1934: A Charboneau reunion in the news

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Third in a series on my Charboneau ancestors in New York’s Adirondack foothills during the summer of 1934.

In August 1934, my paternal grandmother Mary (Owen) Charboneau received a Self Book from a guest at the Otter Lake Hotel. In it she wrote about several happenings that summer — including a reunion of the extended Charboneau family:

http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/list.php?m=a&s=tu&aid=626
Moose River by Levi Wells Prentice (1884). A Charboneau reunion was held in 1934 at Riverside Farm along the Moose River near Otter Lake, N.Y. My great-grandfather Will, 78; grandfather Ray, 46; and Uncle Owen, 23, attended along with my dad Norm, who was 10 years old. Artwork: The Athenaeum

Family reunion of the Charboneau clan was held Sunday, Aug. 12 – 1934 at the home of Wm. Charboneau on the Moose River at Boonville, N.Y. A large gathering were there. Ray, Owen and Norman attended from here. Next year’s reunion is to be held in Prospect Park. Pa Charboneau was the oldest member of the family at the reunion.

I vaguely remembered seeing a news clip about this reunion, so I took another look at the Old Fulton New York Postcards website. Sure enough, there was a write-up of the event in the Aug. 14, 1934, evening edition of the Rome Daily Sentinel.

Write-up of the Charbonneau Reunion in the Aug. 14, 1934. Rome Daily Sentinal. (Click image to enlarge). Source: Old Fulton New York Postcards

Headlined “Boonville: Four Clans Meet In Yearly Events,” the article included a section on the well-attended family get together — spelling Charbonneau with with a double-n (our branch uses just one):

The annual reunion of the Charbonneau family was held on the spacious lawn at Riverside Farm with Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Charbonneau and family. Dinner was served with covers laid for 64.

Oldest attendee and officer elections

My grandmother’s journal entry said my paternal great-grandfather (Pa) was the oldest at the event — and the news clip backed her up.

The oldest member present was William L. Charbonneau, 78, Dolgeville, and the youngest was Clifford Charbonneau, age one and a half years, Old Forge.

The extended Charboneau family was large enough back then to elect officers — though I am still parsing out how they and the other attendees fit into my Charboneau family tree.

Officers as follows were elected: president, Charles Donnelly, Utica; Vice President, Lawrence Charbonneau, Utica; secreatary, Mrs. William F. Karlen, Utica; treasurer, Mrs. Peter Zimmer, Oriskany.

Riverside Farm and the guest list

Curious about the venue, I did a bit of research on Riverside Farm and found a 2003 obituary for Douglas Charbonneau, 86. It said he lived on the farm as a child with his parents Louis and Vera (Jenks) Charbonneau.

According to the 1934 Daily Sentinel clip, all three were at the Charboneau reunion — as was Douglas’s brother Billy. Douglas would have been 12 at the time.

The rest of the guest list — detailed in part in the clipping above — is a roster of Charboneau relatives and in-laws , with the furthest traveling from Albany, N.Y., to attend.

Dad remembered the gathering

When my dad (Norm) and I began researching our family’s history together, he told me he remembered going to a Charboneau reunion near his Otter Lake home town when he was a kid. Perhaps this was the one.

According to my grandmother, my father went from our branch of the family — along with his father Ray, 46, and his oldest brother Owen, 23.  Dad turned 10 in July 1934, so he was old enough to retain memories of such an impressive  gathering — and I regret I never asked him more about it.

Yet my grandmother’s journal and the Rome Daily Sentinal have helped fill in that gap — providing valuable details about the Charboneau reunion that made such an impression on Dad as a boy.

Up next: A recent family reunion of my grandmother’s Dempsey-Owen family. Please stop back.

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