Materials in this collection primarily pertain to families related to Fern (Stroeh) Unnasch and Ernest Unnasch. Other items relate to businesses, residences, and organizations that had a connection to the families. The bulk of the collection is made up of black and white photographs.
History materials include newspaper clippings (1918-2006), several brief hand-written family trees for the Stroeh and Unnasch families, and a scrapbook of newspaper clippings (1941-1942).
Local business materials include a photograph of a Shelby Dairy truck, a photograph of Jack Stroeh delivering milk, and two milk/cream caps marked “Shelby Dairy” and “Joe Stroeh.” Also the Heileman Brewery and F. A. Kraft Brewery are photographed.
Farms and residences items consist of photographs of La Crosse, Wis., homes at 1020 So. 4th St., 1220 So. 4th St., and 233 No. 23rd St. Photographs of the Stroeh Farm in the town of Shelby in La Crosse County are also included and on Highway 33.
Family photographs are separated into family groups. Most are black and white and sizes vary. Some individuals in photographs have been identified on the back by Fern Stroeh Unnasch, and other individuals have been identified by Archives staff based on Unnasch’s information. Family groups include the Heberlein family, Krause family, Ready family, Schumacher family, Schieche family, Secor family, Smolek family, Stroeh family, and Unnasch family. Photograph albums are included for the Heberlein and Unnasch families in addition to the loose photographs. A separate folder is included for the John and Lucy (Heberlein) family; childhood photographs of Fern (Stroeh) Unnasch are found with these materials. Another Stroeh family folder is included for images of a town of Shelby fire truck showing Ed Mundstock, Ray Grisen, Wencel “Pitt” Beranek, and Rudy Smolek. These images are on CD-ROM. A separate folder is also included for photographs of the Ernest and Fern (Stroeh) Unnasch family.
Included with family materials are photographs of Chicago relatives. Many of these photographs are unidentified, but some that are include the surnames Merkel/Merkle, Elke, Klank, Schaefer, and Groebe.
Photographs of friends of the Stroeh/Unnasch family include Gordon and Charlotte (Gilbertson) Becker; Leona Beier; Robert Bosshard; Joe and Marion (Eberle) Briggs; Bert Eberlie; the Ender family; the Roy Franz family; Pastor Julius Gamm of First Evangelical Lutheran Church in La Crosse, Wis.; Teddy Harms; the Carl and Dorothy Helke family; Carl and Bernice Helwig; Lucy Jensen; the Kubiak family; the Gustave Marquart family; Louise Mauer; Ann Meyer; George and Ann Miller; the Samuel Miller family; Marianne Scholz; the Amy Senn family and their farm in Fountain City, Wis.; Donald Shaller; Ida Steppe; and the Bill and Helen Stingl family.
Miscellaneous materials include a 1932 graduation program from an unidentified school and an 1877 marriage certificate which appears to be written in the German language for Franz Dobbratz and Auguste Behnke.
Organization photographs include the La Crosse Garment Workers (1938), the Hamilton Homemakers, and the Shelby Homemakers.
Photographs of unidentified individuals make up the rest of the collection. Some photographs were in the folder of a professional photographer, and therefore the city where the photograph was taken could be determined. Some of these photographs were taken in La Crosse, Wis., while others were taken in Janesville, Wis.; Baraboo, Wis.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Winona, Minn.; Indiana Harbor, Ind.; and Lakeland, Fla.
