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.
Spider Lake and Camp Wakanda
The 22nd page of Sally’s photo album featured a collection of photos taken in and around 1926. A caption written on the album page years after the photos were taken says, “Spider Lake.” So, presumably, Sally and friends took a trip to Spider Lake. The rest of the photos are from the Y.W.C.A. Camp Wakanda on Clear Lake, near Tomahawk, Wisconsin. Sally seems to have enjoyed vacations on the lake.
Spider Lake
Sally, seated, far right, and friends pose at their resort at Spider Lake. Spider Lake is a lake in Sawyer and Bayfield counties, Wisconsin. This lake is far north, almost to Lake Superior. Today it would be about a 3-hour drive from Wausau.
Pictured: Unidentified friends and Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner, seated, far right.
Location: Spider Lake, Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1926.
Boating
Sally, far right, is boating with friends on Spider Lake. The girl, far left, may be Sally’s friend Elizabeth Lemke.
Pictured: From left, Elizabeth Lemke (possibly), unidentified, and Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner.
Location: Spider Lake, Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1926.
Sally
Sally poses from a beached canoe on Spider Lake.
Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner.
Location: Spider Lake, Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1926.
Traveling
Sally and friends traveled in style.
Location: Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1926.
Rest Stop
Sally and a friend make a stop to eat alongside the road.
Pictured: Unidentified and Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner.
Location: Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1926.
Tomahawk
Elizabeth Lemke and Sally stop for a photo next to the Kellogg Bros. Lumber Co. sign showing that they were near Tomahawk, Wisconsin.
Pictured: Elizabeth Lemke and Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner.
Location: Tomahawk, Lincoln County, Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1926.
Camp Wakanda
This photo, taken by Elizabeth Lemke of Wausau, Wisconsin, shows a view of Camp Wakanda, the Y.W.C.A. summer camp, from Clear Lake.
Location: Camp Wakanda, near Tomahawk, Lincoln County, Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1926.
Camp Wakanda again
This similar photo was taken by Sally.
Location: Camp Wakanda, near Tomahawk, Lincoln County, Wisconsin.
Date: ca 1926.
Canoeing on Clear Lake
Sally, in the front of the canoe, and a friend boating on Clear Lake.
Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner and unidentified.
Location: Camp Wakanda, near Tomahawk, Lincoln County, Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1926.
Bathing Beauties
Look at those bathing suits. Wow! Sally may not have been very fond of this photo as it was pasted into the album upside down.
Pictured: Unidentified and Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner.
Location: Camp Wakanda, near Tomahawk, Lincoln County, Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1926.
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.
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