Mee Maw in the Golden Light

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When I was thinking about what I was going to write this week, I definitely knew that it had to be something less dark and gloomy.  The last few weeks my posts have been about death and hardship.  And last week’s topic was about multiple deaths and it was exceedingly long.  (As has been pointed out to me!)  So this week I decided to do something short and sweet and light.  With that prerequisite and the fact that it was time to do a Patureau topic, I decided on this photo that I acquired earlier this year.

Mee Maw with a few of her grandchildren in 1959.

This is a photo of my paternal grandmother Germaine Erie Patureau Landry.  She was known as Erie from the early part of her life.  Later she became Mama, and I knew her as Mee Maw.  When I saw this photo, I knew immediately that I would be sharing it on my blog.  It was taken in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in August of 1959.  There was a date printed on the border of the photo, and the ages of my first cousins looks about right for that date. 

The blond boy with the striped shirt is Mark Reeves, the son of Marie Landry Reeves and Malloy Reeves.  The other three children are the offspring of Germaine Landry Winn and Ross Winn.  The boy in the white shirt is Doug, the little girl with the blond curly hair is Phyllis, and the dark haired girl with the smile is Daphne.  We can thank Daphne for sharing this photo with me.  Thanks Daphne!

This photo was taken before I was born, but I sure wish there was a photo of me with Mee Maw that has this same glorious look.  The lighting is just perfect.  I’m sure it is light coming from the western setting sun.  It’s so dreamy looking.  Maybe it’s just me, but I also think it portrays my grandmother in the way that all of us grandchildren feel about her.  She looks so happy to be with her grandchildren, because they were each special to her.  Why else would we all continue to claim to be her favorite?

And you know what?  I was her favorite.  I know she thought I was special!

The Sad History Surrounding Joe Bucklin

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Joseph C. Bucklin, circa 1909. I remember when I first saw his photo, I thought he looked handsome and prosperous and that this might have led to him having things go his way rather regularly. I learned otherwise.

I’ve already written A Sad Story about Joe Bucklin.  He was my great uncle.  Or was he my great great uncle?  Whichever he was, he was my great grandfather Louis Charles Bucklin’s older brother.  And boy did he have a sad story to tell.  I wrote the first story about it three years ago, then followed up on it a year later with a Surplus Sunday about the Bucklins, the Ausmans, the MacVeys.  The second story talked about Joe Bucklin’s history, but then veered off into some other family history.

This time I want to keep the focus on Joe.  He does seem to be the center of a large number of tragic events in both the Bucklin and Ausman families.  Joe was married to two of the Ausman sisters.  Both of the sisters died, as did young daughters by each of them.  Since I wrote those other two stories, I have collected more and more information about the Bucklin and Ausman families.  I have no relation to the Ausman family, but I was intrigued with all of the misfortune that befell them and our poor Joe.  Recently I’ve gotten some answers to things that I had been wondering about, so now is the time for the story I’ve been planning.

Joe Bucklin was born in Massachusetts in 1861 to James Bucklin and his second wife Mary Ann McGrath Bucklin.  He had an older half-brother and half-sister by his father and his father’s first wife.  He also had an older sister Jennie by James and Mary Ann.  The family moved to Iowa around 1863 and a year later James and Mary Ann had another son named Edd.  In 1866, the family moved to Delaware County in Iowa.  My great grandfather Lou was born there in 1873.  The 1880 Census shows the family still living in Delaware County.

The Ausman family was from Canada.  By 1873 Samuel and his wife Jane had eight children: Phillip, John, Jennie, Evaline, Lambert, Minnie, Aggie, and Ida.  At that point they decided to move to the United States, and they too picked Delaware County in Iowa as their new home.  They had their sixth daughter, little May Ausman, in Iowa.  I’m assuming that the Ausmans and the Bucklins must have met each other at this point. 

If they did meet each other and become friends, that didn’t keep the Ausmans from moving to Nebraska in the late 1870s.  Once they were there, they had their fourth son.  His name was Willie and he was the last of a total of ten children.  Sadly, there was only a two year period when all ten of the siblings were alive at the same time.  In April of 1881 the first of several deaths occurred when 18-year-old Evaline died.  The only connection to Joe Bucklin was that the families probably knew each other at this point.  Joe was almost two years older than her, so they were peers.  The next few deaths become much more personal to Joe.

About five years after the Ausmans move from Delaware County, the Bucklins moved to Jefferson Davis Parish in southern Louisiana.  James, Joe, and Jennie were able to obtain homesteads in 1884.  Lou was still too young, though he and his future wife would be the ones who would care for the farm for many years to come.  Those first few years were a lot of hard work involved with clearing the land and building roads and bridges.  I’m not sure of James’ participation in all of that.  He was likely involved, though for only a few years.  He died in 1890 at the age of 69.  Joe was 29 at the time and I’m sure it hit him hard.

I’m not sure how, where, or when the Ausmans and Bucklins came back together again, but there are clues.  In Samuel Ausman’s obituary it said that he had spent some time farming in Louisiana.  His daughter Jennie got married to Charles Henry McKague in Nebraska in 1882, but by 1892 they were living in southern Louisiana.  The families must have lived close by, because in 1893 Lou Bucklin mentions the McKague name in his journal.  In the letter that May wrote to Lou in 1893, she talks about the cold weather in Iowa and how it is a different cold than in the south.  They had just recently moved to Iowa again, so it could be that they had just moved from the south.  So if Samuel did farm in Louisiana, it had to have been in the early 1890s.

That would explain why the McKagues moved there.  It would also explain how Joe and Aggie got together.  Joe and Aggie were married in December of 1892.  This was just a few months before another tragedy befell the Bucklin family.  Joe’s older sister Jennie died in June of 1893 at the age of 36.  That is such a young age to die, yet his wife and four of her sisters never reached that age.  Evaline had died in 1881 at the age of 18, and the next one to die in the Ausman family was Jennie.

Jane Ausman (in the middle) with daughters Minnie, May, Ida, and Aggie. This was taken around 1897. Two of Jane’s daughters had died previously, and three more would die in the next six years. Such tragedy for the Ausman family. They were left with only one daughter: Minnie. Seeing three of her sisters die in southern Louisiana made her steer clear of the place. She ended up living in Clear Lake, Washington, about the farthest place in the continental United States from Jefferson Davis Parish, Louisiana. She lived into her sixties.

Jennie was 34 years old when she died around 1896.  She was the mother of six children 13 years old and younger.  When I was finding out more about the Ausman family, I had wondered if there were descendants alive today.  With so many tragedies back then, I didn’t know.  So I did a little exploring with the family and found some descendants.  The most surprising thing I found was for the descendants of Jennie.  I actually graduated from high school with one of her descendants!  You just never know.

Around this same time Joe and Aggie moved from Lake Charles, Louisiana, to Jennings.  They also had their second daughter named Gladys.  (Though Gladys may be the daughter of Ida Ausman MacVey and an unknown father.)  Joe and Aggie’s first daughter Leola was born in 1893.  They had a son named Harold on July 15, 1899, during the few years of calm they had.  But that calm came to an end not long after he was born.

On August 8, 1899, Agnes “Aggie” Ausman Bucklin died at the age of 28.  This third Ausman sister death was definitely the most difficult one by far for our Joe.  It was his wife of only a short seven years!  Yet to make matters worse, their 6-year-old daughter Leola died on December 28, 1899.  The next few months must have been difficult for Joe.  It was so difficult that his mother Mary Ann went to stay with him to help out.  In another tragic twist, his mother ended up getting sick with the flu and she died April 10, 1900.  Poor, poor, Joe.

Willie Ausman, with Ida, May, and Jane Ausman. Circa 1897. This was taken during a short interval between the death of Janet “Jennie” Ausman McKague in late 1895 or early 1896 and the death of Ella “May” Ausman on Sept. 8, 1900. During that time, all three of these Ausman children got married. Willie Ausman got married to Edna O’Neal on October 16, 1899. They were witness at his sister May’s wedding the following day. Edna signed her name as “Mrs. Willie Ausman.” May and Bert did not live to see their first anniversary. Willie and Edna were married for over 45 years. Ida married Joe Bucklin on November 15, 1900.

Meanwhile, May Ausman had gotten married to Bert Lukenbill  on October 17, 1899.  When I tell you that, you may think that I’m leading this story to something more positive and upbeat.  But I’m not.  This is one of the most recent facts that I have discovered.  I knew that May had died before 1910;  I reported that previously.  But I didn’t know the particulars of where, when, and how.  Now I do.

When the Lukenbills got married in late 1899, they decided to move south for health reasons for Bert.  They ruled out southern Louisiana, maybe because two of May’s sisters had already died there.  So they decided to try somewhere new.  As Ausman luck would have it, they decided on Galveston, Texas.  Does anyone know what happened in Galveston in 1900?  I’ll tell you.  There was a huge hurricane that hit the city on September 8.  The city was hit hard and thousands of people died.  The newspapers reported that “everything between M and P streets had been wiped away by the tidal wave…”  Bert and May lived on O street and they were never seen alive again.  May was 25 years old at the time.

Oh, the choices we make!  If May had decided to move to Jennings, Louisiana, where her brother-in-law Joe lived, she may have lived a long time.  Or if she had decided to marry Lou Bucklin instead of dropping him like a hot potato in 1893, she also might have lived a long time.  But if that had happened, I wouldn’t be here writing this terrible tale.  So here I am writing about her untimely death.

Newspaper article from Sept. 18, 1900, about deaths in Galveston, Texas.

When Bert and May’s parents heard about the destruction and didn’t hear from their children, they decided that they needed someone to go into the devastation and seek out any information.  So who did they contact?  Why Joe Bucklin of course.  What’s a little more death and tragedy to deal with for him?  He’s used to it.  So he headed to ground zero shortly after disaster struck.  He was unable to find any trace of them.   A month later the Lukenbills received a telegram saying that Bert’s body had been found and buried. 

What a year for Joe.  During that yearlong period his wife died, his daughter died, his mother died, his sister-in-law and brother-in-law died and he was sent to search for any sign of them.  But do you know what else was going on during this period?  He must have been seeing Ida Ausman, because he got married to her on Nov. 15, 1900.  Did they fall in love while grieving over the deaths of family members?  Stranger things have happened.

So Joe and Ida settled in Jennings.  Joe and his brother Edd had a business called “Bucklin Bros.” in downtown Jennings that seemed to be very successful.  Things calmed down…for a short time.  You know where this is leading.  You might be thinking, “If he’s still writing, more tragedy is coming.”  And you’d be correct.

And by telling you that Joe and Ida welcomed a bouncing baby girl in July of 1903, that shouldn’t convince you to let your guard down.  They named their little girl Ida May after her mother and her most recently deceased aunt.  Two months later, on September 5, 1903, Ida Ausman Bucklin died at the age of 30.  Joe must have had the worst case of deja vu ever.  Four years after his first wife died, his second wife (and sister to his first) died.  And like that terrible year in 1899, a few months later it was followed with the death of a daughter.  Little Ida May Bucklin died on December 16, 1903, at just five months old.

Dec. 17, 1903, issue of the Jennings Daily Times Record.

What a painful story to write!  Can you see why I became so intrigued with the Ausman family that intertwines with my Bucklin family?  Every bit of information I would find would bring a new glimpse of some painful event in their lives.  My great grandfather witnessed all of these event and it must have been difficult for him to see his brother going through all of that. 

Joe would go on to get married again two years later.  He did not father any more children.  His brother Edd died in 1911, and after that the Bucklin Bros store eventually closed.  Joe and his wife moved out of state and he died of the flu in 1918 at the age of 57.  His son Harold moved to North Carolina where he died in 1926 at the age of 27.  He was the last in the line of Joseph C. Bucklin.

Hey, look!  A Happy Story About Joe Bucklin!

Jodie – 30 Years gone

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It’s difficult to believe that thirty years have passed since the death of my oldest sister Jodie.  She was only 36 years old when she died and all five of us siblings have long passed that age.  One of the things she said to me when she was dying is, “I want you to remember me young and cute.”  That was an easy thing to do.  And it gets easier every passing year. 

Oct. 14, 1957 – Jodie on her 4th birthday. This was taken when we lived in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

I decided to use this week’s post to show a few photos of her during each decade of her life.  I also thought I’d share some of the writing from my journal for the year of her death.   So that is what will follow this paragraph.

Jodie died at 12:15 in Mamma’s arms on November 6, 1989.  I write this with tears in my eyes two weeks later.  I love her and will miss being able to talk to her and be with her.  She has always been there since I was born.  The first child and I was the fifth.  My earliest memory is from when we lived in Lake Charles and I was less than two years old.  I remember sitting near the end of the driveway at 1317 Clover Drive with her.  She was playing jacks and I was watching her.  All of my memories of her seem to be sunny now.  I like that.

In February Jodie called to let me know that she would be having surgery on Tuesday February 21 in the morning.  She called each of us siblings because she wanted the news to be heard from her.  The surgery was for what they thought was a hernia in her stomach.  When they did a CAT scan of her abdomen, they discovered a tumor at the bottom of her rib cage on the right side.  The surgery became exploratory and they later did tests on the tumor.  Sometimes later she let us know that it was lymphoma, a type of cancer that is easily cured (IF caught early enough).  The doctors felt positive in being able to get rid of it.

Rob, Al, Jodie, Karen, Jamie, and Van Landry in November of 1965 at 758 Lucy Street in Jennings, Louisiana. That’s our dog Princess in the photo with all of her puppies.

She began chemotherapy some time in March.  I called and talked to her on March 19, 1989, and told her about getting to meet Amy Grant two days earlier.  Jamie was there visiting and she told me that she was pregnant for the third time.

Sat. April 8, 1989 – Rene & Michael’s wedding day.  The wedding was nice.  Had good visit with college friends at reception.

May 7, 1989 – Crawfish boil with The Phone volunteers.  Yum!

May 12, 1989 – 10 yr reunion from high school.  It was fun to see everyone.

May 20, 1989 – Bought car stereo so trip to Jodie’s next week wouldn’t seem so long.  Called Mama for her birthday.

I went to visit Jodie and Randy and Chris and Kyle on Friday, May 26, 1989.  I got there around 7:30.  We had a good visit.  Jodie was in about her eleventh week of chemotherapy.  It was really toxic to the body.  She had lost weight and her hair.  She tired easily and needed lots of rest. 

May 27, 1989 – Went to the Rhodes’ camp after going to see Chris play T-ball…

Jamie, Jodie, and Karen in Jennings on December 24, 1978.

May 28, 1989 – Went to eat at Dairy Queen.  Then we came back and watched “Robin Hood” and “American Tail.”  I talked with Jodie and Chris.  Jodie says he’s been a big help for her.  Getting things for her and taking care of himself more.  She says she’s trying to prepare them to do things for themselves…

During this time I decided to talk to her about the possibility of dying.  It is what we were all afraid of.  Why deny it and avoid it?  It is the thing that scared us the most.  I kept thinking it wasn’t as bad as other cases and that it shouldn’t be happening at all – not to our family.  But it was.

June 22, 1989 – Jodie called about doing a bone marrow donation… There was a possibility of doing a high powered chemotherapy that would destroy her bone marrow to get rid of any traces of cancer once the rest was in remission.

June 30, 1989 – Flew to Denver to visit Rob and Robyn.  Went hiking in the mountains and had lots of talks.

July 8, 1989 – Went to Winter Park for a music festival with Rob and Robyn.

July 15, 1989 – Went canoeing with young adult group with cousins Kim and Wade.

July 16, 1989 – Began getting depressed about Jodie.  Things just didn’t seem to be going good.  The chemotherapy didn’t do the trick… Things weren’t going as smoothly as they were supposed to be according to what the doctors first said.  The possibility of Jodie dying began to be real and that was depressing.

July 22, 1989 – Went with Kim to Evangeline Downs with a bunch of her (our) family. 

July 23, 1989 – I began to worry that Jodie was going to die quickly.  Like she was going to go to the hospital for chemotherapy and die.  I was planning a vacation and worried that she would die while I was gone and I wouldn’t hear about it.

July 28, 1989 – With help from Kim, Rex, Lisa, and Mary, moved some of my stuff to my new apartment.  Apt. 107 at Concord Estates.  Diane let me borrow her truck.

August 12, 1989 – Went to Mom and Dad’s in Jennings.  We went to the Hine family reunion.   There were pretty many people there.  Played horseshoes.  Back to Baton Rouge for going away party for Megan and Ruben.

Aug. 18, 1989 – Started vacation.

Aug. 21, 1989 – museums in Washington, DC

Aug. 25, 1989 – Went to the Statue of Liberty…

Aug. 28, 1989 – Went on the “Freedom Trail” in Boston

Aug. 30, 1989 – Back home

Sept. 1, 1989 – Chris’s 8th birthday.  Called and talked to Jodie and Chris.  Told her about my vacation, especially about the bear.  We had a good talk.

Sept. 3, 1989 – Went to Houma for Sarah’s 5th birthday.  Went to Sarah’s birthday party at bowling alley.  It was fun.  Later on everyone was sick and throwing up.

Sept. 18, 1989 – 2 years at BBECI.  Talked to Bob.  I got an eleven % raise because of re-evaluation.  I’m now making almost $30, 000 a year.  Good enough to keep me…  I’d like more, but don’t want to make any more major changes in my life:  just moved, relationship change, and situation with Jodie…

Sept. 21, 1989 –  Called Jodie…  she said the tumor in her abdomen was growing even with the chemotherapy.  She couldn’t undergo another treatment because of her low blood count.  Things were not looking up at the moment…

Sept. 24, 1989 – Went to visit the Moving Wall and went to the library.  Al called to see if I wanted to go skiing in January…

Oct. 1, 1989 – Mamma called to let me know what the doctors said to Jodie:  There is no more chemotherapy to try.  All of it has been tried and none of it worked.  It just hurt her and the cancer stayed.  There was nothing hopeful that they could do.  It was a very disturbing phone call.  I just want to yell for it all to stop.  Sobbed a bit.

Randy, Jodie, Kyle and Chris Rhodes in 1988. Such a cute little family.

Called Jodie.  She sounded positive about the possibility of radiation treatment.  She wanted to try anything to make it.  Especially for Chris and Kyle.

Friday, October 6, 1989 – Last visit with Jodie.  Al and Rob and their wives were also there.  Jodie’s abdomen had swollen noticeably in the last few weeks.  It was a scary thing to see.  She was slow in her movements and tired easily.  She was in good spirits.  We all played Pictionary.  It was fun.

Oct. 7, 1989 – Got up and visited… She talked about the tumor growing so rapidly in the last weeks and was really frightened because there wasn’t much room for it to grow anymore.  Mamma was there and I remember her telling me years before that she did not want to experience the death of any of her children.  I started to remind her of  that, but I couldn’t.  All I could say was, “I remember you telling me…” and I couldn’t go any further.  After I tried a second time, she got up and left.  She must have figured that if I couldn’t say it, she didn’t want to hear it…  Jodie was giving us some old photos of hers.  She was pretty sure she was dying and want to give us a few things.  She worried about how everyone was handling it and wanted to help us deal with it.

We were watching Chris and Kyle play.  Jodie said she knew they would probably play like that after she died.  Soon after she died.  She understood that it didn’t mean they didn’t care.  Kids play.  She said she could imagine Randy getting remarried and they would be a family.   I asked her if that is what she wanted.  She said, “Yes, I want them to be happy.  I want them to have a mother to love them.  I know that no one will love them as much as I do.”  Rob and Robyn left during the day.  It was difficult watching them say their goodbyes.

Oct. 8, 1989 – Visited for a while with Jodie and the family.  Then it was time for me to leave.  Jodie and I walked outside.  The boys were riding bikes and just playing around.  I was standing at the driver’s door of my car and she was on the other side of the car.  It was sunny and she was trying to block the sun from her eyes.  We were talking about a lot of different things.  She told me that Dennis had called her and talked to her.  She said she was polite to him.  He was a big part of her life at one point.  She talked about her family now.  She thought that her little family was so good the way it was.  She really regretted not being able to see Chris and Kyle grow up.  She also realized that they would be OK without her.  She had come to accept things really well.  She still had hopes for their family of four to continue a while longer.

She said that she was hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.  She said that we are never guaranteed another day.  I could die in a car wreck on my way back to Baton Rouge.  At least she had had time to prepare herself and those she knows as best she can.  I decided it was time to leave.  We both thought it would be the last time we’d see each other.  We hugged each other and started crying.  We talked a little more and then hugged goodbye again.  It was difficult leaving.  One of the hardest things in my life.  I told the boys goodbye and pulled out of the driveway.  Jodie had Chris and Kyle in the front yard on the bench and they waved to me.  It was sunny and nice weather.  I think I will always remember this day.  It was the last time I saw her alive.

I didn’t really journal much after this.  Jodie got progressively worse during the month.  We spoke a few times, but she was very weak.  As I said earlier, she died on November 6.  Actually, according to my mom, she died shortly before midnight on the 5th.  The coroner was called and came over after midnight.  Her death was officially listed as the 6th.  The family all got together in Franklin, Texas, for the wake and funeral.  I remember how comforting it was to have extended family there.  The most comforting ones were my parents’ siblings.  My younger sister Jamie and her family wasn’t there because Jamie was giving birth to her youngest daughter Beth.  We heard about it between the viewing and the funeral itself.  Such a bittersweet day.

I still miss you, Jodie.

Eating Tacks in the Civil War

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Two years ago I wrote about my great great grandfather Samuel Charles Phenice’s Civil War experiences.  He was on my mom’s side of the family, and all of her ancestors were from the Northern USA, England, or Ireland.  The Phenice line was in Pennsylvania for a few generations and that is where Samuel joined the military in February 1864.  He fought and was injured in the Battle of the Wilderness a few months later.  He then was in the “Invalid Corps,” where he was stationed at Ford’s Theatre on the historic night of the Lincoln assassination.

Parts of pages 318 and 319 from the book “History of Mercer County.”

Since I wrote that post, I found out a few more details that I thought I’d add to his story.  One of the things I thought about his previous experiences was that he was a new recruit when he went into battle and was injured.  That could mean that he didn’t really know his fellow soldiers very well and might have felt very alone.  This first document I found eased a bit of that concern.  (Not that it would make any difference at this point anyway!)  I saw this document a few times before I noticed the important part.  While the names are in alphabetic order for the most part, it’s not strictly in order. 

The thing that I noticed was that Samuel’s brother William Henry Phenice was in the same Company F as he was.  As you see in the document, they spelled the name differently – Phenicy.  Samuel himself spelled his last name as Phenicie on some documents.  Our line of the family now consistently spell it as Phenice.  The descendants of William Henry spell it the same way.  There are a few of them who have taken DNA tests and they are strong matches to us.  I like this other connection that we have that our ancestor brothers fought together in the Civil War out of Mercer, Pennsylvania.

The other new information comes from an article I found in Nebraska last year when I visited Samuel and Cathrine Phenice’s graves.  I had already seen at least four articles that talked a little bit about Samuel’s Civil War and Lincoln Assassination experiences, so I wasn’t expecting to see more.  But I was wrong.   In Beaver City’s little library there was a binder with Phenice information in it.  A lot of the information was about the Civil War group called the Grand Army of the Republic or G.A.R.  It was for veterans of the Union army.  There was even a small square in the middle of town that had a monument for this group.  I can kick myself now for not walking across the street to see it.  It’s likely to have his name engraved on it, but I don’t know that for sure.  Maybe another cousin will visit one day and give a report.

1937 Newspaper article from Precept, Nebraska

But I did find this article.  What struck me most were the details about his time after getting injured in battle.  Soon after sustaining the injury, he was taken to a field hospital.  Unfortunately for young Samuel, the hospital was taken over by Confederate forces.  It did not stay in Confederate hands for long, but it was a difficult time nonetheless.  There was no fresh food supply for the patients, so they resorted to the emergency rations called hardtack.  They would heat it up a little to soften it, but it still was barely palatable.

But even worse was the medical situation.  The injury that he had sustained was not too severe when he first received it.  But due to lack of care and supplies, he suffered from gangrene.  They were finally able to make a compound to clean out the damaged tissue and he was able to heal more quickly.  The field hospital went back to Union hands and he was then transferred to the West Philadelphia Hospital.  I had seen records of his stay in Philadelphia as well as a stay in Pittsburg.

He reports that he was able to make a visit home between that time and the time he was assigned to Ford’s Theatre.  He talks about having worked at the Theatre for some time before the Assassination.  I had wondered about that.  All I knew before was that he was there that one night.  I didn’t know if it was a one time assignment or something else.  Obviously it was the something else.  He states that he was familiar with the layout of the stage and such. 

Previously I had been skeptical about all of the details that he seemed to remember from that night.  But if he was in familiar surroundings, it would have been easier to remember all of the things that went on at that historical event.  Yet, he says that several people died at the Theatre that night.  I’ve never seen that report anywhere else, so I doubt that it happened.   So I’ll leave it up to you to decide what parts of the article are true or not. 

I’ll clarify one item.  They didn’t really eat tacks.  Hardtack is a type of hard biscuit.

A Landry Keepsake – Death Notice for Narcisse

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My great great grandfather Narcisse Landry died in 1876.

Now here is something that you don’t see every day.  This is a death notice of one of my ancestors from 1876.  Imagine that!  A delicate piece of paper that survived over 140 years.  Yet I came across two copies of this same death notice less than two weeks apart.  I had never even thought to look for such a thing.  When I saw the first one, I was amazed.  Then when I saw the second one, I was even more amazed.

This death notice is for my great great grandfather Narcisse Landry.  He was born in St. Gabriel, Louisiana, on January 31, 1796.  (My dad had the same birthday.)  Narcisse was the son of Joseph Ignatius Landry and Olive Elizabeth Breaux.  Narcisse was married to Marie Carmelite Hebert on Feb. 13, 1819.  They had eight children together including Simon Alcide Joseph, who went by the name Alcide.  Narcisse died on November 19, 1876. 

I first saw this document on Facebook on August 17 in the group “Our Ancestors in Photos,” which is a group for people who have family or ancestors who lived in West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana.   A cousin named Debbie posted it, but it belonged to Jocelyn from Addis.  I mentioned her in a previous post because we descend from two generations of Landry brothers.  My family descends from Narcisse, while her family descends from his brother Elie (1790-1848).

Then, less than two weeks later, I got together with my cousins and godparents to exchange old photos.  After looking through several photos from Tricia’s Tin Can Collection and taking photos of them, it came time to look at Daphne’s Secret Collection.  And there in a binder with sleeves holding various ephemera was a group of old death notices that my grandmother had collected.  Imagine my surprise when I saw another copy of the death notice for Narcisse Landry.

This death notice is for my great great great grandfather Narcisse Landry.  He was born in St. Gabriel, Louisiana, on January 31, 1796.  (My dad had … yadda yadda yadda … eight children together including Jean Trasimond, who went by the name Trasimond.  Narcisse died on November 19, 1876.

I descend from Narcisse twice.  His son Alcide was the father of Robert Joseph Landry, Sr.  He in turn was the father of Robert Joseph Landry, Jr., my own father.  Narcisse’s son Trasimond was the father of Marie Therese Landry Patureau.  She was the mother of Germaine Erie Patureau Landry.  Erie was my dad’s mom.  You can see on the paper from Daphne’s collection that it identifies Narcisse as the father of “Trasamond.”  That suggests that it was passed down through my grandmother.

But my grandmother was born in 1895, which is almost 20 years after the death of her great grandfather.  So someone held on to this paper when it was printed in 1876.  If it was Trasimond, he didn’t keep it for long because he died in 1879.  Marie Therese was only 8 years old in 1876, so I wouldn’t think that she would have been the one to save it.  It’s more likely that Trasimond’s wife Marie Amelie “Belite”Bujol kept it safe for many years.  Mee Maw must have inherited it when Grandma Belite died in 1924, since her mom Marie Therese had died in 1909.  Mee Maw was very much interested in family history and held on to it until her death in 1973.  Aunt Germaine must have gotten it at that point, and now Daphne is the keeper of the Secret Collection which contains the keepsake.

Jocelyn from Addis’s family tree shows our Landry connection. We also connect through the Leveque, White and Gassie ancestors shown on her tree.

The other copy passed down a different trail of the family.  Narcisse’s brother Elie’s family to be exact.  Elie had a son name Jean Joseph Trasimond Landry.  He was married to Marine Emelina Landry.  Yes, those names are too similar. Since Narcisse died after both of them, the document that Jocelyn from Addis had in her possession must have been originally saved by their daughter Marine Anna Landry.  Her daughter Aimee Delahaye probably had it in her care for a time.  Aimee’s son Joseph Myhand was the next caretaker for this document, but eventually it came into the hands of his daughter Jocelyn from Addis.

And now that document is in my hands!  That’s right!  Jocelyn let me have that paper that has been protected by her family through several generations.  Thank you, Jocelyn.  Thank you, Joseph.  And you also Aimee, Marina, Trasimond and Emelina.  I will try to take good care of it and share it with others.  See?  I’ve started already.

Mom’s Memories Page 8 – Learning to Sew

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When I was a kid, my mom used to make us clothes and such all the time.   I never really gave it much thought at the time.  I thought that’s what all moms did.  She always knew how to make clothes, so that’s what she did.  She made shirts and pants and dresses, as well as pajamas and quilts and furries. 

Page 8 from Mom’s Memories

But she didn’t always know how to sew, now did she?  Fortunately for us, my mom wrote a little blog about how she learned to sew.  Not really.  My mom never even tried to work a computer, much less a calculator.  My favorite memories about her skills with technology was when my brother got a calculator.  He tried to show her how to work it.  He instructed her to type in the first number, then he told her to push the + button.  At that, she exclaimed, “It ate my number!!!”  She gave up after that.  She stuck to pen or pencil and paper for both mathematical problems and writing her stories.

This post is based on the pages she wrote when she realized her memory was beginning to fail.  Now these pages are getting the treatment that they deserve – digital immortality.  I thought page 8 was a good one to go with, since she was such an avid seamstress.

It starts out with talking about how she would sneak to use the sewing machine at first to make doll clothes.  She had to be oh so careful so she wouldn’t break a needle and get in trouble.  Had she broken a needle and didn’t want to get in trouble again?  Or had she just known that breaking a needle would be trouble?    She must have shown some responsibility and promise, because Grandma let little Betty Lou make some sheets when she was around 8 or 9 years old.

Enhanced photo of Betty Lou Bucklin when she was at Hathaway High during the 1946-47 school year. She was around 13 years old in this photo.

She progressed to making overalls for her younger brother Austin, and by the time she was 13 she was making most of her own clothes.  Lots of those clothes were made from the infamous feed sacks that she picked out from the Farm Supply in Jennings.  (She went along with my Grandpa when he was buying feed.)  I thought I’d post a photo of young Betty Lou from that time. 

But there is more family history to this fascination with fabric.  Her mother was Myrtle Phenice Bucklin and she was a seamstress, too.  Hence the sewing machine in the house.  She herself had learned from her mother as well.  That would have been Daisy Keys Phenice.  Again, Daisy learned from her mother Martha Cook Keys.  Martha was born in England and had a special talent for sewing.  She actually learned her craft in an apprenticeship in London.  After that, in 1860, she went to Paris, France, to gain more knowledge of the field.  This led to her opening up a successful dressmaking shop in London.

Years later Martha got married and had five children, all the while continuing to run the shop.  Daisy was the oldest daughter and she would help out in the shop.  I wonder what tips and techniques that my mom learned from Daisy had been passed down from her own mother who learned them in London or Paris?  It makes me wish (somewhat) I had learned bit more of those skills when I was younger.  The best I do is replace buttons on shirts and pants.  I know just the other day my brother was hemming his daughter’s homecoming dress.  My sisters did learn how to sew, but I’m not sure that it really caught on with them. 

But nowadays everyone just buys their own clothes.  Who has time to make their own?  My mom grew up in the Depression.  It was a different time.  When she talked about making clothes out of feed sacks, it didn’t seem like she was trying to make us feel sorry for her.  (Though sometimes we thought she was: Gunnysack Dresses) She got a lot of satisfaction out of making something nice out of something that could have been discarded.

There’s something to be said about being satisfied with what you have.

Visiting NASA in 1969

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I don’t know why I didn’t post this photo this summer.  I had thought about posting it since it was the 50 year anniversary of the moon landing, but somehow I overlooked it.  I posted a photo from this same vacation a year ago, so sometimes I hesitate in posting something similar too soon.  This photo was taken on July 25, 1969.  On the 25th of July this year in my blog, I stated that I was looking for a photo commemorating a 100 year anniversary of something, but couldn’t find anything that week.  I should have cut my goal in half and searched for a 50 year old event to memorialize. 

The Landry family visited NASA during the summer of 1969 – just a few days after the first man landed on the moon.  From left to right:  Al, Bob (father of the six children), Jamie, Karen, Jodie, Van, and Rob.

Then I would have seen this photo.  But that obviously didn’t happen.  The first moon landing was on July 20, 1969, and we posed for this photo at NASA’s Johnson Space Center on July 25, 1969.  It was so soon after that monumental event and we were so excited to be there.  When we were walking around, there was a commotion of some sort with a motorcade  on site.  We thought it was either the astronauts going into quarantine or the arrival of the moon rocks at the Center.  So exciting.

When we were growing up in the Landry household, there were eight people in the house.  That’s a lot of people considering that the house at 758 Lucy Street in Jennings, Louisiana, only had three bedrooms and one small bathroom.  So there were three girls in one bedroom, the three boys were in another, and our parents were in the other one.

In the boys’ room, we had two chest of drawers in the room.  Or as I always thought of them back then – chester drawers.   Above the chester drawers was a metal cabinet where we kept all of our treasures.  The main thing I remember about it – and the reason I’m mentioning it – is that we had several space-related stickers on the front of it.  During the last few years of the 1960s, space flight and landing on the moon held a lot of interest in the American public.   And particularly for young boys growing up in the Landry household.  Of course merchandisers took advantage of that fact.  We drank Tang.  We ate Space Food Sticks.  We watched “Star Trek.”

But mostly we begged our mom to buy the cereal that had those space-related stickers in the boxes.  When I just did a search for that, I see that it was more likely that they were stick-on patches that were in those boxes.  You could put them on jackets or clothes, but we collected them on front of the cabinet in our bedroom.  We had the Mercury patches, the Gemini patches, and of course the Apollo ones.  If I had a picture of that old cabinet, I’d share that photo, too.

But sadly, I did not grow up in the age that takes pictures of every little thing they do.  I’m sure we’d have hundreds of photos of that whole house and every pet and/or meal we ever had.  But I can’t really be sad.  I grew up in the time that we were putting people on the moon!  And I have this picture to prove it. 

Try not to be too jealous.

Go Go Patureau – to Texas and Mexico

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This is my second Go Go Patureau installment.  I don’t know if you remember, but almost a year ago I posted the first one.  It was called “Go Go Patureau – To Mexico!” and it was about my grandmother (Mee Maw or Germaine Erie Patureau Landry) and her sisters traveling to Mexico.  I wasn’t planning on a second part to that story, but I found some more information since that last article.  I also got an improved version of a photo that I posted a few months ago.  And since it could be seen as a travel photo, I thought I’d combine the two pieces of information for this post.

Vincent Maximilian Patureau was known as Grampa Max to his family. Here he can be seen circa 1914 with an old timey automobile. Ready to travel.

I always like to start out with an interesting photo from the past.  Some people aren’t inclined to read all the words that I write down, so I’ll give them a morsel to catch their attention.  Isn’t this a great one?  This is my dad’s maternal grandfather Max Patureau looking dapper with his old jalopy.  Of course, at the time it was a newfangled jalopy. 

That side of my family was known for enjoying traveling.  Mee Maw liked to travel when she was older.  Tez made her way across southern Louisiana visiting family along the way, whether they wanted her there or not!  And even though Mee Maw and Pee Paw never owned a car, her father Max did.  Part of that was that he had a veterinary business in Lafayette and he visited homes and farms to care for larger animals.  But you already know this, because I’ve posted photos of him with a cow and with a horse.

You may be wondering like I did whether he did much more traveling.  I am not wondering any more, because I actually found an article that talks about him traveling to visit family.  And since you read the title of this post, you know that he went to Texas and Mexico.

Jan. 7, 1905  Newspaper article

So here is the article that I found.  It’s a treasure!  Do small towns still write articles like this anymore?  It talks about Mr. and Mrs. Max Patureau attending Mrs. Patureau’s sister’s funeral in Lake Charles on Dec. 21, 1904.  Her sister is referred to as Mrs. Sebastian Landry.  Mrs. Patureau was Marie Therese Landry Patureau and her sister was Marie Manette Landry Landry. They were two of the daughters of Civil War hero Trasimond Landry.  Sebastian was the son of Trasimond’s brother Alcide.  Marie Therese’s daughter Erie would later marry Sebastian’s brother Rob. 

I’m sorry.  Don’t try to figure out that last paragraph.  Just know that Max and Therese went to the funeral of Therese’s younger sister Marie Manette who died as a result of childbirth of her first child at the age of 28.  The child was a little girl they also named Marie Manette.  She would grow up and marry Bibb Bouquet and have nine children.  I went to Bibb and Manette’s 50th wedding anniversary.

Since they traveled to the western part of the state, I guess Grampa Max decided to take the opportunity to visit more family even further west.  So he sent his wife and small child back home in the care of her mother.  She is called Mrs. Magloire Babin in this article, but we know her as Grandma Belite.  She was Marie Amelie “Belite” Bujol Landry Babin.  She was first married to Trasimond Landry, who was the father of three of her daughters – Therese, Manette, and Kate, who was also known as Mrs. Thos. Blanchard.

Max’s first stop in Texas was at his sister Victorine’s home in Beaumont.  She was married to William Albert “Willie” Cropper and at that point in time, they had six children.  Max and Therese had nine at the time, so I think that was incentive for Victorine to have even more children.  It must have been a competition between Max, Victorine, and their brothers Louis Leobon and Abel.  It’s the reason I have so many third cousins out there!

Max went on to visit his cousin in Corpus Christi.  She is named “Mr. Cruis Cutires” in the article.  I mean really!  They don’t even give the women’s first names in this article.  At least they could get the “Mrs.” part right!  Max’s cousin Rosa Crixell married a man named Cruz Gutierrez.  They only had five children at the time.  Obviously they were not part of the competition, though they would end up with nine children.

Cousin Eliza

Next, “he was taken to Brownsville” to meet other cousins for the first time.  This means that he was not driving himself at the time, so I’m not sure how he was getting about.  The cousins he met were “Mrs. De’Falcon and  her children, the Cruxielle boys.”  I’ve shared a photo of “Mrs. De’Falcon” before, but I called her Eliza.  Her name given to her at birth was Eliza Patureau Laulom and she was the first cousin of Grampa Max.  She was also the mother of Rosa Crixell AKA “Mr. Cruis Cutires” or Mrs. Cruz Gutierrez.  They were probably named after Rose and Eliza Patureau.

“The Cruxielle boys” were the sons of Eliza Patureau Laulom and Vicente Crixell, Sr..  The sons’ names were Teofilo, Vicente Jr., Joseph, and Luis.  They had some notoriety in southeastern Texas.  Joseph or Jose was a saloon owner and city marshall who was later assassinated in 1912 by a former Texas Ranger.  But when Max visited, they were alive and well and they showed him a good time.  Vicente Sr had died in 1880 and Eliza was then married to Albino Falcon.  (Hence the “Mrs. De’Falcon.”)  It sounds like the Crixell boys brought him over to Mexico to visit more family and friends.  There was (and still are) extended Patureau family members who lived in Brownsville and Guadalajara, Mexico.  Having been born in the Matamoros area of Mexico himself, Max was probably treated as a prodigal son.

It was a trip of a lifetime for Grampa Max.  Lucky for us, we have the newspaper article to recount his delightful adventure.  And now, with my help, you know who they were talking about in that article.  It always helps to know the connections.

Bucklin Burials

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Gravesite service of Louis Charles Bucklin in 1927.

I’m not sure when I first saw this first photo.  I must have gotten it from my cousin Joseph a few years ago.  He and his mom Louise (my mom’s first cousin) had been collecting Bucklin family photos for a few years and were sharing them with me.  They were all new to me, so it was exciting to see all of these old family treasures.

This one was not identified, but we assumed it was at the gravesite of my mom’s paternal grandfather Louis Charles Bucklin in 1927.  My mom was born in 1933, so she never knew her paternal grandfather.  (My father’s paternal grandfather died before he was born, too.)  Lou was born April 11, 1873, in Masonville, Iowa.  He died in Elton, Louisiana, on Nov. 19, 1927.  He was buried in nearby Raymond, Louisiana, which was where his father James A. Bucklin was buried in 1890.

You can see Lou’s wife Addie in the front and middle of this photo all dressed in black.  Her husband had died at the age of 54, and she was only 51.  The youngest two children of her eleven living children were only 12 years old.  Though you can’t see her face, her sadness is unmistakable.   That is what made it likely that this photo was from Lou’s burial. 

She was surrounded by her children at the gravesite.  The young man on the left who is looking down is either her son Fred or his identical twin Clarence.  I think the young boy behind him is her youngest son Roy.  Next to him is older son Ralph.  It’s likely that the oldest son Leo is the man standing between Ralph and Addie.  Ruth is the youngest daughter to the right  of Addie.  Behind her (and looking down) is son Herbert, then Robert (I think), Fred/Clarence, and possibly Carl. 

Burial for James A. Bucklin

I went to visit that graveyard in 2015.  It was my last outing I had with my mom and my dad.  The graveyard is called Raymond Cemetery and it is just down the road from the Raymond Methodist Church where the family were members.  It originally was called Fairview Cemetery. 

One of the first graves I noticed was this one that has BUCKLIN written in white that is so easy to ready.  This is the burial place of my great great grandfather James A. Bucklin.  The monument is very nice looking, but it looked like something was missing.  I was informed that there is a pillar that used to sit atop this pedestal.  The pillar would fall over and cause problems for the caretakers when they mowed the property.  So family members placed it in the old garage of a family member. 

Newly acquired photo of James A. Bucklin’s grave.

Fast-forward to this summer.  As I’ve told you in previous posts, I was able to scan several old Bucklin family photos from my mom’s cousin Carla.  And even though one of the photos was a photo of a gravesite, I was excited to see it.  I knew immediately that I needed to compare it to the first photo that I posted.  The word “League” looked familiar.

When I only had that first photo, I examined it to see if there were any clues to the location of the grave.  If you look closely on the left of that first photo, you can see the word “League” on that photo as well.  So the photos were taken at the same event. And this new photo identified the event as the burial of Louis Charles Bucklin.

The other interesting thing about this second photo is what you can see on the left of the photo.  You can see that easy-to-read BUCKLIN name on James Bucklin’s grave.  But more importantly, the pillar is sitting atop the pedestal as it was placed 37 years earlier!  I had wondered what it looked like, and now I know.

Louis Bucklin headstone in Raymond Cemetery

 

Pee Paw on the Stump Circa 1911

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Robert Joseph Landry in 1911 in Westlake, Louisiana – before the Sr. was added to his name and before he was ever known as Pee Paw or Pappy.

Just what was my grandfather doing on that tree stump?  I really have no idea, but I’m going to write a story about it anyway!  I didn’t even notice he was standing on the tree trunk until I started working on the photo.  The main thing I noticed about it is that he looks like he was singing.  In addition to that, there was an aura about him from that white shirt he was wearing.  I got rid of some of that, but there is still a hint of it.

I saw this photo for the first time a few weeks ago at the Landry Cousin Photo Exchange.  It was where we brought together the Tin Can Collection, the Secret Collection, and the Fort Knox Collection.  Those are the names that we’ve been calling the collection of photos in the possession of my cousin Tricia, my cousin Daphne, and myself, respectively.  This photo came from the Tin Can Collection.  The Tin Can Collection got its name from a tin can found in the attic of Tricia’s mom’s (my Aunt Wana) house.  I’m not telling how Daphne’s collection got named.  It’s a secret.

It’s a great old photo of my grandfather Robert Joseph Landry, Sr.  I’m pretty sure he went by the name Bob at this time.  It was about a year earlier than the Man in Black photo I posted previously.  I know this because the back of the photo says that it was taken in Westlake, Louisiana, when Bob was just 18 years old.  Not that everything that is written on the back of photos is correct.  But the age looks correct in relation to other photos of my grandfather.

And it sure looks like he is singing something.  He’s even standing on a make-shift stage, small though it is.  I’ve never heard any stories about him singing.  But this was when he was young and before he suffered any hearing loss from his participation in the military.  Maybe my dad got some of his love for music from his father’s side of the family.

But really, who doesn’t appreciate music?  I wish I could hear what was coming out of his mouth.  A song?  A poem?  A speech?  We’ll never know.  It does make this photo just a little more interesting.

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