Roscoe Maxwell Martin

Roscoe Maxwell Martin, son of Nathaniel Martin (the younger) and Kittie B. Bolender, was born 1 September 1911 near Bloomington, McLean County, IL. He was known in daily life as Max Martin. He grew up with three siblings close to his own age -- his older brother Kenneth, and his younger sisters Alice and Katy.

In Max’s early childhood the family moved to McConnell, Stephenson County, IL, very close to where each of his parents had been raised. His father became the stationmaster for Illinois Central Railroad at the McConnell depot. This became the place Max would look back on as “where he was raised.” He attended local schools, including his years at Winslow High School, the same institution that his father would have attended if the school had been founded in time for him to do so. (The photograph reproduced at upper left is one used for his senior yearbook picture.) His classmates included not only his brother Kenneth and sister Alice, but a plethora of Martin-Strader-clan cousins, including first cousins Leon and Lyle Smith. His father served as a trustee on the school’s board of directors throughout the time Max was a student.

During the 1930s Illinois Central increasingly eliminated its small rural depots as part of the contraction of the rail industry. As it became clear this would soon happen to the depot in McConnell, Max’s father transferred to the depot in Orangeville, a few miles northwest of McConnell, and also located in Stephenson County. This would prompt Nathaniel and Kittie to obtain a home in Orangeville, a purchase they made in 1935, 1936, or 1937. Whether they moved at precisely the same time as the job transfer is not known. It is possible Nathaniel changed jobs in the early 1930s and commuted to work from McConnell for a while. The Orangeville house would be where Max’s parents and sisters would live in the 1940s, 1950s, and beyond. Each left it behind only for their final stays in hospitals or care facilities at the very ends of their lives. Max may not have resided there at all. If so, it was only for a brief interval. It depends on precisely when he headed off to begin his independent life. He may have done so years before before his parents relocated.

Max came to roost in the Milwaukee area by the late 1930s, and proceeded to spend nearly all of the next half century there. Not long after his arrival he came to know Irmgard Martha Steidte. Irmie had been born 10 September 1916 in Fort Wayne, Allen County, IN to German-immigrant parents Edmund Oswald Steidte and Gertrude Koch. During the 1920s, the Steidte family, which included Irmie’s sisters Dorothea and Ruth, had relocated to Milwaukee, where Edmund went on to have a long career as a knitter for Phoenix Hosiery Company. Irmie was a Class-of-1934 graduate of Riverside High School in Milwaukee. (The photo of her at right is taken from the 1934 annual, The Mercury, a publication Irmie herself worked on.) The wedding of Max and Irmie took place 10 June 1938.

At first, Max and Irmie lived with her father at the long-time family home at 2745 N. Frederick Avenue, her mother having recently died. Early in the 1940s the young couple established a home of their own in Glendale, a suburb along the northern outskirts of the city of Milwaukee, where they raised their two children, both born in the first half of the 1940s. In his earliest years as a husband, the Great Depression was still suppressing the economy, and Max took what jobs he could get. One of them was salesman for a drycleaning company. Eventually he landed what was to become his decades-long main gig with the Shorewood School District. He was a jack-of-all-trades type serving variously as a janitor, carpenter, and general handyman.

In about 1984, Max and Irmie finally left Glendale in favor of Stoughton, Dane County, WI, in order to reside near one of their children. Max passed away 24 August 1985 at Stoughton Hospital. His funeral was held a week later in Stoughton, after which his remains were interred at Graceland Cemetery in Milwaukee. Irmie only survived him by a couple of years, succumbing 26 December 1987 in Stoughton at Skaalen Sunset Home. Her remains were also interred at Graceland Cemetery. (By passing away at seventy-one years old, hers was an early death by family standards. Her sisters both made it well into their nineties.)

Here is the junior class of Winslow High School as portrayed in the 1929 Win-Nel, the yearbook. Max is second from the right in the front row. His sister Alice is third from left in the middle row. First cousin Leon Elton Smith is at the far left of the front row, and second cousin Ray Elwood Bucher is next to Leon.

Descendants of Roscoe Maxwell Martin with Irmgard Martha Steidte

Details of Generation Five -- the great-great-grandchildren of Nathaniel Martin and Hannah Strader -- and beyond are kept off-line. We can say that Max’s line includes two children, seven grandchildren, at least six great-grandchildren, and at least one great great grandchild. This tally includes two grandchildren who died young.

To go back one generation, click here. To return to the Martin/Strader Family main page, click here.