Irish Ancestors

 We have two Irish ancestors in our family tree...Anne Farnan and Anne McGuire.

Anne McGuire was born in August 1824 in Ireland, according to the 1900 U.S. census. Her first husband was Mr. Dunn. He died sometime before 1850. On 2 April 1850 she married Jean Baptiste Begue (1816-1904), who had come to Louisiana from Ste. Martin in the Haute Pyranees of southern France in 1841. They were living in Biloxi, Mississippi at the time. For many years they operated a grocery store and butcher shop there. Anne died 15 August 1901 at age 77. Their son John Blaise Begue (1851-1889) married Anna Amelia Hasling on 6 May 1882 in Biloxi and their son John Louis Begue (1887-1951) is our ancestor.

Anne Farnan was born in February 1827 in Ireland. She married John Gonzales on 5 August 1854 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was born in Northern Spain about 1820 and came to New Orleans in 1842. He died in 1884 at age 64 and Anne died 28 November 19, 1910 at age 83. Their son John Henry Gonzales married Anna Hattaway in 1880 and their daughter Sarah Anne Gonzales (1888-1955) married John Louis Begue (1887-1951), son of John Blaise Begue, in 1907. They are my maternal grandparents and our connection to Ireland.

AZTEC CHILI

I made a big pot of Aztec Chili day before yesterday to get us through this latest cold spell. It's 50 degrees this morning with a cold North wind. It's basically a 3 bean chili recipe with chocolate added. Here's the recipe:

1 pound chili grind beef

1 large onion, chopped

3 or so cloves of garlic, chopped

1 bottle of dark beer

1 large can chopped tomatoes and 1 can chopped green chiles  (or 2 cans of Rotel Tomatoes and Green Chiles. Grandma always used Rotel.)

1 can each: red Kidney beans, pinto beans, black beans, and white corn

2 tbsps Masa flour or white corn meal

Unsweetened baker's chocolate to taste, grated or chips 

Shredded Mexican cheese to taste

Sprinkle meat with some of the chili powder. Brown meat, onion and garlic in small amount of olive oil in large cast iron skillet. Transfer to large pot. Deglaze skillet with beer and add to meat. Stir in the rest of the chili powder and tomatotes and green chiles and cook for about an hour or so. Add canned beans and corn and cook for another 30 minutes or so. Mix Masa flour with a little water and add to chili to thicken.

Spoon into bowls and stir in chocolate, grated squares or chips. Add Tabasco to taste. Sprinkle with shredded cheese.

52 Ancestors - Week 49 - Family Recipes

Sarah Gonzales Begue and John Louis Begue
with grandchildren Vera Booksh and John Hertz 1941

 

My Grandma Sarah Ann Gonzales was born 26 December 1888 in  New Orleans, Louisiana. She married John Louis Begue on 20 November 1907. They had nine children and 16 grandchildren. She was a terrific cook. She rarely used a recipe.  She just knew by looking and smelling when everything was just right. One of the things she taught me to make was Pecan Pralines. (And that's pronounced PahCAWN PrahLEENS.)

PECAN PRALINES 

(The amounts come from a printed recipe in a New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper clipping.)

3 cups brown sugar

1 cup evaporated milk

2 1/2 cups chopped pecans

2 tablespoons butter

1 or 2 teaspoons vanilla

Heat 2 cups of sugar with the milk over medium heat, stirring often. Add the butter and pecans and stir constantly. Cook slowly until it forms a soft ball when dropped into a cup of cold water. Take off the stove to cool for a little whiile. Then drop by large spoonfuls onto wax paper.  When the pralines have cooled and hardened store in a tin to enjoy for Christmas.

If you don't have the time or patience for that recipe you can make Microwave Pralines using this recipe from a Louisiana friend:

Mix all ingredients except the pecans and microwave on high for 9 minutes. Add pecans and stir until thick. Drop by spoonfuls on wax paper.

52 Ancestors - Week 43 - Dig a Little Deeper

Eliza Leonard Booksh (1819-1895)

October 14 is the birthday of my Great Great Grandmother Eliza Leonard Booksh. She was born 14 October 1819 in Plaquemine, Iberville Parish, Louisiana, and baptised on 25 October 1819 at St. Gabriel Church. Her parents were Honore Leonard (1771-1861) and Elisabeth Kraus (1781-1858).

She married Charles Booksh on 18 December 1837 and they had ten children, including my Great Grandfather Samuel Walker Booksh (1853-1930).

She died at age 77 on 10 May 1897. This studio portrait was taken in New Orleans about 1895 and is believed to be her.

Marie Eliza Elizabeth Leonard Booksh 1819-1897

All reactions:

    In tracing her ancestors back I had discovered that her paternal grandparents were Louis Leonard, born 1743 in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Marie Anne Dardenne, born 13 Sep 1750 in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Her maternal grandparents were John Kraus born c1730 in Baltimore, Maryland, and Ana Margarita Shafer born c1737 in Germany. Every one of them had interesting stories of their own, but it was when I got to her paternal great grandparents that it got really interesting.

     Her great grandfather was Jean Baptiste Leonard who was born 17 October 1690 in Liege, Diocese of Luxemburg, Belgium. He and his wife and four children arrived in New Orleans aboard the ship Venus from L'Orient on 7 April 1721.  In  the 1727 census they are "Habitants in the Environs of New Orleans along the River, Right Bank Ascending." But he is listed alone with two sons. His wife, Marie Paullus, and two of their children had died. 

      I was doing research at the Indian River County Library in Vero Beach, looking through the Catholic Church record books, when I found the marriage record of Jean Baptiste Leonard and his second wife, Anne Coudray, Eliza Leonard's great grandmother, on 11 July 1730 in the St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans. The marriage record said that Anne from St. Malo in Brittainy, France, was the widow of Julien Chartier who had died in the Natchez Massacre of 1729. He was from Burgundy and had come to Louisiana to work on the concession of Mr. de Koly.

     This led to more research and I learned Anne was one of the few survivors of that massacre. The women and children who survived were kept prisoners by the Natchez Indians for over two months until the French and their Choctaw allies freed them in January of 1730. They were taken to New Orleans and placed in the care of the Ursuline nuns.  Several books have been written that tell the whole horrible story.

     On July 11, 1730 Anne was married to widower Jean Baptiste Leonard at  the St. Louis Cathedral. They went on to have three children of their own including Louis Leonard, Eliza's grandfather, born in 1743. You never know what you'll find when you dig a little deeper.

52 Ancestors - Weeks 40 and 41

 Longevity and Travel

Once again I'm going to combine two weekly hints into one post. 

My Grandfather Wilton Tisdale Booksh is the subject.  He was born 7 February 1886 in Grosse Tete, Louisiana, son of Samuel Walker Booksh (1853-1930) and Arabella Maria Tisdale (1855-1934). He died at age 99 on 9 June 1985 in New Orleans, Louisiana.  He was my longest living ancestor.

Wilton Tisdale Booksh Sr. with 
his two sons, Wilton Jr. and William, 1913
     

Vera Booksh with Grandpa Booksh in 1941

He was also my most well-traveled Grandparent. He was a sugar chemist and worked at sugar mills in Louisiana and Florida as well as in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guatemala and Honduras. He definitely gave me my desire to travel. 

I remember the postcards he would send me with pictures of Aztec and Mayan ruins and the stories he would tell me that made me want to learn more about those cultures.  He taught me how to count in Spanish and my first Spanish sentence, Yo quiero helado - I want ice cream. Many years later I ended up studying Spanish and majoring in Anthropology and Art.

Grandpa continued to work as a sugar chemist into his 80's, in Louisiana in the fall and traveling in the spring "to the tropics" as he always said, for their sugar season. I remember visiting him at the Cedar Grove Sugar Mill. 

I remember Grandpa telling me about the September 1928 Hurricane that struck when he was working at Belle Glade in Florida. He said he weathered the storm in his lab and watched people being blown past the windows. He told me about the snow storm that struck New Orleans in 1895. He had stories about his Great Grandfather Honore Leonard who fought in the Battle of New Orleans and said his mother had told him we were related to Benjamin Franklin. He said he told Louisiana Power and Light about that but they still wouldn't give him free electricity. And when I started doing genealogy I found out the story was true. 

Around 1910 Grandpa built his own roll film camera and he took lots of photos. I remember sitting and looking at his old photo albums and listening to stories about all the photos he took.

I remember going to a Booksh Family Reunion in Grosse Tete with my parents and him and meeting a lot of the people he had told me about. He made my genealogy come to life for me.

William Booksh and Wilton Booksh Jr. with their maid in Cuba, c1917

    One story that Grandpa and my Daddy, Wilton Jr., told me was about when rebels attacked the sugar plantation where Grandpa was working. Daddy remembered the sugar mill and the house where they were living and riding in an ox cart to escape. "The ox wouldn't go, so the driver tied a knot in his tail and jerked on it to make him go. It might have been in Honduras. They were always having revolutions in the tropics. At one place the revolutionaries came and told us to leave because they were going to burn everything down. We got out with the clothes on our backs and watched all the houses burning."  I think of that story whenever I hear someone say "I'm gonna jerk a knt in your tail."

I found a newspaper article from June 4, 1923 that may have been about that experience. Titled HONDURAS REVOLT REPORTED BREWING, it said:

     "The arrival today from Honduras of persons fleeing because they believe a revolution is impending again, is attracting attention in the Central American republic. On the same steamer with the family of Wilton Booksh, a sugar engineer in Honduras, who sent his wife and children here for safety, were several Hondurans reported interested in the election of a successor to President Lopez Guiterrez. Booksh advised his father here ten days ago that the country was on the brink of civil war with the factions only awaiting the command fro m their leaders, and that he would send his family to New Orleans util the trouble blew over. His wife and children debarked today..."

Another article I found later was about their earlier escape from Jobabo Plantation in Cuba in March 1917:

AMERICANS FLEE CUBA

Tell of Destruction of Much Property at Jobabo

NEW ORLEANS, March 26 - There arrived today on the Turrialba of the United Fruit Line a sorry company of refugees from the Jobabo sugar plantation, situated on the border line of Camaguey and the Oriente Provinces in Cuba. They had a story of maltreatment and devastion to tell at the hands of the rebel bands roaming through that country. The losses to the property in question are already $1,000,000 in burned cane alone, while the losses in buildings burned, houses sacked and burned, and property of Americans carried off by the bandits total at least $55,000.

   The event they described occurred between Feb. 3 and March 18. They had been cut off for thirty-three days from all communication with the outside world.

   The party on the Turrialba consisted of Hunting Raynor Sayre, factory superintendent of the Jobabo mill, and his wife; Joseph Steinberg, chief chemist, a Russian; Wilton Booksh, American, assistant chemist; his wife, and three little children...

Another longer article in the Times-Picayune the next day, titled REFUGEES RELATE STORY OF RAPINE, had more details:

  "...Two ox carts were at last allowed them for the women and children, the men following on foot. They set out in the morning but it was night before they could make the ten miles to the nearest plantation, where they received shelter. The Americans lost all their possessions except what they stored up. Mrs. Sayers says that the nervous strain on the women was awful. As for herself, she was not afraid to die. Her husband and herself each had secreted a pistol and they were determined some of the scoundrels should suffer if they themsleves weere to be killed like dogs..."

52 Ancestors - Week 39 - Surprise!

    Yesterday I posted two photos for my birthday and my mother's birthday. One was of Mama standing on her front steps taken in 1918. The other was of Mama and me taken in 1941. The Surprise! today is that I'm going to tell you what Mama remembered about that first photo.

Vera Mary Begue, about 1918

     I made a lot of tape recordings of Mama talking about her memories as we looked through photo albums and through her genealogy papers. She is listed at several different addresses on the U.S. censuses. The family in 1910 was listed at the home of Mama's grandmother, Anna Hathaway Gonzales, at 936 Vallette Street in Algiers. On Mama's birth certificate in September 1912 her family is living at 617 Newton Street. In 1920 the John L. Begue family is listed at 814 Nunez Street, about three blocks away from her grandmother, Anna Hattaway Gonzales, at 936 Vallette Street. "She lived there all of my childhood that I can remember." In 1930 the family is listed at 820 Slidell Avenue.

     Mama said, "I was the third child. Robert was born first. He was born in November 1908. He was named for his godfather and Daddy's best friend, Robert Crombie. Florence was born in October 1910. She was named for Mama's cousin, Florence Schaef, who was her godmother, and Anna Amelia for her two grandmothers. I wasn't named after anybody, just a name Mama liked. I had blonde hair when I was little and hazel eyes."

     "When Mama told the nurse she was going to name me Vera Mary, the nurse said, 'Oh, very merry, be-gay!' A lot of people pronounce it BE-gay, but Daddy always said BAY-gue. I was a blue baby. John was also a blue baby. He was born when I was two in 1914. He was named for Daddy, John Louis Begue Jr."

      One day we talked about the houses she remembered living in. Grandpa Begue was a shipfitter and a plumber. Mama said, "Daddy put indoor plumbing in half the houses in Algiers." He may have been trading plumbing work for rent.

     Mama said, "The first house I remember was on Vallette Street, when I was about four years old, between Newton and Homer. That's where the picture of me and Florence standing in front of the picket fence was taken. Mama made all our clothes. She even made our underwear. She always called them step-ins and crocheted lace around the legs. Then she washed and starched and ironed them, and the crocheted lace was stiff and scratchy. You can see Mama's African violets. She could grow anything."

Vera and Florence Begue, about 1916

     "Leotha was born on Belleville Street in January, 1917, on January second, one day before Little Grandma's birthday. She was named for Mama's friend, Leotha Gautreaux, and for Aunt Mamie's daughter, Mildred. Leotha Mildred Begue."

     "We were living on Atlantic Avenue when the picture of me standing on the steps with the cabbage bouquet was taken. I was about four or five years old. There was some kind of benevolent association that Daddy was president of, and they were having a parade. Florence was supposed to present the bouquet to Daddy when the parade stopped at our house, but she refused. She said it was stupid, so I got to do it. The bouquet was a big head of cabbage with cigars stuck in it. I remember looking down when they were going to take the picture and thinking, 'At least they could have swept up the cigarette butts first!' " 

[I used a digital broom to clean up the cigarette butts just for you, Mama.]

Weeks 37 and 38 - Prosperity and Adversity

ADAM LORENZ HASLING 1874-1895

Adam Lorenz Hasling and 
grandaughter May Cordy c1884

     I have decided to combine the themes for Week 37 and 38 and write about my Great Great Grandfather Adam Lorenz Hasling and his wife Caroline Carstens because their lives were a combination of both Prosperity and Adversity.

     In my book "Mama Said: The Mostly True Story of the Begue Family of Louisiana and Mississippi"  I wrote that we have more documentation on Great Great Grandpa Hasling than any of Mama's other ancestors. He was born in Bremen, Germany on 28 May 1819, the son of Andreas Jacob Hasling and his wife Elizabeth. He came to the United States 4 April 1840 aboard the ship Olbers from Bremen to New Orleans. We found him in a German census of men who turned 21 in 1840 where he is listed as living in Nord Amerika. Evidently he left home to avoid mandatory conscription. He was naturalized in Orleans Parish, Louisiana, on 19 February 1845.

     His obituary says that "He first engaged in the powder business, and was the agent of the Duponts in this section. Shortly afterwards he became interested in the ship chandlery and grocery business, which he conducted in Algiers for a number of years....He controlled the entire business of the Swedish and Norwegian vessels that came into this port." 

     On 5 October 1845 he married Mary Ann Keeling, a native of Missouri. Her brother, Steamboat Captain Franklin Keeling, signed the marriage bond with Adam Hasling. Adam and Mary Ann's first child, Emma, was born in 1846. Son Lawrence Andrew was born 19 February 1848, according to the Hasling Family Bible. Sarah Agnes "Maggie" was born 19 July 1849. Louise Catherine was born on 26 December 1850 and died on 21 August 1851. Hers was the first of a series of deaths that affected the Hasling family. Adam's wife Mary Ann died on 3 June 1852 of inflammation of the uterus,  a few weeks after the birth of daughter Mary Jane "Jennie" on 17 May, 1852.

     A. L. Hasling and Mary Ann are listed on the 1850 U. S. Census in Algiers, just across the river from New Orleans. He is 31 years old, a coffee house keeper from Bremen with property valued aat $8000. Mary Ann is 25, born in Kentucky. Son Lawrence is two years old and daughter Sarah Agnes is one. Living with them is James Keeling, age 18, a clerk, born in Missouri. This is probably Mary Ann's younger brother.

     On the next page of the 1850 census is Charles [Carl] Bayer and his wife Caroline and their two year old daughter, Caroline. Charles is 25, a coffee house keeper with $8000 of property, born in Germany. Wife Caroline is 21, also born in Germany. Living with them is clerk, Frederick Harding, born in Germany. They had two more children, sons, Johann Martin Theodore Beyer, born 10 October 1850, and Carl Martin Theodore Beyer, born 22 January 1853

     Hasling's coffee house and grocery was on Patterson Street, near Bartholomew (N.O. City Directory). This was a short distance from the coffee house and grocery operated by Charles and Caroline Beyer on Patterson Street corner Chestnut (N.O. City Directories 1850-1853). For those unfamiliar with New Orleans terminology, "coffee house" was what they called a cafe or bar. Many of the groceries included a cafe.

     On 1 October 1852 Carl Beyer died while Caroline was pregnant for their third child. On 10 October 1853 Adam Lawrence Hasling married widow Caroline Sophie Elizabeth Carstens Beyer. That same year Caroline's sister, Henrietta, married John Henry Hasling, Adam Lawrence's brother. Both of Caroline's sons were baptized on 6 November 1853 at St. Anna's Episcopal Church which is just a short ferry ride across the Mississippi River in New Orleans. Caroline and Carl's daughter evidently died between 1850 and 1853 as she was not baptized with her brothers. There was a yellow fever epidemic in 1853 that killed almost 1/3 of the population of the New Orleans area so she may have been one of those victims.

     The blended Hasling family included Adam's children from his first marriage, Emma, Lawrence, Maggie and Jenny, as well as Caroline's two sons Johan and Carl. They added three more daughters of their own, Laura Catherine, born 20 December 1855, Sarah "Sally," born May 1858, and Anna Amelia, [my Great Grandmothe] born April 1861.

CAROLINE SOPHIE ELIZABETH CARSTENS

Caroline Sophie Carstens c1850

     Caroline Carstens was born about 1826 in Westerbur, Oestfriesland, Hannove. It is estimated that she immigrated to New Orleans about 1846 because her 1891 death certificate says she was "45 years in this city." Her father, Hilrich Carstens, was a seaman, a ships captain, said Grandpa Begue. His name appears on New Orleans passenger lists in 1821, 1826, 1827, 1846 and 1849.

     Caroline's first husband arrived in New Orleans on 4 January 1841 aboard the Barque Clement from Hamburg. His name is listed as Carl M. T. Beyer and his occupation is Clerk. His full name was probably Carl Martin Theodore Beyer since both sons bore those names. He was born 17 May 1814 in Luneberg, Hannover. Once in New Orleans Carl was known as Charles.

     The 1855 New Orleans City Directory adds a coffee house and grocery operated by Adam's brother, John Henry Hasling at Patterson and Chestnut. This is the same business owned by Caroline and her first husband.

     The large Hasling family is listed on the 1860 Census in Algiers:

A. L. Hasling, age 41, a Merchant with $75,000 of real estate,  born in Bremen

Elizabeth, which was Caroline's third given name, age 39, born in Hanover

Henry Carstens, age 65, born in Hanover, probably Caroline's father, Hillrich

Their children are listed as Lawrence, age 13, Agnes, age 10, John [Beyer], age 9, Charles [Beyer], age 6, Laura, age 4, Emma, age 15, Sarah, age 2. Also living with the family is Diedrick Tableeman, age 19, a laborer from Bremen, and Geore Louchen, age 19, a clerk from Hanover.

     On the 1860 Slave Schedule A. L. Hasling is listed as having five slaves living in tw slave houses., three females, ages 50, 45, and 29, and two males, one age 48 and one a 6 month old baby. He is the only one of Mama's ancestors to own slaves.

     Adam's brother, John Henry Hasling drowned while on a hunting trip and the census lists his wife Henrietta as a widow with three children. Her occupation is Trading and Boarding.

     According to his obituary, Adam L. "fought for the confederacy" during the Civil War and "was a member of the famous Clay Guards." Before the war New Orleans had been the second largest port in the United States. The Union occupation and blockade decimated the shipping industry in the city. When Adam returned to the city he continued running the coffee house and grocery and began rebuilding his ships chandlery business. His obituary says, "...he controlled the entire business of the Swedish and Norwegian vessels that came into this port. Mr. Hasling invested largely in real estate, and had a beautiful summer residence at Biloxi, besides a number of other properties at that resort." In 1865 A. L. Hasling is listed as a Retail Liquor Dealer and Retail Dealer on Villere near Lavergne in Algiers (U.S. IRS Tax Assessment Lists, 1862-1918)

     In 1870 the Hasling family consisted of Adam and Caroline, Lawrence, Jenny, John, Charlie, Laura, Sally, and Amelia. Daughter Sarah Agnes "Maggie" had marrried Eugene Lalmant in 1869. 

     Algiers was annexed by New Orleans on 16 March 1870 by the Louisiana State legislature amid strong opposition from both sides of the river. it became the 5th Municipal Ward of the city. This was when the area was still under martial law during the difficult Reconstruction period which didn't come to an end until Union troops were removed from the city in 1877. Even after annexation Algiers retained a separate identity.

     In April 1874 A. L. Hasling made a trip back to Germany and Norway. On October 13, 1874 The New Orleans Times reported:

     "We were pleased to meet unpon the streets yesterday Mr. A. L. Hasling, the well known ship chandler and grocer, whose departure on an extended European tour in April last was the signal for the shipping at our wharves to suddenly grow rainbowey with boating. During the past six months Mr. Hasling has spent most of his time rusticating among the mountains of Norway. His appearance at the residences of wealthy ship owners, many of whose vessels he has supplied for nearly a third of a century, was made occasion for a series of ovations, to which not only the proprietors, but all in any way interested in the Norwegian vessels which visit this port, flocked."

     Adam Lawrence's passport application describes him at age 54 as 5 feet 8 inches tall, with a high forehead, grey eyes, a medium size nose, small mouth, round chin, grey hair, light complexion, and a round face.

     In the book The Story of Algiers, 1718-1896, reprinted 1971, William Seymour writes:

"The St. Charles Hall on Patterson Street, built for A. L. Hasling, was for many years the only ball room in town, and was the scene of many a social festive and political gathering. It was also used for amateur theatrical purposes from 1874 to 1878 by the Algiers Dramatic Association."  [Seymour was stage manager of the ADA.]   "Many delightful plays were rendered, with one exception, that of September 14th,1874. The male members of the association contributing to a more serious drama, being enacted upon the levee at Liberty place where the monument now stands." [Seymour is referring to the Battle of Liberty Place where Carpetbag Rule was overthrown.]

     The building was still there when I was a child. Mama said, "That was where Daddy's mother used to sing. And that was where Aunt Mamie and Aunt Carrie used to go to dance."

     Death plagued the Hasling-Carstens family. On 9 October 1873 Caroline's son Johan/John Beyer died at age 23. The next year on 19 November 1874 her son Carl/Charles died at age 21. There is no cause of death listed in the obituaries or death certificates. In November 1879 Adam and Caroline's son-in-law Charles Arthur Cordy died. Daughter Sally and and Charles Cordy were living with the Haslings at the time and Sally was pregnant for their first child. Charles is listed on the 1880 Mortality Schedule as dying of phthisis pulmonalis, an old term for tuberculosis, on 27 November 1879. Four and a half months later, on 14 March 1880, Sally gave birth to Mary Ann "May" Cordy. She is the little girl in the photo with A. L. Hasling at the beginning of this  post.

     In 1875 daughter Laura Catherine married Eugene Bakeler of Biloxi, Mississippi. In the 1880 census they are living with the Haslings on Villere Street in Algiers, although the census taker lists Eugene Bakeler as Eugene Hasling. A baby Maria Hasling is listed on the next line. Sally and husband Charles Cordy are also listed as living with the Haslings along with son James, age 7 months old.

     I believe that the census taker switched the names of the babies in the hosehold and that the Maria listed is Mary Ann "May" Cordy. Seven moonth old James is probably the son of Laura Hasling and Eugene Bakeler, born 25 November 1879. In a biography of Eugene Bakeler on the Biloxi Historical Society website, his first child is given as Joseph Bakeler born 1879, died 1895. He was registered in the New Orleans Birth Index with no first name given. Orleans Parish Death Index lists the death of Joseph Bakeler in 1895. The Biloxi Herald obituary on 30 March 1895 gives his name as Eugene Joseph Bakeler.

     Fires in Algiers in 1876 and 1881 destroyed several Hasling properties. On 26 August 1881 a story in the Times-Picayune titled "Fire in Algiers, A Cremated Coffeehouse" reported the destruction of Hasling's building at the corner of Chestnut and Patterson Streets. It was the one Caroline and her first husband Carl Beyer had owned.

     On 6 May 1882 daughter Anna Amelia Hasling married John Blaise Begue in Biloxi.  Adam signed the Marriage Bond and he and Caroline attended the wedding at the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Biloxi. Soon John and Amelia were living in Algiers near the Haslings.

     On 11 March 1884 daughter Laura gave birth to son Arthur Francis Bakeler and a month later on 11 April 1884 she died of inflammation of the uterus. Eugene Bakeler remarried Marie Chevalley on 24 October 1888. In 1900 he was operating The Biloxi News Company on Reynoir Street in Biloxi, selling newspapers, magazines, periodicals, tobacco, cigarsb and smokers' articles. His home and store were destroyed in the fire of 9 November 1900, but he soon rebuilt. This fire also burned several Hasling properties.

     In June of 1889 daughter Amelia's husband, John Blaise Begue, died of pulmonary tuberculosis leaving Amelia a widow with three young children. In 1890 she is listed in the New Orleans City Directory as Begue Annie, widow John, at 44 1/2 Delaronde Street. In 1891 she is listed at 49 Villere.

     Adam Hasling set up daughters Amelia and Sally with a hotel in Biloxi. It was probably a bed-and-breakfast type operation, catering to New Orleans residents who liked to spend the hot summer months on the Gulf Coast and serving Northern guests in the winter.

     On 7 March 1891 Caroline Sophie Elizabeth Carstens Hasling, who had suffered through the deaths of so many loved ones, died of carcinoma ventriculi, stomach cancer. Her will left everything to her husband. It was around this time that Adam relocated his business to the New Orleans side of the river "in the old Marigny building in the Third District." This was a short ferry ride from Algiers across the Mississippi River on the old Third District ferry.

     Then on 17 June 1894 tuberculosis claimed another of the Hasling family, daughter Amelia. While the family was still wrangling over Amelia's will, Adam Lawrence Hasling died of cirrhosis of the liver at age 76 on 12 August 1895. His obituary said that "His sturdy constitution began to fail him about two months ago, and his advanced years culd not withstand the inroads of the complications of disease that thereafter assailed him until yesterday morning, when death came to the relief of the venerable sufferer.... His funeral took place from the home of his daughter Jenny, Mrs. Francis Martin, at 232 Jackson street on 13 August 1895 at 10:00. He was laid to rest in the family tomb in Odd Fellows' Rest cemetery."

     Adam's will left everything to his son-n-law Francis Martin, husband of daughter Mary Jane "Jenny." A note on the transcript says "Estate consisted of over $40,000." (Wills, Harrison County, Mississippi 1853-1927, Book 2, Page 9, Mf Roll929.3762)

     In October of that same year one of Hasling's properties, "a queer, curious, old fashioned two-story building, erected by A. L. Hasling, at 68 Delaronde street, long occupied by an odd lot of tenants" burned in the Great Algiers Fire of 1895. (Seymour, 1971) Then in 1897 several more of his properties were lost when the river bank along Patterson street caved in. Several of his Biloxi properties also burned in 1900.

     Adam Hasling was not to rest in peace as his disinherited heirs continued to try to get part of his estate. The suit of son Lawrence Andrew Hasling, sometimes referred to as A. L. Hasling Jr., reached the Louisiana Supreme Court. After the Biloxi Fire of 1900 Lawrence sued to get part of the insurance money collected by brother-in-law Francis Martin.

     On 17 June 1902 The Times Picayune published the story of Lawrence Hasling's drowning death headlined "Hasling's Death, Poor and a Cripple, But Engaged in Litigation for His Father's Fortune, and His Drowning Gives Rise to Many Theories." The article asked, "Was it accident, suicide or foul play?"

     "The death of Lawrence A. Hasling and the finding of his body floating in the river at Concession, La., twelve miles below the city, is a mystery in more ways than one. There are the three theories, but no direct evidence in suppoort of either. No one knows how old man Hasling met his death. But the circumstances appear to be so peculiar, upon a hasty investigation, that some of his near relatives will  probably institute an official investigation of the matter..." The article said that his suit against Francis Martin had been in the courts for three years.

     None of Lawrence Hasling's family or the families of the other disinherited heirs ever got any of Adam Hasling's disputed fortune. Mary Jane "Jenny" Hasling died in 1910 and her husband, Francis Martin, died in 1911. My Grandma Begue used to say that the Hasling money was cursed. Maybe she was right.