SISTERS

This has always been one of my all-time favorite pics from the Bader archive. That is, of course, Barbara, with the fashionably bobbed hair, and her baby sister, Jeannie. Could they be any more adorable?

Barbara was born in 1921. Jeanne Frances Bader was born exactly one year and about two weeks later, on March 30, 1922.  This portrait is undated, but Barbara looks no more than about three, and Jeannie barely two, so I date it around 1924.

Married in 1915, Grandma ("Maudie") had five of her six children in eight years, from 1916 to 1924. I can't imagine how she did it! Especially moving around as much as they did as the family of a minister.  (Barbara remembered the family living in 10 different Nebraska towns between 1920 an 1944, as her father, Carl, was reassigned to new parishes.)

Formal portraits of the Bader children are rare. In fact, this is the only one I've ever seen, except for two studio portraits of Philip at about age two, which I'll post soon.  But Philip came along much later (eight years after his next-oldest sibling, Carl Jr.), and maybe the dust had settled a bit by then!

Here's another pic of Barbara that I love. She looks about the same age she was in the portrait (she still has the same haircut), but this is obviously just a candid snapshot in front of one of those ramshackle parish houses the children grew up in.

I found this photo inside an ancient newsprint notepad, tucked in between the last page and the cardboard backing. The notepad is empty except for the first page, where Maudie has pencilled in some notes about her will, and which daughter should get which of her few pieces of jewelry. I suspect these notes were written to herself long, long decades before a will was ever necessary.

Anyway, tucked in the back was this photo of Barbara. It had ripped in half, but was very lovingly taped back together. My guess is that Maudie kept this photo hidden in her things forever, and that it passed down to my mom in Grandpa's things after he passed away. If my mom ever even knew that this childhood photo of herself existed, she never showed it to me.

I love that gleam of adventure in her eye, and the way she's just about to start laughing! I think she looks a lot like Kiera, when she was that age.

Finally, here's another pic of  Jeannie and Barbara as very young girls. No date, of course, or any other identification, but I've found a couple of other snapshots of a large cabin in the woods, labeled, "The Bader cabin on the Platte River near Fremont, Neb." So I assume that's where this was taken, in a rowboat on the Platte!

I suppose some other Bader relation kept this cabin. Carl's four youngest siblings were all born in Fremont. His parents, Emma and J.R. Bader, and at least two of their adult children lived in Fremont for the rest of their lives.

Barbara doesn't look any older than 10, probably younger, so I date this around 1930. Pretty cute, huh?

BABY BADERS

Say "hello" to the next generation of Baders!


Pictures of Carl and Edna Bader's children as babies, or even young children, are very rare. So I was delighted to stumble across this grouping when going through my mom's things. These vintage snapshots are all plastered together onto a single sheet of thick black paper, which was probably a page in a photo album, once. They are undated, of course, and whatever may have been written on the back is mostly lost to the misty depths of time.


I recognized Edna right away in this picture. (Who was, by the way, fondly referred to as "Maudie" by all of her children for the rest of her life.) That "Hello!" is also in Maudie's handwriting. But which of her six children are these?

But I knew immediately as soon as I saw this photo:

This is first-born Robert Elsner Bader, born June 7, 1916, on the right, and second son, Ernest Birney Bader, born August 5, 1919, on the left.

40+ years later, in the early '60s, both Uncle Bobby and Uncle Ernie used to come stay with us in Hermosa Beach for the summer (they were both university professors in the Midwest). And they look exactly like themselves in this photo! I would know them anywhere!

This is the only photo in this group that was loose, and Maudie has written on the back, "My boys!" The only boys she had at this time.

Which mean the baby in these photos must be Barbara!

The time period is perfect. Barbara Anne Bader was born March 13, 1921. If these snapshots were taken in the summer of 1921, when Barbara was an infant, Bobby would be five years old, and Ernie two, which looks about right.

Bobby was born in Worcester, Mass., and Ernie was born in Malden, Mass. Barbara was the first of the Bader children to be born in Nebraska, where the family would live until the Great Migration westward to California began in the '40s and '50s.

In her letter/memoir "My Mother," Barbara writes that she "was born while (the family) lived in Clay Center (NE), but delivered in the Methodist Hospital in Omaha, Nebr." Some intrepid peeling on my part reveals at watermark on the back of one of these photos: "W.S. Reed, Kamera Kraft Shop, Clay Center, NEBR."

Maudie writes on the front of  this photo (above, right) "Doesn't she look like Bobby?" I was impressed with how much Toddler Ernie looks like baby pictures of Jeannie and Philip, that you'll see in the next couple of posts.

 Anyway, here's Maudie and her children, ca: 1921 — Bobby, Baby Barbara, and Ernie. I can't quite peel  enough of the black paper away from this photo to read the entire inscription on the back, but it looks like Maudie has written "She's (meaning, Barbara, I presume) sure the beauty of this group."

WEDDING BELLS

Edna Alice McAfee and Carl George Bader were married July 14, 1915, in Worcester, Mass.


 Carl George was assistant pastor at the Methodist Church in Worcester, so I assume that's where this event was held. It certainly looks like the entire parish turned out for the nuptials. In these snapshots, you can see how many people are crowding along the porch railing to watch.


Here's what Barbara has to say about their courtship and marriage in her 12-page letter/memoir, "My Mother":

"(Edna) was born and raised in Worcester, Mass. and was slated to enter Smith College following her high school graduation. Fate stepped in to prevent (it). One of her father's brothers in Scotland died, leaving a widow and young children. The money set aside for Mother's college education went instead to her widowed Aunt and family.



"My father was an impecunious, but extremely well-educated young minister just up from Boston University Divinity School on one of his first charges, as assistant pastor to a Methodist Church in Worcester.


Mother and Father courted and wed in Worcester, Mass. He was 27 and she 22 at their wedding in July of 1915.


"Mother was gently nurtured by both her parents. Her mother was one of those energetic women who couldn't bear anyone frittering about in her kitchen, so Mother learned nothing of cooking during her girlhood. She wrote, played the piano, did lovely embroidery, and participated in youth works and church activities. As a result, when she married my father, she could scarcely boil eggs."


Although, Barbara later reports that her mother "pitched in as a loving and loyal pastor's wife, learned to cook, keep house, and attend to her husband and young family." A family that was growing rapidly!

In less than ten years, Edna would give birth to five of her six children—but that's the next blog!

I love this image of the wedding party. I wish I knew who these people were! Years ago, Barbara drew this arrow pointing to Jimmy Love, who I think was a cousin of either Edna or Carl.  I'm not sure where the Loves figure in our family tree, although other portraits of Jimmy Love as a child are also in Grandpa (Carl) Bader's things.

ANCESTORS II

Meet Jacob R. Bader and Emma Emily Elsner Bader (with, I believe, their youngest son, Jean). They are the parents of Carl George Bader.

I just love this photo! It's a postcard addressed to Miss Alma Bader, and signed "Mama," and since I have some other snapshots of Barbara's Grandmother Bader (Emma  Bader) as a much older woman, I am sure this is her in this photo.

According to Barbara's notes, Emma Emily Elsner was the eldest of seven children born to Mary Elizabeth Unland and Ernest Elsner. They were married September 18, 1866, in Beardstown IL. Emma was born August 4, 1867, in Beardstown IL.

Jacob R. Bader was born July 24, 1864, in Hugsweier, Germany. He had three brothers and one sister (none of them named in my mom's notes). I seem to recall that family mythology said that J. R. Bader and/or his brothers made and lost several fortunes, but, sadly, lost more than they made.

Jacob and Emma married on May 25, 1887, in Arlington, Nebraska. Their six children were:

Carl George Bader (patriarch of our clan), born May 23, 1888, Nebraska City, NE.
Ernest Fredrick Bader, born Sept. 20, 1889, Nebraska City, NE.
Eleanor Olga Bader, born Nov 3, 1891, Fremont, NE.
Alma Christina Bader, born July 29, 1894, Fremont, NE.
Clara Barton Bader, born June 2, 1898, Fremont, NE.
Jean Richard Bader, born Dec 31, 1904, Fremont, NE.

On the back of the postcard, Emma writes, "Dear Alma,  If I were not so sleepy, I would write you what we have to eat here. This air seems to make Jean and I sleepy. Mama."

On the front, as you can see, she writes, "How do you like these, Papa thinks they are good." So I assume that's Papa—J. R. Bader—and youngest son, Jean, in the photo with her. Jean was born in 1904, and looks no more than about 10 years old (probably younger), so I date this photo around 1914, when Emma's dress and hat would be right in style.

"L.N. Pritchard, photographer, 437 Umatilla St, Grand Rapids, MICH" is printed on the back of the postcard, but I don't know if that means that's where this photo was taken. The setting looks like a photo booth at a fair or exposition, but I have no idea where or for what occasion.

Here's the youngest photo I've ever seen of Carl George Bader. On the back, it's dated 1908, in Steve's handwriting, so I suppose he was going through these photos once with Barbara, who suggested the date. That would put Carl around age 20, which seems about right. I think he looks a lot like Jim Bader (Carl Jr's son) in this photo.

And one more little piece of ephemera, found among Grandpa Bader (Carl)'s things. This is an old-fashioned calling card, saying that someone would be "At Home" to visitors at a certain time. Unfortunately, there is no name or date (year) to identify it; it might not have anything to do with our family at all. However, I found out that Frieburg im Breisgau is about 20-30 miles south of Hugsweier in Germany, near the French border, in the Black Forest. So if anyone ever wanted to do a really detailed Bader family origins search, this might be a good place to start.

ANCESTORS

This is George McAfee, co-founder of our branch of the family, in youth and old age. The tintypes (actually printed on tin plates) of him as a child, and young man are not dated, but I found them wrapped up in a baggie with a note in my mom's handwriting definitely identifying him as her grandfather.

 

The older pictures of her "Grandpa McAfee" are dated 1910 (wearing a high collar and a dapper straw boater hat, above), and 1940. In the latter picture, he's carrying a box labeled as some kind of "Chocolate" from Dorchester, MASS.

 

 Barbara didn't know a lot about her McAfee ancestors, but she told me she thought George McAfee was born in Scotland (possibly Stirling) and moved to Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, as a young man.

On PE Island, George  married Frances Elizabeth Cowell in 1887. Barbara thought Frances' mother was a Graham and her father a Cowell, and that Frances might have been born on PE Island. Evidently, the young couple later moved to Massachusetts.

George and Frances McAfee had four children:

Harold McAfee, born 1889.

Edna Alice McAfee (Barbara's mother, our grandmother), born April 17, 1893, at Worcester, MASS.

Mary Ellen ("Minnie") McAfee, born 1895.

Wyman (George W) McAfee, born 1899.

In Barbara's things, I found a letter she wrote for me (but never sent) about her mother's life. Edna, Barbara reports, "had rather a double dose of church. Her father being Scotch Presbyterian & her mother Episcopalian, she attended services at one church in the morning & the other in the afternoon."

Barbara also writes, "My mother was brainy, beautiful, and talented. She sang, played the piano well, and wrote poetry," and "had a mischievous sense of humor. (She) was a lady—slightly dignified but fun-loving. Her sister "Minnie" (Mary Ellen) was 2 years younger, impish, and full of the dickens. The two sisters were pretty and popular."

Here's an early photo of Edna Alice McAfee (2nd from R, standing, in the lighter dress), and some other bathing beauties, ca. 1910.

I'll be referring to Barbara's letter for information about the courtship and marriage of Edna and Carl George Bader in an upcoming post. Next up: enter the Baders! Stay tuned...