Barbara Anna Hastings

Barbara Anna Hastings, eighth of the eight children of Mary Lena Brown and Frank Opal Hastings, was born 23 December 1913 in Martintown, Green County, WI, a village founded by her great-grandfather Nathaniel Martin. The place was her home from birth to age twenty. Like many of the females in her immediate family, she was known chiefly by her middle name. Her full name was inspired by her paternal grandmother Barbara Ann Spece, who was also known by her middle name.

Martintown is located a mile north of Winslow, Stephenson County, IL. By Anna’s late teens, both of her two eldest brothers, John Cecil and Hap, had established homes (and shops) in that small town. Like her older siblings had done, Anna attended Winslow High School. She was part of the Class of 1931. Her classmates during her years there included not only her sister Mary but cousins Leon Smith, Lyle Smith, Max Martin, Alice Martin, and Ray Bucher. Another Class-of 1931 relative was her cousin Leah Hastings, who moved back to the Martintown area from California during the 1927-28 academic year (hers and Anna’s freshman year). Leah was both a second cousin (on the Martin/Strader side) and a first cousin (on the Hastings side).

As the youngest of the children, Anna was quite naturally the last one left at home. Even Ernest and Mary, the two siblings closest to her in age, had acquired spouses by early 1936, leaving Anna as the only one of Frank and Lena’s youngsters who did not have a household of her own as the elderly couple entered their retirement phase. (Frank retired from his railroad career in 1937.) She was a comfort to her parents at this time and she may have felt they were somewhat dependent upon her. This may have been why she did not marry until she was a full twenty-five years old. She waited so long Frank barely got to see her launched into her life as a bride. He passed away less than a year after the ceremony.

Anna married Herbert William Fernstaedt, son of (Karl) Otto Fernstaedt and Anna Maria Louise Krupke. Herbert had been born 11 May 1911 in Winslow Township, but very early in his childhood his parents had established themselves northwest of Martintown on a farm in Wayne Township, Lafayette County, WI, and that was where he had grown up and come of age. The wedding occurred 20 May 1939 in Browntown, Green County, WI. After a honeymoon in Milwaukee, the couple settled on the farm of John Augsburger in Green County, WI. It was acreage that Herbert was managing at the time. Herbert would continue to make farming his career.

Anna and Herbert had five children, including a set of twins. Four would in their turn marry and have offspring. Daughter Blanche Anita Fernstaedt (22 September 1948 - 1 February 1967) was killed in a car accident at the age of eighteen. Anna was a homemaker while the kids were growing up. Later she also became a bookkeeper. After leaving the Augsberger farm, Anna and Herbert lived on a farm a dozen miles southwest of Martintown and Winslow in rural Jo Daviess County, IL near the village of Stockton.

Herbert Fernstaedt did not enjoy a long life. At the end of a slow deterioration he passed away 8 May 1961 at a hospital in Freeport, Stephenson County, IL, dying so young his mother survived him. His father had passed away only the year before.

Anna would spend thirty-six years as a widow, never marrying again. Nearly all of that period was spent as a resident of Warren, Jo Daviess County, IL. Her home was at 606 Tisdell Avenue. She was still a Warren resident when she died Wednesday, 14 June 1997, though the event itself occurred at Rockford Memorial Hospital in Rockford, Winnebago County, IL.

Even though she was the youngest of Lena and Frank’s kids and succeeded in achieving what many would regard as a full lifespan, she nevertheless was survived by three of her siblings -- Ruth, Ernest, and Mary. Her remains were interred at Rock Lily Cemetery in Winslow beside those of Herbert on Saturday, 17 June 1997. One of the clergymen conducting the rites was Daniel Showalter, who as a young reverend had officiated at Herbert’s funeral.

During Anna’s last years, the family members based in Martintown and Winslow happen to have been paid a visit by Joyce Carter Nash, daughter of Gladys Beryl Spece, at which time this photograph was taken at the Martintown home of Leah Hastings Schumacher. Joyce is the woman on the left. Anna is on the right. In the center is Anna’s nephew Jerry Hastings. There is a chance Anna had not seen Joyce since a visit she made to California in 1936 or 1937 with her parents. If you go to Beryl’s biography and scroll to the bottom, you will see Joyce as the five-year-old girl in the big-family-group photo taken during that trip.

Descendants of Barbara Anna Hastings with Herbert William Fernstaedt

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