Margaret Zelma Wildermuth Clarke with her own children and her sister Mae Clara's children — Front Street, Marietta, c. 1913

A c. 1913 photograph of two Wildermuth sisters’ families in front of one of their houses on Front Street, Marietta, Ohio — confirmed by Chuck Eesley June 2026 from a labeled family print. The print’s annotation gives the location as “on Front St. in front of Mae Clara Wildermuth Seyler’s” and dates the labeling (or Margaret Zelma’s death) as 10-26-1943.

The cast

• Standing left, in a pale dress, hand on the stroller: Margaret Zelma Wildermuth Clarke, b. 6 November 1891 — Earl Adam Wildermuth’s older sister, Robert Earl Wildermuth’s aunt, and Chuck Eesley’s great-great-aunt on the paternal Wildermuth side. About 22 years old in this frame.
• In the stroller, infant in white: Eva Catherine “Kate” Clark, b. 24 December 1912 — Margaret’s daughter, about 6 months to 1 year old.
• Beside the stroller, girl in a large pale sun hat: Ruth Mae (Seyler) McIntyre, b. 28 April 1907 — Margaret’s niece (Mae Clara’s daughter), about 6.
• Middle, small boy in pale clothes on a tricycle: Walter Clark, b. 6 April 1911 — Margaret’s son, about 2.
• Right, small boy in pale belted overcoat and boots: Robert “Bob” Marion Seyler Sr., b. 19 April 1910 — Margaret’s nephew (Mae Clara’s son), about 3.

The setting

Front Street in Marietta runs along the Ohio River downtown, the main commercial-and-residential street of the older Marietta side. Mae Clara Wildermuth Seyler’s house was on Front Street; the photograph is taken in front of her house, with the tree-lined sidewalk and the neighboring houses’ porches visible behind. The clapboard houses, the tree species, and the brick walk match early-1910s Marietta.

What the frame records

Two Wildermuth sisters together raising their first children. Margaret Zelma (b. 1891) and Mae Clara (b. 1886) were two of William Clifford Wildermuth and Flora Schlicher’s nine children — the third and the oldest, respectively. By 1913 Mae Clara was 27 and had two small children with her husband Seyler; Margaret Zelma was 22 and had Walter (then 2) and infant Kate with her husband Clarke. The two sisters’ households were close enough that they sat in front of Mae Clara’s Front Street house together for a photograph, with all four cousins in the frame.

Robert Earl Wildermuth — Chuck’s maternal grandfather — would not be born for another eleven years (1924). At the time of this photograph his father Earl Adam, who was Margaret and Mae Clara’s younger brother, was 13 years old, still living with his parents William Clifford and Flora. The children visible in this frame are Earl Adam’s nieces and nephews who would have been his closer-in-age contemporaries growing up; Robert Earl himself, when he eventually arrived, would grow up with these cousins as his older cousins.

The annotation date

The labeled print’s caption gives 10-26-1943 — almost certainly Margaret Zelma’s death date. The GEDCOM records her death as 25 October 1943 in Los Angeles; the one-day discrepancy may reflect a transcription difference in family records or a difference between the moment of death and the moment her death was recorded. The print appears to have been identified, labeled, or re-labeled around the time of her death — a memorial moment in which a family member wrote down all the names and birth dates while Margaret’s life could still be sized up.

Sources: Wildermuth/Eesley family archive, transmitted with cast labels by Chuck Eesley June 2026; GEDCOM records for Margaret Zelma Wildermuth and Mae Clara Wildermuth.