Keys | Family History

The Keys Family Circa 1938

August 23, 2018 Van Leave a comment

The Keys families in Elton, Louisiana, around 1938.

Here is another great old photo that I wish I had. I guess I kinda have it already, but this is a rather poor resolution of the photo. I can still make out who many of the people are in the photo, but there aren’t many more details that can be made out.

The photo was taken in Elton, Louisiana, in about 1938 in front of the home of Leonard and Edessa Keys. This is my mom’s extended family. My mom was Betty Lou Bucklin and she is the girl standing in front of the adults with her hands down by the side of her dress. Her younger sister Alma is to the left with the blonde hair and it looks like she may be getting ready to dance a jig. Their older sister Sylvia is the older girl sitting in the front. I’m not sure who the child on the left of her is, but I’m thinking it could be younger sister Loris. The young girl on the right is Marilyn Phenice, my mom’s first cousin.

I’m hoping that someone else in the family has a better copy of this photo. I found this scan in a group of photo scans that my dad gave me a few years ago. It seems like my mom should have had the original photo since my dad scanned it, but it may have been lost in the moves and clean ups. So if you do have a better copy, send me the best scan you can make. I’ll clean it up and share it with everyone on here.

Let me go ahead and try to name a few more of the people seen in the photo. The reason I named it the Phenice/Keys group is that central in the photo are my mom’s maternal grandparents Harry Clifton Phenice and Daisy Keys Phenice. Also present are some of their children. But the bigger influence on the name was the fact that at least two of Daisy’s siblings are in the photo.

Grandpa Phenice (H.C.) is standing in the center holding his hat. Standing between him and my mom is Daisy. To the right and behind H. C. is my grandmother Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin and my grandfather Fred Bucklin. Now that I look at this photo more closely, I realize that I’ve posted a Fred Bucklin family photo that was taken on this same day. I called that one “Depression Era Bucklin Babies.” That photo confirms that the little girl in front of Betty Lou in this photo is Loris.

Now, who else do I see? There’s Aunt Marguerite second from the left. She’s pretty easy to recognize. (Imagine my embarrassment if I’m wrong about that!) To the right of her are Henry Phenice and his wife Irma Hetzel Phenice. Then there is Orville Phenice. (He and Myrtle, Marguerite, and Henry are children of H. C. and Daisy.) I’m thinking that Orville’s wife Elta Whitman Phenice is standing behind and between Daisy and H. C. Orville and Elta are the parents of Marilyn.

The man standing to the right of H. C. is Daisy’s older brother Leonard Keys. I suppose that could be his wife standing next to him. She’s kinda cute and Leonard’s wife Edessa May Havenar was a cute young girl. (Her identity had been confirmed by her granddaughter Carolyn Segraves Conner. She also informed me that the girl on the far left was her mother Edith Keys.) Between/behind Leonard and Edessa are two men. The one in front is Warren Phenice, another son of H. C. and Daisy. The other man looks like he’s standing on something in the background.

To the right of Edessa are four more people. The first woman is Daisy’s younger sister Mabel Keys Miller. The woman kinda standing in front of her and facing toward the middle of the photo looks somewhat familiar. I think she may be Mary Bucklin Phenice. But neither of the two men around her look like her husband Sylvan Phenice, so that could be incorrect. I have been told that the man on the far right is Ray Miller, the son of Mabel Keys Miller.

I’ll be editing this post as I get feedback from the cousins about the identities of unidentified or mistakenly identified individuals. Maybe I’ll even get an ID on the hidden person.

So that’s what this post is all about. I want a better version of the scan and I want more people identified. Oh, yeah, and I want everyone to enjoy the old photo of my family.

March 30, 2019 Update

I said that if I ever got a better scan, I would clean it up and share it with everyone. So that’s what I’m doing. My cousin Mary brought an original copy of the photo to me yesterday. She got it from our 2nd cousin Kristie. Thank you Mary and Kristie. Kristie’s a cousin from the Bucklin side of the family, so she was okay with letting go of photos of the Phenice family that she is not related to.

The photo is much sharper than the old scan that I had previously. You can see the faces of everyone so much better. You can see that Aunt Irma is looking to the side at something. You can also see that Aunt Sylvia is sticking her tongue out. I thought she looked a bit mischievous in the photo!

I got several photos. I know who a few of the people are, but there are several photos that have unidentified people in them. Either way, I got some new old photos and that is always exciting! They’re supposed to be people in the Phenice family, but I’m not so sure. I’ll have to explore a bit.

So here is the new and improved version of the photo.

1938 photo of Keys and Phenice families includes: back row – Edith Keys Segraves, Marguerite Phenice, Henry Phenice, Irma Hetzel Phenice, Orville Phenice (holding Kathleen), Daisy Keys Phenice, Elta Whitman Phenice, Harry Clifton Phenice, Fred Bucklin, Myrtle Phenice Bucklin, Leonard Keys, Warren Keys, unidentified man in background, Edessa Havenar Keys, Mabel Keys Miller, unidentified man looking to the side, Mary Bucklin Phenice, and Ray Miller; standing in the front – Alma and Betty Lou Bucklin; sitting in the front – Loris Bucklin, Sylvia Bucklin, and Marilyn Phenice

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Phenice

Visits in the Past

July 19, 2018 Van Leave a comment

I thought I would continue with the theme from two weeks ago. That was the post of my visit to southern Nebraska to see the final resting place of my great great grandparents Samuel Charles Phenice and Cathrine Jane Foster Phenice – or Charles and Kate as I have come to know them a little better.

But before it was their resting place, it was their living place. I’m not really sure when they moved to the Beaver City area of Nebraska, but it was sometime shortly before the turn of the century. That was about 120 years ago. I’ve posted a few photos of Charles and Kate and other family members in the past, but the topic of this week is about visits to the area by the next generations.

I’m sure other cousins from my own generation have visited there and I think some may live near that area. I don’t think my mom ever went. Some of her cousins may have, but I don’t have any photos of that. But I do have a photo from a visit by my grandmother Myrtle Phenice Bucklin’s generation.

Extended Phenice family in Almena, Kansas, circa 1939.

This photo was probably taken in Almena, Kansas, around 1939. At that point Kate had died in 1921 and Charles had gone to live with his daughter Myrtle Cozad in Almena, which is 14 miles south of Precept.

I know that it is from 1939, because it has Aunt Marguerite in it. She was a Phenice (who married a Hill) and sister of my Grandma. She wrote her memoirs (Marge’s Memories) and mentioned that she only went up there once and it was just before her Grandpa Phenice died. If you remember from other posts, Samuel Charles Phenice died on Sept. 15, 1939.

I’m thinking this photo was taken in the summer of 1939. You can see Marguerite third from the right on the back row. She’s looking over to the left toward her sister-in-law Irma Hetzel Phenice (in the black skirt) and sister Grace Phenice Sowder (holding the hat). On the top right is Marguerite & Grace’s brother Warren Phenice. I think the three girls who are second from the right on the top through bottom rows are the daughters of Myrtle Cozad – Pauline, Ruby, and Leora. At least it looks like the same people I’ve seen from other photos.

The other person I recognize is another son of Charles and Kate. He is second from the left sitting on the middle row. His name was James Edmund Phenice, but everyone called him Edd. Of course, Grace and Marguerite probably called him Uncle Edd. He is buried next to his parents. I could kick myself now because I forgot to take a photo of his headstone! Now I’ll have to go back!

I’m not sure who the other family members are in this photo, but I’m thinking some of them are Quillens, because they also lived close by. Maybe some of their descendants will be able to help us identify them. Wouldn’t that be great? (Heard from Michelle Quillen! She says that the man front and center is Dean Quillen, son of Emma Phenice Quillen. His wife Evelyn Satter Quillen is sitting directly behind him and she is holding their oldest son Kenneth.)

Top: Daisy Keys Phenice, Lola Myrtle Phenice, and Emma Orra Phenice; Bottom: Harry Clifton Phenice and James Edmund Phenice.

You’ve all seen this next photo before. I posted this one in November of 2015. It is such a great photo. I had estimated the date of the photo to be 1900 when I originally posted it. I looked at it a few months ago and realized that the date had to be incorrect. Emma was only 11 years old in 1900 and she is obviously older than that in the photo. I posted the photo on Facebook to request a possible date and I was told it was probably taken between 1905 and 1910. That seemed reasonable and fit better with Emma’s apparent age.

I also wondered where and why the photo was taken. Daisy and Harry were married in 1900, so that would have been a reason for the three Phenice siblings Myrtle, Emma, and Edd to come down for a visit. But we’ve already ruled out that early date. I didn’t know of any visits that Daisy made up north, but it seems like she would have visited. Yet I didn’t see her in any of the photos of other visits that I’ve seen. So when was it? I decided on an estimated date of 1907 a week or so before I visited Nebraska.

But then I found a clue in Nebraska! Yay! When I had looked up information before we arrived in Beaver City, it showed that the library would be closed on Saturdays – and we were there on a Saturday. After having a tasty Beaver Burger at the Beaver Bar and Grill, I thought I’d go to the thrift store to see if I might find a memento from my visit. At the thrift store, the attendant was very nice and friendly. Come to find out, her husband was related to some of the Cozad family too. She also told me about the library being open, so we hurried over before they shut the door.

1906 wedding record of Lola Myrtle Phenice and Franklin Pierce Cozad

In the local history room I found a binder with the name Phenice on the spine. It was collected information about our family! The friendly thrift store attendant showed up at the library with her husband and helped us find a few things. One of the things I found was that Samuel Charles and Cathrine Jane went by Charles and Kate. I’ve already told you that, though. But on the March 19, 1906, wedding record of Myrtle Phenice and Frank Cozad, it showed that one of the witnesses to the wedding in Precept, Nebraska, was “Mrs. H. C. Phenice.”

The only H. C. Phenice in that family was my great grandfather Harry Clifton. And his wife was Daisy Keys. So there it was! Evidence of Daisy visiting up north at a formal family event. Plus the time was around the time I was thinking that photo must have been taken. They must have had a nice time. They gave birth to my grandmother nine months later and named her after the bride.

So for now, I’ll say the photo was taken in March 1906.

Now on to other mysteries.

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Phenice

Martha’s Grandkids Are Gone

June 27, 2018 Van One comment

I was looking over my past few posts to see which family group I should write about. I was somewhat surprised to see how few Keys family stories I have posted this year. I don’t know how I let that slip by. Maybe it’s because I wrote several last year when we had the family reunion and the next reunion isn’t until next year. But that’s no excuse! I need to dole out my stories in such a way that no one is neglected! I know it is the highlight of your week when you are part of the family history!

Martha Lillian Bryan Boose (third from the left at top) died on June 23, 2018, in Bossier City, Louisiana. She was the last surviving grandchild of Martha Ann Cook Keys. This photo is from the 1976 Keys Reunion.

And this week is a good week for this particular post. That is because this past week saw the passing of the last grandchild of Martha Ann Cook Keys (1836-1896). Surely you remember her? She was that feisty woman who crossed the Atlantic with her five young children in tow in 1887. She is the most recent immigrant in my family tree. She was married at age 33 and had her first child at age 36, so her children weren’t that old when she died in 1896 just before she turned 60.

In fact, she did not live to see any of her children get married or have children. Too bad for those grandchildren, because she seemed like she would have been an interesting woman to have for a grandmother. But they heard stories about her from her children Henry “The Judge”, Leonard, Daisy, Ruth, and Mabel. Seventy years later saw the passing of the last of Martha’s own children.

So a few years after that, Martha’s grandchildren (with the urging of one in particular – family historian Edith Keys Segraves) decided to get together to celebrate the Cook-Keys family in the Unites States. The first reunion was in 1973 and several more followed. In the first photo you can see the grandchildren who were alive and present at the 1976 reunion. Most of them were grandparents at the time, including my own grandmother Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin. She’s in the front row in a striped dress.

I will now name them all, starting with the back row. Henry Phenice and Marguerite Phenice Hill – children of Daisy, Martha Bryan Boose – daughter of Ruth, Chester and Frank Keys – son of The Judge, Orville Phenice – son of Daisy, Seidel Keys – son of Leonard, Alford and Norman Miller – sons of Mabel. The front row has Edith Keys Segraves – daughter of Leonard, Grace Phenice Sowder and Myrtle Phenice Bucklin – daughters of Daisy, Hazel Bryan Derouen and Elsie Bryan – daughters of Ruth, and Isaure Zoe Keys Adams – daughter of The Judge. (Thanks to the relatives at Facebook for helping me get all of Martha’s grandkids named.)

1985 Keys family reunion showing the cousins who were grandchildren of Henry Keys and Martha Ann Cook Keys.

I thought I’d go ahead and post another photo from the 1985 reunion. That’s what I used to get the names for the other photo. There is a similar photo in the Keys update book by Marilyn Phenice Thurmond Strickland from 2000 and it had all of the people labeled. Very helpful.

Martha’s grandkids were a good group of people. She would have been proud of them. They were salt of the earth. I’m proud to be a grandchild of one of them.

Keys

Homesteading in Southern Louisiana

February 28, 2018 Van Leave a comment

I recently wrote about how my Landry family came to southern Louisiana. That was 250 years ago and it was before the United States was formed. My mom’s side of the family came here more recently. Not all at the same time, but pretty close. The main lure was the opening up of this area by railroad and an offering of land for homesteading.

I found some documents online last week that show when the homestead papers were filed for some of my ancestors. They keep putting more and more historical information online. Of course, I have to look in the right places to find those things that are already there. So I was excited to find these records that I hadn’t seen before. They pretty much support the information I had concerning when my ancestors arrived in southern Louisiana. The first group to arrive here was the Bucklin family.

1884 register of homesteads in southern Louisiana

The names on the register start with my great, great grandfather James Bucklin. He and two of his children – Joseph and Jennie – filed for homestead claims on April 2, 1884. They had come from Hampden County, Massachusetts, by way of Coffins Grove, Iowa. Even though her name is not on the register, my Irish great great grandmother Mary Ann McGrath Bucklin was involved with the whole endeavor as well.

My great grandfather Louis was only 11 years old at the time and was not able to file a claim of his own. He did work on the claim and kept a journal for many years about the day to day farming that was done. I remember seeing the name of Shoesmith in that journal and now I see it on this homestead register.

1887 homestead register for southern Louisiana

According to the information I found, the next to show up in the area was Martha Ann Keys. Her claim was filed on November 11, 1887. She was born in England and had arrived in America with her five children just four months earlier. I know they lived in a chicken house for a while (thank you Thomas Lord MacVey!), but I’m not sure how long it was before a house was built. A photo of the house they lived in has information on the back that says the house was built in 1888. Another factor that comes into play was the second husband of Martha Keys.

“What’s that?” you ask, “Another husband? Say it isn’t so!” Yes, there was another husband that isn’t talked about much. It was in the days before social media, after all. She and William T. Davis were married for only a short time because she got rid of him. It was said that she did not like the way he treated the kids. (Maybe they had gotten in the habit of scratching the floor with their toes – you know, like chickens! – and it drove him crazy and he’d send them to the barn.) Whatever the issue was, they didn’t stay together.

This next part doesn’t make sense to me. In the family history book it says she lost her claim because of this marriage. In the register you can see that the claim was “cancelled for relinquishment” on November 13, 1889, which is just over two years after the start of the claim. She never divorced Mr. Davis, but did not take his name. Details have a way of being lost with the death of a few generations. (An interesting name on this page in the register is Thomas Buller, who I think is the great grandfather of Pam Buller.)

1892 register for homestead in southern Louisiana

Our next arrival was the Hine family from Indiana. This claim was dated February 10, 1896, though other information says they arrived in Louisiana in 1894. The name on the register is George H. Hine, my great great grandfather. He came was his wife Sue and their six children ranging in ages from 10 to 20. The oldest was my great grandmother Addie.

To help out with the family or possibly to earn some money on her own, Addie would help people with chores around the house. One of these people that she helped was Mary Ann McGrath Bucklin, whose son Lou just happened to be the right age for marrying. (Lou’s journal entry for July 6, 1896 – I went over & got Miss Hines to help mother, she commenced work at noon.) Addie and Lou were married in 1898. (Notice the name in the register under George Hine. It is Henry Kohl, an ancestor of Joseph Connors.)

H. C. Phenice signed Daisy’s autograph book on Dec. 24, 1900, which was three days before their marriage.

That leaves the Phenice side of my mom’s family. That generation of the Phenice family did not immigrate to southern Louisiana. They were from Pennsylvania and had homesteaded in Nebraska. One brave son name Harry – my great grandfather – came to Louisiana seeking his fortune. Why he came to Louisiana is a mystery. But he arrived in 1898 at the age of 24.

He did not homestead. At least I have never heard of him homesteading and did not find a record of it. And according to the verse he wrote in Daisy Keys’ autograph book, he found his fortune in a little English girl. He said she was “all to me.” They were married in 1900 and lived in the China/Hathaway area for the rest of their lives. Though they did spend a year in Colorado hoping to find that monetary fortune at a gold mine at Cripple Creek.

So that’s how those families came together to bring about my maternal grandparents and my mom. They came from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Indiana, England, and Ireland with dreams and ready for hard work. I, for one, am glad they did.

My mom’s family tree.

A Home for the Keys

November 15, 2017 Van Leave a comment

I’ve spoken a few times about my Keys family when they first moved to the United States from England in the spring of 1887. The main thing that people in the family talk about is how the family of Thomas Lord MacVey let the family stay in their chicken house because the Keys didn’t have a home when they first moved to southern Louisiana.

The original Keys house that was built in 1887. Mabel Keys is on a horse in front of the house.

And since the Keys arrived in the spring, it was a good time for building a house. The matron of the family – Martha Ann Cook Keys – decided to stay in the China, Louisiana, area, so she purchased forty two acres of land. Soon after that there was a building bee by the local townsfolk to build the family a house. And this photo shows that house.

The lumber was hauled to the site by oxen and wagon. The house had wooden floors with a kitchen, bedroom and living room with bookshelves downstairs. The half story upstairs was one big room. The house was heated with a fireplace. A chimney can be seen on the right side of the house in the photo.

I’m sure they were grateful to have their own home to live in, especially since it had all the conveniences of a modern home. A man named Monroe brought mail from Jennings to Art Anderson’s store where Martha would go to pick it up. She would go to Welsh or Jennings by horse or wagon for the few needs required by the family. Eventually there was a nice trail beaten down by the horse’s hooves. The prairie grass was as tall as or taller than the wagon. The different houses in the area had driveways in a sense – they each had their own beaten down path to the main trail that led to Jennings or Elton. That main trail was on the high ground, of course.

And while we are getting closer to cars that drive themselves, our ancestors had something similar. Since taking a trip to Jennings or Welsh could take all day, sometimes they would fall asleep on their way home. It was no problem, though, because the horses knew the way home. What more could you ask for?

There was one problem they had to look out for while living out on the primitive prairie during the fall, and that was grass fires. My mom used to talk about this from time to time. I think she was proud of her great grandmother’s resourcefulness. Martha learned how to “back fire” a prairie fire. This is done by starting a controlled burn of the grass near your house in the direction of the wind. That way the grass will slowly burn toward the prairie fire and there is no fuel for the fire around your house.

When I look at this photo, I imagine that Martha is standing in the doorway looking out at her youngest daughter Mabel sitting on their horse. It has only been a couple of years since the move, but she is satisfied with the changes that she has made for her family. They have a home in a quiet, safe place with horses, cows, pigs and chickens aplenty. She admires the trees that she’s planted, knowing that they will grow and produce food for her family. She and her children are adjusting well to this new, strange land. Yet it is already feeling like home.

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Music in the Family Series Part VI – Fiddling With the Keys

September 7, 2017 Van 2 comments

As I have said previously, there have been a lot of musical members of our family/families. My family was known as a musical family since before I was born. If you have been reading my Music in the Family Series, you would also know that there were musical family members before my parents were born as well. So this week I’ll take you back even further. Further than all of my other postings in this series. Let’s go back to the 1840s.

The musical information comes from the 1840s, but the individual I’m talking about was born in 1822. That’s right! Almost 200 years ago, my great great grandfather Henry Keys was born in Chipping Ongar, Essex, England, to George and Elizabeth Crouchman Keys. The date was April 12th and he was not alone. He had an identical twin brother named James.

April 11, 1840 – Apprenticeship contract for Henry Keys to tinman John Wright

The day before Henry became 18 years old (in 1840) he entered into a contract of apprenticeship with a tin plate worker (aka a tinman) named John Wright. The contract was for a period of three years and was signed by Henry Keys, George Keys, and John Wright. (Pretty cool to see the signature of my great, great, great grandfather.)

The day before Henry became 21 years old (1843) he completed his apprenticeship and became a Tinman. (He did not have a friend named Oz. At least there is no record of anyone by that name giving him anything!) But the most relevant part of the completion of his apprenticeship is that he rewarded himself for the accomplishment. He had saved up money during these three years and the cherished reward that he bought himself was a violin. It shows you what was important to him.

As a bachelor for twenty-six years, he worked as a tin plate worker making gas meters. I’m sure he was also playing his violin during this time, but there really isn’t much else written about this period in his life. It was on November 8, 1869, that he married Martha Ann Cook on her 33rd birthday. She herself was an independent person who had a business of her own making clothes and accessories for children. She must have been a musical person as well, because the only portrait of her shows her standing next to a piano with her hands fiddling with the keys.

I believe this is a photo of a portrait of Henry Keys. I estimated it to be from 1880, but it could be earlier.

By 1881 Henry and Martha had five children together. Another sign that they were a musical family is the fact that the two boys Henry and Alfred sang in a boys choir in London. On at least one occasion they sang with the choir for Queen Victoria. Their daughter Daisy (my great grandmother) was known to play the piano, but I’m not sure when she learned. From the portrait mentioned earlier it looks like there was a piano in the home, so she could have learned as a child in England.

Henry and Martha had family members who moved to America. They decided that they would move the family to America also and began to save money for this new chapter in their life. So again, this must have been something important to them. But sadly, Henry suffered with bronchitis for four months and died at the age of 64 in 1886. He never made it to America where his wife and children would eventually go. But his violin did.

I’ve read accounts of the move to America and they always say “They sold everything they had.” But they didn’t. They held on to a few prized possessions. One of those cherished items was the violin that Henry bought in 1843. When they made it to Louisiana, at some point Martha gave the violin to her son Leonard with the proviso that he would learn to play it, as long as he practiced in the barn! This makes me laugh. It reminds me of my mom. When I was in junior high, I learned how to play many different instruments. My dad was the band director so I could taken them home with me. The only thing my mom discouraged me from playing was the violin. When a person is learning the violin, the notes can be rather screechy in a way that would give mom a headache. I acquiesced.

Leonard James Keys with the violin his father bought in 1843.

And learned the violin Leonard did. But he also learned to play the trombone and flute. His older brother Henry played the violin, clarinet, and flute. I’ve told you that Daisy played the piano. Her husband Harry Phenice played the violin as well. So did the husbands of Daisy’s sisters Ruth and Mabel.

When I was researching this information, I notice there are a lot of descendants who are musicians. It could be that every family has a musician here and there, but it does seem like quite a few in my family. The researching also made me wonder about that old violin from 1843. Is it still around? Does a family member have it? I know that musical instruments can last a long time if taken care of properly.

So I asked my cousin Carolyn (daughter of Edith who provided me with the improved version of the photo/portrait of Henry Keys) if she knew of the whereabouts of that violin. Her grandfather was Leonard Keys, so it is likely to be with her family group somewhere if at all. She let me know that “Yes, indeed!” that violin is still in existence. It is in the possession of her cousin Johnny and he still enjoys playing it! How cool is that!? She sent me this photo of her grandfather Leonard with the cherished violin. A family keepsake that one day I’d like to see in person and photograph.

Here is a transcription of the apprenticeship contract of 1840 that came from Edith Keys Segraves’ book.

Dressmaking with Paints and Pixels

July 6, 2017 Van Leave a comment

My great great grandmother Martha Ann Cook was a dressmaker who studied her art in Paris, France. She had completed a two year apprenticeship presumably in Walthamstow, England, prior to going to Paris in 1860 to study. Her sister Henrietta was three years younger than Martha and was not put to a business because she was thought “too delicate.” Being delicate was never a term I’ve heard describing my great great grandmother.

After completing her studies in Paris, she opened up her own dressmaking business in England. She designed and made clothes for small children and sold ribbons and dress accessories. Her business was successful and she was able to hire other women to work in her shop, which continued even after she was married and having children. She would also travel to Paris every year to see the latest styles. It appears that she put a lot of thought and effort into her whole business endeavor.

Which would make me think that she would have been concerned with the look of her own dresses and wardrobe choices. And this would be particularly true when she decided to sit for a portrait. The portrait that I’m talking about is today’s photo. When I first saw it, I thought it might be a photo. It was a Xerox copy of a photo that was in the book “Cook-Keys Family: Two Centuries in England and America” by Edith Keys Segraves. I’ve posted that old version before, but I just recently obtained a much better version.

Portrait of Martha Ann Cook Keys in England circa 1865

Edith Segraves’ daughter Carolyn let me scan the best version of the photo. I could tell from this version that it was actually a photo of an old painting. I decided to clean it up to get it looking as best I could. Nothing but the best for old Martha! One of the first things I noticed was that painting hands was not the artist’s strong point. The fact that the painting showed two hands is telling. The old phrase “cost you an arm and a leg” was in reference to having your portrait painted (or so I’ve heard). Supposedly the extra limbs were quite pricey. So to have both hands in the portrait was a sign of prosperity.

It could also be Martha’s desire to show off her dress properly. How can you show the true design of a dress without arms and hands showing? Whatever the case, those pricey hands didn’t quite look right. So I changed them! That’s right. She’s got brand new hands after well over one hundred years. So the pixilized hands are not authentic, but I’m sure they look closer to the real thing than what was there previously.

I also cleaned up her face a little. There were scratches across them that had to be removed. I was careful to make sure I didn’t change the way she looked. Then I came to her dress. Some of it had been damaged and it wasn’t complete because it had been a circular painting. I cloned parts of the painting with paint parts and pixels. It ended up looking like a dress-shaped blob on the drawing. I knew that Martha would not approve of that. She was all about dresses!

So I did a search online for French dresses from the 1860s and came across something that might help the photo out. It was a black mourning dress that somewhat matched what Martha was wearing. I used that image to give the dress a bit of shading and texture. With some helpful input from Carolyn, I think I came up with something that Martha would approve. French fashion with paints and pixels.

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Surplus Sunday: The Bucklin/Keys/Ausman/MacVey connections

June 11, 2017 Van One comment

Surplus Sunday? What is that? It’s an additional sharing of information on family history, that’s what it is! I know I already posted two times this week, but I had so much information that came my way recently. Fair warning – this post is extremely long and covers 125 years of history with the Keys and Bucklin families and how they were connected with two other families of no relation – the Ausmans and the MacVeys. All because of a secret old letter that was recently uncovered. It also connects several other previous posts that I have written. Hopefully this will answer all of the questions that you may have had on the subject. So first off you will need to read the letter that Louis Charles Bucklin received on that long ago day in April of 1893. The envelope was addressed to L. C. Bucklin and the letter commenced with a quaint “Dear Friend.” Here is the letter in its entirety:

Leeds, Iowa April 20th (18)93

Mr. L. C. Bucklin

Dear Friend,

Will now try to answer your welcome letter, which I received some time ago.

I hope you are not having as dissagreeable weather as we are having at present. – It snowed quite hard for over an hour yesterday forenoon, it commenced by raining in the morning, and then turned into snow in the forenoon, and then rained again in the after noon.

This morning the wind was blowing hard and cold and it was cloudy, this after noon it commenced to snow and snowed nearly all after noon and was snowing yet at dark.

Yesterday It looked very nice to see the large snow flakes falling so thick and fast, I thought, when I could sit in the house and look at it through the window, but it was not so nice, today, when I was out in it and had to face it part of the way home, but even then It was better than going home in the rain would have been. We have had quite a good deal of cold, bad weather since we came

Here, but I don’t think we feel it a bit more than we did down south, it does not chill us so, but of course it is sharper and more kean hear than down there.

Willie and I commenced going to school a week ago monday. we both like it real well, our teachers are real nice. Mine is very kind to me. – We have a very large brick school building there are seven grades in the school. Willie is in the fourth grade, and I am in the fifth grade. I always told you I did not know any thing and I guess you will beleave it now if you did not before. – but I think I can learn more for a while, in the fifth grade than I could in the sixth, if it don’t sound quite so

“big.” –I have to study very hard, and quite a good deal at night, and as I am not used to it, I get very tired. In my room we have, mental and complete Arithmetic, vocal music, spelling and reading in the after forenoon, and Geography, Language and drawing in the after noon, school is let out at a quarter to twelve and takes up again at half past one, and we have no recess. I took my dinner today as it was so cold, and I studied all the noon hour after I ate my dinner and I have had the headache ever since. – I can keep up in all my classes execept music and Language, and they have been nearly a year at them and as I never studied eather of those before I am behind them in that.

My brother Phil lives ten or twelve miles north of here on a farm, and Sioux City is south of here.

Lambert is living in Merrill but perhaps I told you that before. Mother is visiting at Phils, and Lamberts this week. Pa and her went out to Phils Saturday night and Pa came home Sunday night. – It seems very lonely without mother here.

The Church and School house are quite close together, both are quite a distance, from here. It seems so nice to go to Sunday school in a church once snow, of corse the church is not so nice as the ones you go to but it is away ahead of a “school house”.

Ida and Willie both had the fever about two weeks ago and again this week. Willie has it this afternoon Ida had it Sunday afternoon and as Ma is away I have to help Ida all I can, and I do not have much time to write. I had to learn a lesson tough before I commenced this so it was after nine when I commenced to write, it is ten now so I must close for tonight will finish this the first opertunity I have. Good night..

Sunday Afternoon

Thursday night when I commenced this letter I thought I would finish it the next night, but there was a temperance lecture in the M. E. Church Friday and

saturday nights and we all attended them so I could not finish this as I would liked to have done.

They organized a good Templers loge last night. John, Anna, Mother, Ida, and myself joined. We will meet next Tuesday night. We have a prayer meeting every Wednesday night and they have a young peoples Epworth League every Sunday night before preaching, there is a small room seprate from the main part of the church that they use for that, and prayer meeting.

How I would like to go to some of those nice churches you attend they must be grand. I am afraid I would not know how to act in so large a congragation as you told about.

there was one hundred and one (101) members in our Sunday school today. I like living hear real well going to school, and so many other things to go to that I have not been very lonesome yet. We are getting aquainted with quite a good many too.

Now Lou, please don’t be angry at me for not answering sooner, for I could not help it. Mother says she don’t want me to write so often as I have been doing. – I some times, don’t know what to do, she does not know how we feel towards each other, and she is so afraid of looseing me. – She does not need to worry about that, for I consider it my duty to take care of her as long as she needs me. she has raised a large family, and, I, am her youngest girl.

3) and I think it is my duty to stay with her now since she is not strong any more.

It will be better for you to learn to care for some one else, if you can, Lou, for I am afraid we can never be anything more than Friends.

Oh if we only knew just things would be, but perhaps it is better that we should not know, for one might feel worse than we do as it is.

Remember Lou, that you can always find a friend in Jesus he is always redy and willing to help us, in time of trouble and sorrow, if we will only ask him, for I know by experience.

We received a letter from Aggie last week telling about the awful storm they had. How glad I am that none of them were hurt. I am so sorry

it ruined so many of your sisters things, but that is not so bad as if some of them were hurt. Oh how much we have to be thankful for.

You spoke of your Uncle and cousins thinking of going to La. Perhaps they will wait till you will be home for vacation. how nice for you, it would be if they would.

When does you have vacation and how long.

I wish I could see you marching with your uniforms and guns. I never saw any Soldiers eather. I will have to close now. I hope this will find you well,

I remain your true friend

May Ausman

I first saw this letter on May 14, 2017. It was texted to me from my mom’s first cousin Julie Phenice Campbell. She said that she found it in a pouch from her father that contained some old letters that had been sent to her (and my mom’s) grandmother Daisy Keys in the 1880s. In addition to those letters, there were two other letters that were sent to my mom’s grandfather Louis Charles Bucklin in 1893. Since Julie is not related to the Bucklins, it is a mystery how those letters ended up with her father.

I was kinda glancing through this letter when I first read it because I thought it was written by an old roommate. She starts it with “Dear Friend” after all. I was so surprised to see the signature of this letter that I had started to realize was a “Dear John” letter. May Ausman (who was about 17 years old when she wrote the letter) mentions some of her siblings in this letter – Phil, John, Lambert, Ida, Willie, and Aggie. Aggie Ausman was married to Lou’s older brother Joe Bucklin. They had gotten married in 1892 and were living in Jennings, Louisiana. But for Louis, this letter was the beginning of a rough few months. This sad news was received in April 1893. Next, Lou received a letter from Joe in May of 1893 that talks about their sister Jennie doing poorly. Then Jennie ended up dying in June of that year.

He was keeping a journal at this time. The entries started in January of 1893 when he was traveling from his home in China, Louisiana, to attend Ohio Normal University in Ada, Ohio. The entries for 1893 stopped when his sister died in June. When I found this letter and realized it was during the time of the journal, I checked the journal for the time he would have received this letter. He was talking about things in early April, then the next entry was in June. So where were the entries for May? I looked closely and noticed that there were pages missing. Each page had a number on it and the April entry was on page 30 and the next page in the journal was 33.

I was looking for reference to the letter in his journal to see if he had been upset by the news. Maybe little May didn’t mean much to him, or maybe she meant a lot. The other letter that I received from my mom’s cousin Julie was a letter to L. C. Bucklin in Mar. 1893 from his previous roommate. It is a very short letter, but it does mention that Lou might be sending letters “out to Iowa to that May you know.” So someone else knew that he was interested in the girl named May. But more telling are the missing pages from his journal. If she didn’t mean anything, he wouldn’t have said anything about it. It looks like he must have written something about it. Then either he didn’t want anyone ever to see what he wrote, or someone else didn’t want it to be known and the pages were made to disappear. Is that why Addie always had a scowl on her face? I should hope not!

The reason the letter surprised me was because of the added connection to the Ausman family. I mentioned earlier that Louis Bucklin had it rough for a few months, but his brother Joe had it rough for a few years. (I wrote about this in The Sad Story post on Aug. 17, 2016.) He and his wife Aggie Ausman had a daughter named Leola in 1893 and then it shows that they had another daughter named Gladys in June of 1896. They had a son in July of 1899. Those were all of the good things. Then the bad things started the next month. In August 1899 Aggie died. I’m not sure what she died from, but it could be complications from childbirth. Following that, Leola died in December 1899.

Since Joe was having such a hard time, his mother Mary Ann McGrath Bucklin went and stayed in Jennings to help him care for the children. At least to care for Joe and his son Austin. For some reason, at least according to the 1900 census, Gladys was living in Iowa with her Ausman grandparents and Aggie’s younger sister Ida, who is listed as Ida McVey. Anyway, his mother ended up dying in April 1900. It was a really tough year for Joe.

But by the end of the year things were changing for Joe. He married Aggie’s younger sister Ida in November of 1900. I guess things were good for him for a while. He and his brother Ed ran a boot and mercantile store in Jennings and he was married with a young daughter and son in the household. I’m assuming that Gladys was staying with him due to information you will hear later. Joe and Ida had a daughter named Ida Bucklin sometime around July of 1903. Then on Sept. 5, 1903 Joe’s wife Ida died. I’m not sure of the cause of death for this sister, either. In addition to that, further tragedy occurred in December with the death of his daughter Ida. A very sad story indeed.

When I got the letter that was sent from May to Lou in 1893, I already knew about all of the tragedies of their sisters and nieces. But it made me start to look at the connection between these families again. One of the questions that stood out was the name Ida “McVey” in the 1900 census. How did she get that last name? I didn’t see any marriage or divorce for her. She was living at home in 1893 when May wrote that letter and was living at home in 1900 when her name was McVey. So I decided to look into it.

I did a search on Ida Ausman at Ancestry.com, but this time I added a husband with the name of McVey – no first name. I just wanted to see what would show up. And sure enough something did! I found a family tree that listed a William Lee MacVey who had married Ida Ausman in Iowa in September of 1895. All of that information fit with what I knew about Ida and her family. But that’s not all of the information that it showed. It had a divorce date from a month later and a reason for the divorce. That’s amazing. I hardly ever see a reason for a divorce in people’s family tree. I was excited about that because I was really curious to know why a marriage ended in divorce in less than a month!

The information in the family tree gave the reason for divorce as, “Marriage did not last long because she was pregnant but NOT William Lee’s child.” Oh, my goodness! Say it isn’t so. I was curious about how someone would know this, so I looked to see whose tree it was in relation to these people. The person who had the tree was the granddaughter of William Lee MacVey from his second wife! I got in touch with her (let’s call her Nancy MacVey) and Nancy said that she didn’t know about this juicy bit of history when her grandparents were alive, she only found out about it when she started researching. She found marriage records and divorce proceedings where he told the judge, “She can go back to her mamma!” This was very scandalous for a small Iowa community in the 1890s.

Hey wait a minute! She was supposedly pregnant in October of 1895. If that was the case, she would have had a child in the middle of 1896. There is no child attributed to her at that time. But her sister Aggie who was married to Joe Bucklin is supposed to have had a daughter named Gladys in June of 1896. Is Gladys Bucklin actually the daughter of Ida Ausman McVey? Why else would Gladys go live with her Ausman grandparents in 1900 when her brother stayed in Louisiana with his dad and his dad’s family? And then after the death of the two Idas, Gladys shows up again in Iowa with her Ausman grandparents in the 1910 census.

Too bad May didn’t write another letter with all of these details in it. Maybe she intended to, but sadly she had died by 1910 herself at the age of 33. The Ausman family lost five of their children before 1910. According to Bucklin family history Gladys had also died at the age of 21 in 1917, yet in the 1920 census and the 1930 census, she was still living in Iowa. Did they just write her off because she wasn’t exactly a Bucklin and tragedy seemed to follow her wherever she went? I guess we’ll never know. Gladys may have had a hard life. Born out of wedlock in the 19th century (barely) and then her mother and sister dying. Some people may have thought she were cursed or some such thing. She may have thought the same thing. Again, we’ll never know.

Of course, you know, just because someone in that MacVey family made a claim about Ida didn’t mean it was true. Just how trustworthy was this MacVey family anyway? Sure, there was family lore on the Keys side of my family about a McVey family in southern Louisiana. The Keys family had nothing but praise for these people. But not every MacVey family was as good as our McVey one. Right? So I saw that the names of William Lee’s parents were Thomas and Rebecca, and I started some more research.

The Keys family has a lot of information about the family when it immigrated in 1887 from England. My grandmother’s first cousin did a lot of research and put together a book about the family in 1980. I knew the McVey name was in there somewhere. Everyone in my family knows the last name, we never bothered with the first names before. I found a poem my mom’s aunt wrote, but all she mentions is “the McVeys.” So I had to scour the old 1980 Keys family history book. And guess what I found? That’s right, I found some names.

In one part of the book, it talks about a family that helped my Keys family when they decided to stay in southern Louisiana: “The McVeys were one of the families which treated them well. Mr. McVey had a large chicken house with wood floors and a window which they cleaned. This was their first home though temporary.” That’s the legend. Our family lived in a chicken house that was provided by the McVeys! Those Keys definitely did not suffer from a feeling of entitlement back then. They were extremely grateful. So much so that when they mentioned the people who were nice to them, the short list included a Frank McVey and a T. L. McVey. Hey, could T. L. be Thomas? I went back to the family tree, and sure enough William Lee MacVey’s father was Thomas Lord MacVey, our very own T. L. MacVey. And William had a brother named Frank.

So the family that made the comment about Ida wasn’t just related to the legendary hero McVeys on the Keys side of my family, they were the very same family! So I guess Ida was a tramp after all! I looked into the MacVey family history and found out that the family of T. L. MacVey and his wife Rebecca Noble MacVey and their two sons had just started homesteading in China, Louisiana, in 1887 themselves. So it was at least a brand new chicken house that the Keys stayed in. That’s always good to know when looking for a chicken house to live in!

I corresponded a bit more with Nancy MacVey. I expressed my thanks from my family to hers for the help given to us in our time of need. I let her know that if she were ever in Baton Rouge and needed a place to stay, my house would always be open to her. She had actually been to Louisiana a few times in 2011 and 2012 looking for the graves of T. L. and Rebecca. (Uh oh!) She had found T. L. and had been unable to find Rebecca’s. According to her information, Rebecca had been buried in a place called Fairview in 1892. She didn’t know if that was a church name, cemetery name, or whether it was in Louisiana or Iowa. She couldn’t find it. I didn’t remember ever hearing the name Fairview before.

As I tried to keep track of all of these details, I thought I’d double check those missing pages from the L. C. Bucklin diary. I have a paper copy from Louise Bucklin Connors, but she gave me a digital copy as well. So I went to look for the digital copy and came across something else that she had sent me as well. It was a transcription of headstones at the Raymond Methodist cemetery. I thought I might as well check it for the grave that I just heard that Nancy was looking for. Sure enough, it was in there. I had been to that gravesite with Louise’s son Joseph and took photos of the Bucklins’ graves. I remembered Joseph telling me that he had taken photos of all of the graves at that site. So I sent him a note asking if he could find the photo of Rebecca Noble MacVey’s headstone. He was able to find it quickly and send it to me. I let Nancy know that I had located her great grandmother’s burial site and then created a memorial for her on Find a Grave.

As a finishing touch to this story, my cousin Mary sent me a note saying that she knew someone who was writing a history of Hathaway. Really? Who would write such a thing? And even more puzzling, who would read such a thing? Of course I would, but I’m unusual. Not many people know about that tiny hamlet in southern Louisiana. And even less care. Anyway, I told her about a blog online that had some Hathaway information and she sent me a booklet that she got from Grandma Bucklin about the history of the Methodist Church in Raymond. On the first page of this history it talks about the new church, “known as the Fairview Methodist Episcopal Church, represented by Gilbert N. Brown.” So Nancy had asked if I knew about a Fairview church or cemetery and I said I didn’t. But now I do. Her great grandmother had been buried in the Fairview Methodist Cemetery, which is now known as the Raymond Methodist Cemetery. Mystery solved.

And doesn’t that Brown name sound familiar too? Well, maybe not to you, but to me it did. Nancy had told me that one of the MacVeys had married a Brown. And, in another little twist, Grandma’s best childhood friend had been a Brown as well. I’m sure you know where this leads, so I’ll explain the details. Thomas Lord MacVey and Rebecca Noble’s other son Frank married Gilbert Brown’s daughter Libbie. Libbie’s brother Eugene Brown had a daughter named Emily, whose childhood friend was Myrtle Phenice.

I wonder if Grandma knew that her friend’s uncle and parents were the ones that owned the chicken coop that housed her mom’s family when they moved to the area? Or that her friend’s uncle’s brother was the first husband of her future father-in-law’s sister-in-law? Probably not, they were too busy fixing their hair with the latest styles or chatting as they were riding their buggy to that old Hathaway school.

Keys Reunion Treasures

June 8, 2017 Van Leave a comment

As I said in my first post today, I am happy. I’m happy about the success of the 2017 Keys Family Reunion, but the other reason I am happy is that some of the cousins brought some old photos to share with me. That’s what helped to get this whole event started in the first place. I shared some old photos and a few stories with everyone, people showed some interest, the photos reminded some of us of the Keys reunions that were fun to attend in the past, and a new reunion was organized. (Thanks to Julie Phenice Campbell and her cousin Diane Phenice Prejean.)

H. C. and Daisy Phenice family circa 1926-1930

So I thought I’d share a couple of the photos that I acquired at the Keys Family Reunion 2017. That’s what Throwback Thursdays are about, right? Old photos. And these two photos are from around 1930. From the ages of the children I approximated the date and from the clothes they’re wearing I can tell that the two photos were taken the same day.

It looks like a casual day with the family getting ready for a picnic. At least that’s what I always thought. You see, I’ve had a poor version of this first photo for a while. The old version looks like a Xerox copy of a photo. But my cousin Shelly Russell (Marguerite’s daughter) brought the original photo to the Reunion and was willing to let me borrow it so I could get a good scan of the photo. It is a photo of Daisy Keys Phenice with her husband Harry Clifton Phenice and their seven children.

From left to right you can see (or not see) Daisy, my grandmother Myrtle, Grace, Sylvan, Orville, Henry and Marguerite (both behind Warren’s arm), Warren, and H. C. Phenice. There is no picnic basket and there is a dog in the photo, so I’m not sure why it always brings to mind a picnic. It’s a really good photo of my grandmother Myrtle and her sister Grace. They were so pretty. Too bad Warren’s arm is covering Henry’s and Marguerite’s faces. It makes me worry about his descendants.

Daisy Keys Phenice with family and friend

This next photo comes to us by way of Marilyn Phenice Strickland (Orville’s daughter). I took snapshots of some old photos that she brought to the reunion. I like to think of this as the Post Picnic Phenice Photo. As you can see, it was taken the same day as the first photo, but the subjects have been changed. HC, Warren, and Henry are not present and a sister-in-law and a friend have taken their place.

From left to right are Sylvan and his wife Mary Bucklin Phenice (sister of Fred Bucklin), Daisy Keys, Myrtle, a family friend, Marguerite, Orville, and Grace. There are several reasons that I like this photo: 1) Mary Bucklin looks so cute in it that maybe you’ll forget her shrill voice from the Sammy the Dog recording that you heard previously. 2) Daisy actually looks like she is smiling in the photo. She doesn’t scowl as bad as my other great grandmother Addie, but sometimes she gives her a run for the money. 3) It’s another photo that Myrtle and Grace look pretty in. It must have been a good day for them. 4) Marguerite’s face is showing, so we can better determine the date of the photo.

What these photos really made me think is that there are a lot more photos out there that I have not seen yet. Come on people! Scan those old photos! If not for yourself, do it for me or posterity! You can email them to me and I’ll share them with the rest of the family. And that’s for all you family members out there – Landry, Patureau, Bucklin, Keys, Hine, Phenice, Leveque, Archibald – preserve those old treasures. Someone will appreciate it someday. Maybe.

Keys Reunion 2017 Recap

June 8, 2017 Van Leave a comment

Last weekend we had our Keys Family Reunion and it was a great success. Success? Is that the right word? I suppose it is. There were over a hundred people in attendance (101 to be exact – that’s over a hundred!) and everyone seemed to get along splendidly. The rainy weather did not seem to put a damper on anyone’s spirits.

Grandchildren of Daisy Keys at the 2017 Reunion: Front Row – Linda Phenice Rogers, Marilyn Phenice Strickland, Loris Bucklin Woolley, Kathleen Phenice Montgomery; Back Row – Carol Phenice Bourque, Lisa Phenice, Darla Hill Wilson, Shelly Hill Russell, Julie Phenice Campbell, Paul Phenice, and Diane Phenice Prejean

It had been around twelve years since the last reunion, at least I think that’s what I heard from those in the know. Since that time, there were a few deaths in the family. In addition to my own parents’ recent deaths, there were the deaths of my mom’s aunt Marguerite, aunt Wilma, aunt Elta, and aunt Edna. Now, aunt Edna was my mom’s aunt because she was my grandfather’s sister, but she was married to my grandmother’s cousin who was a Keys, so she was always at the previous reunions. These were the last of my mom’s aunts and uncles. This led my aunt Loris to proclaim that now she and her cousins were the “old aunts and uncles.” I am from the Daisy Keys line and there were eleven of her grandchildren who were in attendance.

Steven, Mel, and Arlene

As everybody knows, Daisy was the third child of Henry Keys and Martha Cook Keys. The first child born to that union was Henry Alfred “The Judge” Keys. He was represented at the Reunion by his grandchildren Melvin Keys and Arlene Keys Ware, as well as Mel’s son Steven. This was a treat for me, Karen, Charla, and Mary because we are Star Trek fans and Mel helped to build the original model for the star ship Enterprise that was used in the filming of the original series back in the 1960s. Live long and prosper.

Sue Hebert

The second child born to the honored couple was Leonard James Keys. None of his descendants were in attendance. We’ve already accounted for child number three. And then there was Ruth. The fourth child of Henry and Martha was named Rosetta Ruth Keys. We had one brave soul who descends from Ruth in attendance. This is Sue Carol Bryan Hebert. She’s been verified, too. She’s taken a DNA test and she matches aunt Loris, cousin Charla, and other Keys relatives. Not that there ever was a question pertaining to the relation, mind you. I just wanted to mention the DNA verification. Another interesting thing about the Ruth Keys lines is that there is still a surviving daughter. (She has since passed away. Martha Bryan Boose was born in 1920. She was not able to attend.

Neither did any of the many descendants of the youngest child Mabel Keys Miller. Where were they? That family settled in Kinder. Surely some of them were close enough to attend!? Sorry, I’m getting crazy here. I know it was the Daisy Keys family that orchestrated the event, but they were invited. Maybe we’ll see a few at the next get together. Actually I hadn’t expected as much of a turnout as there was, so I should be happy.

Yes, I am happy…

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