Category: Bucklin

At Thanksgiving I wrote a post about some of my Bucklin family’s early American Immigrants.  They are part of a group of immigrants that came to America in the early to mid 1600s for religious freedom.  Some people have called it the Puritan Great Migration and it includes people who immigrated from 1621-1640.  I talked about the family names of Bucklin, Bosworth, Yeales, Whipple, Allen, and Frye.  As I was writing it, I realized that there were more immigrants in those lines than I had thought.  I wrote the post, but figured I’d end up doing a follow-up to that.

I ended up doing a spreadsheet to list all of the different family lines and keep track of them.  I’m not a spreadsheet fanatic, but I do use them from time to time.  With all of the names that I come across in my research, it might be more helpful to use them more often.  But that would be too much like work.  I rely on my tree-building software to keep track of most of it.  Those are indispensable.  I can just add as many details as I want.  

So while looking into the immigrants in my family, I came across an interesting group.  That group is the group of ancestors of Sarah Smith, my 7x great grandmother who lived her life in Rehoboth, Massachusetts.  She was born there in 1670.  She married Jathniel Peck there in 1688.  She had all of her twelve children there from 1689 to 1712.  She died there in 1717.  Kinda sad that she died at only 46 years of age when her youngest child was only five years old.  I’ve mentioned Sarah in a previous post – not because she had a dozen children, but because of her connection to the Bucklin family.

Sarah was not an immigrant, but her family was.  Her father was Daniel Smith and he was born in 1634 in Hingham, England.  His parents were Henry Smith (1593-1647) and Judith Ray (1596-1650).  In 1638 Henry and Judith decided to bring their five children, three men servants, and two maid servants to the New World.  They arrived on the Diligent and originally settled in Hingham, Massachusetts.  In 1643 they moved to Rehoboth and spent the rest of their lives there.

Daniel grew up and married Esther Chickering.  Esther’s family immigrated earlier than Daniel’s and she was born in 1643, so she wasn’t an immigrant.  She was born in Dedham, Massachusetts.  Her parents were Francis Chickering (1606-1658) and Anne Fiske (1610-1649).  They were from Suffolk, England.  They were married around 1630 and had one child by the year 1637, which is the year that they immigrated.  Both Francis and Anne had widowed mothers.  Francis’s mother was Mary Austin Chickering.  Anne’s mother was Anne Lawter Fiske.  (Her husband John Fiske had been her second cousin.)  So when Francis and Anne decided to head off to the Massachusetts Bay Colony with their young daughter, both of their mothers decided to join them on their journey.

This was a great undertaking back then.  These were new settlements with none of the luxuries that we have become accustomed to.  You know, luxuries like running water, sewerage management, electricity, and air conditioning.  So the decision to go was not taken lightly.  I’m sure they had high hopes, though.  They had a strong belief that things would be better in this new place they were relocating to.  It would have been exciting to reach the shores of America after their long journey.  But a sad occurrence happened along the way.  The oldest member of the group – Anne Lawter Fiske – died during the voyage.  She was only 52 years old at the time.  She was likely buried at sea.

The rest of the family settled in Dedham, Massachusetts, which is where Esther Chickering was born.  Even though her family lived in Dedham, she somehow met Daniel Smith.  They were married in Rehoboth in 1659.  As I said earlier, their daughter was Sarah Smith, who married Jathniel Peck.  They had a son named Jathniel, Jr.  He was the father of Mary Peck, who married to James Bucklin (1709-1780).  Oh, no!  We’re still back in the 1700s and I want to bring this to the present.  Let me get going with a bunch of begetting.  James (1709) begat John Bucklin (1747-1795).  John (1747) begat John Bucklin (1792-1850).  John (1792) begat James Bucklin (1821-1890).  James begat Louis Charles Bucklin (1873-1927).  Louis begat Fred Bucklin (1907-1984).  Fred begat Betty Lou Bucklin, who was my mom.

Whew!  There, it’s done.  That’s my connection to the Smith and Chickering immigrants.

Family tree of my 7x great grandmother Sarah Smith

Betty Lou Bucklin was a 1951 graduate of Hathaway High School in Louisiana. [1/3]

It hasn’t been that long since I had a Mom’s Memories post, but it just worked out that way.  I was mainly looking for a nice photo of my mom when she was young and pretty.  After looking a short time, I settled on her high school graduation photo.  But she had three photos from her graduation photo session, so I decided to use all three of them.  Why not?  More for everyone!  Once I decided on those photos, I started thinking about the changes in her life that these photos represented.  Maybe she wrote about that in her little memory journal she kept when she was worried about forgetting important things about her past.

Page 20 of my mom’s memory journal

There on page 20 of her little writings, she starts off with the declaration that she graduated 3rd in her class.  When her mother would say that she was the valedictorian of her class, she was quick to correct her.  She did not want to mislead people into thinking something about her that she hadn’t actually acquired.  She was not someone who tried to impress others or put on airs.

And most of her life, she had an amazing memory.  She remembered things from when she was a young child and the way that she felt.  She said that’s why she tried not to talk down to children.  She remembered how it felt to be disregarded as a child.  That didn’t stop her from using the phrase, “Fools and children should never see things half done.”  She would say this when I’d tell her that something she was working on looked kind of strange.  I always wondered if she was calling me a fool or a foolish child, yet I never felt insulted by it.  

Betty Lou Bucklin [2/3]

She also writes about being in the band starting her sophomore year.  That was at Hathaway High School, but she also played in the (Jefferson Davis) Parish band, where she was recognized as most valuable player.  That’s pretty good for someone who started halfway through her sophomore year.  She must have been a very quick study.  She also played in the football band and went to state festival for playing a solo piece on the baritone.

At the state festival here in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, she met her future husband, Bob Landry.  He was a few years older than her, and he treated her kindly.  There was no way they would have known the shared history they would have.  My mom went back to Hathaway to finish her high school career and my dad stayed in Baton Rouge at LSU for another semester.

Betty Lou Bucklin [3/3]

When my mom graduated in 1951, she wanted to go to SLI in Lafayette.  That’s where her mom and her sister went.  It was not where she thought she would see that nice guy Bob Landry.  Her band director Vernon Daigle brought her to Lafayette to see about getting a band scholarship.  She did not get one, because they didn’t want to give another one to a female student.  She was told that a lot of the girls dropped out of school to get married.  Mr. Daigle took her to McNeese and she was awarded a scholarship.

In the fall of 1951, young Betty Lou from small town Hathaway left to go to college in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  It wasn’t that far, but it was away from home with people she didn’t know.  It was a brave move.  I’m sure she felt some fear along with the excitement and hopefulness.  She wasn’t there looking for anyone in particular, but it wasn’t long before she ran into a familiar face that she had met in Baton Rouge.  The band members got together before the school sessions began so they could get some practice in before the semester.  On the first day of practice, she met that funny guy Bob Landry who had transferred back to his hometown when the local college became a four-year university.  He asked her out for a date on that first night.  

She said, “Yes.”

The Bucklin Sisters of Hathaway, Louisiana, circa 1937.

It’s getting more and more difficult to find great old family photos that I haven’t used before!  I’ve written over 400 posts in the last eight years of writing these posts.  Can it really be eight years?  Actually it will be eight years in the middle of this month.  Back in 2015 I fixed up a photo of my mom’s mom and shared it with everyone on my Facebook page.  I call them my Throwback Thursdays on there.  I came up with that name myself!  I suppose I should really say that I copied the trend that was started by someone else.  The posts became more wordy and once I started, I just haven’t been able to stop.

I’ve found lots more photos through the years and found more stories, but the best photos are the ones I’m more likely to share.  I guess I’ll just have to look a little harder so I can keep it going longer.  I found this photo as I was scouring through photos of my mom’s family.  It’s a photo that I scanned at a very high resolution.  I don’t know why, because it’s a very blurry photo.  I just have lots more pixels of blurriness!  So I reduced the number of pixels, cleaned it up a bit, and enhanced it.  Alma’s left eye was whited out, so I had to clone her other eye and manipulated it a bit.  It looks pretty good to the casual observer.

The title is a little misleading, because not all of these little girls are Bucklin sisters.  One of these is not like the others.  My mom was Betty Lou Bucklin and she was born on May 20, 1933, in Hathaway, Louisiana.  Her parents were Fred D. Bucklin and Myrtle Phenice Bucklin.  Little Betty Lou is the second one from the left in this photo.  She had almost white hair when she was younger.  She always referred to it as towheaded.  Her father had whitish blond hair like that as a child also.  As you can see, little sister Alma also had that trait.  Alma was born in 1935.  If you haven’t figured it out yet, Alma is the one on the far left.  Older sister Sylvia had darker hair.  She is the one on the far right and she was born in 1931.

The youngest Bucklin sister in this photo is the little baby in the front of the others.  I’m pretty sure that is my Aunt Loris.  She was born in 1937 and that date is what I used to determine when this photo was taken.  Loris has darker hair like her older sister had.  And that leaves us with one more little girl in the photo.  Or maybe it’s a boy.  It can be difficult to tell with children at that age.  I don’t recognize the person.  I wasn’t around back then!  But I’m thinking that the child was likely a cousin of my mom.  So hopefully some of my cousins can help me to identify the mystery child.

I like this photo.  It’s kind of odd because of the different looks on all of their faces.  Only Aunt Sylvia is smiling, but the rest of them look like they’re trying to figure out what is going on.  Surely they knew what a camera was.  I don’t think my mom was still mad about getting a “little boy haircut” the year before.  But that’s okay.  I’ve always liked candid photos, and this one has a candid look.

Page from book my mom wrote in when her memory was failing. This page talks about some of the arts and crafts shows she participated in during the 1980s.

The other day I noticed that I hadn’t done a “Mom’s Memories” in a while.  I also had a photo that I wanted to share of my mom in 1978.  Since the photo shows her in the beginning stages of transferring a pattern onto a piece of wood to paint, I thought this post could include both of my ideas.   I guess this could also be considered a continuation of the post I wrote last year that was called “Betty Lou the Artist.”  

The post from last year was about her landscape paintings, which I prefer.  This post is about some of her craftier things she did.  I think it was the mid-70s when she learned tole painting.  It was a method of painting where you put two different colors on the paint brush and then apply them to the surface you are painting.  And in my mom’s case, she liked to paint them on crafted wood items – like ovals, boxes, cannisters – pretty much any flat surface she could get her crafty little hands on.

Betty Lou Bucklin Landry in Jennings, Louisiana, on Dec. 26, 1978.

She would find pictures in different magazines or books and save them for painting.  She had a huge collection of those.  When the time was right, she’d take a prepared wood item and match it with the image that she thought fit it the best.  She’d transfer the image onto the base with tracing paper.  That’s what she was doing in the 1978 photo at the kitchen table at our house on Lucy Street in Jennings, Louisiana.  It was the day after Christmas.

Betty Lou Bucklin at Zigler Museum in Jennings on May 19, 1979.

With the landscape paintings that she did, she mostly kept them.  But with these smaller paintings on wood, she started selling them at different art (and craft) shows.  One of those shows was at the old Zigler Museum in Jennings just a few days after I graduated from Jennings High School in 1979.  She and my sister Jodie had several items that they made and put up for sale.  All of the paintings on wood were by my mom.  Jodie made pottery and you can see some of that on the table as well.  I know they sold quite a bit, because there were some pieces of pottery that Jodie made that I would have liked to have.   

Henry and Irma Hetzel Phenice at Zigler museum in 1979.

Since I’m talking about that day and this is a family history blog, I’d better mention the other family members that were there that day.  Right next to Mama and Jodie’s table was my mom’s maternal uncle Henry Phenice and his wife Irma Hetzel Phenice.  Henry was a lapidarist and he made jewelry from his stone carvings.  He was very generous with me that day.  He said that I could pick anything from the table as a graduation gift.  I looked at the items on his table and decided on the cube that he had sitting in front of him.  It was made from moss agate and he said it had taken him a while to carve it and get the surfaces smooth.  I don’t even know if he had it for sale.  But he was willing to let me have it and I still treasure it to this day.  My mom had a road runner pin of his that she wore all of the time.

Florence Devall, Betty Bucklin Landry and her daughters Jodie, Jamie, and Karen at Zigler museum in May 1979.

I also have this picture of Mama, Jodie, Jamie, and Karen.  To the left of mom is her paternal aunt Edna Bucklin Keys.  At least that’s who I think it is.  I remember it was confusing because she was my grandfather Fred Bucklin’s sister, but she had the Keys last name.  That’s because she was married to my grandmother Myrtle Phenice’s first cousin Frank Keys from their common Keys family.  Now the confusion comes because my grandfather’s sisters resemble each other in their old age.  I’ve found enough photos of them when they were young that I can tell them apart back then.  If I’m wrong about this, I’m hoping someone in the family will let me know.

I think I’m done now.  I’ve shared the photo I wanted to – plus a few more – and I’ve shared some of Mom’s Memories.  I’ve even added a bit of family history.  Mission accomplished.

Sept. 24, 2023 Correction

The woman in the green shirt posing with my mom and sisters was not my mom’s aunt.  She isn’t even related to us!  But there are some family connections.  My sister’s good friend from junior high and high school was Stella Devall.  Well, this photo is of Stella’s mom Florence Rosannah Minnix Devall.  Come to find out, Florence’s first cousin (by their Miller mothers) Wilma May Hylton was married to my mom’s uncle Warren Phenice (brother of the above Henry Phenice and father of Julie).

Bucklin family and friends in Hathaway, Louisiana, circa 1925.

I got several old photos from my cousin Carla four years ago.  Her father was Clarence Bucklin, and he was the identical twin of my maternal grandfather Fred Bucklin.  Of course, I was very excited to get my hands on those photos so I could scan them and add them to my collection.  I’ve shared several of those previously, and today I thought it was time for another one.

My mom was Betty Lou Bucklin, but she is not in the photo because she was born in 1933.  This photo is from further back than that.  I’ve estimated the photo to be taken around 1925.  Fred and Clarence were born on October 2, 1907, in Roanoke, Louisiana.  I think they lived there for a while until the family moved up to Prairie Grove, Arkansas, in 1912.  But then again, you know that because I told you all about that a couple of months ago.

After their short stint in Arkansas, they returned to Louisiana.  This time they settled in Hathaway, Louisiana, which is where Fred and Clarence’s grandfather James Bucklin and his family had homesteaded when they immigrated from Iowa in 1884.  That land is still in the family.  I think that’s where this photo was taken.  There are more trees than I remember seeing on my grandparents’ property.  But when they immigrated, they had to set aside a portion of the property for a tree claim.  According to my great grandfather’s journal, they planted a variety of trees.  Now that I think about it, I’ve never been there.  I’ve only been to the developed part of the land.  My grandparents’ property was surrounded by fields and the only crop that I can recall is soybeans.  They didn’t farm it; the land was leased out.

So the photo was taken around 1925 when the twins were about 18 years old.  That looks about right, don’t you agree?  I’m not even going to say which one I think is Fred and which one was Clarence.  They were identical twins (the DNA comparison of their daughters proved it) and it was almost 100 years ago.  I can never tell who’s who in their photos.  They were two of twelve children, so it’s difficult to identify all of them in old photos as well.  But I’m pretty sure the young girl on the far right is Edna Bucklin, their younger sister.  She would later marry Frank Keys, who was my grandmother Myrtle Phenice’s first cousin.  I’m not sure who the other two girls in the photo are.  They are probably school friends of the Bucklin siblings.

I’m glad they decided to go out and about taking photos back in the day.  I’m also glad their sister Ruth saved all of them and passed them on.  And now we can enjoy this one thanks to a cousin who was ready and willing to share.  Gratitudes galore.