A Patureau Keepsake: Grampa’s Got a Gun

I’m not sure when I heard about this keepsake.  I’m thinking that it was last year at the high school graduation of my second cousin once removed in Plaquemine.  Now I don’t go to all of my distant cousins’ graduations, but it just happened that I was there.  I went with Chuck to his nephew’s graduation from St. John in Plaquemine and one of the Barkers were graduating as well.  To clarify who the Barkers are to me, I’ll explain.

My grandmother Erie Patureau married Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. and they became my Mee Maw and Pee Paw.  One of Erie’s sister Sylvie married John Walter “Son” Marionneaux.  So Erie and Robert’s son was my dad Bob.  His first cousin is Melwyn who is the daughter of Sylvie and Son.  Melwyn married Will Barker and they had seven children.  Mom and dad only had six children including me.  Melwyn and Will’s son Walter is my second cousin and his son Walter, Jr. is my second cousin once removed.

And it was Walter, Jr.’s graduation that I ended up attending.  I looked around during the commencement services and saw a few cousins.  Then after the service we went to the reception.  Of course, Melwyn was there as well as several other kinfolk.  Somehow we ended up talking about family history (how that happens I never know), and she mentioned that she had the pistol that belonged to Erie and Sylvie’s father, AKA Grampa Max.

I was told that when Grampa Max was a practicing veterinarian in Lafayette from 1917 to 1933, he carried this gun around with him.  He wasn’t carrying it for protection, of course.  Everybody knows that there was no crime in little Lafayette a hundred years ago.  No, he brought it with him in case one of his patients needed to be euthanized.  He did what he could for people’s pets, livestock, and farm animals, but some animals could not be saved.  Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

So when I started to do a few of these Keepsake Series posts, the gun from Grampa Max was high on my list of things to photograph and share.  I went to Plaquemine to see Melwyn last week and we had a very pleasant visit.  She’s sharp as a tack.  She knows a lot of family history and she’s glad it is being shared.  She has this gun mounted, framed, and hanging in her house.  It’s a Colt series No. 2 derringer from somewhere around the 1870s or so.  I’m no gun expert, but that’s what my research found from the details in the second photo.

I would love to know the whole history of this gun.  I’m not sure how much more our family knows.  I was surprised to know of its existence when I first heard about it.  With the little bit that I know about it, it is a priceless family keepsake.