Van | Family History

The Lincoln Collection

May 11, 2017 Van Leave a comment

Last week my post was about my mom’s side of the family, so my plan was to make this week’s theme about my dad’s side of the family. But then something happened. A second cousin once removed happened. And she happened to be on my mom’s side of the family. She took a DNA test at Ancestry last year and I have communicated with her a little bit from time to time. But both of us were dealing with issues with aging and failing parents.

Our lives have changed a bit because me and my siblings buried my parents at the end of January and her father died two weeks later. We had talked about old photos and such, but that was put on the back burner at the time. Now there is time and that cousin got back in touch with me.

You see, her father had been the last remaining first cousin of my grandmother Myrtle Phenice Bucklin on the Phenice side of her family. His name was Harry Lincoln Quillen and he was the son of Emma Phenice Quillen. Emma’s brother Harry Clifton Phenice was my grandmother’s father. If you’ve followed me thus far, you will have figured out that the cousin I’m talking about is my second cousin once removed Mona Quillen.

Well, you may not have figured out her name, but you might have figured out our relationship. Anyway, she had started to clean out her father’s home and came across several old photos. Since she remembered that I was interested in that, she got in touch with me. And boy am I glad she did! The photos that I have seen are mind blowing! Sorry, I shouldn’t build it up too much. I would hate for you to be disappointed when you see some of the pieces in the Lincoln Collection. That’s what I’m calling it. They belonged to Harry Lincoln Quillen and our common ancestor was a witness to the Lincoln assassination, so that’s the name I’ll use – the Lincoln Collection. I actually gave a preview of it by posting a new cover photo on Facebook. I had a photo that was taken on the same day, but the quality of this new photo is much better. Probably because mine had been a photo of grandma’s old photo that has since disappeared, and the Lincoln Collection photo was an original.

The Samuel Charles Phenice family in Beaver Creek, Nebraska, circa 1937.

But the photo that I’m posting today is a new one to me. It relates to the photo that I posted last week. Last week’s photo was of Daisy Keys Phenice and some of her siblings, and this week’s photo is of her husband Harry Clifton Phenice and some of his siblings. Daisy was prominently displayed last week, but this week H C is hiding his face. I mentioned that Daisy and her siblings lived within 20 miles of each other. The same can not be said for H C. He was born in Pennsylvania and by the time he was six years old, the family was living in Nebraska.

In 1898 at the age of 24, he left home and went to seek fame and fortune. So of course he came to southern Louisiana. It was here that he met his young sweetheart with a British accent and they were married in 1900. But being 1000 miles from his family is quite a bit different than it is today. The country did not have an interstate system at that time and jumping on a plane wasn’t available either. It wasn’t until 1920 that H C and his family bought their first car. I don’t know how often he visited his parents and other family members, but he must have from time to time. There are photos to prove it like this one.

From left to right you see H C’s brother Edd, father Samuel, niece Leora, H C, and sisters Myrtle (mother of Leora), Emma, and May. I like the way he is hugging on his niece and sister. He must have been glad to see them on one of his infrequent visits. I also like the fact that someone took a photo of the get together. And that Emma Phenice Quillen saved that photo and wrote everybody’s names on it. And that her son Harry Lincoln held on to it all of his life.

But most importantly I am glad that his daughter Mona was also interested in preserving those old photos and was willing to share them with me. And she likes that they are being shared with the family. This is not the best photo that I got. I have to save some for later, of course. But remember when I told you the story about my great great grandmother who died as a result of catching fire? I said that I wanted to tell the story of her life and I mused about finding a good photo of her to go along with the story. Well I am happy to say that I have found the perfect photo for that story!

Ok, I think I have said enough in this introduction to the Lincoln Collection. I hope I have left you wanting for more. I want more! It sounds like she has just touched the surface of the treasure trove of photos that she has. And what I’ve got so far are just snapshots of the original photos. More images made at better resolutions with a scanner are foreseen in the future. Must…be…patient…

Phenice

The Keys Sisters – Part 2

May 3, 2017 Van Leave a comment

About a year and a half ago I posted a photo of the Keys sisters. It was taken around 1894 when the girls were just teenagers. I explained my relation to them. I’ll refresh that information for you. My mom was Betty Lou Bucklin Landry. Her mother was Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin, and then her mother was Daisy Henrietta Martha Keys Phenice. Daisy was born in 1876 in England to her parents Henry Keys and Martha Cook Keys. She was the third child and the oldest daughter.

In this photo, as you can see, the girls are bit older. In the middle of the photo is my great grandmother Daisy. This photo was taken around 1951, so she would have been close to 75 years old. Rosetta Ruth Keys was the next daughter to be born to Henry and Martha. She went by her middle name Ruth and that is her on the left side of this photo. She married Herbert Bryan and they had six children together. She would have been around 72 in this photo. The baby sister was Mabel Olive Keys and she was around 70 as she is seen here on the right. She married Abraham Miller and they lived in the Kinder area with their four sons.

This photo is not that good of quality, but I still like it. It’s one that my grandmother had and I took a photo of it when I was in college. I don’t know where the original went. I also have another photo that was taken the same day that was of Daisy and H. C. Phenice with their children. I don’t know if it was some kind of family reunion (like we are having on June 3 in Jennings. Hint. Hint.) or if the families just got together from time to time since they lived in the same area. I wonder if there are any other photos of the sisters out there? I’d sure like to see more. What I’d really like to see would be a photo of all five siblings. They all settled in Louisiana and lived within 20 miles of one another.

Of course the family has spread far and wide since that time. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is family in every state. I started to figure out where some of them were, but it became too daunting. East coast, west coast, north coast, south coast – we’ve got it covered. All because of the dreams of Henry and Martha over 130 years ago. Henry died before they could act on that dream, but Martha followed through as courageously as possible. And these girls were part of it. These lovely, enduring, timeless girls – The Keys Sisters.

Aug. 2020 Update – I enhanced that old photo to make it a little clearer. I think it improved it.

Enhanced 1951 photo of sisters Ruth Keys Bryan, Daisy Keys Phenice, and Mabel Keys Miller.

Cook
Keys

Celeste and the Cistern

April 27, 2017 Van Leave a comment

Grandma Celeste visiting Lake Charles in the late 1920s.

Here is another photo that I got from the AJ Collection. It is from around the late 1920s and was taken in Lake Charles. That is my dad’s paternal grandmother. (Van’s dad is Bob, Bob’s dad is Rob, Rob’s mom is this woman.) Her name was Marie Celeste Leveque Landry and she lived her whole life in Louisiana. Let me give you some background facts about her.

Celeste was born in 1847 in Brusly, Louisiana. Her parents were Joseph Auguste Leveque and Marie Basalite Landry Leveque. She was the 2nd of 9 children by her father’s second wife. Since the first wife was her mother’s sister, the children from that union were Celeste’s half siblings and half cousins – 3/4 siblings.

When she was born, the family owned a plantation in the Brusly area where they had 60 individuals enslaved and forced to work for them. Since she was born in 1847, her whole childhood would have been in that environment. And when the Civil War came along, many of her siblings and cousins fought for the Confederacy. Would she have considered her childhood happy? I wonder.

She married one of those cousins that fought in the Civil War. She married Simon Alcide Joseph Landry on November 24, 1868, in West Baton Rouge Parish. They had ten children together including my grandfather Robert Joseph Landry who was born in 1893. That means that Celeste was 47 years old when she gave birth to him! That’s pretty old.

But it’s not as old as she was when this photo was taken. She was around 80 years old at the time of this photo. Yet she still has a little vanity left. Why do I say this? Because you can see that she has taken her glasses off for the photo and is holding them in her hand. Trying to look her best for the photo. I can just imagine a conversation with her about this photo:

Grandma Celeste asks me, “Why are you putting that old photo on the Facebook? I look so old in it. You could at least remove that bump on my neck with all your fancy gadgetry.”

I tell her, “I already removed a possible bump on your cheek. I want it to look as good as it can, but I also want it to reflect what you actually looked like then without too many changes. I posted a photo that showed you when you were young and pretty. Now I’m showing one of when you were older and more dignified.”

“Hmmph!” she snorts, “Old and decrepit is more like it. At least I’m not wearing my bed clothes like you’ve done to other family members! I wouldn’t mind if you fixed my blouse to make it straight across the bottom.”

“Like I said,” I patiently explain to her, “I like to keep it as real as possible.”

“You and your ‘really real’ shenanigans,” she says with exasperation, “If only you would treat your ancestors as well as that darned sock monkey of yours! Now I’m making an edit of the photo myself. There.”

“Hey,” I say as I notice her smile is gone from the photo, “You put a scowl on your face!”

She just scowls at me and disappears with a shake of her head.

Back in Time to ’69

April 20, 2017 Van Leave a comment

The Robert J. Landry, Jr. family in 1969

I’m posting this photo because Siblings Day was this week and I’ve been missing my parents recently. I was looking for a family photo that I hadn’t posted before and thought about this one. How is it that this photo has not been online before? It is so quintessential Landry Family. It was taken in 1969 and that fact caused me to reminisce about that year. So many transitional things were happening that year beside just the obvious one of changing from the 60s to the 70s.

In January of 1969 the music group the Beatles had their last live gig together shortly before Richard Nixon became the nation’s president. In February the population of the USA broke 200 million and it witnessed the first flight of those infamous flying machines – the 747 – that would become commercial the following year. In March tensions about the Vietnam War lead Nixon to promise that the US would end their involvement by the following year. April showers bring May flowers. In this case, two computers at universities in California were able to send messages to one another and now we have the interweb.

In May of 1969 people were able to see themselves in a different way. They were able to see color photos of the Earth taken from space. And I’m sure as a direct correlation to that, Disney World began construction. June was the saddest month of all to me. The last episode of “Star Trek” was aired. What? No more views of that glorious Enterprise soaring through the cosmos? (An Enterprise that I recently found out was built by my mom’s first cousin. A mind-blowing fact for a Trekkie like me!) Sure there was a new TV show called “Hee Haw” and the Stonewall riots were that month, but those events did not soothe me at the time. I was a bit soothed in July when the Apollo 11 crew landed on the moon and traipsed around with their dusty footprints. I remember getting stickers of the different space missions from cereal boxes and putting them on a shelving unit in our bedroom.

August of 69 was the month of Woodstock and the Manson “family” murders. More on that later. In September the first ATM was introduced and in October PBS was begun. Yes, there was a time before ATM machines and PBS. In November “Sesame Street” was introduced to the world. On the science front Harvard researchers were able to isolate a single gene, which is particularly notable since I am involved in genetic genealogy. To end the year, December called for the first draft lottery since World War II.

Yet in a small town in the Deep South, there was a nuclear family that went about its daily business almost as if in a protective bubble. I’m talking about the Robert J. Landry, Jr. family in Jennings, Louisiana. It consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Landry, Jr. and their six children. (That was her name! She got letters addressed that way and she signed our report cards the same way.) In 1969 our ages were from 7 to 16. It was the prime time for our little nuclear family.

Daddy turned 40 at the beginning of the year and Mom was still in her 30s. None of us had started wearing glasses nor dating anyone seriously. It was just Mom and Dad and six kids in a three bedroom house. That’s right. Three boys in two beds in one room and three girls in one bed in the other. It was as cozy as could be until one brother decided to light a match with a bunch of fuses next to him!

By the way, on the back row is Jodie, Rob, Karen and Al. In the front is Bob, Betty, Van (me), and Jamie. A moment frozen in time. So different than the events in the outside world in August of that year. When I thought of posting this photo before, it was always with the idea of posting a photo from Woodstock along with it. And the Manson “family” was not like the family that I experienced. As I said at the beginning, the 60s were ending and the 70s were beginning. Change is inevitable.

Landry

A Voice From the Past – Sammy Got Run Over

April 12, 2017 Van 2 comments

I’ve got another keepsake that I want to share with all of you. I found this last year when I was going through some of the things I collected from my parents’ home when we cleaned it out for selling. I’m not talking about the photo that I’m posting with the keepsake. The photo is part of a promise that I made on here a few weeks ago. I said that the next thing I’d post for Addie would be a photo of her smiling.

Addie Mae Hine Bucklin circa 1937

For those of you who don’t know who Addie is, she is my maternal grandfather’s mother Addie Mae Hine Bucklin. (mother of Fred Bucklin, grandmother of Betty Lou Bucklin, and great grandmother of Van Landry) In most of the photos I have of her, she has a rather severe look on her face. I thought it was time to share a photo of her smiling since the story in the post is a happy one. Yes, Sammy did get hit by a car, but he recovered quite well as you’ll hear Addie explain to you. That’s right, you’ll be hearing the story of Sammy the dog in Addie’s own voice from around 1944.

Addie’s oldest daughter Mary was married to Sylvan Phenice. He was a sound engineer and one of the things he was able to do was make recordings with a turntable using a cutting needle. And I thought it was tough when I was a youngster recording conversations secretly using a reel to reel tape recorder! Somehow he was able to record a conversation with Addie going into detail about her dog falling in the wheel track. (It must have been a dirt road with deep ruts from the wheels of the cars and trucks.)

Sylvan’s wife Mary can also be heard in the conversation. I wouldn’t want to get that one too excited. Her voice would be piercing! The other people in the recording are Roy Bucklin and his wife Effie. So find a quiet spot, click on the link to the site that has the recording, close your eyes, and let yourself be transported back to 1944 in rural southern Louisiana.

Sammy Got Run Over – as told by Addie Mae Hine Bucklin.

I thought I’d go ahead and put the transcript of the recording on here in case there was anything you weren’t able to make out. I am very thankful to aunt Loris who is the one that was able to recognize the voices in the recording. Mom had it labeled, but I didn’t know which voice belonged to which person. Thus begins the transcript:

Roy Day Bucklin: Effie’s a gardener.

Addie Mae Hine Bucklin: That was the morn… that was the morning that uh Sammy got out in the road and got run over.

Effie Hetzel Bucklin: (at the same time) Yeah, I’ve been trying but I’m afraid that uh it’s not going to amount…

Roy: Did Mr. Compton die?

Mary Bucklin Phenice: Who’s Sammy?

Addie: Our little dog.

Mary: Your little dog?

Addie: He followed me to mailbox and just as I got out there, there’s a, a pickup went by and he run out to bark and he got too close and it run over him. And uh, I don’t know if it knew it hit him or not; it didn’t stop, it just went on and there Sammy was layin’ right in the wheel-track, you know, just all drawed up. And he commenced makin’ the funniest noise. Now I was afraid to go and pick him up. And uh, I stood there and looked around and I thought I heard Roy out in the shop and I said, uh. Went and called him and I said, “Come here!” and he come, looked at him, and he said, “Oh, I’m afraid he’s done for.” And we just stood there and watched him. We’d speak to him and he wouldn’t let on like he heard us.

After a while, why I guess he was kinda commencin’ to get over it, and he’d raise up and look, you know, but he, you could tell that he didn’t know what he was lookin’ at. So I looked down the road and I saw a car comin’ and I said, “Well, Roy, let’s get him outta the road. There comes a car.” So he picked him up and really just puttin’ him out of the track. Well he just took him on in to the yard. He laid there. We’d talk to him. Still he didn’t know what we’s sayin’. I guess we musta stayed there fifteen minutes just lookin’ at him, you know. And we couldn’t see any place was hurt, only just the blood dropped out of one eye – just two or three drops. Then uh..(cough)…so like, like uh, when we got ready to go to the house, like we said, “Come on, Sammy! Let’s go!” and he got up and followed us to the house!

Mary: He’s alright?!

Addie: And he laid around all day that day, though, Roy was workin’ out with the cattle and he didn’t pay any mind. He just laid around. After that, well he seemed to be alright.

Mary: Shocked him, I guess.

Addie: Broke… broke the collar off of his neck. He had… he had a leather collar on.

Roy (interrupting): Must, he, must, car musta hit him on the neck. That collar was layin’ where the car had hit him.

Mary: It shocked him.

Addie: It’s a shock, I guess. Long, oh for several days he, he wouldn’t bark at cars. He’s got over it now. He runs out. This next time he’d catch it harder and it’d be the last of him.

Eenie Meenie Mee Maw Mo

April 6, 2017 Van Leave a comment

Mrs. Robert J. Landry Jr. and mother-in-law

Germaine Erie Patureau Landry, little Landry children, and Marie Celeste Leveque Landry circa 1930.

Here is a photo that I got from uncle A. J. last month. I think it is from the earlier 1930s. The person with the child in her lap is my paternal grandmother Germaine Erie Patureau Landry. When I got those photos from A. J., I realized there were more photos of my dad’s siblings when they were children than I had ever known. I had seen a few of them ever since I was a youngster. I remember seeing some of my dad when he was just a toddler wearing a dress and thinking that was strange. Other people in my generation must have thought the same thing, because nowadays most people dress their children to match their gender.

After I got home with the photos and scanned them all, I shared a few previews with some of my cousins. This always leads to them sharing some of their photos as well. Yet more childhood photos of those Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. family members! We are going to have to get together and study these photos thoroughly, because they are not all dated and labeled. Like this one. No names, years, or locations. I’m sure none of you neglect to label your photos, especially after I have encouraged you to label them. (On a side note – I could have sworn that I labeled every photo that went into my photo albums. But I would have been lying! I thought I did, but several times I have gone to one photo album or another and looked on the back of a photo to find a date. And I found nothing. Well, not nothing. I did put the frame number from the roll of film that I took. But what good is that if I don’t know when it was taken??? I digress.)

So this photo is of my wonderful Mee Maw who definitely knew who she was holding in this photo! But she’s not talking. I don’t think it’s Marie, since there is an older child showing in the photo. Maybe it is A. J. and that is Marie sticking her foot into the photo. Of course it could be Hubert, Germaine, Bobbie (my dad, Robert Joseph Landry, Jr.), or Wana. They were all born pretty close in age to one another. It couldn’t have been the younger ones, because of who else is in the photo.

On the far right of the photo is Mee Maw’s mother-in-law (and double half 2nd cousin once removed) Marie Celeste Leveque Landry who died February 10, 1934. Though she lived in Lake Charles from about 1890 to 1925, she was living in Lafayette with uncle Seb in 1930 (according to the census; She was buried in Lake Charles.) But I’m sure she had to come visit her little darlings in Lake Charles. I’m sure she knew their names as well.

But we don’t. For me, I like to think that it was my daddy. It looks like some of the photos I’ve seen of him at that age. But my cousin Shirley might think that it looks like her dad. Tricia would say that it was definitely Wana. Daphne will pull out her copy of the same photo and will show that it was labeled as Germaine. Whichever one it was, it was a Landry child being cared for by their loving mother. And that represents all of her children.

I still say it’s Bobbie. (And that cool stroller was his as well!)

A Study of Hine Genes

March 30, 2017 Van One comment

George Henry Hine with his grandsons in 1919.

I thought I’d do a post about DNA this week. It is directly related to this photo. It is a photo of my maternal grandfather Fred Bucklin as a child. He and his male cousins are gathered around their common grandfather George Henry Hine. (I will try to identify everyone later in this post.) I wonder if Henry was the one that passed on that towheaded or blond hair trait. It was very common in his grandchildren and their children and grandchildren as well. Of course, some of them don’t have this trait. DNA traits are randomly passed on to offspring.

In each generation each parent passes on half of their genetic information. So children are made up of half of each of their parents. But the half that they passed on to their children was not separated evenly from their parents. Most of the time a parent passes on more of the traits of one parent than the other. On average you have 25% of your grandparents genes, but it varies from 19% to 35%. As more generations pass, the differences can be notable. I’ll give you an example.

I am the great great grandson of George Henry Hine. Joseph Connors is too. We both descend from his daughter Addie Mae, so we are 2nd cousins. Chad Foley is a great great grandson as well, but he descends from Henry’s son James. That makes him 3rd cousins to Joseph and me. DNA tests have been done on Joseph, his mom Louise Bucklin Connors, me, and my mom Betty Lou Bucklin Landry. And just recently Chad agreed to share his DNA results on the the website GEDmatch.com, which allows me to compare his results with everyone else who has tested. Thanks again, Chad.

I found the results very interesting. On average a 3rd cousin shares around 1% of their DNA, which comes to around 79 cM (centimorgans – a measuring scale for genetic linkage). Since I discovered Chad’s DNA at Ancestry where aunt Loris tested, I will let you know that the average amount shared for 2nd cousins once removed is 129 cM. Loris and Chad only shared about 62 cM, which was a little low but still in normal range. I was curious to see if her siblings and cousins would share more. And when Chad shared his results, I saw that they did.

My mom and Louise (and her brother Ray) shared more than 100cM with Chad. This was still lower than average, but much more than Loris had. The only one with the average amount was uncle Austin who shared 126 cM with Chad. That’s what can happen with the random mixing of DNA through the generations. And it can be even more random. I compared my DNA to Chad and I share the same amount that my mom had. All of the DNA that matches Chad just happened to pass on to me as well. But when I compared Chad to Joseph, they had no matching DNA. Even though Louise had about the same amount as my mom, she just happened to not pass any of it on to Joseph. (I’m sure there was other Hine DNA that was passed on to Joseph, but the DNA segments that matched Chad were not.)

So this is an encouragement for all of you to do DNA tests. Besides getting all of that fun heritage information and seeing whether you have Neanderthal DNA, you get to see who you are related to. But most of the time it’s better to test the older generation. Sometimes those little pieces that connect to certain distant ancestors get dropped out along the way. There are a few Stanbrough (from Henry’s wife Susan Stanbrough Hine) segments that mom had that were not passed on to me. Some of them were really interesting, too. I’m still related to those distant cousins, but there aren’t any common DNA segments to easily prove it.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, it’s time to try to identify the people in this photo from 1919. At that time George Henry Hine had 11 grandsons. His daughter Addie Hine Bucklin had 8 of them. The rest were from his sons. Let’s see who might be who. The first one born was Leo Bucklin in 1898. That’s him standing tall in the middle of the photo. Next born was Ralph Bucklin in 1902. He must be the one in the overalls. Next born was Carl Bucklin in 1904. He is in the back to the far left with his head turning away. Finally Lonnie Hine gives Henry a Hine grandson in 1905. He was named Arthur Henry and he is standing to the right of the oldest one (sans hat).

The next three are the hardest to identify. They all look alike to me. It doesn’t help that two of them are identical twins. Herbert Bucklin (grandfather of Joseph) was born in 1906 and then Clarence and Fred (my grandfather) were born in 1907. I’ll say that Herbert is the boy 2nd from the right in the back row, Fred is on the right in the back, and Clarence is 2nd from the left (sticking his tongue out. Carla, if you want to switch those names in your mind, that is fine with me. Either one is representative of what he looked like.) The next grandson born was Aulden Hine (son of James and grandfather of Chad) in 1908. He is standing in front to the far left with plaid hat. Robert Bucklin was born in 1911 and is standing in front on the right in the dark shorts.

Okay, we’re almost finished. If there were any more, I’d have to number them and make a chart! Roy Bucklin was born in 1915 and that’s him with his hand to his blond hair in front. And lastly, there is little Kenneth Hine sitting in grandpa Henry’s lap. He was born in 1916 to James. There would be one more grandson born. Bert Hine had a son named Harold in 1921. There is not a photo of Harold with his grandfather because Henry died in 1919 at the age of 72.

So now we’re done. Fini. The end. The case study of Hine genes has been completed. At least for now.

Meet the Patureaus of Patureau Lane

March 23, 2017 Van Leave a comment

Last week I collected a few new old photos, so we won’t be running out of Throwback Thursday fuel for an additional few months. I know you are as excited about this as I am! A few of you already know that I went to visit my dad’s older brother A. J. last week with some family members. We had a nice visit with him. It was good to see him because I hadn’t seen him in a while. He seemed to be in good spirits despite the challenges of a weakening body from many years of wear. It was also good to see aunt Margie. She’s such a sweet lady.

But one of the other good things about this visit is that they gave me some of the old photos of the family that uncle A. J. had. A nice one of Pee Paw from World War I, a really sharp one of Pee Paw’s mother from around 1930, and a few other family photos from when my dad and his siblings were just kids growing up in southern Louisiana. But the photo this week comes from my cousin Wade. Actually he is my second cousin because his grandmother was Mee Maw’s sister.

I’ve never met Wade, even though I’ve known about him for almost 30 years. (Have I really been in Baton Rouge that long?) I met my other second cousin Kim at that time and she talked about getting together with him. I met with other cousins, but not him. I know he was at my dad’s cousin Patricia’s funeral last year, but I didn’t meet him then either. But I do know that he has a strong interest in genealogy and he knows that I do as well. So he shared this photo with me. He doesn’t remember where he and Kim got the photo years ago, but we are all thankful to that family member whoever they may be.

Patureaus of Patureau Lane in Plaquemine

The Patureau family of Patureau Lane circa 1904.

The photo is of our Patureau grandmothers when they were children growing up in Crescent, Louisiana. They were the Patureau family of Patureau Lane. When Vincent Maximilian Patureau married Marie Therese Landry in October of 1888, they soon started expanding their family in the Plaquemine area. Just ten months later came their first daughter Marie Emma. That’s her on the far left of the photo. It’s kind of obvious that she’s the oldest since she is so much taller than the rest. She would be sixteen in this photo and likely was close to her full height. Her brother on the far right was two years younger than her and would probably be catching up to her height shortly. His name was Romuald Sylvester, but we like to call him “Romy.”

Next up is Marie Lydwin who was born in 1893. That’s got to be her standing straight and tall next to her big sister Emma. And standing next to Lydwin is our very own Germaine Erie who was born in 1895. (Not 1885 like her grave marker shows.) She’s looking kinda cute with that dark ribbon in her hair! The next in line (according to age) is the girl with the light ribbon in her hair standing next to Romy. Her name was Frances Lorena, though everyone knows her as Lorena. Next to her (in age and in the photo) is yet another little girl and I think she is Zita Amelie, who was born in 1897. Those girls were showing up fast and furious approaching the new century.

In 1899 Marie Therese was born. That’s her standing in front of her father. Was she a Daddy’s Girl? One can wonder. The last child in the front row of the photo was not a little girl this time. I know that he looks like he could be a girl. He is wearing a dress after all. That was a tradition at the time, or maybe the family just thought it was easier to dress him up in hand-me-downs. But he was definitely a boy and his name was Vincent Maximilian Patureau, Jr. Since his father went by the name of Max, he could use his first name.

The youngest child in the photo is being held by her mom. Her name was Sylvie Albine Patureau and she was born in 1903. She was my cousin Wade’s grandmother. But she wasn’t the last child born to Marie Emma and Max. It wasn’t long after this photo that the family suffered a few tragedies. Actually they had experienced a few already. After their first child they lost a child at birth. This happened again in 1900 with a set of twins named Alta and Alva. In 1906 a daughter named Yve Lyn was born and lived for two years. In 1907 a son named Ray Hugh was born and lived for a year and a half. Then in 1909 a daughter named Hedwidge was born and only lived a month. But before she could finish out her month long life, her mother died as well.

It was a tough time for the Patureaus of Patureau Lane, but they made it through with strength and determination. He also had help from his family. In the 1910 Census it shows that Max’s older sister Zulma was staying with them. I’m sure the older girls in the family helped Max with those youngsters he was rearing “alone.” But that was years later. This photo was the calm before the storm. If you can maintain your calm when you have nine children under 17 years of age in your house at the same time! At least they all look calm for the photo.

I’m glad I have this wonderful photo. Thanks Wade.

Christmas Eve Eve 1920

March 16, 2017 Van One comment

It was getting cold that late December day. The following day would be the coldest day of the month and would get down to -17 degrees. That would be a really cold Christmas Eve. So as they gathered around their trash burner/wood stove, thoughts of the upcoming first Christmas of the 1920s may have been crossing their minds. Cathrine would be thinking about the many meals that this stove would be used to prepare. There were many grandchildren who would hopefully enjoy the feast she intended to prepare.

Samuel Charles Phenice with wife Catherine circa 1920 Nebraska

Samuel Charles Phenice with his wife Cathrine Jane Foster Phenice and their two great grandsons Floyd and Elmer Racine (sons of Marie Taylor Racine, grandsons of Anna May Phenice Taylor – listed in Cathrine’s obituary). This was probably in Nebraska circa 1920.

Samuel as well was probably thinking of that feast to come. Of course, he didn’t have to worry about that overmuch because it was probably his devoted wife of 54 years who would be doing that cooking. He may have been recounting to his friend Louis the exciting times he had in years past, such as that long ago day at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC. Whatever they were thinking, those thoughts were soon swept from their minds because of what happened next.

Cathrine probably opened the stove to put more wood on the fire as she had done thousands of times during her 72 years on earth. No big deal, just a part of her ordinary life in her 1920s home in Precept, Nebraska. But this was no ordinary day. Either she stood too close to the fire or for some reason there was a particularly strong draft, but something definitely went wrong for her. Before she knew it, her dress was on fire and evidently it was burning quickly. When she realized the severity of the situation, she screamed and began to run in a panic.

I’m sure this was a horrific sight for her husband to behold. Anybody knows how painful it can be to witness a loved one suffer. So to see his beloved wife being consumed by fire must have been heart-wrenching. “Who’s going to cook my Christmas feast now?” he wondered in alarm. I’m sorry. I was doing so well telling this serious and terrible story without breaking the tension, but then my evil humor took over. I’m sure that thought was nowhere near his mind. He sprang into action no matter the consequence to himself.

He got to his wife, caught her, and tried everything he could to extinguish the flames. In the process he burned his hands terribly. His friend Louis Adler witnessed what was happening, filled up a container with water, and did what he could to help put out the fire. The fire had reached her hair, because he poured water over her head to stop the flames. The fire was put out, but not before burning poor Cathrine so badly that her life ended as a result of it.

She did not die immediately. It was said that she suffered miserably. It must have been a very somber Christmas that year for the Phenice family. Their beloved matriarch suffered with blood poison as a result of the burning. It sounded like she had severe burns over a large portion of her body. She was quoted as saying shortly before she died, “I know you if I can’t see you,” which makes me wonder if she was blinded by the fire. She ended up dying at 3:20 p.m. on January 7, 1921, at the age of 72 years, 3 months, and 22 days. I like the way in some parts of the country, the age is given like that in obituaries or on headstones.

Even though she suffered for two weeks, the family reported that she was patient all the way. When writing an obituary, I would think that most people try to make it reflect the person and be true to who they were. The report of being patient was written two times in that one article. I suppose they wanted that to be well understood.

Cathrine Jane Foster Phenice circa 1910.

She sounds like a good woman who relied on her faith to see her through. Generosity to those in need was also attributed to her. I can believe it because of what she inspired in others. Her husband risked his own life to attend to her terrible situation. Then her children lovingly tended to her during her last weeks of suffering before tenderly laying her to rest.

I’ve been wanting to write about Cathrine Jane Foster Phenice for a while now. Like the first picture above, she was kind of in the shadows. Her husband was a witness to the assassination of President Lincoln, so he tended to get most of the attention. It is such an historic event. But his wife deserved to be the center of attention at least once. I was planning on writing her life story, but got carried away with the events surrounding her final days. I will probably write another story about her at a later date. (See the great photo I found and the post I wrote about it here.) Maybe I’ll find another photo to post of her as well. That first photo was another one of the photos that I had taken of my grandmother’s photos back in the 80s and forgotten about until recently.

The portrait of her had been in my mom’s possession for as long as I can remember. I hate to make fun of her, but she always reminded me of Grandpa from the Munsters. My mom must have thought similarly, because she wrote, “Isn’t she a cutie?” on the back of the photo. I may also do a Munsters version of this photo at one point. All in good fun. (Here is the result.)

I’m also posting the obituary from their local paper. I worked for hours cleaning it up so it could be legible. Most of the details from my story came from that. I also looked at historical meteorological data and did a search for (vintage) trash burner (/stove). It answered my question as to why they would have a trash burner inside. After all these hours spent with these photos and articles, I have grown quite fond of my great great grandmother Cathrine Jane.

Bender’s Reach – A Sportsman’s Paradise

March 9, 2017 Van Leave a comment

My father rowing while my grandfather is fishing at Bender’s Reach on the Calcasieu River in 1942.

I’ve always liked this photo of my father and his father – Robert Joseph Landry, Jr. and Sr. This was taken in 1942 on the Calcasieu River. It was my grandfather’s favorite (and evidently secret – according to my cousin Kenny) fishing spot that is called Bender’s Reach.

My first thought when I look at this photo is, “Aw, Daddy and Pee Paw were fishing alone one early Saturday morning.” But then I remember that it is a photo that had to have been taken by someone in another boat. I don’t know who the photographer was, but I’ll go ahead and make another assumption and say that it was probably one of my uncles. Okay, I won’t be sexist and agree that it could also have been one of my aunts or my grandmother.

Either way, it’s a cool photo from almost eighty years ago. Another thought that runs through my mind is that the photo is reminiscent of many of the paintings that my mom did. In particular, it reminds me of a painting that was in our family home all through the years. I wonder if the painting ever reminded my dad of his long ago fishing trips with his dad? Too bad the original photo was so small that it didn’t come into my mom’s notice. It would have made a nice painting.

I’m glad that these rather small photos scanned so well. You can see that my grandfather was right in the middle of casting his line in that first photo. His hand and fishing pole are just a blur. These other photos show the pole a little better.

Or is that a crease in the photo? I’m not really sure, but I thought I’d post all of the photos I had from the fishing expedition. I’m surprised there are three photos of that day. Nowadays there would not only be photos of the fishing expedition, there would also be photos of the fish being cleaned. And to top it all off there would be a few photos of it being served: Fresh! Local! Organically grown! Caught just today in the waters of the Sportsman’s Paradise – otherwise known as Bender’s Reach.

Landry

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