March is Women’s History
Month, and it’s a good reminder for us to tell the stories of the females in our
family tree. Today I’d like to tell you about my great-grandmother, Emma
Scheibel, who married Homer B. Steele.
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| Emma Scheibel Steele and Homer Steele, with daughter Wilma, 1919 |
Emma is an important branch
on my family tree because she’s my mother’s mother’s mother. In DNA terms, that
means she’s my direct mitochondrial line ancestor. From her, and her mother
before her, and her mother and so forth through umpteen generations, I’ve
inherited my mitochondrial DNA type. It’s a genetic pathway to the past that I
don’t have for any other ancestral line.
Emma Laura Scheibel was born
on 6 March 1894 in Columbus, Ohio. Her parents were Ludwig Scheibel and Pauline
Treebte or Treebto (which I’ve learned is actually spelled “Treptow”). On the
birth register, her name was recorded as Pauline.[1]
I don’t know whether that was an error on the clerk’s part, or whether her
parents later changed their minds about her name, but she appears as Emma in
every other record created about her.
Emma’s father, Ludwig
Scheibel, was born on 29 September 1839 in Germany, possibly Württemberg.[2]
He sometimes went by the American name Louis. Her mother, Pauline Treptow, was
born in Blumenfelde, Kr. Konitz, West Prussia, on 25 February 1855.[3]
They married in Columbus on 13 April 1880. It was Ludwig’s second marriage.[4]
A widow, he already had a son, Peter Scheibel, from his first marriage.
According to my grandmother,
Wilma (Steele) Herrel, Ludwig and Pauline retained a lot of their native
customs and spoke German at home. In public, they spoke English with a heavy
German accent. Knowing this, I imagine Emma grew up speaking both English and
German.
When the census was taken in
June 1900, Emma was six years old and not yet attending school. Ludwig
Scheibel, age 63, was a harness maker, and owned the family’s home at 428 E.
Fulton St. He had immigrated to the U.S. in 1852 and was a naturalized citizen.
Pauline, age 45, had immigrated in 1875. She had given birth to nine children,
but only five were living. They were Louisa Scheibel, age 15; Willie Scheibel,
13; Augusta Scheibel, 9; Emma; and Albert Scheibel, 4.[5]
On 11 April 1907, when Emma
was 13 years old, her mother Pauline Scheibel died of tuberculosis.[6]
Those had to be difficult years for the family, as her brother Willy died as
well. By summer 1910, Emma’s school days were behind her. She was 16 years old
and working as a nurse in a hospital.[7]
But there was another blow
yet to come. On Christmas day 1910, Ludwig Scheibel died of apoplexy (stroke).[8]
Emma and her siblings were orphans.
I’m not sure how Emma met
Homer Burdell Steele, a native of Cheshire, Gallia County, Ohio. Homer worked
as a shipping clerk for the Federal Glass Company in Columbus, and lived in the
same part of town. Perhaps their paths crossed at church. Rev. Hines married Emma
and Homer on 20 May 1915, when she was 21 years old.[9]
Their first child, Wilma (my grandmother), was born 23 September 1917.[10]
Emma and Homer’s second
daughter, Rosemary Steele, was born 28 November 1919.[11]
After Rosemary, they had four boys in succession: Kenneth Steele, born 1 March 1925[12];
Homer G. “Junior” Steele, born 26 November 1929[13];
William “Billy” Steele, born 2 February 1931[14];
and Ronald Steele, born in 1932.
In addition to her children,
Emma also cared for her invalid father-in-law. Wilma explained, “My grandmother
Minnie King Steele lived with us many years as Grandfather George Steele had a
stroke & could not work. Grandmother worked at Federal Glass Co. (now out
of business) with my father. My mother took care of Rosemary, me &
Grandfather.”[15]
Wilma identified the picture
below as the last one she knew of that shows the entire family. It was probably
taken in the summer of 1939. In the back row, from left to right, are Wilma, Emma,
Rosemary, Kenny, and Homer Steele. In the front, from left to right, are Billy,
Junior, and Ronald.
Tragedy struck on 14 November
1939 when Billy, playing in the basement with a friend, accidentally started a
fire. “The buckle on his shoe caught on a wire on baled wax paper & he lit
a match to see what he could do,” Wilma recalled.[16]
The waxed paper ignited and Billy, unable to free himself, perished in the
fire. He was eight years old.
I imagine that was something
that haunted Emma the rest of her life.
Time went on, although it
seems Emma was not well as she reached middle age. “My father always took care
of my mother as she had a heart condition,” Wilma noted.
Sadly, Emma lost another son
to another accident. Junior had enlisted in the Navy after high school, and, at
20 years old, was posted in the Panama Canal Zone. He was off duty but helping
a friend do some repairs on radar equipment when he touched a live wire. He was
electrocuted instantly and died on 18 May 1950.[17]
Emma succumbed to congestive
heart failure two years later, on 23 November 1952. She was 58 years old. She
was buried in Sunset Cemetery in Columbus, along with her sons Billy and Homer
Junior.[18]
My grandmother remembered
Emma as a good mother and home maker. While she had few outside interests, she
strongly believed in God, home, and family, and wanted her daughter to be happy
and prosperous.[19]
My mother remembers Emma,
too, particularly the way she made homemade German noodles. She would roll the
noodle dough out and cut it into long strips, then slice it into noodles. Those
raw noodles looked really good to a little girl! But Grandmother Steele
wouldn’t permit anyone to taste before cooking. Now that I think about it,
maybe that was a result of the challenges of feeding a big family through the
Great Depression.
There’s something that struck
me as I wrote this. You see, I’ve had this information about Emma for quite a
while; it’s not new research. But it wasn’t until I sat down and wrote this
profile that I actually began to see her
life. I think there’s a big difference between bits of information in a
database and a story that pulls them
together into a cohesive narrative, even a short one like this. The process of
writing it out as a narrative somehow creates something bigger and more
engrossing than you think when you’re only looking at the pieces individually.
It also makes me realize I have more research to do
on Emma’s family. Writing does that—it stimulates you to fill in the gaps and
reach further into the records. Yes, it takes time, but it’s time well spent in
the end.
Is there a woman in your family tree that you’d like
to understand better? If so, you might try writing a little profile or vignette for her.
Lisa Alzo offers a month’s worth of “Fearless Females” writing prompts to help you (see her March 2016 blog archive).
Gena Philibert-Ortega shares some of her favorite tips and resources for researching
females in her Women's History Month 2016 series. I hope you enjoy finding and telling the stories of the women in your family history, too.
--Shelley
[1] Franklin
County, Ohio, Probate Court, birth records, vol. 6, p. 30 (1894), Pauline
Scheibel; Ohio History Center (OHC) microfilm #BV10,944.
[2] “Ohio
Deaths, 1908-1953,” digital image, FamilySearch
(www.familysearch.org: accessed 3 Nov
2013), death certificate #66095 (1910), Ludwig Scheibel; citing original
records, Ohio Dept. of Health, Ohio History Center, Columbus; Family History
Library (FHL) microfilm #1,952,768.
[3] Evangelische
Kirche Grunau (Kr. Flatow), “Taufen, Heiraten, Tote 1850-1859,” p. 107-108,
entry 17, Auguste Pauline Treptow (baptized 11 March 1855); FHL microfilm #1,496,973,
item 2.
[4] “Ohio County
Marriages, 1789-1994,” digital image, FamilySearch
(www.familysearch.org: accessed 3 Nov
2013), Ludwig Sheibel and Paulina Trabtan (1880); citing Franklin County, Ohio,
marriages, vol. 15, p. 285, Probate Court, Columbus; FHL microfilm #285,148.
[5] 1900 U.S.
census, population schedule, Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio, Ward 4, E.D. 55,
p. 6A, dwelling 123, household 141, Ludwig Scheibel; digital image, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com: accessed 3 Nov 2013),
citing NARA microfilm publication T623, roll 1267.
[6] Columbus,
Ohio, Board of Health, death certificates, 1907 vol. 2 (1 March – 30 April),
no. 351, Paulina Scheibel; Ohio History Center, Columbus, OHC microfilm
#GR9874.
[7] 1910 U.S.
census, population schedule, Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio, Ward 2, E.D. 43,
p. 1, dwelling 13, household 14, Lewis Scheibel; digital image, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com: accessed 4 Nov 2013),
citing NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 1180.
[8] “Ohio
Deaths, 1908-1953,” FamilySearch,
death certificate #66095 (1910), Ludwig Scheibel.
[9] Franklin
County, Ohio, Probate Court, marriage records, vol. 60, p. 315, Homer Steele
and Emma Scheibel marriage (1915), Columbus.
[10] Ohio
Department of Health, birth certificate #77908 (1916), Wilma Lucille Steele; Office
of Vital Statistics, Columbus.
[11] “U.S.
Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007,” database, Ancestry
(www.ancestry.com: accessed 21 Mar 2016), Rosemary Naomi Steele Rhoten.
[12] “U.S.
Social Security Death Index,” database, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com: accessed 6 July 2014),
Kenneth N. Steele (1925-2013).
[13] Ohio
Department of Health, birth certificate #98192 (1929), Homer George Steele;
Office of Vital Statistics, Columbus.
[14] Ohio
Department of Health, birth certificate 11272 (1931), William Steele; Office of
Vital Statistics, Columbus.
[15] Wilma
Steele Herrel, Grandmother’s Book,
scrapbook, 1989; privately held by Shelley Bishop. This 9” x 11” book contains
notes, descriptions, photographs and memorabilia ca. 1917-1989; the author (now
deceased) gave it to Bishop in 1989.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Ibid. Also, Homer G. Steele obituary, The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio),
20 May 1950, p. 2A.
[18] “Ohio
Deaths, 1908-1953,” digital image, FamilySearch
(www.familysearch.org: accessed 21
Mar 2012), death certificate #70642 (1952), Emma L. Steele; citing original
records, Ohio Dept. of Health, Ohio History Center, Columbus; FHL microfilm
#2,246,396.
[19] Wilma
Steele Herrel, Grandmother’s Book.
