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.
DC and a Trip Home
The 43rd page of Sally’s photo album featured pictures taken in 1931 and 1932 while she lived in Washington, DC. A few photos were probably from her trip home to Wisconsin in June 1932.
Back in Wisconsin
According to the Wausau Daily Record-Herald, Sally was on vacation in June, 1932, and came home to Wisconsin to visit. Her arrival was in the paper on June 1st and her departure on June 18th. So, she has escaped Washington for a couple weeks. Several photos on this page of the album could possibly have been taken during this trip home. She is in one of them. The others, of yet to be identified people, could have been taken then, or mailed to her from home.
If you look closely, you can see that Sally is holding some kind of ball on a string? Why? We don’t know.
Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner.
Location: Wausau, Marathon, Wisconsin.
Date: circa June 1932.
A man, a dog, and a car
Who is this guy? Friend? Relative? Not sure. He was perhaps someone that Sally saw when she was home from Washington on summer vacation.
Pictured: Unidentified.
Location: Marathon County, Wisconsin.
Date: circa June 1932.
Man and woman
This photo surely wasn’t taken in June. There is snow on the ground. But it looks like Wisconsin.
Pictured: Unidentified.
Location: Wausau, Marathon, Wisconsin.
Date: circa 1931-32.
Repeats from Washington
Several photos on this page of the album are repeats of photos included on other pages. Maybe Sally mailed some pictures home and kept some with her in Washington, only to add them to her album when she eventually got home? That’s just a guess.
Sally and her friend Anne.
Pictured: Anne _____ and Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner.
Location: near Washington, DC.
Date: circa 1931-32.
Sally and her friend Anne.
Pictured: Anne _____ and Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner.
Location: near Washington, DC.
Date: circa 1931-32.
Sally and a friend.
Pictured: Unidentified and Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner.
Location: near Washington, DC.
Date: circa 1931-32.
Pals
More photos of Sally and the patent office ladies.
Pictured: Unidentified.
Location: near Washington, DC.
Date: circa 1932.
Pictured: Unidentified.
Location: near Washington, DC.
Date: circa 1932.
Photo Title…
Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner and Unidentified.
Location: near Washington, DC.
Date: circa 1932.
Apple blossoms and fall foliage
As it is now, seeing the apple blossoms in Washington is a popular activity and photo opportunity. Sally and her friends enjoyed the experience and even took photos by things that don’t seem to be blooming anymore.
Pictured: Pearl Nelson.
Location: Washington, DC.
Date: circa 1931-32.
Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner and Pearl Nelson.
Location: Washington, DC.
Date: circa 1931-32.
Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner.
Location: Washington, DC.
Date: circa 1931-32.
Pictured: Unidentified.
Location: Washington, DC.
Date: circa 1932.
Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner, right.
Location: Washington, DC.
Date: circa 1932.
Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner, far left.
Location: Washington, DC.
Date: circa 1932.
Pictured: Selma Cornelia Aschbrenner.
Location: Washington, DC.
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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