Another Photo of Alcide

That title really deserves an exclamation point at the end of it.  It’s not like I have several photos of my great grandfather Alcide Landry.  With some of my other ancestors, I have several photos of them and I don’t get as excited about finding new photos of them.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m always glad to find another photo of my ancestors.  That is especially true when the photo is over 100 years old.  That’s true about this photo, plus there is only one other photo of Alcide that I know of.  So to find a second one after all this time is very exciting.  It is exclamation point worthy!

Alcide Landry with railroad coworkers circa 1900

This is another photo from Box 301.  It was a box in my Aunt Wana’s attic that was recently rediscovered and shared with me.  I wasn’t really that excited when I got this photo, because it wasn’t labeled with any names or dates.  I didn’t look at it closely, because we were rushing through the photos so I could decide which ones I could take home with me to scan.  

I found this photo interesting because one of the reasons my Landry family moved from West Baton Rouge Parish to Calcasieu Parish around 1889 was for the railroad industry.  Those definitely look like railroad wheels in the photo.  My great grandfather Simon Alcide Joseph Landry moved their family to Westlake and began work at the railyards.  Some of his sons also worked in the industry.

Great grandpa Alcide was born in Brusly, Louisiana, on August 16, 1845.  Once he reached the age of 18, he joined the Confederate Army to fight in the Civil War.  A few years after the war ended, he married Marie Celeste Leveque.  I’ve written much more about her because she lived longer, and I have more photos of her.  My dad and his siblings had a few memories of her and spoke fondly of our Grandma Celeste.  Their first eight children were born in Brusly, and the last two were born in Westlake.  My grandfather Robert Joseph Landry was their last child born in 1893.

When I first started examining this photo to see if I recognized anyone, my focus was on the younger men.  I was wondering if my grandfather or one of his brothers was in the photo.  I have several photos of my grandfather and his brothers when they were young men, and they definitely had a look to them.  None of the young men in this photo had that look.  That’s when I looked closer at the older man in the dark overalls and the dark moustache.  There was something about him that looked familiar.

Alcide Landry circa 1890

Alcide went to work in Westlake at the age of 44, so he wasn’t exactly a young man.  When I compared the man in the photo to the only photo that I have of Alcide, I was surprised.  The hat in the group photo threw me off and I didn’t see the resemblance as much.  But it’s got to be him.  I think his nose looks somewhat wider in the individual photo of him, but that could be from the lighting.  The narrower bridge of the nose is a trait that all of his sons had.  The moustache looks the same in both photos.  I estimate the photo to be from around 1900.

You also have to consider where the photo came from.  It was in a box of old photos from my grandmother, but it had more photos of my grandfather’s younger days than any other collection.  So the photo is likely from my grandfather’s family.  Given that it is a photo of people at a railyard, that makes it even more likely that it is from his family.  It looks just like great grandpa Alcide, so who else would it be?

So I say yes, it is another photo of Alcide.  Behold!