The Kratzer sisters from Shamokin Dam, Part 1
- Photos Without Families
- 21. Jan.
- 5 Min. Lesezeit
This project has been on my list for a few years now. I had purchased a single classroom photo of the 1937-38 1st and 2nd graders of the Shamokin Dam school in Pennsylvania. It was identified as a school photo of one Margie Kratzer:
Then some weeks later, the same Instagram seller had several other photos on sale of the persons with the surname “Kratzer“. Surely they were of the same family, I thought to myself, and snagged as many as I could (some of them had already gone to other buyers).
I’ve finally got a quiet moment to organise the photos and dig into the records to find out if and how they were all related. And they were – the girls were sisters! So let’s see what I could find out about each one of them. Brace yourselves, this is going to be a looooong blogpost!
The five sisters – Amy, Pauline, Marjorie "Margie", Nancy and Madelyn Kratzer – were born to parents Harry Albert Kratzer (1896-1962) and Mary Edna née Reichenbach (1906-1987) in Shamokin Dam, Snyder in Pennsylvania. In 1930, the family lived at 31 State High Way. By 1940, the family had moved to 212 Walnut Street in Shamokin Dam.
The oldest sister Amy Kratzer was born on February 15th, 1924. She married Leon Stuck in April 1948 in Shamokin Dam and the local newspaper reported about that event:
The above article mentions that Amy was the graduate of the Selingrove High School of 1942. Perhaps this was her graduation photo:
Amy worked as a machinist for L’aig-Lon Apparel Company (today Inc.), which produced women and children’s clothing. I don’t know if the couple had children. In 1996, they got divorced:
The second oldest sister Pauline Kratzer had been born on August 15th, 1928.
I found a 1946 yearbook photo of Pauline from Selinsgrove High School on Ancestry:
She married Richard James Dwin (1930-1989) in 1954 and the local newspaper reported about their nuptials:
I don’t know if the couple had any children. In 1956, she was living at 243 Chestnut in Pottstown, Pa.
The middle sister, Marjorie (Margie) Kratzer, whose 1937-38 school photo had started this project, was born on January 7th, 1931. She married David A. Brown in October 1948 in Selinsgrove. I don’t know if the couple had any children. In 1993, she was living in Sunbury, Pa.
Another Kratzer sister was unfortunately stillborn in 1932. They named her Katherine.
I don’t know when exactly Nancy Kratzer was born, but she was listed as a 5-year-old in the 1940 Census, so in about 1935. Here she was with her baby sister Madelyn:
Her married name was Nancy Fox, but I know nothing about her husband or if she had any children or if she might be alive today. I’ve found a yearbook photo of her from 1952:
Madelyn (Maddy) L. Kratzer was born on April 10th, 1941. Madelyn was very bright and her name was often mentioned in the local newspapers in connection with different competitions and prizes, for instance as a highschool student, she entered a radio speaking contest and made it into the finals with six boys, as reported by The Selinsgrove Times Tribune:
I especially love her answer in the said newspaper from 1958 when asked about if women could make great pesidents:
And this poem by her, published in the same newspaper in the year 1951 when Madelyn was 10 years old, is too cute:
Madelyn married Ronald G. Kemberling Sr. (1940-2013) in June 1959 in Selinsgrove:
The couple had two children, Ronald Gene Jr. and Donald Albert Kemberling:
Madelyn passed away in April 2013 in Lewisburg, Pa. Her obituary reveals further details and names:
I was fortunate to snatch a photo of the girls’ mum as well – Mary Edna Kratzer née Reichenbach (also Reichenbaugh). She had been born on June 8th, 1906, to seamstress Maggie née Moyer and carpenter William Reichenbach. She had at least 4 siblings and they are all listed in the Census of 1920.
She passed away in March 1987 and was buried next to her husband at the Orchard Hills Cemetery in Shamokin Dam. Her obituary, published on page 8 of The Daily Item of Sunbury, on March 31st, 1987, reveals many useful facts and names:
I have two photos that might show the girls’ father Harry Albert Kratzer, but I'm not quite sure which one was him:
Harry had been born in February 1896. He was a dyer at the silk dye house. He passed away on November 20th, 1962, and his obituary was published on page 4 of the Selinsgrove Time Tribune of November 29th, 1962:
One of the photos in the lot was of one John Kratzer in uniform. Turns out, this was the girls’ uncle, their father’s younger brother John Jacob Kratzer (1906-1986), a WWII veteran. He was married to Beulah Mildred née Reichenbach (1909-1988), but I don’t think they had any children.
His obituary was published on February 10th, 1986, in The Daily Item of Sunbury:
So now that I had made sense of how the photos were related to one another, I went back to the seller to find out if any of this family’s photos were still available. I also reached out to one of the other buyers on Instagram and guess what, they were willing to part with this photo:
It shows the larger family of the Kratzers and Reichenbachs. Back row from the left it shows Marjorie Kratzer, then the girls’ maternal aunt Lulu E. Reichenbach (1895-1984), the girls’ maternal grandfather William H. Reichenbach, Judson Miller (I will write about him in my next blogpost), girls’ mom Mary Kratzer née Reichenbach, holding little Madelyn. Second row older lady on the left reads Mrs.. something which I cannot read, the older lady on the right is the girls’ maternal grandmother Maggie Reichenbach née Moyer. The girl sitting in front of them is Pauline Kratzer.
I will not go into detail about these family members, but since I could find their obituaries, I will share them with you, too. Here's the obituary of the girls' maternal aunt, Lulu E. Reichenbach, who passed away in 1984:
And here's the obituary of the girls' grandmother Maggie Reichenbach née Moyer from 1954:
I have many other photos of the Kratzers, I have not uploaded all of them. There were also many photos of the Kratzer sisters’ friends in the photo lot. I will share those separately in my next blogpost.
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