MarxLennon's Gratuitous Image Page
The MarxLennon family can be traced back in U.S. history about 127 years. A small group of travelling "folk" appeared in the small town of Canaan, Ohio.
Left to right - Heddy Fossilman, Josef Kavaski, Maude Marx, Chester Blainsworth, and "Uncle" Wilhelm Tootington...
These five came to town with their mentor and leader, Augustus Theopolis Lennon. Augustus was a charismatic speaker and inventor. He is credited with inventing the first steam powered vibrating relaxation chair. Once he and his group were settled in Canaan, they began a lucrative hemp farm. Augustus mysteriously disappeared on July 17th, 1893 while attending a Pumpkin Festival in nearby Holmes County. Augustus never married and left no legal heirs.
However, it was widely believed that Augustus in fact had two sets of heirs. First were the Marx children. The sons and daughters of Maude Marx.
Shortly after the hemp farm was established, Maude left the communal homestead to live in Canaan proper. She supported herself by running a small, but exclusive boarding house. Maude never married, but had four children,
Those children, Cosmo, Jennifer, Gladis, and Gunther, claimed to be Augustus's true heirs. Such was never the claim of Maude Marx, who maintained until her dying day that she had no idea who their father was.
Adding to the confusion were the Lennon twins, Len and Lynn. Found on the steps of the old Frisbietarian church in Homerville, with a note saying they were the unclaimed children of "the great man", it was never proven if they were, in fact the children of Augustus Lennon.
Despite this odd connection, or perhaps because of it, young Gunther Marx and the attractive Miss Lynn Lennon, fell in love and were married in Medina, Ohio on June 17th, 1905. Gunther, a painter and concert cellist, moved his bride and himself to Cleveland in order to follow their bohemian lifestyle. Lynn, an accomplished horsewoman, taught riding to the Carnegie children. To express their undying love for each other, they combined surnames to become the first MarxLennon family.
Just days before their fifteenth anniversary, Lynn gave birth to their only child, Bertram Wolfgang MarxLennon.
Young "BeeWee", as he was known, had an unusual early life, due, perhaps to Gunther's insistence that he wear dresses until the age of six.
"BeeWee" MarxLennon was my grandfather.
