Our Patureau Matriarch Was a Landry: Emma’s Death Notice

For some reason I was thinking about these death notices that are keepsakes in my dad’s family.  I’m pretty sure they come from my Mee Maw – my paternal grandmother Germaine Erie Patureau Landry.  I was thinking it was time to share another one.  Plus it was time to write a post about the Patureau line of the family.  And again, a Patureau post ends up being a Landry post as well.  That’s what you get when  you have three generations in a row of a Landry marrying a Patureau.

I didn’t exactly remember which ancestors I had copies of death notices for.  So when I saw this one, I knew it was the topic for discussion today.  It fit all of the criteria for what I was looking for.  Then I had to decide on a name for the post.  Sometimes I just sit there for several minutes waiting for an interesting name to come to me.  I can’t start writing until I settle on a name for the post.  Mainly because I think the program won’t let me.  And actually I could be wrong about that.  Oh, well.  It is what it is.

My last name is Landry, but one of my posts is titled “I Am a Patureau.”  Now I’d like to remind all of my Patureau kin out there – and there are lots of you – you can also say “I Am a Landry” because our matriarch was a Landry.  Marie Emma Landry was born on November 10, 1829, in St. Gabriel, Louisiana.  She was the daughter of Elie Onezime Landry (1800-1880) and Jeanne Zerbine Dupuy (1807-1886).  Both of those are Cajun/Acadian surnames, but  Emma’s maternal grandmother was from a French line. 

So when Emma married French immigrant Ferdinand Pierre Patureau on February 10, 1847, she wasn’t the first one in her family to marry “outside the family.”  Isn’t that a weird term?  I found myself saying that about cousins in the Landry and Patureau family lines who didn’t marry their cousins.  It seems like that trend has mostly fallen by the wayside.

Anyway, Emma and Ferdinand were married and had a large family.  I spoke about that once before, so I won’t go through all of the names again.  She gave birth to over a dozen children, as did her son Max’s (my great grandfather) Landry wife Marie Therese.  It definitely was a trend in the Patureau family groups.  I know I’ve got over a thousand cousins that I’ve identified from that group.  That is a lot.

Ferdinand died in 1877 after an accident that occurred in his sawmill.  According to a newspaper article in 1881, Emma was declared owner of half of the Iberville Saw Mill.  I suppose that was the name of the sawmill that Ferdinand owned.  I find the article confusing because it mentions Widow F. Patureau who I’m pretty sure is Emma Landry Patureau.  But it also mentions L. Patureau and I’m not sure if that’s supposed to be Emma or someone else – most likely a son – Leobon? 

Another article from 1884 thanks Mrs. Patureau for her tasty honey in a comb that came from her apiary in town.  I’m thinking it probably is Emma, though it could be her son Leobon’s wife.  In an earlier article they talk about Emma Patureau by name and talk about her recommending the use of the Howe sewing machine. 

It wasn’t all sweetness and light for Emma, though.  In the Jan. 12, 1889, article in The Iberville South, there was a report that there was an attempted burglary of her home.  Nothing was taken, so it was supposed that the person or persons were frightened off.  Evidently she was not harmed either, or that would have been noted.  I’m sure it was probably a bit of a scare for her.  Who would do that to our poor old widowed grandmother?  Wait!  She was actually younger than me when that happened to her!  When you’re young, and sometimes still, 60 years old sounds old.  When you make it to that age – if you make it to that age – it doesn’t seem that old.  In this situation, an attempted burglary can be off-putting to anyone at any age.

We all know from the beginning of this article that she didn’t live much longer.  She was only 62 years old when she died.  That seems really young now.  In the newspaper reporting on her death, it said that she was 63 years old and 1 month.  From my calculations, she was 62 years and 2 months.  But more importantly it talks about her being a well respected and loved citizen who will be missed. 

She died at her home at 3:30 in the morning on Sunday January 24, 1892.  To me that implies that someone was with her and knew she was dying.  How else would they know the time of her death?  I’d like to think that it meant she was surrounded by loving family members and/or friends when she died.  The death notice was posted later that day to inform those interested of the time of her funeral.  From the funeral, the procession was to move to St. John’s Church.

St. John’s Church is the Catholic Church in Plaquemine.  The Catholic cemetery is nearby.  I’m sure she was buried in that graveyard, yet there is no evidence of it now.  There is a large Patureau tomb (at least, there usually is – don’t ask) and her name is not on any of the plaques.  Her husband and many of her children have their names engraved on them.  For some reason her name is not.  That may be remedied soon.  She deserves some respect.