Cora Maybaum

We've seen the interior of the Main Street Trinity Lutheran Church before.


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I finally took the trouble to figure out the text across the top of the front wall — it's the beginning of 1 Corinthians 1:23, "But we preach Christ crucified."

Once again, I didn't buy the postcard for its front but for the mystery on its back (and this time I didn't wimp out).



The postmark is 1909. The writer signs herself Cora M. From the text we can gather that she has two daughters, Mary and Margaret, and that Mary is old enough to go to school. Looking in the 1910 Census records for Hobart, we find all those elements in the household of Fred and Cora Maybaum. They have two children: Mary, who in 1909 would have been just old enough to go to school (about six years of age), and Margaret, about three years old. They lived at 1122 Devonshire Street.

According to Fred Maybaum's death certificate (Indiana Death Certificates), his mother's maiden name was Maasch, which would explain why Cora was writing to Mrs. F. Maasch.

Fred was not one of the Ainsworth Maybaums. He was one of the many, many Hobart Maybaums. I believe his brother, Louis, had also married a Cora.

The postcard-writing Cora's maiden name was Shearer (Indiana Marriage Collection), but if she was related to the Ainsworth Shearers, I haven't found out about it yet. Her father was Harrison Shearer; I think Amanda Shearer Scholler was her aunt. Her grandparents were Daniel and Sarah (Ream) Shearer, who came to Union Township, Porter County, sometime between the 1850 Census and the 1860 Census.

Here is the Daniel Shearer land in 1876:


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Image from http://www.inportercounty.org/Data/Maps/1876Plats/Union-1876.jpg, courtesy of Steven R. Shook.

Note the road I've marked with a question mark. If that road ever existed, it has long vanished. But the map fails to show Duck Creek, which runs about the same route as that road; so I'm wondering if somewhere between the surveyor and the printer, the creek got mistaken for a road. We find the same marking in the 1895 and 1906 plat maps, but with the 1921 map the road is replaced by Duck Creek.

Also with the 1921 map, we find some of the former Shearer land in the hands of Theodore and Annie Rossow, whose niece, Minnie Rossow, married in the Harms family of East AINSWORTH — ha! I've finally brought this back around to Ainsworth, so I guess those 6 hours I spent researching this little postcard weren't all wasted.

Pearl Crescent

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This is a Pearl Crescent butterfly — a small thing, as you can see by its size in relation to a clover blossom.

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A bonus artsy photo of a Monarch butterfly feeding on a Tithonia blossom:

130 Center Street

In the Hobart News of September 28, 1922, we find this little notice: "Wanted — Roomers and boarders. Mrs. W.G. Fisher, 130 Center Street."

Her giving the address settles the question of where the Fisher family lived. Evidently even a family of eight left space in the two-story Stocker house for roomers and boarders.

And Jennie Fisher may have felt the need to supplement the family income after her husband's disappointment with the Nickel Plate Garage business.

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Elsewhere in the same issue of the News, Everett "Mickey" Newman declared that he intended to quit racing. We shall see.

Flash

Here's another photo of Noland White and one of his furry friends, this one named "Flash" according to the handwritten note at the bottom.


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Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

A note on the back of the original gives the date as 1937. Eldon Harms identified the car as a Ford Model A, probably a 1930 or '31.

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Speaking of furry friends — mixed in with the other photos in the Lester Harms collection was this 1931 photo of Rin Tin Tin …



… apparently a promotional item distributed by Chappel Bros., Inc., producers of the first canned dog food (according to this source).

Cabbage White

This is a Cabbage White butterfly feeding on a wild aster.


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These things look pretty enough fluttering around the garden, but their caterpillars spent the summer demolishing my kale.



That's a kale leaf after the little green caterpillars got through with it.

Women Voters and a Woman Pioneer

The mid-term election of 1922 was approaching, which may be why the Ainsworth League of Women Voters planned a meeting in the W.G. Haan school; but then again, in those days people held meetings for any reason.


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"Local and Personal." Hobart News 21 Sept. 1922.

The death of Mrs. J.E. Small, mentioned at the bottom of that column, got a fuller treatment from the next day's Gazette.


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Hobart Gazette 22 Sept. 1922.

Her daughter, Mrs. Crisman — christened Elizabeth — was the wife of John Crisman, Sr., and the grandmother of Dorothea.

Mary Hardesty, the daughter with whom Mrs. Small had lived, was a widow (1920 Census), but I'm not sure of her deceased husband's name. It might have been Adolphus (Indiana Marriage Collection).

Mary Jane Riley Small rests in Mosier Cemetery.


In the pages above and elsewhere in old newspapers I have come across references to "Small's Crossing," and thus far nobody I've asked has known exactly where it was. Based on the people whose names came up in connection with Small's Crossing, I gathered it was in Porter County but not far from the village of Deep River. In common parlance around the turn of the 20th century, the name likely referred to a road crossing a railroad line near a piece of land owned by a Small. So, let's take a look at the plat map of Union Township, Porter County, in 1895, by which time all the railroads were in place:


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Image from http://www.inportercounty.org/Data/Maps/1895Plats/Union-1895.jpg, courtesy of Steven R. Shook.

There's a Small farm, there's the Grand Trunk Railroad, there's the road now known as N 725 W crossing the railroad. Just over the county line is the village of Deep River. I think this is a pretty good candidate for Small's Crossing. If you can find a better one, please let me know about it.

Family Picnic on the Milkweed

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Those two Milkweed-Bug adults look like parents caring for their young, but I would be surprised if that were actually the case. Insect parents involved in their children's lives are pretty rare.


Here's a couple other random pointless artsy pics … a dewy Sundrop:




… and wild grapes growing on my old barn.