Month: May 2018

Digging Up Bones

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S. C. Phenice visiting his wife’s grave circa 1930.

I saw this photo for the first time just over a year ago.  I got it from my second cousin once removed (my mom’s second cousin) Mona Quillen.  It’s kind of a sad photo.

It’s a photo of my great great grandfather Samuel Charles Phenice at Maple Creek Cemetery in Precept (Furnas County), Nebraska.  He is holding a grandchild or great grandchild as he visits his wife Catherine Jane Foster Phenice’s grave.

We all know the tragedy of Catherine’s death.  Her clothes caught fire in her home just before Christmas in 1920.  She was burned terribly and died as a result of her wounds on Jan. 7, 1921, at the age of 72.  She and Samuel had gotten married Sept. 27, 1866, in Hendersonville, Pennsylvania.  (They were both born in Mercer County in Pennsylvania.)  So at the time of her death, they had been married for 54 years.  Samuel went on to survive Catherine for another 19 years.

So I’m pretty sure this was just one of many of the visits that Samuel made to this graveyard.  That means this photo was taken sometime between 1921 and 1939.  In 1930 he was living with his youngest daughter Emma Quillen (Mona’s grandmother) and her family. (According to 1930 Census.)  Since he was living with that family and the photo came from that family, I’m thinking that the photo was taken around 1930 or so.  So it’s possible that the youngster in the photo was Emma’s youngest son Harry Lincoln Quillen, who was born in 1927.  Samuel died in 1939 and was buried with his beloved wife.

The reason I’m posting this photo is that I’m planning on visiting their grave site at the end of June.  “Digging up bones” is what my mom called these types of visits.  Mona and Michelle Quillen (my 3rd cousin through Samuel & Catherine) suggested the visit to the graveyard last year and I’ve decided to do it.  I’m not sure if they are going to make it or not.  I’m hoping my brother Rob (& his wife Robyn) will make it, too.

So anyone else who might want to meet us there, we’ll be at Catherine and Samuel’s grave shortly after lunch on Saturday, June 30, 2018.  We will not actually be digging, so no shovels are needed.

 

Fred and Clarence in 1908

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I remember hearing stories about my grandfather and his identical twin Clarence ever since I was a kid.  There was never really any doubt about them being identical, because people had a hard time telling them apart.  Teachers tied different colored strings on them to signify a difference, but they always switched them to confuse the matter.  According to my mom, they seemed to enjoy confusing people and pulling switches on them.

I don’t remember seeing photos of the twins back then, though.  Grandpa may have had one or two, but he was not the type to sit with you, show you pictures, and talk about the good old days.  He was more prone to talking about his “good old age.”  He seemed to go on and on about his aches and pains.  It’s kind of sad, because I remember avoiding being around him because of that.  But really, what kid wants to hear adults complaining about being old?  Not me.

Clarence and Fred Bucklin circa 1908

So let’s talk about young Fred before the aches and pains.  The picture I’m posting is of Fred D Bucklin and Clarence Jonathan Bucklin who were born October 2, 1907.  The photo was probably taken some time in mid 1908.  So that makes the photo 110 years old.

At the time of their birth, their mother Addie Mae Hine Bucklin was 31 years old.  They were her 7th and 8th children. Their older siblings were Leo, Mary, Ralph, Carl, and Herbert.  There was also a brother Paul who was born in 1903 and died in 1904, so they started out with four older brothers and one sister.  They were Addie’s first set of twins to carry and she would later carry another set.

Their father Louis Charles Bucklin was 34 at the time of their birth.  Both of Louis’s parents had died before this time, so Clarence and Fred didn’t know their paternal grandparents.  Louis was the youngest of all of his siblings.  He actually had a half-brother who was 27 years older than he was.  The other factor was that neither of Louis’s parents lived into their 70s.

I have this photo labeled with Clarence on the left and Fred on the right.  This identification was provided by their younger sister Edna Bucklin Keys.  She identified them in the photo in 2001 for my mom’s cousin (Joseph’s mom).  There must be a few copies of this photo around, because I got this original from my cousin Anita.  (Thanks again, cousin!)

I don’t have childhood photos of all of my grandparents, so I really appreciate the ones that I do have.  It’s nice to see my grandfather before he started complaining about his aches and pains.  It’s actually before he had any aches and pains!  Before they had a falling out with each other.  Before they had a business together.  Before either one of them married their Myrtle.  They were just two sweet looking little boys posing for a photographer in nearby Jennings, Louisiana.  Just so we could admire them 110 years later.

Sweet Belite & Co.

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Max Patureau family circa 1921

I saw this photo for the first time at the Landry Family reunion last year.  When I saw it, I just knew I had to have a good scan of the photo.  What I first saw was just a Xerox copy of the photo. Luckily for me, Sis was the one that had both versions of the photo.  We met up a few months later and I got the improved version that I’m sharing with you.  I did edit it a bit to remove some scratches and other age damage.

What I really like about the photo is that it shows four generations of my family.  Not all of those generations are direct ancestors of mine, but three of them are.  The three I’m talking about are my grandmother Mee Maw, her father Grampa Max, and his mother-in-law Belite.  The representative of my dad’s generation is none other than his first cousin Wynhoven Therese Mouton.  But we all know her as Tez.  (Or the UG from a previous post!)

In fact Tez is the reason for this get together.  She was born Feb. 18, 1921, in Lafayette, Louisiana, and this photo is from her baptism, which was probably shortly after.  Tez was the daughter of Emma Patureau Mouton, but that’s not who’s holding her.  Emma’s sister Zita is holding Tez.  That makes me think that Zita may have been her godmother.  Emma’s brother Vincent on the right is holding a corsage, which makes me think that he may have been the godfather.

Let me go ahead and give you the names of all of the people.  Grampa Max is sitting in the front.  His full name was Vincent Maximilian Patureau (1865-1935).  He was married to Marie Therese Landry Patureau who died in 1909 at the age of 41.  She was the first child of Belite, who can be seen sitting in the front.  She was born Marie Amelie Bujol (1843-1924) and married Trasimond Landry in 1867.  After Trasimond died in 1879, she married Magloire Babin.  Her nickname was Belite, but she was also referred to as Grandma Babin.  She was a widow again at this point, because Magloire Babin died in 1919.

Standing up in the back are the children of Max Patureau.  From left to right are Marie Therese (who would later give birth to Marie Therese Schafer – the “Sis” that provided this photo), Romuald, Erie (my dear sweet Mee Maw), Emma (mother of Tez), Zita with Tez, Sylvie, Vincent, and Lidwin.  Missing from the photo is another daughter named Lorena.  Being from a large family, I know how difficult it is to get a photo with everyone in it.  So this is a really good representation of the family at that period of time.

It’s great to have this photo of Belite with her son-in-law, her grandchildren, and one of her great grandchildren.  Actually she had around thirty grandchildren, so this was only a few of them.  I’d like to tell you how many great grandchildren that she lived to see, but my genealogy program gets confused with so many of her grandchildren marrying their cousins!  If someone wants to figure that out for me, feel free to do so and let me know.

So that’s our story for today.  A glimpse into the life of Grampa Max, his kids, and his sweet mother-in-law Belite celebrating the arrival of a new family member.

If they only knew!

Basketeer Betty AKA Mom’s Memories p. 19

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Mom’s memories, p. 19 is about basketball

During the last few years of her life, my mom jotted down little stories about her past. She knew that she was forgetting things and I suppose there were some things she wanted to make sure to remember. But when it came to the topic of basketball, she needn’t have worried. She was talking about her basketball days with some of the care workers up until the end of her days.

I’m glad she wrote a little bit about basketball because it makes me laugh and it provided me with some details I wasn’t aware of (or forgot). She started basketball in the 5th grade, and the 6th grade was a trying year for her since her mother was her teacher.

Her family was big into basketball. She always talked about the dirt basketball/tennis court that they made in their yard. From the way she talked about it, she scraped up all of the grass and smoothed the ground single-handedly! Maybe she did.

Ladies basketball team from Hathaway, Louisiana, in 1948. My mom Betty Lou Bucklin can be seen standing on the left.

It was obvious from the way she talked that she loved the game. She played all through high school and nothing pleased her more than when her small town Hathaway team beat the ‘city’ teams like Jennings.

Beating the Jennings team was not their only success, though. They also made it to State, where they once made 3rd place and another time placed 1st. I’m thinking this photo may be from their winning season. If anyone knows better, let me know.

Shown in the team photo are (top row) Betty Lou Bucklin (my mom), LaVelle Krumnow (mom’s best childhood friend), Mrs. C. B. Krumnow (Gertrude Lessman Krumnow, mother of LaVelle and coach of the team), Lela Mae Jester, and Claribel Brown; (kneeling) Dorothy Gary, Carol Bryan, ? Sittig, Adley Benoit, and Jean Jester; and (front) Geneva Hayes, Laura Jane Ritter, and Eva Derks. At least that’s the information on the back of the photo.

My mom also saved some old clippings from her glory days as a basketeer Hornet, or as one reporter claimed “a bulldog.” This article is from the beginning of the 1948 year, which is the same year as the photo.  The article lists some of the members and it mostly matches Mom’s recollections. I’m sure Dot must be Dorothy, but is Ruby the same Derks as Eva?

 

1949 newspaper article about the Hathaway basketball teams

The other article is from 1949, I think. The same members are mentioned, and as before, they were up to their winnings ways again. This is the article that talks about those girls giving a “bulldog” defense during the games. I’m not sure they would appreciate that description. They were, after all, rivals of Jennings and everyone knew that Jennings were the Bulldogs.

I doubt that bothered young Betty Lou. She was proud of her accomplishments with the basketball team. According to her yearbook, she and teammate Laura Jane Ritter were chosen on the “All Tournament” team. Maybe that’s the Parish team she mentions in her writing. That’s how she ended up playing in an exhibition game at McNeese. And as my mom stated, that’s when she (and presumably her teammates) “thought we were hot stuff.”

Number 0 Betty Lou Bucklin in action during her high school basketball career.

I’ve never really been a fan of basketball – as a player or an observer. But I do have some fond basketball memories from my childhood. Our family had a basketball goal set up in our driveway and sometimes we would all go out and play the game. It was my mom and dad and all six of us kids. (At least according to my memory!) I mainly remember that we were laughing and making a lot of noise and we’d play until after dark.

The dark didn’t stop us because we would go inside and get this clamp-on light that we attached to the pole for the antenna. This did not make our neighbors the Bordelons very happy. That crazy Landry family was out all hours of the night laughing, yelling, and shining a bright light right outside their window. So we put up a big, white wooden fence along the property line by the driveway.

I thought I’d post a photo of the fence, since I was talking about it. That’s Al and Rob shooting some hoops in 1974. I don’t see how that fence would have made much difference to the sound level. But we could continue playing our games and say that we tried.

I wasn’t going to post this next photo since I have posted it before. But it was posted in 2010, which is well before I started these regular blog posts. Since I’ve already written more than I intended to, I might as well add a little more.

Getting rough on the court! Christmas 1977

Because I just have to talk about the basketball match to end all basketball matches. I’m talking about the famous Christmas 1977 Bucklin Girl Basketball Extravaganza. It was the most entertaining family gathering for my mom’s side of the family. (As you can see, the white fence has been removed.)

On the sidelines on the left are Uncle Ronald and Toni Pilcher. On the “court” are Sylvia Bucklin Pilcher (on the ground), Alma Bucklin Waldorf (with the ball), Betty Lou Bucklin Landry (the famed basketeer stepping over her sister Syvia’s foot), Charla Seal (with hand on her Aunt Bettilou’s hip), and the matriarch Myrtle Phenice Bucklin AKA Grandma.

There was a lot of laughter that day. As you can see Aunt Sylvia and Grandma are having big laughs as they try to catch their breaths. I know Aunt Loris was there and she was involved in the game as well. Perhaps she was taking a break at the time.

Oh, wait, there she is with Aunt Alma waiting for the ball to come down. See, she definitely was there. She told me that this was the last time they all played basketball together because it took so much out of them. If they’re gonna play ball, they’re gonna go all out! I, for one, am glad that I was a witness to that phenomenal game. And I’m more than just a little bit jealous that Toni and Charla took part in it. But knowing them, I’m sure they cherish those basketball memories as well.

Bobbie’s First Communion

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First Communion photo from circa 1940.

Here is a really cool old photo of my dad.  He was born January 31, 1929, in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  He was the fourth of eight children born to Robert Joseph (“Rob” or “Pappy” or “Pee Paw”) Landry, Sr. and Germaine “Erie” (or “Mee Maw”) Patureau Landry.  It wasn’t long after he was born that the country was thrown into a Great Depression that lasted until little Bobbie was almost a teenager.

Yet that did not deter this southern Louisiana Catholic Cajun family from celebrating milestones that they felt were important.  The suits and the candles indicate that this was a celebration of the First Communion for these young ones of old.  I think that most times this occurs when a child is around the first or second grade.  Back then, there was a Private Communion at that time.  Later, when they were around 11, they would have a Solemn First Communion.  This photo is of the Solemn First Communion.  (Thanks to my 3rd cousin Dolores White Hebert for informing me about the different rituals held back then.) So I estimate the photo was taken somewhere around 1940.

Daddy can be seen in the group of boys.  He is the one with the wavy hair third from the left.  He’s got his little white suit on, which probably was quite a luxury for that time.  He did have two older brothers, so it could have been a hand-me-down.  I’m sure he got a new candle, though.  You can’t have a candle that’s been burned before at your First Communion, right?

The other ‘luxurious’ part of this event was that there was a photo taken and he got a copy of it.  There aren’t that many photos of him from that time.  Mainly the photos from that time were the yearly school portraits.  It’s a really good photo.  I did a little bit of editing on it last year, but it was already in pretty good condition.  And though a good many of these people may have had their Last Rites, it’s nice to be able to look back and reminisce about one of their earlier rites.