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.

People and camp

The 37th page of Sally’s photo album featured a collection of photos taken of people and at camp. These pictures were probably from around 1931. She was making a major move in her life, packing up and moving to Washington, D.C. to work in the patent office. Before she left in November 1931, she spent at least some of her summer at camp in Tomahawk.

Sally

We’ve seen this photo before back on page 17. It was labeled there as, “Civil Service Application Photo.”

Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner.

Location: Wausau, Marathon County, Wisconsin.

Date: circa 1928.

Camp

An early 1931 newspaper article shared that Sally had a four-week vacation.

Miss Selma Aschbrenner, employed at Wausau, is spending a four weeks’ vacation at the home of her parents.

Wausau Daily Record-Herald, February 18, 1931.

Times had been tough in the Curtis & Yale woodworking factory for several years.

W.E. Curtis of Curtis and Yale said he came to learn rather than talk, as he looked for information. He said employees in his factory would agree that times in the woodworking plant have been hard for three years and the end is not in sight.

Wausau Daily-Record Herald, December 16, 1930.

A few months later, he had a better story to tell the paper.

Walter E. Curtis, manager of the Curtis-Yale company, made perhaps the most important announcement of the meeting, of in recent industrial history in Wausau, when he stated that the company’s factory would open on a full time fifty-hour week basis next Monday. To the Record-Herald, Mr. Curtis made this statement:

“The future looks much better to us than it did some time ago, as the results of an arrangement with our people. On Monday morning, we start on a full weekly working scheduled, which is fifty hours work for our present limited crew. We can not take on any additional help at least for a time, but the pronounced increase in factory running time should greatly help with the general situation.”

Wausau Daily Herald-Record, March 27, 1931, page 1.

We have have no proof that Sally’s employment in the Curtis & Yale office was threatened in any way, but she sure had a lot of time off in 1931. A series of camp photos and a newspaper article lead us to believe that Sally spent some considerable time at Tomahawk in the summer and fall of 1931.

“Mr. and Mrs. Fred Aschbrenner, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Edward Aschbrenner of Wausau, visited Miss Selma Aschbrenner at Tomahawk Sunday.”

Wausau Daily Record-Herald, August 5, 1931.

It seems that if they were visiting her in Tomahawk she was probably there for more than just a week or two. Did she work at camp?

When her brother got married in September 1931, the newspaper listed Sally as “of Tomah.”

“At a very pretty ceremony performed at 7:30 o’clock Saturday evening at the Lutheran church in the town of Rib Falls, Miss Sadie Heise, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Herman Heise of the town of Rib Falls, became the bride of Frederick Aschbrenner, son of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Aschbrenner of the town of Berlin. … The maid of honor, Miss Selma Aschbrenner of Tomah, a sister of the bridegroom, preceded the bride and groom to the alter. …”

Wausau Daily Record-Herald, Monday, September 28, 1931.

Sleeping friend

A friend is pictured sleeping in her camp bed.

Pictured: Unidentified.

Location: Tomahawk, Wisconsin.

Date: circa 1931.

On the lake

A boat is captured on the lake.

Location: Tomahawk, Wisconsin.

Date: circa 1931.

Relaxing

Sally and colleagues are relaxing in the yard. Sally is found in the group of three on the right side of the photo. She is farthest left in that group.

Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner.

Location: Tomahawk, Wisconsin.

Date: circa 1931

Dining hall

Sally is dining at camp. It appears to be a multi-generational event. Sally is found on the right side of the third table on the left side of the room. It appears to be a semi-formal affair.

Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner.

Location: Tomahawk, Wisconsin.

Date: circa 1931.

Rocks and Water

An unidentified woman sits on rocks in front of rushing water. Was this at camp? Was this somewhere else? We don’t know.

Pictured: Unidentified.

Location: Unidentified.

Date: circa 1931.

Washington D.C.

On 19 November 1931, Sally left Wausau, Wisconsin, for a new job in Washington, D.C.

Before she left, her friends hosted a farewell party.

“Mrs. H.J. Rinehart and sister, Miss Margaret Lemke entertained last Saturday afternoon at the former’s home, 3401 Oakwood Boulevard, at a farewell for Miss Selma Aschbrenner, who left for Washington, D.C., last night where she will be employed. The hostesses and guests presented her with gifts to take on her trip east. The afternoon was spent at cards, prizes being awarded Miss Irma Callies, Miss Ida Braun and Miss Beata John and at 6:30 o’clock a buffet supper was served.

Wausau Daily Record-Herald, Friday, November 20, 1931.

New friends in Washington

Sally poses with ladies she met in Washington.

Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner, far right. Standing, Anne ____.

Location: Washington, District of Columbia.

Date: 1931.

New friends

New friends were found in Washington D.C.

Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner, far left.

Location: Washington, District of Columbia.

Date: 1931.

Olga Peterson

Sally, right, poses with Olga Peterson. Olga was a new friend in Washington D.C. and this photo was taken somewhere near that city.

Pictured: Olga Peterson and Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner.

Location: near Washington D.C.

Date: 1931.

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

The Aschbrenner Family