr. was about 40 years old, married to the former Bertha Beier and the father of a large and growing family. Their eldest son was named Henry, too.

Jacob William Hazelgreen

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He was born April 15, 1881 (WWI Draft Cards) to Haken and Christine Hazelgreen of Lake Station.

By the 1910 Census, he had moved to Washington State, and there he stayed, I gather, and there lie his earthly remains.

The photographer was A.O. Merrill of Hobart, Indiana, who, as we know, was in business from the autumn of 1899 to the autumn of 1902. The fact that William (he seemed to prefer his middle name) was around to be photographed in that era suggests he should have been counted in the local 1900 Census, but I cannot find him. The Lake Station/East Gary enumerator of 1900 seems to have been a bit overwhelmed by his task and has left us with some confusing records.

Business Buying and Selling

Some local businesses were changing ownership as the summer of 1922 drew toward its end.

The eldest of the Walter brothers sold his share of their garage.


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Hobart News 7 Sept. 1922.

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Although Margaret Baumer had declared that as Mrs. George Fleck she would remain involved with the family bakery, a couple of weeks after the wedding she sold her interest to her brother, Fred. To run the bakery store, Fred planned to hire Johanna Lundgren away from the Sauter market.*

Later in September, Harry Coons, Sr. became the owner of the Gem Theater again, buying it from Herman Kemp of Michigan City, who had bought it from A. Vaichis — who had bought it from Harry in 1917.**

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*"Fred Baumer Buys Out Bakery and Bake Shop," Hobart News 14 Sept. 1922.
**"H.T. Coons Again Becomes Owner of Gem Theater," Hobart News 28 Sept. 1922.