Sepia Saturday 682. Third in a new series about letters written by my dad’s brother Frederic Mason Charboneau while in the US Army during WWII.
In a Jan. 12, 1943, letter home, my dad’s brother Frederic Mason Charboneau told his mother, “Tomorrow morning makes it exactly one year since I stood out in front of the Remsen School and said goodbye to you and my civilian life.”
This got me wondering: what do I really know about Uncle Fred’s civilian life? I have no personal memories of him (he died when I was two years old) and no surviving family members to consult with. Yet how can I understand his letters without knowing something about his time before WWII? So I set off on a new research quest to see what I could find.
Early childhood: Dolgeville to Utica to Whitesboro
Uncle Fred was born on March 13, 1918, in Dolgeville, Herkimer Co., N.Y., as confirmed by the New York State Birth Index for 1918 – the fourth of five Charboneau brothers. It was the year of the Great Influenza Pandemic, but fortunately he was not affected.
Fred’s parents (and my grandparents) William Ray and Mary (Owen) Charboneau were working respectively at a piano sounding board factory and the Daniel Green Felt Shoe Company in Dolgeville – no doubt saving money for their next career move.
Because soon thereafter, Uncle Fred appears in the 1920 U.S. census of Utica, Oneida Co., N.Y.11920 US Census: FamilySearch requires free login to view records., at age 1 year and 10 months – living with the family at 1000 Whitesboro Street, above an A&P Tea Company store managed by my grandfather Ray.
By the time of the 1925 New York State census21925 NYS Census: FamilySearch requires free login to view records., the family had moved to a house at 5 Redfield Ave. in nearby Whitesboro, N.Y., and all five brothers were present: Uncles Owen (13), Franny (11), Hubert (9), Fred (7) and my dad, Norm (just 329 days!). (See photo below).
A fortuitous move to Otter Lake
Within five years, though, according to the 1930 U.S. Census31930 US Census: FamilySearch requires free login to view records., the family had finally arrived at Otter Lake, N.Y. — the small Adirondack lakeside town in Forestport, Oneida Co., N.Y., that would become the childhood home of Uncle Fred and the younger Charboneau boys.
Family lore is that my grandmother Mary (aka Molly) saw a want ad for someone to run the ice cream parlor at the Otter Lake Hotel – so she responded.
By 1930, my grandfather Ray was a wholesale grocery salesman — which may have offered enough flexibility for her to take the job and for the family to eventually relocate.
The move proved fortuitous. Within a few years, my grandparents were operating the Otter Lake Hotel – a scenic Adirondack vacation spot where Uncle Fred and my dad Norm worked their first jobs in the family business.
Uncle Fred heads to high school
Meanwhile, Uncle Fred was forging ahead in school. On June 25, 1931, in an article titled “Otter Lake School Closes for Summer,” the Boonville Herald announced that he was among the students who had completed the 8th grade and were headed to high school – but not before enjoying an end-of-year picnic and festivities:
“Otter Lake school closed June 19 for the summer vacation. The following pupils completed the eighth grade and will enter high school next fall: Gilbert Hammond, Abraham Madore, Frederic Charbonneau, Helen Green and Odiana Madore. These pupils tried their regents examinations at Woodgate.
“Thursday the pupils of the school with their teacher, Mrs. Agnes Hammond, enjoyed a picnic on the camping grounds and sports were held during the afternoon. At four o’clock a splendid picnic dinner was served after which the children were taken for a ride. This was one of the most enjoyable events of the year.”4Boonville Herald, June 25, 1931, at fultonshistory.com
In high school and after, Uncle Fred focused on a business-oriented education – amassing civilian skills that would come in handy at his Otter Lake Hotel job, and later when he was drafted into the service during WWII.
Details on Uncle Fred’s school life in a future post — but first: exactly when did he and the family move to Otter Lake?
More on Uncle Fred’s civilian life in the next post. Please stop back! Meanwhile, please visit the other intrepid bloggers over at Sepia Saturday and tip your hat to Alan who has kept us going — then visit the blog-hop gang over at Wordless Wednesday using the link below.
Powered by Linky Tools
Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…
© 2023 Molly Charboneau. All rights reserved.
Great photos! I love how you’re digging into the sociohistorical context of your family; it definitely adds more to the family history! Where were you able to find the last bit of info about your uncle, after high school? 🙂
Thanks, Diane. I’m planning a future post with details about Uncle Fred’s school life, so please stop back for that one 🙂
Wonderful family history photos ~
We used to pass through Dolgeville’s when taking the side route to Little Falls to visit in laws ~ Wow!
Wishing you good health, laughter and love in your days,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)
That’s amazing! Little Falls is such a beautiful place, as is Dolgeville and the surrounding countryside. I’ve visited both during family history road trips.
A large slice of your families history. Beautiful.
Thank you for joining the Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop.
Have a fabulous Wordless Wednesday. ♥
Thanks, Sandee — and it’s nice to be back at Wordless Wednesday.
The photos really add to your ancestor’s story. Looking forward to learning more about his life before and during the military!
Thanks, Marian. I love these photos of my paternal ancestors/relatives. I knew some of my uncles as grown men, so it’s a treat to see them as youngsters.
This is an example of how much I love census records and how they can help fill in the life of someone in our family that we don’t have any memories of. I love the photos that you chose to go along with his story.
Thanks, Jenny. In New York State we are also fortunate to have state censuses to supplement the federal ones and provide even more detail.
Those old censuses can be really helpful to establish the moves and whereabouts of one’s ancestors… It’s not long ago that I discovered some Swedish ones are available online as well. Funnily enough I was referring to those myself in this week’s post…
I notice that! And you had photos to match as well. Thank goodness these censuses were taken and many are now digitized!
I’ll be looking forward to the next episode of Fred’s early life. Good job of amassing so much information & finding the photos to go with it! 🙂
Thanks so much! This series will enable me to get some of these family photos digitized at last.
This is another interesting approach to examining an ancestor’s life. There’s a lot to learn from a person’s location, education, and occupations. Somehow I missed it, if you wrote about it before, that the Daniel Green Felt Shoe Company made slippers out of used piano hammer felt! The company is still in business and has its history on the company’s website.
I’m also impressed how having several group photos of children makes it easier to estimate the year other photos were taken. Once people become adults it’s a challenging puzzle to gauge the year a photo was taken.
Thanks, Mike. Yes, I have written about Daniel Green and Dolgeville before. A shame the factory closed, but new owners hope to repurpose the landmark building. And you are so right about dating photos — the census reports of my dad’s and uncles’ ages helped me place these pretty accurately.
I liked your reasoning behind your post and you made a great job in finding out more about Uncle Fred’s early life. backed up with the family photographs.
Thanks for this comment. I am relieved that, between the censuses and newspaper reports, I have been able to build a timeline of some of Uncle Fred’s civilian life.
Great photos. I like how realistic they are. The kids were to young and probably energetic or distracted to sit still.
Thanks, Susan. I also love the contrast between their dress up clothes and their play clothes.