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.
Live Y’ers
The 27th page of Sally’s photo album featured a collection of photos taken with groups of friends. At least some of these are likely taken at Live Y’ers events. The Live Y’ers was a group through the Y.W.C.A. for young professional women. These were probably taken in 1927 and 1928.
Dressed up and outdoors
The first group of photos appear to be from an event where the ladies were both dressed up and outside.
Elizabeth and Sally
Sally and her good friend Elizabeth pose in the woods.
Pictured: Elizabeth Louise Lemke and Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner.
Location: Wausau, Marathon, Wisconsin.
Date: 1927-28.
Girls in the woods
Sally, second from left and Elizabeth, far right, pose with other ladies.
Pictured: Unidentified, Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner, unidentified, unidentified, unidentified, and Elizabeth Louise Lemke.
Location: Wausau, Marathon, Wisconsin.
Date: 1927-28.
Business girls
Sally, Elizabeth, and their friends pose with a backdrop of trees.
Pictured: Back row, Unidentified. Front row, from left, Elizabeth Louise Lemke, Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner, and unidentified.
Location: Wausau, Marathon, Wisconsin.
Date: 1927-28.
On a bench
The same group of girls posed again on a bench.
Pictured: Elizabeth Louise Lemke, back, and Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner, seated in center, others are unidentified.
Location: Wausau, Marathon, Wisconsin.
Date: 1927-28
Hike and program around the fireplace
The Wausau Daily Record-Herald reported on plans for the “members of the Live Y’ers of the Y.W.C.A. and girls from the business institute,” to “hike to the Sarah Alexander lodge back of the country club” on Sunday, March 25, 1928. It explained, “a supper will be served at the lodge and an informal program around the fire place will be carried out.” It is possible that these photos are from that event.
Hiking
Sally, second from right, and Elizabeth, second from left, are shown during a hike with another group of girls.
Pictured: Back row, unidentified, Elizabeth Louise Lemke, unidentified, Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner, and unidentified. Front row, unidentified.
Location: Wausau, Marathon, Wisconsin.
Date: 1928.
On the rocks
After the event, the Wausau Daily Record-Herald reported that “Live Y’er club members and about twenty-five girls from the Wausau business institute hiked to the Y.W.C.A. lodge near the Country club Sunday afternoon. The girls sat about a camp fire and sang songs until 5:00 o’clock when a supper was served [by] Miss Elizabeth Lemke, Miss Margaret Lemke and Miss Edna Merklein.“
Pictured: Back row, Elizabeth Louise Lemke, and unidentified girls. Front row, Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner (second from right) and unidentified girls.
Location: Wausau, Marathon, Wisconsin.
Date: 1928.
Fireplace program
“After supper Miss Gladys Beebe told stories.”
– Wausau Daily Record-Herald.
Pictured: Unidentified.
Location: Probably the Sarah Alexander lodge back of the country club, Wausau, Marathon, Wisconsin.
Date: 1928.
Outside the lodge
Pictured: Standing, from left, Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner, and unidentified ladies. Seated, Unidentified, Elizabeth Louis Lemke, and unidentified.
Location: Probably the Sarah Alexander lodge back of the country club, Wausau, Marathon, Wisconsin.
Date: 1928.
Scenery
Path in the woods
Location: Probably near the Wausau Country Club, Wausau, Marathon, Wisconsin.
Date: 1927-28.
Lake view
Location: Probably the Wisconsin River, near the Wausau Country Club, Wausau, Marathon, Wisconsin.
Date: 1927-28.
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.
Selected Sources:
Wausau Daily Record-Herald, 24 Mar 1928 (https://www.newspapers.com/image/272004940/ : accessed 18 Aug 2020).
Wausau Daily Record-Herald, 26 Mar 1928 (https://www.newspapers.com/image/272005605/ : accessed 18 Aug 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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