Sepia Saturdy 683. Fourth in a new series about letters written by my dad’s brother Frederic Mason Charboneau while in the US Army during WWII.
After spending his early childhood in Dolgeville, Utica and Whitesboro, N.Y., my paternal uncle Frederic Mason Charboneau moved north with his parents and four brothers to Otter Lake, N.Y. — a vacation spot in the state’s Adirondack foothills.
That’s where Uncle Fred spent his tweens, teens and young adult years — until he enlisted in the U.S. Army on Jan. 13, 1942. His childhood also paralleled that of my dad, Norman James Charboneau, since Fred was just six years older.
So, I was curious about their arrival in Otter Lake: When did the family move there? And how old were Uncle Fred and Dad at the time?
Uncle Fred, 12, was already living in Otter Lake when the 1930 US census11930 US Census: FamilySearch requires free login to view records. was taken, so his parents (my grandparents) William Ray and Mary (Owen) Charboneau must have moved the family before then. But when?
Happily, newspaper research provided some valuable clues to help narrow down the time frame of their Otter Lake arrival.
Uncle Fred joins birthday clubs
In the 1920s, the Utica Observer-Dispatch ran a weekly children’s page in its Sunday issue. On it was a coupon for children to sign up for the Sunshine Club operated by Peter Pan!
Club members could send letters or questions, which Peter Pan would answer and print in the paper. They could also enter contests, and their names appeared on the children’s page on their birthdays.
Uncle Fred, apparently a joiner from an early age, was listed as “Frederic Charboneau, Whitesboro” in the New Members column of the children’s page on March 28, 1926 (above). He was 8 years old – and still living in Whitesboro, near Utica, N.Y.
Fast forward three years to March 13, 1929, and Uncle Fred was back on the Utica Observer-Dispatch children’s page being recognized on his birthday (below).
Only now he was part of Uncle Ray’s Birthday Club — the Sunshine Club’s apparent successor. He is listed as “Frederic Charboneau, 11, of Whitesboro,” indicating that he and the family had not yet relocated to Otter Lake.
A decisive Otter Lake hotel ad
However, two months later, on May 28, 1929, an ad appeared in the Utica Daily Press (below) that seems to place the Charboneau family’s Otter Lake move in the spring of 1929 — when Fred was 11 and my dad was 5.
Headlined “Under New Management,” the ad lists my grandfather “W. Roy Charboneau, Proprietor” and says the hotel — located “43 miles from Utica” — will open on June 15, 1929.
Okay, they got my grandfather’s name wrong (it’s Ray, not Roy). But this ad is the clearest indication that Uncle Fred, my dad and their family likely moved to Otter Lake in 1929. And that’s the bucolic Adirondack setting where the census taker found them in April 1930.
More on Uncle Fred’s civilian life, including his school years, in the next post. Please stop back! Meanwhile, please visit this week’s other intrepid bloggers over at Sepia Saturday.
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