Dressmaking with Paints and Pixels

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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.

Martha Ann Cook Keys

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.

A Patureau Keepsake: Grampa’s Got a Gun

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Grampa's Got a Gun

Grampa Max’s gun

I’m not sure when I heard about this keepsake.  I’m thinking that it was last year at the high school graduation of my second cousin once removed in Plaquemine.  Now I don’t go to all of my distant cousins’ graduations, but it just happened that I was there.  I went with Chuck to his nephew’s graduation from St. John in Plaquemine and one of the Barkers were graduating as well.  To clarify who the Barkers are to me, I’ll explain.

My grandmother Erie Patureau married Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. and they became my Mee Maw and Pee Paw.  One of Erie’s sister Sylvie married John Walter “Son” Marionneaux.  So Erie and Robert’s son was my dad Bob.  His first cousin is Melwyn who is the daughter of Sylvie and Son.  Melwyn married Will Barker and they had seven children.  Mom and dad only had six children including me.  Melwyn and Will’s son Walter is my second cousin and his son Walter, Jr. is my second cousin once removed.

And it was Walter, Jr.’s graduation that I ended up attending.  I looked around during the commencement services and saw a few cousins.  Then after the service we went to the reception.  Of course, Melwyn was there as well as several other kinfolk.  Somehow we ended up talking about family history (how that happens I never know), and she mentioned that she had the pistol that belonged to Erie and Sylvie’s father, AKA Grampa Max.

I was told that when Grampa Max was a practicing veterinarian in Lafayette from 1917 to 1933, he carried this gun around with him.  He wasn’t carrying it for protection, of course.  Everybody knows that there was no crime in little Lafayette a hundred years ago.  No, he brought it with him in case one of his patients needed to be euthanized.  He did what he could for people’s pets, livestock, and farm animals, but some animals could not be saved.  Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

Grampa’s Colt was made in Connecticut

So when I started to do a few of these Keepsake Series posts, the gun from Grampa Max was high on my list of things to photograph and share.  I went to Plaquemine to see Melwyn last week and we had a very pleasant visit.  She’s sharp as a tack.  She knows a lot of family history and she’s glad it is being shared.  She has this gun mounted, framed, and hanging in her house.  It’s a Colt series No. 2 derringer from somewhere around the 1870s or so.  I’m no gun expert, but that’s what my research found from the details in the second photo.

I would love to know the whole history of this gun.  I’m not sure how much more our family knows.  I was surprised to know of its existence when I first heard about it.  With the little bit that I know about it, it is a priceless family keepsake.

Grampa Max on a horse call. “Look sharp, girl, or I’ve got a surprise for you in my pocket!”

Fairview Methodist Episcopal Church

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Have you ever heard of Fairview Methodist Episcopal Church?  Not many people have.  I’m not even sure the church was ever called that except in its planning stage.  It was to be the name of the church located in Jefferson Davis Parish just south of the Hathaway/China area in 1894.  At about the same time a post office was to be located in the same area with the name of Fairview.  But since that name was already taken in another location in Louisiana, the name for the new post office was changed to Raymond.  So now we know that area as Raymond and the church that was built there was the Raymond Methodist church.

I found this out recently from a history of the church that my grandmother Myrtle Phenice Bucklin left to my cousin Mary.  Another very interesting fact that the publication contained was a bit of information about my great great grandfather George Henry Hine (my mother was Betty Lou Bucklin Landry, her parents were Myrtle and Fred Bucklin,  Fred’s mother was Addie Hine Bucklin, and Addie’s father was George.)  There is a section in the history that states, “In 1908, Rev. Dan Hayes was appointed pastor.  He and Rev. Gillman, a local preacher, held services regularly for some time.  On November 29th, Rev. George Hines, residing Elder, preached in the church.”

I had never heard anything about him preaching in church, much less being referred to as a reverend.  Of course, that was a long time ago and bits of information like that get lost along the way.  Until you find a photo or a church history that fills in a few gaps.

*****CORRECTION*****

3/9/2018 – Some old Jennings newspapers have become available online through the local library.  In the process of searching for family names, I noticed a name that came up from time to time.  There was a Methodist preacher located in Lake Charles who would go to different cities to preach.  Now here’s the important part – his name was Rev. George B. Hines.  Hines, not Hine.  It was not my great great grandfather who was the preacher.  In that church history, I noticed that the name Hines was spelled differently than any other time they named members of the Hine family.  I thought it might have been an oversight, but I think they were indeed speaking of a different family.

*****CONTINUE WITH ORIGINAL POST*****

1945 Raymond Methodist Church Fellowship Hall

1945 Raymond Methodist Church Sunday school classes

Speaking of gaps, I’m leaving a big one here as I jump forward to the time of this photo I’m sharing today.  This photo was taken around 1945 in front of the Raymond Methodist Fellowship Hall.  A photo from the same day was posted just over a year ago by Joseph.  It was a group photo also, but not as large of a group.  This photo itself was quite small, yet the details are really good.

My mom and her sisters are in it as young girls.  Their grandmother Addie is standing behind them.  Her brother Ollie Hine is sitting in a chair to the left in the photo as his wife Lenora stands behind him.  I can name a few others with the help of other old photos and postings on here.  Let’s see how many we can name!  Won’t that be fun?

1945 Methodist Church in Raymond, Louisiana

Photo of the Raymond Methodist Church circa 1945.

1893 – A Letter From a Friend

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This is a letter that my great grandfather Louis Charles Bucklin received in 1893.  It was written on Mar. 14, 1893, by his roommate from the previous semester Charles Mollett from McClure, Ohio.  I referred to this letter in another post about another letter I got, but thought that I’d post the whole thing here.

I obtained both of these letters on June 3, 2017, from my mom Betty Lou Bucklin Landry’s first cousin Julie Phenice Campbell.  She had found them in a pouch with some old letters that her father had saved.  Which is kind of strange since Julie and her dad have no familial connection with L. C. Bucklin.  They are from my mom’s mom’s side of the family while the letters have to do with her dad’s side of the family.  Thankfully, they held on to them and kept them in good condition.  Take a look.

 

 

Mar. 14, 1893 letter, page 1

Mar. 14, 1893 letter, page 2

The Landry Boys

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Since this weekend is Father’s Day, I thought I would post something about my father’s family.  Besides, it’s about time!  I’ve posted so much about the Bucklin and Keys families that I feel like I’m way overdue for a Landry post.

Landry Boys in southern Louisiana in 1939.

The Landry boys circa 1939

Besides, I really like this photo.  I wish I had it!  Like other photos that I’ve posted on here, the original is in the hands of someone else.  And as you know, blah, blah, blah…I’d like to get a good scan of it.  I really need to stop repeating myself.

Anyway, this photo was taken around 1939 and it was probably taken in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  Since this is a Father’s Day post, I’ll introduce everyone in relation to that holiday.

On the left is Alcide Joseph Landry, who we all know as Uncle A. J.  He was born on June 20, 1924, and he is the oldest son.  He is married to Margie Harrington Landry and he is the father of Reda.  She was actually Margie’s niece, I believe, but he is a father to her nonetheless.

Next in line is Robert Joseph Landry, Sr., who we know by various names – Papa, Pee Paw, Pappy, Bob, Rob, The WWI Slabster – the list goes on.  He was born on January 9, 1893.  He married Germaine Erie Patureau in 1921 (with no photos to record it that I am aware of!) who was his first cousin’s daughter.  He was the father of Marie, A. J., Hubert, Germaine, Bob, Wana, Frances, and Johnny.

Speaking of Johnny, he is the little boy in this photo.  He was born John Alfred Xavier Landry on August 2, 1936.  He was married to Sondra Lee and he is the father of Mona, Mike, and Mitch.  Plus he has the added distinction of being the godfather of yours truly.

My father is the next one in the photo.  He was born January 31, 1929, and was given the name Robert Joseph Landry, Jr.  He was called Bobbie by his siblings, then later went by the nicknames Pluto and Bob.  He was married to Betty Lou Bucklin and he was the father of Jodie, Rob, Karen, Al, Van (that’s me!), and Jamie.  This will be our first Father’s Day without him.

On the far right of the photo is Hubert Joseph Landry.  He was born on November 1, 1925, and married Mildred Sutherlin.  He was the father of Shirley, Hugh, Kenny, Dennis, and Marla.  Shirley is special.  (She’s my godmother.  I have to say that.)

So there you have it – The Landry Boys who were some of the fathers in our Landry family.  I consider myself fortunate that I had a stable family that was anchored by a loving father and mother.  Thanks, Daddy.

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

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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

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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.)

Family outing

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.

Keys Family Reunion 2017

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

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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.

Daisy's grandkids in 2017

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.

 

2017 Keys Reunion

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.

 

2017 Keys Family Reunion

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…

Grampa Max and AJ

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Grampa Max and AJ

Vincent Maximilian Patureau with his grandson Alcide Joseph Landry

This is another photo that I got from my visit with my Uncle A. J. a few months ago.  Obviously most of those photos were focused on A. J.  They were photos for him after all.  But they also included photos of the family.  I had never seen most of those photos.  Some of them were similar to others that I already had.  All of them (well, maybe not all of them) were treasures to keep and share.

I really like this one.  In the front of the photo is my dad’s mom’s dad.  He was my great grandfather Vincent Maximilian Patureau.  Of course we all know him as Grampa Max.  (You say the ‘grampa’ part to kinda rhyme with Santa.  Accent on first syllable and and short -puh at the end.)  The little boy on the hood of the car is little A. J. in 1925.  At least that’s what I estimated.  He was born in June of 1924 and looks about a year or so old.  He looks a little fascinated with the car.  And he got to sit right on top of it.  Grandparents are just great!

As I mentioned previously, my dad and his siblings didn’t know all of their grandparents.  And the two that they had didn’t live long after my dad was born.  Poor little Johnny, the youngest, was born after all four grandparents had passed.  A. J. was the oldest son (Aunt Marie was the oldest), so he had them until he was about ten years old.  When I visited and asked him about some of the photos, he talked about Grampa Max and Grandma Celeste like he had just seen them a few days earlier.  He definitely had some fond memories of them.  I’m glad that he was willing to share them with us.  Enjoy.

Ohio Normal Revisited

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Ohio Normal University circa 1893

Louis Charles Bucklin was a student at Ohio Normal University in Ada, Ohio, in 1893.

Almost two and a half years ago Joseph posted this photo of the 1893 class of the Ohio Normal University.  Not because he likes normal people or that he likes Ohio.  It’s because our great grandfather Louis Charles Bucklin attended classes there at that time.  When he posted it, he posted it without edits.  I thought that I’d like to edit it to clean it up a little.  I finally got around to it.  How does it look?

I really wish we knew which one was Louis for sure.  The one that Ray and Joseph thought was him doesn’t look like him to me.  Is there a facial recognition program that would accurately identify him for us?  Or at least rule out the ones that couldn’t possibly be him?  The only problem with that is that I would probably doubt the outcome of that too.  Especially if they say it was the one Joseph and Ray said it was!  What can I say?  I must be the stubborn sort.

I was thinking of this photo because of a letter that was recently discovered by Julie Phenice Campbell.  It was written to Louis while he was in attendance at Ohio Normal.  How it ended up with the Phenice side of the family rather than the Bucklin side of the family will remain a mystery.  We already saw a letter that Louis received in Ohio from his brother Joseph (the subject of A Sad Story) back home in Jennings.  He talks about the military aspect of the school – “…was thinking yesterday that it would be so nice for you to be up there just at your age you can realize and enjoy everything more now than at any other age your military exercises must be nice and healthful.”

The newly discovered letter was written on April 20, 1793, by Joseph Bucklin’s sister-in-law.  Joseph was married to Agnes “Aggie” Ausman, and Aggie’s youngest sister was May Ausman.  I was so surprised when I read the letter and then saw her signature at the close of the letter.  I definitely recognized the last name and had to look up the Ausman family and saw that the youngest daughter was indeed named May.  She had mentioned other family members in the letter that had gotten me curious.  It is a very intriguing letter, but I won’t go into all of the details in this post. (Those details are here.)  I’ll just share the part that made me think about this photo.

Toward the end of the letter May writes, “I wish I could see you marching with your uniforms and guns.  I never saw any Soldiers eather.”  When I read those lines, I picture her saying them while batting her eyelashes with a flirty smile on her lips.  Whether she got her wish, we’ll probably never know.  Fortunately for all of you, we have a photo of those soldiers with their uniforms and guns looking very healthful.  Eat your heart out, May!

June 11, 2019 Update

I’ve finally given in.  Ray and Joseph said that they thought that Louis was the guy fourth from the left on the front row.  I think they are correct.  He does remind me of other family members from that generation.

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