Patureau | Family History

“Mind if I stay for a little while?

May 25, 2016 Van 2 comments

1969 - Germaine Erie Patureau Landry going on a trip

Germaine Erie Patureau Landry was better known to us as Mee Maw. She has packed her grip and is ready to go. Circa 1969.

This is my grandmother. She was such a sweet woman. All of us grandkids called her Mee Maw and she fit the name perfectly. She became a widow in 1957 at the age of 62. She had been a teacher before she got married. She gave that up when she got married in 1921 because at that time it wasn’t appropriate for a teacher to be married. But she was busy anyway. She had eight children to bear and rear!

But that’s just the prequel to this story. This story is about her being a grandmother. As my wonderful godmother Shirley likes to point out, she was the first grandchild born. But she wasn’t by herself for very long. By the time Mee Maw became a widow, she had fourteen grandchildren. Eventually there were twenty-nine grandchildren (though one of them only lived a few short years).

Yet she made us all feel like we were her favorite. She liked to travel whenever she could. She was known as a go-go Patureau. (I think Jacko would have liked her. He likes to be on the move, too.) Then she would come to visit her grandchildren and bring them gifts. I still have a monkey bank that she got for me when she went to the Grand Canyon. And as you can tell, she must have paid attention to what kind of things I like.

But we didn’t need presents. Her being there would have been good enough. I remember her as being soft and warm and comforting. She did snore a bit loudly when you slept with her, but that can be forgiven. And she lied to me! I remember asking her something about her skin (which was a result of aging skin – something a little boy like me didn’t know better than to ask) and she made something up that I believed for the longest time! I love that.

She was a good grandmother. I have many fond memories of her. I wish I had a few more.

Veterinarian at your Service

May 11, 2016 Van 2 comments

Vincent Maximilian Patureau was a veterinarian in Lafayette, Louisiana, circa 1914.

My great grandfather Vincent Maximilian Patureau (father of our beloved Mee Maw) had an interesting life. He is usually referred to as “Grampa Max” so I’m going to call him Max.

Max was born in Bagdad, Mexico during the Civil War in 1865 to Ferdinand Pierre and Marie Emma Landry Patureau. The family was in Mexico to get away from the turmoil of the Civil War. There were also some Patureau relatives who lived in the Metamoras, Mexico/Brownsville, Texas area. They were the family of Ferdinand’s sister Victorine Patureau Laulom. Bagdad was a small town that grew suddenly during the Civil War due to its port that helped with cotton trade.

Ferdinand’s family returned to Louisiana and made their home in Plaquemine, Louisiana, shortly after Max was born and the Civil War was over. Bagdad declined after that and was then destroyed by a hurricane in 1889. It was never rebuilt and the port was abandoned.

Max grew up in Iberville Parish where his father worked in the sawmill/lumber industry. Ferdinand eventually had his own sawmill and Max began to work in that industry as well. When Max was 11, his father died as a result of an accident at the sawmill. He might have been one of the children to witness the accident that led to his father’s death.

In 1888 at age of 23 he married Marie Therese Landry, who was his 2nd cousin through the Landry line (His father married a Landry and his daughter did, too. Three generations of Patureau/Landry marriage). Their first child was born 10 months later. Several others followed, though some did not make it past infancy. In 1904 he became co-owner of a store, in 1906 he was a witness to a lynching, and in 1909 his wife died. The store closed in 1913 and the family moved to Lafayette.

When in Lafayette Max began practicing the art of veterinary science. From what I’ve heard, he was self-taught. From the photo I posted of the shingle he hung when setting up practice, being self taught did not stop him from putting Dr. in front of his name. From what I’ve noticed lately, everything is a lot more regulated now than it was back then.

The picture is of Max drinking a beverage from a nice cup while standing next to an old car. It was with a group of photos from his veterinary practice. Maybe it was part of an advertising campaign. I think it was meant to be humorous. An old horse doctor who goes out to farms to fix up the animals dressed up all fancy and drinking properly from a nice cup. I like it. What do you think?

Circa 1915 – The shingle that my great grandfather Vincent Maximilian Patureau hung in front of his practice in Lafayette.

Erie Patureau

March 9, 2016 Van 3 comments

Previously I have posted about my paternal grandmother, who we all called Mee Maw. Everybody still fights over who was her favorite and it’s a good kind of fight. And even though I posted a photo of her as a young girl a while back, I still think of her a matronly woman who loved to travel and visit with her children and grandchildren. But lately I’ve been getting to know her as just Erie Patureau. A girl who grew up in Plaquemine with six sisters and two brothers. The family ran a shop and there was lots of family around.

Things changed when her mother died in 1909 when Erie was just a teenager. The shop was closed, she graduated from Crescent Graded School around 1911, and the family moved to Lafayette in 1917. I’m not sure of all of the dates of those events, but I found a little clue in an article about her graduating class from SLI from March of 1915. It states that “The following January (1912) after all danger of finals was over Erie showed up. Modest and retiring, she was hard to make friends with, but we were determined and now she’s ours.”

So now I too feel like I have gotten to know her a bit and she is mine. But I’m willing to share her with the rest of the family.

Patureau Brothers

February 10, 2016 Van 2 comments

This is a photo of my great grandfather Vincent Maximilian Patureau. (He is one on the left in the photo.) It was probably taken around 1925 in Lafayette, LA where he had a veterinarian practice. The other man in the photo was his older brother Louis Leobon Patureau. (Great grandfather of Elmo Leobon Patureau, Jr. Great great grandfather of Byron J. Patureau and his sister Dana.) The woman is Gertrude Brammer Patureau who was married to Louis Leobon’s son Arthur. Vincent Maximilian was the father of my grandmother Germaine Erie Landry, aka Mee Maw.

It is the clearest photo that I have of my great grandfather. Here is a crop of the photo that just shows him. I know that some cousins on the Patureau side of the family have a wedding photo of him. I need to get together with them and get a good scan of that one too.

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July 2, 2016 Update

I now have reason to believe that the photo was taken in Beaumont, Texas, at the home of Gertrude Brammer Patureau. And I also found that wedding photo of Vincent Maximilian Patureau and his wife Marie Therese Landry. Actually my cousin Tricia found it at her house when she was cleaning up early last month. What an exciting find! She also found another old Patureau family photo that I had been hoping to find.

Patureau

Lieutenant Landry

January 28, 2016 Van One comment

Rob Landry circa 1919 during World War I

I’ve posted two photos of my dad’s mom, so it’s time to post one of her husband Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. This is a photo from around 1919 when he was 26 and involved with World War I. He was a 1st lieutenant in the US Army. He later married his first cousin’s daughter Germaine Erie Patureau and they had eight children together.

Even though my dad was the third son, he was named Robert Joseph Landry, Jr. My dad and his siblings called their dad Pappy. He was known by his grandchildren as Pee Paw. Sadly I never really knew him because he died in 1957 (three years before I was born). I’ve heard many good things about him and he was a handsome young man.

It’s a Little Erie in the Church

January 14, 2016 Van One comment

Erie Patureau circa 1906

I retrieved several photos from my dad a couple of weeks ago that I didn’t know he had. I don’t know how I missed them all these years. This one is really interesting. It is from around 1906 and I think it must be the First Communion photo for my grandmother Germaine Erie Patureau (Mee Maw to us grandkids). The family was French/Acadian Catholic and they lived in Plaquemine, Louisiana. The photo had some age spots and was a bit dim, so I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get a good scan.

I scanned it and worked on it a while and I am really excited about the final result. I hope you enjoy it. If you know more about this photo than what I’ve said, please share it with us.

2018 Update – I always wondered how this could be a First Communion photo when Mee Maw was about 11 years old in the photo. I was pretty sure I got the age correct because of other photos of her when she was younger or older. I always thought First Communion happened when children were younger.

Then I posted the photo of my dad’s First Communion and I got some interesting feedback from a 3rd cousin. Dolores White Hebert informed me that when they were young, they had a Private First communion when they were around the first grade. Then they had a Solemn First Communion when they were around 11 years old. So this photo is more likely from Mee Maw’s Solemn First Communion, which fits with her age in 1906. No more wondering about the discrepancy that I noticed.

Patureau

Patricia Ann “Pie” Marionneaux (Stassi) Nelson

August 19, 2015 Van Leave a comment

Had a nice visit with some extended family yesterday, even though it was for the funeral of my cousin/FB friend Pat Nelson. She was my dad’s first cousin and I hadn’t met many of that part of the family before. But we’re in southern Louisiana and we’re Cajun, so I decided to got to the funeral and I hoped I’d feel welcome and I did.

Enjoyed seeing a photo of my grandmother and her sisters that I hadn’t seen before. Here are the Patureau sisters from June of 1953. Sister Emma was being recognized for writing a book on the history of Duson. Starting with oldest on the left – Emma, Lydwin, Erie (my Mee Maw), Lorena, Zita, and Sylvie.

Patureau

The Old Family Store in Plaquemine

September 29, 2013 Van Leave a comment

I really like this old family photo from 1904. My grandmother ‘Mee Maw’ (Germaine Erie Patureau) is a girl of 9 years old standing on the ground in a white dress next to one of the columns. Her father (Vincent Maximilian Patureau) is standing at the tail end of the horse. Her grandmother (Marie Amelie “Belite” Bujol Landry Babin) is standing on the porch behind her and to the left. Belite’s husband Magloire Babin is the man sitting on the steps

Per Thomas Landry’s book about Trasimond Landry: “According to Mrs. Naomi Landry Vincent, grandchild of Trasimond’s widow (Amelie Belite Landry) and Pierre Magloire Babin, her grandparents in 1904 bought one third interest in a lot, along with buildings and improvements thereon, on the south side of Bayou Plaquemine at Patureauville for $275. In the building located on the lot, Pierre Magloire Babin and Dr. Maximilian Patureau, one of the other owners, operated a general merchandise store until 1913.”

2016 UPDATE:

When I got a collection of photos and slides from my dad in January, I found this cropped version of the photo. I was disappointed at first because the face of my grandmother (on the far right of this photo) was covered by the slide mount.

But since I had dealt with slides before, I knew that sometimes the edge of the cardboard covers up a bit of the slide. So I carefully peeled away some of the cardboard along the edge and sure enough, my grandmother’s face emerged! Not the whole face, but a good majority of it. And the details in the slide were much better than any of the previous versions that I had of this photo. (The top photo was replaced with a newer, more detailed version.) Now I’m on the lookout for a full version with the same amount of detail in this crop.

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