Farmer Gary‘s great-grandfather Anton Mehling was born on October 2, 1862.

To be completely honest, my interest in Anton started with his wife. His second wife.

And that incredible hat:

They married on April 8, 1913. Anton had been a widower for three years; Minnie had lost her husband in 1912.

Minnie’s maiden name was Philomena Pfaff (according to Gary, the first “f” is silent). She married Fred Tillman, who was born in Prussia but grew up in southern Indiana, in 1889.

Just two months before their wedding, though, poor Fred suffered cuts to his hands while working at a shingle factory in Saint Anthony. One of the local papers, The Huntingburg Argus, got a bit carried away with its report:

Six weeks later, a fifth-grade boy wrote a letter to the editor (presumably a class assignment) which included this following update:

The boy (who chose to remain anonymous) also reported seeing some local “prominent teachers” going into a saloon. The little tattletale editorialized that they should not break their mothers’ hearts.

Fred and Minnie raised four children (boy-girl-boy-girl). By 1910, Fred’s health had been compromised by tuberculosis for more than a decade, but he continued working as a laborer, performing odd jobs. Minnie took in laundry to help make ends meet. The family lived on Mill Street in St. Meinrad.

In February 1912, Fred succumbed to pneumonia. He was 46.

Meanwhile, farmer Anton Mehling married Mary Voegerl in June of 1887. Their first child was a boy (Mike, Gary’s grandpa). All told, there were eight offspring. All but one made it to adulthood.

The fifth child, a boy, didn’t even make it to his fifth birthday.

At first I thought his name was Ludwig, but then I saw his little grave marker:

The winter of 1909-10 was tough, as the children took turns battling illness. When the children were finally all well again, it was their mother who couldn’t recover, try as she might.

The Saint Meinrad columnist for The Ferdinand News reported the following:

The 1910 Census lists Anton as a widower, with seven children living at home, ages 21, 19, 18, 18, 10, 8, and 5.

Three years later, Anton and Minnie took their vows.

I have a serious question to ask. We already know I’m impressed by the Edwardian fashion flare our Minnie displays with that hat. But … is she wearing a monocle?

Take a look for yourself:

If I may add another pun, I think it’s probably a trompe-l’oeil. The lighting appears to be harsher on the right side of Minnie’s face. Perhaps it washed out that side of her glasses. Monocles were in existence back then, but for women they were mostly worn by college coeds with rebellious streaks.

Minnie was a Mehling for just two years, as she died in May of 1915. The newspaper reported she’d been ill for nine months. She was just 48.

Anton lived out the rest of his life as a widower. As of 1930, three of his grown children still lived with him on the farm in St. Meinrad. Anton’s obituary eulogized the 70-year-old farmer as being an “industrious and progressive farmer, always mindful of his own affairs and well liked by all who knew him.”

Much like his great-grandson.

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