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.
Trees and Friends and Friends in Trees
The eighth page of Sally’s photo album featured a collection of photos taken in and around 1920-21. Sally didn’t label the photos, but we can safely assume the page was filled with friends from high school. These gals look a little younger than high school seniors, so even though they are in the album later than some other 1920 photos, a wild guess is made that they may have been taken around that time.
Aunt Laura in the trees
This appears to be Aunt Laura posing with a clump of birch trees.
Pictured: Laura Fehlhaber Aschbrenner.
Location: Marathon County, Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1921.
Ethel Luedtke
It appears that Sally’s friend Ethel Luedtke was dressed for a workout in the snow. Ethel was a classmate in the Wausau High School Class of 1922. Like Sally, she was in the Waugonian Club. Ethel’s caption in the yearbook was, “Full of fire, and mischief, too. Doing things she shouldn’t do.”
Pictured: Ethel H. Luedtke.
Location: Wausau, Marathon County, Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1921-22.
Mrs. Luedtke and …
Someone, after the fact, titled this photo, “Mrs. Luedtke and Ethel.” That is likely not the case though. A guess is that the girl on roller skates might be the younger Luedtke daughter, Mable Mina Luedtke. Based on the other photos, this gal is too young to be Ethel who was in high school when she hung out with Sally. So this may be the little sister instead. Mrs. Luedtke, the former Rose C. Pasnecker, was born in Austria-Hungary and immigrated to Wisconsin as a child.
Pictured: Rose C. Pasnecker Luedtke and Mable Mina Luedtke.
Location: Wausau, Marathon County, Wisconsin. Possibly near 525 Porter Street where Rose and her children lived at the time of the 1920 Federal Census.
Date: circa 1922.
Wienie Roast
Sally (on right) and a friend, probably Ethel Luedtke, roast hot dogs over a fire.
Pictured: Ethel Luedtke (probably) and Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner.
Location: Marathon County, Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1921.
Balance Beam
Sally (left) and a friend balance on a fallen tree.
Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner and an unidentified friend.
Location: Marathon County, Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1920-21.
In the Trees
Sally and two friends pose behind a tree.
Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner (center) and two unidentified friends.
Location: Marathon County, Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1920-21.
In a Boat
Sally and three friends pose in a boat.
Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner (far right) and three unidentified friends.
Location: Marathon County, Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1920-21.
All Smiles
Sally and three unidentified friends smile for the camera.
Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner (second from left) and three unidentified friends.
Location: Marathon County, Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1920-21.
In the Country
Sally is the only one who seemed ready for this picture.
Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner (far left) and three friends.
Location: Marathon County, Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1920-21.
Picnic
A teenage girl and a woman pose with a picnic basket.
Pictured: Unidentified.
Location: Marathon County, Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1920-21.
Girls
Four friends pose for Sally.
Pictured: Unidentified.
Location: Marathon County, Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1920-21.
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
Luedtkes
Ethel H. Luedtke was born on 15 Sep 1904 in Wisconsin as the first child of William Luedtke and Rose C. Pasnecker. She had two siblings, namely: Arthur C., and Mable Mina. In 1905, Ethel and family lived in Stettin, Marathon, Wisconsin. But, by the time of the 1910 Federal Census, they were living in Ward 7, Wausau, Marathon, Wisconsin.
When she was 21, Ethel married Adrain B. Dawson on 12 Jul 1926 in Broward, Florida.
Adrain B. Dawson and Ethel H. Luedtke had the following children:
- Adrian B. Dawson was born in North Carolina.
- Richard E Dawson was born in Florida.
By 1930, the family lived in Miami, Miami-Dade, Florida. She was a resident of Miami for the rest of her life. She raised her family and worked as a teacher.
Ethel died on 28 Sep 1982 in Miami-Dade, Florida, at age 78.
Her mother, Rose, and siblings, Arthur and Mable, along with Ethel’s maternal grandmother Marie, all moved to Florida too. They were living together at Ojus, Dade County, Florida, in 1930. Arthur died in 1952 and Mrs. Luedtke died on 07 March 1957 in Miami-Dade, Florida.
Mable Mina Luedtke was born 02 January 1910, in Wausau, Marathon, Wisconsin. She married on 27 August 1927, in Lenoir County, North Carolina, to Ray M. McIlwean. They had daughters Patsey and Alice Rose. Mable was widowed in 1970 and died 20 November 1991, in New Bern, Craven, North Carolina.
Aunt Laura
Laura Fehlhaber Aschbrenner was one of Sally’s maternal aunts. She was married to Sally’s uncle Ed.
Elsie Aschbrenner
Sally and Elsie were double 1st cousins. Their mothers were sisters and their fathers were brothers.
Selected Sources:
Ancestry.com, Florida, County Marriage Records, 1823-1982 (Lehi, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016), Ancestry.com, http://www.Ancestry.com, State Archive, Tallahassee and clerk of courts, various counties; Tallahassee, Florida; Florida, County Marriages, 1823-1982.
Ancestry.com, U.S. School Yearbooks (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010), ancestry.com, “U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012”; School Name: Wausau High School; Year: 1922.
“Dawson, Ethel H.,” 30 Sep 1982, page 450 (https://www.newspapers.com/image/629611084/ : accessed 27 Apr 2020), The Miami Herald, Miami, Florida, online images.
“Luedtke Funeral Monday,” 09 Mar 1957, page 28 (https://www.newspapers.com/image/619077744/ : accessed 30 May 2020), The Miami Herald, Miami, Florida, online images.
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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