Frank and Pauline Anstett

This post is about my Dad's maternal Uncle Frank Anstett and his wife, Pauline. Dad adored both of them.

Frank Louis Anstett (1878-1958), the son of Philip and Catherine Anstett, married Pauline Schmidt in 1910. Frank was a telegraph operator in Vandervort, Grayling, and Saginaw, and was in charge of both the Grayling, Michigan, railroad office and telegraph office. He would verify that the trains were on schedule. Dad recalled at least one occasion where his Uncle Frank chased a young George and his cousins out of the office commenting that they were trouble. 

Frank and Pauline Anstett

Pauline worked in the early, beautiful wooden Graying hospital doing nursing work with the Catholic nursing sisters. Dad remembered that the wooden floors by 1935 squeaked terribly and the inside had carved wood trim and wooden doors. He often talked fondly of his Aunt Pauline.

Both musically gifted, Frank played the violin and Pauline the piano. 

Here's Frank and his violin. Best copy I could make of the photo. 

In this smaller picture of  Frank and Pauline fishing in the AuSable River, I wonder who the person in the middle is wearing glasses? I think it may be my Dad. 

Frank and Pauline are among the very few Anstetts who did not have children. 

Here's a postcard photograph of the AuSable River written on the back by Margaret about an enjoyable visit with Frank and Pauline in Grayling in June 1949 and talking of going fishing. 

Frank and Pauline had what we would consider today an extremely small, basic cabin on Lake Margarethe. It had the same exterior even into the 1980s. We drove by it when we went swimming. You can see the corner of it in the photo below. The cabin, now modified, still exists and is recognizable.

The Anstetts siblings with a 1940 Chrysler and the cabin in the corner are, left to right:

Pauline Astett, Mary Anstett Gordon, Frank Anstett, Margaret Anstett Matyn, Rose and Walter Anstett.

Frank and Pauline also owned a home in Grayling on the corner of Lake and Ogemaw streets in Grayling. It really has not changed very much on the exterior except for varying paint color, pink or blue. Every time we drove by it when I was a kid Dad would say, that was Uncle Frank and Aunt Pauline's house. It still exists and is definitely recognizable today, although the outside entrance to the basement is gone. 

As a youngster from 1911 through the 1920s, George Matyn and his parents and siblings often drove up to Uncle Frank's cabin on Lake Margarethe near Grayling on dirt roads (no highway at the time) in an open touring car. Sometime it took all day due to repeated flat tires. They brought food to eat as there were no chain restaurants on the way. Dad loved fishing up there so much that eventually our family to Grayling so he could fish often whenever he had spare time. By then, 1967, most of his aunts and uncles had gone to their eternal reward, but Dad retained wonderful memories of them. I wish I could have met them, but I feel I know them somewhat through his stories.