Yesterday, Chapter 1 went up on https://aggierobertsonmoorehead.blogspot.com/2025/02/chapter-2-and-twenties-roared-part-1.html. Today, three installments of the 1920s are published on the same blog. If you haven't started yet, you should because 1929 gets really interesting and will be up tomorrow.
Take a peek!
It's Always Best To Begin At The Beginning
Margaret Ann Moorehead was born on the 12th of April 1906 in Hamilton, Butler County, Ohio. She was named after her maternal grandmother. Around 1913 she moved with her family to St. Louis where they remained until 1919 when they moved to Reedsburg, Wisconsin. Margaret's parents returned to St. Louis at some point in 1922 after the school year ended. I'm sure that Margaret was more than relieved to return to St. Louis since it was one of the places where Margaret felt at home. In 1922 Margaret began school at Cleveland High School.
Margaret is alleged by her sister to have been good at mimicking members of her father's congregation often joining her sister at the dinner table in that mimicry. After looking through all the yearbooks it appears as though that side of Peggy, as her family called her, only appeared when she was around her sister. The two sisters are actually as different as night and day. Peggy was a near identical physical copy of her mother and Agnes was her father's daughter.
In 1922 Peggy was playing violin in the school orchestra at Reedsburg High School as well as singing in the choir. She did not play in any orchestra once she began school in St. Louis. She was a member of the Alethinae and the choir but not much else. Margaret's name appears in the 1922 Reedsburg yearbook in a listing of students. The listing includes the virtue of the person and their ambition. Margaret's reads thusly Margaret Moorehead: Virtue: her boyfriend and Ambition row 1 seat 1. The latter item is a reference to being first chair violin and the boyfriend bit well I have an idea. What if the boyfriend mentioned in 1922 is Frank? Would you believe me if I said I found a young man who attended Reedsburg named Francis "Frank" Marion Bechtolt? If you answered no you'd be wrong because I did. More impressively Frank sang in the boy's Glee Club and played trombone in the Cadet Band of Reedsburg. Margaret would have known him. In addition to that Frank Bechtolt also lived in Dayton Ohio when Margaret was there. Frank did not marry until 1937. I think this is it, people. I think we now know who Frank is!
Ladies and Gentlemen
Francis "Frank" Marion Bechtolt
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I am curious about Margaret suddenly ceasing to play the violin academically when she was moved back to St. Louis and even more curious about what led her to choice of a nursing career. Unpicking Peggy one mystery at a time I suppose.
Courtesy of VirgoLady63 Please take a peek at the following link. Normal people doing normal things.
https://youtu.be/tVWPFGlAO5E
I have been for ages looking for the marriage certificate for Molly and John. I literally clawed my way through marriage records in the state of Pennsylvania with zero success. Today I decided to take another crack at it but neglected to put the state in for my search and to my surprise popped up a marriage certificate. Then it got seriously weird. I've always known that John was substantially older than Molly. They were married 6 days after her 16th birthday in 1899. That wasn't the surprise though. The surprise was where they were married and what was on the certificate. They got married in Kentucky. Yes, I said Kentucky. Newport Kentucky to be exact which is a suburb of Cincinatti, Ohio. The license gives Molly's age as 21, not 16. Her mother was not a witness nor was her father suggesting they may not have known. Kentucky law allowed for 16-year-olds to marry but only with parental approval. Bring on the surprises I say. We need more. Here's a copy.
