View source for Gretchen Emily Grace Kumme

{{Overview
|Picture=WeddingGretchenKumme.jpg
|Name=Gretchen Emily Grace Kumme
|Occupation=Homemaker
|BornDate=17 June 1886
|BornWhere=Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA
|DiedDate= Thanksgiving Day November 1968
|DiedWhere=En route to Philadelphia, PA to visit her brother Warren.
|BuriedLocation=Fairview Cemetery, Hyde Park, MA, USA
|Mother=[[Emily W. Hartman]]
|Father=[[August G. Kumme]]
|Spouse=[[Chester Warren Farwell]], married 18 November 1910
|Issue=[[Gretchen Myrtle Farwell]], [[Warren Gregory Farwell]], [[Hermena Eva Farwell]], [[Violet Ruth Farwell]]
}}

[[Category:Kumme]]


'''[[John Wright III]]''' '''remembers his grandmother...'''

<blockquote>It is hard for me to think of my grandmother Gretchen without remembering her large house on Oak St. in Hyde Park.

My mother’s father Chester Warren Farwell died when I was only about 3 years old, and I have only the faintest memories of him. However, my grandmother looms large in the treasure chest of my recollections as a boy.

I suppose that I took her for granted in many ways.  She was the caretaker of a large home in which there were usually eight to ten people in residence, as well as visiting family members.

I loved the old house with its many rooms, its rear porte-cochere attached to a carriage barn with a wonderful, sweet old wood smell, its great attic filled with chests of keepsakes, and the house’s secret little places to which I was constantly drawn.

In the front hall there was a straight staircase, beneath which, when it had ascended sufficiently, sat my grandfather’s antique roll top desk. I think that the business of home management and endless letter writing was undertaken there.  Opposite that was a book case over which hung a lithograph of Lincoln and his cabinet, and on the shelves were numerous framed photos, treasured items, and two globes with stuffed, perched hummingbirds within.  At the end of the hall was an impressive grandfather clock that would chime every half hour and on the hour as well.  I always found this sound reassuring.

My grandmother was matronly with a dignified, capable manner. Her hair was constantly in a bun, and it seems that she was always wearing an apron. Only now do I realize what an enormous, time-consuming responsibility it must have been to run that home with the modest resources available to her during those days.  

“Grandma” was from a German family; she spoke fluent German as well as English. She was an excellent cook in both traditions and our table was always abundant with good tasting food.  However, one dish that was seared into my memory because of the trepidation on the faces of my brothers and me when it arrived at the table was her old world concoction of cabbage, onions, and molasses.  This recipe might have found more appreciation from my present adult palette––although I have my doubts.    

 She exhibited considerable talent as an artist, and there remain to this day many beautiful sketches, watercolors of flowers, and paintings of seacoast scenes that she had no doubt created in the stolen moments of her busy life.

Another talent that she had which enabled me to be drawn into the inner sanctum of her sensibilities was her love of the plants in her garden sunroom.    

I remember so many sunlit afternoons, dragging the chest of wooden blocks that was stored in the nearby game closet out into the sunroom. I would build tall structures in blessed contentment while she tended to her flowers and willowy ferns and looked after the extravagantly finned goldfish in the large fish bowls she kept on pedestals. Those hours are now emblazoned in the archive of my life’s most vivid images.

I was in college in Georgia when my grandmother passed away.  I was unable to attend the funeral, and I have never returned to that wonderful old house filled with so many of my childhood memories.</blockquote>

==Also Known As==
* Greta

==Notable==

==Pictures==
===Gretchen Over the Years===
<gallery>
File:A young Gretchen E.G. Kumme with hat and fur wrap.jpg|(A young Gretchen Emily Grace in hat and fur stole)
File:Young Gretchen Emily Grace (Kumme) Farwell.jpg|(Gretchen Emily Grace Kumme in hat)
File:Young Gretchen Emily Grace (Kumme) Farwell Lying Down 3.jpg|(Young Gretchen Relaxing) 
File:Young Gretchen Emily Grace (Kumme) Farwell Lying Down 2.jpg|(Young Gretchen Relaxing)
File:Gretchen EG Portraits 2.jpg|(Young Gretchen with and without hat)  
File:Gretchen EG leaning in chair.jpg|(Gretchen as a young woman)
File:1914 Young Gretchen E G, Warren Farwell.jpg|(Gretchen Emily Grace Kumme Farwell)
File:GretchenEGFarwellOlder1.jpg|(Gretchen at a later age) 
File:1960 Barabara and Gretchen E G.jpg|(1960: Gretchen with granddaughter Barbara, daughter of Violet Ruth Farwell)
File:Gretchen EG and Dick in field.jpg|(Gretchen with grandson Dick Farwell in field)
</gallery>

===At the Beach===
<gallery>
File:GretchenEmilyGraceFunBeach.jpg|(Gretchen Emily Grace Kumme having fun at the beach.)
File:GretchenEmilyGraceBeach.jpg|(Gretchen Emily Grace Kumme at the beach.) 
File:ChesterGretchenSailing.jpg|([[Chester Warren Farwell]] and Gretchen Emily Grace Kumme sailing)
File:ChesterBeach.jpg|(Gretchen Emily Grace Kumme's husband Chester Warren Farwell at the beach.)
</gallery>

===With Family (and Misc. Family Pictures)===
<gallery>
 File:Gretchen Emily Grace Kumme with her sisters and dolls.jpg|(Gretchen Emily Grace and her sisters. Gretchen E.G. on far right of photo.)
File:GretchenSistersMother.jpg|(Picture of Gretchen E G, Louise, Helene, Nina, Mother Emily Kumme, and Hilda (her sisters and her mother), circa late 1800s or early 1900s (precise date unknown))
File:Kumme Girls with August 3.jpg|(Kumme girls with August Kumme) 
File:Kumme Girls and August.jpg|(Kumme girls with August Kumme)
File:Kumme Girls and August2.jpg|(Kumme girls with August Kumme: Gretchen Emily Grace to the right of her father as photo is viewed, to his physical left, her arm around him)
File:Kumme Girls at fence with man and boy.jpg|(Kumme girls at fence (Gretchen E. G. Kumme with cloth in her hand))
File:KummeFamily.jpg|(Kumme sisters)
File:Sisters inside (back) Gretchen E G, (middle) Nina Kumme, Hilda Kum(1).jpg|(Gretchen E.G. in the back middle standing)
</gallery>

===Marriage===
<gallery>
File:WeddingGretchenKumme.jpg|(Wedding photo of Gretchen Emily Grace Kumme)
File:191011 Wedding Chester and Gretchen2.jpg|(Wedding photo of Gretchen Emily Grace Kumme with husband Chester Warren Farwell)
File:191011 Wedding Chester and Gretchen sitting.jpg|(Wedding photo of Gretchen Emily Grace Kumme with [[Chester Warren Farwell]])
File:191011 Wedding Chester copy.jpg|Wedding photo of Chester Warren Farwell, husband of Gretchen Emily Grace Kumme
File:191011 Wedding Invitation Chester and Gretchen.jpg|(Wedding invitation for Gretchen Emily Grace Farwell and husband Chester Warren Farwell)
File:191011 Wedding Invitation Chester and Gretchen2.jpg|(Wedding invitation for Gretchen Emily Grace Farwell and husband Chester Warren Farwell)
File:191011 Wedding Invitation Chester and Gretchen3.jpg|(Wedding Invitation for Gretchen Emily Grace Kumme and her husband Chester Warren Farwell) 
</gallery>

===Correspondence===
<gallery>
File:1896-1910 Eva Letter Page 1.jpg|(Letter (part one) from Chester Warren Farwell's mother Eva Sarah (Pierce) Farwell to Gretchen Emily Grace Kumme)
File:1896-1910 Eva Letter Page 2.jpg|(Letter (part two) from Chester Warren Farwell's mother Eva Sarah (Pierce) Farwell to Gretchen Emily Grace Kumme) 
</gallery>
===Gretchen's Artwork===
<gallery>
File:Drawing 15 - Gretchen Kumme.jpg|(Sketch by Gretchen Emily Grace Kumme) 
File:Drawing 23 - Gretchen Kumme.jpg|(Sketch by Gretchen Emily Grace Kumme)
File:Drawing 24 - Gretchen Kumme.jpg|(Sketch by Gretchen Emily Grace Kumme)
</gallery>

===Residences===
<gallery>
File:1890 Oak Street 59 Higgins.jpg|(59 Oak Street, Hyde Park, MA, USA: Photo from 1890 pictures future residence for Gretchen Emily Grace (Kumme) Farwell and her husband Chester Warren Farwell and family)
</gallery>
[http://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Hyde_Park,_Massachusetts FamilySearch.org article on Hyde Park, MA, USA]

===Burial Site===
<gallery>
File:200106 Gravesite.jpg|(Farwell/Kumme Family Gravesite, Fairview Cemetery, Hyde Park, MA, USA) 
File:19870047.jpg|(Farwell/Kumme Family Gravesite, Hyde park, MA, USA)
File:19900089.jpg|(Ornamentation on Farwell/Kumme family tombstone)
File:19900090.jpg|(Burial site of several members of Farwell family including surnames Pierce and Kumme)
 File:1968 Gretchen EG Obit.jpg|(Newspaper obituary for Gretchen Emily Grace Kumme Farwell)
</gallery>