The event: The death of Annie Vesta Weidenhammer Bechtel (1880-1915)
My maternal great-grandmother Annie Bechtel died September 4, 1915 “of complications” according to her obituary in the Reading Times. She was survived by her husband and eight children ranging in age from 17 to 2. Following her death, her husband Howard left Berks County and headed west to seek a fortune like his brother Edwin had achieved in California (Edwin had settled in California after serving in the Navy following the Spanish-American War).
For the children left behind, experiences were different. The two oldest children, William and Maggie (15), went out on their own; William enlisted in the military and served in World War I, and Maggie married William Fitzgerald and had three children by 1920. Hettie moved in with the Schulers (Annie’s sister’s family), where she remained the rest of her life. Helen, Edwin, and Daniel also moved in with the Schulers and left when they married or, in the case of Daniel, when he moved in with his sister Mary’s family. Mary (my maternal grandmother) and Howard lived with the Shetlers, also relatives of their mother, until they married.
When Howard returned from California, he tried to move in with his children, but none of them would take him in. He had abandoned them when they were children, and they weren’t about to open their doors to him when they were adults (Daniel literally slammed the door in his face when he asked).
Image: Mrs. Howard (Annie) Bechtel’s funeral in the Reading Times, September 16, 1915.
Clio the History Muse 