Notes:
Data source is David Coulon Burns. E-mail dcb1995@comcast.net
Mabel said she was an ugly baby, long straight hair. Her sisters had short curly hair. At age seven or eight, she went to Uncle John Beyl and told him he was supposed to cut her hair, which he did. She presumes she was punished. After her mother died, Aunt Harriet (Rettew) told her she was an unwanted child. They didn't treat her nice or like her. Her grandparents, the Klines, were Mennonites, but Mabel and Ethel never went to the Mennonite church. Mabel went there with Bertha Kissinger. Jacob, Sarah, Sam and Lizzie never joined the Mennonite church. Went to the Methodist church sunday school. Grandpa Kissinger gave her candy to keep her quiet. They were taught always, when they say grace, to bless AND thank. Mabel said she had a teacher once who made you sing a song if you were late to school. Mabel graduated from Fairfield High School in 1902. Mabel took the traction to a job in Dayton at Cunard's Manufacturing. In April 1905 she was engaged to marry John and wore her engagement ring to work even though they weren't to wear jewelry during work. The ring caught on a machine used to fold cardboard boxes. Her left arm was amputated. She was still in the hospital when the family moved to Dayton (131 Huffman Avenue, across from grade school). She broke the engagement with John telling him that marrying her would be no life for him. Another version I heard was that John broke it off and never saw her again. In any case, she never married. Mabel and Ethel travelled west in 1905, visiting the Seattle World's Fair and their Uncle John and Aunt Bessie. Mabel did office work at Cunard's afterwards. They sent her to night school to learn bookkeeping. She even learned to type. Then she worked for Abitibi Paper Company which eventually was bought by G. H. Mead Paper (later Mead Corporation) under Miss Katherine Gray, the head bookkeeper. Gray had worked at Cunard's and wanted Mabel.. Later Mabel went to New York for Mead where she was in finance. Sam and family moved to East Third in spring of 1908, which was the year that "Mama" [Lizzie] died (August). In 1913, the disasterous flood hit Dayton. Afterwards, Mabel helped dry out papers. The Mead offices moved to Callahan Building (NE corner of 3rd and Main Sts.). Sam went to Pittsburgh and Mabel and Ethel took over raising their younger sister Mary Marguerite. After Mabel returned to Dayton from New York, she became the highest paid woman in Dayton. During her working years, she invested in the stock market. Mabel was an active member of the Dayton Business and Professional Women's Club. After the deaths of Mabel and her sister Ethel, her estate was more than a quarter of a million dollars - this during the worst bear market since World War II. In 1999 dollars, this would be about $1.2 million dollars.
enter the history of Mabel's wedding plans and the loss of her arm, etc.