Category: Bucklin

I finally found something that I want to talk about today.  I didn’t know if I’d ever find something.  Sometimes I have so many ideas for posts, while other times I am blank.  I knew that I wanted something from my mom’s side of the family since the last two weeks were about my paternal side. 

I was also thinking about doing something about one of my maternal ancestor’s siblings to continue with last week.  So when this little newspaper article popped up, I thought it was just perfect.  It includes a photo of my maternal grandfather with several of his siblings.  And though he did have a big family, there were not this many kids in the family!  Only a dozen.

My maternal grandfather was Fred D. Bucklin.  The D. was just an initial.  Just like Ulysses S. Grant.  The initial did not stand for anything.  I’m pretty sure his maternal grandmother had the same situation.  Grandma Sue’s full name was Susan G. Stanbrough.  The G. did not stand for grandma, though. 

So Fred was my mom’s (Betty Lou Bucklin) dad.  He was born in 1907 along with his identical twin Clarence.  When they were born, there were five older siblings.  There was an older brother Paul who was born in 1903 and died in 1904.  The next Bucklin child born after the twins was Edna Bucklin.  She was born in 1909 in Roanoke, Louisiana.  Something happened between the time of her birth and the birth of the next Bucklin child – the family moved to Prairie Grove, Arkansas.  I’m not sure when they moved there, but they were there at least by the date of September 7, 1911.  That was the date of birth for Grandpa’s brother Robert Louis Bucklin, and my records show that he was born in Prairie Grove.

I also have a few letters from 1912 and 1913 that were written in Arkansas and sent home to family in Louisiana.  The information about that time is sketchy at best.  Just little bits of details for those few years up north.  One of those bits of information is this newspaper clipping.  I don’t know what paper it was from, but it talks about the school that the Bucklin children attended when they lived in Prairie Grove.  The name of the school at that time was the Illinois Chapel School.  Why would it be called that when it was in Arkansas?  I did a quick search, but all I could find was that there is a road in Prairie Grove called Illinois Chapel Road.  

The great thing about the newspaper article is that it names all of the children in the photo.  Not just the Bucklin children – all of them.  To make it easier for us, someone in the past has numbered the Bucklin children.  The first child on the front row has a number 1 in front of him.  That is Clarence Bucklin, my grandfather’s duplicate.  You will find 2 and 3 at the end of the front row.  Number 2 is Carl Bucklin.  He was Fred and Clarence’s older brother, and he was born in 1904.  There aren’t many photos of him.  I think he had some learning or developmental issues.  Number 3 is my grandfather Fred.  He was around 7 years old at this time.  On the second row you’ll find number 4.  That was Uncle Herbert.  He was just a year and a half older than the twins.

In the middle of the second row is a boy labeled with the number 5.  That was Ralph Bucklin.  He doesn’t look too happy in the photo.  Maybe it was because he looks smaller than his younger brother Herbert.  Though I doubt that he was aware of that when the photo was taken.  He only looks smaller because he’s sitting in a chair and Herbert was standing.  He was four years older than Herbert.  Two rows behind Ralph you can see the oldest of the brothers.  That was Leo with the identifying number 6 written on his chest.  He was the first-born child of Louis Charles Bucklin and Addie Hine Bucklin.  Leo was born in December of 1898, just six months after his parents’ marriage.  

And that leaves one more numbered Bucklin.  Number 7 was Mary Bucklin, the oldest daughter of Lou and Addie.  I suppose younger siblings Edna and Robert were too young to attend school at the time.  I’m not sure when the family moved back to Louisiana.  All I know is that the last two Bucklin children – Roy and Ruth – twins again – were born in Louisiana in 1915.  I know the family kept in touch with some of their friends in Arkansas.  There was a Clement family that came down to Louisiana to visit them when my mom was a child.  I see that there are four Clement children in this photo.  They were probably friends of the Bucklin children.

Ok, that’s it.  That’s all I know about this article and photo.  If anyone knows anything more about it, just let me know.  I always like more.

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Speaking of more.  There was one other thing I wanted to share.  It’s an old photo I found online that showed farmers going to sell their produce in 1915 in Prairie Grove.  I don’t recognize any family, but the photo represents the time and place where my family was.

 

 

 

I thought I would write about Louis Bucklin today.  I didn’t realize that I had overlooked him so much through the years until I went to search for posts about him.  The photo I’m using is from an enhanced crop of a photo of he and his wife Addie Hine in 1905.  I posted that photo almost seven years ago.  I have lots of other posts about Addie. 

The main reason is that Addie lived so much longer than Lou did.  He only lived to the age of 54.  In fact, he died six years before my mom was born.  Neither of my parents knew their paternal grandfathers, and neither did I.  Addie lived to the ripe old age of 84, so she was around for the first 27 years of my mom’s life (and the first month of mine).  So there were lots more photos of her to pick from.  I wouldn’t say that she enjoyed having her photo taken, because at times she seems to be scowling in the photos.  But her husband Lou avoided being photographed once he was an adult.

I also overlooked him because I ended up talking about his brother Joe more than him.  Joe had some very interesting tragedies that happened to him.  He had two wives that died young, and two daughters that died even younger.  He also had a men’s clothing store in Jennings in the early 20th century.  The main tragedies that happened to Lou was that he lost an eye in a farming accident and he died somewhat young.  He did sport a glass eye, so that may have led to his aversion of the camera.  I’m not sure.

But Lou Bucklin was how my mom ended up being Betty Lou Bucklin.  His nickname was passed down to his granddaughter and great granddaughter (my oldest sister Jodie Lou).  My mom’s dad Fred D. Bucklin did not share that name.  He didn’t even get a real middle name.  He just got the letter D.  So let’s take a look at Lou’s life.

Louis Charles Bucklin was born April 11, 1873, in Masonville, Iowa.  That was just over 150 years ago.  That’s a major milestone.  I should have written about him last week!  He was overlooked yet again!  It was the sesquicentennial of his birth.  His father James Bucklin was born in Massachusetts, which is where the Bucklin family had been for many generations.  His mother Mary Ann McGrath was born in Ireland, which is where the McGrath family had been for who know how many years.  Louis was born in transition – the family ended up in Louisiana where it has been for a few generations.  Some family members have moved away, and some have stayed.  

Louis was the youngest in his family.  The brother nearest to him – Edd – was nine years older than him.  His oldest brother – a half-brother named James – was 27 years older.  Most of the older siblings were born in Massachusetts, except for Edd who was also born in Iowa.  The family moved to Louisiana when Lou was eleven years old.  Since he was so young, he was not able to make a homestead claim like his father and older siblings.  Yet he was the one that stayed and maintained that land for the rest of his life.

After Louis finished high school, he went off to college at the Ohio Normal School in Ada, Ohio.  Louis started a journal at that time.  His trip up to Ohio is an interesting read.  He commented on the landscapes he saw and the people he met.  His sister Jennie ended up getting sick and dying while he was up there. He must have come back for the funeral and never returned for further education.  His life was about farming and that was mostly what he wrote about from then on.  Of course, he did write about that girl Addie Hine who came to help his mother around the house.  They were married in 1898 when Louis was 25 years old.  They settled in Hathaway and started their family together.

Lou and Addie ended up having twelve children together.  I remember always being amazed by that.  It was like the book I enjoyed reading when I was young – “Cheaper by the Dozen.”  My mom at one point had thought of emulating them.  That’s not something I ever wanted to do.  Even though Lou died at a somewhat young age, he did get to see the first dozen years of his youngest children’s lives.  He even got to meet one of his grandchildren.  Helen Bucklin was born just two years before he died.

Lou died on November 19, 1927, in Elton, Louisiana.  There were several people who mourned his death.

 

It’s Christmastime again!  You already know that, though, because I wrote a post about Christmas last week.  Of course, you are getting reminders of it everywhere you look these days.  It’s on the television, on the radio, and on the internet.  I doubt that you rely on my posts each week to know what time of year it is.  But if you do, read the first line of my post again!  It’s Christmastime.

When I was growing up, our family had a few traditions.  We’d go and buy gifts for each other from the local department store and wrap them up when we got home.  They’d go under the tree that we had decorated with some handmade ornaments from the present year and past years.  On Christmas Eve we’d go to my dad’s side of the family.  In the early years it was at Mee Maw’s.  Mee Maw was my dad’s mom, and her name was Germaine Erie Patureau Landry.  After the Landry Christmas get together on Christmas Eve in Lake Charles, we’d go back home to Jennings.  Sometimes that was followed by attending mass at Our Lady Help of Christians Church at midnight.  The next morning we’d get up to the sounds of old Christmas songs my dad would play on his LP record player.  After that we’d head on over to get together with Mom’s side of the family.

We would spend Christmas day at Grandma and Grandpa’s.  Their names were Myrtle Sylvia Phenice and Fred D. Bucklin, and they lived in Hathaway, Louisiana.  They had five children – Sylvia, Betty Lou, Alma, Loris, and Austin.  In case you didn’t know already, my mom was Betty Lou.  She is the one sitting smack dab in the middle of this photo from the Christmas of 1956.  

The reason I know this is from 1956 is that my mom has my sister Karen in her arms and Karen looks like a fresh, new baby.  Karen was born on December 2, 1956.  I’m sure my dad was taking the photo, because he is the only one that was in the family at the time that was not in the photo.  I’m not in the photo, but it’s because I wasn’t born yet.  At the time of the photo, Grandma and Grandpa only had six grandchildren.  Sylvia and Betty Lou both had three children.  The tie didn’t last long, because Sylvia gave birth to Lynn just a month later.

Those first six grandchildren of Grandma and Grandma were not a majority of their total count.  There would be a total of twenty grandchildren, with the last one being born in 1977.   Mom would end up with six children, Sylvia had five, Austin had four, Loris had three, and Alma had two.  We sure had a lot of fun with all of those cousins at Christmastime.  We played chase.  We made mud pies.  We picked camellia flowers.  During that time of year in Louisiana the satsuma and kumquat fruits were ripe on the trees.  Since Grandpa was nurseryman, he had lots of trees.  I remember eating lots of satsumas and kumquats.  I still love them.

I can’t close without identifying everyone in the photo.  It would be remiss of me to not do so.  Standing up in front of the others from the left are Paul, Larry, Toni, and Ronald Pilcher.  The first three are the children of Sylvia and her husband Ronald Pilcher.  My brother Rob is the boy in the overalls standing next to Uncle Ronald.  I don’t remember those overalls.  They must not have lasted long enough to be passed down to me.  Or maybe they were passed down to me and I still don’t remember them.  Sitting on the truck is my oldest sister Jodie.  I wonder if that was her truck.

As I said earlier, my mom is in the center of the photo and she has my sister in her lap.  Standing up in the back is Ernest Woolley.  He was not in the family yet, but he would marry Aunt Loris in September of 1957.  I’m sure you guessed that the girl next to him would be his soon-to-be wife Loris.  Next to Loris is older sister Sylvia.  She looks a little tired, but who could blame her?  She’s eight months pregnant and has three children under the age of six. 

The next two people are those mentioned in the title.  Fred Bucklin was my Grandpa.  Myrtle Phenice Bucklin was my Grandma.  I think they enjoyed having our big family at their house for Christmas.  The girl in the white sweater is Aunt Alma.  There is a guy standing behind her, but I don’t think it is her future husband Charles Seal.  Those eyebrows don’t look like they belong to Uncle Chuck.  Plus, he had lighter hair.  And lastly, we have Uncle Austin.  As you can see, he could be playful at times.  I wasn’t there at the time, so I don’t know if anyone fussed at him for making a silly face.  They might not have known until later when the film was developed.  When I did the same thing ten years later with a Polaroid camera, I did get fussed at.  

Oh, the memories of Christmases past.  I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas this year and make some cherished memories.