Pearl Earned It

Well, I went off and gave the beautiful Pearl (Williams) Pointer and the Pointer farm their own blog.  So check it out.  See what life was like back in the early to mid 1900's on a farm in Iowa.

Pearl's Day Books  [ http://pearlsdaybooks.blogspot.com/  ]

Pearl has 2 posts and 4 followers so far.

Image by justmakeit via Flickr

Purple Iowa Sky

The Shearer Sisters

Before the Pointer Sisters...

Courtesy of Share Seeking

There were the Shearer sisters.

That's right.  The Shearer sisters.  On the bottom right-hand corner is Julia Ann Shearer who married Jordan Williams.  And they were Pearl's grandparents.  [I wonder what she called Julia Ann.  Mee-Maw?  Nana?  Grandma?  Grandmother?  Personally, I think she looks like a Mee-Maw.  Plus, it's fun to say.]

Anywho, the sister in the top left-hand corner is Mary Shearer [Yeah. I know.  Another Mary. *sigh*], and she married John C. Belcher, Jr.  And together they raised little Harve Pointer [who became a handsome Harve later on].  I guess it's not really a mystery how Harve and Pearl met.  I wonder if it was love at first sight?  I don't mean to be greedy, but a diary would be nice.  Or perhaps some letters.  Or something.  [A genea-girl can dream.]

So the Shearer sisters lived near each other in Iowa, and were so gracious to sit down for this portrait.  A couple of days after the Pointer family reunion, Great-Aunt Dorothy showed me this photo and asked me if I knew who they were.  Right off the top of my head, I couldn't tell her, but I took a picture of it with my digital camera.  Turned out, though, Great-Uncle Donald had a copy of the photo.  And it was identified.  [Oh, how I love Great-Uncle Donald.]

These Shearer sisters look so serious in this photo.  I wonder, though, if they would've started dancing to Sisters Sledge's We Are Family.  I like to think that they would've.  Maybe in the kitchen while making bread.  And pies.  [Which reminds me.  Great-Aunt Dorothy makes a mean cherry pie.  My favorite.]  I can just see them shaking what God gave them.  Can't you?

Oh, by the way, there were some Pointer sisters in the family.  Remember Harve and Pearl's boys [one of which is Great-Uncle Donald]?  Yeah, well, before they had the boys, they had 2 girls.  Goodness, Pearl sure had her hands full.  But I'll talk about them later.

[ The direct link ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBpYgpF1bqQ ]

Credits:

Paper & elements from Purple Petals Designs by Erica Belton via DSP.

Elements from Ticket to Love Designs by Nicole Young via DSP.

Word Art from the Legacy Collection by Keri Schueller via Scrap Girls.

The Williams Family Tree

Never, in a million years, did I ever dream that I'd get to see ~truly see~ Pearl's parents & grandparents.  A.O. Williams and his wife, Nancy Catherine Odell, and Jordan Williams and his wife, Julia Ann Shearer. [Not to mention being able to hear a few stories about them.]  There's nothing like looking into the eyes of our ancestors.  To see the faces of those we've searched for ~ for so long.

Apparently, I don't dream big enough.

Tombstone Tuesday - Near Her Sons

Julia Ann (Shearer) Williams

She always had her sons, A.O. and Sim, living with her, and so I wasn't really surprised to find that they rest near her in Collins Cemetery in Collins, Story County, Iowa.  In fact, they are right next to her. 

Wow! Is He Handsome, or What?

Is This The Pocket Watch?

Remember the post, "Does Time Reveal Mercy?" where I showcased what is probably Pearl's (Williams) Pointer's pocket watch [because it was labeled as such]?  However, the pocket watch looked quite similar to the pocketwatch that Mercy (Slingbaum) Haley was wearing in a photo that I found of her. The only problem was that the Haley's are a part of my husband's paternal grandmother's line, and the Williams are a part of my husband's paternal grandfather's line.

Confused?  Well, basically, my husband's grandmother (Myrtle Haley) on his dad's side is a Haley, and again on his dad's side, my husband's grandfather's (Forrest Pointer's) mother was Pearl Williams.  So, the question that I posed in my post about Mercy and Pearl and the pocket watch was "Did this heirloom somehow get mixed up after Forrest and Myrtle get married?"  I kind of doubted it at the time [and I still do], but I found it odd that the pocketwatch looked so similar [and it gave me something to blog about too].  In fact I probably never would have delved quite so deeply into Mercy's life.  Besides the fact that Mercy and her husband, Frank Edward Haley, never had any children [at least, none that I have found], Frank was adopted, and to the best of my knowledge was not blood-related to the Haley's.  Both of these facts had really pushed Frank Edward Haley and Mercy Slingbaum [Don't get me started on her maiden name. You should see the mutilation her name withstands in the census.  Snort.] down pretty far on my ancestor priority list ~ until I found that photo of Mercy with that pocket watch.

However, I've now found [thanks to Great-Uncle Donald] Pearl's and Harve's wedding photos.  And guess what she's wearing on her blouse?  Well, it looks like it could be a pocket watch.  And, of course, it's too blurry to see any detail of it ~ to confirm if, indeed, it's the pocket watch.  [That would be just too easy.  And why would we want that?]

So does time reveal Mercy?  Well, until I find that one definitive photo of Pearl with the pocket watch, I'm going to go with how it was labeled on the envelope containing the pocket watch.  That it is Pearl (Williams) Pointer's pocket watch.  So, yes, time reveals not only mercy, but pearls as well.  [I absolutely adore jewelry, don't you?]  And doesn't Harve Pointer look absolutely handsome [and dapper, and debonaire,...]?  I can see why Pearl married him.

Never Leaving Home

More About Those Williams Folks

I already introduced to you A.O. Williams who was the beautiful Pearl (Williams) Pointer's father.  And I also showed you his pocket watch.  Oh, and we can't forget A.O.'s cantankerous and contrary brother, Sim [a.k.a., W.S., Simeon and Uncle Sim].  Well, Sim's full name was William Simeon Williams.  Understandably, Sim didn't go by the name William.  I mean, really?  William Williams?  Could you imagine the confusion and the taunting?  Why, for heaven's sakes, did they name him William?  Maybe they liked the name William, but it may have something to do with the fact that his father's name was William.  [I kid you not.]  But apparently he never went by that name either.  In fact, Great-Uncle Donald [who turns 90 in a week], calls him by his middle name, Jordan.  In the census while growing up, he was always listed as William J. Williams or W.J. Williams.  But when he was an adult in the census, I noticed he always used the name Jordan.  Furthermore, research indicates that Jordan had an uncle named William Williams.  And the purpose of this discussion?  I dunno.  I just find it interesting.  I wonder if they just didn't like the name, or if they used their middle names to lessen the confusion.

Anyways, A.O.'s and Uncle Sim's father was William Jordan Williams [parents were Henry Williams and Harriet [?]].  Jordan was born on abt. 1833 in probably Montgomery County, TN.  [The "probably" is for the county, but I do know that he was born in Tennessee.]  At some point, Jordan and some of his Williams kinfolk moved from Tennessee to Wapello County, Iowa.

Jordan's wife, Julia Ann Shearer, was born 31 Aug 1833 in Indianapolis, Indiana to Valentine and Magdaline Shearer, who happened to be 1st cousins.  Now, this information wasn't easy to figure out because the Shearer family is huge [huuuuge].  Lots of siblings who had lots of kids.  Also, these Shearers were once Scherrers, and they descend from Johann Augustus Scherrer who came to America from Lachen Speyerdorf Bayern Rhineland-Pfalz, Germany [which is a mouthful] in 1730.  However, I'll talk more about them later.  Julia's family moved to Wapello, IA in February 1856, according to her obituary, which Pearl had cut out of the paper and pasted into her scrapbook that Great-Uncle Donald scanned and shared with me.  [Have I mentioned how much I love Pearl and Great-Uncle Donald?]   She married Jordan Williams 19 Feb 1857 in Wapello, IA, and they had 3 sons: Alvis Oliver "A.O." Williams, Henry V. Williams [who died young], and William Simeon "Sim" Williams.  A.O. and Sim both lived with Jordan and Julia even into adulthood.  And when A.O. married Nancy Catherine Odell, she moved in as well, which I had noticed in the census, but Great-Uncle Donald confirmed it for me in his memoirs.  

Hm.  I guess that whole idea of kids coming back home to live is not new.  In fact, A.O. and Sim never left.  And I don't know whether or not I'll tell my children this because they've already hinted to me [More like, they unequivocally stated...] they're going to live with me and my husband forever [shudder].  And I'd hate for them to have something to cite from their own family tree.  [rolling eyes heavenward] 

Anywho, below is a photo of William Jordan & Julia Ann (Shearer) Williams ~ my husband's 3rd great- grandparents.

Wordless Wednesday - Cantankerous?

They Shared These Too...

They may have been cantankerous with each other, but brothers A.O. and Simeon Williams loved those grandkids.

Back: A.O. Williams; Front LR: John Bear, Harold Pointer, Glen Pointer & Lloyd Pointer

Back LR: Mildred Pointer, Simeon Williams & Ramah Pointer; Front LR: John Bear, Harold Pointer & Lloyd Bear

Tombstone Tuesday: Together

"...Cantankerous, Contrary Old Cusses"

 I always wondered what the story was between Alvis Oliver and Simeon Williams.  Now, I already knew that no one called these 2 brothers by their full names.  They were known as A.O. and Sim, and you might remember A.O. by his beautiful pocketwatch that I've already shared with you here.  Also, A.O. was the father of the beautiful Pearl (Williams) Pointer [the wife of Harve Pointer], making Sim her "Uncle Sim".

With every census that I found them in, I found them together.  Even after A.O. Williams married his wife Nancy Catherine Odell.  I wondered why.  Perhaps I analyze the census too much.  [So sue me.]  But I was right to wonder why.  Lo and behold, there is a story.  And my husband's Great-Uncle Donald [one of Harve's and Pearl's boys] had it, and he shared it with me.  And here's part of what Great-Uncle Donald had to say in his memoirs about them:

Sim was my Granpa's William's brother and never married so he had always lived at home with his mother also, and when Granpa Williams got married I guess Grandma Williams just moved in with them...I never heard Granpa and Sim swear at each other but they argued almost constantly and always called each other cantankerous, contrary old cusses.  They may have swore at each other when they weren't around us boys but they might as well done it in front of us because we all knew how to swear...Granpa and Sim were always poor they made a living doing cement work, Carpenter work, Just handy man work like that.  They had a cement mixer that was powered by a single cylinder gas engine.  A team of horses and a buggy and a light buckboard type spring wagon which they used to go to work with and haul tools in...Their rent couldn't have been much seems to me if I remember about 5 dollars a month.  I don't know what they got for wages probably two to five dollars a day...They had to buy coal to heat with in the winter.  But they didn't have no light nor water nor gas bills to pay.  They did have to buy feed for the horses because they have to eat whether they work or not...I don't remember when Granpa and Sim had two horses I only remember the one they had left...His name was Sam.  He was a tall long legged black beautiful horse.  Of course I didn't realize that at the time, like a lot of other things, but I do now...and then Sam died of old age and that left Granpa and Sim afoot.  Sometimes I do remember them walking to our place but not together I think they needed all of their energy to walk with none to spare for bickering.  Uncle Sim used to say that walking wasn't very crowded but it was kinda lonesome.  Granpa and Sim never owned a home nor a car so I guess the only thing that they owned was their tools and what little household furniture they had.

Now, I still don't know why Uncle Sim never married, but I do know the "how" now [brown cow].  How A.O. and Uncle Sim never really got along.  But somehow they lived together.  And now they lie next to each other in the Collins Iowa Cemetery.  They shared a house.  They shared an occupation.  And they even share a tombstone. They just couldn't share the same dang road.  I think it's as funny as all get out.  [Sorry.  That's a Texas expression.]  I wonder if they're still arguing? [Snort.]

To Be So Close

Trains.  Locomotives.  What an addition to transportation!  A welcome addition to those folks who were used to traveling by wagon, coach, horse, and/or foot.

It's been passed down in my husband's family that the beautiful Pearl Williams and her family moved from Missouri to Iowa by covered wagon when she was about 7 years old.  In fact, my husband's Great-Uncle Donald explains in his memoirs that Pearl [his mother] and her sister walked most of the way behind the wagon, and that "...only when they came to a town did they get on the wagon and ride through town," on their way to Collins, Iowa.

About 200 miles.

Probably most of them dusty miles.

Quite possibly some of them wet and muddy miles.

Could you imagine?

I bet Pearl and her sister wished they'd been on a train.  It sure would've been much easier and faster.

I wonder, though, if she appreciated the irony of the situation when she received  the postcard below with a photo of a train on it from her son, Forrest Pointer [my husband's grandfather].  He'd been in Marshalltown, Story County, Iowa while in the U.S. Navy in 1946.  About 30 miles from Pearl in Collins, Story County, Iowa and not even able to go home and see his mom and family.


To be so close, and yet so far.

[This post is a submission for the Festival of Postcards hosted by Evelyn Yvonne Theriault on her blog A Canadian Family.]

Life's Not Fair

Like most parents [I'm sure], I go 'round and 'round with my kids to get them to do their chores.  In fact, right now as I write, my daughter is cleaning out her closet.  Under protest.  With big "sighs".  Rolling her eyes heavenward.  [I have absolutely no idea where she gets that from.]

My son this morning even exclaimed, "This isn't fair!"  That's when I rolled my eyes heavenward, and replied, "I don't care.  Life's not fair.  Get used to it."

I snorted and added, "You don't have any idea what you're talking about.  You have it so easy."  And they do. "I had to pick up my toys, to clean my room, to clear off the table after dinner, to feed and teach the 2 double yellow-headed and 3 double red-headed parrots how to talk,  and to feed and breed the hundreds of parakeets out in the aviary.  Oh, and in the summer time, that was on top of working for both my mom at her pet shop and my dad at his truck and trailer business."

[snort] And my kids complain about cleaning their rooms?  Give me break!

Well, all this reminded of Pearl and Harve Pointer.  You know, the beautiful Pearl (Williams) Pointer?  [She was a looker, wasn't she?]  I've recently been reading her account books, or day books, of the Pointer farm in Iowa from as early as 1918 through the 1940's.  Man, we had nothing on Pearl.  She really worked.  I mean, really worked.

These books are a treasure trove of what a midwest farm was like in the 1920's, 1930's and 1940's, and I can sum it up in just one word: work.

They list all the purchases and all the sales on the farm as well as yearly inventories and loans [both given and received].  From the car they owned in the early 1920's, to the road work performed in and around their farm, to the boys' allowances and pay for work on the farm.  Not to mention, what pastures different animals were placed in.  It's all there.  Below are some of my favorite entries:

Bought:
3 Oct 1922 flour, mittens, oil, thread, meat $4.80
[Just as varied as a Walmart receipt of today.]

10 Oct 1920 Hail Insurance $20.00

5 Oct 1937 hair oil, putty .30
[Gotta slick back Harve's and the boys' hair.]

15 March 1920 buggy top $8.50
25 Jun 1924 buggy tongue $3.00
[Gotta keep the buggy in working order.]

20 Nov 1919 lime, cement, sand $5.18
20 Nov 1919 work on chimney $4.50
20 Nov 1919 Thimbles on chimney $.50
[Um. You mean they didn't just call the chimney repair dude?]

[Speaking on calling...]
3 Dec 1919 telephone rent $5.25

14 Sep 1919 paint for wagon $2.05

20 Sep 1919 weinies and liver $1.05
12 May 1920 plants and bologna $1.50
[There are a lot of entries for "weinies".  Apparently they liked them.  And they're cheap.  And the bologna?  The BEST bologana I've ever had is the bologna that's made in Iowa.  I know.  Iowa's known for its corn, but the bologna is their best-kept secret.]


3 Jan 1922 Lester's suit $5.00
11 Jan 1922 Harold's suit $7.08
9 Nov 1921 Shoes for girls $8.50
9 Nov 1932 Shoes for boys  & hose $5.76
[There are many entries over the years for the kids' clothes, but what stands out are the school clothes and the suits.  And really, nothing's changed about that, has it?  Oh, and I'm pretty sure the hose were for the girls.]


20 Sep 1919 shingles for house $75.70
5 Jun 1923 wallpaper, hats etc. $10.60
15 Feb 1926 lumber for chicken house $53.00
[Um.  I don't see an entry for the labor for the shingle work.  S'pose they put 'em on themselves.  On one page is a listing of room dimensions of the house for wallpaper.  Then wallpaper was purchased here and there after that.  Again, no labor listed anywhere for the wallpaper or for the chicken house.]

8 Feb 1922 Valentine $1.44
[What I wouldn't do to see that Valentine and scan it and share it with y'all...]


29 Jan 1918 bought bull of Franklin's $50

[There are a ton of animal purchases and sales over the years, as you might expect.]

23 Jan 1918 glasses $6.00
1 Feb 1918 fur coat lined $15.90
18 Feb 1918 organ $6.00
18 Sep 1924 watch repair $1.35
11 Jan 1926 Radio $102.50
[Um. I wonder whose glasses these were ~ those listed above and those pictured here.  It's not clear if the glasses  pictured were Pearl's, but it's suspected.  This farm family was better off than others if they purchased a radio in 1926.  Also, I wonder whose watch was repaired?  The one pictured here was Pearl's daddy's watch [A.O. Williams].

In big handwriting the following was written on page 45:

$191.38 eggs sold in 1920. 374 2/3 number of dozens sold.

Yes, eggs were sold every year, but this was a big egg-producing year for the farm.  [Hm. I wonder who did all that work? *eyes big and round*]


The building and maintenance of the roads to, from, and around the farm were apparently kept up by those who owned the farms.  Listings of the work done and how much it cost exist for every year for the Pointer farm.  Here are a few of the entries for 1923:


Feb 15th & 16th - 1 day digging snow; 1/2 day getting dump boards
Apr 9 - 1/2 day fixing bridge
July 14 - 1/2 day get boards for culverts
July 16 - 1 day putting in culverts
July 17 - 1 day putting in culverts & getting boards
July 18 - 1/2 day putting in culverts
July 30 - 1/2 day putting in culverts


Wow.  Looks like they had more culverts than they thought.  And culvert work sounds like a lotta fun.  And easy too.  [snort]


Here's a much-needed purchase [I'm sure.]:
10 Jul 1937 lemons, ice 50 cents
[I wonder who, um, had to make the lemonade?   Bet that tasted reeeaaal good.]


Well, I'm sure you get the picture.  At least I do.  There was a lot of work to be done back then on a farm, and probably not enough hands to do it with.   I wonder what Pearl said to her kids when they said, "That's not fair.  I don't wanna do any more culvert work."  Yeah, me too.  I'm thinkin' she told 'em something like, "Life's not fair.  Get back out there and get that culvert work done."


[Note: I do believe I will make the Pointer Family Farm Daily Books required reading this summer on our trip up to Iowa for the Pointer Family Reunion ~ from a copy, of course.]

The Family Jewels

The 16th Edition of Smile For The Camera: "Bling, Ancestor, Bling" which will be hosted by Thomas at Geneabloggers

[Bling Ancestor banner provided by the footnoteMaven, also of "Shades of the Departed" fame.]

Joseph Marschall/Marshall, Sr.

[My grandfather, a.k.a. Big Paw Paw]

This is his World War I Victory Medal. 

U.S. Army, 29th Company, 3rd Group, 165th Brigade

Joel Arthur Martin

[My Great-Grandfather, a.k.a. "Pop"; he's my grandmother's (Paw Paw's) father]

Fairly certain that this is his Cortebert Railroad Pocketwatch.  The second hand still works, but the pocketwatch is in need of refurbishing.

Rettie Maye Martin

[My grandmother on my Dad's side; a.k.a. Paw Paw, daughter of Joel (above) and wife of Big Paw Paw.] This is a picture of her wearing her 3 strand pearls.

Speaking of 3 Strand Pearls...

My father gave my mother these pearls around 1958.  They're costume jewelry with rhinestones, but they photograph well, don't you think?  My mother gave them to me on my wedding day in 1994, and one day they'll be my daughter's pearls.

...And One More "Pearl"

Remember the beautiful Pearl Williams Pointer?  Well, this pocketwatch below belonged to her father, A.O. Williams.  It was passed down to Pearl.  Then it was passed down to her son Forrest Pointer, my husband's grandfather.  It was made by Elgin in 1904 with 7 jewels, and was one of 110,000 made.  It's keywind (hunter's case) and lever set.  The Fob attached to it is rather interesting.  It reads "The South Bend Malleable Range, All Ways Preferable. Trade Mark."  On the back it reads: "The Malleable Range Mfg. Co., South Bend, IN, U.S.A."

A Cajun's Who's Who

Tightly Woven Stories
I'm going to suggest for a moment that just as the fibers of the fabric pictured here are tightly woven together, so are our family stories.  Maybe we're not related by blood.  Maybe we don't share the same last name.  However, sometimes our stories - our family stories - are so tightly woven together, and we don't even realize it.  While studying the stories behind the names that we're researching, we might not find another twig or branch in our tree, but we might find some non-blood relationships that give us some insight to our ancestors and sometimes, even ourselves.

Pearl's Book
If you've read my past stories, then you are  familiar with the beautiful Pearl Williams Pointer.  She is my husband's great grandmother, and I recently became aware of some of her items/heirlooms, and I've borrowed them in order to document them.  I have to admit that I am having a fascinating time doing this.  One of the items that I've been investigating is a copy of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Evangeline.  This particular copy has no publication date in it, and I've been unable to find one for it.  It was published by E.A. Weeks & Company, 521-531 Wabash Ave., Chicago.  As you can see from the photos of it, it's in "O.K." condition.  The broken spine indicates that it's been well-read.  Also, It does have some illustrations in it, but no illustrator is listed.  Inside the cover, the following is written in pencil: "To Miss Pearl Williams From Bertie Fair."  On the facing page, also written in pencil is: "Pearl Williams Collins Iowa. Dec. 1st 1900 Collins Iowa." [Yes, "Collins, Iowa is written twice.] Well, my first question was, "Who is Bertie Fair, and what was her relationship to Pearl?"


Who Was Bertie Fair?
I was able to find and trace Alberta "Bertie" Fair and her family through the U.S. Federal Population Schedule, the Iowa State Census, as well as various databases available on the Story County portion of the iagenweb.org website.  [Please note that this is a very preliminary search of Bertie Fair.]  Here is a quick run-down of the information I found:

• Alberta Fair was born abt. 1878 near Newton, Jasper Co., Iowa to John W. & Emma C. Fair [both born in New York].
• Between 1878 & 1880, the family moved to Laurel, Marshall Co., Iowa.
  
• By 1885, the Fair family had moved to Indian Creek Twp., Story Co., Iowa, and they were still living there in 1895 and 1898.
• Alberta M. Fair married Fredrick Heilman/Heileman 5 Jan 1899 in Story Co., Iowa.
• One of Alberta's silblings was Grace who was abt. 11 years younger than Alberta.
• Alberta Fair Heilman/Heileman died 9 May 1914 and is buried in Center Grove Cemetery Union Township, Story Co., Iowa.

What Was Their Relationship?
Now, this is just a supposition.  I don't have any written message from Pearl [or Bertie, for that matter] that indicates their actual relationship.  That being said, I have been to this area of Story County, Iowa, and I can say that these towns are small farming communities.  To this day, everyone knows, well, everyone.  So, even without the inscription inside of Pearl's copy of Evangeline, I feel that I can say with some certainty that they probably knew each other.  As for their relationship, I'm not sure, and the reason I say this is that Bertie was abt. 9 years older than Pearl, and Bertie was abt. 22 when she gave this book to Pearl [who was abt. 13 yrs old].  I indicated above that one of Bertie's siblings was Grace, who was much closer in age to Pearl.  They were all definitely near each other for most of their lives as Jasper and Marshall counties are adjacent to Story County.  Also, Maxwell is an incorprated town within Indian Creek Township and nearby is Collins, Iowa [where Pearl lived].  Therefore, without a doubt, the families lived near each other.  If accurately recorded, Bertie gave this book to Pearl 1 Dec 1900, which would've been abt. 6 yrs before Pearl married Harvey Pointer in 1906.  Pearl was born in May, so I don't think that this was a birthday gift.  However, it may have been a Christmas gift.  Basically, I don't know what their relationship was exactly, but at the very least, they were acquaintances, and at the very most, close friends.

Longfellow and His Evangeline
I next decided to read Evangeline in order to see what Pearl saw when she read it.  However, I did  some background research on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Evangeline before I actually read it [which turned out to be a good idea because I hadn't read 19th century poetry in a while...]  Very briefly, the story of Evangeline is a fictional story based on an historical event.  It's a story about two young betrothed Acadians, who "lost" each other in the expulsion of the Acadians out of Acadia [now Nova Scotia] in eastern Canada.  Evangeline searches her whole life for Gabriel [her betrothed] all over America.  She eventually is an elderly nurse who is nursing this older man, who turns out to be her beloved Gabriel.  Tragically, he dies in her arms.  Pretty dramatic, huh?  It may be.  However, America in 1847 loved it.  It was widely read and used often in schools for reading and memorization.  In other words, it was ingrained in America's students for decades.  Also, it served as a resurgence for Acadians everywhere, for by then, many had forgotten their history.  This served as a reminder of where they had come from and who they were.  The book was printed many times including in the late 19th century, when Pearl was born and growing up.  Evangeline was so popular with Acadians and their descendants that it has been immortalized in many ways and in many places.  To name only a few:  there is the Evangeline sculpture in Gran Pre National Historic Site in Nova Scotia; "Gabriel's" house in Lafayette, Lousiana; "Emmeline's" grave in St. Martin, Louisiana; the parish of Evangeline in Louisiana; and the Evangeline Thoroughfare in Lafayette, Louisiana.  In fact, in some places, you'd be hard pressed to convince some that the character Evangeline is fictional.

Who Were the Acadians?
This seemingly innocuous question led me to quite a bit of history.  The Acadians were French colonists from the western part of France who had started settling in what is now Nova Scotia in Canada in the 1600's.  Almost from the beginning it was a war torn area between the French and the British over this part of North America.  The Acadians remained neutral, but in the end were told to swear allegiance to the British Crown and take up arms against their fellow countrymen, which they did not do.  In 1755, they were expelled from their lands, and they were spread out all over the place.  Some were shipped back to France, some relocated in the American colonies, and some took refuge in Quebec.  

Acadians, Cajuns, Creoles, and French Canadians: Who's Who?
This Acadian history got me to thinking about a Cajun I know.  A Cajun that has a couple of lines that are French-Canadian.  [Interestingly, all the rest of her lines are of French descent, a.k.a. Creole].  When I previously researched some of her main lines, I found that most had been researched thoroughly all the way back to the 1500's in France.  [I'm not jealous.  Really...]   So, after reading this Acadian history, I was curious to see if her 2 French-Canadian lines were Acadian, as well.  The first line, Guillory, came from Blois, France, and settled in Montreal, Quebec in 1664.  They moved from there to Massacre Island [now Dauphin Island], Alabama ca 1707.  After the Peace of Paris in 1763, Great Britain gained control of land east of the Mississppi River, and the Guillory's migrated to Fort Opelousas, Louisiana.  Her other line, the Deshotels/Desautels also came from the western part of France and settled in Montreal, Quebec sometime before 1631, and they moved to Point Coupee, Louisiana sometime before the expulsion in 1755.   Before I go on, let me define some terms.  Now, an Acadian descendant is a descendant of a person who lived in what was once known as Acadia [now Nova Scotia].   A French-Canadian descendant is one who descends from French colonists that settled in Canada.  A Creole refers to those who descend from French and Spanish colonists who were born on the North American continent.  The term Cajun is a derivative [or slang] of Acadian, so by definition, it would mean the same thing as Acadian.  However, in researching these terms, I found that the meaning of Cajun has morphed into meaning those who are born and raised in 22 of the southern counties in Louisiana.  To prove this [not scientifically, though], I asked the Cajun that I know, "What do call yourself?"  She replied, "I'm a Cajun."  Specifically, what happened, is the cultures of the Creoles and the French-Canadians [who settled in the southern areas of Louisiana] were "absorbed" by the Acadian culture forming what is now known as a "Cajun" culture.  [About as clear as mud, I know, but the good thing is that the mudbugs, or crawfish, are found in the mud...]  Seriously, there are some similarities in her French Canadian migrations and that of the migration [that was forced] of the Acadians.  Also, Montreal is located near what was known as Acadia.  I would imagine that there was some identification between the two entities because of the proximity of each other in Canada and in France.  [Again, this is just my supposition.]


So, What's In A Name?
Well, in this case, Evangeline is a name of a book of poetry by H.W. Longfellow given by one friend and neighbor to another - from Bertie to Pearl.  This book tells the tale of a dark spot in history where the Acadians were expelled from their lands in Canada.  Some of the resulting Acadian migrations were similar to the migrations of two of the lines of a Cajun I know leading  them all to Louisiana.  These Cajun descendants who settled in what is now Ville Platte, Evangeline Parish, Louisiana where the Cajun I know is from. 


...a Cajun who became my neighbor because of a hurricane...

...a Cajun neighbor who became my friend.

Caroline


Sources:
1. U.S. Federal Population Schedule [accessed 
    by Ancestry.com and Heritage Quest]
2. IAGenWeb.org databases for Story County
3. Acadian-Cajun Genealogy & History 
4. 1755-The History and the Stories
5. Acadian GenWeb
6. Cajun Country History
7. Evangeline Parish, Louisiana USGenWeb
8. Maine Historical Society Website: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
9. Wikipedia: Acadia
10. Wikipedia: Evangeline
11. Google Map of Montreal 
12. Google Map of Nova Scotia 
13. Google Map of Southern Louisiana

Can You Say Genealogical Jackpot?

I Can...
Last night the kids and I [hubby is out-of-town] went to father-in-law's house to eat some incredibly good grub. [Of course, all meals that I don't have to prepare are incredibly good...] Some of my father-in-law's family was in town and eventually all the old family memorabilia came out...I had no clue what's been sitting in my father-in-law's house all this time! [He lives about 10 minutes away from us.] So, can you guess what I'm doing the rest of this week? Yup, scanning, photographing, indentifying, "database-entrying", etc., etc.... Just some of the items in this collection are:

• 125-year old Autograph Album of my hubby's great-grandmother, Pearl Williams;
• A book of Longfellow's poem "Evangeline" belonging to Pearl;
• A collection of Red Man chewing tobacco trading cards featuring American Indian Chiefs;
• One of Pearl's War Ration Books from World War II;
• A matching jewelry box and photo album that made its way to Iowa by covered wagon;
• Pocket Watch belonging to Pearl; and
• A Civil War tin-type picture of one of hubby's great-great-grandfathers' brother who was shot in The Battle of the Wilderness and was imprisoned in Libby Prison, where he died.

So, I'm going to be a little busy for a while. I think I sense some more family stories I get to share [I dunno. Maybe.]...

Caroline