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.

Marian in California and Miscellaneous Shots

The 36th page of Sally’s photo album included many more photographs from Marian in California. Those were followed by many miscellaneous pictures without any particular date or theme.

Marian in California

These photos are more meaningful now that the identity of Marion is known. For months, she was a mystery, but finally the puzzle pieces came to together and it was discovered that she was Marian Eleanor Twomey Lehr. With Wisconsin roots, she married and settled in California. She wrote home to Sally, a first cousin once removed, and sent many photos. In this set of photographs, she shows glimpses from Capistrano Beach.

With Mr. and Mrs. Masleigh

July at San Juan Capistrano. Capistrano Beach. Mr. & Mrs. Charles V. Masleigh and myself. Ray was afraid he’d break the camera, so only had his taken once & that was sitting on a tractor.

Who were Mr. and Mrs. Masleigh? Well, friends of Marian, though it seems she misspelled their last name when she wrote on the back of the photo. Or, in hindsight, maybe she just wrote her the letter a similar to the letter o and vice versa. There was confusion over whether she was Marion or Marian too.

Anyway, doing some research, there was a Charles Victor and Betty M. Mosleigh living in California about this time. In 1923, they lived at 211 S Gaffcy, San Pedro, California. Charles was a salesman. In 1920, they lived in Los Angeles.

They look a little older than Marian. Based on census and draft records, that is true. Marian was born in 1902. Charles was born 22 May 1893 in Illinois and Betty Marie Kinney was born around 1897 in Missouri. The couple married in Brookfield, Linn County, Missouri, on 13 August 1919, but then moved to California.

By the time of the 1930 Federal Census, Betty and Charles were divorced. By the time he registered for the draft in 1942, Charles had a new wife named Rose.

Sally probably didn’t know Charles and Betty, yet here, nearly a century later, their images are intact in a photo album that now resides in Minnesota. Makes you wonder what pictures of your ancestors might be out there somewhere in the world.

Pictured: From left, Marian Eleanor Twomey Lehr, Charles Victor Mosleigh, and Betty Marie Kinney Mosleigh.

Location: Capistrano Beach, San Juan Capistrano, Orange County, California.

Date: July 1926.

The limbo, perhaps?

Marian and her friend Betty pose on the beach. Maybe they were doing the limbo? Betty is sitting on a rope and Marian is holding one end of it.

Pictured: From left, Marian Eleanor Twomey Lehr and Betty Marie Kinney Mosleigh.

Location: Capistrano Beach, San Juan Capistrano, Orange County, California.

Date: July 1926.

Marian and Ray

Marian and her husband, Ray, pose on the beach.

Pictured: Marian Eleanor Twomey Lehr and Raymond Adams Lehr.

Location: Capistrano Beach, San Juan Capistrano, Orange County, California.

Date: July 1926.

Sailor suits

Betty and Marian replaced swimsuits for sailor suits for the trip home from the beach.

Pictured: From left, Betty Marie Kinney Mosleigh and Marian Eleanor Twomey Lehr.

Location: On the way home from Capistrano Beach, San Juan Capistrano, Orange County, California.

Date: July 1926.

Mrs. C.V. Mosleigh and myself and our dodge car. Coming home from the beach.

Marian seems to have enjoyed her day at the beach. She and Betty rest on the Lehr’s dodge car.

Pictured: Marian Eleanor Twomey Lehr and Betty Marie Kinney Mosleigh.

Location: On the way home from Capistrano Beach, San Juan Capistrano, Orange County, California.

Date: July 1926.

Marian at home

Charlie Keys home on Kirch haff St. Only one door from our home that we bought. We bought a bungalow.

Explain the photo…

Pictured:

Location:

Date:

Back in Wisconsin

The remainder of the photographs on this page of the album seem to be from back home in Wisconsin. Well, with one exception.

Logging truck

Unidentified men are seen on a logging truck.

Pictured: Unidentified.

Location: Wisconsin.

Date: circa 1925.

Sally

We’ve seen this photo before. Or one very like it anyway. Back on page 25, there was one that was very similar. It was titled, “office.”

Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner.

Location: Wausau, Marathon, Wisconsin.

Date: circa 1926.

Winter in Wausau

Location: Wausau, Marathon County, Wisconsin.

Date: circa 1926.

Photo Title…

Sally’s friend, Lillian Tiller, is pictured in the boat at Hunger’s Resort in 1925.

Pictured: Lillian Tiller.

Location: Hunger’s Resort, somewhere in Wisconsin.

Date: 1925.

Anklam wedding

Back on page 25, we saw photos from the wedding of Florence Mary Dern and Ervin Anklam. The picture is a large group shot from the wedding. Unfortunately, it is pretty fuzzy. We see the bride and groom in the center and see Sally on the right side of the photo (third from right). The gal just to the right of groom may be the maid of honor, his sister, Erna Emma Anklam.

Pictured: Wedding of Florence Mary Dern and Ervin Edward Emil Anklam.

Location: Rib Falls, Marathon, Wisconsin.

Date: 22 May 1926.

Sally, a little child, and a little house

Sally is pictured with a young child on top of a little house. Is this a play house of some sort or something move functional like a dog house or chicken coop?

Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner and unidentified child.

Location: Marathon County, Wisconsin.

Date: circa 1926.

A blurry canoe ride

Some unidentified people were canoeing.

Pictured: Unidentified.

Location: Wisconsin.

Date: circa 1926.

Tower

This is a photo of some type of tower. Where? When? Who took the photo? We don’t know. The picture may have even come from Marian in California.

Location: Unknown.

Date: Unknown.

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

Marian Eleanor Twomey

Marian Eleanor Twomey was a first cousin once removed of Sally. Their mothers were maternal first cousins. She married Raymond Adams Lehr on 15 October 1925 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California. They had three sons and settled at Long Beach, Los Angeles, California.

Ervin Edward Emil Anklam

Ervin Edward Emil Anklam was one of Sally’s maternal first cousins.

The Aschbrenner Family