Magdalena Scherer

   Cause of her death was cerebral meningitis due to frontal sinusitis, general arterial sclerosis.⁶

   Another name for Magdalena was Lena.

  General Notes:

 
Next to going to your house or Grandma's - Aunt Lane's was the best. She baked a sour cream cookie I'll never forget. About 6" long, 3" wide, soft and chewy with a raisin or nut in the middle. She had a black manx cat and raised catnip for him. One day he knocked the bushel basket off of it in the garden and got properly drunk. I'd never seen anything like it. She had a feather tick to sleep on and one floated all nite in it. There was her mother's paisley shawl to finger and admire as well as her solid gold earrings made like little cobs of corn. She never said, 'No!' She told stories about the Scherer clan, especially my grandfather and the fun they had growing up with so many brothers and sisters. Uncle Matt played the fiddle, Auntie Mag the zither and she played the 'squeeze box'. They had their own dances and parties and the house was open to all. By the time I went there the house was badly deteriorating, but I didn't realize it. There were more sheds and added rooms and each was an adventure. Summers she put in a big garden and that too was different for me.

One big toe gave her a lot of pain and she was always going to cut it off and put it on the shelf and watch it ache. I thought this absolutely hilarious. ^{[Betty Jaeger Gilbertson] 7}

  Noted events in her life were:

• Census: 1870 US, 02 Jul 1870, Oconto, Oconto, Wisconsin, USA. ⁸
| 78 | 76 | Sherer, Henry | 47 | M | W | Brick Mason | 800 | 100 | Prussia | / | / | | | | / | / | | / |
| | | Sherer, Mary | 37 | F | W | Keeping House | | | Prussia | / | / | | | | / | / | | |
| | | Sherer, Mathew | 17 | M | W | Laborer | | | Wis | / | / | | | | / | / | | |
| | | Sherer, John | 14 | M | W | At Home | | | Wis | / | / | | | / | / | / | | |
| | | Sherer, Antone | 12 | M | W | At Home | | | Wis | / | / | | | / | / | / | | |
| | | Sherer, Jacob | 9 | M | W | At Home | | | Wis | / | / | | | / | | | | |
| | | Sherer, Magdelana | 5 | F | W | At Home | | | Wis | / | / | | | | | | | |
| | | Sherer, Margaret | 2 | F | W | At Home | | | Wis | / | / | | | | | | | |

• Census: 1880 US, 29 Jun 1880, Oconto, Oconto, Wisconsin, USA. ⁹
| | | Scherer, Henry | W | M | 52 | | | M | Brick Mason | ... | Germany | Germany | Germany |
| | | Scherer, Mary | W | F | 47 | Wife | | M | Keeps House | ... | Germany | Germany | Germany |
| | | Scherer, Lena | W | F | 15 | Daughter | S | | Attends School | ... | Wisconsin | Germany | Germany |
| | | Scherer, Maggie | W | F | 13 | Daughter | S | | Attends School | ... | Wisconsin | Germany | Germany |
| | | Scherer, Etta | W | F | 9 | Daughter | S | | Attends School | ... | Wisconsin | Germany | Germany |

• Census: 1920 US, 1920, Oconto, Oconto, Wisconsin, USA. ¹⁰
| 210 | 13 | 13 | Whittaker, Albert | Head | R | | M | W | 60 | M | | | | |Yes | Yes | Maine | | Maine | | Nova Scotia | English | Yes | Filer | lumber mill | No |
| ... | .. | .. | Whittaker, Lena | Wife | | | F | W | 55 | M | | | | |Yes | Yes | Wisconsin | | Germany | German | Germany | German | Yes | None | | |
| ... | .. | .. | Whittaker, Genevive | daughter | | | F | W | 18 | S | | | | Yes |Yes | Yes | Wisconsin | | Maine | | Wisconsin | | Yes | None | | |
| ... | .. | .. | Scherer, Mathias |brother-in-law| | | M | W | 66 | S | | | | |Yes | Yes | Wisconsin | | Germany | German | Germany | German | Yes | blacksmith | of practice | No |
| ... | .. | .. | Scherer, Henrietta |sister-in-law | | | F | W | 49 | S | | | | |Yes | Yes | Wisconsin | | Germany | German | Germany | German | Yes | None | | |

• Residence: the Scherer Homestead, 210 Scherer Avenue, 25 Mar 1864-02 Dec 1941, Oconto, Oconto, Wisconsin, USA. ¹¹

• Obituary: Oconto Enquirer, 04 Dec 1941, Oconto, Oconto, Wisconsin, USA. ¹²
FUNERAL SERVICE TO BE HELD FRIDAY FOR MRS. L. WHITTAKER

Funeral services for Mrs. Lena Whittaker, 77, who died of complications Tuesday at 1:35 p.m. after an illness of two weeks, will be held Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. from the Gagnon Funeral home and at 9:00 a.m. from St. Joseph's church, Rev. M.G. Alt officiating, with burial in the Catholic cemetery.

Mrs. Whittaker, nee Scherer, was born in Oconto, November 25 [Mar 25], 1864. Her husband, Albert Whittaker, preceded her in death eight years ago. She was a member of St. Joseph's Altar society and of the Lady Foresters.

She is survived by one daughter, Mrs. Drolet, Pensaukee, with whom she had been making her home for the past two months; one son E.H. Whittaker, Duluth; one sister, Mrs. Dennis Keefe, Oconto; six grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

• Cemetery: St Joseph's Catholic Cemetery, 05 Dec 1941, Oconto, Oconto, Wisconsin, USA. ¹³  
   WHITTAKER 
          † 
       LENA 
1864 – 1941

Magdalena married Albert E. Whittaker on 02 May 1886 in Oconto, Oconto, Wisconsin, USA.¹ (Albert E. Whittaker was born on 14 Sep 1857 in Newport, Penobscot, Maine, USA,^{14 15} died on 26 Sep 1933 in Oconto, Oconto, Wisconsin, USA ¹⁶ and was buried on 28 Sep 1933 in Oconto, Oconto, Wisconsin, USA ^{14 17}.) The cause of his death was paralytic stroke.⁶

  Marriage Notes:

 
 When I was 9 or 10 years old I spent many weekends in Oconto. I'd pack my little suitcase and my mother put me on the bus for Oconto on a Friday afternoon. I'd go to Aunt Lane's, which was the old Scherer House on Scherer Avenue. Aunt Lane was married to Albert Whitaker and the mother of Edwin and Genevieve. Uncle Al was there (retired) but Edwin was married to Katherine Olsen from Ishpeming and they were in Duluth where he owned the Orpheum Drug Store. My dad loaned Edwin the money to buy the drug store and dad and mother and Katy and Ed were very good friends. We went to Duluth for Thanksgiving and Easter many years. They had three children Betty, just younger than I, Kenneth and Mary Jane. The last I heard Betty is dead. Ken had a summer resort on Spider Lake, Wis. and Mary Jane married an attorney and was living in Birmingham, Alabama. I haven't heard of any of them for many years.
 
To get back to Oconto. Uncle Al sat on the side porch and smoked his pipe most of the time. He was forbidden to come in the house with it. I loved Aunt Lane most of all. She would bake sour cream cookies for me. They were about 5" X 2" soft and chewy and the cutter had scalloped edges and a raisin or nut in the middle. The miracle to me was she had no recipe (in those days there were few measuring spoons or cups). The cookies were always great. The house and furnishings were old and shabby. As I think about it now I slept on the sofa in the living room that folded out into a bed - but Aunt Lane put a feather tick on it and I thought that was heaven. She showed me her mother's paisley shawl and tiny gold corncob earrings. ¹⁸