THE BADER 8

Two more sons were born to the Rev. Carl and Edna (Maudie) Bader, bringing the total number of the family unit to eight—the infamous Bader 8!

Carl George Bader Jr. was born Feb 3, 1924 (two years after Jeannie) in David City, NE. I've never found any snapshots of Baby Carl, let alone studio portraits. But when Carl Jr. was born, Maudie's eldest child was not quite eight years old, and her youngest not quite two. No wonder there was no time or energy (or probably money) for formal baby portraits!

Eight years later—almost to the day—Philip Arthur Bader made his appearance, born Feb. 11, 1932, in Falls City, NE. The photos of Baby Philip and Maudie, above, were taken August 11, 1932 ("6 mo. old that day," papa Carl has written on the back, "Wt: 19 lb 9 ounces.")

On the back of this photo (left), Carl writes drily, "A very good, sober one," and adds, "Our house in the background."


 By the time Philip came along, the dust must have settled a bit (his eldest brother, Bobby, was 16 already, his nearest sibling, Carl Jr., was 8), so these two studio portraits were taken.


 They are undated, of course. But the photographer's imprint is "Severson, Scottsbluff, Nebr," and Barbara reports that the family lived in Scottsbluff from 1933-1935, so I guess late '33 or '34.

Here's a rare, candid photo of some of the young Bader kids together. Judging from the apparent age of Baby Philip in the middle (probably not more than two, if that?), I date this photo ca. 1933 or '34. That's Ernie, 14 or 15, on the left, Philip, Jeannie, 12, and Carl Jr., 10. 

The bunnies suggest it was probably Easter. (Although Barbara always said that Ernie was a friend to all stray animals, so for all we know, these were his pets.)

Here's a more wintery shot of big brother Ernie and toddler Philip, probably taken in the same year.




As I said, photos of the Bader kids are rare, but once they get into their teens, there are a lot more to choose from. I'll post some of those next time.

McAFEE UPDATE

This just in: our founding McAfee ancestor was named George (not Harold) McAfee. This is the same person featured back in my very first blog, "Ancestors," and the rest of the info I posted about him is correct—including his marriage to Frances Elizabeth Cowell, and the births of their children. It's just the name I got wrong!

My bad—sorry, Team!

In the family history questionnaire that Barbara filled out a few years ago, she said her grandfather's name was "Harold." But in the letter/memoir, "My Mother," that I found among her things after she died—which was written around 1988—she refers to her grandfather as "George McAfee." I didn't know which name was correct until I was directed to info posted on genealogy.com, back on 2001, by Karen French, which I just discovered. (Thanks again, Daniel!)

Karen is a descendant of Edna McAfee's younger sister, Mary Ellen ("Minnie") McAfee and James Love. She also provides the dates of birth for all four children of George and Frances McAfee (which I have added to my "Ancestors" blog).  She says that George McAfee was born February 14, 1865, and that his parents were  John and Mary McAfee.

She doesn't say where George McAfee was born, but a U. S. Census document on FamilySearch.org, dated 1900, lists the birthplace of both George and Frances McAfee as "Canada Eng." Barbara was pretty convinced they met and married on Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, so it may be that they were both born there as well. I'm not sure now which generation of McAfee ancestors left Scotland for North America. But the plot thickens!

THE DOYLES

Thanks to Daniel Bader, here's a photo of Clara Bader Doyle, founder of  the other branch of California Baders.

Clara Barton Bader, born in Fremont, NE, 1898, was the youngest daughter of Jacob R. and Emma Bader, and Carl George's youngest sister. In 1921, she was studying at the Art Institute of Chicago. This portrait is dated 1923, when she was 25 years old.

In 1925, Clara married Thomas F. Doyle in Omaha, NE. Their first two children, Thomas (Tommy) and Sheila, were both born in Omaha, in 1925 and 1927, respectively. But by 1929, when daughter Sally was born, the family had moved west to Oakland, CA. Two more children., Millicent (born 1931) and Jerome (born 1932) were born in Oakland. Another daughter, Carlotta Ann, died in infancy.

Clara Bader Doyle was an artist, and a member of several Bay Area art and watercolor associations. Here's a link to a watercolor portrait of a friend that she painted in 1940.

This is the only image of her work I've been able to find on the web so far, but I did find this wonderful childhood photo that her granddaughter, Catherine Doyle Sullivan, posted to the Ask/Art website.

Catherine Doyle Sullivan, of Arcata, CA, is the daughter of Tommy Doyle and La Verne Heisen. Catherine is also an artist.

Sheila Doyle married Arthur J. Tormey in Oakland in 1947. Their daughter, Carlotta Ann Tormey, of Placerville, CA, is also a commercial artist. Here's her website

(Big thanks to Carlotta for sending Daniel the photo of Clara, above, which he sent to me.) 

Here are some photos of the Doyles out of Barbara's collection. That's Thomas Doyle in the center, with daughters Sally (left) and Sheila (holding the cat, right). They are flanked by Manley Christensen (extreme left), his wife, Alma Bader Christensen (Carl George's sister, right of Sheila) and Emma Elsner Bader (extreme right), who was Alma's mother, Thomas' mother-in-law, and grandmother to the Doyle children.

And here again is Alma, her nephew, Tommy Doyle, and matriarch Emma Elsner Bader. Judging from the age of the Doyle kids, I date these photos around 1940-1942-ish.


Absent from these photos is Clara Doyle. Maybe she wasn't on this trip back east to visit the relatives, or maybe she was holding the camera? But the fact is, I've never seen any pictures of Clara before now.

Thanks, Daniel!

STILL MORE BADERS

I hope everybody saw the great Comment that Philip posted, sharing info he dug up on the J. R. Bader family in Fremont, Nebraska.

Since then, Philip has made contact with Daniel Bader, formerly of Hugsweier, Germany (he and his family now live in Kaiserslautern, Germany), who  sent some wonderful photos of various Bader relations in America and Germany. Like the postcard above of the Bader Bros. furniture store in Fremont, Nebraska, owned by J. R. Bader and his brother, Fred Bader.

 In the last few hours, Daniel has added an incredible amount of information on the Old World Baders dating back to 1645 (!) in Hugsweier, Germany. This thread is taking on a life of its own, so click here to catch up with it!

 Here's another photo I love. This is a formal portrait of the children of Jacob R. and Emma Bader,

taken in 1901. That’s Carl George (our grandfather) and his brother, Ernest Frederick, in back. In front, there is Eleanor Olga (next eldest) in the middle, Alma Christina on the left, and Clara (the youngest) on the right.  (Youngest brother, Jean Richard, was not born until 1904.)

Daniel Bader promises us "still more Baders (noch mehr Baders),"  and I'll be posting more of the pics and text that he provides as we go along.


In the meantime—way to go, Philip!

And many, many thanks to Daniel! Thanks for joining the conversation.

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.