Family History

I got several old photos from my cousin Carla four years ago.  Her father was Clarence Bucklin, and he was the identical twin of my maternal grandfather Fred Bucklin.  Of course, I was very excited to get my hands on those photos so I could scan them and add them to my collection.  I’ve shared several of those previously, and today I thought it was time for another one.

My mom was Betty Lou Bucklin, but she is not in the photo because she was born in 1933.  This photo is from further back than that.  I’ve estimated the photo to be taken around 1925.  Fred and Clarence were born on October 2, 1907, in Roanoke, Louisiana.  I think they lived there for a while until the family moved up to Prairie Grove, Arkansas, in 1912.  But then again, you know that because I told you all about that a couple of months ago.

After their short stint in Arkansas, they returned to Louisiana.  This time they settled in Hathaway, Louisiana, which is where Fred and Clarence’s grandfather James Bucklin and his family had homesteaded when they immigrated from Iowa in 1884.  That land is still in the family.  I think that’s where this photo was taken.  There are more trees than I remember seeing on my grandparents’ property.  But when they immigrated, they had to set aside a portion of the property for a tree claim.  According to my great grandfather’s journal, they planted a variety of trees.  Now that I think about it, I’ve never been there.  I’ve only been to the developed part of the land.  My grandparents’ property was surrounded by fields and the only crop that I can recall is soybeans.  They didn’t farm it; the land was leased out.

So the photo was taken around 1925 when the twins were about 18 years old.  That looks about right, don’t you agree?  I’m not even going to say which one I think is Fred and which one was Clarence.  They were identical twins (the DNA comparison of their daughters proved it) and it was almost 100 years ago.  I can never tell who’s who in their photos.  They were two of twelve children, so it’s difficult to identify all of them in old photos as well.  But I’m pretty sure the young girl on the far right is Edna Bucklin, their younger sister.  She would later marry Frank Keys, who was my grandmother Myrtle Phenice’s first cousin.  I’m not sure who the other two girls in the photo are.  They are probably school friends of the Bucklin siblings.

I’m glad they decided to go out and about taking photos back in the day.  I’m also glad their sister Ruth saved all of them and passed them on.  And now we can enjoy this one thanks to a cousin who was ready and willing to share.  Gratitudes galore.

 

Here it goes.  I’m starting this post with a few ideas of things to write about, but the ideas don’t really seem to go together.  I suppose that’s okay.  It’s kind of like a puzzle, but with pieces that don’t fit together.  

Speaking of puzzles, that’s one of the main themes this week.  That’s because there has been a puzzle making its way around work this week.  Many people tried to solve it, but nobody has been able to, yet, including myself.  So when I started thinking about a topic this week for my family history blog, I thought about the theme of puzzles.

How does that relate to family history, you may ask.  Well, as a matter of fact, it does.  When our family was at my grandparents’ home in Hathaway one day in the early 1970s, we were all visiting in the dining room.  I remember reaching up on top of the refrigerator to look for something, and that’s when I made a discovery.  There were several pieces of wood that were cut and shaped into different-sized pieces.  Like the photo you see.  I was fascinated by it.

I think I tried putting it together, and then my dad showed me how to do it.  Thinking back on this now, it brings all kinds of questions to mind.  Why was a puzzle on my grandmother’s refrigerator?  It was in pieces, so someone must have taken it apart and couldn’t put it back together again.  And how did my dad know how to put it together?  He liked puzzles, too.  He used to make videos of himself putting a Rubik’s cube together.  And no, there are no Youtube videos of my dad doing this!  The other day I had a dream that there was one on Youtube, so I had to check!  No luck. 

I don’t think the cube was for my dad.  The grandmother with the puzzle was my mom’s mom.  I thought about making this post a Keepsake Post, but the puzzle I have is not the one from my grandmother.  I don’t know what became of that one.  But this one still reminds me of my grandmother. 

That grandmother in question was Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin.  I don’t know why I always say it was on my grandmother’s refrigerator.  My grandfather was in the house, too.  Fred D. Bucklin was his name.  They lived in a house that used to be in Hathaway.  The house is still around, but it was moved and renovated.  I recently met a distant cousin who is the friend of my Aunt Loris.  Her closer cousin owns the house, so she sent me a recent photo.  I want to go visit the house sometime soon.  Maybe a cousin or two might want to go along as well.  I was thinking of posting a photo of the house, but I didn’t feel right about posting the recent one.  It belongs to someone else, and the house doesn’t look like the way I remember it.  

So I went looking for a photo of my grandparents’ house from back in the day.  Instead, I found these photos of my mom showing off some of the dresses she made for herself when she was in high school.  Sure, she is standing in front of her house in Hathaway, but in no way is the house the main subject in these photos!  Yet, I do have a question about the house.  I’m pretty sure it’s the same house, but I don’t remember there being a porch on the side of the house where we entered.  What’s up with that?

But look how sweet Betty Lou looks in these two photos.  She seems so happy to be showing off the hard work that she did.  The one that is colorized shows a dress that was used as a 4H project.  Mama must have written that on the back of the photo.  How else would I know that?  So how do my mom’s dresses connect to the earlier part of this post?  My mom was never a fan of games or puzzles.  But she liked to sew.  Isn’t sewing like putting a puzzle together?  You get the different shapes to go together in just the right way, and then the cube is made.  I mean dress!

So there you have it – a cube, a house, and a dress or two.  It’s been put together.

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.