Elsie Trinkner

Elizabeth Wilhelmina "Elsie" Trinkner was born on December 28, 1883, in Lakewood, Ohio, to Anna Maria (Mary) Kappes, age 32, and Paul Friedrich Trinkner, age 35, both of whom were from Baden-Württemberg, Germany. 

Elsie met William Griffith Fording at her family’s beer garden. They married in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 12, 1903, when she was 19 years old and William was 25. They had seven children: Willard Lee, Paul Harvey, Azalia Mary (Toots), Donald Roy, Edmund Howard, Norman Charles, and Lincoln.

Elsie joins daughters-in-laws Kate and Eleanor, holding each others' daughters Linda and Nancy, at a family picnic in 1940. 

In 1953, William and Elsie celebrate their 50th anniversary. 

Elsie died on January 11, 1958, in Cleveland, Ohio, when she was 74 years old.

This meat grinder belonged to Elsie. Her granddaughter Linda remembers that she used it to make liver dumpling soup, and Elsie passed her recipe and grinder along to daughter-in-law Eleanor (Linda’s mother). The recipe is from Eleanor’s recipe box.