Pee Paw’s 130th Birthday

130 years ago in Westlake, Louisiana, my great grandmother Marie Celeste Leveque Landry was getting ready to give birth to her last child.  It was about time for her to stop – she had recently turned 45.  There were a few eventful things that happened during her pregnancy.  The father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden were found murdered in their Massachusetts home. Thomas Edison received a patent for the two-way telegraph. The Pledge of Allegiance was first recited in the United States, and the next day the fifth moon of Jupiter was discovered. And The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was published in London on the Halloween of 1892.

I don’t know if she noted these events that happened during those nine months, but they are all things that most of us are familiar with.  But she was familiar with what to expect during pregnancy.  She had already given birth to nine children – seven boys and two girls.  Celeste and Alcide’s first child had been born 22 years earlier in Brusly, Louisiana.  That’s where most of their children were born. At some point in the 1880s, the family moved west across the state and settled in Westlake.

I believe they moved there for the railroad industry in the area.  There were a few family groups that moved from West Baton Rouge Parish to Calcasieu Parish.  Some of them – like Landry and Leveque – are who I descend from.  Others – like Myhand, Bird, and Thompson – are families who married some of my ancestors’ cousins. The closest family group to Marie Celeste and her husband Alcide Landry included two of their siblings.  Alcide was the youngest in his family, and he had an older brother named Pierre Belisaire.  Pierre Belisaire was married to Celeste’s older half-sister Lise Leveque.  They also ended up in Westlake.  So even though they moved across the state, there were still family members around.

So there were a few people waiting to see what Celeste would give birth to.  Would it be a girl?  A boy? They would just have to wait and see.  But not all of the children of Celeste and Alcide were still alive.  Their oldest, Lily, had died at the age of 19 in 1889.  Celeste had given birth to twins in 1879 and one of them did not make it.  Yet there were still seven siblings waiting to see the newest addition to the family.

Once 1893 arrived, they didn’t have to wait long.  Little Robert Joseph was born on the second Monday of the year.  And it just happens to be the same date – January 9 – as the second Monday of this year.  This coming Monday will be the 130th birthday of my paternal grandfather.  Happy birthday, Pee Paw!