To request a copy of this photo for your own personal use, please contact our state coordinator. If you are not a family member or the original photographer — please refrain from copying or distributing this photo to other websites.
Thank you for visiting the Arkansas Gravestone Photo Project. On this site you can upload gravestone photos, locate ancestors and perform genealogy research. If you have a relative buried in Arkansas, we encourage you to upload a digital image using our Submit a Photo page. Contributing to this genealogy archive helps family historians and genealogy researchers locate their relatives and complete their family tree.
Submitted: 3/4/20 • Approved: 3/4/20 • Last Updated: 3/7/20 • R1302114-G1302114-S3
Mar 12, 1916 - Sept 17, 2008
Father: Richard Mathews
Mother: Mattie Mathews
Spouse
Augustus Bahr
1908–1993
BURIAL Cremated, Ashes scattered, Specifically: Scattered at the destroyed farm in Arkansas.
DELETE AFTER READING
I dont know much about Augie, but the things Ive heard arent good. He was a radar expert and taught it during World War Two.
He married Ethel Champeau in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, on December 3, 1927. He had three children with her, Donald, Jean and Richard. At some point he divorced Ethel and married Catherine.
They bought a farm near Waupun, Wisconsin. He asked Alfred and Mary Sippel for money to buy farm equipment. They couldn't afford it but they gave the money anyway. He then left the equipment out in the rain to rust, and took similar care of the farm in general.
He was a union member of a furniture company, which caused them to move to Memphis, TN. He then heard about cheap land in northern Arkansas and moved to the Searcy area.
He did all of the electrical wiring at the farm himself, which may have contributed to the farm burning in the late 1980s. They escaped in time, but Mary Sippel was suspicious if it was an accident. Augie and Catherine separated soon after.
He was a drinker, a womanizer, and forged checks. He was also fun and could light up a room. He was called a scoundrel and a bastard. Augie was also Post Commander in the American Legion, 6th District, Arkansas, in 1987.
He passed away in May 1993 and his body was cremated.
----------------------------------
Catherine was the youngest of Richard and Mattie's three girls. She went to nursing school in Waupun, Wisconsin but was forced to leave after having epilepsy. She married Augustus "Augie" Bahr and bought a farm near Waupun. Dad remembers having to pick rocks out of the field by hand. There were so many large ones that they would have broken any plow that was used. Augie moved them to the Memphis, TN, area as part of being part of a furniture company union. He then moved them to the Searcy, Arkansas, area after hearing about cheap farm land. They never had a successful farm.
In the late 1980's their farm burned and nothing was saved. Catherine barely escaped with a cat. She and Augie separated soon after. He had affairs, forged checks and went drinking while she tended the farm. He passed away in 1993.
When she and Mary visited us in Crystal Lake in the late 80s, grandma began cutting her meat for her at lunch, even though she could do it herself. Dad asked how she liked having her big sister around and she asked if she had to answer that.
She passed away at Byrd Haven nursing home in Searcy on September 17, 2008. Her ashes were scattered at Mary and Alfred Sippel's grave.
Contributed on 3/4/20 by hawkinsdonna48
Email This Contributor
Suggest a Correction
Record #: 1302114