Phenice | Family History

A Phenice Frankenphoto

January 18, 2017 Van One comment

Sylvan, Myrtle, and Grace Phenice in 1907.

Sylvan, Myrtle and Grace Phenice circa 1907.

This is an unusual looking photo, isn’t it? It’s been pieced together a bit like that famous monster. That wasn’t the plan when I first decided to post this photo, but it came about from the story I wanted to tell. I also want to refer back to a couple of previous posts. I had once said that I didn’t have a photo of my grandmother when she was a youngster. I even suggested that she might have not liked the way she looked when she was younger and got rid of the photos. (I was thinking that I mentioned that in the Pool Post, but actually it came from the Graduate Post.) I also mentioned that I had discovered some old photos back in November. (That one was from a comment to the Camelot Post.)

So this is one of the photos that I discovered in a box of old negatives that I have had since the 1980s. At least the main portion of the photo is from that photo. Around 1982 Grandma (my maternal grandmother Myrtle Phenice Bucklin) asked me to take some photos of some of her old photos. So I borrowed some of her old photos and took some black and white photos of them with my old Canon SLR camera. She paid for the film, of course. I was a poor college student at the time after all. When I got the prints in, I gave her a set of prints, some of the negatives, and returned her old original photos. My set of prints and negatives went in a box. They were just old pictures. I didn’t want them in my photo albums.

Fast forward to November 2016. I went looking for some other negatives that I wanted and came across these old black and white photos that I had completely forgotten about. They made a liar out of me. I said that there were no early photos of her. And I had one all along. Fortunately the names were written on the back of the photo. The boy in the photo is Sylvan Austin Phenice who was born Nov. 23, 1901. He was the first child born to Harry Clifton Phenice and Daisy Keys Phenice. In the middle of the photo is my grandmother. She was born Myrtle Daisy Phenice on Dec. 19, 1906. The other girl in the photo is Grace Leona Phenice, who was born Dec. 14, 1903. They were all born in Louisiana. The family lived in Colorado for a short time after the birth of Grace and before the birth of Myrtle. (See Gold Mine Post)

But in finding the “lost” photo, I realized something else. I had a piece of the original photo in a group of photos that I had gotten from my mom. I didn’t know who was in the photo or what the rest of the photo was, but I knew that part of the photo was missing. The original piece that I had is what makes up the head of Sylvan in the upper left portion of the photo. So now I know that the missing part of the original photo is my grandmother as a toddler. Where, oh where, is the rest of the photo? Don’t I wish I knew! As you can see, the detail in the original is much better than the photo I took in 1982. And I thought I was being so clever!

Well, at least I found this old photo of my grandmother. And I identified part of the original photo. And remembered something else. Remember when I said that I wondered if my grandmother got rid of her old photos because she didn’t like the way she looked in them? That was so far from reality! My mom has a baby photo of herself that was from a contest she won. Something like “Gerber’s Cutest Baby” or some such thing. Well I can remember my mom saying that Grandma used to say, “Well I was a cute baby, too.” and probably showed my mom this old photo to prove it. And from what I could tell, it seemed like there was a bit of contention about who had been the cutest baby. Some people’s children!

Phenice

A Keys Keepsake

January 4, 2017 Van Leave a comment

I thought I’d do something a little different for the start of the year. I’m not stopping the vintage photos with stories, but I thought I’d do something different from time to time. I’ve been thinking of doing this for a while and now is a good time to start. So this the the first of the Keepsake Throwback Thursdays. The more I talk to people about family history and such, the more I find out about different treasures that have been passed down through the generations. I am hoping to take photos of some keepsakes that other people have so they can be shared with the family. Just like the old photos, you can share them and keep your treasure at the same time.

This week I’m going back to the 1880s in England. It was a time before all of our modern conveniences. It was a time before this branch of the family had left Europe. It was a time of myths and legends, kings and castles. Yes, you heard that right, castles. (You also heard the myth part, too, right!?)

In 1883 my great great grandmother Martha Ann Cook Keys had a problem on her hands. Her second son Leonard, who was 10 at the time, had come down with diphtheria. It is a very dangerous disease and in fact a few years earlier in England, two members of the royal family had died from it. So it was a scary situation.

She called a doctor to see to her ailing son, but the doctor just wanted to know if her husband was home. When she inquired as to why he was asking this, the doctor said that Leonard would probably die that night. The doctor left without offering any hope, but Martha did not give up. She decided to take the situation into her own hands, literally. She put a finger down Leonard’s throat to break the membrane that can form and kill a person. It was a risk, because this could also lead to hemorrhaging. She was fortunate that it did not and Leonard began to recover.

Cross stitch by Leonard Keys from 1883 in England

His recovery took a while, so Martha sent him to stay with her Aunt Jane for a while. She must have been a very important person because she lived in a castle. Or so goes the family legend. I have not been able to find any resources that proved that the family owned a castle at one time. But I haven’t found any that proved that we didn’t either. My mom always seemed to believe that there was a family castle, so it must be true. It was while he was recovering in the lavish luxuries (minus modern conveniences, of course) of the family castle that he did this cross-stitch sampler.

For those of you a little older than me, you may remember this item hanging in the house of Daisy Keys Phenice. Mama said that is was hanging in her house for YEARS before it was given to her by her grandmother Daisy. And that is why it is still in my family. It was given to my great grandmother by her brother because he undoubtedly wanted her to have it. For those younger than me, one day I will pass it on to someone deserving. Or at least desiring!

From Finicy to Phenice

December 7, 2016 Van 6 comments

Circa 1935 – Harry Clifton Phenice, Myrtle Phenice Cozad, Samuel Charles Phenice, Bernard Orville Phenice, May Phenice Taylor, and Emma Phenice Quillen.

This is one of the photos that I rediscovered the other day. It shows three generations of my Phenice family in it. I believe the young man in the middle is Orville Phenice, my grandmother’s brother. Their father is Harry Clifton Phenice, who is shown on the left. His father is the old man in the middle of the photo – Samuel Charles Phenice, a Civil War veteran and witness to the Lincoln assassination. The other three women are Harry’s sisters Myrtle, May, and Emma. The topic of this week’s post concerns the three generations prior to these three.

My grandmother and her siblings were born in southern Louisiana, but the generations before her were born in Pennsylvania. Her father H. C. moved to Louisiana in the 1898. His father Samuel was born in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, moved around a bit and ended up in Nebraska. Samuel’s father Daniel was also born in Mercer County. The father of Daniel was unknown and there have been many family members who have done research trying to find out who he was. The further you go back, the more different the name is spelled. Nowadays we spell the name “Phenice,” but the earliest spelling I found for the family name is “Finicy.” Previous researchers uncovered some good information, but they were unable to identify the parentage of Daniel Phenice. That was before DNA testing.

In 2013 I had a DNA test for myself and my parents at 23andMe. I only found one Phenice connection on that site. But at AncestryDNA it was a different story. I tested my aunt Loris Woolley there last December. I started finding Phenice connections right away. There were four 2nd cousins through the Phenice line and two 3rd cousins (to my mom’s generation). It was helpful that they shared a good amount of common DNA with my mom, aunt Loris, uncle Austin, and their 1st cousin Julie.

In addition to all of those matches, there were several more who had ancestors with the surname “Phenicie” in their trees. Those ancestors were all from Pennsylvania and some of them were from Mercer County. I had seen some of the ancestors previously because they had names similar to names in our tree. They have a Daniel Phenicie born around the same time (1808) as ours and a Samuel Phenicie who also fought in the Civil War. I wasn’t sure how all of these other DNA matches connected, but the common DNA was pointing in the same direction.

I let the matches add up for most of 2016, but by October I had enough to inspire me to go looking for a connection. So I made a spreadsheet of all of the names and started comparing DNA and family trees. I looked through old research that had been done (thanks to Orville’s daughters Marilyn, Kathleen, Linda and Carol, plus some others) and found a common theme of a John Phenice born around 1765. So I sketched out a provisional family tree.

I put John Phenicie as the father of our ancestor Daniel Phenice (b. 1809). Since I had a few DNA matches who were descendants of Joseph Phenicie (b. 1762) and because they were born close to the same time, I put John and Joseph as brothers with an unnamed father born around 1730. I had many more DNA matches who were descendants of Samuel Phenicie (b. 1795), so I also put him as a son of John Phenice. Additionally, there were a few descendants of an Eliza Fennesy that were DNA matches, but the parents were unknown. From there I had to try to find some source documents to back this up.

I pored through the old census records from the late 1700s and early 1800s in areas that I knew the family had lived. Daniel and Samuel were known to have lived in Mercer and Somerset counties in Pennsylvania, and Joseph and his descendants lived in Bedford and Franklin counties. I had already found Daniel in the Springfield, Mercer, PA censuses of 1850 and 1860. His name was spelled Finnesy and Finnessy in those documents. I knew I was going to have to be flexible in the spelling of the name. I went to the 1840 census in Springfield and looked through every page of it. I finally came across a Daniel with the alternate spelling of “Finecy.” (Transcribed as “Ferney” by Ancestry.) I was glad to finally find him in 1840, but was even more excited when I saw the name directly below his – John Finecy. And he was the right age to be Daniel’s father. Families lived close to each other more often back then, so this looked very promising.

I continued my search for these two in the Springfield of 1830. I didn’t find Daniel or John there, but I did find Samuel. I checked all of Mercer county for Daniel, but I couldn’t find him. Since Daniel married Susan Jackson in Somerset County in 1831, I decided to look in Somerset County. I didn’t find Daniel, but I did find John. He was listed on the census as “John Finicy, Sr.” (Transcribed as “Finiag” by Ancestry.) There was a John Finicy, Jr. a few pages before, so I would think that he was another son of John Phenicie. There were no other names close to Finecy/Phenice and the like. I found “John Finasee” in 1820 in Somerset County and “John Finnessee” in 1810 in Allegheny County. I think the borders were moving back then more than the people. They weren’t changing as much as the spelling of the name, though!

In the meantime I had been corresponding with a descendant of Eliza Finnesy. I explored her family tree, but was unable to find out how she was connected to our Phenicies. I was directed to the 1850 census of Eliza after she had married a Wingard. In that census, there was a woman in the household named “Margaret Finnesy” (same spelling as my Daniel – actually the same census taker). The relationship was not identified in the census. There was also a death certificate that showed Eliza’s maiden name as being Finnesy, so Margaret was most likely her mother.

Then I found a really good source. It was a record of a marriage between a John Phinnecy and a Margaret Maurer on May 29, 1792. This tied together everything that I had found and supposed up to that point. From information in the 1850 census Margaret would have been born around 1774, so that would put them at the right age to have been parents to Samuel, Daniel, and John Jr. In addition to these children, I found some more DNA matches who had a Mary Finnessee born in 1798 in their trees. In one of them they had the birth location as Allegheny County, which corresponded to what I had found for John Phenice in 1810. I believe she is another child of John and Margaret.

All of this information makes me feel pretty certain that John and Margaret were indeed the parents of those individuals. In addition to the paper sources, the DNA backs it all up. And the members of our extended family were the only people with that last name in those counties. I searched through those census pages till I was cross-eyed!

There is another record that I found, but I’m less sure of it. It is for a “John Archibald Finnacy” born in 1765 in Maryland. I don’t know why I am unsure of this as being “our” John Phenicie. There were references in census records that showed Joseph and other family members as being born in Maryland. The name and the date correspond as well. There is a similar record for a Joseph Finnacy born in the same location. The birth date is shown as 1768 which is different than all other records of Joseph Phenicie which show him as being born in 1762. In any case, it gives the parents of these two as Stephen (b. 1730) and Ann. That date would match my supposition and other clues. Stephen is also a common name in both family lines.

So the data all seems to support the suppositions I made to start off. I found the name of John Phenice’s wife – also known as my great great great great grandmother Margaret Maurer. Since everything else lined up so well, I also added the parents of John as being Stephen Finnacy and Ann. I’m happy with the results, though I haven’t been able to find out when the family immigrated or where they are from. I get new matches frequently and there are also a few unconnected DNA matches who have the Finecy name in their trees. There’s always something else to explore.

May 11, 2017 Update – I obtained a new photo from the same day as this photo was taken. Better yet, the names of everyone was labeled on the photo! So I edited this post with those names and here is the photo.

The Samuel Charles Phenice family in 1935.

Harry Clifton Phenice, Lola “Myrtle” Phenice Cozad, Samuel Charles Phenice, Anna “May” Phenice Taylor, and Emma Orra Phenice Quillen. A father and four of his children circa 1935.

DNA
Phenice

Gunnysack Dresses

September 14, 2016 Van Leave a comment

Front and back of photo from circa 1941. Girls in gunnysack dresses?

Ever since I was a kid I remember my mom talking about how she and her sisters would make their dresses out of old flour sacks. I felt so sorry for her. I thought that it must have been really uncomfortable. And it must have been particularly depressing to go to school like that when there had to have been other kids with store-bought clothes made out of real cloth. How could we possibly complain about anything when she suffered through such depravity?

Then one day about two or three years ago, she was talking about those dresses made out of flour sacks again. She was saying how she liked to be the one to ride into ‘town’ and pick out the best prints for the dresses she was thinking about making. I was like, “What are you talking about? Flour sacks don’t have prints on them.” She looked at me like I was crazy.

“Why are you asking about that?” she asked, “I’ve told you about that several times.” I went on to say that I had heard her before, but I never knew burlap bags ever had any prints on them. Maybe something like “FLOUR – 40 LBS” or some such label. Then she knew I was crazy. “Burlap bags? How do you get that from flour sacks?” she asked.

I told her that that was what I’ve always pictured when she told us this story. And it wasn’t just me. My sisters Karen and Jamie also thought the same thing. (They may deny it now, though!) We all got a kick out of this misunderstanding. They both shared an article about the topic a while back on Facebook. It explained the whole phenomenon and talked about how in the early 40s over three and a half million women and children were wearing garments made from feedsacks.

I’m thinking that the photo I’m posting today may be showing a part of that history. It’s from the right era. I’m not really sure, but it looks like a possibility to me. The dresses all look somewhat simple and each one is made from comfortable looking cloth of a single type of print. I really didn’t notice the dresses when I first decided on using this photo for my post. When I was editing the photo, the prints of the dresses caught my attention and reminded me of the discussion with my mom.

I picked the photo out because there is that homespun charm about it. I’m posting the photo unedited at first and including the back of it. There’s an oil spot on the front that shows on the back also. I’m not sure what caused that. But on the back of the photo a child’s handwriting has labeled everyone in the photo. Then on the top right corner in my mom’s handwriting, it reads “taken by Betty with 1st camera.” How sweet is that. Little Betty Lou taking a photo of her mom’s family with her first camera. On the far left is my grandmother Myrtle AKA Grandma.

Front: Myrtle, Marguerite, Grace, Daisy, and Harry Phenice Back:Warren, Henry, Sylvan, and Orville

I’m also posting an edited version of the photo. That’s what I do. Clean it up a bit. Remove the scratches. Remove the dust. Remove the charm. Wait, did I say that? Yes, I did. That’s why I decided to post both versions. I think the cleaned up version looks better, but the original has more charm. I don’t think that’s the case most of the time, but sometimes I do wonder. Not enough to make me stop though.

Phenice

Myrtle the Graduate of 1925

July 27, 2016 Van Leave a comment

1925-05-29 - Myrtle Sylvia Phenice H.S. Graduation

In 1925 Myrtle Phenice graduated from Jennings High School

The woman I knew as “Grandma” was born December 19th, 1906 to Harry Clifton Phenice and Daisy Henrietta Martha Keys Phenice. She was the third of their seven children and she was named Myrtle Sylvia Phenice. The family lived in an area known as Hathaway. I’m not really sure what the ‘borders’ of Hathaway are, but it’s just down the road from China and Raymond. A few miles to the west is Kinder and a couple of miles to the east is Elton. And all of those places are about ten miles north of Jennings.

I’m not sure of the details of her early life. That’s kinda sad now that I think about it. And there are no early photos of her to give me a clue. At least none that I know of. I have photos of her parents from before she and her siblings were born, but then none until this photo. Maybe they didn’t take many photos during that time. Maybe my grandmother didn’t like any of the photos of herself as a child and destroyed them. If anybody knows more about this, please let me know. (See update.)

This photo is her high school graduation photo. She graduated from “the Jennings High School, an Authorized State High School” on May 29, 1925. I think it is a lovely photo of her. She continued her education at Southwestern Louisiana Institute in Lafayette and graduated there in 1928. This all led to a long career as an elementary school teacher at Hathaway High School.

1925 - Myrtle Sylvia Phenice H.S. Diploma

Myrtle Phenice’s diploma

Phenice

Girls and Their Dolls

June 29, 2016 Van 2 comments

1938-Betty Lou Bucklin and Kara Lee Sowder

Betty Lou Bucklin and Kara Lee Sowder at Christmastime 1938 in Fayetteville, Arkansas

This is one of my mom’s favorite photos of herself. It was taken in 1938, which was during the Great Depression. The thing that made it special according to my mom was that it was a photo of her holding a “real doll.” The thing that makes it special to me is that she was always satisfied with what she had.

Because she didn’t have a “real doll,” but her cousin had two and let her take a photo with one of them. And that was pretty special for little Betty Lou Bucklin! As you can see, she was quite happy taking her photo with that little doll. And with her cousin, of course!

But she’s not really a cousin. My mom’s mom’s sister was Grace Phenice and she was married to Ray Sowder who was from Arkansas. The girl’s name is Kara Lee and she is the daughter of Ray’s brother Hugh who was a professional photographer. Kara Lee and Betty Lou created a lasting memory on that long ago visit in 1938. (At least for my mom. She could remember Kara Lee’s name even when she had memory troubles. I found Kara Lee on Facebook and she had the same photo, but she stated, “I don’t remember who the little girl is.”)

Isabel Crixell Champion on the right in about 1904

Elvira Crixell and her cousin Isabel Crixell circa 1904

I can’t remember when I first saw that photo of my mom with the doll, but I can remember when I first saw the next photo of Girls With Dolls. It was a couple of weeks ago when I was researching the Patureau side of the family. Some distant cousins on that line have been living deep in southern Texas for several generations. The French Patureaus there have mixed more with the Mexican population as compared to our family which has more Cajun heritage. And the photo of the the two girls with their dolls from circa 1904 definitely caught my eye. The girl on the right was Isabel Crixell, my third cousin once removed. She was born in 1900 and lived to be over 100 years old. The girl on the left is only identified as “a Kowalski little girl.” I’m positive that she is Isabel’s first cousin Elvira Crixell who was born in 1901. She later married a Kowalski.

But in this photo, they are just little girls posing with their dolls. They don’t look quite as happy as my mom was with her real doll, but they do look happier than one particular little girl in the next photo. This time, instead of going thirty years in the more distant past, we’re coming forward thirty years from that first photo.

1966-12-24 Landry Family Christmas gathering

Landry cousins at Christmas time in 1966

No posting of Girls With Their Dolls in my family could be complete without this next photo. This is from Christmas of 1966 at my Mee Maw’s house. Tim was showing off a car, I was showing off my new sniper rifle, and the girls were showing off their new dolls. Karen looked very satisfied with the doll she was holding. Lauren and her doll both seem to have gotten something in their eyes. Jeanne is happy that she and her doll made it into the photo. Tricia (with the glasses) and Shirley (with the hair) have graduated to holding real children. Tricia has Colleen, while Shirley has Mona. Rob is happy to be the center of attention.

And then there’s poor little Jamie. She wanted a doll of her own to hold. She had her own doll, but she didn’t get to hold it for the photo. Maybe she wanted Karen to have a special moment with a borrowed ‘real doll’ like our mom had? Maybe she didn’t realize that she’d feel lonely without holding her doll when everyone else was holding theirs? Or maybe something else happened. Either way – that was long ago and all is forgiven.

Sunday Congregation

June 23, 2016 Joseph Leave a comment

Kathy Jester Mack posted these photos from the Raymond Methodist Church from the early 1950s a few days ago on Facebook. She scanned them from Thelma Brown Jester’s photo collection. People, especially Genevieve Compton Nash were able to name a bunch of them, but it was hard to follow with so many people. So I added numbers and got mom to help fill in a few more blanks. We still need lots of help filling in the blanks.

Reverend Krumnow in front of the congregation.

1.
2. Judy Litteral
3. Glenn Litteral
4. Mrs. Litteral
5. Darla Litteral
6. Elta Phenice
7. Orville Phenice
8. Paul Phenice
9. Grace Marshall?
10.
11.
12. Maria Dora Koll Compton
13. Anna Compton Jester?
14. Harry “Buck” Jester
15.
16. Millie Derks Compton
17. Ruth Brown
18. Harold Brown
19. Nancy Jester?
20. Dickie Jester
21. Clifford Jester
22.
23. Bobby Compton
24. Charles Litteral
25. Roy Talley
26. Earl Brown
27. Ora Brown
28.
29. Genevieve Compton
30. Effie Whittington
31. Barbara Brown
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37. Fred Bucklin
38. Louise Bucklin?
39. Dora Koll Bucklin
40.
41. Bertha Koll Whittington
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50. Rob Compton
51. Benny Krumnow
52. Lela Mae Jester
53. Claribel Brown
54. Marilyn Phenice
55. Loris Bucklin
56. Alma Bucklin
57. Betty Brown
58. Ada Mae Whittington
59. Yvonne Krumnow
60. Herman Talley
61. Earl Walker
62. Pearl Walker
63. Elsie Talley
64.
65.
66.
67.
68. Harvey Dell Marshall
69. Alfred Marshall
70. Lindy Marshall
71. Donald Marshall

A second picture taken the same day in front of the church where people used to gather after the service to visit friends and relatives.

1. Louise Bucklin
2. Dora Koll Bucklin
3. Sally Marshall
4. Joe Tupper
5. Earl M. Brown
6. Herbert Bucklin
7. Lindy Marshall
8. Alfred Marshall
9. Harry “Buck” Jester
10. Lela Mae Jester
11. Betty Jo Koll
12.
13. Claribel Brown
14.

And a view of the old Parsonage, Fellowship Hall, and old Church.

I read on the Hathaway Blog that one of Reverend Krumnow’s hobbies was photography. I wonder what kind of photos he took. There must be lots of the congregation in his family albums. Since Rev. Krumnow was a photographer, he may have planned this shot. I wonder if they cleared out the center behind him hoping everyone would be in the shot. They did miss a few though. My grandpa, Herbert Bucklin is only visible in the outdoor shot.

Dear Old Grandpa Phenice

June 15, 2016 Van Leave a comment

1949 – Harry Clifton Phenice and granddaughter Betty Lou Bucklin

I found this photo recently hiding among some more recent photos. It looks a little familiar, but the details of it are really charming. It looks like Grandpa Phenice may have been out working in the yard. He’s barefoot and it looks like he took his cap off for the photo. (Betty Lou says, “Come on Grandpa, come take a picture with me without your cap on. I’ll bring you a nice dessert after dinner tonight.” He responds, “Well, alright.”)

The year is 1949 and the place is Hathaway, Louisiana. (It is also called China.) Mom was a sophomore or junior in high school and Grandpa Phenice was a 75 year old man. From what I’ve been told he was a very strong man even late in his life. In fact it wasn’t long after this photo was taken that his strength was his undoing.

Some kind of work was being done on a well and a heavy pump needed to be moved. Instead of getting others to help or letting younger backs take care of it for him, he decided to move it himself. He succeeded in moving it, yet the strain from the activity led to him having a stroke which left him bedridden for the rest of his life.

So this is one of the last glimpses into the life that he might have considered normal. Going about his daily business and taking a break to spend a little time with his granddaughter. The simple joys.

The Swimming Pool

May 19, 2016 Van 5 comments

I love this old photo. Don’t you just love those old swimsuits? It’s another old photo that makes you sit back and wonder what is going on. It’s definitely not one of those staid, studio portraits that you might typically find from that era. I’d like to know more about this photo. Mainly I want to know who everyone is. If you can help with that, let me know.

I’ll start by writing about what I do know. The first time I saw this photo was two days ago. Joseph messaged it to me after he had ‘rediscovered’ it on his computer. He and his mom have been collecting old Bucklin family photos for a while now. Since the photo also includes some Phenice family, he agreed to let me post it with questions to pool our knowledge. It’s a swimming pool.

I know that the girl on the far right is my grandmother Myrtle Phenice. I was estimating that the photo was taken around 1928 or 1929, which is before her 1930 wedding to Fred Bucklin. There seems to be three distinct groups in this photo, yet she stands alone. Looking back at the others. Slightly amused…or grinning to bear it.

The first group on the left are the Bystanders. Most of them are looking at the camera, wondering what to do. “Are we taking a picture or are we goofing around?” They seem a bit unsure. I am more than a bit unsure. I’m clueless. I have no idea who any of these people are. I’m not even sure if the person in the striped swimsuit is a boy or a girl. Which bathroom would you direct them to?

I think of the next group as the Bucklin Brothers Brawlers. It looks like they’re fighting over a girl. If one of them is Fred, I can see why Myrtle is not very amused. Fred has an identical twin, so one of them could be Clarence (b. 1907). And Herbert has a similar look and he is close to the same age as the twins (b. 1906). And who is the girl?

I’ll call the next group the Phenice Fraternity Frolickers. Myrtle had four brothers: Sylvan (b. 1901), Henry (b. 1909), Orville (b. 1911), and Warren (b. 1916). Can you tell which one is which and which one is not present?

So many questions. Is the Bystander boy standing by the Bucklin Brawlers a Bucklin or a Phenice? Is Myrtle happy or sad? Where’s Waldo? Was Waldo a Bucklin or a Phenice? Where was this taken? My guess on that would be on the Ouiska Chitto. It’s only about 10 miles from the China/Hathaway area that they all lived in and it has beaches and wooded areas like that still.

So if you have a few answers (or suggestion or questions), join in on the swimming pool. The water’s fine.

Check out Part 2

Mother’s Day Through the Years

May 4, 2016 Van Leave a comment

I found an assortment of information a few months ago and decided to group it together for a post for the week of Mother’s Day. The first item is an article from 31 years ago about a Mother’s Day 50 years earlier. So the Throwback is a Throwback. It’s a very interesting article, especially for me and my family. It mentions several family members from both sides of my mom’s family and even quotes them about family and motherhood.

The first family member mentioned is Mrs. H. C. Phenice, known to my family as Daisy Henrietta Martha Keys Phenice. I’ve posted a few photos of her in this series, most recently was at the beginning of last month. In 1935, she was the second oldest mother present. She was 59 years old at the time.

Mrs. Ruth (Bucklin) Bruchhaus is also mentioned as the youngest mother present. She was Fred Bucklin’s (my mom’s dad) sister and she had a young son Harley (father of Uvonne) who was born Feb. 5, 1933, just a few months before mom. Most notable to me is that in Ruth’s later years she preserved many old photos and labeled them for all of us to enjoy.

My favorite part of the article is the quote by my great grandmother Addie Mae Hine Bucklin (mother of Fred). She was the mother of twelve children, so I enjoyed reading that she spoke of the love and tenderness of a mother as she gazes upon her newborn baby as it lies in her arms planning its little life.

An interesting talk was given by Joseph Connors’ grandfather Herbert Bucklin (brother of Fred). It was questioning whether ‘modern’ mothers meet the needs of the family. I guess every generation compares themselves to the ones that came before. That was followed by a talk by Frieda (Rampmier) Bucklin (Fred’s sister-in-law) and Dora Koll (married Herbert Bucklin 2 years later). Then my grandmother Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin (wife of Fred) and her brother-in-law Roy Bucklin talked about how young people can show appreciation to their mothers.

The program concluded with my grandmother reading a poem she had written about Mother’s Day (I wish I had that!) and then the youth closed out the event with a song. So interesting to read an article with so many relatives mentioned from long ago. The older generation there were the last of the pioneers who settled that area in the late 1800s. I just realized that my two great grandmothers mentioned were both born in 1876. Daisy was five months older than Addie, so she was able to score the lovely bouquet of sweet pea intermingled with lace fern.

The photo of the group is from 1948. It has many of the same people that are mentioned in the article. Both are about the Adult Sunday School class of Raymond Methodist Church in Raymond, Louisiana.

The last photo is of my dear sweet Mama from around the same time as the other photo.

1947 - Betty Lou Bucklin2 Heal Betty Lou Bucklin

Happy Mother’s Day!

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