Names on a Grave – Patureau

I’m doing something I’ve never done before on a blog post.  I wouldn’t normally do this, but it is a good cause.  At least I think so.  I guess I should just come right out with it…  I’m asking for money.  Not for myself, but for a family history cause.   It’s all about the Patureau Tomb in Plaquemine.  If you’re not familiar with it, it is the old Catholic Cemetery in Plaquemine, Louisiana. 

I went and visited that tomb a few months ago.  Sad to say, I had to ask for directions.  I thought I knew where it was, but I was wrong.  When we finally got there, I went to see about something on that family tomb.  Don’t tell anyone, but I may have broken something off accidentally.  I was nervous that someone might have seen me and tried to hide the evidence!  I laugh about it now, but it was in a bit of a state of disrepair.  That’s where the request for money comes from.  But before I get into those details, I want to tell a story about one of the names on the grave.

On the Patureau tomb there is a large plaque with several names on it.  At the top is the name of Piere Patureau who was born in 1800 in France.  He was the patriarch of the family that immigrated to Plaquemine, Louisiana in 1840.  At the bottom of the plaque is his son Ferdinand Pierre Patureau who is the son that carried on the Patureau name in southern Louisiana and places further afield.

The person that I want to tell the story about is just above Ferdinand.  Her name was Anna Emma Patureau and she was the ninth child of Ferdinand and his wife Marie Emma Landry.  I had noticed her name a few years ago because she was born in 1860 and she died in 1874.  I wondered what had caused her death at such a young age.  Grampa Max was only five years younger than her, so her death would have greatly affected him.  But he wasn’t around to ask about it and nobody else seemed to have any information about Anna Emma.

Then one day my search on a newspaper website brought something to my attention.  It was an old newspaper article written in French in an Opelousas publication in 1874.  I don’t know French, but I have been working a bit with French documents enough to recognize some words.  I could make out that a daughter of F. P. Patureau in Plaquemine had died at the age of 14.  I had found her!

So I used my trusty French translation app on that googly search engine and found out what the article was talking about.  Apparently Anna Emma had decided that she wanted to set a world record or something on June the 12th, a day of the year when the average temperature is 90 degrees.  The sport she chose was jumping rope.  So she started jumping.  She made it to 50. Then she made it to 100.  Then 200.  I wonder if she started feeling bad by the time she reached 300?  Because something went terribly wrong when she reached 350.  She must have overheated, because she stopped and drank some cold water.  It doesn’t say that she stopped to drink the cold water.  That was something I surmised.

The article says that drinking the cold water caused her to have a furious fever which led to her death.  But it also says that she died from a ruptured artery.  Since I am not fluent with French, I may be missing some other meanings to phrases they use in the article.  But it sounds like she either died from something like an aneurysm or from heat stroke.  Either way, it was a sad day at the Patureau household in Plaquemine, Louisiana.  Thanks to Abeille (Bee) in New Orleans for providing that story to the Opelousas Courier.

So you see?  Those aren’t just names on a slab of stone.  They represent people like Anna Emma who had dreams of something more that being a “Notice for girls who jump rope” as the article states at the conclusion.  She died with a dream of accomplishing something.  So we want those names to last a while.  This takes us back to the reason for the money.  Like I said, the family tomb was in disrepair, even though some family members were paying for upkeep.  The years take their toll.

For the past several years some of my dad’s first cousins have been paying to provide that service.  They are granddaughters of Grampa Max.  Sis and Syl are the daughters of Marie Therese Patureau Schafer (and nieces/step daughters of Zita Patureau Schaefer).  Maxine and Winona are the daughters of Sylvia Patureau Marionneaux . When they noticed that the whole structure needed to be reconstructed, they researched what was required and found a reputable person to do the work.

The total cost of the work is $5000.  Those four women have generously paid $1000 each for this work.  I am going to go ahead and pledge $100 to take part in the restoration.  I know that a few of my first cousins have done the same.  I am hoping that there are enough of you out there that are willing to help so we can reimburse our generous cousins so they don’t have such a large burden to bear.  Wouldn’t that be nice?

For many of us, the tomb is a resting place for three generations of our family.  This is true for me, since Grampa Max is buried there.  It is also true for all of you that descend from Louis Leobon Patureau.  You know who you are!  Maybe you don’t, but I’m not going to name names.  So don’t worry, Byron.

So if you are feeling the desire to help out with this familial endeavor, just send me a note and we can figure out the best way to keep our family history crypt going. 

Go, go, Patureau!