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Both of Carrie’s parents had been born in Germany.

Her mother had died young, probably in childbirth and the two girls, Carrie & Louise, were raised in an orphanage in Cincinnati. She also had a brother, Ed, and a half-sister Catherine (Miller).

At the age of 25 she married Anthony Ziegler, who was recently widowed with 6 children, one an infant named Susanna, who died at about 1 yr. She and Anthony had 8 children, one of whom died in infancy. Two of their sons, Joe and Bill, were mentally handicapped.

About 1900, Carrie persuaded her husband to move from their farm in the country into Lawrenceburg so the children could go to Catholic school. They bought 100 acres there, and their home at 524 Front St. was a large, square brick house with barn & outbuildings in back, dropping steeply to the farmland below, but unfortunately it was in the floodplain of the nearby Ohio River. The floods of 1927 and 1937 came up to their 2nd story of the house, and all the furniture downstairs that could not be moved upstairs was ruined, including a piano.

In the 1940's, about half of their land was taken by condemnation, so that a levee for flood control could be built. Later, a Seagram’s Distillery plant was built on part of the property that had been taken, causing much bitterness. They sold another parcel to build the public high school.

Copy of photograph found at the Ziegler home in Lawrenceburg at the time of its sale, after the deaths of all of the family. This is probably the home of Anthony R. Ziegler at “Sand Run”, the original homestead.

Uncles Frank and Bill ran the farm, and Aunt Nettie sold milk and cheese, and kept house. Uncle Joe spent many years at the state hospital at Madison doing farm work there. Aunt Ceil, the youngest, returned home after her husband died and WWII ended, and was employed as an executive secretary at Schenley Distillery. These four kept the farm and house going for many years.

“Our family visited Lawrenceburg nearly every summer during these years and Dad helped in the fields with the uncles. As the only children in the family at the time, we were fussed over by all the aunts & uncles, including Aunt Rose & Uncle Otto Wellcamp, who lived nearby in Aurora. It was a great treat for my brother & me to ride in the hay wagon, play in the barn or ride horseback.

There was no indoor plumbing until after the war, and everything was done in the “old way”. Uncle Frank never owned a tractor and continued to farm with a team of horses. We were there at least once during the threshing when men came from all around to help, and a huge dinner was prepared at noon. It was truly the end of an era.”

Carrie was an invalid for a number of years before her death at age 67. She died of lung congestion and paraplegia. The unmarried children continued to live at the home.

“I don’t remember hearing much about Grandfather Anthony, except that he was very stern and expected the children to work hard from a very early age, while Carrie tried to be more lenient.”

--- MCK 2002