| Birth: | 2 Sep 1888 in Austin County, TX |
| Death: | 4 Jul 1973 in St. Louis, MO |
| Sex: | F |
| Father: | Carl Christoph Findeisen, Jr. b. 25 Apr 1832 in Lengefeld, Erzebirge, Saxony, Germany |
| Mother: | Franziska Marek b. 12 Oct 1846 in Rothwasser, Bohemia |
| Spouses & Children |
| Edmond H. Ashorn (Husband) b. 24 May 1884 in New Ulm, Austin County, TX | |
| Marriage: | Feb 1909 in Texas |
| Children: | |
| |
| Notes |
Emma Findeisen would rather be working in the fields alongside her husband Edmund Ashorn than sewing or cooking
indoors. He was more stubborn than Emma was. She was more patient and affectionate than Edmund was. When her children
got out of line, she hardly did more than slap their hand. The couple farmed near Wesley, south of
Brenham, TX. At first they lived in the old farmhouse, but later they built a new one with a fireplace.
Later Emma's son Honey (Edmund Jr.) persuaded them to build the home which Lillian Wilhelm
owns today. They didn't have electricity until the 1940's. She remained close to her twin sister Ella.
Gloria remembers her childhood as "wonderful, peaceful, quiet days." The family raised peanuts,
cotton, corn, kohlrabi, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, radishes, black-eyed peas, butter beans, lima
beans, pinto beans, sweet cane, and watermelons. Wild grapes grew along the fence and climbed all
over it. The family had cows, mules, chickens, horses and other animals. A neighbor's
horse-powered press turned their sorghum cane into light-brown syrup after the children had
carefully removed all the leaves, wiped every stalk with a cloth and stacked them parallel on a
tarpaulin on the wagon. They also made their own soap with lye, grease and water. The clear grease was kept in little fruit
canning jars on the shelf. They would use the soap to clean everything in their household except their skin. It was pretty strong.
When her children got sick, Emma rubbed them with Vicks.
Meat came through a "butcher club" in the days before refrigeration. Each week,
on a Tuesday or Friday, a different family would furnish a grown calf for slaughter
and each family in the club would get a share. A traveling butcher would kill,
bleed, skin the large calf, then cut it into sections once it was cool. After dressing
the carcass, the traveling butcher would weigh the calf. The dressed weight of their
calf determined the family's yearly meat allotment. If they needed more, they would
have to pay extra. Large families might provide two calves a year in order to have
enough. Each portion of meat went into a clean flour sack and the family would cut
their roasts and steaks out of that. They would have to cook it within a day so it
wouldn't spoil, and they would eat it all week long. For his part, the butcher
wouldn't have to provide his own calf, or he would keep the hides, or else he
would be paid $10 a year. Even the butcher in town might run his own club.
Families would request certain cuts and the butcher might smile and say, "That calf didn't have all steak. You're going to have to
take something else." Most of the meat came in the form of roast. Families would store it in a pie safe with punched tin instead
of glass.
Emma was much shorter than her descendants, who include Gloria Ashorn Garrett (after whom Ariana Evangeline Loree is
named) and Eloise Ann Garrett. She would look at her great-grandsons Mike and Mark McGinnis and say, "Such big boys!"
laughing somewhat toothlessly. In her later years, she lived with her daughter Gloria's family in St. Louis, where she constantly
read her German Bible.
!DEATH: buried in New Ulm Cemetery, TX
!MARRIAGE:Austin County Courthouse Marriage Records