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.

Coolidge comes to town

The 29th page of Sally’s photo album featured a collection of photos taken in and around August 1928. One more knicker picture. President Coolidge paid Wausau a visit. Sally was with friends and around water. A couple postcards. Those are the images that filled the 29th page in the album.

Knickers

We saw a lot of knickers on the last page in the album. Here is one more. Sally and friend show the latest style.

Pictured: Unidentified and Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner.

Location: Wausau, Marathon, Wisconsin.

Date: 1928.

Coolidge visits

It was a big deal for Wausau when President Coolidge came to visit.

Calvin Coolidge was elected Vice President when Warren G. Harding was elected president in the presidential election of 1920. When Harding died on 02 Aug 1923, Coolidge became the 30th president of the United States. A year later, Coolidge, a Republican, ran for reelection and handily defeated his Democratic opponent, John W. Davis. In that 1924 election, however, Wisconsin went for the Progressive party candidate Robert M. La Follette – they were the only state to do so.

Coolidge wasn’t running for office in 1928. Herbert Hoover was the Republican candidate that year.

He came to Wausau to speak at the Wisconsin state convention of the American Legion.

Wausau was excited to have President Coolidge, his wife, and their entourage come to town. The Wausau Daily Record-Herald covered the event. When they announced his plans to visit, they predicted that his address would be “pleasing to every citizen.” They wrote about the preparations necessary saying, “Western Union is preparing to send news to the world…six direct lines to carry messages of convention and Coolidge visit.” They reported that the Associated Press and other news agencies were sending their best correspondents, expecting that, “The result will be that many thousands of words will be sent out calling the attention to the world to the fact that Wausau is very much on the map.“

All business were ordered to be closed from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm. Streets and avenues used for the parade were cleared of traffic. Citizens who wanted to view the procession were asked to spread out along the parade route with no unnecessary crowding or congestion. Tickets were sold for $1 for seats in front of the speakers’ stand. But it was free to enter Marathon Park.

The program for the day of the visit included an official reception of the President and his wife and a parade to Marathon Park at 10:30 am, followed by an 11:15 am introduction of Coolidge in front of the grandstand in the park. President Coolidge then gave an address.

The headline after the event was, “Throng Sees President.” The crowd size was estimated at 30,000 people. It seems that Sally was one of those 30,000.

Pictured: President Calvin Coolidge.

Location: Wausau, Marathon, Wisconsin.

Date: 15 Aug 1928.

An outing with Reno

Here is another photo that includes Sally’s beau Reno Wendorf. He and Sally are posing with another unidentified couple.

Pictured: Reno Morten Rueben Wendorf, Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner, and an unidentified couple.

Location: Wisconsin.

Date: 1928.

Beauties

Sally poses with another women. They seemed to have been on a double date, so we don’t know if this woman was a friend of Sally’s or whether they where just acquaintances through their dates.

Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner, left, and unidentified woman.

Location: Wisconsin.

Date: 1928.

Reading by the lake

Sally’s niece Evelyn reads as she and Sally sit on by the lake.

Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner and Evelyn Ruth Aschbrenner.

Location: Wisconsin.

Date: 1928.

Swimmers

Sally and others are interrupted from swimming for a photo.

Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner, standing, middle, and unidentified people.

Location: Wisconsin.

Date: 1928.

Lazy day

Sally, middle, and her niece, Elsie, far left, are captured lounging on a blanket in the yard with several others. A similar photo is found on the next page of the album where it was written, “Iowa Trip.” So, they may have been having a lazy day in Iowa.

Pictured: Elsie Edna Aschbrenner, Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner, and unidentified people.

Location: possibly Iowa.

Date: 1928.

Clinton Street

The last photo in the album takes us from days of summer to snow of winter. This may belong with the winter photos on the previous page. In any case, it shows a view of Clinton Street in Wausau, after a snowstorm.

Location: Clinton Street, 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

Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge was our relative. Sally became related to him a couple distant ways through the marriages of her son and grandson.

Calvin Coolidge is the 9th cousin 2x removed of Leona Catherine Miller, Sally’s son’s mother-in-law. Calvin and Leona shared Samuel Appleton and Judith Everard as ancestors. They were Leona’s 10th great-grandparents, so that is going back a long way.

Sally’s grandson also married into a family with a connection to Coolidge. This one is through marriage not through blood. Calvin Coolidge is the 1st cousin 8x removed of the husband of a 7th great-aunt of Lona Iona Fawcett. All these families who arrived in America early, very early, seem to be related in some fashion.

Elsie Aschbrenner

Sally and Elsie were double 1st cousins. Their mothers were sisters and their fathers were brothers.

Evelyn Ruth Aschbrenner

Sally and Evelyn were double 1st cousins. Their mothers were sisters and their fathers were brothers.

Selected Sources:

“United States presidential election of 1924,” Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1924 : accessed 22 Aug 2020).

“Calvin Coolidge,” Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Coolidge : accessed 22 Aug 2020).

“President Here Aug. 15,” 01 Aug 1928, Wausau Daily Record-Herald, 15 Aug 1928, page 1 (https://www.newspapers.com/image/271783683/ : accessed 22 Aug 2020).

“The President is Coming,” 01 Aug 1928, Wausau Daily Record-Herald, 15 Aug 1928, page 6 (https://www.newspapers.com/image/271783860/ : accessed 22 Aug 2020).

Wausau Daily Record-Herald, 11 Aug 1928, page 1 (https://www.newspapers.com/image/271795870/ : accessed 22 Aug 2020).

“Throng Sees President,” Wausau Daily Record-Herald, 15 Aug 1928, page 1 (https://www.newspapers.com/image/271797405 : accessed 22 Aug 2020).

“President Calvin Coolidge to the American Legion,” Wausau Daily Record-Herald, 15 Aug 1928, page 4 (https://www.newspapers.com/image/271797600/ : accessed 22 Aug 2020).

The Aschbrenner Family