Emma and members of her family pose in front of the Northwestern Hotel in Marion, Wisconsin for a photo.  Left to right:  Emma’s parents, Fred and Johanna Leverenz, Emma, her sister, Hattie (Leverenz) Aiken with Dorothy Maes in front of her, and Emma’s daughters, Belva and Rose Krieser. The photo was taken on the occasion of Hattie’s wedding, which took place about 1919 or 1920, five or six years after Emma and Charlie had bought the Northwestern.  It is the only photo we have of the outside of the hotel.

The younger children were still in their teenage years when Charlie purchased the Northwestern Hotel in Marion.  The hotel was several blocks southeast of the “Sample Room”, by the railroad depot.  Marion was on the Chicago & NorthWestern Railroad line, and The Northwestern Hotel was situated right across the street from the depot so it would have gotten a lot of business.  Charlie ran the bar and Emma ran the hotel.

The Northwestern Hotel

Herman Krieser, Charlie’s brother, was tending bar in the Northwestern Hotel in this photograph.  Note the wooden Indian bust behind Herman’s right shoulder.