Caroline “Lena” Crosby (1896 – 1996)

Caroline Margaret Schmitt was born in 1896 in Wahpeton, N.D., to John and Christine Schmitt.  In the spring of 1898 she came to Bemidji with her mother, traveling in a stagecoach.  She grew up in Grant Valley Township and attended country school.  She worked at the Bailey Boarding House in Bemidji.  On Oct. 6, 1920, she married Clinton J. “Red” Crosby in Bemidji.  She raised her family in Bemidji, where she lived until 1981 when she moved to California.  She died Feb. 7, 1996, at Carmichael, Calif.