MAUDIE

1915

Happy Mother's Day to all!

This seems like a good day to publish some more of the letter/memoir "My Mother," that Barbara wrote somewhere around 1988, but left behind in her things with a note to pass it on to me. It's a loving tribute from a daughter to her mother—our clan matriarch, Edna Alice McAfee Bader (beloved to her children as "Maudie").

"My mother was gently reared in a middle-class family in New England. Born in 1893, she was the 2nd of 4 children born to George McAfee and Frances Cowell, both of Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and wed in 1887 at Worcester, Mass.

"Mother did all the things young girls of that era engaged in. There were picnics, boating and ice-skating parties, sleigh rides, and church activities. Among Mother's swains was a young man she nearly married who went on to become the Fire Chief of the Worcester Fire Dept.

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

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

"Their 1st son [Bobby] was born in Worcester and their 2nd son [Ernie] in Boston. When their 2nd son was a few weeks old, they moved to Clay Center, Nebr.—a tiny village and a totally new environment for my mother.

"She pitched in as a loving and loyal pastor's wife, learned to cook, keep house, and attend her husband and young family, and partake in church activities.

Maudie on vacation, ca 1927

"Their 3rd child and first daughter [Barbara] was born while they lived in Clay Center, but delivered in the Methodist Hospital in Omaha, Nebr. My mother was to have a second daughter [Jeannie] and 3rd son [Carl George Jr.] before returning to visit her family in New England. It had been 12 years then since she'd seen her family and her native heath.

"My mother was strong of spirit, but frail physically. Finally, after a serious stomach operation the church parishioners raised funds—and presented my mother with a lovely wristwatch, and an even more lovely round-trip ticket to New England. I was 8 at the time and spent the period of her trip with my paternal grandparents [J. R. and Emma Elsner Bader] in Fremont, Nebr, along with my sister and younger brother. My 2 older brothers went to summer camp.

Clan Bader, 1946

"The hot and dry Nebraska summers, along with the harsh, bitter cold winters must have been totally foreign and forbidding to Mother. Nonetheless, she loved her husband and children and did all she could to make a good life for them all.

"Mother took us on long walks of a Sunday afternoon so Father could nap in peace. We would return to pop corn and make fudge before evening service. On Valentine's Day, Mother made little boats and baskets by folding paper. She filled them with candy hearts, popcorn, and gum drops. On May Day, she made paper baskets, filling them with candy corn, popcorn, and flowers, and hanging them on the front door for us to discover.


"Meanwhile, she sang in the church choir, acted in church plays, taught Sunday School, entertained at endless Ladies Aid socials and church suppers. She even "preached" once or twice, when Father was ill. In those days, the Methodist Church moved their pastors every 3 or 4 years, so she became acquainted with a great part of the state of Nebraska.

"Mother took care of the needs of us all. Not once through ups and downs were we ever deprived of her unswerving love and interest and devotion."

Barbara concludes, "I will never forget my mother or cease to miss her every day. I hope she knows how much she is loved and missed."

I know just how she feels! This post is for Maudie and Barbara, and all the mothers and daughters in our clan.



(Bottom photo, in back: Carl George Jr, Bobby, Philip, baby Mike, Art Jensen, Ernie. Middle: Barbara and Jeannie. Front: Maudie and Carl George Sr. 1946.)

SIBLINGS

Here's a great shot of five Bader siblings: Ernie (with Doc, the dog), Bobby, Carl George Jr., Jeannie, and Philip. The only one missing is Barbara.

I think this was taken in 1941, so that might have been the year she was in nurse's training at Mass General in Boston. If she had already moved out to California with Jeannie at this time, she would have come back with Jeannie for this family reunion.

My guess is the occasion was Bobby getting engaged to Norma Bohlken. Another snapshot in this group is dated Nov. 1941 (everybody is wearing the same clothes), and Bob & Norma married in May, 1942.


Here's another shot from this group. That's Bob and Norma in the middle, flanked by Philip and Jeannie. (I love those stylin' open-toed pumps Jeannie is wearing! Some day soon I'll do a post just on Jeannie's outfits; she was such a fashion plate!)

All these pictures appear to be taken on the grounds of the Methodist Church in Holdredge, NE., where The Rev and Maudie and the youngest Baders lived from 1940-1944.


Here are some undated photos of Philip and his mom (Maudie) from about  that same time. This is also their home adjoining the Methodist Church. (This porch figures in many, many Bader family photos.)

I don't know why they're both grimacing in the right-hand pic (maybe they were squinting into the sun?), but everyone looks more relaxed in the other one!


Um, I'm not exactly sure what's going on in this photo, but that's Philip again, fooling around!

Some wag (probably big brother Ernie) has scribbled this caption on the back:

"Latest thing in potted plants."

Or—

"What did you put in that last one, Mike?"

BADER TEENS

By the time they were teenagers, there was enough cash in the coffers for the six Bader siblings to get their portraits taken.


Some of these are school pics, some not.


Here's Bobby at age 17, ca. 1933, Falls City NE.




This is Ernie.

Grandpa (Carl George Sr.) writes on the back: "Ernie had these taken last fall for his applications." These might be his applications to college, in which case he'd be about 18, and this pic would date to around 1937.



Or it may be his applications for his first teaching job, which would date this post-college, around 1944? But I vote for 1937; he still looks so young!


(I also have a photo of him with the high school basketball team he coached, ca. 1940, so this might have been for his application for that job.)

Here is Barbara in high school, sometime between 1936-1940. I would guess she's about 15 or 16.



Barbara never liked this picture very much, but I think she looks very sweet, with her Peter-Pan collar and little Mona Lisa smile.

This is Jeannie in high school. I love this photo!


The original frame is marked very clearly, in Barbara's handwriting, "Jeanne, 1937, Wayne, Nebr."

So Jeannie would be about 15.



 

Here is Carl George Jr., at about age 18. Barbara writes on the back, "C. Geo, about 1942," when the family was living in Holdredge, NE.



The younger members of the family, anyway: by 1942-3, Jeannie and Barbara were already living in California.

And finally, here's a nice portrait of Philip. In Steve's handwriting on the back (writing for Barbara) it says, "Philip Bader, about 16, c. 1948," which looks about right, age-wise.


Of course, by 1948, all the other siblings were long out of the house, since, Philip was so much younger than the rest. (Carl Jr., closest to him in age, was 8 years older.) I include this portrait here so we can take a look at all the Bader kids at about the same age, in their mid-to-late teens.


I have a lot more pics of Philip as a boy in the early 1940s, which I will post soon!

HIDDEN TREASURES

So there I was, rooting around in my mom's things the other day, looking for something else, and I found these two items. I knew they had to go up on the blog!

This is a formal portrait of J. R. Bader, immigrant from Hugsweier, Germany, proprietor of the Bader Furniture Company, father of Carl George (Sr.) and founder of our family line in America.

There's no photographer's mark or any other identification on the photo, but it says "J. R. Bader" on the back in Barbara's handwriting (the very careful script of her later years, when writing had become a challenge for her). And look at his face: his expression looks so much like our "Grandpa Bader," Carl Sr. (Except for the mustache, of course!)

Again, no date on this photo, but J. R. Bader died in 1929 at age 65, so I'd guess this was taken sometime in the  mid-'teens or early 1920s.

Here is a page from the Marriage Certificate of our McAfee forebears, George McAfee and Francis Elizabeth Cowell. 

As you can see, although they may have met on Prince Edward Island, they were married in Worcester, Mass, where they raised their family—Harold, Edna (future bride of Carl Sr.), Mary Ellen ("Minnie"), and George Wyman.

It's interesting that both sets of great-grandparents married in the same year. J. R. Bader married Emma Elsner  on May 25, 1887, at  Arlington, Nebraska; George McAfee and Francis Cowell married September 24, 1887, at Worcester.

Love must have been in the air in 1887! Fortunately for all of us.

YOUNG BADERS

Here's a photo of Barbara, age 9 (ca. 1930).  Isn't she cute? Pictures of Barbara in her girlhood always remind me of Kiera when she was little—especially this one!


I assume this is a (badly hand-tinted) school picture; it's glued onto colored construction paper in the form of a small card, so this was probably a school project to make cards for the parents.


Inside, Barbara has written, possibly in crayon: "Me in a (...)" I can't make out the last word, but it might be "beret," which seems to make sense.




 Photos of the eldest Bader brothers, Bobby and Ernie, in childhood are just about nonexistent (except for those few I've already posted). But here's a candid pic of Jeannie as a young teen (of course, it's not dated!), probably mid-1930s.

(Btw, this wire-haired terrier appears in family photos throughout the '30s and '40s. I've always heard about "Doc, the dog," but I have no idea if this is the same Doc in all these photos, or if the Baders had more than one dog named Doc.)


 Here's a candid portrait of three generations of Baders. I don't know where of when it was taken, but judging from the age of Philip (far right), I guess maybe 1937 or '38.

That's clan matriarch Emma Elsner Bader (wife of J. R. Bader) in the foreground. Directly behind her is her daughter, Alma (Carl George Sr's younger sister). Behind Alma is Ernie, and to the right, younger brother Carl George Jr., Edna (Maudie), and little Philip. Carl George Sr. is standing at the left.

The two little girls (identified in another photo I have) are Joan Bader (in front of Carl Sr.) and her sister, Gretchen Bader (next to Philip). They are the daughters of Carl Sr's youngest brother, Jean Bader (he was the child sitting on the moon with mama, Emma, in that vacation postcard I posted awhile ago). Jean does not appear in this photo, but I assume that's his wife, Sara Marshall, mother of the girls, standing between Carl Sr. and Alma.

Here's another snapshot of little Philip and his Bader cousins. Gretchen (left) is one year younger than Philip (born 1933); Joan (right) is two years older (born 1930).

Below is one last image. I'm pretty sure that's Philip (with his very distinctive asymmetrical hairline!), but I'm not at all sure those are Gretchen and Joan in the photo with him. (But then again, who else would it be, so close to his age?) Nor do I have a clue where this was taken. Surely not a parish house; it looks like the steps to a library or some other public building.

But I post this because Philip looks so debonair and soulful for his age!

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!