Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner, known as Sally, grew up in Marathon County, Wisconsin. As an adult she spent a short time working in Washington D.C. before returning to Wausau to marry and raise a family. This series of posts takes us page by page through the photo album of her teen years and young adulthood. She was an active and vibrant gal. These photos show her doing things she could no long do when her mobility became limited in the following decades.

She collected photographs. Lots and lots of photographs. She took most of them and posed in many. This series gives us a glimpse of Sally’s young life, through her own pictures.

Madison, Dells, Kids

The 21st page of Sally’s photo album featured a collection of photos taken in and around 1924 or 1925. There weren’t many pictures on this page. Just four. We see a continuation of Sally’s visit to Madison, a stop in the Wisconsin Dells, and one photo of children, including two or her cousins.

Madison

View of the Wisconsin State Capitol building in Madison, Wisconsin.

Location: Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin.

Date: circa 1926-26.

Wisconsin Dells

A sight-seeing boat cruises on the Wisconsin River through the Wisconsin Dells.

Location: Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.

Date: circa 1925-26.

Sally sits aboard a boat on the Wisconsin River in the Wisconsin Dells.

Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner.

Location: Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.

Date: circa 1925-26.

On her trip to the Wisconsin Dells, Sally bought a postcard featuring Yellow Thunder. Yellow Thunder – Wakajazi – was a chief of the Ho-Chunk tribe. He was part of a delegation of fifteen Ho-Chunk chiefs and one Ho-Chunk woman who were escorted to the eastern United States for a tour and a visit to the White House to meet President John Quincy Adams. The trip was meant to intimidate the chiefs showing the power of the United States. The trip was after the Winnebago war of 1827 and before the Blackhawk War of 1832. These fights caused more and more land to be turned over to the United States. While a treaty said that all native lands in Wisconsin Territory south of the Wisconsin River had to be given to the U.S. in exchange for lands in Iowa, most Ho-Chunk stayed in Wisconsin. In October 1837, Yellow Thunder was again part of a delegation sent to Washington. They thought they were going to talk with the President about their homeland in Wisconsin. Instead, the U.S. government pressured them to sell all the remaining land east of the Mississippi. The chiefs could not get the U.S. to understand that they had no authority to do so. Finally, the chiefs gave in and signed a treaty, even though they knew it was meaningless. If they hadn’t, they would not have anyway to pay for a trip home before winter.

Over the subsequent years, the Ho-Chunk were slow to move to the reservation provided for them west of the Mississippi river. By 1840, federal officials put increasing pressure on the Ho-Chunk to move. Yellow Thunder refused. He and his wife were arrested at Fort Winnebago. He was released after promising to bring his band to the fort for removal. He did. But, he returned to the Portage, Wisconsin, area and was arrested again in 1843. He returned to Wisconsin again in 1846 only to be rounded up and deported again in 1848.

In 1849, he purchased 40-acres of land at the U.S. Land Office in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. His land was in the Town of Delton, Sauk County, Wisconsin. He remained at this Wisconsin Dells home for the rest of his life, also continuing to be active in tribal affairs.

He died in February 1874 and had been memorialized in the Wisconsin Dells.

Cousins

These girls were together again. We saw them on the previous page of the album too. We know that the tallest girl was Sally’s cousin Elsie, the daughter of Laura and Ed Aschbrenner. Next to her was her little sister Evelyn. The other two girls are possibly Norma Aschbrenner, the daughter of Sally’s uncle Henry, and her older sister Alice. Norma and Alice are just guesses.

Pictured: From left, Norma Grace Aschbrenner (possibly), Alice Aschbrenner (possibly), Elsie Edna Aschbrenner, and Evelyn Ruth Aschbrenner.

Location: Wausau, Marathon County, Wisconsin.

Date: 1925-26.

Many thanks to Uncle Chuck Krueger for gifting Sally’s photo albums to me. I suppose I’m the only one who is obsessed enough with family history to spend hours and hours doing something with them. Of course, I thought I should find a way to share.

I didn’t join the Krueger family soon enough to meet Sally. She died 15 May 1983, just two weeks after I started dating her grandson (now my husband). I’m sad that I missed getting to know her. I’m glad that she left a legacy of photos that help me see a side of her that maybe even her own family didn’t get to see.

Many of the faces and places in the photographs are not labeled. If you can help identify someone or someplace, correct any mistake I may have made, or otherwise add to the story, please contact me, for example by submitting a comment. Thanks.

Who is Who?

Fred and Alice Aschbrenner family

Sally Aschbrenner, the subject of this series of posts, was the daughter of Alice Rosalie Fehlhaber and Frederick A. Helmut Aschbrenner. She had one brother named Freddy.

Three-generation pedigree chart

Laura Fehlhaber and Edward Aschbrenner

Uncle Ed was one of Sally’s paternal uncles. He was married to Sally’s maternal aunt Laura.

Henry Herman Heinrich Aschbrenner

Henry was one of Sally’s paternal uncles.

Selected Sources:

“Yellow Thunder – Wakajazi,” Sauk County Historical Society (https://saukcountyhistory.org/yellow-thunder : accessed 22 Aug 2020)

“Yellow Thunder,” Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Thunder : accessed 22 Aug 2020)

The Aschbrenner Family