VOLUME 2, BUSINESS DIARY OF GEORGE O. RAFERT

The New Bethel Years, January 1, 1919 to June 1, 1923 (edit from 79)

In 2009, Harriet Rafert Anderson and Frank E. Rafert died, the last of George and Ethel Rafert’s children, Harriet at age 85 and Frank at age 90.  This volume of the diary tells of Frank and Harriet’s births in 1919 and 1923.  There is lots of happy commentary on the activities of the five Rafert children including the three older children, Jeanne, Elsa and Stewart at New Bethel (the town also called Wanamaker) a few miles southeast of Indianapolis.  From 1919 to 1923 George Rafert became focused on real estate development, building apartments and a couple of commercial buildings.  By 1923, he had doubled his net worth to$140,000, roughly $4,000,000 today.

Christine Thomas Miller, daughter of Jeanne Rafert Thomas, typed this text from the original diary volume.  George Rafert often reread his diary.  He added notes in brackets at later dates, which he usually indicated.  I, Stewart J. Rafert have edited the diary in 2021 and 2022.  Any notes I add are in brackets followed by my initials, “SR”.  I sometimes add a word or two to make the meanings clearer.      

  Wherever three periods appear  [ .  .  . ] words been omitted.  I have also added footnotes to explain family relationships, places of business and other items of interest.  Many lengthy business “musings” and detailed business figures are omitted.  To get the approximate value of the money of the early 1920s 100 years later, multiply by 30.  Ten dollars then would now be about three hundred dollars.

Major topics noted in bold type. The topics also reflect the fact that George Rafert used his diary to clarify his thinking and in doing so, wrote brief essays.

1919

Fri. Jan 3  In the closing pages of the last book I told of the selling of the 640 acre Newton County farm by means of which I got rid of an $l8,000 mortgage as well as $500 in road and ditch assessments.  With part of the cash derived from that transaction I have since paid off $500 due on the New Bethel property May 22, 1921 also $2300 due Sam Askren on the Arlington Avenue[1] property the l9th of this month and completed paying for the Liberty Bonds which I subscribed for during the 4th loan in the sum of $500, and refunded $500 to the Estate which I borrowed last month.  These various transactions make considerable changes on the face of my business.  I have something over $l,200 remaining on hand.  There is a question in my mind as to whether I should use part of this in cutting off further interest at this time or whether I should keep it toward meeting a $4,200 note due on Arlington Ave. next June.  .  .  .

     It is evident that I now have enough money on hand to margin the year’s business.  I can borrow at the bank such sums as I need to meet the $4,200 note in June and then by selling bonds, or the old machine or collecting from Rush or McClain or Brewster, easily clean up the bank before the first of the year.  Besides this I have the $4,000 due me next Dec from Taylor.  The routine program will evidently care for itself as shown above. This leaves me free to look around for some profitable deals.

Thurs. Jan 9, '19  Last Saturday the 4th I loaned John Cooper a colored man, my electrician, $300.  I will make a liberal profit on it but my main motive was to help him out.  He is buying a Ford for his business.  He has worked for me about five years and has proved himself absolutely honest on a number of occasions.

[Feb. 8, l923  He was "honest" alright till I let him have this money.  I got back just $25 of it.  Moral?  Don’t loan money to individuals in small amounts.  He worked for me five years or more and was a good man.  After I let him have this money I could not get him to even work it out.  It doesn’t pay to monkey with little fish.  They may mean well but a little money may go to their head.]

     . . .  Since the above entry Mr. Berryhill advised me that he had $l,500 belonging to a sister of George Blue that they wanted to put out on long time, one year and stand indefinitely.  I have an appointment in the morning to close for it.  Also the $2,300 I paid Sam Askren the other day he will use this month in paying off Mrs. Dinnin from whom I borrowed the money five years ago on one of the Bancroft Street houses.  She will likely want to loan it out again and if so I will borrow it on my personal note and real estate stock.  If I succeed in doing this I will have $3,800 available yet this month and will put $400 with it and pay off the $4,200 due on Arlington Avenue next June.  At first blush this may seem to be robbing Peter to pay Paul, but these personal loans from these people are valuable as they can stand indefinitely and will add considerably to my margin of available assets when the time to build comes again.[2]

     Loans may be hard to get when the time comes and by anticipating my needs I can go right ahead.  I am getting ready to pyramid when prices go smash as I feel sure they will in the next year or two.  [2/8/23 The peak was reached in the Fall of 1920.]

Closing Their Home and Moving to an Apartment for the Winter

     A few days ago I took lunch with my sister at her rooming and boarding home at 1723 N. Meridian St.  I learned that three furnished rooms and bath adjoining her room were vacant.  The idea occurred to me to rent them for the winter as a means of giving Ethel a rest from house work.  To cut the story short we closed up our home and moved into them yesterday.  I pay $100 per month for room, board, garage space and all.  This is considerably cheaper than staying at home.  We arranged to keep Jeanne's school work up.  This is less than a half square from the Stewarts’ so Ethel can see them frequently.[3]  She will be relieved of all household responsibility and can get a good rest.  My sister will gladly look after the children any evening we want to go out for a while.  We expect to stay till it is garden time again.  I arranged with the neighbors to care for for my dog, cat, and chickens.

     I was very anxious that Ethel should have a rest as we are looking for a little companion for Stewart next July.  Jeanne and Elsa mean so much to each other that we felt Stewart should have a companion too.  Whether it is a boy or a girl they will be close together anyway.  We will have a regular family yet.  I am sure "for" them.  If anything in the world is worthwhile, they are.

Looking for Lots to Build New Apartments On

Sat. Jan 18, '19  I have been spending considerable time lately in gathering information regarding possible future building ground. I have not gone into the matter of prices with owners yet but I know about the general level and am at present endeavoring to make a survey of locations, considering their relative value to me, size, grade, whether side walk is next property or curb, building on adjacent corners, general surroundings etc.  In order that I may have this information in definite form to refer back to I will enter it here.[4]

     N. W. Corner Gilford Av. & 38^th, l45xl29  - Sale by Chas. W. Habig  1011 Hume-Mansur Bldg. N. 2903

     N. E. Corner 40th & Gilford - Spann & Co.  159 x 160.

Streets paved both sides, sidewalks in all ground.  Sidewalks next to street all round?  Level - number of trees would have to be removed. 

     SW. 42 & Gilford - Spann & Co.  About 100 x 160        Other three corners not built  Grade high 3 1/2 to 4' above side walk  Sidewalks & streets on both sides - streets graded - 44th gravel  Biggest objection, high grade but could take 18" off.-level on top

     N. E. 44th & College  (Very good)  Over 200 feet on college by about 160 on 44th  College paved - 44th gravel - alley on E. Side.  All sidewalks in, also curbs.  Sidewalks next curb on 44th and next property on College. Lies very good. 

     N.W. 42nd & College     About 130 x 120 - alley on West Side.  All streets paved - sidewalk next to property all round.  Might use 4 & 6 with garage in rear.  Stores on opposite corners S. & S.E. - grade very good.  Sale by Waddy & Springer  l009 Law Bldg.

     N. E. 42 & College     About 160 on 42nd x about 165 on College.  Pavements all round.  Side walk next street on 42 & next property on College lays fairly well.  Alley on East.  Little high but could use.  Stores on S & SW corners.

     N.E. 40th & College     162 x 160  Paved all round - sidewalk next property on College & next curb on 40th Alley on East. Grade slightly rolling & pretty high - two trees to remove.

     N.W. 40th & Carrollton     162 x 160  Sidewalks & paved streets all round.  Sidewalks next curb all round.  Other corners good.  Eight large trees to remove.  Grade slightly rolling but good on top  Probably 3 1/2 high from side walk all round but this is helped by graded   city lawn between property & side walk.  Would probably mean 4 steps up all round  Could get logs from trees  Alley on West.  Could be used for garage.  Aside from objections as to lay of ground, this is very good.          . . .

He Reports on Ranch in North Dakota

Thurs. Jan 29, 1919  I heard from Ray W. Hallum, Watrous, North Dakota, the tenant on my farm out there.[5]  He proposes to plant 37 acres of flax, 82 acres of rye (this is already planted), 141 acres of wheat and 53 acres of oats making 3l3 acres in all.  The balance of the land is in pasture & natural prairie.  We hope to get more of the prairie land into cultivation as soon as possible.  Hallum says he has on hand l70 bushels of wheat and 100 bushels of oats for seed

     Under the rental arrangement I furnish all the seed and get 1/2 the crop delivered at the elevator.  The tenant furnishes all labor & implements.  We each pay half the threashing bill.  He gets his pasture free.  He seems like a fine chap.  Writes a good letter and can answer any intelligent question about the place.

       I am figuring pretty carefully on a deal I have had in mind for some time.  The estate owns two big double houses, 223-25-27-29 E. Pratt St. and 5 colored

houses in the rear.  I have in mind to buy this property and remodel it into 32 small apartments.[6]  . . . 

     I am now getting an average of $23 [a month] for the houses built in 1915 and 1916, though April lst they go to $24 for the inside houses and $25 for the end ones . . . I am going to wait a while longer before loading up on high priced stuff.  I can’t lose anything but the time of waiting and I might make a good deal by buying cheaper.  . . .

     Rents are going to go up considerable I feel sure.  They will have to, to equalize on the higher prices.

Purchase of the Cornell Avenue Apartments and son Stewart gets Sick

I have offered Richard Griffith [a friend of his when he was student at Indiana University] $7,000 worth of Liberty Bonds for the equity in their Cornell building.  . . .  I could fix it up and probably get $3 or $4 a house more rent out of it with a corresponding increase in value.  [7/2l/l9  I have owned this building for about 60 days now.  Am getting $5.00 a month more rent on each of the inside homes and $6.00 more on each end.][7]  . . .

Several days ago little Stewart was pretty sick.  We were up with him all one night and you could hear him breath all over the house.  He just escaped pneumonia and is alright again now. Pneumonia and the "flu" continue to be pretty bad in places yet. We were mighty worried about Stewart.  He is sure one fine little boy.  He is 17 months old now and is saying a good many words and is as full of fun as a basket of monkeys.     . . .

The winter has slipped by almost without being a winter at all.  We had one light skiff of snow and very little rain.  The first part of January it was cold for a few days, but has hardly been below freezing all the rest of the time.

     I have been so engrossed in trying to figure out present business conditions that I have neglected to set down a very important matter.  The first of August we are expecting another little fellow at our house and are waiting with open arms to welcome him or her.  Ethel is in good health.

     I have bought material and as soon as the ground dries out enough am going to put new fences all over the place.  We might as well have a good fence running around the place along with everything else.

     As I see these little fellows [the Rafert children] coming on and growing up it makes me feel my responsibility pretty keenly.  I want them to have everything that is good for them without having to skimp them on a single thing.  This means that I will have to increase my income considerably and that is what makes all this delay and uncertainty so unbearable in the face of present conditions.

Aftermath of World War I

Peace has not yet been declared.[8]  Russia and parts of Europe are practically in a state of anarchy.  The Bolsheviks are running wild.  We have another 6 billion dollar liberty loan to take up next month.  Taxes have increased out of all bounds.  Material is so high that industry is beginning to drag.  Taking it all together a person could get real down-hearted if he let all this grow in on him. I can see nothing to do in a business way but to sit tight and wait till things clear up a bit.  You can't tell what will happen.  Waiting is an awfully hard game when you feel the necessity for action is imperative.

     We are also finishing off a room on the 3rd floor for help.  With four children Ethel will have to have help all the time. These improvements will cost me something over $500.  The yard is so large that we must have the fence for the protection of the children and we have to have the additional room.

Fri. Apr 4, '19  Yesterday I sold the new Buick car I bought last August for $l,300.  As this was only $40 less than I paid for it over seven months ago and as I had driven it over 7,000 miles I feel that I made a pretty good sale.[9]  The old machine is in the paint shop and will come out like new.  It has better material in it than the new one and since I have had it all fixed up I thought it a better bet to keep it rather than the new one.  However, I may buy a light roadster of some kind.

     Today I sent a proposition to Richard Griffiths signed by myself, offering them $4,500 in cash, $1,500 in 4th loan liberty bonds and $500 in 5th loan bonds as soon as these last are available.  . . .  If this deal goes through as I feel sure it will, I am buying the building for at least $2,500 under its present worth.  The rents will stand considerable increasing by fixing it up a little and I think I am safe in expecting a profit of $5,000 on the resale of the building before I get through.  The rents will pay me splendid interest in the mean time.  I hope nothing interferes with this deal going through.  [1/26/37  This is the property at 1018-36 Cornell Avenue which I still own.  It has been a splendid producer.]

Sun. Apr. 20, '19  Last week I ordered a new Dodge roadster for $l,l70.[10]  It is the best roadster bet on the market I believe. The old Buick will come out of the paint shop like new the last of the week.  I will probably get the Dodge about the same time. Meanwhile I have been having a time to get along without any.

     We have completed our new fences.  They look fine.  The carpenter will finish the room on the 3rd floor in a couple of days.

     Yesterday I went up to Thorntown to look at a 259 acre farm priced at $225 an acre in trade for my Dakota land at $50 an acre.[11]  There would be $26,000 difference to pay.  This is a major deal and involves a good deal.  It looks good but I am going at it mighty careful.  Will send Chris Helgenburg up to appraise it this week.  I might be able to cash out on this deal at a good profit.  It involves some chance but we have to take them.  Boone County land is standard value that is sure.  I expect if the deal materializes to make an escrow arrangement of deeds.  This would give me considerable time in which to turn the farm before I would have to put any money into it as the owner wants to stay there yet this year.  After maintaining my profit on the Dakota land I would still have a cost on the Boone County land of less than $175 an acre and the agent Maupin offers to defer his commission on the Dakota land till after he sells the Boone county land for $200 an acre or more.  The more I think of the deal the better it looks provided the Boone County land will appraise $175 to $200 per acre.  I will trust Helgenberg’s judgement for this.  I have a number of other deals on for the Dakota land.  [1/26/37  Good thing I did not make this deal as land prices broke badly in 1930.]

April 2l,'19  I received a wire from Mrs. Griffith in reply to another letter saying that they would accept $6500 net cash or its equivalent in bonds for their equity in the Cornell Ave. property, subject to $6,000. Since they didn't receive the other proposition anyway I sent them another today addressed by registered mail to Mrs. Griffith.  I tried to meet her exactly so the deal will go through without further delay if possible.  I offered $5,438.40 in cash, par $600 in 4th Liberty-Loan bonds worth on the market $56l and $500 par the 5th or Victory Loan bonds.   .  .  .   This makes the $6,500 so they ought to accept the proposition at once.  I am having the abstract brought down to save delay. 

[2/l5/41  The bond issues of the Federal Government during the lst world war were called Liberty Bonds.  The Federal debt is now over $50 Billion and the limit just recently (1941) has been increased to $65 billion.  The Roosevelt New Deal has simply forced the banks to buy the bonds instead of selling to the public by popular subscription.]     .   .   .  

     Tomorrow I expect to go to Thorntown with Chris Helgenberg to have him appraise the Boone County farm.  If possible I want to confine the deal to 160 acres and give my Dakota section clear for the equity subject to $8,000 if Chris appraises it where I think he will.

Thur. May 8, '19  Nothing came of the above deal as the farm sold for cash $187.50 per acre.

Victory Parade for Soldiers Returning from World War I

.  .  .  Yesterday we all went in to see the Welcome Home parade of the Indiana soldiers.  It was quite imposing but rather expensive and premature as peace is not yet signed and over a million American soldiers are still in France, etc.

Wed. May 17,'19  I started considerable business today.  Received a wire from Richard Griffiths wanting to know if I would include their north Indianapolis house which they are selling on payments and which I have been looking after.  The buyer has paid about $500 and owes about $1,300.  I wired back that I would include the equity in this house .  .  . [2/8/23  I sold this little house later making about $900 net on my additional investment of $1,000.]

     I also received a wire today from E. L. Detamore of Francesville.[12]  I have exchanged a number of letters with him relative to trading my Dakota land in on some flats he has in Chicago.  I wired back to him arranging to meet him in [the town] Monon Friday morning and go on up to Chicago to see his property.  The deal looks good.    .  .  .

Fri. May 16,'19  Yesterday I received the following wire from Mrs. Griffith.  "Accept proposition of the 8th for Cornell Avenue and one thousand cash for North Indianapolis Equity.  Papers follow"   .  .  .    I will get my new Dodge roadster today.  It is sure a dandy.  Cost me $1,170.[13]  .  .  .

Wed. May 22,'19  After getting in all my final figures I have decided to pass up building another corner like De Quincy St. for the present.  Prices are still going up and I find I could not count on a total cost of less than $36,000 after figuring out every possible economy.  I firmly believe that prices will stay up pretty high for maybe two years to come.  Even on a basis of $34 & $35 rent it would take the property four years to pay the excess cost out of the net rents taking the l9l6 level of prices as normal.  I have concluded that I will know a lot of things by next spring that I do not know now and that I had better wait. This kind of property I put up to keep and if I could build l5% cheaper 2 years from now it would pay me to wait.   .  .  .

Tues. May 27,'19  I received signed contract from Griffith Sat.   .  .  .  On the basis of the new rents the building itself will be worth $20,000 or about $6,500 more than it will cost me when all fixed up.  However, it will be mighty good property to keep for a while.     .  .  . 

     Maupin called me up from Lafayette today and I may go to Chicago again in a few days to look at another flat proposition. He says it brings $11,000 a year and is mortgaged for $30,000.   .  .  .

Hiring a Helper for Domestic Work

Tues. June 3, '19   .  .  .  Yesterday a Miss Clara Waterman started in to work for us.  She is the daughter of a farmer living about a half mile from us. She was working for a family by the name of Piel at 37th & Meridian St. for $7 a week.  I offered her $40 a month without any washing and ironing, which we are having done outside.  Piel’s offered her the same money to stay but we succeeded in getting her.  She seems to take hold fine and is nice with the children.    .  .  .

     The Cornell building is beginning to look fine as the work of fixing it up nears completion.  I am quite proud of it.  It is sure a good deal.  Haven't heard a single complaint on account of the 33 1/3% increase in rent.  I expect to have it ready in a couple of weeks to put in application for loan to fund most of what I now owe the bank.

Niece and Nephew Lawrence and Ben Alexander Troublesome

     Received a letter from Laurence and Ben.[14]  They simply state that they do not care to sell as if they were the sole owners of the property.  I have taken steps to advise them differently. They are sure tedious to deal with but I think that eventually I will succeed in buying their interest in the Pratt Street property though it is hard to tell how long it will take.  I wrote them again yesterday.  The remodeling of this property will involve more money and will be the biggest deal I have ever undertaken. I would sure like to get started soon, but will have to take my time to fool around with these kids.  .  .  .    I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole with them in it because they would tie me up at every turn.  [1/26/38  Laurence & Ben sure made a mistake in not selling.  We finally tore the houses down in 1933 or 34 and still own the vacant ground.]

     I have another deal started through Maupin on the Dakota land. Fergus Falls, the beautiful little town where I stopped in Minnesota last fall with Denison on his farm deal was almost destroyed by a cyclone yesterday.[15]  Some 60 people were killed.

     My friend Detamore whose flat I went to see in Chicago recently has been caving a little right along as I expected he would and is going to Dakota to see my farm on a basis of $10,000 difference to me between the farm clear and his equity.

Peace Treaty Signed to Formally End World War I

Sun. June 29,'19  The World War I came to a formal end yesterday in the signing of the peace treaty by Germany.  It was five years to the day from the time the Austrian archduke was assassinated.  This was made the occasion of the war, though of course commercial rivalry was the underlying cause.

     Received a letter yesterday from Ben and Laurence.  .  .  .  they think the property is worth more money than I offered.     .  .  .    They seem to have an idea that the property is worth from $25 to $30,000 and that I am trying to get them to give it to me. [2/15/41  We still own the vacant ground and today it is not worth over $4,000.  I had an offer of $3,000.  Had to tear the houses down several years ago.]

Thurs. July 17,'19  Today I completed loan of $l0,500 on the Cornell Ave. property with the Aetna Trust Co.  $8,500, due 5 years from date, $500, 4 years, 500, 3 years, $500, 2 years & $500, l year.[16]  .  .  .

Chester Richmond returns from service in World War I

I noticed in the paper yesterday that the colored boy Chester Richmond who worked for me for so long landed in New York from overseas service.  I hope to have him back soon.  He will have been gone a year next month.[17]   .  .  .

Chester Richmond in his army uniform in a photo which he gave to George Rafert on his return to Indianapolis after World War I.  Richmond encountered the violent racism that faced Black Americans after World War I, even those who had served honorably.  He continued to work for at least five more years for Grandpa Rafert sometimes collecting rents on properties when Grandpa had to travel out of state on business.

We expect our little heir next Sunday.  The nurse is coming tomorrow to await his arrival.  Ethel’s Uncle Bent Stewart will deliver the baby.  She is in good health.  I am sure anxious to see him or her as the case may be and we are very happy in looking forward to the new member of our happy family.  However, I dread the ordeal for Ethel and for her sake wish it were all over.        .  .  .

Sun. July 19, ‘19  The nurse is here and we are waiting our little one but so far he or she has not seen fit to come.  I think it will be this week probably Fri or Sat. if my figures are right.      .  .  .

Tues. July 21,'19   .  .  .   I heard from Ray Hallum the tenant on the North Dakota farm today.  He says the crops are very poor as they did not get rain when needed.  Just what he means by poor I don’t know, a plenty I expect.  They are cutting rye now and will cut wheat in a couple of weeks.  Says he will let me know when they thresh.  I want to go out if I can.

Wed. July 29,'19  I have been working right along on the empty Rafert lumberyard land on Pratt St. and it seems gradually to be getting into definite shape.[18]     .  .  .  I have been working with Day on plans endeavoring to figure out the most feasible plan to handle the property everything considered.  Day’s idea is to work it over into 32 apartments of one room, bath, pantry-kitchen and breakfast nook. The living room under this plan would be 9'6" x l6” and the other "nooks" correspondingly small.  It figures out fine on paper, but I have decided to trim that plan down as the spaces are simply too small and I am afraid of it. This plan would add about 17" on to the length of each building and would make 8 apartments to the floor in each house.     .  .  .

     My next idea is to figure out somewhat larger apartments on the same general plan, cutting off the 17" of new construction in the rear and dividing the remaining space into two apartments on each side of each house on each floor making l6 apartments in all.  This is far more practical I am sure and cuts down the amount of money required a great deal.  It would do away with the new construction in the rear and would cut down the bathrooms & kitchens by half and these are the most expensive thing about the whole business.  On this plan the front apartments would rent readily at $38 and the rear ones at $33.  They bring $39.50 per month as they stand and an expenditure of $300 would make them produce $48.  Figuring on this basis, the entire property would produce a gross rental of $616 per month or $7,392 per annum.

     On a 15% basis the property would be worth $49,300.[19]  To be conservative it would be necessary to figure on a sale value of not over $48,000 and to be rock bottom conservative not over $45,000.   .  .  .    

Frank Rafert is born

Thurs. Aug 7, 1919 - 12:55 p.m.  -  This morning at 11:25 another little son was born to us and he is sure a dandy. Everything went off perfectly normal and fine.  Ethel woke me at 4 o'clock this morning and said she was having pains.  I got up and dressed immediately and called her uncle Dr. W. B. Stewart. He arrived within the hour though it is over 12 miles the way he had to come account of road work.  The pains continued steadily and became very severe during the last 45 minutes.  The baby was born at exactly 25 minutes past 11 o'clock. 

All times stated are what we call new time.  Under the day light saving law the clocks all over the country were set up one hour going back to standard time Oct 26th next.  Just before the baby was born Ethel said, "If it’s a boy his name is Frank (after her father) and if it’s a girl her name is Harriet."  A boy it was, so Frank it is.  We will probably supply him with a middle name later.  Young Frank is perfect in every way.  He weighs 7 lbs 9 oz net.  We haven't measured him yet, but he is tall.  22 inchs at least at a guess. Ethel’s labor was perfect.

She lost very little blood and is now resting easy.  Uncle Bent has been gone a half hour already.  We like the nurse Mrs. McCord fine.

     I can't express how thankful I am that this is over and so perfectly normal.  We have two girls and two boys and if that isn't a fine family I don’t know.

     Our neighbor Frank Kimberlin took my Dodge car and drove the girls and "Mr. Stew" to their Aunt Jennie’s this morning.  They don’t know the news yet and neither do Ethel’s Mother or Father know that it is all over.  We didn't want to tell them on account of Grandpa's health.[20]  I must start in to town now.

Mon. Aug. 11, '19  I took out an additional $1,000 life insurance in the New York Life today in favor of my little son Frank Elton Rafert.  We have decided on Elton as his middle name. It was his Grandma Stewart’s maiden name.  It is short and not usual and ought to differentiate him from any other possible Frank Rafert.  There is a Frank Rafert living now, a first cousin of mine, but he is a man near 70.    .  .  .

GOR Looks at Apartment Buildings in Chicago

Sat. Aug. 23,'19  Last Wednesday I left here at 6 o'clock in the morning and drove to Chicago picking up Mr. Maupin on the way at Lafayette.  We arrived at 4:00 in the afternoon after a drive of 207 miles from my house.  The little roadster ran like a watch.  My purpose was to see if I couldn't trade my Dakota land into a good apartment building with lots better income.  We looked over various buildings.  I made a proposition on a building located at 744 & 746 East 49th St consisting of 15 apartments of 2 rooms bath, kitchenette in-a-door beds, etc. and Janitor apartment.  It is a 3 story brick building well located, built three years ago [1916].

     I offered the farm clear for the building subject to $21,100 mortgage.  [1/26/38  After collecting about $54,000 rent out of the Chicago rental property I sold it in 1926 for $44,000 cash.  Took a mortgage out for the new owner for $28,000.  Later had to foreclose it in 1936 and now I again own the property which is clear of debt.]   .  .  .

     Ethel and little Frank have gotten along fine.  The nurse leaves tomorrow.  Frank has gained over a pound already.

     Chester Richmond, my colored boy, is working for me out here now.  I pay him $40 per month with board & room.  With $3 per week for washing and $80 per month for the man and girl our total living expense will run close to $4,000 a year.  This is a considerable increase over what it has been but with my time free I think I can cover the extra expense several times over in the course of the year.  The Cornell Avenue deal and recent increases in rents more than take care of it already as they increased my income net by about $250 per month.

He Trades Land in North Dakota for Chicago Apartment Building

Sat. Aug. 30, 1919  Last night Maupin called up and wanted to know if I would take the Chicago flat described on the preceding page subject to $22,900, the present mortgage instead of $21,100 per my proposition.  I stood pat on my offer and this afternoon he called again and said that my proposition was accepted.  I might have thrown away $1,800 mighty easy.  So, the Dakota land is sold if the deal closes up in good shape.  I think I have made a pretty good deal though I will know better six months from now.  However, with a rental around $7,000 after Oct 1st I can’t see any reason why the building should net any less than $2,400 a year at the least over and above interest and everything. 

I do not think I have made any money so far as value is concerned counting the farm at $27.50 per acre which value is necessary to maintain my Newton County farm profit but I feel sure that I have added materially to my income.  Of course I may find it necessary to spend some money on the apartment building to get it into good shape.  At any rate I am interested to see how it will turn out.

     My abstract is in the bank and I cannot get it till Tuesday as Monday is Labor Day.  I will send the abstract to Mott [North Dakota] to be brought down as soon as possible, for every day delay is on me.  [1/26/38 I sure did make a good deal.]   [7/5/52 - After getting the building back for the $28,000 mortgage in 1937, I sold it again last year (1951) for $45,000  Again I hold a mortgage for the new owner.][21]    .  .  .

Young Woman hired to work with children leaves

Sun. Sept. 21,'19  We let our girl go last night.  She wanted to go back to the city and we were very willing for her to do so. Everything around the kitchen is in a jam.  Such is help.  If we can keep Chester Richmond with us we will not need anybody in the kitchen over winter as he can do the dish-washing, cleaning and Ethel will be glad to do the cooking as she is in first class health again.

     Little Frank is sure as good a baby as could be.  He sleeps most of the time and has gained four lbs since he came.  He was six weeks old last Thursday.  Stewart was two years old last Friday and he is certainly a bouncer, just as perfect a little speciman of baby man that could be.     .  .  .

Tues. Sept. 23,'19  Have been staying at home today putting in my time on various kinds of office work, rent receipts, notices etc & looking after the kidlets while Ethel & Frank went to town in the roadster.   .  .  .

Prices For Building Materials Rising Quickly

I was just looking over the De Quincy & Sherman Drive records for the ten months from Dec. 1, 1918 to Oct. 1^st, 1919.  Prices of materials have continued to advance.  Last Spring I could have bought rough piece lumber for $38 to $44 per thousand board feet as against $18 to $25 in 1915 and 1916 when I built Sherman Drive and De Quincy.  Since Spring this year the price level of the same stuff has advanced to the present level of from 60 to 68.00 per 1000 board feet, or about three times the 1915-16 cost.  Other materials have also advanced since Spring though not so much.  I still believe that my original judgment was right though it is taking longer than I expected.  Prices will continue up for a while yet and then the bubble will burst and they will slide pretty fast.

     I can't build in the face of these conditions.  Now that the war is over, the world is full of unrest & uncertainty and shortages.  Men want higher pay which in many instances is alright, in addition they want shorter hours which in every instance is all wrong.  Such are the results of war.

Sister Jane Bell (Aunt Jennie) Breaks Hip

Fri. Sept 26,'19  .  .  .

     A week ago last Tuesday on the 16th I went over to cousin Ed Ruschhaupt’s near New Palestine to get my sister who was visiting there. It was dark when we got here.  I ran the machine in the garage intending to bring in her suitcase after I went across the road to McClain’s for our milk.  I was just stepping up on McClain’s porch when I heard the most peculiar sounds from the directions of our house.  I couldn't tell what it was but, I knew something was wrong and I started running toward our house.  Ethel had rushed down from upstairs and met me at the porch saying the Jennie had fallen down the side steps.  She had started out for the suitcase and fell down the porch steps on the west side of the house.  I carried her in the house.  She was suffering terribly.  We called Ethel’s Uncle Bent who got here in about an hour.  I then carried her upstairs and he tried to make an examination while she was under chloroform.  He couldn't tell whether her hip was fractured or merely dislocated or broken near the socket.  We had the ambulance come out from town & took her to the Methodist Hospital.  It was about 3 a.m. when we got her there.  The same morning they took an ex-ray picture and found that the neck of the hip bone was fractured.

     The hip was set successfully and to date she seems to be getting along fine, though she has a long siege in bed ahead of her, probably 8 or l0 weeks at least.  She has a good nurse and everything possible is being done for her comfort. I sure hope that she will get along fine and that no complications will arise.  (1/26/38  My sister who is now 68 has been a cripple ever since this fall.  She can of course walk, but with a severe limp due to her hip dropping down.)

Fri. Oct 11, 'l9  Last Tuesday Ethel and the two boys & myself drove up to Kokomo where I attended the annual convention of real estate men of Indiana.  The girls stayed at home.  We stayed with George Sailors & family.  I heard some splendid addresses which were well worthwhile.  The meetings lasted till 4 pm.  The latter part of each afternoon I either played golf or shot at the traps at the Country Club with George.     .  .  . 

Below, Aunt Jennie with Elsa and Jeanne Rafert in winter 1917 with their Aunt Jennie Rafert  before she broke her hip.  Elsa was 5 and Jeanne nearly 7.

Last Sunday morning I drove up to Kokomo again by myself. In the afternoon went to Maxinkukee Lake with George Sailors and his brother Leslie and six other fellows in two machines [cars].  The Sailors’ have a cottage up there.  We stayed till Monday afternoon and I came home from Kokomo yesterday.  We killed over 70 mud hens and ducks.  I expect to go up in November for a regular duck hunt.  Sure had a good time.[22]

Sat. Oct. l8,'l9  I expect to go to Chicago next Tuesday to close the deal for the building on East 49th St.

He Buys a Large House for Renovation

     I made a proposition today to Mrs. Mina J. Allison for her property located at 2428 Broadway.  It consists of a substantial old fashioned frame home and very large barn.  The home has nine rooms.  I offered her par value $5,000 liberty bonds.  I believe that there is at least $2,000 profit in fixing the home up and selling it.  It is now rents for $40 per month and the barn brings about $20 for garages.  The ground alone is probably worth $4,500.

Christina Manche Rafert’s sister Elizabeth Manche Lantz Dies

     Yesterday afternoon I attended the funeral of my Aunt Elizabeth Lantz who was buried in the little cemetery near New Palestine.  She left a brief obituary to be read at her funeral and everything was carried out as she had planned.  She was mother's sister.  [10/2/40  Elizabeth Lantz was also the great-grandmother of Mildred Hawk who married our Stewart in 1939.]

     She was born in Hamilton Ohio in December l839. Her parents, John Manche and Mary Catherine Lange, my grandparents, moved to Hancock County, Indiana in 1840 where my mother was born at their home on Freeman's hill just across Sugar Creek from New Palestine.  Aunt Liz was married in 1858 at age 19 to John George Lantz who died in 1900.  She is survived by 4 children: Henry Lantz, Will Lantz, Nettie Larrabee, and Mollie Ashcraft.  Her daughter, my first cousin Emma Lantz Bardonner died only a week ago.  In addition to her children she was survived by 20 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren.[23]

     Mother’s other sister Mrs. Ernst W. Faut [Mary Manche] died in 1902.  Her brother, my uncle John Manche is the only living member of the old family.  He is past 70.

[At left George Rafert’s aunt Elizabeth Manche Lantz (1839-1919), George Rafert’s mother’s Christiana Manche Rafert’s sister.   Christina died in June, 1915.  Elizabeth and Christina were close friends.  Elizabeth’s husband John George Lantz came to the U.S. from Germany in 1850 when he was age 20.  He bought hundreds of acres of farmland in Sugar Creek Township, about 15 miles east of Indianapolis.  This land remains in the Lantz family.  She, her husband John George Lantz and many of Grandpa Rafert’s aunts, uncles and cousins are buried at the New Palestine Cemetery.]         

This is a mighty fine family.  There is not a single black sheep among them all through the four generations. They are all substantial, respected people.  The family on the side of my Uncle John Manche and Aunt Mary Faut are of about equal size so I have quite a bunch of cousins.  [SR:  17 on his mother’s side and probably that many from his father’s six brothers and sister.]

Fri. Oct 24,'19  I caught the noon train Tuesday for Chicago returning yesterday evening.     .  .  .   The Chicago flat is a dandy and I like it better than I did at first.  It is bringing $7,500 a year now which is considerably more than it brought when I contracted to buy it.   

Sat. Oct 25,'19  Yesterday morning I went into my attorney Mr. Berryhill’s office and found that Mrs. Allison under date of Oct. 21 had accepted my proposition for her property at 2428 Broadway.      .  .  .

He buys a 7-passenger Nash for the growing family

Thurs. Nov. 6, 1919  Last Sunday I drove the family in to town in the old Buick.  On the way home it began to act funny and I saw another big repair bill coming.  The next morning I drove it in to town with the intention of getting it fixed.  On the way in the thought struck me to look into the 7 passenger proposition again before spending any more money on the old machine.  The result was that I bought a new 7 passenger Nash car - Model 682, #114113.  They allowed me $750 for the Buick and I gave them a check for $l,005 difference.  It is sure a dandy - 127" wheel base - 34 x 4 1/2" tires, 6 cylinder 62 horsepower motor.  I would have liked to use the old car over winter but concluded that I could not do so economically.  We will sure enjoy the new one.  With a big new family car and my new Dodge roadster we are now all set in the machine line for a while at least.  It makes a very economical and satisfactory combination.     .  .  .

Baby Frank Flourishing

Fri. Nov. 7, 1919  Our dear little son Frank Elton was 3 months old today.  He weighs exactly 14# net which is a gain of 6 pounds and 7 ounces.  He is the best baby and the least care of any baby we have had yet.  He couldn't be improved upon as a good baby.  He has been absolutely well even escaping the colic.

I returned from Maxinkuckee Wednesday evening.  I went up last Sunday with the Sailor boys of Kokomo for a duck hunt.  We had a dandy time.   .  .  .

National Coal Strike

Tues. Nov. 25, 1919     Attention is centered just now on a nationwide coal strike which has been in progress since Nov. lst.  The operators and miners have not yet agreed on wages etc with the result that coal is getting very short.  Passenger trains have been curtailed by 40%, interurban trains by half, a good many industries have had to shut down entirely.  We are expecting our lights to be turned off most any day etc. etc.

     With the highest wages & highest prices ever known we are going through a period of great extravagance, shortages and unrest.  For example we have been unable to buy over a pound of sugar at a time for some months and often could not get that.  Prices are continuing to go up.  Goodness only knows where this will all end.  I afraid there will be the devil to pay somewhere before we get through.   .  .  .

During the past week we put out a big bunch of bushes around the front and sides of our yard fence.  I make a note of the time as some day when they are big it will be interesting to know when they were planted.  I also set out some white birch and weeping willow trees.   .  .  .

Sun. Dec. 7,'19  The coal strike continues and the situation is becoming serious as great many factories have had to shut down on account of coal.  Public service of all kinds has been greatly curtailed and business is running on short hours to save coal.  About 1/3 of the train service will be taken off tomorrow.

     I have been paying all my sister's hospital, nurse & other bills during her illness due to breaking her hip.  .  .  .  She is getting along fine and can now get around on her crutches.  It has been over 12 weeks since the accident.    .  .  .

Fri. Dec. 19, 1919  I went up to Chicago last Tuesday noon leaving there at 5:30 yesterday afternoon getting home at mid-night. While there I succeeded in closing the deal for the flat property at 744-46 E 49th St in which I gave the Dakota section of land [640 acres] clear of encumbrance for the equity of the flat subject to $21,100.   .   .   .

"Dakota Land & Chicago Flat Deal"

Date Deal was closed under date of Dec. l8th l9l9 deeds to me bearing this date but my deed was dated some time before but not delivered till yesterday.

Attorneys:  I employed Mr. Harry L. Rickard of the firm of Kraus-Goodwin & Rickard. 1230 Tribune Bldg. Chicago.  Mr. Rickard is a fine competent chap about 39 years old. Mr. Berryhill acted in an advisory capacity.   .  .  .

Insurance:   There is a total of $33,000 fire insurance on the building.  Water lights, janitor & some minor details remain to be adjusted.  This will be done by H. W. Howard and Company in their first statement of rents after the bills for these minor items come in. Mr. L. T. Orr a partner in the Howard firm acted for them in connection with the deal.   .  .  .

Raising Rents Due To Much Higher Costs

Mon. Dec. 22,'19  On the back of my regular collection notices which will be mailed Dec. 30,'l9 I am placing the following note to the 24 tenants at Sherman Drive and at De Quincy St.  [Each of the properties had 12 row houses in groups of 3]

"The increase of $1.50 per month in your rent concerning which you were advised last July will be unavoidable and will become effective April first 1920.  I regret to advise further, that unless there is a material change in the situation as it now exists a further increase of $2.50 per month will be necessary June first 1920.

It is not my desire to increase rents, except as is absolutely necessary and for that reason and in fairness to you I am giving this long notice before putting same into effect."

     To the ten tenants at Cornell Ave. I am sending a similar notice under date of Dec 30, 1919 advising them of an increase of $2.00 per month effective April first 1920.   .  .  .

Rapid Price Increases on Everything

          I wish we could go back to normal conditions when prices staid about the same.  I would a whole lot sooner do business in the old basis when a dollar was worth 100 cents.  The above will bring the Cornell Av. rents to $22 per month for the 8 inside houses and $25 for the south end and $26 for the north end. June first it will bring the Sherman Drive property and the De Quincy property to $31.50 for the inside and $32.50 for the outside houses against $21.50 and $22.50 in l9l5.  This seems like a heavy increase but everything else has doubled and quadrupled.  Piece lumber in 1915 was around $l8 to $20 per [thousand board feet].  Today it is $60.00.  Cement was $1.50 per barrel, today it is $4.00.  Bread was 5 cents per loaf, today 10 cents, Gasoline was 10 cents per gallon, today 23 3/10.  Pocahantas coal was $3.50 per ton, today $8.50, etc.  Still today everybody is far better able to pay the price than they were in l9l5.  Common labor today gets 50 cents per hour as against 20 cents in 1915 and this increase in wages is fairly typical.    .  .  .

1920

Ethel Rafert’s Father, Dr. Frank Stewart Dies

Thurs. Jan 1, l920  Ethel’s father Dr. Frank C. Stewart - age 67 - died this morning at 5:l5.  His death came as a welcome relief to him as well as the rest of us.  He had been in poor health for four years with a growing condition of creeping paralysis  [now called Parkinson’s Disease. SR].  He had been confined to the home for the past year and practically to his bed for several months.  He really starved to death after the paralitic condition reached his throat as he could not swallow even water and he suffered a great deal.  His patience exceeded that of Job.  A finer, cleaner, more sincere & thoughtful gentleman never lived.  The funeral will be next Sat morning at 11:00 o'clock.  I went in early this morning and bought a lot (#704 Sect 59) at Crown Hill and made all arrangements.  All our babies except Frank are in bed with measles.

Assets, Liabilities, and Increase in Net Worth, 1919

Total assets, Jan 1, 1920 $193,354.64

Total liabilities                $101,595.02

Net worth,   $91,759.62  [about $2,750,000 in 2022 dollars]

Net gain for 1919,  $20,544.41 [about $600,000 today]   

Thurs Jan l l920  Well, the year l9l9 has passed and it has certainly been a very prosperous year for me.  While I did no building, I made more money than ever before.  The invoice on the preceding page is absolutely conservative [The original diary has a detailed listing of property values and debt, SR].  I have cut values on my Rafert Estate interest to the bone.  I allowed seemingly considerable appreciation at Sherman Drive and at De Quincy Street, but considering the rent they are now producing and their present cost of reproduction they are far more conservatively invoiced than they were a year ago at the lower figure.  The year turned out a good one in every way.  For example as a result of this year’s work I enter 1920 with over $500 a month more net income than I had in Jan. 1919.

     The principal accomplishments of the year were the clearing of the Arlington Avenue property, the purchase of the Cornell Avenue property, the purchase of the Chicago flat property and the sale of the Dakota land.  I was also well satisfied with the sale of lots 62 and 63 in Layman and Carey's Addition and the purchase of the property at 2428 Broadway.  I have treated this deal as completed though in matter of fact we are waiting for a deed to come back from Miami, Florida.  I was also fortunate in collection in the $l7,000 mortgage for the Rafert Estate, as this helped loosen me up.  The prospects for 1920 look very good.  I do not expect to do any building, but I have in mind other things which I hope to accomplish.

Frank Stewart’s Funeral

Grandpa Stewart’s funeral was held last Saturday morning at 11 o'clock, the services being private.  It was a beautiful service.  His life had been so clean and fine that the tributes paid him were real and earnest and spontaneous.  He was born in Wabash County, Indiana, Dec. 8, 1853 on a farm 4 miles east of La Fontaine.[24] He had five brothers and seven sisters and was survived by the five brothers and one sister.  They are Dr. John [Wesley Graves] Stewart of Wabash Indiana, M.D., Ed Stewart & Jim Stewart also of Wabash, coal dealer and Real Estate loan men respectively and Willis Benton Stewart and William Robert Stewart, doctors in Indianapolis, and Mrs. Jim Bloomer [Julia Stewart] of Wabash.

Above, Dr. Frank Stewart seated when quite ill in late 1918.  Daughter Ethel Rafert is standing at left and Elnora Elton Stewart, his wife at right.  He died of what was called shaking palsy, now Parkinson’s disease.

Sat. Jan 17,'20    .  .  .   I returned from Chicago last night bringing with me check for $420.50 in January rents and the further sum of $l88.80 which I received as a refund on the coal I paid for when I bought the property.  I also secured a credit of $78.62 on the decorating which I paid for, so the trip netted me $267.42.  The rea; estate agents tried to be crooked and I let them run till the various amounts according to them were down in black and white and then I caught them with their pants down and made them jump through.  They tried to bluff it out, but I had the goods on them.   .  .  .    They are responsible alright, simply crooked.

He Considers Buying the Robert Stewart Farm in Wabash County

Mon. Jan 19, 1920 .  .  .   I wrote James W. Stewart of Wabash, Ethel’s uncle today, to send me full particulars on the old Stewart farm of 200 acres lying 4 miles east of La Fontaine.  This farm belonged to Ethel's grandfather and has been held in the family ever since. They are asking $150 an acre for it but I have an idea that $25,000 cash will buy it.  It is a good farm and while I have not gone into detail on it yet, I believe I could turn it at around $175 an acre.  They have been trying to sell it for some years but don't know how.  I first thought of it as a means of getting Ethel's mothers interest (1/5) out of it so that it could be put into productive shape for her.  [2/15/41  They sure made a mistake.  Due to sentiment they never did sell the farm.  Just recently, all the Stewart brothers having passed away it was sold under partition proceedings for $6,150 for the whole 200 acres.]

Financial Panic [Business Depression] Appears Possible

Fri l/30/20   .  .  .   Conditions look as if there might be a financial panic and breaking prices by next Fall.  Prices are high and still going higher, but foreign exchange has reached a point where foreign countries will find it almost impossible to buy with the result that our surplus of factory production will back up on us and smash prices.  I have decided to sort of ride easy till late Spring and see what happens.  I have passed up the Stewart farm deal as the Doctors here don’t want to sell for less than $150 an acre.  I would be willing to give $125 but felt it not worthwhile to make an offer.  They are showing bum judgment as doctors usually do in business matters. [2/15/41 They sure did show bum judgment as I have noted before.]

An Old German Newspaper Clipping Celebrates His Grandparents’ Golden Wedding Anniversary in the Early 1870s

     The other day a distant relative on my father’s side sent me a clipping from a German Newspaper printed in Indianapolis some 50 years ago.  It describes my grandpa and grandma Rafert’s golden wedding anniversary.  My grandfather lived to be 91 and my grandmother 83.  The name is spelled Roefert.  [2/15/41  See Page 176, Vol #7 of this diary under date of Jan. 31, 1941.]  They came to Indianapolis some time before l840 at which time it was a town of 9,000 people according to this article.  I will file this away with other papers for the children.  Father was the 7th son in the family and as he was 44 when I was born. I do not remember my grandparents.[25]   .  .  .  [Note;  We know now that they left Bremerhaven, Germany in May 1843 and arrived in Indianapolis in June.  SJR]

Sun. Feb. 8, ‘20  During the past week I spent my first day in 24 years in bed on account of sickness.  Had a touch of "flu" or grippe. However, it kept me down only the one day then took Ethel down and I had to get up.  I am feeling OK. Again, but she is still down and is likely to be for some time.  This disease is epidemic again and more widespread than last year, but not so severe in form.

Woodrow Wilson a Failure as President

Thurs. Feb. 12, 1920  Today is a national holiday (Lincolns birthday) Americanism and unity, the things for which he stood, mean more today than they ever did.  If we only had a leader today of Lincoln or T. R. Roosevelt’s devotion and ability the country would soon get away from the social unrest that now besets it.  Over 3,000 red agitators were recently arrested by the government.  Several hundred have been deported.  President Wilson is a failure.  He should never have left the school room as he is not qualified to deal with men and affairs.  He has put us in a dickens of a fix with his wavering, talk, talk, talk and bull-headedness in the wrong.  Thank goodness, we have a chance to vote this year. Two men loom up as the best leaders available.  Herbert Hoover, who was world food dictator during the war, is a business man of keen, clear judgment and practical ability.  He refuses to acknowledge himself a candidate.  General Leonard Wood who is also well known is a candidate.  I believe either one or the other of these two men will be our next president.  Wood is a Republican.  Hoover’s politics is unknown.  The waste and extravagance and autocracy and inefficiency of the Wilson administration will soon be at an end and we at least have that to be thankful for.  [2/15/41  The Wilson administration was the beginning and root of all our present troubles under F. D. Roosevelt and his New Deal.  Worse is still to come or I miss my guess.]   .  .  .

Thurs. Feb 26, 1920  I executed a Will this afternoon in the presence of Mr. John S. Berryhill and Richard Griffith.  I will put it in my box at the bank where it can rest till there is some change in conditions due to the passing of the years or other facts which may come up that would make it seem advisable to change it.  In the mean time while the babies are small I feel that I am giving them as well as their mother the best protection possible by leaving everything both real & personal to their mother for it bunches my resources and leaves her free to use them for their best advantage as conditions may develop.  [1/29/43  After the children were grown I cancelled this will and with certain distribution of property since and joint titles.  I feel that the Law of Indiana makes a fair will and I will let it go at that.][26]

     This morning at 10 o'clock I met Mrs. Mira J. Allison in Mr. Berryhill’s office and completed purchase from her of the property at 2428 Broadway.    .  .  .    I think this deal is good for from $2000 to $3000 profit by the time I get through with it. 

Thurs. Mar 3,'20  On the following page I will prepare an estimate of my cash needs for the next six months.  In making the estimate I have taken no account of the house I just purchased from Mrs. Allison at 2428 Broadway which is now bringing $49 per month as I have given the tenants notice to vacate and expect to begin work tearing down the old barn and converting it into a 5 car garage and fixing the house up and getting it ready to sell.  This completed properly ought to sell for around $8,500 when I am through with it which would mean about $2,500 profit.     .  .  .

     Also, Grandma Stewart wants me to remodel her home at 1730 Pennsylvania St. into a Duplex.  The house lends itself very nicely to this purpose and it will require in the neighborhood of $3,000 to accomplish.    .  .  . 

Tues. Mar. 9, 1920  I served on Jury today and was hung up till 8 o'clock tonight.

He Plans a project, then cancels due to uncertain business conditions

Fri. Mar. 26, 1920  I have been so busy since the last entry and have had my time so broken up due to having to serve on the jury that this is the first chance I have had to set down some matters of rather major importance.  .  .  .  I have started wrecking the barn.  The house has 9 large rooms which can be converted rather readily into the completed building and will make another big saving.  I have engaged Chas H. Boyfield as architect and in spare moments between jury service I have been conferring with him over the preliminary plans which are developing in a very satisfactory manner.  The deal looks mighty good.   .  .  .

Tues. Apr. 13, ‘20    .  .  .    I have decided to pass up the flat proposition at 2428 Broadway and will sell the material out of the barn and the home as a separate proposition as I first planned to do.  I am doing this because of the looks of general business conditions. I think we are due for a financial smash in the next six months and labor conditions are almost impossible.  Carpenters, plumbers etc now $1.00 per hr - common labor 60 cents per hour, material very high (100% over last spring and just one strike after another in all lines).  I am going to lay low and see what happens next.  Something is due to "bust"  (This prediction came true in the fall of 1920.)

A Fatal Accident While Tearing Down Barn

Sun. Apr. 25, 1920  Last Wed. afternoon Mr. E. S. De Hoff, one of the finest old gentlemen I have ever known and who was working for me at the Broadway property tearing down the barn in the rear, fell from the building and died yesterday morning.  No one saw him fall, but a colored man, Prentis Irvin, found him lying in the alley.  He is survived by a widow about 75 years old and a daughter about 40.  He was 80 this month and as spry as a cat.  The compensation insurance which I carried paid all doctor & hospital bills and gives his widow about $l3 a week for 300 weeks.  It also allows $100 for burial expense.  To this I added $50.[27]

I hated this like everything and feel like I don’t want to have anything more to do with the property.  I have a deal on to sell it to the people next door and hope it goes through, though I will not make much over a thousand dollars on it if it does.  Conditions begin to look more and more uncertain and if I can sell it out even at a small profit I am going to do so in order to get money on hand or where it is readily available for use.  Government bonds continue to drop.  2nd 4% are now down to 85 and I believe they will go below 80, 2nd 3rd & 4th 4 1/4 are about the same price. 

It is simply impossible to get any labor.  I offered $1.00 an hour for help on the Broadway job and couldn't get it.  We have been going through a bad tie up due to a railroad switchman's strike.  Nothing short of a panic will bring things and people to their senses, and I believe it is coming soon.  I have bungled the whole deal from start to finish, but every time I would get something figured out I would get blocked someway.  If I can make a moderate profit on it I will let it go, otherwise I will hold it till I can.[28]

     Ethel’s mother and sister have been with us since January 20th.  Grandma has been sick in bed for over a week and Ethel went to bed yesterday.  Jeanne & Elsa missed the last week of school which ended yesterday but both passed with flying colors.  Elsa got all A's and Jeanne got 3 A's 3 A+'s and one B+.  I am proud of my little girls.  Frank is coming fine and Stewart is as active as a basket of monkeys.

     De Quincy and Sherman Drive houses go to $31.50 for inside houses and $32.50 for ends June first and outside garages to $4.  This will bring each corner to $412.00 per month   .  .  .     Cornell has been bringing $227 per month since April first.  De Quincy and Sherman Drive houses advanced $1.50 per month.     .  Real Estate is the last to go up and by the same token will be the last to go down.

Grandma Stewart comes down with appendicitis and is operated on

Tues. Apr. 27, ‘20  .  .  .   Last night Ethel’s mother was taken to the hospital and operated on this morning for appendicitis.  In her weakened condition I cannot help but fear that it may prove serious.  We can only wait and see and hope for the best.Tues. May 11, ‘20  Grandma is now getting along very nicely though still in the hospital.

Tues. June 1, '20  Yesterday I stayed home and worked in the garden all day.  I have a big garden coming on which means a good deal for a family as large as ours now is.  The whole place here in the country is beautiful now and has been ever since the grass got green.  I have been cutting the grass once a week with my

Children at New Bethel about 1921, from left:  Frank, Jeanne, Elsa, Stewart.  The family moved back to Indianapolis in 1923 after 7 years in the country.

new power lawn mower.  I can do the whole lawn of 3 acres or more in about 6 hours including trimming up and all.  It means about a ten mile walk each time not counting trimming but I sure enjoy it.[29]

Today I entered into a contract with my friend Judge Clarence E. Weir selling him the house at 2428 Broadway which I bought from Mrs. Allison last February.  .  .  .

Business conditions are very tight

     Things are tightening up like everything.  Money is almost impossible to get they tell me, though I haven't tried to get any myself. I suspect I could get it if I needed it.  I have concluded, however, not to pay off any more loans for a while but to let my surplus accumulate.  I have about $1,300 on hand now and with the $2,000 of bonds coming from Weir and over $1,000 due yet this month in collections, I can get a pretty fair bunch together in a short time.  My total rental collection now amounts to $1,783 per month [today about $50,000] .  .  .    .

Tues. June 15/20  Today was Ethel’s birthday.  She was 32 and as fine a little momma as ever was. 

New Bethel (also known as Wanamaker) home and yard taken summer 1921.  Left to right, Frank, Stewart, Elsa and Jeanne holding dolls.  This was the yard it took six hours to mow with a three-foot wide sickle motorized lawnmower. 

Sun. June 20, 1920  .  .  .   This afternoon we are going into town to have a family picture made.  Went to Sunday school with the girls this morning. We have a dandy little church in Bethel and I have taken a good deal of interest in it.  However we have been very unfortunate during the past year by having a preacher who was a plain "nut". He split the church wide open and drove out everyone of the responsible members with the result that the organization went to boot.  He resigned a few weeks ago as I told him in open meeting he ought to do six months ago.  We have no preacher now and are simply trying to get the people together again in the old spirit of good friends and neighbors.  .  .  .

Visiting Turkey Run and Parke County with Friends

Sat. Jul. 3, ‘20  Walt and Ladella Turner and their two children from Evanston, Illinois, have been with us a couple of days.[30]  Today we all drove to Turkey Run in my Nash.  It is one of the finest rides I ever took.  Parke county especially offers beautiful touring.

Fri Jul. 16, ‘20  My niece and nephew Laurence & Ben Alexander are coming down Sunday & Ben & I will go on down to Lawrence County to inspect the 80 acres the Rafert Estate owns there.   .  .  .

     We had our pictures taken about two weeks ago but are not very well satisfied with the proofs and decided not to have little Franks pictures finished at all.  We wanted to get his picture when he was 5 months old same as we have of the other babies but couldn't get to it.  We tried several times but something always made it impossible.  We will have to try again as these pictures are no good.  I write this for the benefit of his future wife who is probably not yet born.  However, that will probably not prevent her from asking why we did not have Frank's picture taken at the same age as the other children.

Possible Sale of 80 Acres from Christopher Rafert Estate

Tues. Jul. 20, 1920  Laurence & Ben came down last Sunday & yesterday Ben and I drove down into Lawrence County and hunted up the 80 acres.  .  .  .  I further agreed with Laurence and Ben that at any time within the ensuing year I would give them the sum of $300 for the 80 acres clear of encumbrance if they did not trade it off themselves and wanted to sell it.  .  .  .   As a result of being rid of its dead stuff the Rafert Estate can increase its dividend about $100 a year.

.  .  .     I am not trying to do much in a business way this year but am laying low and getting mobilized to be in shape to go pretty heavy when conditions do get right which they eventually will. Just now money is tight, labor scarce and arrogant, transportation shot to pieces & material very high and hard to get.  Another year will bring considerable changes in the situation I feel sure.

Wed. Jul. 21, ‘20  I completed sale of the property at 2428 Broadway this afternoon to Clarence E. Weir according to terms of contract dated 6/1/20.  I took mortgage back for $3,500.00 @ 6% due 5 years after date with privilege of prepaying $200 or more at any time.  Details of the transaction can be found in Ledger on pages 188-9.[31]  I made a net profit of $782.54 over and above money I gave the De Hoffs after his fall and death and over the $100 I paid the architect Boyfield for preliminary plans which I did not use.  While I did not make as much out of this deal as I first expected to make, I feel I did fairly well considering the circumstances and conditions.

An Invitation to Spend the Winter in South Carolina

Thurs. Jul. 22, ‘20  We are all pretty much excited in anticipation of a proposition which came up a few days ago.  A Mr. Murphy, a relative of one of our neighbors and for ten years past a resident of the south, came over the other day.  He is a great hunter.  He is planning a big hunt in the southeast part of South Carolina this winter and has invited my family to join himself and wife and a few other friends on a big plantation near Georgetown, South Carolina, which would be our headquarters. It is on the edge of a wilderness county but the plantation home is only 4 miles from Georgetown, which is a place of some 5,000 people.  He says there are deer, bear, turkey and small game in abundance. 

If nothing prevents, we plan to drive down about the first of November and spend the winter.  We can keep the girls up in their school work ourselves and expect to have the time of our lives.  I will get my affairs organized so I can turn them over to Richard Griffith in Mr. Berryhill’s office to handle for me while I am away and if necessary I can make one or two trips up here during the winter.  Mr. Murphy expects to go down about the 15th of October to get things ready.

First Manche Family Reunion

Mon. Aug. 16, 1920  I have been so busy of late I haven't had time to jot down several things.  Last Friday we had a family reunion at the home of my first cousin Lizzie Manche--Mrs. Carl Hardin—daughter of my mother’s brother John Manche, who lives two miles north and about eight east of New Palestine.  There are 101 relatives in the bunch, all descendents of the five children of my grandparents on my mother’s side.  About 90 of them were present and we had a very enjoyable time. 

My grandparents John Manche and Catherine Elizabeth Lange were both immigrants from Germany.  Grandfather Manche was born in 1808 and died Jan. 6, 1851 from pneumonia.  Catherine was born in 1816 and died Feb. 23, 1865. They had five children reach maturity.  John Manche, the only one now living at the age of 75, my mother who was Christina Manche, Mrs. Ernst Faut who was Mary Manche and Elizabeth Lantz who was Elizabeth Manche.  The fifth, Paul Manche, moved away and his descendents are scattered around Terre Haute and have been pretty much lost track of by this end of the family.  My grandmother’s maiden name was Lange and her parents, my great grandparents on my mother’s side, had several children, Joseph, Catherine and several others, so that if their descendents had been included we would have had a bunch. 

My first cousin Will Lantz, Mrs. Maurice Manche,  cousin Ben Faut and myself are to act as a committee to arrange for another reunion next year.  It is a fine thing and if I do say it a fine family, not a black sheep in the whole crowd, and all substantial and prosperous.  There has never been a divorce in the family, for example, all the way back so far as we know. 

Building Eighteen Garages on Central A venue

     What has kept me so busy lately is the fact that I concluded some days ago to build the garage on the Central Avenue lot at once. I have drawn the plans and made most of my arrangements, and we start work tomorrow morning.  I think this will be a mighty good little deal.  I do not believe the building will cost me as much as $4,000 and the garages ought each to rent for near or all of $10 per month or $l80 a month for the bunch.  Considering that there is no upkeep to a building of this kind, $2,160 a year is pretty good income on a total investment of about $7,000.  I am sure pleased to be starting something.

Wed. Aug. 18, ‘20  I practically completed all my arrangements for the garage building today.  Bought blocks, sand, cement, lumber etc. We have the ground cleared off and are digging trenches for foundations and grading.  Cement is very scarce, as all the big dealers are entirely out of it.  I was lucky, I got hold of a road contractor friend of mine and got 38 barrels from him at $4.20 per barrel as against the present market of %5.20 per barrel. I used to pay $l.50 per barrel in l915.  I bought 3600 blocks today @ 24 cents each - 5% for cash.  I used to pay 8 cents for them. I am paying 75 cents per hour for work, common labor that I used to get for 20 cents per hour.  However, in spite of this I do not believe it will cost me much over $200 per garage.  The saving is due mainly to change in type of building. I am running a straight masonry wall up the back and pitching the roof to the front.  This does away with a lot of expensive work and makes a better building.

     I was in Ethel’s Uncle Will and Bent Stewart’s office yesterday.  I ask Uncle Will if he had any money he wanted to loan.  Uncle said he would be glad to let me have $2,600.  Bent came in and said he could let me have five or six thousand dollars if I wanted it.  I took the $2,600 from Will and $1,500 from Bent giving them demand notes @ 8% with the privilege of prepayment in multiples of $500 at any time.  This arrangement was fortunate.  .  .  .  Money is very tight so I did not want to ask the bank for any though I could have gotten what I needed there.  This gives me plenty of leeway and I will clean it up soon out of savings.  .  .  .

It is just like a doctor to have that much money lying around idle.  I’ll bear them in mind after this.[32]

Wed. Aug. 25, ‘20  We started mixing concrete Monday morning and finished the foundation up to grade, of the garage building I am putting on the Central Avenue lot at 2 o'clock today.  We put in 1200 cubic feet of concrete.     .  .  .

Sat. Aug. 28, ‘20  .  .  .   We got in a full week of 55 hours this week without losing a minute.  Put in the whole foundation up to grade and have laid about one fifth of the blocks.  The carpenters start on Monday.

Fri. Sept. 3, ‘20  .  .  .   We will finish the block work on the building about Tuesday afternoon.  Monday is Labor Day, or we would get it done then.  We have three sections of 3 garages each framed and doors hung on two sections.  The work is progressing fine.

Getting Ready for Trip to South Carolina

On the way to Georgetown, South Carolina, Oct. 1920.  Grandma at left in rear, the four children, left to right, Frank, Stewart and Elsa in back, Jeanne in front, left, Grandpa driving.  The car was a Nash.  Driver is now, in 1920, on the right.

    We are getting all set for our trip south.  I have given Mr. O. M. Murphy who invited us my check for $100 to cover our share of mutual expense and have put $l88.40 to date in clothes & equipment necessary for the trip.  This includes a 9 x 9 tent, 4 folding cots and mattresses, a folding table, five bed rolls, a folding gasoline stove, luggage racks for the machine, etc.  I have a number of things to buy yet, which will run the total to probably $250.  This seems like a good deal of equipment, but with it we will be independent of hotels and prepared to fix our own meals which will mean a saving of at least $15 to $20 a day while we are on the road, besides being a lot more fun.  If it wasn't for the election I would leave about Oct l5th, but on this account will probably wait till Nov. 3rd.

Women Get the Vote

     By amendment to the constitution of the United States women can now vote, so Ethel will have a chance too.  We sure want to see a republican president elected.  Another four years of Democratic misrule and the country would go to the bow-wows for sure.

Wed. Oct. 6, ‘20  Have had the Central Avenue garages finished since the first of the month and have it all paid for except the wiring and a downspouts, for which I have not received bills.  The whole thing ground, building and all will cost me about $6,800.  I have rented 10 of the 18 garages at $6.00 per mo. through Mr. George C. Schaub, the druggist at llth and Alabama Streets, who will act as my agent for the building.

     I am going to Chicago tomorrow to see that everything is shipshape up there.  We plan to start on our drive of 1276 miles to Georgetown, South Carolina, the l4th of this month.  I have everything in good shape and organized here so I can be away.  I will have my books with me and expect to keep a diary of the trip in this book.

The Route to South Carolina

Sun. Nov. 7, 1920  We have been in South Carolina two weeks today and I have been so busy that this is the first I have tried to write.  We left home Oct l4th as planned and took breakfast with my cousin Clara and her husband Ed Moore in Greenfield.[33]  We camped the first night about 10 miles east of Dayton Ohio.  The next night we camped about 20 miles West of Zanesville Ohio. The 3rd night, we stopped beyond Wheeling just over the Pennsylvania line and the 4th night in the mountains near Addison, Pennsylvania, about 40 miles west of Cumberland Md.  Our progress was slow as we were in no hurry and it took a good deal of time to make and break camp.  The drive over the mountains was beautiful.  We had paved road practically all the way from Springfield Ohio to Washington D.C.  The next day we drove through to Hagerstown, Maryland, and spent the night there in a hotel, driving down to Washington the next day.[34]

We spent all the next day and till noon the 2nd day in Washington at the home of friends by the name of Bigelow.  We took the children to the capitol, up on the Washington monument, into the Smithsonian Institute and all around Washington.    .  .  .

Nov. 25, 1920 I got a good picture of the four children on the capitol steps and will have it enlarged.  Thursday morning, October 2lst we left Takoma Park, the suburb of Washington where the Bigelows live and drove l46 miles that afternoon to Richmond arriving about 7:30.  We spent the night at the Richmond Hotel and had a splendid room with bath ($12.00 for the night).  The next night we spent at Oxford, North Carolina and Saturday night at Cheraw, South Carolina.  That left us about l30 miles to our destination near Georgetown.

An Interesting Adventure

We made about 128 miles of this the next day, Sunday, October 23.  We were about 2 miles from the camp on a forest road with swamp all around and with sand so deep as to be almost impossible and dark as could be when something plugged up the gasoline line and we had to stop.  I had a rough map Mr. Murphy had made for me and I knew the name and general location of the only white man in miles of where we were so, I left the machine and family and walked about a mile and a half to his house.  There I got a mule and wagon and loaded part of the luggage and Ethel and the kids and we made the last two miles of our 1300 mile drive that way.  I got the machine the next day. We had a delightful trip all the way through with perfect weather and everybody was well as could be.

     The Murphys had a very nice 8 room house overlooking the Sampit river which is about three-eighths of a mile wide at that point.  It is really a bayou of the ocean extending back some 60 miles with about a five foot tide.  Back of us extended a practically unbroken wilderness for 17 miles with only seven white families living between us and Charleston, some 65 miles away.[35]

Hunting not as good as expected

     Game was not as plentiful as Murphy expected, but I killed my deer anyway.  We went on five or six deer hunts and jumped a good many deer in the thick swamps, but getting a shot was another matter.  This particular hunt started out with the least promise of any.  In the first place the machine refused to start.  We were to meet Mr. John Herrelson who lived some three miles from us and pick him up at his house.  He waited till we were past due, and then walked up to our house to see what was the matter. He is 68 years old and knows every foot of the country.  He brought two dogs with him.  I finally got the machine to go, but by that time one of the dogs had started off on a fox chase of his own, so we had only one. 

We expected to meet some more men and dogs near the hunting place, but they did not show up, so we started out without much hope with the one dog which was not much good.  Instead of driving in the big places where the deer really were we had to drive the small swamps not over a mile across. Herrelson would start in with the dog on one side while Murphy and I waited on the other side a mile or so away for any deer he might stir up.  We were about 4 miles from the car when Herrelson jumped a small buck, not over 100 pounds, and killed it. Murphy and I put him on a pole and started to "tote" him out.  The country was very thick.  With the deer swinging on the pole, wading swamp, getting over logs and through thick places was no easy job. 

We had gone about a mile and Herrelson told us to go on ahead while he waited to drive a small swamp off to one side.  We had not gone 100 yards till we heard the dog jump a deer.  I got one glimpse of the deer about 400 yards ahead through a little opening.  I just saw enough to tell that he was running toward my left.  I started and ran as hard as I could some hundred yards off to that side and hid behind a tree.  Almost immediately, I got occasional glimpses of the deer just hopping along in my direction.  At about 100 yards he stopped and threw up his head and I knew he had winded me, so I fired immediately.  Buckshot are uncertain at that range but I must have touched him up, for he started running like the wind, quartering to my right but getting nearer.  It all happened in a moment.  At about 60 yards I fired again and knocked him down clean.  I walked up toward where the deer was lying and got within l00 feet when he jumped up and started to run again, but at this range I shot him in the head and he was stone dead when I got to him.

     I carried him 3 miles on my back to the machine [car] but was so physically hardened that it did not bother me at all.  Herrelson and Murphy carried the other deer.  I saw wild turkey running at a distance too far to shoot, so didn't get to kill one.  However, Herrelson killed one while we were there so we found out how they tasted anyway.

     We had good duck shooting which went along fine except that once I caught my foot while whirling around for a shot and fell clean out of the boat and once I fished Murphy out of quick sand. I did not get to him any too soon either.

In the Meantime, Camp Life with the Children

    Ethel and the children were around the camp most of the time.  Frank was cutting some jaw teeth which made him peevish and hard to live with, so this part of the trip was not much fun for his mamma.  Frank took his first steps alone while we were there. The biggest drawback was the fact that we could get no milk, butter or eggs.  However, all in all, we had a dandy fine time.  We all enjoyed the big pine knot fires in the evenings and the children learned a great deal and saw a lot of country.

Thurs. Dec. 2, '20  I engaged a drawing room [on a train] for Ethel and the babies and they came home November l5th and went to Grandma Stewart’s home.  The ferry over the Sampit river was sunk and I was marooned with the machine for a week later but finally got it across and left the car in Georgetown to be shipped home by rail.  I came ahead on the train arriving home Thanksgiving evening.

     The trip in all including the stuff I bought for our camping and all cost about $900.  However, we saved $450 living expense at home while we were away and we still have over $300 in the tent, camera, and camping equipment, all of which we will use and enjoy again, so in a way the net cost of the trip was not so great after all.    

Back to Business

The garage I built is starting off very successfully and so far has entirely verified my judgment in putting it there.  It was all rented by the first of November.  I still have room in front of it to put two small storerooms which ought to bring $40 per month and ought not to cost over $l,800.  The advertising sign is still there now bringing $4 per month so as it stands the proposition is bringing me $ll2 per month on a total investment of less than $6800 with no upkeep or expense such as attends homes and flats.  Adding the storeroom with the ground already there will increase the percent of income still more.  I expect to build it in the spring and also expect the garages to rent for $1 more each per month than they are now bringing.  All in all this would seem to be one of the best little bets I have gotten hold of.

Business Conditions Changing Quickly, collapse of high prices

     There has been a big change in the business and economic outlook in the last few weeks.  Mr. Harding has been elected to succeed Wilson by the greatest majority the country over ever polled.  This suits me fine.  Only eleven states of the "Solid South" went democratic and some of them by narrow margins.

     Money has been very tight.  This mainly has been the cause of a great drop in the price of many commodities.  Sugar which had reached 30 cents per pound is now selling for l0 cents.  Cotton dropped from 43 cents to 14 cents.  Lumber has dropped from $l5 per thousand board feet in the last few weeks.  Flour, wheat, corn and many other items have dropped hard, corn from $1.82 to 75 cents per bushel.  All this will be reflected in the very near future in many other things. 

Factories are shutting down all over the country in many lines.  Coal, rents, and  many things are still up. Rents were last to go up and will be last to come down.  We are facing an increase of just 50% in taxes payable in 1921 over what we paid in l920.  It is still too soon to tell how far this thing is going.  We may go as far in the other extreme as we did toward the top.  It remains to be seen how far a real demand for goods, homes etc will check the downward tendency. 

I look for easier money in the spring.  I can now see that I was wise to forego building when I did and wait for the drop which I was sure would come.  I have no high priced stuff on hand to unload.  I could have sold some of my good income stuff at a high profit but concluded that it would be more profitable to leave it as it was rather than pay a big part of the profit out in income tax and wait to replace the investment.  This applies to such property as De Quincy Street, Cornell Avenue, and the Sherman Drive corner.  

They decide to sell the New Bethel home and return to Indianapolis to become active in development again with lower prices

     We have also decided to try and sell our new Bethel residence and get located in Indianapolis again.  After the present shake up settles down I expect to be very busy for some years building houses and for various other reasons we want to be in town again now the period of high prices is nearing an end.  For one thing we will be able to give the girls advantages that we cannot give them in the country.  I put an ad in the Indianapolis News yesterday offering to trade the property for investment property, building ground or city residence.  We may get a house out of it that we can use temporarily but before long I want a nice city residence located where we can give the girls the associations we want them to have and where we can get adequate help and I can give my entire time and attention to my business.

We may not be able to accomplish all this at once or in the immediate future, but that is what I expect to accomplish.  Knowing just what you are trying to do is about half of getting it done.  We are still at Grandma's and will stay here until Christmas. Ethel and I are both teaching the girls and keeping them up in their work.  [2/13/26  We sold the Bethel place 2 1/2 years later in 1924.  Now I have the fine city home (3435 N. Pennsylvania) I then wanted and have greatly extended my business.  Now I want to get away from business and back to the quiet and peace of the country.  As to the children, they will be a whole lot better off in the country.]

Whether I go ahead with investment stuff as I would prefer to do or go into single homes to sell I have yet to determine.[36]  I think it will be June lst of next year at least before it will be wise to start as material prices may stay up to high yet on account of the Spring demand of it developed. The advantage of single stuff is that you can keep your money turning & keep busy with it.  In any event the times will continue for some time that it will pay to walk like a cat crossing a wet street.     .  .  .

12/11/20  .  .  .  Had a dandy rabbit hunt yesterday with my friend Emerson Knight on the farm of a Phi Psi brother, Fred Gwinn, 2 miles this side of Noblesville.  We drove up in my little dodge.  Our big car has arrived by freight O.K. from South Carolina and the Nash people are now going over it.                             

     Jan 1st 1921  Total gross assets                 $l95,l82.38

                   Total liabilities                    $95,307.22

     Net worth Jan lst l921                           $ $99,875.16   [about $3,000,000 in 2010 dollars]

     Net worth Jan 1st l920       $91,759.62

     Net gain for the year 1920,  $8,115.54  [About $200,000 in 2020s]

1921

Beginnings of the Severe Recession of 1921

     The year 1920 has closed and the period of rapidly rising prices and inflation following the war has come to an end and we have definitely entered upon a period of deflation and readjustment of prices.  The process has not as yet gone very far and the big question now is, How far will it go?  So many factors enter into the situation that it would take a wise man indeed to foretell the situation even a few months hence. 

Europe has to a great extent exhausted her credit in this country.  Besides some ten billions of dollars loaned to European countries during and immediately following the war by this country, it is said that the European commercial debts to this country exceed 3 1/2 billions.  The result is a rate of exchange very unfavorable to European buyers with the further result that Europe is not buying from us anything she does not have to have and in spite of all the turmoil and trouble still existing over there, many of our principal customers there are again taking care of their needs in fundamental items such as food stuffs and are increasing their exports to us.

    The effect of this situation on our fundamental market has been very decided. 

To a considerable but much less degree the adjustment has started among the wholesale market.  It has made very little progress among the retail trade and the public as yet has received very little advantage in the prices it has to pay. However, I expect this to come soon, for with materially decreased purchasing power on the part of the public and much greater caution in buying, retail trade is pretty dead, though the merchants have not yet given up hope of unloading the high priced goods on their shelves.  The sooner they decide to charge off their loss the better it will be.

Many Factories closed and Unemployment is High

     Many of our factories are closed and practically all others running at greatly reduced speed and there is a good deal of unemployment.  It is claimed that over 30,000 men are unemployed in Indianapolis alone.  However, like the retailer, the wage earner backed by the unions has not yet decided to write off his loss but expects wages to stay up while everything else stays down.  It is not possible to hire a man for less in the building trades, for example, though thousands are idle.  Factories are hiring men back to some extent at reduced wages.

     Money is very tight and on top of it all we have had a presidential year with a change of administration taking place the 4th of next March.

     I foresaw the present situation almost 3 years ago, but made the mistake of thinking it would come a year and a half sooner than it has and it has only begun now.  Real estate is pretty dead so far as buying or selling is concerned, but rents are very good indeed due to the continued shortage of houses.  Rents were the last thing to go up and will probably be about the last to go down.  [2/13/26  I did not have to cut rents till the Fall of l925, four years after this page was written.]

     This is probable, barring the effects of a hard panic.  There will undoubtedly be a certain movement away from the cities and back to the farms and smaller towns and a reduced purchasing power will bring considerable pressure for lower rents, but the only permanent relief will come through the building of thousands of homes and apartments.

He is optimistic for the future once the economy adjusts

     Instead of feeling discouraged I feel well content to see the process getting a good start for it had to come and the sooner the better.  During l920 I have been able to increase my income $400 per month over what it was January first l920.  I now have a gross income of almost $27,000 a year [About $800,000 in today’s dollars.] and my savings are no small item.  I did not make quite the gain in l920 that I did in l9l9, but I have consolidated my previous gains and am in strong position to go ahead and am ready to take hold of such opportunities as develop.  I think that another year will see my period of "watchful waiting" pretty well ended. 

          I think the middle of this year may see conditions which will make it possible to go ahead.

They decide not to Leave New Bethel

     We stayed in town till January first and got so fed up on it and were so tickled to get home that we have given up all idea of selling the New Bethel place.[37]

     I have hired Oscar Day and his wife to come out here and take care of it for us.  He has been here two weeks already and fits in fine.  She will be out in another two or three weeks as soon as her daughter has a baby they are expecting any day.

     I have the plans all ready for an addition to the New Bethel home consisting of a living room, bedroom, and bath for their use, will give them $60 per month and furnish everything, so I hope to have satisfactory help for a long time, as Oscar has been working for me about 7 years already.  It all depends on how his wife fits in.  As soon as the weather permits we will build on their apartment which will have a door opening into the kitchen.  This will solve our household problems make us independent of them in our living arrangements and give me time to work out such opportunities as I feel sure the year will bring forth.

Playing with Stewart and Frank and Thoughts on being a good Dad

Wed. Feb. 2, 21  I am staying home today looking after the boys while their mamma has gone to town.  She just telephoned that she had run out of gas so I will have plenty of time to write a few words before she gets back and while the boys are taking their naps.  Frank is getting to be about the cutest little chap that ever was.  He is now going on l8 months old and is as full of play and good nature as a kitten.  He scampers around everywhere and is beginning to talk while he understands about anything you say to him.

     These little chaps sure mean a lot to me and I look forward to growing up with them.  I can hardly wait till they are big enough to take out in the woods and I look forward to entering into their affairs and being close to them and training their little minds to appreciate all that is clean and noble and square. This is done only by close contact and giving them plenty of time so that you are with them when occasion arises to impress them with the rightness or wrongness of things as they happen.  It will not be long before our girls are young ladies.  Jeanne will be 10 in the Spring and Elsa is only a lap behind.  All together they are about as fine a bunch of youngsters as it would be possible to find.

     They are all sound as a nut physically and while each has a distinct individuality different from all the rest, nothing mean or vicious has ever shown up or been indicated in any way. Jeanne is inclined to sulk a bit at times when she cannot have her way but this is largely due to the fact that she thinks she is a regular grown young lady with so much pride that she is easily hurt.  She is readily amendable to reason and for some time I have been trying to teach her to stand a little "kidding", "scratch her mad spot" and develop her sense of humor, when from her point of view things don't go quite right.  Jeanne is a hustler, and will have lots of push and go when she grows up.  Her difficulty will be in taking life and events too seriously and she will have to curb her natural tendency to dominate and will have to cultivate diplomacy as she gets older.  A velvet glove is always a great help to an iron hand.

     Elsa, the little dickens is too cute for anything.  She is blessed with a happy sunny disposition, but with plenty of spunk. When she gets sore you can usually tickle her funny spot and she has a hard time acting cross even when she wants too.  She is inclined to be a little too good natured and we are teaching her to stand up and take her part as we have opportunity.  To Ethel and me both our little girls are as pretty as pictures.  I often take them to town with me when I am jogging around on business.  They are both very responsive and are getting to an age when we can teach them many things out of experience that they will not find in books.  We can anticipate their problems and try to give them the right foundations so they will approach these problems from the right angle.

     Stewart is a regular little rooster.  He thinks he owns the world and has it by the tail with a downhill pull.  Since he is only 3 it is too soon to tell much about him, but I sure like what I see.  He is a determined little cuss and mighty shrewd in getting results.  When he doesn’t want to go upstairs by himself he will tell his mamma that his bowels have to move.  Rather than take a chance, she always goes.  He gets me up every morning not later than 6 o'clock on the theory that he would hate to wet his bed.  I think he will make a pretty good trader some day.

     Frank is still just a sweet rolly-polly baby.  He is the best natured and easiest baby to care for that we have had yet.  I feel like squeezing him till he pops.

Having lots of fun while busy with four children

     The mother of all these prodigies gets sweeter and dearer, the older she grows.  We have lots of fun.  I am getting older too, but some way the older I get the younger I feel and I could not be any happier than I am.  We have lots to be thankful for.  [6/24/39 -- It is now over l8 years later and I have just enjoyed reading this page.  I’ll say that my appraisal of the youngsters at this early age was pretty accurate.  Jeanne, now with two children of her own’ is a wonderful mother and has developed both poise and humor.  Elsa with a son of her own is as sweet a little mama as could be.  The characteristics I sensed in Stewart when he was 3 years old are still his dominant characteristics as he nears 22.  He is a driver and a hustler and mighty keen and shrewd.  Frank has developed into a fine young man.  Harriet was not born when I wrote this page and is now a beautiful girl of 15.]

Rents Still Rising, but Landlords who are “Rent Hogs” are causing unwanted Attention for all Landlords

Fri, Feb. 11, 1921  I returned from Chicago last night having gone up the day before to look after various things.  The building is now in shape to sell if I can do so and decide that it is the thing to do.  Building is still paralyzed in Chicago, so that rents on buildings already up will continue to be very good unless there is restrictive legislation which might knock the bottom out of the whole proposition.  Bills restricting rents are now before the legislatures of both Illinois and Indiana and a vigorous fight is being wages on both sides.  There are some landlords who are hogs having increased rents from 75 to 200% in instances and they are liable to pull the whole works down on top of all of us.  The various organizations such as the Chicago and Indianapolis real estate boards are strenuously fighting unjust and radical laws and at the same time trying to curb the greed of the landlords who are rent hogs.

Economic Reasons for a big slowdown in building Rental Properties

     I belong to both the above organizations.  I do not believe any radical legislation will result in either state, though a great deal of steam will be blown off for political reasons and popular consumption.  The fact remains which any fool ought to know, that if through radical legislation money is driven away from the building field no houses will be built and the shortage will be greater than ever and the only thing that will solve the shortage of homes and apartments and bring down rents is to build more houses.  The difficulties facing new construction have been practically prohibitive.  In the first place, high taxes have driven money into non-taxable securities, government bonds, and out of real estate mortgages so that it is very difficult to secure loans for real estate.    

The peak has undoubtedly been passed and all these factors are tending to correct themselves.  Since the railroads have been returned to private ownership by the government transportation, service has greatly improved, though it has been seriously hampered by labor troubles and freight costs are very high.[38]  Labor troubles and strikes have largely been solved through a general slowing down of business and the fact that there are now more men than jobs.

     Money will tend to get easier due to the fact that with a falling market less money will be required in other channels for business and lower profits in commercial fields will make mortgages and bonds more attractive to the investor than they have been.[39]  Material prices are receding, but still have a long way to go.  We are undoubtedly approaching the time when building will again go forward in volume.  The pertinent question which will require wise judgment is when to jump in and start so as to get the market near bottom and get the cream of high rents on new stuff.     .  .  .

As to stuff like my De Quincy, Sherman Drive and Cornell Avenue properties, there is no question in my mind but that the thing to do is not to disturb them.  I have low costs in all these properties and they are paying big under present conditions and do not involve much overhead in the event conditions eventually go bad.  They can take care of themselves on a normal market which will come some day and if I sold now I would have to pay tremendous income tax on the profit and after holding the money till I could buy in again or build I doubt if I would end up by making as much money as I will out of the straight rents.

     On the other hand the Chicago flat involves a considerable overhead and requires considerable thought for its future.  If the time comes as it surely will in a few years when I will have to take lower rents on practically the same overhead.  I want to know a long time ahead where I will be.  In that connection I want to figure an estimate for the building for this year.  I have had enough experience with it now that I can pretty nearly tell where it will come out.  (See Page l48 Vol. II)    

At Age 37, George Rafert Joins a Church for the First Time

Sun. March 6, 1921  Mrs. Day has been with us since the first of the month, joining Mr. Day, who has been here since before the middle of January.  This gave Etheland me our first opportunity to go to church together for a long time.  We took the girls with us and went to the Central Christian Church.  I have intended joining church for some time as I have increasingly felt the desire and necessity of doing so.  I have many times been sorry that I did not join church when I was a child or at least in my early twenties, but in another way I am glad I did not for when I walked down the aisle and joined the Central Christian Church this morning I did so after spiritually developing to a point where it was a great pleasure.  I felt as if I knew just what I was doing and why I was doing it.

It is very hard to write of these things that touch me deeply, but I feel some of that "peace which passeth understanding" I have tried to live a Christian life for a good many years and so far as being square, living morally, and honestly and all that I have succeeded, but at the same time I felt that I was failing, too, for these things are not enough.  No matter how upright a man’s life may be, it is necessary that he stand up and publicly acknowledge Jesus Christ as his savior before his life can be complete.  This is necessary and this I did today.  I have been ready in my heart to do this for over a year but never quite ready till today. 

This frame of mind has come to me I think mainly over the route of a desire to be square.  When I have stopped and thought, as I have many a time, how blessings had been heaped upon me, four fine healthy children, a dear loving wife, material prosperity for more than all our needs, and when I stopped to think how quickly through no power of mine to prevent, any or all these could be taken away, I felt that the Lord had been very patient with me while I backed and filled and hesitated.  I am thankful indeed that I was given time and the opportunity to take the step I did today. I have expressed myself poorly but I know that I did today in humbleness of spirit and sincere thankfulness of heart, that which means more than anything else here or hereafter.  There is much more that I would say but I do not know how to say it.[40]

Ethel has been a member of the Central Christian Church since she was a child, and I have long known that nothing would please her more than that I should join, but she has never urged it and has been most considerate.

     Mere denomination means nothing to me.  I would as readily have joined a Baptist, Methodist or any other protestant church. There is more of God and religion to me in the beauty and infinite variety of nature than there could possibly be in any mere creed as such.  No man can look at the stars at night without knowing in his heart that there is a God in heaven or in nature or in his being.  There is little that we can understand but that we are here, and here with a purpose back of it all, we know and we can only move with and through faith.  I joined the Central Christian Church because Ethel was already a member and we had many friends there, and it is a strong organization. 

Thurs. Mar. 3, 1921  I was in Chicago yesterday and did various things.  .  .  .  I secured my tax bill due Apr 30 for $423.03 which was considerably less than I expected it to be.  I also arranged for insurance expiring on the Chicago building.        I did various other things in connection with the building and in the afternoon took a long walk in Washington Park, taking my time to observe various trees and bushes that I was particularly interested in.  I also went to the new Tivoli Theater at 63rd and Cottage Grove and then caught the 5:30 Monon train for home.

     Mrs. Day has pulled out & left us and her husband Oscar too so our help arrangements are all upset again.

Sat.  April 9, 1921  .  .  .  .   I received word yesterday that a proposition I had made for the purchase of the N. E. corner of Broadway and 53rd St had been accepted.  The property is l5l feet on Broadway x 140 on 53^rd, and I am to pay $3,000 for it free and clear of all liens, encumbrances and taxes.  This ground has sidewalks all around it and could not lay any better.  It is one block north of the pavement, sewer, gas and water on Broadway, but these will all reach it in the near future.  The only restriction as to building is that no structure other than a fence shall be nearer than 25 feet to the front line.  On account of the size of the ground I can conform to this restriction if I decide to hold it and build another De Quincy corner on it, maybe next year.  I am buying now mainly because I consider that I am getting it considerably below its present worth and because it will increase in value very rapidly so I expect to be in good shape with it whether I sell it or hold it for my own use after the pavement, etc. is put in.

Fifteenth Class Reunion at Indiana University

Fri. June 10, 1921  Ethel and I drove down to Bloomington last Tuesday afternoon and attended my fifteen year class reunion.  I enjoyed it very much.  There were 26 at the class supper.

Wed. June 15,  Ethel and I are going to take the girls and drive up to Chicago next Friday.  We will spend a few days with the Turners and hope to bring them back with us for a visit.  I have several things to look after up there and I am very anxious for the girls to see Chicago.  I am sure we will have a good time.

Thurs. June 23, We had a dandy trip to Chicago returning last Tuesday evening.  The girls had a fine time and I am sure that trip was worth a good deal to them, broadening their ideas and increasing their horizon.

     While up there I made a contract with the James Coal Company for my season supply of coal [for the Chicago apartment].  Bought Pocahontas for $8.75 per ton and 50 cents per ton for putting in or $9.25 total, 60 tons to be delivered before August first and all billed as of that date.  This price is subject to reduction if freight or labor is reduced.  [Sixty tons was equal to a railroad car of coal!  SJR]

Still Increasing Rents Despite Lower Prices Otherwise

     I have just written notices which go in the mail the 29th advising Arch Street tenants of an increase of $1.50 per month to $11 and $12.50 respectively for the three and four room houses and the Pratt Street tenants of an increase of $3 to $48 per month, all effective August first, '21 on account of increase in taxes.  .  .  .

Dr. Frank Stewart bought his Overland around 1911.  It is an open car and the driver sat on the left, not the right.  The Overland was manufactured in Indianapolis  All 3 Stewart doctors bought Overlands at the same time.  In this picture, Dr. Will Stewart is sitting in his Overland.  The driver squeezed the bulb by his right hand to blow the horn.

He Buys a Seven-Passenger Stearns-Knight Passenger Car

Tues. July 12, 1921.  The 5th I bought a 7 passenger Stearns-Knight car from Hoosier Motor Co.  I sold them our Nash for $1000, gave them Grandma Stewart’s old Overland for $150 and $1,875 in cash. The new car sells for $3,000.  I hated to put that much money into a machine at this time but figured it would be an economy to buy a good car.  The Nash was expensive to run as it required continual upkeep.  This car has a sleeve-value motor which is said to get better the longer it is run so the more carbon it gets in it the better it is and the chassis is surely built right.  I went up to Chicago and drove it down from there bringing the Turners back with me.  The number of the new machine is 13191.  Machines have dropped so that I had to cut the [sales price of the] Nash considerable.[41]

Plans to Develop Askren Farm at Tenth and Arlington Streets

Sun. Aug. 14, '21  I have put in a good deal of time during the past month working on the 15.8 acre Askren Farm property on Arlington Avenue, getting it in shape to sell.  To cut the story short, I have surveyed and platted it into 67 lots.  Most of these are 70 x l55.65'.  As insisted upon by the city, 11th Street passes through the length of the property to the north out of an outlet and they will probably have to buy this strip of ground.  A good many questions arose but I finally got it in shape and the plat has been approved by the City Engineer and accepted by the Board of Works and was recorded August l0th. 

I have in mind the advisability of building some bungalows on the Askren Farm land on Sixteenth Street side of Arlington Ave. and selling a lot with a house on it.[42]  I have so much pending at this time which I expect to work out next year and so much sort of hanging in the air like the Illinois Street garage proposition that it makes me nervous and anxious to get something definite accomplished.  I will also have to do some financing in the spring as I have $16,000 mortgage renewal [mortgages were then due every five years] coming due June 27 at Sherman Drive and $19,l00 April 10,'22 on the Chicago Flat.[43]  I am hoping money will be cheaper in the spring.  I need to get some of the non-productive stuff moved off my hands which was the reason I wanted to get the Arlington Avenue stuff in shape to sell.  The addition will be known as George O. Rafert’s East Tenth Street Addition to the City of Indianapolis.

Mon. Aug. 22, 1921  I took out a permit today for the erection of a business building consisting of two storerooms to be located on the ground in front of the Central Avenue garage building.  It will be known as l229-3l Central Avenue.  As a revenue proposition this little building cannot be beat.  One room will be l9 x 33' and the other l5 x 33 ft.  I have the larger one rented at $35.00 per month to my plumber John Mills and the smaller one at $25.00 a month.  Both these tenants are now located in the store building at 11th and Alabama Streets, formerly owned by the Rafert Estate.  As I already have the ground which I could not use for the garage on account of the law preventing me from running a garage building nearer the street than the adjacent property, an additional investment of probably not over $2,700 for the store building will add $60 per month to my income and will be a proposition requiring very little upkeep.  One of my main reasons for wanting to build it at this time was in order to complete the Central Avenue property so that it would be ready for a loan when I need it.  I figure that I ought to be able to borrow $6,500 on the layout when completed.   .  .  . 

     I took a preliminary plan which I drew myself into the building inspector and secured my permit and later today turned it over to Charles Byfield, the architect, for complete drawings and to get it "dolled" up so as to make it as attractive as possible. I hope to get started as soon as possible.     .  .  . 

Sat. Sept. 10, ‘21  I started the excavation for the storeroom which will be known as l229-3l Central Avenue August 29th.  We have had a good deal of rain lately which has caused the work to go along very slowly.  I had to go down almost l0 ft from the surface of the ground to get an 8' cellar and keep the building down low so as to avoid too many steps.  We will complete the foundation by Monday afternoon and from then on it ought to move faster.  I have it definitely rented at $60.00 per month.  The south room which is smaller I have rented to Charles A. Fissel for a grocery under five year lease at $25.00 per month.  The other room will be taken by my plumber John Mills at $35.00 per month.

     A week ago today we drove over to Rossville, Illinois and spent Sunday with Ethel’s cousins the Taylors.[44]

     We are entertaining my Sunday school class this afternoon at a basket picnic.  I expect them to start arriving any minute.  We expect about 100.  Ethel entertained her class from the Central Christian Church in the same manner about two months ago.

Mon. Oct 31,'21  I will complete my store building at l229-3l Central Avenue tomorrow.  The furnace men have a little work to do and the electric fixtures have to be hung.   .  .  .   I am real proud of this building as it looks fine and is built as well as I could build it.  The tenants will start moving in tomorrow and the addition of $60 per month to my income from the rent of this building will also begin tomorrow.  This rental will pay splendidly on the investment, but I found the demand so great that I might easily have obtained $10 per month more from each room if I had not rented them so quickly.  However, both tenants already have established business in the neighborhood so their business is well assumed and both have signed 5 year leases in which they agree to furnish all screens, shades, partitions, interior decorating, etc. so I feel the building is pretty well established on a paying basis right from the start.  I will be able to save up and pay off the $2,000 I am borrowing from Uncle Bent Stewart by the early part of January if not before and now have the whole Central Avenue lay out completed and clear of encumbrance.[45]  As it brings $l68.00 per month or $2,0l6 per annum with practically no upkeep, I ought to be able to borrow at least $6,500 on it if need should arise.  I am real pleased with this deal.    .  .  .

Wed. Nov. 9, ‘21  .  .  .   I have an invitation to come to Mr. Harrelson's house in South Carolina for another deer hunt this fall.  Ethel is urging me to go and it would not cost over $l50.00.  I don’t know what I will do yet.

Sun. Nov. 13, ‘21    .  .  .   I have decided to accept Mr. Harrelson's invitation to come deer hunt with him and wrote him yesterday that I would start the 20^th, next Sunday afternoon, which will put me in Georgetown Tuesday morning following under the best connections I can make.  I will be in time for the big Thanksgiving hunt.

Fri. Nov. 18, ‘21  Well, I have everything wound up in pretty good shape and will check my baggage out this afternoon preparatory to starting myself Sunday afternoon.  I heard from Harrelson again this morning saying this time would be O.K. and to come ahead. Everything is in good shape here at home.  Everybody is well and Robert and Mary, the colored couple who started in with us last May, are still here and entirely familiar with their work.  My sister [Aunt Jennie] will also come out and stay with the children and Ethel while I am away.  Ethel will look after rent collections while I am away.  I will go by way of Cincinnati, Asheville, North Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina to Georgetown, expecting to get there Tuesday morning.   .  .  .

Wed. Nov 30,'21  I returned from South Carolina yesterday afternoon which was a good deal sooner than I had expected to come but I was anxious to see Ethel and the babies and conditions were not very satisfactory at Harrelson's house.  They were the soul of courtesy and kindness, but the bed had bugs in it and I had to sleep in my clothes.   .  .  .   I did spend a dandy week and had a good time.  We killed a big buck deer last Saturday morning and one of his hams is now roasting in our oven.  I also killed my first wild turkey on the day before Thanksgiving.  He flew over me while I was waiting on a deer stand.  I had a fine trip and am sure glad to be home.

1922

Mon. Jan 2 I spent three days of the week preceding Christmas in Chicago where I looked after some detail of the East 49th Street building and found everything satisfactory. We have had a mild fall and my coal pile is holding out better than I expected and ought to last the most of this month.  I spent two nights with the Turners in Evanston and the third night at the home of my Chicago attorney Harry Rickard.     .  .  .

We have enjoyed a delightful holiday period.  The afternoon before Christmas I brought Aunt Jennie and Aunt Jeanne and Grandma out to our house and we decorated our tree Christmas Eve with the help of all the children. 

As we planned to go to Church and Sunday School Christmas morning we exchanged our presents around the tree Saturday evening and had a great time and put the children to bed early.  During the night Santa brought Stewart a velocipede and Frank a big Kiddie Kar and the girls each a desk and doll.

     After church we went to Uncle Bent’s and had a big Christmas dinner and stayed there the rest of the day and evening.

     Last Tuesday I drove to Mood’s and spent three days hunting and had the best time I have had on any trip this year.  [They were friends from GOR’s years at Indiana U. when he went to Brown County to hunt.  SJR]  The weather was perfect and I got a good bunch of quail and rabbits.  I feel toward Mr. and Mrs. Mood almost as if they were my mother and father. They are sure fine true people.  For a Christmas present Mrs. Mood gave me four half gallon cans of peach butter, two pounds of butter, a can of fresh sausage and a pint of whipped cream.[46]  .  .  .   Most of all I enjoyed the trampling over the hills. 

I drove home Friday morning.  That evening we were invited to our neighbors, the Kimberlin’s across the road for dinner.  Saturday evening Ethel and I took dinner with the Thompsons at their home 56th and Central Avenue.  We got home just after the New Year came in.  It has been our custom ever since we were married to kneel together at our bed side and thank God for all his blessings as the New Year came in.  I drove as fast as was safe to reach home in time but we were a little late. 

There is a solemnity about the coming in of a New Year that makes it impossible for me to understand those who welcome it with a debauch as many do.  After church and Sunday school yesterday we took dinner at Grandma's home.  It is time to figure the annual invoice.

     Jan 1st l922 Total gross assets      $207,527.68

Total Liabilities                    $l03,335.99

Net worth Jan 1st l922                    $104,191.69

Jan 1st l921                                   $99,875.l6

Net gain for year                                     $4,316.53  [Plus $100,000 today]

     This year has been fairly satisfactory, but not as good as I could have wished for.  The income from established courses was very satisfactory, but I did not make any purchase and sales which added to my profits as I did last year.  It was very satisfactory in that we have our living arrangement thoroughly organized. This was accomplished by the addition of servant quarters to our home and the purchase of the Sterns-Knight car. 

Rafert tells of a business talk with George Marott

Mon. Jan. 9, 1922  .  .  .  .   A while back I talked to Mr. George Marott who is a millionaire and owns the largest shoe store in Indianapolis besides many other interests.  He told me that he had been able to withdraw over $l00,000 from his shoe business on account of lower inventories and the fact that on this account less money was necessary in the business.  It is this thing going on all over the country which is making it easier to borrow money.  Marott also told me that he lost $85,000 last year.[47]      .  .  .

Wed. Jan. 18, ‘22  .  .  .  .   I have been putting in a good deal of time on Sunday School work lately as chairman of the attendance committee of the men's bible class.  I have worked out a card system and definite plan for keeping in touch with every man who even attends once.   I will have to go to Chicago one day before long.        .  .  .

Mon.  Feb. 27, 1922    Ethel is in Kokomo today attending the funeral of our good friend George Sailors, who died several days ago of pneumonia.  I would have liked to go, but we couldn't both leave the boys and I have so much to do here that I could hardly get away anyway.

A Proposal to Build A Store for the Piggly Wiggly Grocery Chain

Mon. Mar. 6, 1922  Under date of March first, 1922, through their local organization I sent a proposition to the home office of The Piggly-Wiggly chain Stores Co. at Memphis in which I offered to build them a grocery on the 24th Street ground, to be 2l x 60 feet with l2 foot ceiling and according to their needs as to front, etc.  They to take lease for 5 years when the room is completed and pay a rental of $l04 per month, furnishing their own heat, screens, shades, electrical fixtures, awnings, etc. 

Today I received the proposition back with the acceptance of their president attached.  I agree to deliver room by July lst, 1922.  I plan to get started as soon as possible.  I expect to close with a chain meat market for a small room adjacent at $40 per month, which will leave me a third room about l8 l/2 x 35 feet and a workshop space in rear about 30 x 68 feet to rent.  I am willing to go ahead and take a chance on this. 

I will turn my drawings over to Mr. Stearns, the former building inspector, to complete & get out blue prints and expect to get my permit without difficulty as I am informed by the present building inspector that I will not have to get the approval of the city planning commission for either this storeroom proposition or the 24 garages in the rear.  I expect to make the storeroom practically a fire proof proposition.[48]

Thurs. Mar. 9, 1922  I rented the 15.8 acres of the Arlington Avenue property today to William Vickrey to farm beginning March lst l923 for $300.[49]  He paid $l50.00 cash and is to pay balance September 1, 1922.  He takes property subject to agreement to give possession of all or any part in refund of rent for that part and payment for crops on part to be released if any.  He takes property in its present conditions and agrees to make such repairs as he desires at his own expense. 

     I had final conference with Mr. Sterns my architect, today, on the North Illinois Street storerooms and turned them over to him for final drawings.  According to information he has secured, the storerooms are not subject to the City Planning Commission approval, but the garages in the rear are.  I will take out permit about next Tuesday for the storerooms and expect no difficulty in securing permits for the garages in the rear, even if I do have to go before the planning commission with them.

I hope to get started at the actual building by the last of next week.  I expect this deal to be a good one.  I ought to finish this up by July first and I may try to handle another deal on this order yet this year, but according to my present ideas this year will be the last I will build as an individual and financing with mortgages which I sign as an individual.  By the end of this year, though I may invoice at a more conservative figure, I will have property which I run in fee simply of a reasonable value in excess of a quarter of a million subject of course to my present indebtedness.

     The plan I have followed to date and expect to follow yet this year is to build a given property, place a five year mortgage on it and then use all my resources to clean up the indebtedness I incur in excess of the mortgage.  That plan is very good and the one to follow up to the point I expect to reach by the end of this year.  .  .  .

His Business is Growing to the Place Where he will Need Two Employees

Now I have another motive back of this.  My business will soon reach the point where it is more than I can handle as an individual without an office, looking after all details myself. In other words doing it all myself will so occupy my time with detail that I will have no leisure for figuring out and handling new deals.  Now to avoid this I must perfect an organization which will free my time.  This would consist at first aside from the organization for handling new construction, of a down town office, stenographer, and a man in charge of collections and repairs and the details of handling tenants.  This would leave my time free for executive work and supervision and the new income arising from the new properties would easily carry this overhead. 

My fundamental motive in getting in an organization basis and making the business of a size to make such an organization necessary, is my two boys.  If I build this thing up now while they are small they can grow up with it, marry young, know what they are going to do from the start and go right ahead without all the delay and distress I went though with in finding myself and what I wanted to do when I got out of college.  This is looking a long way ahead as Frank is only two and Stewart four, but if I have the thing planned out it will sure help them a lot.  It may be that they will prefer professional work of some kind, but I expect to be able to show them something a whole lot better.  And with the training I expect to give them in the mean time they will probably see it my way by the time they want to marry and it is a question of waiting till they are past 30 in a profession or continuing what daddy has started and marry when they are 22. (3/20/40  Stewart is now 22 and has been married almost a year. The big depression and my later interest in land and cattle changed the field of action but not the idea.  He is a good manager and at the age of 22 knows how to operate in fundamental business. Frank’s program has not yet worked out but he is two years younger.  However, he is up early every morning and working at his job in Anderson and learning a lot and beginning to think a lot.)[50]     .  .  .

He Looks Back at Huge Business Success Since 1914

Under date of Feb. 27, l9l4, beginning on page 50 of the volume preceding this one I did some day dreaming and "seeing of visions.”  I had at that time finished my first building project, the three double houses at Bancroft and East New York Street.[51]  The world war did not start till the following August l914 so it did not enter into my calculations as it and its effects have into everything since and as they will into everything for many years to come.  I was at that time planning to build some more double houses at Riley & E. New York St and I owned one lot on the corner for which I had borrowed the total purchase price of $800 from Joe Brannum.  As I say I did some day dreaming figuring where I would be "at" some years hence should I continue to build double houses.  (I had not yet thought of the double-double house idea which I did not develop until l9l5 at the De Quincy corner.)  I remember how tickled I was at the thought that I hoped to be able to hold two small properties at once without having to sell one of them to clean up the other.  So much for the setting.  At that time Feb. 27, l9l4 I figured that by January first l9l8, working out the program as I then saw it, I would have an income of $l,525.00 per month.[52]

     It didn't work out in the program as I then saw it, for I thought of the double-double idea and built no more double houses after the Riley Avenue corner.  Then the garage idea developed at De Quincy Street, expanded and will expand more, then the storeroom idea, etc.  Then the war stopped building and I marked time merely making a few buy and sell deals and bought the Cornell Avenue property and the Newton County farm and through it the North Dakota land and eventually the Chicago flat which I now own.  The program varied a long ways from the double house program as conceived in Feb l9l4.  However, as to results by the end of this year 8 years later I will have a monthly income of $2,750 or more which meets my forecast to January l, l9l8 of $l525, with over $l,200 per month added on for the period since January first l9l8, so after all my dreams were not vain or impractical.

     I quote this in defense of the dreaming I did yesterday.  As outlined in the pages just preceding I do not feel that these dreams are vain.  Now let me make a point clear.  I do not care for the piling up of dollars.  My tastes are simple and my physical instincts those of a day laborer.  I enjoy tired muscles and hard physical work and whenever I get a chance I indulge in it.  .  .  . However, while this is fine so far as it goes, it can go only so far as your two hands can go and that is the limit. In other words it gives no opportunity to satisfy a desire for accomplishment.  It is the satisfaction of that desire and not the money, except as it is a means to this and, that I want.  I want to feel that I have "fought a good fight and kept the faith" as to the money.  I expect to give it away where it will do the most good.  Too much will not be good for my family, that is sure.      .  .  .

He Begins Work on Illinois Street Storerooms and Garages

Tues. March 14, 1922  Well things are moving.  I have completed plans for my North Illinois Street storerooms and secured the permit yesterday.  I bought cement blocks today from O. L. Miller Co. at l3 cents for common 8" blocks, l5 cents for 8" face blocks and 20 cents for l2" common blocks and cement at $2.75 per barrel in paper all delivered on the job.[53]  The entire building will be of cement block structure on outside and plastered on inside except rear workshop space 30 x 68 feet which will be rock face block on outside and not plastered. I will have Walter B. Sterns acting as architect.  I worked out the whole proposition and he made the final drawings for $50.00.

     I have turned over the garage proposition for the year over to him, too, to perfect if he can figure out any way to improve it.  He was building inspector last year.  I will have to go before the city planning commission with the garage plans but contemplate no difficulty.

     We have been having heavy rains amounting to almost a flood, so I will have to wait some days at least before I start work as the ground is too soft for trenches which would cave in as fast as I could dig them.  I hope to start next week.

     Ethel is in Chicago.  She went up last Saturday.  I expect her home Thursday or Friday.  She is visiting with Walt and Ladella Turner.

Tues. March 28, 1922  I started excavating for the store room today with five teams and l0 men.  Have a good bunch together.  I planned to begin yesterday but it rained all day.  We were rained out about 4 o'clock this afternoon but made a good start nevertheless.  I got the city planning commission’s approval for my garages in the rear this afternoon and got building permits.  It took me nearly all afternoon.  I have bought lumber and mill work for the storerooms from the Capitol Lumber Company for $l,575.00.

Wed. Apr. 5  We got in the grand total of l8 hours work on the above excavating all last week.  The rest of the time it rained.  We got in ten hours each Monday and yesterday, but were rained out again today at 11 o'clock.  We got our driveway completed through the walk on Pierson Street yesterday which was sure lucky.  It will be dry enough to use in a few days. Part of the south wall of the excavation caved in today due to the rain but we got it cleaned out and partly walled up.  I stopped the excavation at 11 o'clock but stayed with my foundation gang in the rain till 5:00 this evening.  We were sure soaked.  I have verbally closed a deal with the Apex Compensation Company for lease of the north room and the stock room in rear. The rental is $l02.50 per month for 2 years with privilege of 3 additional years at $ll5 per mo.  Rental for the first year is guaranteed by J. W. Fudge.  I furnish water, they furnish everything else.  I am to meet Mr. Fudge in the morning to close the deal.  I have not yet closed with the meat market people but expect no difficulty in renting that room.  The main thing is to push the work to completion which I will do as rapidly as the weather permits.

I think this deal will be a dandy.  I do not believe the front area of the building will cost me over $9,500 or $l0,000 and it will bring about $246.50 per month with no expense.  At $5.50 each the garages will bring an additional $l32 per month and they will not cost over $3,500 the way I am buying stuff.[54]  The value of the gravel I am getting out of the hole will just about offset the cost of the excavating.  I made the basement about a foot deeper than I had intended as it meant about l350 additional cubic feet of gravel which is worth 5 l/2 cents per cubic foot if I had to buy it.

Tues. Apr 11, 1922  We have gotten in only two days full work since I made the last entry and we worked in the rain part of the time then.  It has rained every other day and while we have tried to get in some work every day, I have been greatly delayed.  We have two ends of the foundation walled up but the excavators are not yet finished in the other end.  The walls of the cellar have caved badly making it necessary to re-handle a lot of dirt and at the present time there is over a foot of water in the excavation. The dirt shoved in against one wall and bulged it so badly before it had time to set that we had to rebuild it.  However this weather will not always last. There have been storms all over the country causing a great deal of damage.  We had a hail storm last week which was the worst I ever saw.  It broke windows all over town.  Some of the hail measured l l/4" in diameter.

Mon. May 1, 1922  We have sure been making things hum on North Illinois Street the last ten days.  I have all the garage foundations in and the masonry work up to the ceiling rafters will all be completed on the front building by tomorrow night.  We will start with joist work the day after tomorrow.  I am keeping my costs down in good shape with a bunch of common labor at 30 cents per hour.  I had expected that I would have to go into bank in the next ten days, but today Judge C. E. Weir paid off his $3,500 mortgage which I hold on the property at 2428 Broadway.[55]  It wasn't due for over 3 years and sure comes in handy at this time.  As a result I have over $6,000 on hand to work with before I will have to go into bank.  The weather seems to have settled down and we are moving right along.

Tues May 30, ‘22   The weather has continued fine all month and I have made every day count.  I have the big front building ready for lath and plaster, with all the floors down.  Both the garage buildings are ready for carpenters and we have one of them framed.  Will start plaster and stucco work next Monday.  I expect to complete the whole job by July first or sooner.

     To date including ground I have about $l2,500 invested in the North Illinois Street project.   .  .  If I get the whole deal completed for $l8,500.00 including ground, it will be the best deal I ever put through as the rental will be about $4,680 per annum or over 25% on total cost.  This low cost is due pretty largely to good management and the use of a few good men with a lot of common labor to keep stuff to them.  I suppose I saved $500 at least, for example by proper distribution of materials to save rehandling.  All my floor, sheeting etc. I did with common labor and so far have had only one real carpenter on the job to do framing and laying out work.  I laid almost l2,000 cement blocks with only one real mason, keeping everything for him and letting him run corners and using cheap men to fill in.  All moving of material was done by common labor.  I am well pleased with this deal.  It will bring my total income to about $33,000 per annum.[56]

June 2, ‘22  I received a letter from the Bankers Trust Co today stating that they had approved my application for a renewal of my loan of $l6,000.00 on the Sherman Drive property @ 6% & l l/2% commission.  Loan is payable $500 per annum for the first 4 years & $l4,000 the 5th year.  I ask that instead of new papers being executed June 27th when the present loan matures that they be dated July 3rd.  This enables me to meet interest & payments out of my lst of the month collections instead of having to provide for same the last of the month.  They agreed to this.[57]

He Completes the Piggly-Wiggly Grocery Store

Wed. June 21, 1922  I completed the Piggly-Wiggly storeroom at 2329 N. Illinois Street this afternoon and turned their keys over to them.  .  .  .   The little meat market room will be completed the first of the week.  It is not yet rented.  I have had several opportunities to rent it for other lines of business, but will hold it for a meat market.  The outside of the building is finished except for the last coat of stucco & rock which I will get on yet this week.  The garages are finished except for hanging the doors.  I think another week’s work after this week will see the whole job completed.

Summer 1922 at the creek near the New Bethel house.  From left:  Elsa age 10, Jeanne, 11,George Rafert holding Frank age 3, Stewart at right, age almost 5. 

He Buys a Stearns-Knight Roadster

Mon July 3,'22  .  .  .   I am also well pleased with another deal I made today.  A year ago last April a Mr. Van Hoke who was formerly Marion county treasurer bought a Stearns-Knight roadster for $2,900.  About 4 months later he lost his mind & committed suicide.  His widow put the car in storage where it has been ever since while she was in California.  I got wind of it through a friend of mine, D. D. Miller, who has a repair shop on Ft. Wayne Avenue.  I inspected the car and drove it and it is absolutely as good as new.  It has been driven only 3,460 miles and the life of one of these cars is about 200,000 miles.  Mrs. Van Hoke offered to sell it to me through Miller for $l,750.  As the present price of the car new has dropped to $2,400, I offered her $l,600.  After trying the car out today I told Miller I would take it at $l,600.  Mrs. Van Hoke is out of town for a few days but I expect to meet her as soon as she returns and close the deal. The new is not off the car in the least. It has 5 royal cord tires and the spare has never been used.  This is sure one fine car. With my Sterns-Knight 7 passenger and this Stearns-Knight roadster I will probably sell my Dodge roadster which I have used over three years.[58]

Young Frank gets “Nursemaid’s Elbow”

     Yesterday we had just finished dinner and little Frank was cross and sleepy.  His mamma was starting to put him to his nap leading him by the hand.  He did not want to take a nap and was spunky and threw himself back while she was leading him.  Of course her natural impulse was to hold on to his hand.  We knew at once that he had hurt his arm some way.[59]  I had Dr. W. B. Stewart come out at once and he felt sure that it was simply a sprain but we took him into St. Vincent Hospital and had an X-ray picture taken.  It showed that no bones were broken, but he will have his arm in a splint for several days.  He is sure some boy.

Tues. July 4, ‘22  Today is the 4th of July and the first day I have had an opportunity to be at home in several months.        .  .  .

Tues. July 11, ‘22  I completed the deal with Mrs. Van Hoke and bought her Knight-Sterne’s roadster July 6th for $l,600.

Thurs. July 13, ‘22  Ethel and I are planning to leave sometime next week.  We will take the new roadster and a tent, cots, stove, etc. and drive to Denver, Colorado.  Grandma and Aunt Jeanne will be here with the children.  I made them agree to let me pay them $l0 a week and any expense they are put to besides.  We expect to be gone till the last of August.     .  .  .

Trip to Denver on parts of the Pike’s Peak and Ocean to Ocean Highway

Below:  First trip with Knight-Sterne roadster, camping first night near Springfield, Illinois

Wed. Aug. 9, ‘22  Ethel and I returned home last evening about 6:30. Speedometer read 3,648 when we left and 6,572 when we returned, making our total mileage 2,924 miles.  The trip was without incident so far as the machine was concerned except that I had to clean the spark plugs and picked up two punctures.

On the way out we camped at Springfield, Illinois, the first night and at Macon, Missouri the second night.  We intended going straight through on the Pikes Peak Ocean to Ocean Highway but at Macon we learned of a cloud burst at Chillicothe which made the road ahead of us impassable so had to detour south to Kansas City and followed the Midland trail from there to Colby Kan. where it joins the Pike’s Peak-Ocean to Ocean highway and coincides with the latter road to Colorado Springs.  The third night we camped at Marshall, Missouri and the fourth at Topeka Kansas, the fifth at Osborne Kansas, the sixth at Colby Kansas, and made the 256 miles from Colby to Denver the seventh day.[60]

We spent just a week in Denver staying at the Argonant Hotel.  My two Rafert first cousins  there did everything they could to make our stay pleasant.  They are the grandson and daughters of my father’s brother Andy Rafert and Aunt Margaret who live in Denver.  They are Lillian Rafert, a school teacher and unmarried, and her sister Nellie who is Mrs. Will Plunkett.  They have one son, Billy.  We drove over to Lookout Mountain on which Buffalo Bill is buried and up Boulder Canyon and several other nice trips in and around Denver.  Then we drove to Colorado Springs and spent two days. [12/20/39 In returning from California last spring we left Denver at one o'clock p.m. and were home the next day by evening over the same road.  Sure is a big change and improvement in both roads and cars in the last 17 years.]

     We went up on Pike’s Peak, visited the Cave of the Winds, Seven Falls in South Cheyenne Canyon, the Garden of the Gods, etc. We left Colorado Springs for home last Thursday.  The first night we camped again at Colby Kansas, then at Kensington Kansas, Seneca, Kansas, Chillicothe, Missouri, and Springfield, Illinois, and home.  Most of the roads were dirt, but all pretty good except in Missouri which were uniformly rough and bad.  We used 275 gal of gasoline on the trip.  We are sure glad to be home again.[61]

Fri. Aug. 11,'22  I have been very busy since I got home getting straightened out and getting hold of the business odds and ends. .  .  . 

Mon. Sept. 4, '22  We just returned from taking my Chicago attorney Harry Rickard and his family to the noon train.  All the children went along and saw the circus parade.  The Rickards came to visit us last Friday.

     Last Tuesday, August 31^st, we held our third Manche family reunion here at our house in New Bethel.  We had 96 here and enjoyed a very pleasant time indeed.  These are all my relatives on my mother's side.  Uncle John Manche, who is 77 nearing 78, is the only one of mother's generation.[62]  He is hale and hearty, drives his own machine and looks as if he would be good for many years yet.  He furnished l5 gallons of ice cream as his part of the reunion.  About 20 of the relatives were unable to come on account of business and other things.  However there is no sickness in the whole family.

Thursday, Oct 26,'22  Well, time sure rolls around.  Today is my 39th birthday.  Only one more year in the thirties.  I celebrated by taking Stewart out rabbit hunting this morning for two or three hours.  He is sure one husky little kid to be barely five years old.  He walked at least four miles and insisted on carrying the one rabbit we killed.  It was a big one too.

     I have been scouting around for a deal of some size for next year and I think I have found it in a piece of ground on 20th St. between Capitol and Illinois Street.  It is 184 ft. on 20th St. and 195 ft. deep with a l5 ft. alley clear around.  It works out fine for six double-double houses or 24 families and 30 individual garages.[63]  . 

Fri. Nov. 10, 1922  I am still working along on the 20th St. deal and have made some considerable changes as the result of thinking it over more carefully.  I have been negotiating with the receiver, Mr. Grieger, of the J. D. Hunt Mfg. Co who own the ground and have succeeded in getting the price down to $8,000.  .  .  .

l923

Net Assets Jan 1st 1923                             121,894.43

Net Assets Jan 1st 1922                             104,191.69

Net gain for year l922 over living,                  17,702.74

  depreciation, & all expense

Building a Car Repair Shop on North Illinois Street

Sat. Feb. 3, 1923  .  .  .  I have my immediate building plans boiled down and in pretty definite shape to go ahead.  I expect to use the rear half of the North Illinois Street ground fronting Pierson Street.  I plan to build a repair shop 43 x 83 feet for Mr. D. D. Miller.  I will also build 12 more individual garages in the form of an addition (back to back) with the present south l2 car building using the rear wall of the completed proposed structure.  I have secured the consent of the building inspector to this and it will save me space and time and about $400 on the cost of the 12 additional individual garages.  In this way the twelve additional garages ought not to cost me over $1,200 and they will rent for $864.00 per annum. 

     The repair shop will accommodate 14 cars at one time with a tool room and plenty of working space.  Every repair garage I have ever been in was inefficient in the use of space, and no effort apparently had been made to in planning the building to make it possible to route the work and make it possible to get any one car our without having to move about every other car in the shop.  Therefore, I started out to plan a building along original lines and I think I have succeeded in working out a building which for accessibility, efficiency and economy of construction cannot be beat.  It will have 4 entrances at each end and the cars will move through in straight rows.  This also makes it possible to use posts down the center and save a great deal on construction.  The building will have about 3,540 square feet of floor space and will be about 12 feet high at the highest point.  I do not think that it will cost over 12 cents per cubic foot to build.   .  .  .

Sat. Feb. 10, 1923  I have completed working out every detail of the repair shop I propose to build on Pierson St and have turned my drawings over to Mr. Sterns for blue prints.  .  .  .

     As soon as I get this written and signed and get my finished plans I will buy material.  I want to haul cement blocks on the ground while it is frozen as in this way I can put them right where we need them.  Otherwise after the ground got soft so a truck could not get in I would have to wheel in every one by hand which would cost at least a cent a piece additional labor.  I also have some trees to cut down and will get at this right away. The repair shop will be known as 2320 Pierson St according to numbers given me by the engineer’s office.  I would like to get trenches dug before the spring rains and will have gravel on the ground so if we would have a few warm days I will be all set to make concrete. Not having to build the rear wall of the l2 individual garages, we can put in the cross foundations in a day’s time.

Feb. 16, '23  I signed up contract today with Delmar D. Miller under which he agrees to lease the Pierson St. repair shop I will build for five years at $100 per month for the first two years and $110 per month for the last three years.  He furnishes his own screens, shades, water, heat, decorations, electric fixtures and maintains all interior repairs including doors and windows. I will take out permit for the building tomorrow.  I have men working cutting down trees and cleaning up the lot now.  There are three very big trees and quite a little brush on the rear half and seven or eight trees on the front half which I will not disturb for the present.  I cut down twenty some trees on the adjacent ground I built up last year.  Fortunately, they are all Carolina Poplar which are no good anyway.  I hate to see a good tree cut down.

Fri. March 2, 1923  I have bought 350 yards of cinders from Able Brothers, Lumber and mill work (doors) for the l2 individual garages for $560, piece lumber for the repair shop, 8" blocks and cement.  I have also arranged for excavating with John Jones at 75 cents per hour for teams and 30 cents an hour for men.  All the above prices are much below the present market.  .  .  .  I secure these prices by paying cash and buying from the people with whom I am accustomed to deal.

Mon. March 12, 1923  We started work on the l2 car addition of individual garages on Pierson Street today.  I bought my mixer back that I sold to Oscar Day at $l50 for $l25.  I am figuring with some people on erecting a building on the front of this ground for a Buick sales room and service station. I have quoted them the space at $260 per month.  I will have room for two more storerooms in addition, each l7 and a half feet wide.

Sun. Mar. 18, ‘23  .  .  .  I think about the l5th of next November we will have another member to our family if all goes well.  This will suit me fine though I hate to think of all that Ethel will have to go through with.  However, she is in perfect health as I am and we ought to have another fine strong little chap or "chapess." I don’t especially hanker after additional responsibility but, I am willing to take all that comes.  I have never side stepped any yet.

Thoughts of Leaving New Bethel to be Closer to Indianapolis

     This brings up a problem which will become more and more pertinent, the question as to whether we will continue living in the country in our present location or seek to locate our home elsewhere.  .  .  .  We have a really beautiful place here with its big yard and big trees and all the shrubbery we have put out. It would look like heaven to 99 per cent of the people living elsewhere, and for several years yet we can live here very comfortably.  For the young children it could not be better but for Jeanne and Elsa, it will lack a good deal in some respects in a few years when they want to go to parties etc.

     I would like a place located about five miles nearer the center of the city than we now are.  I would like about l l/2 acres of ground.  Four acres, the size of our present place is too much.  I would like a six bedroom house or even seven bedrooms arranged so that it could be shut off in part when not needed. Above all I want an absolutely substantial, well built place.

Fri. March 23, ‘23    In studying over our new home location we have about determined on a course of action.  My idea is to divide our place into two parts.  The present house stands toward the center of the west half of our four acres and there is a beautiful building sight on the east half.  My thought is to build our new home on it and then fix up this place, paint varnish etc and sell it.  In this way we would not have to buy any ground, we would have a beautiful location of about 2 acres, we would have a new house that suited our needs, the value of the present place would be increased by having a fine home go up next to it, we could live here while building the new place, we would be next door and in position to easily watch and care for this place till we sold it and it would sell for as much with half the ground as it would with all the ground.  This idea appeals to me more and more.  I might get at it this fall or next spring.

     I have made no further progress on the Pierson St. buildings as we have been rained out or frozen out every day since the middle of last week.  I hope to get started at the excavating for Millers garage next Monday.  We have the foundation in for the l2 individual garages.

Building a Buick Car Dealership Building

     I have a deal started which began only yesterday but is moving fast.  I am in touch with the men who have the agency for the east side of Indianapolis for the Buick Motor Co.  We have determined on a location in the neighborhood of Bradley Avenue and East Washington Street and I am trying to buy ground there.  They want a building about 45 x l50 and I can get $300 a month for it on a 5 year lease.  I think ground and building ought not to cost over $18,000 and I ought to be able to borrow almost that much on it when it is completed.  I am working hard on this deal.

Yesterday I bought a Kelvinator from the Modern Appliance Corporation for $235.  It will install in our ice box and automatically keep it cold and freeze ice by electricity.  This will solve our ice problem and it can be moved into the new home when we build.[64]

     I have arranged for all my spring painting, papering etc.  This is a big job off my hands.

Sat. Mar 24  Things seem to be moving fast with the Buick people. We determined on a lot 40.59 feet x l50 feet on the southeast corner of Bradley Avenue and East Washington Street.  We also determined on the size and general arrangement of the building.  I covered the lot with the building inspector, secretary of the planning commission, water company, city engineer, etc. and found everything O.K.  Late yesterday afternoon I wired an offer of $2,500 cash for the lots subject to $865 street improvements through the agent Emory C. Crawford to the owner who is in Florida.  I hope to hear from the Florida wire this morning.

March 26, 1923  The owner of the lot at the corner of Bradley and East Washington Streets has accepted my offer of $2500 cash.  We have the details of the building arranged for and I have given the architect the go ahead.  As soon as I can get the plans I will figure costs and give Mr. Thomas and Mr. Wadell, my future tenants, a definite contract and rental.  I have quoted them an aproximate rental of $300 per month.  The building will be 40 x l46'.[65]

     Expected to get started excavating for the Miller garage this morning.  I got up at 5 o'clock and was up there at 7 o'clock but the excavators did not appear.  Expect them now tomorrow morning.

Tues. Mar 27 '23  Excavators failed me again this morning.  I hunted around and found a new bunch who promised to be there tomorrow.       .  .  .

Thurs Apr. 5, ‘23  I have the excavation completed and walled up for the Miller Garages.  We were lucky with this as we got it dug up and walled without any rain or caving in.  This is a pleasant experience after the time I had with cave ins last spring. However, we have not worked since Monday on account of rain.  It will take about a day and a half to complete the walls of the individual garages and then they will be ready for carpenters.  I hope to get them completed this month.  I have 4 tenants waiting now with the other 24 all full.

A Building Boom underway in Indianapolis

     There is more building going on in Indianapolis now than ever before in its history and labor and material are both hard to get, so I may be delayed more or less and it may put the building of a home out of the question this fall.  We incline to the idea of building another place on the east side of the New Bethel property but have not yet fully decided.

Sat. Apr. 14, ‘23  We got to work the first four days of this week but yesterday and today it rained.  I have all the concrete in the foundation of the repair shop and have the joists on the basement and the south wall up several feet.  We have completed the masonry work on the individual garages for Miller and the carpenters have started framing.  We have been unable to find the sewer connection and may have to cut the street and make a new one.  I will try to get the city to pay for this as the connection is supposed to be there.

     I have not yet closed the purchase of the lot at Bradley Ave. and E. Washington Street as the deed had to go to Florida to be signed and has not come back.  We ought to have it Monday.       .  .  .

     I have completed all my wallpapering in Indianapolis.[66]  It came to $209.l7, which was getting off pretty easy.  I settled with Schaub yesterday for the April rents of the 42 garages he handles for me.  The net amount was $23l.36 so that they more than paid in one month for papering I did in all the 34 houses at Cornell Avenue and Sherman Drive and De Quincy Streets.  I have five tenants waiting already for the l2 new garages on Pierson Street.

Tues. Apr. 17, ‘23  Got the deed back from Florida and I closed the deal today for the purchase of Lot #7 in Long & Harlan's E. Washington St. addition.

Business as an Enjoyable and Creative Pastime

Wed. Apr. 18,'23  Glancing back over these pages I realize that my entries for a long time have had to do with business only.  It might lead one to suppose that my thoughts were confined to business and that I was so wrapped up in it that I thought of little else.  Nothing could be farther from the fact.  I like my business and thoroughly enjoy it and yet, strange as it may seem, I have the mental attitude of one who might view it as from a distance as a thing apart.  I really have a rather impersonal attitude toward it.  I view it as an incident not as an end.  I take greater pleasure in creating a mental picture of a building and later seeing that mental picture before me in its completed physical form, than I do in the money I make out of the deal. 

I take pleasure in seeing my judgment verified by experience and my satisfaction in a deal comes more from seeing my judgment verified than from adding a few dollars to my income.  I enjoy the activity of erecting a building or putting a deal through to a successful finishing and the satisfaction of getting something accomplished.  The money made is merely a rough measure of these things.[67]

I have a passion for order and proportion in the things I do.  I almost unconsciously put the test of consistency to every proposition first and it must pass this test first before I go any farther with it.  I have left out of these pages many thoughts which may have been worth more than those I put in because they did not fit in, in order.

     This record is for my children and grandchildren, perhaps even great-grandchildren and I do not want them to think their daddy, grandpa or great-granda  thought of nothing but business.  For this reason I am going to violate my sense of order and from time to time jot down ideas and observations as they come to me, whether they fit in with the context or not.

     The thing which is closest to my heart is the welfare of our babies.  By welfare, I mean spiritual welfare as well as physical.  I haven't yet definitely make up my mind in regard to locating the new home I propose to build, whether in the city or in the country, because I have not yet thought it through in relation to the effect it will have on the children.

I want to see the children grow up to be strong, vigorous, God-fearing men and women.  I want them to know the value of work.  I realize that as my wealth increases it may become a handicap to them.  It may distort their sense of real values.  I would sooner die in the poor house than have this happen.  Sometimes I think that for Jeanne and Elsa's sakes we ought to move to town where they could get acquainted with more people and as many of our friends have told us "enjoy the advantages that we could give them there," yet when I weigh those alleged advantages they do not altogether ring true.  I will think this through one of these days before long.  I realize that the location of our new home will have a tremendous effect on the future of the children.  Last night I prayed that our final judgment might be for their greatest good.

     Out here our neighbors are plain, simple, hardworking people who stay at home evenings and enjoy their home because they have to get up too early in the morning to stay out at night even if they had the means to spend.

     If we lived in Indianapolis we would be in contact with people of means equal to or greater than our own, whose aspirations and way of living would be very different from those about us here and whose ideas our children would absorb for better or worse. Out here we often talk of the beauty of the sun-set or the stars. Would we do that if we lived in Indianapolis?  I wonder?  Our girls need to learn social ease and poise.  They would more readily get this in town, but they would also become sophisticated.  I’ll not act till I get this all weighed out.[68]

Sun Apr. 29,'23  This has been a strange Sunday sure enough.  It has not seemed like Sunday at all.  Instead of loading up all the youngsters and going into Sunday school as usual, we stayed at home.  I felt that I had to catch up on some work or be caught in a jam.

     To begin with I had to get my chickens straightened out as I have a bunch of chicks and another hen came off this morning. Then I had to spend the rest of the morning cutting the grass in our big yard or have it get ahead of me.

     After dinner I had a bunch of letters to get out and cleaned up a stack of stuff that had accumulated during the week.  Then I wrote out all the rent receipts for the first of May, which is Tuesday. Ethel will collect rents as I will not have time.  Then I drew up the contract between myself and Clarence R. Thomas and his partner Edgar S. Waddell covering their agreement to lease the new building at Bradley Ave. and E. Washington St.  I will get it signed up tomorrow.     .  .  .     I expect to start excavation work tomorrow morning as the whole top of the lot has to be lowered about a foot and hauled away.  I found a place for the dirt about 4 squares [blocks] away so will have a short haul. Teams will cost me 85 cents per hour and labor 40 cents.

Mon. Apr 30,'23  The Buick car dealership building contract  is now signed and I have $l,000 as a down payment on the lease this afternoon.  I have the l2 individual garages on Pierson Street finished except for wiring and hanging doors and putting in cinders.  I have 8 carpenters engaged for Tuesday and they ought to frame it in a week’s time.  The pieces are all in and it is ready for them.  I hope to have this job all out of the way by June first.

Family Doings

Jeanne and Elsa both passed their grade in good shape, Jeanne to the 7th grade and Elsa to the 5th.  I gave them each a ten dollar bill.  Jeanne wants to apply hers on a bicycle and Elsa on a wrist watch.  They are learning to help their mamma fine.  Ethel and I were guests at a dance at the Murat Shrine Temple on Massachusetts Avenue last week.  To see young girls dancing as many of those present did, I think was the final straw in deciding us to go.

Tues May l0,'23  We had a regular blizzard yesterday afternoon and this morning.  Snow was on the ground almost an inch deep at 8 o'clock this morning.  This is the first snow I ever remember seeing in May.  Preceding this we had a stretch of three weeks of fine weather.      .  .  .      I obtained a building permit for the new Buick Building at Bradley Ave. and E. Washington St. today.  I have the ground all graded off.  I had to take about l8" off the top of the entire lot.  I will start digging the cellar Monday or Tuesday of next week. I expect to finish at the Pierson Street job with my cement and digging gang in time to go into the Bradley Ave. foundation the latter part of next week.   We are losing work today as it has rained since 5 o'clock this morning.  I laid off footprint of the Buick Building with Mr. Stern yesterday.

Sat. May l2,'23  We lost yesterday and today on account of rain.  However, it stopped about 11 o'clock this morning.  I cut grass all afternoon.  Grass mowing means about a l0 mile walk with a 600 pound power sickle mower to cut our yard.[69]  However, I enjoy it.  Tomorrow we will all drive down to Moods’ house in Brown County.  [He met the Mood family while at Indiana University. Hunting and socializing with this family was his rest and recuperation from university life.]

George Otis Rafert in his room at I.U.  Note the hunting rifle above his desk.  Bill Cooper has the desk today and has beautifully renovated it.  Photo taken Oct. 25, 1905 early in Grandpa’s junior year.  I.U. had 1,700 students at that time.  He was President of his junior class and founded the Phi Kappa Phi fraternity.  He majored in economics and wrote a senior thesis on advertising.

This evening Mr. J. W. Stokes called me up and said he was willing to accept my proposition to build the bunch of garages for him at St. Joseph and Alabama Streets.  I have an appointment with him for Monday to close the contract.  I think I can make $2,400 on the deal.  Sterns thinks the Buick building will cost me $2l,000.  I believe I can build it for $l5,000 and will be able to borrow that much on it I feel sure.

Sat. May l9,'23  My concrete gang have less than half a day’s work remaining on the floor of the garage at 2320 Pierson St.  It will take the two carpenters I have working there now about l0 days to finish unless I can get additional help.  Labor of all kinds is as scarce as hen teeth now.  However, I think I will have it all finished by June first.  The individual garages are all complete except floors (cinders).

I expect to start excavating the cellar of the Bradley Avenue Buick building Monday.  I have entered into a contract with Mr. J. W. Hall to take full charge of the superintending of this job.  I agree to give him $1.00 per hour for his time and an amount equal to 7 1/2% of the payroll of the entire job except sub contracts. In addition I am very well pleased with this arrangement for Hall knows "his stuff" and while this will cost me probably $500 I believe he will save it for me in other ways.  It will relieve my mind that much I know for I have all I can do.  This will have to be run as a union job, as under present conditions there is no help for it.[70]  That means, carpenters $1.00 per hour, brick layers 1.35 per hour, etc.  The steel work I will contract in place.  As I have never built a brick and steel building I almost have to have someone there who knows what he is doing.

     I arranged for a credit of $20,000 at the bank this morning for this deal.  I have definitely decided to do no further building this year beyond this deal and the contract job for Mr. Stokes if he decides to go ahead.  I will wait till conditions change and then develope the last unit of the N. Illinois St. ground and our new home.

Mon. May 2l,'23  I gave the Aetna Trust Co $l,030.00 today in full of their loan #626 on the New Bethel property.  That cleans that, and I feel a good deal of satisfaction in having our home entirely clear of a mortgage.  This makes $3,400 I have paid off this year on obligations cleaning up behind me.  I plan not to put a loan on the new Pierson St. garage  .  .  This Illinois Street development including what I built there last year will produce not far from $l2,000 a year when I get all through with it.

     Well, this is the last page of Volume II of this Diary.  This volume was just 4 1/2 years in the making, from January 1, 1929 to June 1, 1923.  In that time my net assets increased from $71,215.21 to the above amount [139,851.13] an increase of $68,635.92 or almost l00%.  My gross income from rents, etc. Jan first l9l9 was aproximately $723 per month as against approximately $3,000 per month at the present time, including the new Pierson St. buildings which will be completed this week.  This is over 400% increase in income which would indicate that my invoicing is entirely conservative.  The new Bradley Ave. building when completed will add another $300 per month to income.  I ought to pass the $200,000 mark in net assets by June l925.  However, that cannot be counted on as many things can happen.

[$200,000 in assets minus any debt would equal about $6,000,000 now, 2022.]

[Note:  Many complex business “musings” have been omitted, making this edited diary shorter.  This time period was also Rafert’s most intense period of property construction.  He finished a few more jobs in the next year and a half when business conditions began to soften.  He retained all of the rental properties discussed until his death.  I, Stewart Rafert, finished editing this volume on April 8, 2022.]

If you, the reader have any thoughts, e-mail me at:  sjrafert@yahoo.com

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[1] This development property sold very slowly over the next 30 years and turned out not to be a good investment. Several lots from the property were in GOR’s estate at his death in 1955.

[2]  Credit was limited in those days and private borrowing and lending without the middleman of a bank was helpful for many business people.

[3] Ethel Rafert’s parents Frank and Elnora Stewart lived in a small frame house at 1730 North Pennsylvania Street.

[4] These areas have long been built up and are north of 38^th street, a major dividing line between quality of properties, the north side remaining the better side.  He never built in this area.

[5] Christopher Rafert traded in land and this farm in the dry country of southwestern North Dakota was part of his estate.  The 600 acre tract was located near Mott, the county seat of Hettinger County.  This town today has a population of about 700 and Hettinger County about 2,300 people.  The area has been losing population for 80 years.     

[6] This property was on the land of the former Christopher Rafert lumberyard, located a few blocks from the C.F. Rafert house on Delaware Street.  Later George Rafert had the two large double houses torn down.  The lumberyard land was not sold for another 28 year (1949).

[7] Rafert owned this funky-looking one-story building with 10 apartments the rest of his life.  He considered it one of his best investments based on net income to cost.

[8]  Although World War I ended on “the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month of 1918, the peace treaty with Germany was not signed until June 28, 1919.  See the comment below.

[9] Rafert was driving 12,000 miles a year, about the same average as today.  For his day, this was exceptional.  Very few highways were paved, not even much of US 40.

[10] The purchase and sale of automobiles is a theme of the entire diary. 

[11] Thorntown has a population of around 1,500 today.  Today’s dollar is worth about 3 cents in the dollar of 1919.  The $225 of 1919 is around $7,000 today, so the land is worth about the same in real prices 100 years later in the year 2022.

[12] Francesville is a tiny town of about 900 in Pulaski County in northwest Indiana, not far from the Newton County Land which was a bit farther west of Rensselaer.

[13] About $35,000 today, 2022.

[14] Laurence Rafert Alexander, born 1890, was the daughter of Rafert’s older brother Lawrence Rafert (“Lonnie”),who died at age 25 in July, 1889 shortly before his daughter was born.  He was the first burial in the Rafert plot at Crown Hill, still in use 130 years later.  Laurence’s mother died in 1895 and Laurence was raised by an aunt and uncle, William and Minerva Stafford.  They died in the 1920s and are also buried in the Rafert plot.   Laurence Alexander died in 1985 at age of 95.  She is buried to the left of her uncle George Rafert.  Walter Young, her son-in-law is to her left.  Her daughter Juanita young is buried next to him.  Juanita Young died in May, 2011 at age 100.  Laurence’s son Lawence who died in 1947, is buried next to his father, Benjamin Alexander, who died in 1960.      

[15] The word “tornado” didn’t replace the old name cyclone until the 1940s .

[16] Commercial loans were often structured this way with mortgages payable in five years.  Often they still are, unlike houses which can carry mortgages of many more years.  GOR had to constantly rework mortgages along with a host of private and bank loans.

[17] Richmond returned from honorable service in Europe only to face growing racism back home.  Indianapolis had integrated public schools before World War I, but like most northern cities became highly segregated after the war.  The Ku Klux Klan, which was violently anti-black, anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish, was in control of Indiana politics by 1925.    

[18] This was his plan to develop the several acres of land from the Rafert lumberyard.

[19] In other words, the annual rent of $7,392 would be 15% of the value of the property.  In the money of 2022, the annual rent would have been about $220,000 and the conservative value of the property about $1.4 million.

[20] Dr. Frank Stewart, the grandfather had deliver the previous three children, but was very ill with Parkinson’s disease, so his brother Willis Benton Stewart, his office partner, delivered Frank who was named for his grandfather.  Dr. Frank Stewart died January 1, 1920.

[21]   By holding the mortgage himself, he got the property back, and regained the equity lost in 10 years of mortgage payments.  He again held a mortgage on the building from the new owner that continued after he died.  The income went to Grandma Rafert.

[22]  Lake Maxinkukee is in north central Indiana, about 30 miles south of South Bend.  It is the second largest natural lake in Indiana.  The town of Culver and the Culver Military Academy are at the west edge of the lake.

[23] Elizabeth Manche is the “Earth Mother” of the Lantz branch of the Manche Family.  According to Bill Lantz, a great-grandson, she and John George Lantz eloped.  Their first child, Mary Catherine, was born in 1858 when she was age 19.  Mary Catherine (Molly) married John Ashcraft in 1879.  In turn, John Ashcraft’s older sister Mary Ashcraft married Elizabeth and Christina’s younger brother John Manche.   By the 1880s,  John George Lantz was one of the largest landowners in Hancock County.   His brother-in-law John Manche was another of the largest landowners and by 1900 John Ashcraft was also a large landowner.  Children of this generation married into other related families, creating the community that still exists today.

[24] The town of La Fontaine, pronounced “La Fountain,”  population around 900, is named for Miami Chief La Fontaine (Miami name, Topeah), who went west with Miami removal in 1846 and died on his return the next year.   White’s Institute, a Friends boarding school which for a time took in Plains Indian children, is located a short distance from town. 

[25] His grandmother, born in 1803, so she was 80 when she died in October 1883  and his grandfather, born Dec. 25, 1799 was 90 when he died in May, 1891.  Both grandparents along with their daughter Christina and her husband Edward Brandt (both died in 1903) and their son Julius Brandt (died 1913) are buried at Crown Hill Cemetery in Section 32, Lot 236.    

[26] George Rafert died intestate (without a will) in June, 1955.  Ethel got one-third of the estate and the adult children and the children of Jeanne and Elsa, who were deceased, got their mothers’ shares for the remaining two-thirds.  GOR had given away some of his estate before his death.

[27] This comprehensive insurance really helped.  The money, multiplied by 30 gives some idea of the compensation for the widow and burial:  the widow would receive about $400 a week for almost six years, and the $150 for burial would be about $4,500 today.

[28] A postwar “bubble” was quickly developing.  Money and labor were tight.  At the same time, as he says later, rents were still rising, and real estate was the last to go up and the last to go down.  Most of his apartments were renting for around $1000 a month in today’s prices.

[29] The New Bethel home was about the same size and with a similar size lawn as the “Big House” in Fortville.  It is no wonder that returning to downtown Indianapolis for three years (1923-1926) was not a happy experience.  The Fortville home and big lawn, flower beds, and big garden on the north side of highway 238 brought back the joy of the New Bethel years.  In addition, there was lots of farm land for sale around the home at Fortville to add a whole new business of farming, and, during the 1930s, of bringing feeder cattle from the West.

[30] The Turners were family friends who often visited from Evantson and later from Geneseo, Illinois.

[31] All of the George Rafert property ledgers have been kept along with the diary.

[32] Private lending and borrowing was common.  However, borrowing from his wife Ethel’s Uncle Bent Stewart became an issue in 1933 and led to frosty relations with Dr. Stewart and his daughters during the rest of the 1930s.  A later volume of the diary documents the problem.

[33] Clara Moore’s mother, Mary Catherine (Molly) Ashcraft was George Rafert’s first cousin.

[34] They drove U.S. 40 from Indianapolis to Frederick, Maryland, then the remaining 40 miles or so to Washington.

[35] Charleston  is down the coast to the southwest of Georgetown, while Myrtle Beach is about 25 miles northeast.  In 1920, Georgetown had a population of 4,579 (2000:  8,941) and Myrtle Beach, 827 (2022, 30,000).  Development of Myrtle Beach began very slowly in the 1920s, only burgeoned after World War II.

[36] His father, Christopher Rafert, mostly built single homes, usually mansions on the near north side of Indianapolis.  However, he did trade land and owned a block of business buildings in Alexandria, Indiana.

[37] When they did move back to the city in 1923, they moved twice and did not find the advantages they expected.  They had developed a love of country and small town living at New Bethel.  Getting the big house at Fortville in 1926 fulfilled their dream of country and small town living, while Indianapolis could be reached in a little over half an hour.  Both George and Ethel went to Indianapolis often the remainder of their lives.  I (Stewart J.) rode to the city many, many times with both grandparents. 

[38] During World War I, the federal government took over ownership of Class I (the largest) American railroads.  Under federal control, locomotive designs were standardized and much new equipment was built to handle war traffic.  Public ownership was shown by big block letters on locomotive tenders, “U.S.R.A.,” United States Railway Administration.

[39] George Rafert had a good understanding of basic economics from his father Christopher Rafert.  He was also an economics major at Indiana University.  His clear understanding of the business cycle and when to move ahead and when to hold back on building projects is clearly demonstrated many times in his diary.

[40] George Rafert had attended the Roberts Park Methodist Church near where he grew up on Delaware Street as a child and probably until he went to college in 1902.  It is interesting, that he never joined a church until this point in his life.

[41]  By 1914 the large Stearns-Knight car had a 6.8 liter engine with six cylinders.  It also had electric lighting and, amazingly, an electric starter.  A V8 engine was introduced in 1917.  The car was manufactured by Frank Stearns in Cleveland, Ohio.  The company was sold to John Willys in 1925.  Frank Stewart and his brothers Uncle Will and Uncle Bent bought the Overlands around 1911.  This car was manufactured in Indianapolis until 1909, when Frank Stearns bought the company and moved manufacturing to Toledo, Ohio.  The luxury Stearns-Knight was a victim of the Depression and manufacture ended in 1929. [Source:  Wikipedia]  The $3,000 Rafert paid would be about $90,000 at present [2022].

[42] Rafert traded his first apartment buildings for the 15.8-acre Askren Farm property at Sixteenth Street and Arlington Avenue about 1915.  The lots he plotted were just over a quarter acre in size.  In May, 1921, he had architect Charles H. Byfield draw up plans for a small bungalow.  The blueprints have a complete list of building materials attached.  Development of this property was very slow and had not sold out at the time of GOR’s death.

[43] These were five year  “balloon” mortgages that would have to be rolled over, always something of a risk.  There were no longer mortgages then.

[44] Rossville is a town of 1,300 in Vermilion County, about 15 miles north of Danville and just a few miles west of the Indiana state line.  It was a bit over 100 miles from the Rafert home in New Bethel.  One of the cousins was Grace Stewart, a descendant of Dr. Samuel Stewart, brother of Ethel’s grandfather Robert Stewart, and her grand-uncle.  Grace moved to California later and made notable visits to the big house at Fortville in the early 1950s.  Grace owned two farms in the Rossville area and had a great sense of humor. She also traveled with Frank and Nora Stewart and Aunt Jeanne to Knoxville, Tennessee in 1915 to visit Stewart relatives there.   

[45] Willis Benton Stewart was Ethel Rafert’s uncle and partner of her father in a medical practice.  Uncle Bent Stewart delivered Frank and Harriet Rafert.

[46] The Moods were friends from college days.

George Marott emigrated  to Indianapolis from Daventry, England, in 1875.  He met Willis B. Stewart while living at a boarding house run by a widow named Nancy Meek, formerly of Richmond, Indiana.  Later Marott married  Ella Meek and Grandma Rafert’s uncle Willis Stewart married Lutie Meek.  Willis B. Stewart (Uncle Bent) and George Marott were lifelong friends.  Marott was a millionaire by the time he was 30.  He owned much of the Indianapolis Gas Company and developed the Indiana Service Corporation interurban line connecting Lafayette to Fort Wayne and Fort Wayne south to Bluffton and Marion.  He sold the interurban  in 1921 and in 1927 used the money to build the Marott Hotel in Indianapolis.  On his death in 1946, he willed his shoe store on Washington Street in Indianapolis to his employees.  He also gave Ella Marott park on Fall Creek to the city.  Uncle Bent Stewart and Aunt Lutie Meek are buried in the Marott mausoleum in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.  Allegra Stewart was the last burial there in February, 1994.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

[48] The blueprint for this project, which was finished, still exists.  Rafert started in the grocery business, and therefore had some familiarity with the kind of space needed, so this construction job was a natural for him.

[49] This $300 cash rent for 15.8  acres is stunning by today’s standards and shows how much farm rentals have been harmed by forced overproduction of farm crops in the U.S. and from competition from overseas.  Translated into 2010 prices, Rafert cash rented the land at $9,000 (30 x $300), or about $575 per acre, three times 2010 farm rentals of around $180 per acre.

[50] This is perhaps the thinking of an earlier generation, though many families have carried on businesses through training and passing them on to the next generation.  However, the world was changing in more ways than even George Rafert could anticipate.  As part of his thinking above, he denied the importance of college education.  In the longer run, this left his sons vulnerable to huge changes in technology and the world economy.  The U.S. farm economy had begun a decline in the 1870s.  The decline continued through the rest of the twentieth century, making survival as a farmer without the further resources of education and capital vulnerable to failure. 

[51] These three lovely double houses were finished in July, 1913.  He traded them for the 15.8 acres of Askren Farm on April 4, 1916.  Later, he realized this was a mistake.

[52] The average worker in a factory made from $700 to $750 a year at that time.

[53] It seems dry cement was sold by barrel measurement, but by 1922 it was delivered in paper sacks , as it is today.

[54] The annual return on the investment for the front room would be close to 30% and the return on the expense of the 24 garages over 50% per year.

[55] This was the equivalent of a $100,000 mortgage today, so it would indeed very helpful to suddenly have this large chunk of money!

[56] 1922 was the year in which George Rafert hit his stride.  The $33,000 income he expected would be around $1,000,000 in income today, 2022.  The common laborer he paid 30 cents an hour would make around $900 in a year of 10 hour days.  This was gross, not net income, as  he had mortgages, taxes and many other expenses.

[57] This was a typical balloon mortgage, with small payments for four years, and  the balance due in five years.  These 5, 7, and 10 year balloon mortgages are still standard for commercial loans.  Only house loans were converted to much longer terms by federal law during the Depression.

[58] Both cars show up in family photos the next few years.  With the Stearns-Knight, among others, the modern passenger car era had arrived.  Rafert mentions that the roadster was good for 200,000 miles.  As more roads became paved by the middle 1930s, speeds on U.S. highways averaged 65 to 70 miles per hour according to Rafert as he reported on his driving from Indianapolis to western Oklahoma on his cattle buying trips.

[59] This injury is very common in children from one to three years old, and occurs from a jerk of the arm.  It is also called “baby sitters elbow” and, technically, “radial head subluxation.”  It can be corrected by a doctor with careful manual manipulation or with a cast.  [Thanks, Wikipedia]

[60] They traveled on what was later US 36 to Springfield and to Macon, Missouri, then dropped down to US 40 and 24 to Topeka, then northward to Osborn, Colby, and Goodland Kansas on today’s US 24.  They continued on our US 24 to Limon, Colorado, then joined US 40 to Denver.  Interstate 70 follows the same route from Colby, Kansas to Limon, Colorado today.  Ethel Rafert may not have known that she had members of her grandmother Elizabeth Graves family living in the area of Colby, Kansas.  The Pikes Peak Ocean to Ocean Highway, labeled PP-OO on road signs, was an early interstate route finished in 1924.  

[61] Dividing the mileage, 2,924 by the 275 gallons of gasoline used shows that they got 10.63 miles per gallon with the Stearns-Knight roadster.  GOR mentioned returning in late August.  He routinely returned from travel days earlier than he mentioned in the planning stage.

[62] Uncle John Manche was Christina Manche Rafert’s brother, and the last survivor of the five children of John Manche and Christine Lange who grew to adulthood.  Born in 1845, he died in 1927 and is buried at the New Palestine cemetery.  He was Hancock County Commissioner during the building of the Hancock County Courthouse in Greenfield.  There is a photo of him inside the north entrance taken while he was commissioner.

[63] He describes the building of what he came to call “Garden Court” in the next volume of the diary.  This was the apartment complex I remember best, as Mrs. John Osbon collected rents there.  She made paper flowers for sale and had saved old or unusual coins for years.  When she learned I was a coin collector, she gave me her coins, most of which I still have.  Some are the unusual two cent and twenty cent pieces, minted for only a few years in the 1860s and1870s.

[64] It seems this “Kelvinator” was inserted into a regular ice box to make it function as a kind of refrigerator.  The cost was around $7,000 today.  This seems extremely expensive, but a Ford car didn’t cost much more at the time.

[65] This building was the most impressive and handsome that Rafert built.

[66] We think of painting today, whereas it seems all of the apartments had wall paper.   I wonder when the changeover from paper to paint occurred.

[67] These thoughts are among the most interesting in the diaries, as they explain something I, grandson Stewart Rafert, have often wondered about.  I spent almost 15 years around my grandfather, seeing him almost every day and spending a great deal of time at my grandparents’ home.  He never seemed intense or absent-minded or worried.  In fact, in my early teen years, my cousin Tom Thomas and I would sometimes ride to “the city” with Grandpa.  As coin collectors, we liked to go to a shop on Pennsylvania Street.  Grandpa with sit with his hat on reading the newspaper while we look over coins.  He never rushed us.  His only sign of intensity was his addiction to smoking, originally cigarettes, but in our day a pipe.

[68] These thoughts foreshadow the move to Fortville in 1926.  They did move within a few months to Indianapolis where they lived for a year on Fall Creek Boulevard, near the State Fair Grounds, then to a huge house on Pennsylvania Street just north of 34^th Street where they lived for two years (1924-June 12, 1926).  After enjoying seven years in New Bethel, they were unhappy with city living.  In looking for a country location they found the house in Fortville which remained in the family until 2012, 86 years later.  Rafert kept his city properties, but added two hundred acres of farmland around the big house and in 1929 bought the Pendleton grain elevator.  The farm land and elevator enabled him to enter the feeder cattle business in a big way during the 1930s and the profits allowed him to avoid bankruptcy during the Depression.

[69] The New Bethel lawn was about the same size or perhaps a little larger than the yard at Fortville.  When I began mowing the Fortville yard at age 13, it took me eight and a half hours to mow the whole lawn with a rotary mower such as we have today.  I made $3.60 for this work, paid “boy’s scale” of 40 cents an hour.

[70] He seems realistic about paying higher union wages under the tight labor conditions.  I never heard my grandfather rant against unions.  In fact, in 1938 he came within 300 votes of winning a seat in the Indiana state senate.  His district included the thousands of heavily unionized auto workers in Anderson.  Apparently they liked him.