Sepia Saturday 641. Ninth in a series about family history discoveries in the recently released 1950 U.S. census.
After finding my paternal grandparents, William Ray and Mary (Owen) Charboneau, living in Holland Patent, N.Y., during the 1950 US census, I launched a new search for my dad’s four brothers to see if they lived nearby. That’s how I found two of them — Uncle Owen and Uncle Fred – living in Holland Patent, where they operated a grocery store together.
Uncle Owen, dad’s oldest brother, had a memorable baritone voice emanating from a tall, formidable frame. In 1950, Owen Albert Charboneau, 38, was living on Main Street with his wife Aline, 37 – known to us as Aunt Gig.
Living with them were Gig’s parents, Daniel O. DesJardins, 75, and wife Cordelia, 69, both from Canada — no surprise there, as Aunt Gig spoke English with a pronounced Quebecois intonation.
The Charboneau grocery store
Uncle Owen was listed as an owner and manager of a retail grocery – a store I visited as a child. He worked 72 hours during the week before the census. 1Source: NARA, scroll to page 2. Interestingly, Owen’s next-door neighbor gave the same occupation! Hard to imagine that little Holland Patent – population 400 in 1950 — could support two grocery stores.
Next, I found Frederic Mason Charboneau, 32, living on Steuben St. with his wife Jean (Bastow) Charboneau, 30. Uncle Fred worked 53 hours during the week before the census and was the owner and proprietor of a retail grocery.2Source: NARA, scroll to page 10.
My paternal grandfather, William Ray Charboneau, also worked at his sons’ grocery store – putting in 60 hours in the week before the census.
How did they afford a store?
Since the 1950 census doesn’t tell us, I wonder how my uncles had the financial wherewithal to set up their small business in the post-WWII era. Perhaps through a G.I. Bill small business loan? Owen had served in the Navy while Fred was in the Army, so they were probably eligible.
Before he married, Uncle Fred was also diligent about saving during the war – sending money home for my grandmother to deposit in his account, according to letters he wrote her while serving abroad. Did his savings help bankroll the store?
And what about my paternal grandparents? They had downsized from managing an Adirondack hotel and moved to a small home in Holland Patent. Had they invested savings in the grocery store?
Hard to know for sure how they got the store going. But no matter where the startup financing came from, the Charboneau grocery was a genuine family operation to which they each devoted long hours.
Up next, a surprise memento of the Charboneau Brothers General Store. Meanwhile, please visit the blogs of this week’s other Sepia Saturday participants.
© 2022 Molly Charboneau. All rights reserved.
Fascinating! My immigrant grandfather owned a small dairy store and so did his brother and two bros-in-law. They loaned each other money to bootstrap, according to family letters, and in this way they could afford rent, inventory, fixtures. In some cases, they built the business enough to sell, then started over (with family help).
My relatives likely did the same, pitching in to help one another because no one of them could have done it alone.
Another fantastic glimpse into the lives of your family/ancestors! I love your use of such fantastically chosen descriptors; it makes me feel like I really get to know them! I feel like this one is the most descriptive thus far! I love how close knit your family is! Looks like you have more fun digging to do! 😉
Thanks, Diane! It helps that I actually knew my Uncle Owen and Aunt Gig, which makes it easier to describe them than more distant relatives and ancestors. And yes…more fun research ahead!
Interesting to try and figure out how they were able to start the grocery store. Perhaps some of or all the ideas you mentioned. One of my great uncles by marriage started a grocery store by starting small and reinvesting his profits. He started with practically nothing and ended up with many investments and much profit. My grandmother managed the store for years before she married my grandfather.
That may be another way that my uncles funded the store, starting small then expanding as business picked up.
This was a very good introduction to your uncles. It’s interesting how a theme of entrepreneurial spirit runs through all your various family stories. Of course it’s a classic middle-class aspiration shared by many American families but I enjoy the way you present how your multi-cultural generations set about making a living in times past. The little mom and pop store, or brother and brother store, are still the foundation of America’s small towns and rural villages.
Small businesses were, and still are, an economic driver in upstate New York. For my ancestors, it seems to have been a way to earn a living with minimal startup costs in areas where there were fewer other job opportunities.
However they got started in the grocery business it must have been profitable if they stayed with it. One thing I’ve noticed since the pandemic, even now, is the inability for supermarkets to keep things on the shelves we never before had trouble finding. I’m glad we’ve moved closer to town so that I only need shop for dinners for a couple of days at a time. When we lived further away, I had to plan for a week at a time and not knowing what I would or would not find on a familiar shelf in the store made it difficult to plan. I had to make notes of possible second choices most of the time. Much easier now.
The same is happening near me — many small stores closing due to lack of patronage or rising rents, especially during the pandemic, or being driven out by competition from big box stores. A shame, as small stores often offer a more unique, personal experience.
I had some grocery store owners on my p. grandmother’s side of the family, too. My grandmother’s father was both a farmer and a country store owner, according to the Swedish census of 1880. Our censuses don’t say anything about the number of hours of work put in, but my guess would be like all day, six days a week… (In 1880, he had 7 children to support.)
Yes, small businesses appear to have demanded long hours — much like the farm economy that preceded them in the U.S. A shame the Swedish census didn’t collect data on work hours.