Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center
Frances Welker Widman
Scope and Content
The Frances Welker Widman materials were donated to the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in 2002.
Frances Welker Widman, the daughter of Juvenius and Caroline (Foos) Welker, was born in Fremont, Ohio, in 1910. From 1923 until her graduation in 1928, Mrs. Widman attended St. Joseph’s High School in Fremont. In June of 1934, she married John G. Widman at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, and was actively involved in the church’s women’s organizations during her adult life. Frances and John were the parents of three sons. For many years, Mrs. Widman was employed as the bookkeeper for the C. H. Deemer Roofing and Sheet Metal Company. Mrs. Widman passed away in July 1965, at Fremont, Ohio.
Scope and Content
The collection consists primarily of materials compiled by Mrs. Widman from 1923 to 1928 while attending St. Joseph’s High School in Fremont, Ohio. The larger of two scrapbooks contains numerous black and white photographs of Mrs. Widman and her classmates while participating in school functions including: banquets, plays and class trips. The forty-plus-page scrapbook also contains invitations, newspaper clippings, programs, schedules of sporting events, tickets, party favors, teachers’ names, and autographs of classmates. A second scrapbook, "Looseleaf English Notebook for Current Literature," compiled by Mrs. Widman from September 1927 to January 1928 includes biographical sketches (prepared by Mrs. Widman) and clippings from periodicals and newspapers regarding American literary figures. The scrapbook was apparently created as a school project and entered in a nation-wide contest conducted by Looseleaf Education, Inc., a New York publisher of weekly texts for high school classroom use. Mrs. Widman’s copies of "Looseleaf Current Topics for Class Study and Note Books," dating from September 1923 through May 1924 and published by Looseleaf Education, Inc., are also part of this collection.
Although limited in its scope, the collection provides insights into a variety of activities considered appropriate by this Catholic co-educational high school for the social development of its teenage students during the 1920's.
1. Scrapbook - Memorabilia of social events at St. Joseph’s High School, Fremont, Ohio, 1923 - 1928
2. "Looseleaf English Notebook for Current Literature," September 1927 to January 1928.
3. "Looseleaf Current Topics for Class Study and Notebooks," September 1923 to May 1924
4. Black and white 5" x 7" portrait of unidentified female