Lena grew up on the family farm near Evansville, Illinois, helping at an early age with the farm work. At the age of eight, it was her job to return alone from a summer morning's work in the fields to prepare the noon meal.
The schoolhouse she attended was eight miles away and she and her siblings walked, even through the snow. She was a healthy adult but she could remember once staying home from school because she had jaundice.
As a young woman, Lena moved to St. Louis, and was employed by a wealthy family to clean house. A chore remembered with little pleasure was the required regular cleaning and polishing of the silverware. Later, Lena's sister Dora moved to town and the two girls went to work in a shirt factory. In the early 1900's, women wore fancy shirts, full of tucks and lace. Lena's son, Louis, said that his mother and aunt made shirts for themselves in an afternoon.
It is not know how Lena and Otto met. They did have three children, moving them all to Los Angeles, CA, when the youngest was four.
Lena enjoyed sewing, crocheting (seeing a crocheted article was all she needed to copy it), baking and a clean house. House cleaning was done on Saturday, finished by noon, and included polishing the hardwood floors, scrubbing on hands and knees the kitchen linoleum and sweeping the front porch and sidewalk. Monday the family wash was done by hand with the boiler on the stove for white clothes and a scrub board in the tub on the back porch. Clothes were hung to dry on lines in the backyard. While her sons were home, she baked a cake a day for her family.
Lena loved her flowers; roses, Martha Washington geraniums and camellias were her favorites.
Lena was blue-eyed, with light brown hair worn long (she could sit on it) and was 4 feet, 11 inches tall. When women's short hair became fashionable in the 20's, her sons persuaded her to have hers cut.
The schoolhouse she attended was eight miles away and she and her siblings walked, even through the snow. She was a healthy adult but she could remember once staying home from school because she had jaundice.
As a young woman, Lena moved to St. Louis, and was employed by a wealthy family to clean house. A chore remembered with little pleasure was the required regular cleaning and polishing of the silverware. Later, Lena's sister Dora moved to town and the two girls went to work in a shirt factory. In the early 1900's, women wore fancy shirts, full of tucks and lace. Lena's son, Louis, said that his mother and aunt made shirts for themselves in an afternoon.
It is not know how Lena and Otto met. They did have three children, moving them all to Los Angeles, CA, when the youngest was four.
Lena enjoyed sewing, crocheting (seeing a crocheted article was all she needed to copy it), baking and a clean house. House cleaning was done on Saturday, finished by noon, and included polishing the hardwood floors, scrubbing on hands and knees the kitchen linoleum and sweeping the front porch and sidewalk. Monday the family wash was done by hand with the boiler on the stove for white clothes and a scrub board in the tub on the back porch. Clothes were hung to dry on lines in the backyard. While her sons were home, she baked a cake a day for her family.
Lena loved her flowers; roses, Martha Washington geraniums and camellias were her favorites.
Lena was blue-eyed, with light brown hair worn long (she could sit on it) and was 4 feet, 11 inches tall. When women's short hair became fashionable in the 20's, her sons persuaded her to have hers cut.
Lena grew up on the family farm near Evansville, Illinois, helping at an early age with the farm work. At the age of eight, it was her job to return alone from a summer morning's work in the fields to prepare the noon meal.
The schoolhouse she attended was eight miles away and she and her siblings walked, even through the snow. She was a healthy adult but she could remember once staying home from school because she had jaundice.
As a young woman, Lena moved to St. Louis, and was employed by a wealthy family to clean house. A chore remembered with little pleasure was the required regular cleaning and polishing of the silverware. Later, Lena's sister Dora moved to town and the two girls went to work in a shirt factory. In the early 1900's, women wore fancy shirts, full of tucks and lace. Lena's son, Louis, said that his mother and aunt made shirts for themselves in an afternoon.
It is not know how Lena and Otto met. They did have three children, moving them all to Los Angeles, CA, when the youngest was four.
Lena enjoyed sewing, crocheting (seeing a crocheted article was all she needed to copy it), baking and a clean house. House cleaning was done on Saturday, finished by noon, and included polishing the hardwood floors, scrubbing on hands and knees the kitchen linoleum and sweeping the front porch and sidewalk. Monday the family wash was done by hand with the boiler on the stove for white clothes and a scrub board in the tub on the back porch. Clothes were hung to dry on lines in the backyard. While her sons were home, she baked a cake a day for her family.
Lena loved her flowers; roses, Martha Washington geraniums and camellias were her favorites.
Lena was blue-eyed, with light brown hair worn long (she could sit on it) and was 4 feet, 11 inches tall. When women's short hair became fashionable in the 20's, her sons persuaded her to have hers cut.
The schoolhouse she attended was eight miles away and she and her siblings walked, even through the snow. She was a healthy adult but she could remember once staying home from school because she had jaundice.
As a young woman, Lena moved to St. Louis, and was employed by a wealthy family to clean house. A chore remembered with little pleasure was the required regular cleaning and polishing of the silverware. Later, Lena's sister Dora moved to town and the two girls went to work in a shirt factory. In the early 1900's, women wore fancy shirts, full of tucks and lace. Lena's son, Louis, said that his mother and aunt made shirts for themselves in an afternoon.
It is not know how Lena and Otto met. They did have three children, moving them all to Los Angeles, CA, when the youngest was four.
Lena enjoyed sewing, crocheting (seeing a crocheted article was all she needed to copy it), baking and a clean house. House cleaning was done on Saturday, finished by noon, and included polishing the hardwood floors, scrubbing on hands and knees the kitchen linoleum and sweeping the front porch and sidewalk. Monday the family wash was done by hand with the boiler on the stove for white clothes and a scrub board in the tub on the back porch. Clothes were hung to dry on lines in the backyard. While her sons were home, she baked a cake a day for her family.
Lena loved her flowers; roses, Martha Washington geraniums and camellias were her favorites.
Lena was blue-eyed, with light brown hair worn long (she could sit on it) and was 4 feet, 11 inches tall. When women's short hair became fashionable in the 20's, her sons persuaded her to have hers cut.
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