"To my dear friend Edna
with loving remembrance
from Mattie Holmes.
April 17- 1889"
This young woman, Martha "Mattie" Holmes, was born in Biment, Iowa in October 1869. She was the daughter of Henry P. Holmes, a farmer, and Rebecca Carrier, who passed away not long after Mattie was born. When Mattie was still only a few months old, the family moved to New Lisbon, Juneau County, Wisconsin. Her father soon remarried, this time to Emma Van Hiesen, a woman 27 years younger than he was. Mattie already had 7 older siblings by her mother- Lucy, Andrew, George, Phoebe, Freeman, Volney, and Frank- when she gained 3 younger half-brothers, Winfield, Henry, and Elmer. Mattie's father died in 1883 of "consumption," or what we would now call tuberculosis.
This photograph was taken in 1889 when Mattie was 19 years old. Two years later, in 1891, she married Peter M. George. Peter worked as a drayman, someone who delivers beer for a brewery, and later as a teamster. Mattie and Peter had three children, Otis, Rena, and Chester, as well as two other children who did not live past infancy. The eldest, Otis, was granted a registered pharmacist certificate in 1916 and became a druggist in Sparta, Wisconsin.
Mattie passed away the next year, 1917, at age 48.
Otis went on to become President of the Sparta community commission and in 1928 was elected mayor. Rena married Carl Reinhardt, a carpenter from Norway. Chester became a chauffeur and married Elizabeth Manzeck, with whom he had one son, Chester Jr.
If you know who this woman may be, let us know in the comments!
