Portraits

Margaret Mahoney Aschebrock

Maggie Mahoney has become somewhat of a forgotten member of the Kroening family. Maggie was the daughter of Katherine Newmeier and William Mahoney. She was born on 13 June 1880 in Unity, Wisconsin. William died when Maggie was an infant, and Katherine married August Kroening in about 1881. Katherine and August went on to have 5 more children: Louisa, Joseph, John, George, and Mary Ellen.

Margaret is somewhat absent from the historical record. She was born just after the 1880 census. Her mother Katherine was enumerated as “in confinement” that year. On the 1885 census in Wisconsin there are only marks in columns denoting the correct age and gender of people in the home – only names of head of household were recorded. Margaret is counted in the members of the home – 3 females and 2 males. The 1890 census was lost to history in a fire. The 1895 Wisconsin census similarly shows only heads of household with tick marks for others in the home but Maggie is also represented here in the 4 females and 4 males in the home.

Margaret Mahoney married Heinrich Aschebrock on 18 Oct 1899 so she appears named for the first time on the 1900 census with her husband.  Margaret is listed as Margaretha Kroening on her marriage certificate. Maggie was referred to as a daughter of August Kroening in her obituary. There are several photos of her with various members of her family through her short life. She died on 6 October 1916 at the age of 36. Her husband Heinrich (Henry) remarried and had more children with his second wife, Anna.

Margaret seems to have been lost to the memory of the family over time. August Kroening was the only father she ever knew and she seems to have been very much included and a member of their family from the time August married Katherine. Maggie died tragically young and did not live to see the adult lives of her children or her nieces and nephews. Her life fell between the cracks of the historical records- she was 20 years old before she was named on a census. Although Maggie has been largely forgotten by my generation (and maybe the one before), she was remembered by her siblings – both Louisa and Joseph named a daughter Margaret.