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.
Old Folks, Relatives, Soldiers, and the Clover Dairy Farm
Meditating
As a teenager, Sally lived with her uncle Edward and Aunt Laura so that she could attend school in Wausau. Uncle Ed was her dad’s brother and Aunt Laura was her mom’s sister. So Sally and Evelyn, the baby in the photo, were double cousins. Sally titled this photo, “Meditating.”
Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner, Evelyn Ruth Aschbrenner, and Laura Fehlhaber Aschbrenner.
Location: 922 4th Avenue South, Wausau, Marathon, Wisconsin.
Date: 1922.
First Lesson
Titled, “First Lesson,” this photo shows Sally on horseback and her brother, Freddy, holding the horse.
Pictured: Frederick Carl Aschbrenner and Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner.
Location: Fred and Alice Aschbrenner farm, Highway A, Town of Berlin, Marathon Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1920.
Prairie Schooner
An unidentified boy is leading an unidentified child in a wagon pulled by a cooperative dog.
Pictured: Unknown.
Location: Unknown.
Date: circa 1920.
Old Folks
This photo is of Sally’s grandparents, Fred and Bertha Aschbrenner. She titled it “Old Folks.”
Pictured: Frederick Wilhelm Aschbrenner and Bertha Auguste Henriette Kluender Aschbrenner.
Location: Highway 97, Stratford, Marathon County, Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1920.
Clover Dairy Farm
This is the last farm of Frederick and Bertha Aschbrenner, Sally’s grandparents (pictured above).
In 1902, encouraged by his brother-in-law, Ferdinand Quade, Fred and Bertha moved to Stratford, Marathon, Wisconsin. They let their son, Frederick (Sally’s dad), take over the original farm while they cleared land for a new Stratford farm and, using 16,000 bricks, built a new house. Later, in 1915, son Henry took over the Stratford farm when Fred and Bertha retired and had a home built on what is now highway 97 at Stratford.
Location: Highway 97, Stratford, Marathon County, Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1920.
Iowans
On an earlier page of the photo album, Sally shared a photo of the Henry Aschbrenner house in Bremer County, Iowa. This photo features the family of Heinrich Friedrich August Aschbrenner (Henry). The photo probably shows, Esther Aschbrenner, John Herman Aschbrenner, Henry Robert Aschbrenner, Maria Ann Aschbrenner, Henry, Emma, and Lydia D. Aschbrenner.
Pictured: From left, Esther Aschbrenner, John Herman Aschbrenner, Henry Robert Aschbrenner, Maria Ann Aschbrenner, Heinrich Friedrich August Aschbrenner, Emma Henning Aschbrenner, and Lydia D. Aschbrenner.
Location: Bremer, Bremer, Iowa.
Date: ca 1920.
He doesn’t mind
In this photo, some friends posed with a soldier on the Sherman statue. Who were the friends? Where is (or was) this statue? It is in the album with other photos from Sally’s life during high school. So, was this a high school trip?
Pictured: ?
Location: Sherman Statue, ?
Date: circa 1921.
Grand Dads
This photo features Casper Fenhaus and Frederick Aschbrenner. They were Civil War soldiers, brothers-in-law, and best friends. Casper, or more formally, Johannes Casper Fenhaus was married to Fred’s sister, Mathilda Alvine Aschbrenner. Both men and their families lived at the Town of Berlin, Marathon County, Wisconsin, until the Aschbrenners moved to Stratford.
Pictured: Johannes Casper Fenhaus and Frederick Wilhelm Aschbrenner.
Location: Marathon County, Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1920.
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
Evelyn Ruth Aschbrenner
Sally and Evelyn were double 1st cousins. Their mothers were sisters and their fathers were brothers.
Heinrich Friedrich August Aschbrenner
Heinrich Friedrich August Aschbrenner, also known as Henry, was a first cousin to Sally’s dad.
Casper Fenhaus
Casper Fenhaus was the husband of Sally’s 1st great-aunt.
Selected Sources:
“Casper Fenhaus,” Pommerscher Verein Central Wisconsin (http://pvcw.org/Stories/Casper-Fenhaus- : accessed 16 Apr 2020)
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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