Part 6: The Young Ladies in the Back

 

PART 6: The Young Ladies in the Back

Young Adult Mennonite Group Attends Farmington Chautauqua, August 1910

By Elizabeth Hervey Osborn

Part 1 --  Part 2 -- Part 3 -- Part 4 -- Part 5 -- Part 6 -- Part 7 -- Part 8

The next three parts highlight each of the nineteen young people in turn, with a close-up [1] from the photograph and some basic information about their lives, and perhaps another photo or newspaper clipping for some event. If you knew these young people, or if you have additional information about their lives, please feel free to share in the comment section.

In parentheses after each name are found identification numbers from publicly available genealogical resources. The first number given is the identifier from Altleiningen Krebills [2], as the vast majority of this group is listed in or married to someone listed in that book. Next, where appropriate, is the GRanDMA [3] ID number for the person. FamilySearch ID then follows, and finally the Find-a-Grave memorial number is given, if known. 

Following our unknown scribe's lead, we start at the back row, with my great-grandmother. 

Abbie Marie Schowalter
1890-1957

(wife of 4BG, GRaNDMA 1104386, FamilySearch K2VP-X7B, Find-a-Grave 90323429)

Born in Kansas where her parents Edward Henry and Elise Koehn Schowalter worked at a church Mission Industrial Training School, twenty-year-old Abbie had been an honor-roll student and was well-trained in the domestic arts. She often worked away from home, and the winter before the Chautauqua she had been keeping house for the family of a country doctor in Wisner, Nebraska. [4] She had not returned to Donnellson until May. [5]

Over the next several years Abbie would be a regular prizewinner in Donnellson-area home-making competitions. 

Abbie Marie Schowalter and Otto Christian Krebill
 on their wedding day, 11 February 1914,
Donnellson, Iowa.

She married Otto Krebill in 1914, and raised four children while serving in the Sunday School and helping Otto with farm work and County Fair planning. At age 57 Abbie became homebound with Multiple Sclerosis; she died a couple months before her 67th birthday. Otto and Abbie's lifetime friends Edgar and Ernest, pictured on the front row of the photograph, were among her pallbearers.

Four Generation Portrait, Christmas 1937, Donnellson, Iowa: (L-R) Elise Koehn Schowalter,
Helen Krebill Hervey, Roberta Hervey Leuck  (the "Aunt Roberta" who provided
the Chautauqua photograph), Abbie Marie Schowalter Krebill.

 

Alma Marie Krehbiel
1894-1951

(wife of 4HD, FamilySearch K88G-HJF, Find-a-Grave 115035907)

The label on the back offers Alma's married surname instead of her maiden surname -- the two names were pronounced nearly the same -- suggesting that the names may have been penciled some years later. But there was only one Alma Kre* on the 1910 U.S. Census for Lee County: Alma Marie Krehbiel, who is of the right age to be among this group, and was part of the Mission Society photo in 1911, raising confidence that the second face from the left in the back row of the photograph is the daughter of Wilhelm John and Lydia Katharina Weber Krehbiel, and first cousin to Dora, Walter, Erna, Edgar, Hilda, R.J. and Edna.

Like Abbie, Alma had been born near Moundridge, Kansas, but her family moved back to Iowa when she was eleven, where she grew up in the constant companionship of cousins. According to  "Mennonite Weekly Review" [5] she was baptized on September 11, 1898 by Abbie's grandfather, and remained an active in the faith her whole life.

Alma married Walter Krebill in January 1914, and together they raised two sons and three daughters. When her mother was widowed, she brought Lydia into her home and cared for her until her death. 

At the age of 66, Alma passed away after a one-week bout of pneumonia, in a Keokuk, Iowa hospital.

Erna Laura Weber
1887-1982

(4JA, Family Search L7JG-GR5, Find-a-Grave 115554432) 

Another native Kansan, Erna was born in 1887 to Elias P. and Charlotte Krebill Weber.  Siblings Edgar and Hilda were with her in the photograph, as were Otto, Emma K., Lizzie, Emma S., Ada, Ernest, and Clara, first cousins on her mother's side; Alma, first cousin on her father's side; and double-first-cousins Dora, Walter, R.J., and Edna -- with whom she shared both sets of grandparents.  

Like Abbie, twenty-two year old Erna turned her housekeeping skills into away-from-home service for much of her early adult life. Eventually she became the head chef at Schock’s Uptown Café in on the West side of Main Street, across from the Farm Bureau office in Donnellson.  

In 1927, at nearly age 40, she married widower Rudolph Lowenberg, making her a stepmother to a young adult daughter. Rudolph was Abbie and Anna S.'s 3rd cousin. Erna and Rudolph had no children together, but she celebrated achievements and events in her nieces, nephews, and step-grandchildren’s lives. 

Rudolph passed away in 1952, but Erna remained active in the community and as a member of the of the church Missionary Society, sharing timely messages such as “Peace Corps — Child of the Historic Peace Church”[7] and leading in service such as quilting and bandage-making.  

The Uptown Café closed its doors in 1978, and not long after Erna moved to the Donnellson Manor Care Center. She died in 1982 at the age of 94.

Ada Helene Krehbiel
1890 - 1980

(4LA, FamilySearch K84G-Q72, Find-a-Grave 116244350)

The oldest child of Jacob August and Emma Selma Krebill Krehbiel, nineteen year old Ada Helene Krehbiel was born near Donnellson in 1890. 

For many years, she hired out to assist in domestic work before marrying Thomas Lowenberg in 1918. Thomas was the half-brother of Jacob C. Lowenburg, had married Ada's cousin Hilda the year before. Ada and Thomas raised children Stanley and Vera on the family farm. 

A lifelong participant in the Mission Society, a memorial fund for the Society was established when she died  at home in 1980 at age 89.[8]

Elizabeth Marie “Lizzie” Krebill
1889 - 1969 

(4BJ, FamilySearch LC5Z-LLS, Find-a-Grave 55545683)

Twenty-one year old Lizzie, Otto and Emma’s sister, was born near Donnellson Iowa in 1889 to Fredrick H. and Elisabeth Rings Krebill. Lizzie would be the first of the group to wed, marrying Benjamin Neff at her parents’ home in February 1912 with her friend and future sister-in-law, Abbie, in attendance. 

A young Lizzie pictured with her grandmother
Elizabeth Ellenberger Rings (1819-1909),
about 1892, Donnellson, Iowa.

For a time Ben and Lizzie farmed with Ben’s father, then Ben pursued retail business. 

Later, Lizzie worked in Food Service at Wheaton College, but for most of her life she lived in or near Donnellson or Mount Pleasant, Iowa, where they raised their three daughters.  Lizzie arranged for her second daughter Lela to share a room in Grandma Elizabeth Rings Krebill’s house with Abbie’s daughter Helen so that they could more easily attend Donnellson high school and join in afterschool activities including girl's varsity basketball. [9] 

After Ben died, Lizzie went to live with her eldest daughter in Missouri and passed away there at the age of 80. Her body was returned to the Zion Mennonite Cemetery at Donnellson for interment.

Emma Lydia Krebill
1887-1962

(4BH, Family Search KCV4-FGC, Find-a-Grave 116064707)

Emma was the sister between Otto and Lizzie, and like them, she lived near Donnellson all her life.

7 December 1955, Fort Madison Evening
Democrat, p. 6.

She was 23 at the time of the excursion to Chautauqua; standing on the end of the row, the camera appears to have caught her in a bit of a wiggle, blurring her beautiful features.[10] 

Emma never married, but instead devoted herself to helping others, not only through Mission Society and Sunday School work, but also as a caregiver: originally for her aging mother, then for the smallest children of the community. Throughout her life, she loved music and singing.

She died at home, unexpectedly, at age 75. Her passing was noted in the 12 March 1963 edition of The Mennonite.

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Next, the Young Men on the Front Row...

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[1] Aunt Roberta's photograph was scanned at 2400 dpi, and then each face was cropped for an individual portrait using Adobe Photoshop, with color slightly adjusted for some where the result made the features more apparent.

[2] Olga Krebill Hirschler, The Altleiningen Krebills, 1966. The ID numbers from this book appear in the format “4BG” where the number represents a child of Friedrich and Anna Risser Krebill, and the letters indicate birth order in each succeeding generation. My great-grandfather is person 4BG, indicating he is the (G) seventh child (Otto) of the (B) second child (Frederick) of the (4) fourth child (Jacob) of Friedrich and Anna. Olga Krebill Hirschler, the author of the book, is herself 4KC. Olga was age 16 in 1910 , making her the right age to have attended Chautauqua with this group; however she is not pictured in the photograph though her older brother R.J. and younger sister Edna do appear.  My identifier in this book is 4BGBDA.

[3] GenealogicalRegistry and Database of Mennonite Ancestry (Dutch/Prussian/Russian Mennonite Genealogy).

[4] Household of William L. Crosby, Physician. 1910 US Census, Wisner, Cuming County, Nebraska. In a "small-world" coincidence, the doctor's service area would have included the German-speaking neighborhood where this author's grandfather-in-law was born, that very winter.

[5] Local News, Fort Madison (Iowa) Evening Democrat, 10 May 1910, p.4.

[6] Mennonite Weekly Review, 15 March 1951, p. 9.

[7] Fort Madison Evening Democrat, 6 July 1964, p. 3.

[8] Burlington HawkEye, 28 Apr 1980, p 10.

[9] I grew up with fond memories of Lizzie's daughter, Lela Neff Nelson, who with immense kindness (and stacks of Highlights magazines]  often cared for me after school during the first year following the death of my father,  Helen's son.

[10] I am moved by how much she resembles my own daughter, Laura.