Grandpa in His Greenhouse and More

This photo of my grandfather Fred D. Bucklin (father of my mother Betty Lou Bucklin Landry) brings back memories from childhood.  It seems like lots of times when we would get to Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Hathaway, Louisiana, Grandpa would be puttering around in his greenhouse.  He didn’t look at all tired from riding the pig through the fields as he raced us back to his house.  LOL The only one who wouldn’t need an explanation for that comment would be my sister Jamie!  When our family was driving up to Hathaway from Jennings, we would pretend that Grandpa was riding a pig out in the fields along the road we were on.  We thought it was hilariously funny!

But he wasn’t really.  He probably had been in the greenhouse as we approached their house.  There was a semicircular drive next to the road where we’d park, and next to that was a large live oak tree.  From what I remember, he had the greenhouse built around the base of that tree.  Of course he would have a greenhouse, he was a nurseryman!  He started out in that profession around 1930 with his twin brother Clarence.  He was still involved with it when we would visit their place in the 1960s.  They moved from the country into Jennings in 1975, so this photo is probably from some time in the 1960s or early 1970s.

I’m not really sure what he was doing in this photo, but he looks to be in his element.  There are lots of potted plants behind him as well as tables full of some of the starts of other plants.  I’m sure he started lots of those plants from seeds, but my mom always talked about how they would help him make cuttings of plants.  He also got creative with grafting citrus trees.  He had one tree that produced four different types of fruit.  I wonder if any of those plants he grafted are still around.

I’ve been thinking about Grandpa this week because I’ve had some interesting discoveries in his maternal grandmother’s family line.  Fred’s mother was Addie May Hine, and Addie’s mother was Susan G. Stanbrough.  I like to refer to my great great grandmother as Grandma Sue.  That’s because a while back I found some transcriptions of letters written by her, and she signed them as “Sister Sue” and “Aunt Sue.”  So Sue it is!  I’ve been wanting to find a photo or scan of those original letters, and I found someone who has a letter and is willing to send me a copy of it.  Woo  hoo!  I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for that since I told you about it in a previous post!  We’ll still have to wait until Cousin Stanbro puts his hands on the letter again and sends us a copy.

Another thing that happened was that I’ve finally been able to identify the couple who are in this old photo.  I got this photo from Cousin Joseph a few years ago and their identities were unknown.  All that was known was that the photo came from our Hine/Stanbrough part of the family.  So we didn’t know if it was friends of the family, Hine family members, or Stanbrough family members.  

The woman in the photo always reminded me of Addie and her mother Susan, but that could have just been the rather stern look that she had on her face.  Still, I did think that she could have been Grandma Sue’s sister.  If you look at the 1900 photo of Sue Stanbrough and George Hine, you might see a resemblance also.  

The other day I was looking at some information on Ancestry about the family, and saw an old, grainy Xerox copy of a photo of Albert Wicker.  It was a copy of the man in this photo.  So the man in the photo is Albert Wicker.  And who do you think Albert Wicker was married to?  Well, it just happened to be Sue Stanbrough’s older sister Mary Etta Stanbrough.  We like to call her Aunt Mollie. 

It was a photo of Sue’s sister after all.  I had just gotten an email from one of Aunt Mollie’s descendants a few days earlier.  She was interested in finding out what our connection was.  I was glad to tell her how we are related and also told her about this wonderful photo that I have of her ancestors.

Even though Grandma Sue moved down south from Indiana and never went back to visit, she did keep in touch with her family that had spread across the country.  The only reason I really know that is because of the letters that people have saved through the years.  At least two of the letters that she wrote to her family have survived.  I know that some of the letters that she received have been saved as well.  I’ve seen a reference to that but have never actually seen the letters.  Maybe one day someone will share them with me.  (Hint, hint, Joseph!) 

I do have copies of some of the photos that were included in those letters.  That’s what I shared with you today and in previous posts.  And now we know the identity of the people in one of those photos.