Descendants of Capt. Arthur Fenner

Harry Benham Fenner

[b 24 Sept. 1857 in NY; d 24 Oct. 1937 Omaha, Douglas Co., NE] Dr. Harry Benham Fenner was a graduate of the Buffalo College of Physicians and Surgeons (Buffalo, NY) and Rush Medical School (Chicago, IL). He m 1st Alice J. Smith on 3 Oct. 1883. They had two children then divorced. Alice retained the children when Harry moved to Nebraska in the early 1890s. Prior to settling in Omaha in 1895, Harry was an orthopedic specialist at a children’s hospital in Lincoln, NE. Harry m 2nd Ida Patricia Poirier [b Mar. 1870 at Watertown, Jefferson Co., WI; d Jan. 1956 at Pittsburgh, Allegheny Co., PA] on 26 November 1895 at Holy Family Catholic Church, Omaha, NE. According to Harry’s granddaughter Rosemary:

He was a homeopathic physician and surgeon. I still have his certificates (certainly not like today’s requirements). My grandmother had been born with a club foot, and back then they just cut the foot off. Over the years, the bone kept popping through and more leg would be taken off. Until she went to Dr. Harry Fenner, who removed more leg to below the knee, padded the bone well with muscle, and then he married her.

At some point around 1910, in addition to his medical business and a practice of making artificial lambs, he had a hobby of carving dolls and figures, which drew the attention young girls who needed doll repairs. He ended up shifting all his energy in that endeavor, as explained in his obituary:

Little girls of yesterday, now grown with little girls of their own, lost a friend yesterday, who through the years cured many a heartache and dried many a tear through his skill as a doll surgeon. Dr. Harry B. Fenner, 80, resident of Omaha for 42 years, died Sunday afternoon at the home of his son, Bernard A. Fenner, 5310 Florence Boulevard. He had been ill for three years and recently suffered a second paralytic stroke.

An early physician and one-time member of the old Chicago Medical College, Dr. Fenner gave up practice and an artificial limb business years ago to devote his time to making little girls happy by repairing their broken dolls. The doctor many years ago carved complete figures of the Katzenjammer Kids, Happy Hooligan, Gloomy Gus and other early comic strip celebrities. A neighbor girl who had seen these and had broken her doll, brought it to him to see if he could fix it. He could—and since that time more than 25 years ago had repaired hundreds of dolls for hundreds of children, fashioning new limbs and sometimes all but new dolls from the remnants brought to him. His doll hospital was a feature of the Orchard & Wilhelm toy department. For the work he received pay—but much of his doll surgery through the years was a labor of love.

Surviving besides his son, is one brother Irvin of San Francisco; the widow, Mrs. Ida Poirier Fenner of Omaha, and a granddaughter, Rosemary, for whom he made many dolls. Tentative plans are for funeral services from the John A. Gentleman mortuary Wednesday morning to St. John’s Catholic church, Twenty-fifth and California streets, with burial in Holy Sepulchre cemetery.
Evening World-Herald (Omaha, NE), 25 October 1937, p. 12

Aged Doll Doctor is Dead at Omaha.
Dr. Harry B. Fenner Devoted Years of Life to Repairing.

Dr. Harry B. Fenner, 80, who 25 years ago gave up his tasks of mending unman bodies and creating artificial limbs to mend the dolls of Omaha girls, died here Sunday at the home of a son. The repair of dolls, started as an avocation gradually became a sideline to his practice and manufacture of artificial limbs and then became his vocation. His doll hospital established here received hundreds of “patients” annually from Omaha and all parts of the country.

Born in Rochester, N.Y., Dr. Fenner attended the Buffalo College of Physicians and Surgeons and Rush Medical School at Chicago and was graduated from both. At one time, he was faculty member of the old Chicago Medical College. A kindly, white-haired man, Dr. Fenner had been in failing health three years. Besides the son, Bernard, the widow and a brother survive.
The Lincoln Star (Lincoln, NE), 25 Oct. 1937

Children by Harry and Alice:

  1. Pearl Agnes [b 26 Nov. 1884 in NY; d 25 Aug 1968 at San Diego, CA] m George Phillip Rieman [b 7 Feb 1890 in MD; d 15 Dec 1964 at San Diego, CA] on 9 Apr 1917 at Lake, IN. Had Alice [b 1925 in WV].

  2. Ethel Mae [b 29 Jan. 1890 at Rochester, NY; d 26 Oct. 1957 at Norfolk, VA] m Charles Freund [b 1886 in IN] on 25 Jan. 1911 at Wheaton, IL. They had Eleanor M. [b 1921 in VA]. They divorced 12 Dec. 1934 at Norfolk, VA; Charles was accused of desertion.

Children by Harry and Ida:

  1. Bernard Aloysius [b 10 Mar. 1902 at Omaha, NE; d 8 Apr. 1984] m Elene May Smith.

  2. Veronica [b/d 19/20 Jan. 1908 at Omaha, NE], infant.


Lineage:
Arthur | Thomas | Thomas | Daniel | Thomas | William | John | Daniel | Harry

Sources:
1. Harry’s memorial at FindaGrave, no. 182647973
2. Email from Rosemary Jordan, 24 Sept. 2010.
3. Additional data from FamilySearch.