Margaret Mary “Maggie” Amrhein

1890s–1900s

Born 31 October 1892 in Greensburg, Indiana, to George E. AmRhein and Barbara Hahn. Received her First Communion at St. Mary's Church in 1906 and completed the eighth grade.

1910s

Worked as a household servant in Greensburg, then married Francis Kelble at St. Mary's on 7 September 1915. Followed his work to Columbus, Lima, and Philadelphia, and had three sons between 1916 and 1919.

1920s

Lived outside Philadelphia and then in Columbus, Ohio, from 1922 to 1927, where three more children were born, with frequent family trips to Xenia. Moved to the Philadelphia area for good in July 1927.

1930s–1950s

Raised eight children in Abington and on Pleasant Avenue in Glenside. In the 1950s she fished with Frank and took their boat around the bays near St. Petersburg, Florida.

1960s–1980s

Celebrated her golden wedding anniversary in 1965 and was widowed in 1969. Died in Glenside on 11 December 1988, at ninety-six.

An Indiana Girlhood

Margaret Mary AmRhein, known as Maggie, was born on Halloween, October 31, 1892, in Greensburg, Indiana, the daughter of George E. AmRhein and Barbara Hahn. She grew up with an older sister, Olivia (Ollie), and brothers Lora, Tony, John, and Leo. Leo had a twin, Ludwig, born in April 1895, who lived only ten days.

The small-town papers of Decatur County kept track of the family's comings and goings. In 1900 the AmRheins were living at Happy Hill, and the next spring Maggie went with her father and Ollie to visit her aunt Lana Schneider's family in Tuckertown. On June 10, 1906, at nine in the morning, she and fifteen other children received their First Communion at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greensburg. She finished the eighth grade.

A Young Woman in Greensburg

In 1910 and 1911 Margaret worked as a servant in the Greensburg household of William J. Hill, an Irish traveling dry-goods salesman, on East Main Street. Her sister Ollie had married Stephen Stier and lived at Harris City, and Margaret spent a good deal of time there; in the second half of 1912 she was living in Harris City. The Greensburg papers caught her going shopping with Ollie, visiting friends and cousins, and joining a big family dinner at the home of her aunt Elizabeth Hahn. In January 1913 she went with the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Knights of St. John to a district meeting in Oldenburg, with dinner at the Gibson Hotel. In September 1914 she rode out by hay wagon to a party at Will AmRhein's place west of town, where the evening was spent dancing.

On Tuesday, September 7, 1915, at eight in the morning, she married Francis Rowan Kelble of Xenia, Ohio, at St. Mary's. The Greensburg News headlined it "Local Girl Weds Ohioan"; the Xenia paper, which spelled her name "Arnheim," went with "Xenian Marries Indiana Girl."

Following Frank

Frank was a steamfitter who went where the contracts were, and Margaret went with him. The newlyweds started out in Columbus; their first son, John, was born in Lima, Ohio, in June 1916. In April 1917 she left Xenia to join Frank in Philadelphia, where Francis Jr., called Bud, was born that August. In the summer of 1918 she took both little boys to visit Frank's parents in Xenia and then her own family in Greensburg. Their third son, Paul, was born at Casad Hospital on September 4, 1919, while she was back in Ohio, and that December Frank's sister Mary rode the train east with Margaret and the three boys and stayed six weeks to help them settle in. In 1920 they were living on Red Lion Road in Huntingdon Valley, outside Philadelphia. That July Margaret was very ill, and Mary came again to see her.

From 1922 to 1927 the family lived in Columbus, in the Grandview neighborhood, where Dick, Margaret, and Barbara were born. Xenia was an easy trip, and the Gazette noted their visits at Easter, on Labor Day, and at Christmas. In July 1923 Margaret left John and Francis with their grandparents for the summer, and Aunt Mary brought them home in August. In July 1927 the family said goodbye to Ohio, stopping in Xenia for a week on the way to a new home near Philadelphia.

Glenside and Florida

Mary was born in Glenside in 1929 and Donald in Abington in 1930, making eight children in all. The family lived first on Front Street in Abington and then in Glenside, where Margaret would spend the rest of her life; from the late 1930s their home was on Pleasant Avenue.

Family records show her enjoying the outdoors in later life. In March 1953 she and Frank went fishing, and she caught three fish to his one. In February 1954, in St. Petersburg, Florida, she was taking their boat all over the bays, and their backyard had three bunches of bananas on the trees and newly planted tomatoes. On September 11, 1965, she and Frank celebrated fifty years of marriage with a Mass at St. Luke's and a reception at Casa Conti. In 1965 she was described as five foot four, with dark brown hair and brown eyes.

Frank died in Florida in April 1969, and Margaret lived on in Glenside for nearly twenty more years. Long life ran in her family: her sister Ollie lived to 101, and in 1982 the Greensburg paper ran a feature headlined "Centenarian's life is page out of history book." Margaret died on December 11, 1988, at ninety-six, and was buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Cheltenham, where Frank also lies.