When My Great-Grandmother Got Married

So far, we have seen Mata go through a vicious cycle of developing an intense crush on an older man (usually a doctor), only to end in severe disappointment that continued to affect her for a long time afterward. For the last few articles, I have relied on Mata’s well-written diaries, but unfortunately, this is where they end, so I had to do more research myself for this part of her life. The last article left off in the year 1916, and after that diary ended in the middle of the year, Mata attended an 8-week course at Columbia University in New York City. But there is little information about her time there. The only hint of what she did between that and 1919, assuming she had the correct chronology, we have only this single sentence from her later autobiographical essay: “After 3 years of fun and teaching and mountain climbs at Glacier and the Yellowstone areas I left again for Wisconsin.”

A photo of the Columbia University campus taken by Mata in 1916

While she may have returned to Wisconsin for a short time, as she often did, Mata then taught in Libby, Montana during the 1919-1920 school year. There isn’t much to write about her time there, but you can look at the photos I included in another very short article that I wrote when I first revived this blog. Mata was glad to leave Libby in 1920. Yet again, she returned home to Two Rivers, Wisconsin while she was in between teaching jobs. Despite being disappointed with the towns she had to teach in, she continued to take teaching jobs, this time staying in Wisconsin. One of these teaching jobs was at the new and architecturally beautiful Lincoln High School in Manitowoc. It was built in 1923, and she taught there in the mid-1920s. She seemed to enjoy it, according to a brief mention she wrote in her short autobiography: “Here I could have finished all of my school years. But as it was in the back of my head there was someone waiting for me.” And that someone was her husband, Ben Crane.

I used to think that this photo was from Libby High School based on the LHS patch, but now I think it’s probably from Lincoln High School in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, c. mid-1920s. But that is still unconfirmed.

Mata in her later teaching years, possibly a class in Lincoln High School c. 1920s

Because of the lack of diaries for this part of her life, the lead-up to the marriage is a bit foggy. It’s unclear when and where exactly they met, but there are a few hints that can help make some general assumptions. There were actually some connections with the Crane family dating back more than 20 years earlier. On November 5, 1914, Mata wrote in her diary, “Edna Crane Grover spoke to me for the first time since graduation years ago. Now she has cooled off.” Edna Crane, older sister of Ben Crane, was less than a year older than Mata. It is implied that Edna and Mata graduated from the same high school, and probably at the same time. This is backed up by the fact that sometime between 1900 and 1905, the Crane family moved from Menominee, Michigan, to Two Rivers, Wisconsin. And less than two months after that Nov. 5, 1914 diary entry, Mata briefly mentioned another Crane family member: “I met Alice Crane of Mil. who is visiting in Two Rivers.” Alice Crane was the younger sister of Ben Crane, and was almost exactly four years younger than Mata. The next year (1915), on March 27, Mata wrote: “Meet Mrs. Crane + Alice too! Met them once more while at Milwaukee.” So now we have a third Crane enter into the story. “Mrs. Crane” almost certainly refers to Elizabeth Crane, mother of Ben, Edna, Alice, and an unmentioned son named Chester. But those are the only mentions of the Cranes in Mata’s diaries. While there was some kind of connection, it wasn’t a very strong one.

Ben Crane, around the time he got married to Mata, 1926

So we have established that some of the Hartungs and the Cranes at least knew each other. Yet, there was still no mention of Ben Crane himself. What makes things even more confusing is that, at the time of their marriage, Ben was working in Chicago, while Mata was presumably teaching at Lincoln High School in Manitowoc. It will probably forever stay a mystery.

The first (and only) surviving correspondence between Mata and Ben before their marriage is from a Dec. 1925 letter written by Ben. Mata’s father had just died very suddenly, and Ben wrote to console her: “It certainly must have been a terrible shock to you and the rest of [your] family, you all have my sympathy. I can hardly realize what has happened after reading your last letter. You must please be brave and strong, I have been thru with the same thing and know what it is.” On June 18, 1927, Mata and Ben got married. Mata couldn’t wait to find a husband for so long. She despaired about it constantly in her diary. Twelve years earlier, she had written: “I want to marry some day. Maybe somewhere—there is one whom I can love. If I do love him, I shall sacrifice to him my body and soul—and he will reward it with his love.” She finally got her wish.

Above: Mata and Ben’s marriage certificate (left) and the bride and groom at their wedding ceremony in 1927

Or was it? Ben was a year younger than Mata; at the time of their marriage, Mata was 39 and Ben was 37. For Mata especially, this was far past what most women would have considered the point of no return. Ben certainly goes against what had been her ideal type of man in the past. Her biggest crushes ten years before had been older men who were doctors. Ben was neither of those things. There is also a tinge of disappointment in Mata’s autobiographical essay after writing about the joys of dancing in her younger days: “But after marrying a non-dancer all this joy vanished into the thin blue.”

Perhaps she had already resigned herself to the life of a spinster when she met Ben. Perhaps it was a marriage simply for companionship—at least at first. Perhaps if her diaries from this time had survived (if they were ever written), we would know for certain how much the pairing was truly based on love and how much, if any, was based on societal pressure or loneliness. Whatever the case, upon becoming Mrs. Crane, Mata quit her modest 15-year career as a teacher and moved to Chicago with Ben, where he had a stable job at a big post office.

What was even more remarkable was that the next year, at 40 years old, Mata gave birth to her and Ben’s only child—a daughter named Barbara. While we don’t have the diary from that time, Mata did write a brief recollection 14 years later:

“My thoughts run to Barbara and her coming to earth nearly 14 years ago—+ its all so real. The going to Elmhurst in afternoon in a $10.00 taxi—to a $200—2 week room + a week more at 75—+ then 2 wks. more to Sena at $45 per wk. But it seemed like really doing the only thing a woman should do[,] recreate… And she came 20 min after 12 P.M. April 18. Paul Revere’s Ride—2 lines I never forgot… May 31^st. I + Ben + baby—went to our Highland Park home, he carrying her. Then when Norbert [Mata’s brother] saw her, [he]…said—Looks like Mata + Ben said she looked like Leatha [Mata’s sister]—+ Marie Lipp [Mata’s friend] said she looked like Leatha.”

The first mother-daughter photo in April 1928

And this has been Mata’s journey through her first 40 years of life—a bit short of the halfway point. But what else lies ahead in her future?