Month: September 2023

Trasimond Landry Died in 1879

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1879 letter, top of page 1

I haven’t written very many posts about Trasimond.  That’s mainly because I only have one solitary photo of him.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great photo from 1861.  He is young and handsome in the photo and he’s wearing a Civil War uniform for the Confederacy.  Of course, he was.  He was from the South!  I can only say so much about one photo.  I will share it again today, but it’s not the main topic of the post today.

1879 letter, bottom of page 1

The main topic is about his death in 1879.  To be more precise, it is about a letter that was sent to his wife Marie Amelie “Belite” Bujol Landry on March 17, 1879.  Trasimond had died the month before at the young age of 39.  He died from yellow fever.  I found this letter recently at the West Baton Rouge Museum.  There was a presentation there the other day for people who are interested in their family history.  It was about finding information from maps and land ownership.  It showed me how much I had to learn about all that is and can be family history.

1879 letter, top of page 2

After the presentation, a fellow enthusiast showed me some of the files available in one of the rooms I had been to several times.  I really need to pay attention to my surroundings more often!  There were all kinds of interesting documents in those files.  But I was just quickly browsing through them, because I hadn’t planned on staying long.  I was on the lookout for anything that was related to my family, though.  So I was kind of excited to find this original letter that was sent to my great great grandma Belite.  I’ve written much more about her, because she lived a full life and there are many photos of her in her later years.

1879 letter, bottom of page 2

The letter is in pretty good shape, considering how old it is.  It looks like it has been laminated in some way.  It’s a thin lamination, so it’s still pretty flexible and feels almost like regular paper.  But it does reflect the light and made it tricky to photograph.  It’s still relatively easy to read.  It looks like three different people wrote different parts of the letter.  Their handwriting is different, but all three are easily legible for those that can read script writing.

The first person writing has some calligraphy features to it.  The capital C has a heaviness about it that makes it stand out, as you can see in the words “Capt Trasimond Landry.”  He talks about the Court of West Baton Rouge Parish finding out about the sad event of the death of a recent clerk of the Court.  The decided to draft a resolution in honor of said deceased.  The second hand writing begins with “In Memorium” and talks about the death of Capt Landry on February 25, 1879.  I have his death identified as the week earlier (Feb. 18).  They point out the fact that he fought during the entire duration of the Civil War as part of the West Baton Rouge Tirailleurs.  They also note that he left his wife and five young children in “destitute circumstances.”

I was kind of surprised to see their condition spelled out so blatantly.  I had seen references to the family being left in a difficult financial situation before, so it wasn’t a shock to see it.  It made me wonder what they were going to do about it.  Offer assistance?  Provide a gift?  Nope, they just offered her condolences.  Plus they “resolved that we tender to his widow + children the heartfelt sorrow of the members of the Bar.”  They also made sure that they would publish this resolution in the local paper The Sugar Planter.  They also gave themselves some time off to mourn their departed “brother.” 

“Wait!  Wait!”  I was thinking.  “What about those debts?  What about his starving children?”  My great grandmother Marie Therese Landry – his oldest child – was only ten years old at the time.  I kept reading.  A third hand continued the letter on the back (page 2) of it.  This person was deputy clerk C. W. Pope and he dutifully closed out the official copy of the minutes of the meeting.  I wonder if it was him that put the official Louisiana state seal that is stamped on the margin of this letter?  It looks like his handwriting that added the personal note to Grandma Belite.  He addresses her as Mrs. Landry and expresses his sympathy for her “great affliction.”  He could have at least included a gift card for the local A&P or Walmart!

I wonder how this ended up in the museum.  In some ways it is a letter and in other ways it is the minutes of an official meeting.  It must have gone to Grandma Belite, since it has that part addressed to her.  You can also see the words “For my dear Mose” written across the top of the first page in pencil.  Trasimond and Belite’s fourth child was Moses Joseph Landry.  I’ve heard him referred to as Uncle Mose.  The only thing that makes sense is that those words were written to Mose by his mother Belite.  She must have wanted her son to know the respect that his father had garnered from the officials of West Baton Rouge Parish.

And now some of her descendants know that as well.  Thanks, Grandma Belite, for passing that down to us.

 

Mom’s Memories Page 25 AKA Arts and Crafts

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Page from book my mom wrote in when her memory was failing. This page talks about some of the arts and crafts shows she participated in during the 1980s.

The other day I noticed that I hadn’t done a “Mom’s Memories” in a while.  I also had a photo that I wanted to share of my mom in 1978.  Since the photo shows her in the beginning stages of transferring a pattern onto a piece of wood to paint, I thought this post could include both of my ideas.   I guess this could also be considered a continuation of the post I wrote last year that was called “Betty Lou the Artist.”  

The post from last year was about her landscape paintings, which I prefer.  This post is about some of her craftier things she did.  I think it was the mid-70s when she learned tole painting.  It was a method of painting where you put two different colors on the paint brush and then apply them to the surface you are painting.  And in my mom’s case, she liked to paint them on crafted wood items – like ovals, boxes, cannisters – pretty much any flat surface she could get her crafty little hands on.

Betty Lou Bucklin Landry in Jennings, Louisiana, on Dec. 26, 1978.

She would find pictures in different magazines or books and save them for painting.  She had a huge collection of those.  When the time was right, she’d take a prepared wood item and match it with the image that she thought fit it the best.  She’d transfer the image onto the base with tracing paper.  That’s what she was doing in the 1978 photo at the kitchen table at our house on Lucy Street in Jennings, Louisiana.  It was the day after Christmas.

Betty Lou Bucklin at Zigler Museum in Jennings on May 19, 1979.

With the landscape paintings that she did, she mostly kept them.  But with these smaller paintings on wood, she started selling them at different art (and craft) shows.  One of those shows was at the old Zigler Museum in Jennings just a few days after I graduated from Jennings High School in 1979.  She and my sister Jodie had several items that they made and put up for sale.  All of the paintings on wood were by my mom.  Jodie made pottery and you can see some of that on the table as well.  I know they sold quite a bit, because there were some pieces of pottery that Jodie made that I would have liked to have.   

Henry and Irma Hetzel Phenice at Zigler museum in 1979.

Since I’m talking about that day and this is a family history blog, I’d better mention the other family members that were there that day.  Right next to Mama and Jodie’s table was my mom’s maternal uncle Henry Phenice and his wife Irma Hetzel Phenice.  Henry was a lapidarist and he made jewelry from his stone carvings.  He was very generous with me that day.  He said that I could pick anything from the table as a graduation gift.  I looked at the items on his table and decided on the cube that he had sitting in front of him.  It was made from moss agate and he said it had taken him a while to carve it and get the surfaces smooth.  I don’t even know if he had it for sale.  But he was willing to let me have it and I still treasure it to this day.  My mom had a road runner pin of his that she wore all of the time.

Florence Devall, Betty Bucklin Landry and her daughters Jodie, Jamie, and Karen at Zigler museum in May 1979.

I also have this picture of Mama, Jodie, Jamie, and Karen.  To the left of mom is her paternal aunt Edna Bucklin Keys.  At least that’s who I think it is.  I remember it was confusing because she was my grandfather Fred Bucklin’s sister, but she had the Keys last name.  That’s because she was married to my grandmother Myrtle Phenice’s first cousin Frank Keys from their common Keys family.  Now the confusion comes because my grandfather’s sisters resemble each other in their old age.  I’ve found enough photos of them when they were young that I can tell them apart back then.  If I’m wrong about this, I’m hoping someone in the family will let me know.

I think I’m done now.  I’ve shared the photo I wanted to – plus a few more – and I’ve shared some of Mom’s Memories.  I’ve even added a bit of family history.  Mission accomplished.

Sept. 24, 2023 Correction

The woman in the green shirt posing with my mom and sisters was not my mom’s aunt.  She isn’t even related to us!  But there are some family connections.  My sister’s good friend from junior high and high school was Stella Devall.  Well, this photo is of Stella’s mom Florence Rosannah Minnix Devall.  Come to find out, Florence’s first cousin (by their Miller mothers) Wilma May Hylton was married to my mom’s uncle Warren Phenice (brother of the above Henry Phenice and father of Julie).

 

John Peter Hine and Family

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I wrote a post about John Peter Hine three years ago.  It was mainly about his father Peter Hine who died before John Peter was born.  I mentioned Peter a few weeks ago – no, actually four months ago – because he was the runner up for the ancestor who died at the youngest age.  He was only 24 years, 8 months, and 12 days when he died in 1819.  His wife Margaret Miller gave birth to their only child two months later.  She was only 19 years old.

Moravian Star puzzle. I’ve had this for a few years.

The reason I was looking at these people this week is that I identified a DNA match who had these common ancestors.  Misty Q is my 4th cousin through Peter and Margaret.  So I looked a little into their history.  Both families were part of a Moravian religious group that came to the United States in search of freedom.  They lived in Bethabara, North Carolina, which is known for its Moravian community.  There is even a Bethabara Historic Park there that is a National Historic Landmark.  And our Hine family was part of that history.

The Hine family did not stay in North Carolina, though.  At least not our line of the family.  After Peter Hine died, Margaret remarried a few years later to Samuel Wageman.  The first of their six children was born in 1822.  Samuel was also a Moravian from Bethabara.  But that did not keep them there.  They had moved to Hamilton, Indiana, by the time of the birth of their last child in 1838.

John Peter Hine went with his family even though he was a teenager.  Sometimes older children will stay in the place that they lived their formative years.  But John Peter must have been close to his family and went along with them to Indiana.  He must have been glad that he did, because it wasn’t long before he had met and married Malina Cox.  They got married in Boone, Indiana, on November 14, 1841.

John Hinds (John Peter Hine) married Malina Cox in 1814.

Malina and her Cox family had been in Indiana since 1829 according to various sources.  She was only 19 years old at the time of her marriage.  According to the marriage register, John Peter was of “lawful age” and Malina had to have parental consent.  They were married in the Methodist Episcopal Church.  I suppose their Moravian days were behind them.

John Peter and Malina had seven children together in Indiana.  They lived in the Eagletown – Westfield area of Hamilton County.  Their children were Benjamin, William, George (my great great grandfather), Allen (Misty Q’s great great grandfather), Maggie, Mary, and Thomas.  The only person that I have photos of is my ancestor George.  Mary Malina Cox Hine lived until 1894, when she died at the age of 72.  John Peter Hine lived until 1900, when he died at the age of 80.  He lived much longer than his father had.  It seems possible that there could be photos of them out there.

Jim, Lonnie, and Bert Hine circa 1905 or so. Probably in Jefferson Davis Parish, Louisiana.

My great grandmother Addie Hine was born in 1876, so she would have known her grandfather quite well.  She was almost 24 when he died.  I was the same age when my grandfather Fred Bucklin – Addie’s son – died in 1984.  When you live close to your grandparents for that long of a period, you usually get to know them well.  Addie’s younger brothers were only spaced out every two years, so they would have known their grandfather, too.

So even though I don’t have a photo of John Peter Hine, I do have photos of his grandsons.  Is that helpful?  I posted a photo of my paternal grandfather last week and when I see photos of him, I am always reminded of some of my male cousins.  Family traits are definitely passed on to grandchildren. 

That’s what DNA does.  It gets passed down.  Sometimes it can be seen in the eyes of your grandchildren.  Other times it’s a few common segments of DNA with a cousin from across the country.

Pee Paw in Uniform Circa 1918

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Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. circa 1918 during World War I.

This is a photo that I’ve seen all of my life.  I remember my dad had several photos of his dad from World War I.  When I was young, I thought that World War II was ancient history.  That was back in 1965 or so, which was only twenty years or so after the fact.  So the idea of something as far back as World War I was unfathomable.  Same with the future – I always thought the year 2000 was so far in the future.  I never looked past that.

And now I think that a photo from 20 years ago is a recent photo.  That’s because according to my childhood self, I am unfathomably old!  World War I was fifty years earlier than my childhood, and now I’m older than that.  Oh how the years go by!  

The other thing that was notable about this photo was that it was one of the few ways I got to know my grandfather.  He died before I was born, so I never had any interactions with him.  So I relied on my dad and older family members to know things about him.

His name was Robert Joseph Landry, Sr.  Of course, he wasn’t born a Sr.  He became a Sr. in 1929 when my dad was born.  My grandfather went by the name Rob and sometimes Bob, so my dad was called Bobbie by his family.  My dad called his dad Papa, and the grandchildren knew him as Pee Paw.

Pee Paw was born on January 9, 1893, in Westlake, Louisiana, to 47-year- old Simon Alcide Joseph Landry and 45-year-old Marie Celeste Leveque.  He was the last of ten children born to this couple.  Though when Rob was born, only six of his older siblings were still alive.  He spent his whole childhood in Westlake.  He might have been like me and thought that his dad was so old.  After all, Alcide would have been in his fifties and he had fought in the Civil War.  And unlike me, I think he must have played a lot of baseball when he was growing up.  I do have a photo of Pee Paw as an infant, but there aren’t any of him playing games as a child.

But he must have played a lot, because when he was a young man he was a semi-professional baseball player.  I’ve shared photos of that before.  There are some really good ones of him from that age.  Then in 1917, at the age of 24, he joined the military to be part of the Great War.  He went to training at Camp Humphreys in Virginia.  I think that’s where this photo was taken some time around 1917 or 1918.  He never was deployed or involved in any battles.  The war ended in November 1918 and Robert Joseph Landry was discharged on December 4, 1918.