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.
The Lodge
The 41st page of Sally’s photo album contained photos of Sally at a YWCA camp called, “The Lodge.” There were also some shots from Washington D.C. and a couple photos of people.
Based on their location in the photo album, it seems that all Sally’s photos should have been in Washington D.C. But sometimes things are not in perfect chronological order. One photo on this page features her Wausau friend Elizabeth Lemke, by now, Mrs. Harold Reinhart. The location of “The Lodge” is not known, but it looks like it could have been in Wisconsin. Sally looks older than the other girls pictured, so perhaps she was a camp leader. Maybe the camp photos were taken in the summer of 1931, before she headed east to Washington?
Elizabeth Lemke Reinhart
Sally’s friend Elizabeth Lemke got married, on 30 July 1930, to Harold John Reinhart. In this photo, she would have already been Mrs. Reinhart.
Pictured: Elizabeth Louise Lemke Reinhart.
Location: Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1931.
The Lodge
We don’t know where The Lodge was located. But as the sign in one of the photos indicates, it belonged to the YWCA. And, based on several photos, Sally was there with young ladies. Fashion had changed since Sally’s original camp days with many of the younger gals wearing shorts and saddle shoes.
Sally and girls.
Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner, back row, third from left.
Location: The Lodge
Date: circa 1931-32.
Sally at The Lodge.
Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner, in back next to the signpost.
Location: The Lodge.
Date: 1931-32.
Sally and girls.
Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner, back row, second from left.
Location: The Lodge.
Date: circa 1931-32.
Girls at The Lodge.
Pictured: Unidentified.
Location: Unknown.
Date: circa 1931-32.
Maybe The Lodge?
Location: Unknown.
Date: circa 1931-32.
Girls at The Lodge. Assuming this is still at The Lodge, anyway.
Pictured: Unidentified.
Location: Unknown.
Date: circa 1931-32.
Back to Washington
Location: Washington, D.C.
Date: circa 1932.
Sites…
Location: Washington D.C.
Date: circa 1932.
Sally and friend pose next to a frozen fountain. We’ve seen a very similar photo on a previous page.
Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner, left, and unidentified.
Location: Washington D.C.
Date: circa 1931-32.
Two of Sally’s Washington D.C. friends rest at under an umbrella.
Pictured: Unidentified.
Location: Washington D.C.
Date: circa 1931-32.
Little boy
This photo shows a cute little boy with his ball and glove.
Pictured: Unidentified.
Location: probably Wausau, Marathon, Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1931-32.
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
Elizabeth Louise Lemke
Elizabeth Louise Lemke was born on 12 Dec 1904 in Wausau, Marathon, Wisconsin, to Anna Kasten and August W. Lemke. She was a graduate of Wausau High School and worked at the American National Bank before marrying.
When she was 25, she married Harold John Reinhart, son of John Reinhart and Bertha Graade, on 30 Jul 1930, in Wausau, Marathon, Wisconsin.
Harold and Elizabeth had one daughter named Mary.
In 1940, she and her husband lived in Atlanta, De Kalb, Georgia. He worked for the West Bend Aluminum Company in West Bend, Washington, Wisconsin, but it seems he was on assignment in Atlanta.
They lived most of their married life in Wisconsin.
Elizabeth died on 10 Oct 1975 in Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The Aschbrenner Family
- Publication date: February 2022
- Pages: 728
- Formats:
- This books explores Aschbrenner family history. Friedrich August Aschbrenner had a son, named Friedrich Samuel Aschbrenner, who immigrated to Marathon County, Wisconsin. This book traces thousands of descendants of the immigrant. Detailed biographies are provided for the families of our direct line from Friedrich Samuel Aschbrenner through Frederick Wilhelm Aschbrenner and Frederick August Helmut Aschbrenner to Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner.
- Winner of the Wisconsin Historical Society 2023 Board of Curators Genealogy/Family History Book Award.
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