A Box Full of Goodies, Part 1
Several weeks ago my first cousin Kathleen (Robb) Shuler and her husband Gerald “Butch” Shuler were in the area so they stopped over to see Linda and me. It was a beautiful day so...
Tagged: Hannah “Sechler” Hagenbuch
Mariah Madden: Nurse and Midwife
The discovery of a quilt that was given as a gift led to the recent article about Mariah Madden, a nurse and midwife who lived in Montour County, Pennsylvania between 1862 and 1949. Knowing...
A Short Story About A Long Quilt
A few months ago I received some photos and a message from my first cousin, Nancy (Hagenbuch) Worden. The two photos are of a quilt constructed of flag patches from many different countries, the...
The Final Request: Samuel Sechler and Mary Davis, Part 5
The March 13, 1880 proposal of marriage from Samuel Sechler to Mary Davis was accepted on April 8 in a letter from Mary to Sam. We do not know what occurred between that date...
Ellen Hagenbuch: Photographer
My Aunt Ellen died last February, 2018. The article Last of Their Generation described her life as a lover of family, flowers, and photography. After her death, her niece and nephew (my first cousins),...
Hannah (McWilliams) Davis: Young to Old
In talking to other genealogists, I am reminded how fortunate I am to to have so many family photos—some dating back to the latter half of the 19th century, a few even earlier. Part...
The Last of Their Generation
Harold Sechler and Ellen Hagenbuch were first cousins. Harold’s father, John Sechler, was a brother to Ellen’s mother, Hannah (Sechler) Hagenbuch, born 1889. Only a year apart in age Harold and Ellen died within...
Preserving Family Treasures
On a snowy Saturday at the end of 2017, my father, Mark Hagenbuch, and I traveled to visit his cousin, Joe Robb. As first cousins, my father and Joe share grandparents–Clarence Hagenbuch (b. 1889,...
Home Remedies
Recently my father, Mark Hagenbuch, handed me a recipe book once owned by Bessie Mae (Robbins) Sechler (b. 1888, d. 1973). It was previously in the possession of Harold Sechler (b. 1923), who is...
New Year’s “Back in the Day”
New Year’s Day is celebrated in many ways. In our family on the Montour County farm, it was a day of traditional foods: pork and sauerkraut accompanied by fresh baked bread smothered in butter...
