Pappy Baby

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Pappy Baby

Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. circa 1893

This week I’m taking you way, way back. Not just back to the 20th century, but to the 19th. This photo was taken over 120 years ago. It’s not quite as old as the some of the other photos that I’ve posted on here, but it is older than most. I’m not really sure where it comes from. It’s either from the Tin Can Collection or the Secret Collection. It is definitely not from the Fort Knox or A.J. collections. Those are the names that my Landry cousins have come up for the various collections that have been discovered or revealed.

Whatever collection it came from, it is definitely a treasure. It is a photo of my father’s father Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. He was born on January 9, 1893, in Westlake, Louisiana. He was the youngest of 10 children born to Simon Alcide Joseph Landry and Marie Celeste Leveque Landry. The family was from the West Baton Rouge Parish, but resettled in the Lake Charles area some time during the 1880s.  I’m guessing that this photo was taken in is his first year of life, so some time in 1893.

I actually just had a snapshot of the photo to work with, but I’m not sure if a scan would improve the quality of the resulting photo.  It looks like the original is faded and monotone, but not every old photo is going to be crisp with great contrast.  I’m just glad to have a photo of Pee Paw when he was just a petite babe.

The other thing I was thinking about when I selected this photo was the family he was born into.  Cousins marrying cousins.  But I was curious about those cousins and when they lived and died.  Last week I talked about the death of the last of my maternal grandmother’s first cousins from her Phenice side.  There is actually still a surviving first cousin from her Keys side.  When I looked a Pee Paw’s first cousins, there haven’t been any around for fifty years or so.  In fact, from the Landry side of the family my dad doesn’t have any surviving first cousins.  He does have some first cousins from the Patureau side of the family.

Of course, with cousins marrying cousins, you can’t really distinguish one side from the other very easily.  This makes things particularly confusing when dealing with DNA.  I’ve been thinking about checking with my dad’s siblings to see if they would be willing to do a DNA test.  Even if I’m confused now about the DNA sources from an entwined family tree, one day I may be able to figure something out.  It’s always best to DNA test the oldest generation.

A few of us have already taken some DNA tests and I was surprised with the results.  First cousin Kenny and I share less DNA than most first cousins.  Yet first cousin Scott’s daughter and son have tested and I share more with them than I do with Kenny. What’s up with that?  Did daddy and aunt Frances share a lot more in common than most siblings?  Only a DNA test would tell.

The Lincoln Collection

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Last week my post was about my mom’s side of the family, so my plan was to make this week’s theme about my dad’s side of the family. But then something happened. A second cousin once removed happened. And she happened to be on my mom’s side of the family. She took a DNA test at Ancestry last year and I have communicated with her a little bit from time to time. But both of us were dealing with issues with aging and failing parents.

Our lives have changed a bit because me and my siblings buried my parents at the end of January and her father died two weeks later. We had talked about old photos and such, but that was put on the back burner at the time. Now there is time and that cousin got back in touch with me.

You see, her father had been the last remaining first cousin of my grandmother Myrtle Phenice Bucklin on the Phenice side of her family. His name was Harry Lincoln Quillen and he was the son of Emma Phenice Quillen. Emma’s brother Harry Clifton Phenice was my grandmother’s father. If you’ve followed me thus far, you will have figured out that the cousin I’m talking about is my second cousin once removed Mona Quillen.

Well, you may not have figured out her name, but you might have figured out our relationship. Anyway, she had started to clean out her father’s home and came across several old photos. Since she remembered that I was interested in that, she got in touch with me.  And boy am I glad she did! The photos that I have seen are mind blowing! Sorry, I shouldn’t build it up too much. I would hate for you to be disappointed when you see some of the pieces in the Lincoln Collection. That’s what I’m calling it. They belonged to Harry Lincoln Quillen and our common ancestor was a witness to the Lincoln assassination, so that’s the name I’ll use – the Lincoln Collection. I actually gave a preview of it by posting a new cover photo on Facebook. I had a photo that was taken on the same day, but the quality of this new photo is much better. Probably because mine had been a photo of grandma’s old photo that has since disappeared, and the Lincoln Collection photo was an original.

The Phenice family in 1937

The Samuel Charles Phenice family in Beaver Creek, Nebraska, circa 1937.

But the photo that I’m posting today is a new one to me.  It relates to the photo that I posted last week.  Last week’s photo was of Daisy Keys Phenice and some of her siblings, and this week’s photo is of her husband Harry Clifton Phenice and some of his siblings.  Daisy was prominently displayed last week, but this week H C is hiding his face.  I mentioned that Daisy and her siblings lived within 20 miles of each other.  The same can not be said for H C.  He was born in Pennsylvania and by the time he was six years old, the family was living in  Nebraska.

In 1898 at the age of 24, he left home and went to seek fame and fortune.  So of course he came to southern Louisiana.  It was here that he met his young sweetheart with a British accent and they were married in 1900.  But being 1000 miles from his family is quite a bit different than it is today.  The country did not have an interstate system at that time and jumping on a plane wasn’t available either.  It wasn’t until 1920 that H C and his family bought their first car.  I don’t know how often he visited his parents and other family members, but he must have from time to time.  There are photos to prove it like this one.

From left to right you see H C’s brother Edd, father Samuel, niece Leora, H C, and sisters Myrtle (mother of Leora), Emma, and May.  I like the way he is hugging on his niece and sister.  He must have been glad to see them on one of his infrequent visits.  I also like the fact that someone took a photo of the get together.  And that Emma Phenice Quillen saved that photo and wrote everybody’s names on it.  And that her son Harry Lincoln held on to it all of his life.

But most importantly I am glad that his daughter Mona was also interested in preserving those old photos and was willing to share them with me.  And she likes that they are being shared with the family.  This is not the best photo that I got.  I have to save some for later, of course.  But remember when I told you the story about my great great grandmother who died as a result of catching fire?  I said that I wanted to tell the story of her life and I mused about finding a good photo of her to go along with the story.  Well I am happy to say that I have found the perfect photo for that story!

Ok, I think I have said enough in this introduction to the Lincoln Collection.  I hope I have left you wanting for more.  I want more!  It sounds like she has just touched the surface of the treasure trove of photos that she has.  And what I’ve got so far are just snapshots of the original photos.  More images made at better resolutions with a scanner are foreseen in the future.  Must…be…patient…

The Keys Sisters – Part 2

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About a year and a half ago I posted a photo of the Keys sisters.  It was taken around 1894 when the girls were just teenagers.  I explained my relation to them.  I’ll refresh that information for you.  My mom was Betty Lou Bucklin Landry.  Her mother was Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin, and then her mother was Daisy Henrietta Martha Keys Phenice.  Daisy was born in 1876 in England to her parents Henry Keys and Martha Cook Keys.  She was the third child and the oldest daughter.

In this photo, as you can see, the girls are bit older.  In the middle of the photo is my great grandmother Daisy.  This photo was taken around 1951, so she would have been close to 75 years old.  Rosetta Ruth Keys was the next daughter to be born to Henry and Martha.  She went by her middle name Ruth and that is her on the left side of this photo.  She married Herbert Bryan and they had six children together.  She would have been around 72 in this photo.  The baby sister was Mabel Olive Keys and she was around 70 as she is seen here on the right.  She married Abraham Miller and they lived in the Kinder area with their four sons.

This photo is not that good of quality, but I still like it.  It’s one that my grandmother had and I took a photo of it when I was in college.  I don’t know where the original went.  I also have another photo that was taken the same day that was of Daisy and H. C. Phenice with their children.  I don’t know if it was some kind of family reunion (like we are having on June 3 in Jennings.  Hint. Hint.) or if the families just got together from time to time since they lived in the same area.  I wonder if there are any other photos of the sisters out there?  I’d sure like to see more.  What I’d really like to see would be a photo of all five siblings.  They all settled in Louisiana and lived within 20 miles of one another.

Of course the family has spread far and wide since that time.  I wouldn’t be surprised if there is family in every state.  I started to figure out where some of them were, but it became too daunting.  East coast, west coast, north coast, south coast – we’ve got it covered.  All because of the dreams of Henry and Martha over 130 years ago.  Henry died before they could act on that dream, but Martha followed through as courageously as possible.  And these girls were part of it.  These lovely, enduring, timeless girls – The Keys Sisters.

Aug. 2020 Update – I enhanced that old photo to make it a little clearer.  I think it improved it.

Enhanced 1951 photo of sisters Ruth Keys Bryan, Daisy Keys Phenice, and Mabel Keys Miller.

Celeste and the Cistern

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Marie Celest Leveque Landry

Grandma Celeste visiting Lake Charles in the late 1920s.

Here is another photo that I got from the AJ Collection.  It is from around the late 1920s and was taken in Lake Charles.  That is my dad’s paternal grandmother. (Van’s dad is Bob, Bob’s dad is Rob, Rob’s mom is this woman.)  Her name was Marie Celeste Leveque Landry and she lived her whole life in Louisiana.  Let me give you some background facts about her.

Celeste was born in 1847 in Brusly, Louisiana.  Her parents were Joseph Auguste Leveque and Marie Basalite Landry Leveque.  She was the 2nd of 9 children by her father’s second wife.  Since the first wife was her mother’s sister, the children from that union were Celeste’s half siblings and half cousins – 3/4 siblings.

When she was born, the family owned a plantation in the Brusly area where they had 60 individuals enslaved and forced to work for them.  Since she was born in 1847, her whole childhood would have been in that environment.  And when the Civil War came along, many of her siblings and cousins fought for the Confederacy.  Would she have considered her childhood happy?  I wonder.

She married one of those cousins that fought in the Civil War.  She married Simon Alcide Joseph Landry on November 24, 1868, in West Baton Rouge Parish.  They had ten children together including my grandfather Robert Joseph Landry who was born in 1893.  That means that Celeste was 47 years old when she gave birth to him!  That’s pretty old.

But it’s not as old as she was when this photo was taken.  She was around 80 years old at the time of this photo.  Yet she still has a little vanity left.  Why do I say this?  Because you can see that she has taken her glasses off for the photo and is holding them in her hand.  Trying to look her best for the photo.  I can just imagine a conversation with her about this photo:

Grandma Celeste asks me, “Why are you putting that old photo on the Facebook?  I look so old in it.  You could at least remove that bump on my neck with all your fancy gadgetry.”

I tell her, “I already removed a possible bump on your cheek.  I want it to look as good as it can, but I also want it to reflect what you actually looked like then without too many changes.  I posted a photo that showed you when you were young and pretty.  Now I’m showing one of when you were older and more dignified.”

“Hmmph!” she snorts, “Old and decrepit is more like it.  At least I’m not wearing my bed clothes like you’ve done to other family members!  I wouldn’t mind if you fixed my blouse to make it straight across the bottom.”

“Like I said,” I patiently explain to her, “I like to keep it as real as possible.”

“You and your ‘really real’ shenanigans,” she says with exasperation, “If only you would treat your ancestors as well as that darned sock monkey of yours!  Now I’m making an edit of the photo myself.  There.”

“Hey,” I say as I notice her smile is gone from the photo,  “You put a scowl on your face!”

She just scowls at me and disappears with a shake of her head.

Back in Time to ’69

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Robert J. Landry, Jr. family

The Robert J. Landry, Jr. family in 1969

I’m posting this photo because Siblings Day was this week and I’ve been missing my parents recently.  I was looking for a family photo that I hadn’t posted before and thought about this one.  How is it that this photo has not been online before?  It is so quintessential Landry Family.  It was taken in 1969 and that fact caused me to reminisce about that year.  So many transitional things were happening that year beside just the obvious one of changing from the 60s to the 70s.

In January of 1969 the music group the Beatles had their last live gig together shortly before Richard Nixon became the nation’s president.  In February the population of the USA broke 200 million and it witnessed the first flight of those infamous flying machines – the 747 – that would become commercial the following year.  In March tensions about the Vietnam War lead Nixon to promise that the US would end their involvement by the following year.  April showers bring May flowers.  In this case, two computers at universities in California were able to send messages to one another and now we have the interweb.

In May of 1969 people were able to see themselves in a different way.  They were able to see color photos of the Earth taken from space.  And I’m sure as a direct correlation to that, Disney World began construction.  June was the saddest month of all to me.  The last episode of “Star Trek” was aired.  What?  No more views of that glorious Enterprise soaring through the cosmos?  (An Enterprise that I recently found out was built by my mom’s first cousin.  A mind-blowing fact for a Trekkie like me!)  Sure there was a new TV show called “Hee Haw” and the Stonewall riots were that month, but those events did not soothe me at the time.  I was a bit soothed in July when the Apollo 11 crew landed on the moon and traipsed around with their dusty footprints.  I remember getting stickers of the different space missions from cereal boxes and putting them on a shelving unit in our bedroom.

August of 69 was the month of Woodstock and the Manson “family” murders.  More on that later.  In September the first ATM was introduced and in October PBS was begun.  Yes, there was a time before ATM machines and PBS.  In November “Sesame Street” was introduced to the world.  On the science front Harvard researchers were able to isolate a single gene, which is particularly notable since I am involved in genetic genealogy.  To end the year, December called for the first draft lottery since World War II.

Yet in a small town in the Deep South, there was a nuclear family that went about its daily business almost as if in a protective bubble.  I’m talking about the Robert J. Landry, Jr. family in Jennings, Louisiana.  It consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Landry, Jr. and their six children.  (That was her name!  She got letters addressed that way and she signed our report cards the same way.)  In 1969 our ages were from 7 to 16.  It was the prime time for our little nuclear family.

Daddy turned 40 at the beginning of the year and Mom was still in her 30s.  None of us had started wearing glasses nor dating anyone seriously.  It was just Mom and Dad and six kids in a three bedroom house.  That’s right.  Three boys in two beds in one room and three girls in one bed in the other.  It was as cozy as could be until one brother decided to light a match with a bunch of fuses next to him!

By the way, on the back row is Jodie, Rob, Karen and Al.  In the front is Bob, Betty, Van (me), and Jamie.  A moment frozen in time.  So different than the events in the outside world in August of that year.  When I thought of posting this photo before, it was always with the idea of posting a photo from Woodstock along with it.  And the Manson “family” was not like the family that I experienced.  As I said at the beginning, the 60s were ending and the 70s were beginning.  Change is inevitable.

A Voice From the Past – Sammy Got Run Over

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I’ve got another keepsake that I want to share with all of you.  I found this last year when I was going through some of the things I collected from my parents’ home when we cleaned it out for selling.  I’m not talking about the photo that I’m posting with the keepsake.  The photo is part of a promise that I made on here a few weeks ago.  I said that the next thing I’d post for Addie would be a photo of her smiling.

Addie Hine Bucklin

Addie Mae Hine Bucklin circa 1937

For those of you who don’t know who Addie is, she is my maternal grandfather’s mother Addie Mae Hine Bucklin.  (mother of Fred Bucklin, grandmother of Betty Lou Bucklin, and great grandmother of Van Landry)  In most of the photos I have of her, she has a rather severe look on her face.  I thought it was time to share a photo of her smiling since the story in the post is a happy one.  Yes, Sammy did get hit by a car, but he recovered quite well as you’ll hear Addie explain to you.  That’s right, you’ll be hearing the story of Sammy the dog in Addie’s own voice from around 1944.

Addie’s oldest daughter Mary was married to Sylvan Phenice.  He was a sound engineer and one of the things he was able to do was make recordings with a turntable using a cutting needle.  And I thought it was tough when I was a youngster recording conversations secretly using a reel to reel tape recorder!  Somehow he was able to record a conversation with Addie going into detail about her dog falling in the wheel track.  (It must have been a dirt road with deep ruts from the wheels of the cars and trucks.)

Sylvan’s wife Mary can also be heard in the conversation.  I wouldn’t want to get that one too excited.  Her voice would be piercing!  The other people in the recording are Roy Bucklin and his wife Effie.  So find a quiet spot, click on the link to the site that has the recording, close your eyes, and let yourself be transported back to 1944 in rural southern Louisiana.

Sammy Got Run Over – as told by Addie Mae Hine Bucklin.

I thought I’d go ahead and put the transcript of the recording on here in case there was anything you weren’t able to make out.  I am very thankful to aunt Loris who is the one that was able to recognize the voices in the recording.  Mom had it labeled, but I didn’t know which voice belonged to which person.  Thus begins the transcript:

Roy Day Bucklin:  Effie’s a gardener.

Addie Mae Hine Bucklin:  That was the morn… that was the morning that uh Sammy got out in the road and got run over.

Effie Hetzel Bucklin: (at the same time) Yeah, I’ve been trying but I’m afraid that uh it’s not going to amount…

Roy: Did Mr. Compton die?

Mary Bucklin Phenice:  Who’s Sammy?

Addie:  Our little dog.

Mary:  Your little dog?

Addie:  He followed me to mailbox and just as I got out there, there’s a, a pickup went by and he run out to bark and he got too close and it run over him.  And uh, I don’t know if it knew it hit him or not;  it didn’t stop, it just went on and there Sammy was layin’ right in the wheel-track, you know, just all drawed up.  And he commenced makin’ the funniest noise.  Now I was afraid to go and pick him up.  And uh, I stood there and looked around and I thought I heard Roy out in the shop and I said, uh.  Went and called him and I said, “Come here!” and he come, looked at him, and he said, “Oh, I’m afraid he’s done for.”  And we just stood there and watched him.  We’d speak to him and he wouldn’t let on like he heard us.

After a while, why I guess he was kinda commencin’ to get over it, and he’d raise up and look, you know, but he, you could tell that he didn’t know what he was lookin’ at.  So I looked down the road and I saw a car comin’ and I said, “Well, Roy, let’s get him outta the road.  There comes a car.”  So he picked him up and really just puttin’ him out of the track.  Well he just took him on in to the yard.  He laid there.  We’d talk to him.  Still he didn’t know what we’s sayin’.  I guess we musta stayed there fifteen minutes just lookin’ at him, you know.  And we couldn’t see any place was hurt, only just the blood dropped out of one eye – just two or three drops.  Then uh..(cough)…so like, like uh, when we got ready to go to the house, like we said, “Come on, Sammy!  Let’s go!” and he got up and followed us to the house!

Mary:  He’s alright?!

Addie:  And he laid around all day that day, though, Roy was workin’ out with the cattle and he didn’t pay any mind.  He just laid around.  After that, well he seemed to be alright.

Mary:  Shocked him, I guess.

Addie:  Broke… broke the collar off of his neck.  He had… he had a leather collar on.

Roy (interrupting): Must, he, must, car musta hit him on the neck.  That collar was layin’ where the car had hit him.

Mary:  It shocked him.

Addie: It’s a shock, I guess. Long, oh for several days he, he wouldn’t bark at cars.  He’s got over it now. He runs out.  This next time he’d catch it harder and it’d be the last of him.

Joe and Charlie Tupper

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This photo comes from the Whittington albums.  The back of the photo says Joe and Charlie Tupper (with hat) eating noon meal.   Joe Tupper Jr. said “Evidently meal time during a day threshing rice. You can see the threshing machine and bundle wagon with a man feeding it with a pitchfork in the background. They are sitting on some filled and hand sewn rice sacks! I had never seen this picture before, thank you Joseph for posting!”

Tractor in the Mud

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John Koll digging stuck tractor out of mud during rice cutting in 1929.  Ada Weaver wonders if the guy supervising is her dad, Jesse Whittington.  He would have been 23 then. Do you think he would have worn such an unusual hat?

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