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Louie Wanda Strentzel  
Louisa Wanda Strentzel was born in Texas in 1847. She came to California by covered wagon in 1849, the same year John Muir left Scotland for Wisconsin. 

Louie first met John Muir on September 15, 1874 at the home of Dr. and Mrs. Carr in Oakland. Between 1875 and 1879 Mrs. Jeanne Carr was a frequent visitor to the Strentzel's. Mrs. Carr was the wife of one of Muir's professors at the University of Wisconsin and the two corresponded for several decades. 

She had for years been trying to match up Louie and John, and in 1879 the pressure became intense, with Mrs. Carr working over the two of them separately. 
In 1875, Mrs. Carr wrote: "You see how I am snubbed in trying to get John Muir to accompany me to your house this week." John Muir chose to go to Mt. Shasta instead. 

Eventually Muir gave in to her perseverance and on June 17, 1879 they became engaged, the day before Muir's first trip to Alaska. On a very stormy April 14, 1880, they were married in the Strentzel's white house with white Astrakan apple blossoms decorating the home

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