1. Joseph Walter Bandhauer, b. 1877
2. Florence Bertha Bandhauer, b. 1879
3. Robert John Bandhauer, b. 1881
4. Mildred E. Bandhauer, b. 1882
5. Clara Ellen Bandhauer, b. 1884
6. Fannie Bandhauer, b. 1886
7. Mary Henrietta Bandhauer, b. 1888
8. Katherine Ruth Bandhauer, b. 1892

Joseph Fager and Sarah Jane King, married in New Santa Fe, Missouri on the Missouri/Kansas border where Sarah Jane's family lived.  Mary Elizabeth Fager — Lizzie — was their first child.  Lizzie and her siblings were born in Baldwin, Douglas County, Kansas during the most chaotic time in that area's history.  It was the strife in this area that ultimately spawned the Civil War.  The Missouri/Kansas border was frequented by William Quantrill's Raiders and was the battleground of the Jayhawkers and Bushwhackers.  Lizzie's grandfather was evicted from Jackson County, Missouri under the infamous Order No. 11 but was eventually able to return to his land.

Despite Quantrill's 1863 massacre in Lawrence, Kansas, just 15 miles north of Baldwin, Lizzie's family stayed there until 1871 when they moved to Denver, in the Colorado Territory.  The Railroads had reached Denver in 1870 ending its isolation.  Lizzie's father, a blacksmith, set out to pursue new opportunities on this promising frontier.

On a recent visit to my parents' home, I began looking through old newpaper clippings.  On the back of a clipping from the 1960s, an article about Leap Year Day caught my eye.  Leap Year Day is traditionally a time when it is acceptable for women to propose marriage to men who are too shy or too slow to do the job themselves.  The very next day I was looking through the old Bandhauer family Bible and found an old program for Lizzie Fager's attendance at a Leap Year Ball and Banquet in Denver, held February 29th, 1876.  Do you suppose it's just coincidence that Lizzie and Robert Bandhauer were married six months later in August that same year?  Do you suppose it's just coincidence that Lizzie saved the program from that particular Ball in the family Bible?

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