52 Ancestors Week 14

BEGINS WITH A VOWEL

     Many of my ancestors' names begin with vowels. We have several women named Anna, Anne, and Emma,  an Arabella, and an Amelia. We even have male ancestors named Adam and Albert. But we only have one with two names that begin with a vowel, Great Grandmother Anna Amelia Hasling, usually called Amelia. 

Anna Amelia Hasling Begue and her sister Sally Hasling Cordy
operated a small hotel in Biloxi, Mississippi from 1890 to about 1893.

     Anna Amelia Hasling was born in Algiers, Louisiana in April 1861, estimating from her age at death of  33 years and 2 months in her 1894 obituary. Or maybe in 1864 estimating from her age of 6 in the 1870 census. Or 1862 estimating from her age of 18 in the 1880 census.She was the third daughter of Adam Lawrence Hasling and Caroline Sophie Carstens. 

     Grandpa Begue said that his mother had dark hair and dark eyes. He also said she was an opera singer and he remembered watching her paint her throat with burnt cork before she sang at his Grandfather Hasling's ballroom in Algiers. Grandpa was only 7 years old when his mother died. 

     Her father, Adam Lawrence Hasling, had been married first to Mary Ann Keeling, who died on 3 June 1852. He married widow Caroline Sophie Carstens on 10 October 1853. Her first husband, Carl Martin Theodore Bayer had died 1 October 1852 while she was pregnant for their third child. Caroline's sister, Henrietta, was married to Adam's brother John Henry Hasling.  

     According to the 1860 census, there were three of A. L. Hasling's children from his first marriage in the household, Lawrence, age 14, Emma, age 16, and Agnes, age 11. Caroline and A. L. Hasling also had two daughters of their own, Laura Catherine, age 5, and Sarah "Sally," age 3. The New Orleans City Directory from the 1850s to 1861 show Amelia's father was operating a coffee house and grocery in Algiers. Soon he was off to serve in Gray's Regiment dring the Civil War leaving Caroline to run the business. The 1866 city directory shows him still operating the coffee house and grocery at Villere Street in Algiers. 

     On the 1870 census Amelia's family is listed as Adam Hasling, age 50, and wife Caroline, age 40. Living with them are children Lawrence 21, Jenny 18, John [Bayer} 19, Charlie [Bayer] 17, Laura 15, Sally 8, and Amelia 6.  In 1871 the city directory lists A. L. Hasling as grocer and ship chandler on Villere Street.  In 1880 Amelia is listed as 18 years old. Her sister Sally has married Arthur Cordy, a druggist, and has a baby girl, Mary Ann, always called May. They are all living with the A. L. Hasling family in Algiers.

     We don't know how Amelia Hasling met John Blaise Begue, whose family had a grocery in Biloxi, Mississippi. We do know that her father's brother, Henry Hasling, was living in Biloxi, Harrison County, Mississippi, in 1870. Her mother's Carstens family also had a home in Bioxi and in 1888 her father and mother had a summer home there as well.

     Mama said her father told her that Amelia Hasling's Episcopal family disowned her when she married Catholic John Blaise Begue. If her Episcopal family was upset, it did not stop them from attending the wedding at the Catholic Church in Biloxi. Listed as witnesses are A. L. Hasling, J. H. Cooper, B. Begue, Francis Martin, Martin Canby and Mrs. Caroline Hasling.  A. L. Hasling also signed the Marriage Bond with John Blaise Bégué two days prior to the wedding on 4 May 1882.

     On 7 February 1883 John and Amelia's first child, Mary Ann "Mamie" Begue, was born. Daughter Caroline Emilia "Carrie" was born 25 June 1885 and son John Louis was born 7 July 1887. The 1888 and 1889 New Orleans city directories list John Begue living at 47 Villere Street in Algiers. He was listed as a cotton inspecter in 1888 and as a cotton weigher in 1889.

     John Blaise Begue died on 7 June 1889 of pulmonary tuberculosis. On his death certificate his brother, Louis Bégué, declares that “John B. Bégué, a native of Biloxi, Miss., aged 38 years, departed this life this day (7 June 1889) at No. 47 Villere St., Algiers, in this city, Cause of Death pulmonary tuberculosis, Certificate of Dr. W. E. Schuppert. Deceased was married, 7 years in the city and a laborer by occupation.” His body was sent to Biloxi for burial in the Bégué plot of the Creole Cemetery in Biloxi. According to Biloxi Cemetery Records, 1841-1937, (Microfilm Z/1589 Roll 2) there are six graves in the Bégué plot in Section C-83, but none are legible.

     Mama said that after John Blaise Begue died, Amelia and her sister Sally Hasling Cordy, also a widow, operated a small hotel in Biloxi. This is probably the property on Lots 4 and 5, Fayard Alley owned by A. L. Hasling. The property is listed in court files as purchased in 1890. Small hotels like this were popular in the winter with Northern visitors and in the summer with Orleanians who left the city for the cooler Gulf Coast.

      The 1890 New Orleans City Directory lists Annie Bégué, widow of John, residing at 44 ½ Delaronde Street in Algiers, and the 1891 directory lists her as Annie E. Bégué, widow John, at 49 Villere. Her father, A. L. Hasling is living at 66 Villere and her uncle Henry Carstens is a partner in Carstens & Vezien, grocers and ship chandlers, 64 and 66 Villere. A receipt for real estate taxes is dated 23 August 1892 to Widow John Bégué for tax of $56.63 on $2,800 of real estate. The property is listed as Lot 5 and 6 located between Siguin, Villere, Bartholomew and Delaronde Streets.

     Amelia's mother Caroline died on 7 March 1891 of stomach cancer and left everything to Amelia's father. A. L. Hasling. On 7 November 1891 the Biloxi Herald's Local Happenings mentioned that Amelia was spending several weeks in Biloxi with her father. The same issue listed "For Sale - That fine and beautiful residence on the beach. Apply to A. L. Hasling or P. J. Moontross."

     On 17 June 1894 Amelia Hasling Begue died of phthisis pulmonalis, tuberculosis. Her will named Eugene Lalmant,  widower of her half-sister Sarah Agnes Hasling, her executor and tutor of her children who were to be placed in St. Joseph Orphan Asylum.

      Amelia's father A. L. Hasling died on 12 Aug 1895. He left everything to his son-in-law, Francis Martin, husband of Mary Jane "Jenny" Hasling, resulting in several law suits. Eugene Lalmant died 21 Nov 1896. Amelia's uncle  Henry Carstens was then named tutor of the children and he died soon after on 2 April 1898.  His wife, Mary Ann Fink Carstens, was soon involved in law suits over her handling of the estate.

     Further complicating the law suits were the great Algiers fire of October 1895 and the great fire in Biloxi on 9 November 1900 which destroyed several houses owned by the Haslings and Carstens families.

52 Ancestors Week 13

LIGHT A CANDLE

My Votive Candle Collection

     This week's theme made me think of my Grandma Begue. She always lit a candle at church to pray for someone in the family. Also when she was angry with someone she would say, "I'm going to light a black candle on her." I never saw her light a black candle, but I know she was very superstitious.  I collect votive candles and thought maybe a black candle had something to do with Voodoo, which was common in New Orleans, but when I looked up the meaning of burning a black candle I found it was not to cast a Voodoo spell on someone but for protection from negative energy or to break hexes or curses.

     I wrote a lot about Grandma Begue for Week 7, so I decided to write about her parents this week. I think some of her superstitions came from her mother, Anna Hathaway Gonzales. Her last name is listed in many different ways, Hattaway, Hardaway, Hartway, and even Hartwig. She was known to all of the family as Little Grandma. She died in 1943 when I was almost 3 years old so I barely remember her but my Mama had lots of stories about her. 

      Anna Hattaway and her twin Hannah were born in Algiers, Louisiana, on 3 January 1860, daughters of Peter Hardaway/Hartway/Hartwig from Copenhagen, Denmark, and Bernardina Harmeyer of Alfhausen, Hanover, Germany. Little Grandma said she was born with a veil, meaning that the amniotic sack covered her head. This was said to have given her the power to communicate with the dead.

      Little Grandma said that she was the sickly twin and had to be carried around on a pillow because she was so frail. She survived but her twin died. Anna  is listed on the 1860 census as 5/12 years old with her parents Peter and Dianah Hatherway. In the 1860 Mortality Schedule Dianah [Hannah] Hatherway is listed as dying in February at age 1 month of inflammation of the lungs after being ill for seven days. She was Peter and Dina's sixth and last child. (One of the strange coincidences of genealogy is that I named my daughter Dina before I knew that Bernardina's nickname was Dina.)

        Little Grandma's father died sometime between 1862 and 1870 leaving her mother to raise five daughters and one son. Peter had been a ships carpenter and worked on the riverfront in Algiers which later became part of New Orleans. During the Civil War and the blockade of the port he may have gone off aboard ship. Little Grandma only knew that he went away and never came back. He is listed with his family on the US census in 1860 but not in 1870. Bernardina died 8 October 1883. 

         Little Grandma married John Henry Gonzales (1856-1907) on 15 April 1880. He was also born in Algiers and worked on the riverfront and as a fireman. His father, John Gonzales (~1820-1884), was born in Northern Spain and his mother, Anne Farnan (1827-1910), was born in Ireland. Anna and John Henry Gonzales had seven children, only three of whom survived to adulthood: Joseph Manuel (1882-1938), James Peter (1886-1957) and Sarah Ann (1888-1965). 

      On the 1900 census, the John H. Gonzales family is listed in the Algiers section of New Orleans at 716 Newton Street near Valette. John H. is 44 and a day laborer, wife Annie is 36, son Joseph M. age 17, is a day laborer, son James P. is 13, daughter Sarah A. is 11, and John's mother, Ann, a 73 year old widow is living with them. John Henry Gonzales died 6 February 1907 of chronic nephritis at age 51.

     In 1910 Little Grandma, Uncle Joe, and Uncle Jim, and Great Great Grandmother Anne Farnan Gonzales are living at 936 Valette Street in Algiers with daughter Sarah Ann Gonzales and her husband John Begue and their first child, Robert, who is 1 year old.

     Little Grandma died at age 83 on 6 July 1943 of arteriosclerotic heart disease. Her obituary says that she was survived by nine grandchildren and six great grandchildren. I'll have to light a candle for her.

James Peter Gonzales, Anna Hathaway Gonzales, and Joseph Manuel Gonzales 1932

  

52 Ancestors Week 12

 

John Foster Collins grave
St. Stephens Episcopal Church Cemetery
Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana

MEMBERSHIP

My great great grandfather John Foster Collins was a member of the Masons. It says so in his biography in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Louisiana (Chicago, The Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1892), Vol. 1, p355.

I wrote a little about his family last week. This biography says he was born near Dallas on 13 February 1844. I'm still looking for proof of that. On the 1850, 1860 and 1870 censuses he is listed as born in Missouri. He was the seventh child in a family of fourteen children born to Albert G. Collins and Permelia Foster, both born in Kentucky, who moved to Texas in 1844. I had Albert's middle name as Galvin but most family trees on line and several records have it as Gole. One record has it as Gale. 

The Goodspeed bio says "J. F. Collins had only slight educational advantages, and although he was somewhat mischievous as a youth,  he managed to imbibe a considerable knowledge of the world of books, and was an attendant of the commmon schools until he was about seventeen years of age." I am curious about than "mischievous" description but evidently it wasn't anything bad enough to make the local newspapers.

"Upon the opening of hostilities in 1861 he enlisted [in] the Eighteenth Texas cavalry and in 1862 was captured at Arkansas Post and for six months was kept a prisoner. Upon being exchanged he joined the infantry in Bragg's army and was a participant in the battles of Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge and other promninent engagements. He was transferred to the Western department under General Buckner, as an officer on his staff, and afterward joined his brother's company as a scout, doing duty in the country in which he is now residing [Pointe Coupee Parish], where 'Collins' scouts' became noted for their daring deeds, capturing over 300 federal soldiers."

John's older brother Walter S. Collins (1839-1865) was probably the one mentioned above. He served  in the Texas Cavalry, Company E, Waller's 13th Battalion. He died of disease 22 Mar 1865 in a Prisoner of War Camp and is buried in Woodlawn National Cemetery, Elmira, New York. I posted a photo of his gravestone and a little about him on this blog back on 30 May 2022.  I also posted about his infamous younger brother Joel W. Collins (1848-1877) just last week.

The Goodspeed bio says that after the war John returned to Texas "and farmed and traded in stock for two years, after which he returned to Pointe Coupee Parish, and here has followed planting and merchandising ever since.  He is also handling stock and furnishing supplies for the government work in the improvement of rivers and for steamboat lines that ply the Red and Atchafalaya rivers. In addition to raising and dealing in cattle he also buys and sells mules and horses, his purchasing points being Missouri and Illinois. He has found this business to be quite profitable." 

On 7 June 1865 John married Emma Louise Chalfant of Pointe Coupee, Louisiana. They no doubt met during his time there during the Civil War. They had five children: my great grandmother Anna Belle, Emma Maude, Albert Foster, Charles Foster, and Joseph. His son Charles Foster Collins evidently took after his Uncle Joel and died in a gun fight with L. L. Lemoine at Tilden  Plantation in Avoyelles Parish 8 April 1910.  The bio says that John and Emma's daughters were educated at Brookhaven, Mississippi, son Albert attended Commercial college in New Orleans, and Joseph was in school at Port Gibson, Mississippi.

John Foster owned a lot of land in Louisiana. The bio says "Mr. Collins owns 400 acres of land in Pointe Coupee parish, of which 300 acres are under cultivation, 3,200 acres in Avoyelles parish, 1,700 being under cultivation, and 3,500 acres in Concordia parish, 2,500 being under the plow. He handled last year (1891) about 3,500 bales of cotton and 13,000 bushels of corn. In Avoyelles parish he has 1,500 acres of fine timber land, mostly cypress. He began merchandising in 1872 on a limited scale and has now in operation five stores and is doing a large furnishing business. In his various stores he carries an aggregate stock of $30,000 and does an annual business of about $100,000. He owns  a cotton gin and saw mill and does a warehouse business and handles ten tons of ice weekly. All of this fine property has been acquired since the war, and as it has been obtained through honest business methods he has every reason to be proud of his success. He is of a jovial disposition and extremely hospitable."  

It sounds like he had reason to be jovial!

52 Ancestors Week 11

LUCKY

 

     Finding Joel Collins last week was pure luck. I had been researching my paternal great great grandfather John Foster Collins and his family. I was looking up all of his brothers and sisters...13 of them...on Find a Grave to figure out when the family arrived in Collin County, Texas.  

     When I came to his younger brother, Joel W. Collins, I was in for a big surprise. There was an intriguing photo of Joel with a group of cowboys.

     The basic information said Joel was born 4 December 1848 in Dallas, Dallas County, Texas, and died 26 September 1877 at age 28 in Gove, Gove County, Kansas. Burial details unknown. Specifically: Buried in an unmarked grave in Ellis, Kansas.

      It also said that "Joel Collins, co-leader of the Bass-Collins gang, was shot dead by Sheriff George Bardsley's posse and soldiers at Buffalo Station (now Gove), Kansas, a week after the Big Spring train robbery."  (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/152679484/joel-w-collins)

     Well, THAT called for more research! I soon found a site called Legends of America with a full page on Joel Collins - Cowboy Outlaw of the Black Hills.  (https://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-joelcollins/ ) There was even a book advertised for sale. Of course I ordered it and I'm waiting impatiently for it to arrive.

     What I've learned so far from the Legends of America website is Joel had made four cattle drives from Texas to Kansas. In 1876 he bought several hundred cattle to drive north and signed several promissory notes to pay after the cattle were sold. Joel, Sam Bass and Jack Davis drove the cattle to Ogallala, Nebraska and sold them for $8,000. They then headed north to Deadwood, South Dakota, to look for gold. Arriving in the fall they found mining impossible in the snow and freezing rain. Jack Davis built a brothel and Collins and Bass started a freighting outfit. They spent most of their time playing poker and drinking and soon lost all the money they had  made selling the cattle. Three more men joined them and they started robbing stagecoaches. They became known as the Black Hills Bandits. On September 18, 1877 they robbed the Union Paciifc Railroad at Big Springs, Nebraska, of $60,000 in $20 gold pieces.

     The men divided up  the money and split into three pairs, each heading in a different direction. Joel Collins and Bill Heffridge rode south to Buffalo Station, Kansas. There they were recognized and Sheriff George Bardsley and ten troopers from Fort Hays appproached them for questioning. On the way back to town, Collins pulled his pistol and shouted, "By God! Let's die game!" But their luck had run out and they were killed before they could get off a shot. Their bodies were taken to Ellis, Kansas, where they were identified and buried at the local cemetery.

     Was there another bandit involved? Author and former North Dakota State Trooper Jim Benjaminson wrote about a shootout in Pembina involving William Collins, Joel's brother, who he says participated in the Big Springs robbery.

52 Ancestors Week 9

 Gone Too Soon

As soon as I read this weeks theme I knew I would have to write about my Uncle Sidney.  He was my mother's brother, born on Valentine's Day in 1922 and died on Mother's Day in 1953. 

Sidney James Begue 1922-1953

            

John Louis Begue Sr. Family 1946
Travis, Sidney, Gonzales, John Begue Sr., John Jr., Charles
Florence, Leotha, Sara Gonzales Begue, and Vera
(They were all dressed up for Cousin Carmela's wedding.
Uncle Robert is the only one missing.)

Begue Gravestone
McDonoghville Cemetery, Gretna, Louisiana

He was my favorite uncle. My little brother was named for him. We lived around the corner from Grandma and Grandpa so I spent a lot of time at their house. 

I remember him teaching me and my cousins how to build kites and helping us fly them on the levee.  When we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Mississippi he would take us crabbing off the sea wall.

During the war (World War II) Uncle Sidney tried to enlist but his high blood pressure made him ineligible so he joined the Merchant Marines.

Some of my earliest memories are of Uncle Sidney coming over to visit us in his uniform. In the end it was his high blood pressure that killed him. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage on May 10, 1953.

I still miss him.    

Two of the birth dates on the stone are wrong.

Joseph M Gonzales was born in 1883 and 

Mrs. John Gonzales (Great Grandma Gonzales)

was born in 1860.

52 Ancestors - Week 8: I Can Identify

I Can Identify this little girl...

Mary Eliza "Maimie" David  (1877-1971)
Photo by A. D. Lytle Studio, Baton Rouge, La.

     The 1880 U.S. Census lists my Great Grandparents, Samuel Walker Booksh and Arabella Maria Tisdale Booksh, living with Sam's parents, Charles Booksh and Eliza Leonard Booksh, in the 9th Ward of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana.

     Also living with them are four grandchildren, identified as Elisa Mary age 22, Charles C. Booksh age 19, Mary Eliza Booksh age 3, and S. B. David age 4. Elisa Mary (Mary Eliza in church records) and Charles C. (Charles Everitt in church records) were the children of Sam's oldest brother, Charles Edouard Booksh (1838-1911).

     Several people have assumed that 3 year old Mary Eliza was the daughter of Sam and Belle because the census taker omitted her surname and put a ditto mark behind her name. We know from the family bible and church records that Sam and Belle had only four children, Samuel Walker Jr., Charles Leonard, Wilton Tisdale and Arabella Guinevere. We have puzzled over who this Mary Eliza was for years, but the mystery has finally been solved.

     By making a list of every Mary Eliza and Eliza Mary connected to the family it was clear that the Mary Eliza listed in the 1880 census was Mary Eliza "Maimie" David. She and her brother Seth Booksh David were the children of Sam's sister, Eliza Elizabeth "Lizzie" Booksh and her husband, Joseph Johnson David (pronounced Dah VEED).

     Lizzie Booksh was born 11 April 1855 and married Joseph David on 11 May 1875. Their son Seth Booksh David was born 19 February 1876 and Belle and Sam were his godparents. Daughter Mary Eliza David was born 30 June 1877. Lizzie died young at age 22 on 31 March 1878 and is buried in the David plot in Magnolia Cemetery in Baton Rouge. Joseph David had remarried by the time of the 1880 census and is listed in the 4thWard of West Baton Rouge Parish with his new wife, Amelia, age 21. 

52 Ancestors Week 7

Sarah Ann Gonzales Begue c1910 with son Robert
This is the earliest photo we have of Grandma Begue.

     The theme for Week 7 is Outcast, but I couldn't think of anyone who fit that category so I decided to go with #7 on my Ancestor Chart, my maternal grandmother Sarah Ann Gonzales Begue.

     Sarah Gonzales was born 26 December 1888, the first daughter of John Henry Gonzales and Anna Hathaway. She was delivered by Dr. Lowe. She entered her name as Sarah Anna Gonzales in the Begue Bible but is referred to as Sarah Ann on her birth registration and as Sara Ann in her baptismal record and by her nickname "Sadie" on some other documents. She was baptized Sara Ann Gonzales at Holy Name of Mary Church in Algiers, New Orleans, Louisiana. Sponsors were her uncle George Giles and her Grandmother Anna Farnan Gonzales. My mother said she had blue eyes and black hair. 

     In 1890 her father, John Gonzales, is listed in the New Orleans City Directory at 176 1/2 Eliza Street, Fifth District, which is Algiers, and in 1891 at 180 1/2 Eliza Street in Algiers. Mrs. Ann Gonzales is listed at the same address. That would be John Henry Gonzales's mother, Anne Farnan Gonzales, who was born in Ireland.

     My Mama said, "Mama went to the blind man's school in Algiers." That was undoubtedly the blind educator William Wallace Lampton, who operated a private elementary school in Algiers. (This is Algiers, Richard E. Dixon, 1971, p. 72) Algiers is the part of New Orleans on the West Bank of the Mississippi River.

     In the 1900 U.S. Census the John H. Gonzales family is listed in the Algiers section of New Orleans at 716 Newton Street near Vallette Street.  John H. is 44 years old and a day laborer. Wife Annie is 36, son Joseph M. is 17, a day laborer, son James P. is 13, daughter Sarah A. is 11 and John's mother Ann, a widow, is 73. The Gonzales family is at the bottom of the page and is scribbled over by the census taker in making his calculations. Therefore it did not appear on any census indexes and required a page by page search of the microfilm roll for Algiers. This was long before the census images were online.

     My Mama said, "Mama and her best friend used to work at the shrimp factory up near the McDonoghville line. They would walk home on the levee. On their way home, they were followed by a man who acted strange." Mama lowered her voice and covered her mouth. "He exposed himself! One day when he approached them, Mama's friend said, 'Don't worry. He won't bother us anymore.' She reached up and took the hatpin out of the back of her hat and stuck him with it...down there..."

How Grandma Met Grandpa

     I was lucky that I interviewed and recorded my mother about all the old family stories. Here's what she told me when I asked her how Grandma met Grandpa John Louis Begue.

     "Mama's father sent her to the store to get him some tobacco and papers. Men rolled their own cigarettes then. Daddy and his friend Robert Crombie were at the store to buy tobacco, too, and that was how they met. When they got married on November 20, 1907, Robert was their best man, and they named their first child after him."    

     Robert John Begue was born 29 November 1908. He was baptized at Holy Name of Mary Church on 24 December 1908. Sponsors were Robert Crombie and Sarah's cousin Annie M. Giles. In the 1910 U.S. Census they are living at 936 Vallette Street in Algiers next door to Grandma's mother Anna, now a widow, Uncle Joe and Uncle Jim and Grandma Anne. Father John Henry Gonzales died on 6 February 1907 at age 51. Grandma Anne Farnan Gonzales died 28 November 1910 at age 83.

     Grandma and Grandpa Begue's family continued to grow. In 1910 daughter Florence Amelia was born, followed in 1912 by my mother Vera Mary. Son John Louis Begue Jr. was next in 1914 and then a third daughter Leotha Mildred Begue in 1917. Sons  Sidney James in 1922; Travis Adolph in 1924 and Charles Martin in 1927 brought the total to nine children.

     Grandpa John Louis Begue Sr. died 10 October 1951 at age 64 and Grandma Sara Begue died 22 June 1965 at age 76.  Needless to say I have many more stories about the family but they will have to wait for another week.