Go Go Patureau – to Texas and Mexico

This is my second Go Go Patureau installment.  I don’t know if you remember, but almost a year ago I posted the first one.  It was called “Go Go Patureau – To Mexico!” and it was about my grandmother (Mee Maw or Germaine Erie Patureau Landry) and her sisters traveling to Mexico.  I wasn’t planning on a second part to that story, but I found some more information since that last article.  I also got an improved version of a photo that I posted a few months ago.  And since it could be seen as a travel photo, I thought I’d combine the two pieces of information for this post.

Vincent Maximilian Patureau was known as Grampa Max to his family. Here he can be seen circa 1914 with an old timey automobile. Ready to travel.

I always like to start out with an interesting photo from the past.  Some people aren’t inclined to read all the words that I write down, so I’ll give them a morsel to catch their attention.  Isn’t this a great one?  This is my dad’s maternal grandfather Max Patureau looking dapper with his old jalopy.  Of course, at the time it was a newfangled jalopy. 

That side of my family was known for enjoying traveling.  Mee Maw liked to travel when she was older.  Tez made her way across southern Louisiana visiting family along the way, whether they wanted her there or not!  And even though Mee Maw and Pee Paw never owned a car, her father Max did.  Part of that was that he had a veterinary business in Lafayette and he visited homes and farms to care for larger animals.  But you already know this, because I’ve posted photos of him with a cow and with a horse.

You may be wondering like I did whether he did much more traveling.  I am not wondering any more, because I actually found an article that talks about him traveling to visit family.  And since you read the title of this post, you know that he went to Texas and Mexico.

Jan. 7, 1905  Newspaper article

So here is the article that I found.  It’s a treasure!  Do small towns still write articles like this anymore?  It talks about Mr. and Mrs. Max Patureau attending Mrs. Patureau’s sister’s funeral in Lake Charles on Dec. 21, 1904.  Her sister is referred to as Mrs. Sebastian Landry.  Mrs. Patureau was Marie Therese Landry Patureau and her sister was Marie Manette Landry Landry. They were two of the daughters of Civil War hero Trasimond Landry.  Sebastian was the son of Trasimond’s brother Alcide.  Marie Therese’s daughter Erie would later marry Sebastian’s brother Rob. 

I’m sorry.  Don’t try to figure out that last paragraph.  Just know that Max and Therese went to the funeral of Therese’s younger sister Marie Manette who died as a result of childbirth of her first child at the age of 28.  The child was a little girl they also named Marie Manette.  She would grow up and marry Bibb Bouquet and have nine children.  I went to Bibb and Manette’s 50th wedding anniversary.

Since they traveled to the western part of the state, I guess Grampa Max decided to take the opportunity to visit more family even further west.  So he sent his wife and small child back home in the care of her mother.  She is called Mrs. Magloire Babin in this article, but we know her as Grandma Belite.  She was Marie Amelie “Belite” Bujol Landry Babin.  She was first married to Trasimond Landry, who was the father of three of her daughters – Therese, Manette, and Kate, who was also known as Mrs. Thos. Blanchard.

Max’s first stop in Texas was at his sister Victorine’s home in Beaumont.  She was married to William Albert “Willie” Cropper and at that point in time, they had six children.  Max and Therese had nine at the time, so I think that was incentive for Victorine to have even more children.  It must have been a competition between Max, Victorine, and their brothers Louis Leobon and Abel.  It’s the reason I have so many third cousins out there!

Max went on to visit his cousin in Corpus Christi.  She is named “Mr. Cruis Cutires” in the article.  I mean really!  They don’t even give the women’s first names in this article.  At least they could get the “Mrs.” part right!  Max’s cousin Rosa Crixell married a man named Cruz Gutierrez.  They only had five children at the time.  Obviously they were not part of the competition, though they would end up with nine children.

Cousin Eliza

Next, “he was taken to Brownsville” to meet other cousins for the first time.  This means that he was not driving himself at the time, so I’m not sure how he was getting about.  The cousins he met were “Mrs. De’Falcon and  her children, the Cruxielle boys.”  I’ve shared a photo of “Mrs. De’Falcon” before, but I called her Eliza.  Her name given to her at birth was Eliza Patureau Laulom and she was the first cousin of Grampa Max.  She was also the mother of Rosa Crixell AKA “Mr. Cruis Cutires” or Mrs. Cruz Gutierrez.  They were probably named after Rose and Eliza Patureau.

“The Cruxielle boys” were the sons of Eliza Patureau Laulom and Vicente Crixell, Sr..  The sons’ names were Teofilo, Vicente Jr., Joseph, and Luis.  They had some notoriety in southeastern Texas.  Joseph or Jose was a saloon owner and city marshall who was later assassinated in 1912 by a former Texas Ranger.  But when Max visited, they were alive and well and they showed him a good time.  Vicente Sr had died in 1880 and Eliza was then married to Albino Falcon.  (Hence the “Mrs. De’Falcon.”)  It sounds like the Crixell boys brought him over to Mexico to visit more family and friends.  There was (and still are) extended Patureau family members who lived in Brownsville and Guadalajara, Mexico.  Having been born in the Matamoros area of Mexico himself, Max was probably treated as a prodigal son.

It was a trip of a lifetime for Grampa Max.  Lucky for us, we have the newspaper article to recount his delightful adventure.  And now, with my help, you know who they were talking about in that article.  It always helps to know the connections.