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.
Scenes and People
The 40th page of Sally’s photo album featured a collection of photos taken while she was living in Washington, D.C.
That man again…
The identity of this man is still now known. He was featured on the last page of the album too. The best guess still is that he probably was from the U.S. Patent Office where Sally worked.
Pictured: Unidentified.
Location: Washington D.C.
Date: 1932.
Sally and Pearl
Sally and her friend Pearl posed behind a cannon.
Pictured: Pearl Nelson and Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner.
Location: In Washington D.C. or on trip to Niagara Falls.
Date: 1932.
Pearl and man
Sally’s friend Pearl poses with an unidentified man.
Pictured: Pearl _____ and unidentified.
Location: Washington D.C. or on trip to Niagara Falls.
Date: 1932.
Scenery
The next images are of unidentified scenery either around Washington D.C. or on Sally’s trip to Niagara Falls.
Location: Washington D.C. and/or Niagara Falls.
Date: 1932.
Gals
Sally, far left in the second row from the front, poses with a group of other ladies. These were likely co-workers from the U.S. Patent Office.
Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner, far left, second row from front, and unidentified women.
Location: Washington D.C.
Date: 1932.
Children
This photo features two children playing with a wagon. A guess is that this was taken back home in Wisconsin and sent to Sally in Washington D.C.
Pictured: Unidentified.
Location: Probably Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1932.
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
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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