Part II of week 25’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks covers the impact of my great-great grandfather John’s alcoholism on his family members and what became of them. There is a chunk of about 10-15 years that is sketchy. The family doesn’t show up on the 1900 United States census, which was taken in June of that year. I even found the enumeration district they were living in and searched the families on Garfield Street (the street listed in John’s Wife Notice) and the family isn’t there, nor is the family together on the 1910 census. Where were the seven Laberge children and my great-great grandmother, Mary Melanise (Marcoux) Laberge?
In 1905, five years after Melanise took John to court for non-support and he was sentenced to the workhouse, the family appeared to be mostly together and scraping by. I found them on the 1905 Rhode Island state census. This state census is a bit odd; instead of having all the family members on one sheet like the US census, the 1905 Rhode Island state census has a card for every person in the house. I had to search through all the Laberges in Central Falls, Rhode Island, and compare the family number and address to make sure I had the correct people as there are sometimes multiple people with the same names. My Laberge family is #138 and they were living at 14 Hedley Street. There were ten people in that household, though I was only able to find eight of them. Melanise (listed as Mary) was the head of her household, and she appeared with all of her children, except Annie. I found an Annie Laberge who was listed as an adopted daughter of family #184, living at 79 Earle Street, but initially assumed it wasn’t my Annie. John was not listed as a member of the household, nor were any John Laberges listed in Central Falls on that census. Two of the eldest children, Peter and Lena (listed as Delia), both worked – Lena as a spooler in a cotton mill, and Peter as a laborer. Remembering that one of John’s complaints about Mary was that her brother and sister were living with them, I did a search for Marcoux, and found the eighth person living in their house -- Louis Marcoux, the younger brother of Melanise, who also worked as a laborer.
I connected with a few third cousins on Ancestry, and the great-granddaughter of Antoinette, the youngest Laberge child, was able to shed some light on what happened to the family. Antoinette was adopted out of the family, and according to her, so were some of her other siblings. Though Antoinette was still with the family in 1905, Annie wasn’t. The Annie Laberge living with family #184 was our Annie.
After 1905, my information is scattered. As far as I’ve been able to piece it together, this is what happened to the Laberges.
Peter Laberge, the eldest child, was about 14 when his mother took his father to court. He had his own run-ins with the law. This February 2, 1906 article from the Evening Bulletin, reports on his thievery, but I have to wonder if Peter, who was only 20 at the time, was stealing out of desperation to help his family.
PEDDLER IN TOILS
Peter Laberge, who says he is 20 years of age, and that Central Falls is his place of residence, and who was arrested by Patrolman Moreau the afternoon previous, was in the District Court this morning, where he was arraigned on two counts of larceny. On the first, he was fined $15 and costs and the second $2 and costs and in default of payment was committed.
According to the police Laberge has been making the rounds of the city as a peddler of wood, but has in the meantime kept his eyes open for other lines of business. They allege that a day or two ago a pocketbook containing $9 was missed from the home of William Kyle of 15 Quincy avenue shortly after Laberge had been there and sold Mrs. Kyle some wood. Later they claim he sold 25 cents worth of wood to Julia Brasseau of 29 Congress street and that she gave him in payment a $1 bill. He could not change it and said he would go to a store at the corner for change. Although this was a day or two ago, the police say that he had not returned the change up to the time of his arrest.
The article doesn’t list the length of his sentence, but any sentence must have had a ripple effect on his family. They likely relied on Peter and Lena, as the eldest children, to work. Like most of his family, Peter wasn’t on the 1910 US census. On the 1915 Rhode Island census he is not living with his family and is listed as a carpenter. Later in 1915, he again made the newspaper for thievery. His uncle, Louis Marcoux, was arrested as well.
Peter Laberge and Louis Marcoux were arrested by Patrolman Albert E. Hunt last evening and locked up at the police station. The men were wanted by the police of Attleboro on the charge of having stolen six dozen ears of sweet corn. The men agreed to go over the State line without requisition paper and were turned over to the Massachusetts officers this morning.
After the corn incident, it appears Peter kept out of trouble. He is on the 1920 census (in Portland, Maine) and the 1930 census (in Seekonk, Massachusetts) living with his sister, Lena, and her husband, Leo Richardson. Lena was his closest sibling in age, and as the two lived together off and on for at least a 10 year period, it’s reasonable to assume they had a warm relationship. Peter had no children and died after a brief illness in 1938. His death certificate and his obituary say he was pre-deceased by a wife, Lena Brassow, but I’ve been unable to locate any marriage records. I found a 1927 directory listing in Attleboro, Massachusetts that lists a Peter and Lena Laberge, and while it’s likely it’s them, I can’t be sure.
Lena Delia Laberge, as the eldest daughter, was probably her mother’s right hand. In addition to working in the mills, she undoubtedly helped out at home with her younger siblings. Like most of her family, I can’t find her on the 1910 census. Lena married Leon J. Richardson, a divorced man with two daughters from his first marriage. By 1915, Lena was living in Portland, Maine where her daughter, Irene Blanche Richardson, was born. While in Portland, Lena wasn’t far from her younger sister (my great-grandmother) Blanche. On the 1920 census, Leo Richardson, Peter Laberge, and Blanche’s husband, Dana Ladd, all worked in a company that manufactured billiard balls in Portland. By 1930, her family and Peter had moved to Seekonk, Massachusetts, and that’s where she remained for the rest of her life. She and Blanche kept in touch; I have letters they exchanged. Since originally writing this post, I've gotten in touch with one of Lena's grandsons. Leo ran a woodturning shop and made beads that went on the ends of shoelaces and spools for thread. He eventually spun off into novelties like pens, mini baseball bats, and yo-yos, and in the 1950s he made wooden speed boats with unique designs. Leo wasn't a one-woman man, and eventually left Lena for someone else, but they never divorced and he still supported her financially. Lena lived on the first floor of a two-storey home in Seekonk, and her daughter Irene and son-in-law Alfred lived on the second floor. She passed away in 1971 at the age of 82.
Annie Laberge was adopted out of the family sometime between her parents’ court case in 1900 and the 1905 Rhode Island census. She lived with Hulderique and Alexina Gendron and their five children. Alexina was likely the same Mrs. Gendron who testified that the Laberge children had walked barefoot through the snow to beg for coal and wood to heat their home. Annie was four years older than the eldest Gendron child, so perhaps Mrs. Gendron saw the mutual benefit of providing Annie with a stable home while gaining a mother’s helper. She was still living with the Gendrons in 1910 and worked as a winder in a thread mill. Annie married Edward Glode in 1912 and they had four children. She named her eldest daughter Florida after her adopted sister who died the year before her daughter’s birth. By 1930, the family had moved from Rhode Island to Attleboro, Massachusetts. Although Annie was old enough to remember some of the worst of her father’s neglect, I feel she had an easier time than some of her other siblings. She was able to escape from her home and move in with a kind-hearted family that cared about her, but still maintain a relationship with her birth-family. Annie kept in contact with Blanche after she moved to Maine, and signed all of her letters, “Love, Annie & Eddie.” She passed away in 1980 at the age of 89.
Like his brother, Peter, David Joseph Laberge also made the newspaper in 1906. I found this in the January 31, 1906 Evening Bulletin:
In the District Court this morning David Laberge, who had been on probation since last week on the charge of being truant, was sentenced to the Reform School during his minority.
David was 12 in 1906, and I didn’t think cases of truancy were taken so seriously during that time period and at his age. Being sent to reform school for the remainder of “his minority” seems unduly harsh. Both of the Laberge boys were in court and sentenced only days apart, which must have been difficult on their mother and siblings.
As is the case with the majority of his family, David does not appear on the 1910 census, but he identified his father’s body that year, so he was out of reform school by then. His WWI draft card indicates that he served for 1 ½ years in the National Guard and was married. His wife was Eugenia Girard, a woman eleven years his senior. They had six children together, including a set of twin girls, and lived in Rhode Island. David was a carpenter and in his later years, a school custodian. He was an active member of his church. I have a couple of postcards he sent to Blanche, a newspaper clipping sent to her about his wife’s Victory Garden, and he’s often mentioned in letters sent to Blanche from her other sisters. I get the sense that out of the two sons, David was the responsible one, even though he was much younger than Peter. He was the son who identified his father’s body at the police station, and if you look at the dates, he was only a 16-year-old kid at the time. He was also the sibling who identified Peter’s body. It’s almost like he was the rock of the family. Sadly, David died suddenly while shopping on Woodbury Street in Pawtucket – likely from a heart attack. He was 61.
Rose Laberge was an interesting lady. Her great-grandson was told she was extremely religious, to the point where people found it difficult and uncomfortable to be around her. She is sometimes mentioned in letters to Blanche from her other sisters in a way that implies she was both sickly and a bit of a hypochondriac. Her sisters expressed frustration with her, which further paints her as someone difficult to get along with. Rose apparently didn’t enjoy being single. She was married a whopping four times, and if her fourth husband hadn’t outlived her, I have no doubt she would have married a fifth. She married her first husband, Paul Elphege Oliver Quintin, in 1914 when she was 18 years old. She had all four of her children who made to adulthood with him. After he passed away in 1922, she married Alfred Joseph Cadorette in 1923. He died shortly after in 1924. Rose gave birth to his daughter who was sent to an orphanage and died there as a baby. She was single for a chunk of time, and didn’t marry her third husband, Olier Hedge, until 1940. Olier died in 1951. She married her final husband, Theodore Lamarre in 1954. Rose and Blanche had a close relationship. I have the sweetest postcard Rose sent to Blanche in 1915, where she just gushes about her little baby, Armand. I have several pictures of Rose and Blanche together outside Blanche’s Westbrook, Maine home, so Rose definitely visited Blanche many times over the years. Rose died in 1960 at the age of 64.
I’ve already written a bit about my great-grandmother, Blanche Laberge. She wasn’t on the
1910 census, and I don’t know much about her childhood. As far as I know, she and Rose remained with their mother, but it’s possible they lived with another family at least temporarily. She married my great-grandfather, Dana Ladd, when she was a teenager, moved to Maine, and had children immediately. I’m writing a post about her later this year. As I said, none of her grandchildren or great-grandchildren knew about her childhood, and she was such a happy, positive person to be around that we never suspected she had a difficult life.
Antoinette Laberge was the baby of the family. As I mentioned, she was adopted out of the family sometime between the 1905 Rhode Island census when she was with her mother, and the 1910 United States census when she was in the home of Peter (Pierre) and Marie Lizotte. Unlike Annie, Antoinette has her adopted parents’ surname on the census and is listed as a daughter – not an adopted daughter. However, on her marriage certificate, her legal name is Antoinette Laberge. She must have been very much wanted and loved; the 1910 census indicates that Peter and Marie were married for 13 years, and at the time she was their only child. They were certainly able to provide her with a more comfortable and secure life than she came from. She married Philip Louis George in 1920 and had four children. When I learned that she had been adopted out of the family, I assumed she lost touch with her biological family. There were no letters from her in my great-grandmother’s things and no mention of her in letters to Blanche from her other siblings. When my cousin scanned our family pictures, there was one of a little girl with, “This is Melina,” written on the back, and another picture labeled "Melina" with a young woman holding her. Melina was the name of Antoinette’s first daughter, who died young, and her great-granddaughter confirmed that the woman was Antoinette. She and Blanche evidently were in contact. In Peter’s obituary, she is listed among his sisters. How Antoinette came to live in the Lizotte home, and what type of relationship they had with the Laberge family is unknown, but it’s reasonable to assume that she wasn’t completely cut off from her biological family. Best guess? She was given up shortly after Peter was sent to jail and David was sent to reform school. Antoinette died in 1942 when she was only 41 years old.
Mary Melanise (Marcoux) Laberge faced more heartbreak than anyone should have to face in their lifetime, and 1906 was probably among the worst years of her life, especially if that was in fact the year she gave up Antoinette. In addition to Peter being sent to jail and David to reform school days apart, her youngest brother, Adolphe, was killed in a horrific train accident when he was 23 years old. He had recently moved to Rhode Island and was living with one their sisters. While coming home one night, he became confused and lost. He drove his horse and buggy the wrong way down a train track and was struck and killed. The newspaper went into graphic details about the accident. I don’t know how she held it together and pushed through. After that, it’s difficult to track where she was because the only census I can confirm she’s on is that 1905 census. There are a Mary and Blanche on the 1915 Rhode Island census, however, there was another Mary and Blanche Laberge of similar ages in that area, and it may be them. The census was taken in April, and by then Blanche had been married and living in Maine for two months. Mary Laberge is such a common name that it’s almost impossible to be sure it’s our Mary/Melanise in any directories. From pictures, it looks as though she had several extended visits with Blanche in Maine. At the time of her death in 1956, she was living with Lena and Leo in Seekonk, Massachusetts. Her pallbearers were her grandsons: Ernest Glode, Alfred Glode, Arthur Glode, Armand Quintin, David Laberge Jr., and Phillip George Jr. She was 89.
Had John Laberge been a better man, his family would have led different lives. Peter wouldn’t have been burdened as the head of the family at 14, and likely wouldn’t have ended up in jail. I believe he committed his crimes in an effort to help his family. David may not have been sent to reform school for truancy. Perhaps he was truant so often because he was helping out with his younger siblings or doing odd jobs to bring in extra food and income. Annie and Antoinette would never have been adopted out of the family. Rose and Blanche may not have married so young. Lena would still have had the responsibilities of an eldest daughter in a large, Catholic family, but the burden of it wouldn’t have weighed quite so heavily on her young shoulders if she didn’t have to worry about how the family would feed themselves or heat their home. She only had one child, early in her marriage, and I think that may have been intentional. Children who are parentified at young ages are more likely to have small families or choose to remain child-free, and Lena faced adult-sized responsibilities before she was in her teens. She helped raise her siblings. She worked. It’s likely her mother confided in her. She watched as at least two of her sisters were adopted out of the family. That must have been heartbreaking, and I can see how it may have affected her family choices. When I look at pictures of the Laberge siblings, they all look older than their ages, even when they were young, with the exception of Antoinette, and that was likely due to the hard lives they led. Though they were dealt a lousy childhood they certainly didn’t deserve, I admire their resilience in the face of all of their hardships. They not only grew up to lead productive lives, but maintained their family ties despite the odds against them.
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