FRIDAY'S FORGOTTEN - Military Veterans, Military Heroes

In honor of Veteran's Day, I wanted to remember many of our family members who enlisted or were drafted when America was at war, those who stepped up when called to serve our country. They took time out of their lives, years out of their lives, not knowing if they would be called to put their very lives on the line. Many survived their service; a few did not.

This is by no means a full list of our relatives who served our country, and I won't be listing those living veterans in this post. This is a just a chance to remember, and be proud.

Veterans of the Vietnam War
Harry Clinton Flemming III (1937-2003), born in Birmingham, Alabama; settled in Oceanside, California. Son of Harry Clinton Flemming, Jr. (1913-1972) and Catherine Frederica Perry (1913-1967). Retired as Staff Sergeant for the U.S. Marine Corps. Served three tours during the Vietnam War. Survived by wife, two sons, four grandchildren. [1st cousin, once removed]


Veterans of the Korean War
Austin Murray Cahill (1930-1989) of Birmingham, Alabama. Son-in-law of Elbert William "Bill" Barriger (1904-1979) and Pearl Alphonsine Flemming (1907-1986). Served as Private 1st Class in U.S. Marine Corps during Korean War, January 1951 to September 1952. Wounded in action on October 5, 1951. Survived by his wife. [husband of my 1st cousin, once removed]

George Benedict "Buddy" Daly, Jr. (1936-2002) of Harahan, Louisiana. Son of George Benedict Daly (1908-1967) and Odalie Felice Flemming (1911-1994). Served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Survived by his wife, daughter and three grandchildren. [1st cousin, once removed]

William Arnold Powell, Jr. (1929-2009) of Birmingham, Alabama. Son-in-law of John Huber O'Donnell (1905-1964) and Susan Elizabeth "Susie" Flemming (1909-1999) and my father. Served as 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Survived by his wife, son and three daughters, ten grandchildren and one great-grandchild. [my father]

John Joseph "Jack" Smith (1933-2001) of Metarie, Louisiana. Son-in-law of George Daly and Odalie Flemming. Served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. Survived by two sons, two daughters and eight grandchildren. [husband of 1st cousin, once removed]

World War II Veterans
Charles Frederick Flemming (1916-2003), born in Birmingham; resided in Denver, Colorado. Son of Harry Clinton Flemming (1878-1955) and Pearl Alphonsine Horst (1884-1961). Served in the U.S. Army during WWII in Europe, from January 1943 to February 1946. Survived by his stepson. [my great uncle]

John Edward "Jack" Flemming (1918-2008) of Birmingham, Alabama. Son of Harry Flemming and Pearl Horst. Served during World War II in the Army Air Corps. Survived by his two sons and three grandchildren. [my great uncle]

Thomas Anthony "Tom" Flemming (1923-1999), born in Birmingham; resided in Pell City, Alabama. Son of Charles Clinton Flemming (1884-1935) and Katherine Aurelia "Kate" Lambert (1885-1935). Served with U.S. Army during World War II. Survived by two sons and two daughters, eight grandchildren and one great-grandson. [my 1st cousin, twice removed]

Omer Leo Horst, Jr. (1916-1985), resident of Birmingham. Son of Omer Leo Horst (1887-1945) and Annie L. Boggan (1887-1987). Served with U.S. Army during World War II from August 1941 to July 11, 1945. Participated in the D-Day Invasion in France. Survived by his wife and two children. [my 1st cousin, twice removed]

Robert Joseph Horst (1918-1987), born in Birmingham, resided in Chelsea, Alabama. Son of Omer and Annie Boggan Horst; brother of Omer Horst, Jr. Served in the U.S. Army as Captain, in the Pacific. He was unmarried. [my 1st cousin, twice removed]

Edward Eugene Walters (1918-2001), of Birmingham, Alabama. Son-in-law of Charles and Katherine Lambert Flemming. Served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Survived by his wife, eight children, and numerous grandchildren. [husband of my 1st cousin, twice removed]

Civil War Veterans
James Benjamin Flemming (1827-1907), born in South Carolina, resided in Rome, Georgia. Father of Charles Clinton Flemming (1854-1932), my great-great-grandfather. Served with Confederate Army.[my 3x-great-grandfather]

Thomas Joseph McCaffrey (1832-1896), born in Boston, Massachussetts, resided in Rome, Georgia. Father of Elizabeth Agnes "Lizzie" McCaffrey Flemming (1858-1922), my great-great-grandmother. Worked at Confederate ironworks in Selma and Tannehill. Captured at Battle of Selma 1865. [my 3x-great-grandfather]

Revolutionary War Veterans
Michel Fortier (1725-1785), of New Orleans, Louisiana. Father of my 5x-great-grandfather Jacques Omer Fortier (1759-1820). Served with New Orleans Militia. Captain in the campaigns of Bernardo de Galvez. [my 6x-great-grandfather]


To my uncles and great uncles, my cousins, my brother-in-law and my husband, and all the Veterans I'm proud to call my family - Thank You! God Bless You, and God Bless America!

FRIDAY'S FORGOTTEN - Little Odalie Fortier (1846-1849)

Odalie Fortier is the name of my great-great-Grandmother - Odalie Felice. She was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 31, 1857, the seventh child of eleven born to my 3x-grandparents Jacques Omer Fortier (1813-1857) and Augustine Melanie Laperle DeGruy (1822-1872). Odalie married Charles Frederick Horst (1856-1912) and together they had five children, including my great-Grandmother Pearl Alphonsine Horst Flemming (1884-1961). But my great-great-Grandmother Odalie was not the first Odalie born to her parents!

The first Odalie Fortier came into the world eleven years earlier. On August 31, 1846, Laperle Fortier gave birth to her fourth child, and fourth daughter, Odalie. Omer and his wife were probably both thrilled and apprehensive at what her birth could mean. They had already had three little girls, and lost one of them.

Their first child was named Adele Augustine Philomene. She was born in June 1841, thirteen months after her parents were wed. Laperle was just 19 when her first child was born; Omer was 28. Adele lived two short months, dying on August 17, 1841. Their next child was Ida, born September 13, 1842. Their third child, another daughter, was named Alice. She was born on April 6, 1844.

So when their fourth daughter, Odalie, was born in 1846 her older sisters Ida, age 4, and Alice, 2, were probably thrilled to have a new little sister. But tragedy soon struck the family. On January 29, 1848, Ida, at just 5 years of age, died. Now the family once again had just two little girls, Alice, 4, and Odalie, 16 months, at home. It wasn't long before Laperle was soon expecting her next child. She no doubt could have any idea of what was about to happen in her young family.

With the passing of the years, the exact timeline of the day is unclear, but on January 2, 1849 the Fortier family was hit with circumstances that I can't begin to imagine. It was the day after the new year began. Laperle gave birth to the couple's fifth daughter who they named for their first child - Adele Augustine Philomene. (It was somewhat common in that time for babies to be named the same name as a sibling who had died earlier. Infant mortality was high and a child's name had greater meaning and purpose than today.]

But the day, so filled with happiness, also held great sorrow. Two-and-a-half year old Odalie died, on the same day as her baby sister was born! The announcement of her death appeared on page 1 of the New Orleans Bee (L'Abeille) newspaper the following day.


"DIED - Yesterday evening at six o'clock, ODALIE FORTIER, two years and a half old, daughter of Omer Fortier and Mdme. Laperle Degruys. The friends and acquaintances of the family are invited to attend without further invitation her funeral, which will take place this evening at 4 o'clock P.M. from Bayou street, between Treme and Marais."
New Orleans Bee (L'Abeille); January 3, 1849; page 1, column 5

Was little Odalie sick at the time, got worse and died that day, causing her mother to go into labor? Or was Laperle in labor, with all the natural chaos that must have brought; maybe their little 2-and-a-half year old got lost in the shuffle and got into some type of danger that cost her her life? Did she drown? Get out of the house and get run over by a cart or horse? It was tragic enough that the notice of her death appeared prominently on page 1 of the next day's newspaper. None of the family's other young children's deaths were ever reported in the paper.

I can't even imagine how as parents you go on after something like that. They had lost three of their four daughters by the day of their fifth child's birth. It was no doubt very difficult for Omer and Laperle, and they did not conceive another child for almost six years. Then their sixth child, and first son, Omer Auguste, was born on June 30, 1855.

Two more years passed before their seventh child, my great-great-Grandmother, was born on August 31, 1857. This was the exact same birth day as their little Odalie, who had died at age 2. The day would have been her 11th birthday. So it must have been a way for her parents to honor their little girl when they named this newest baby Odalie Felice.

Odalie grew up, married and moved to Birmingham with her husband Charles Horst and had 5 children. The couple passed on the name when they named their youngest child Odalie Felice Horst (1896-1990); she was called "Dolly". Dolly moved to Denver, Colorado, and married Kurt Amandus Wittges (1900-1950). They had three children and named their second child, and first daughter, Odalie Marie Wittges (1930-2005); she, too, was called "Dolly". Dolly married J. Corbett  and they had eight children.

Odalie and Charles' third child (my great-grandmother) Pearl and her husband Harry Clinton Flemming (1878-1955) named their third child Odalie Felice Flemming (1911-1994); she was called Dolly and "O.D." (or "Odee"). This Odalie married George Benedict Daly (1908-1967) and they had six children. They named their first child Odalie Kathleen Daly (1934-1995); she was called "Dolly". O.D. and George's fourth child, Jacqueline Rose "Jackie" Daly (1941-1995) had four children. The name was passed along again, as a middle name, when one of Jackie's granddaughter's was born in 1995.

Odalie
The name "Odalie" came from the family's French background, but this appears to be the Americanized spelling. It is pronounced, with no accent on any syllable, 'Ah-da-lee'. In France it is spelled most often "Odille". The name's exact origin is unclear; it is a variant of the old German "Odile" or "Odilia", meaning "fortunate or prosperous in battle" or "wealthy". In Hebrew the name is the feminine form of "Odell", and means "I will praise God" or "Praise to God".

"Odile" is the name of the Black Swan in the classical ballet Swan Lake. It was also the name of a 1994 Tropical Cyclone in the Southern Hemisphere. "Odalie 'Lilli' D'Arceneaux" is the name of the character played by Maureen O'Hara in the 1947 adventure film The Foxes of Harrow, also starring Rex Harrison.

Fortier Family Prologue
After Odalie was born in 1857 the family would have four more children, and unfortunately, more untimely deaths. Eighth child Gaston James Fortier was born in September 1860. Only a few months later in December of 1860, the family's oldest child, Alice died. She was just 16-and-a-half at the time. The cause of her death was officially listed as "Cold". There were once again only four children living in the home. In September 1861, Laperle gave birth to twins - Lucian "Lucie" and his sister Luciana "Lucy".

It was no doubt a surprise when six years after the birth of twins Lucian and Lucy, Omer, 54, and Laperle, 45, found they were expecting baby #11. But on December 19, 1867, less than a week before Christmas, Omer died. Laperle was left at home to care for six children, ages 6-18, and pregnant with her eleventh. In May 1868, daughter Jeanette was born.

Laperle lived just four years more; she died at age 50 on November 1, 1872. Oldest child Adele had married by this time and would have three children before her death in 1886, at the age of 37.The six remaining Fortier children were sent after their mother's death to Mobile, Alabama, to live with their mother's sister Elodie DeGruy Gagnet Mendoza (1828-1914). [See Friday's Forgotten, August 5, 2011, for Elodie's full story]  Lucian died in 1884, unmarried, at the age of 23. Omer married and fathered six children, including one daughter he named Odille. A gambler, he died at age 41, in New Orleans in 1897. Gaston married and had four children; he died in 1917. Odalie, my great-great-Grandmother, died in 1920; she was 63 at the time of her death. Youngest child Jeanette married, had one son, and died at age 73, in 1941. Lucy married and had four children; she died in 1942 at the age of 80.

FRIDAY'S FORGOTTEN - Elodie deGruy Gagnet Mendoza (1828-1914)

Julia Elodie deGruy Gagnet Mendoza
(wearing cameo of her mother)

Julia Elodie deGruy was born January 22, 1828 in New Orleans, Louisiana, and was baptized at the St. Louis Cathedral on March 5th. She is my 3rd great-grand aunt. She was one of seven children born to Jean Baptiste Valentin deFouchard deGruy (1751-1838) and Melanie Gaudin (1786-1853), both from New Orleans - my 4th great grandparents. Elodie, as she was called, was the younger sister of my 3rd great-grandmother Augustine Melanie Laperle deGruy Fortier (1822-1872).

Some time in the mid-1840's Elodie married Alphonse Gagnet. Alphonse was born in Alabama in 1822. Their only child, daughter Alphonsine Gagnet was born September 1844. Tragedy struck early in their marriage when Alphonse, only 24, drowned on November 11, 1846. His obituary in the New Orleans Bee newspaper on November 16, 1846, page 1, tells the story (translated):

Obituary

"Alphonse Gagnet a young man of twenty-four years, has succumbed to one of these bad times which sometimes strikes us like lightning. Last Wednesday at Mr. Hewitt's house, he drowned in the river, by one of those inexplicable accidents. He leaves an inconsolable widow, which he was the sole support, a grieving mother that he was always the charm and glory, and many friends who know the magnitude of the loss to experience what they feel, and mingle their tears to all her were fortunate enough to know him. Good father, good husband, good son. May his soul rest in peace in the Lord, whom he liked to remind him. A FRIEND"

By 1850 "Widow Gagnet" was living with her widowed mother-in-law, daughter Alphonsine, 5, and F. Mendoza, a 29-year-old male clerk from Florida. On March 10, 1855, Elodie, age 28, was married by the Justice of the Peace to Ferdinand "Frank" Mendoza in New Orleans. By 1860 Elodie, Frank and Alphonsine had moved to Mobile, Alabama. In 1863 Frank enlisted, at the age of 42, with the Mobile Volunteers, a local militia assigned to protect the city during the Civil War. What happened to him after this time is unknown. By 1880, Elodie was once again widowed. But she's wasn't alone.

My 3rd-great-grandparents Jacques Omer and Laperle Fortier, Elodie's brother-in-law and sister, both died relatively young - Jacques in 1867 at age 54 and Laperle in 1872 at age 50. At the time of her death, she had six young children still at home and in need of a caretaker - Omer Auguste, 17; Odalie Felice, 15 (my great-great grandmother); Gaston James, 12; twins Lucian and Luciana "Lucy", 11; and Jeanette, 4 (born six months after the death of her father). The six orphaned children were sent to Mobile to live with their aunt Elodie. By this time she was 45 years-old and twice widowed. Her daughter Alphonsine was 28. Alphonsine would later marry James Southworth (1844-1899) and have one child that died before 1900.

The six Fortier children called Elodie "Tante Grandma" - 'tante' is French for 'aunt'. By 1880 the four youngest children were still living with their beloved aunt - Odalie had married Charles Horst (my great-great-grandfather) in 1879 and eventually moved to Birmingham; Omer married in 1880 and moved home to New Orleans.

At 2:30 in the morning on March 10, 1914, Elodie died at the home of her niece Lucy Fortier Boulo. The cause of death was listed as "Senility". She was 84. The Mobile Register published her obituary:



Julia Elodie deGruy Gagnet Mendoza by all accounts was a good daughter, wife and mother. She was also a good and caring sister and aunt, taking in her sister's six orphaned children after having been widowed twice. She was buried at Magnolia Cemetery in Mobile, with her daughter Alphonsine after her own death in 1922. With no grandchildren and no descendants she has been virtually forgotten. But her life's circumstances and her willingness to take care of my great-great-grandmother made it possible for me to even exist. Here's why:

Grave at Magnolia Cemetery
Mobile, Alabama

• If Elodie's first husband Alphonse hadn't have died tragically, leaving her a widow at 19 years old she wouldn't have married Frank;
• By marrying Frank she left New Orleans and moved with him to Mobile;
• When her sister died young she accepted her six orphaned nieces and nephews to care for, making them move to Mobile to live with her;
• While living in Mobile with her aunt, my great-great-grandmother Odalie met Mobile resident Charles Horst, my great-great-grandfather, eventually having five children including my great-grandmother  - Pearl Alphonsine Horst (Flemming), named for her maternal grandmother Laperle deGruy Fortier and her mother's cousin Alphonsine Gagnet Southworth.

So thank you Tante Grandma. You are no longer forgotten.

FRIDAY'S FORGOTTEN - Horst Family Slaves



Lizzie and Jimmie
"Well done of God to halve the lot,
And give them all the sweetness,
To us, the empty room and cot,
To them, the Heaven's completeness."



Albert and Willie
"While none shall tell them of our tears,
These human tears now falling,
Till after a few patient years
One home shall take us all in."

In my Dad's research and writings on the family of Martin Horst (1830-1878), my 3rd-great-grandfather, he wrote about the slaves that Martin owned as a Liquor Dealer and owner of the City Exchange Saloon in Mobile. At the time of the 1860 U.S. Census - Slave Schedule, Martin owned one slave, a 32-year-old black female. He also held ownership of four others as the Administrator of the estate of Tobias Berg, his wife's first husband: a 20-year-old black male, a 21-year-old mulatto female, a 12-year-old mulatto male, and a 9-year-old mulatto female. The Schedule also noted that they lived together in one slave house.The government didn't ask for their names on the census, as they were were only listing "property". It was said that Martin may have owned as many as ten or eleven slaves at one time.

"At the end of the war, most of the family's slaves had left. The first to go was one male slave that Horst had bought for $1,000, the most that he had paid for any of them. Two of the older females stayed with the family until they died and are buried in graves in the Horst family lot in Magnolia Cemetery in Mobile. One of the former male slaves, a trained barber, continued to share and cut the hair of prominent Mobilians and, it was said, brought the money back to Mrs. Horst." [from the as-yet-unpublished Horst Family, by William A. Powell, Jr.]

The graves of these four people - Albert and Willie, Lizzie and Jimmie - are in the family plot of Martin Horst (1868-1928), the youngest son of Martin and Apollonia Weinschenk Horst. Their graves don't include last names, so it is possible they were still slaves at the time of their deaths. Neither headstone includes a birth date or date of death.

But these were not simple headstones, or unmarked graves. In fact, of all the headstones for our family members throughout this cemetery or the Catholic Cemetery, these were actually the most ornate, and two of the few that had more than just a name and date on it. They were buried along side the family. Obviously these four individuals were cared about, and in a way considered "family".

But nothing personal is known about them. Were they married to each other? Were they parent and child? Siblings? If any of them were parents, and have descendants tracing their family tree, would they have any way to know where to find their ancestors? Did anyone ever lay flowers, or come to visit in the years since they died?

They meant something to someone once, a long time ago, in a world far, far away. They weren't born into freedom like our Horst ancestors were, or like we were. Maybe they never knew what freedom was. But for a time, in some way we may never know, they were "family".

The verses engraved on their headstones come from a poem written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)- "A Child's Grave at Florence," published in 1856.

FRIDAY'S FAMOUS: '27 Rose Bowl Player of the Game & FRIDAY'S FORGOTTEN: Young Mother and Child

My plan for each Friday's post is to recognize and tell the story of those individuals within our extended families, who are on the two ends of the recognition scale - the Famous, and the Forgotten. All families have them. There are the famous ones who have done something extraordinary, achieved some high level of personal success, or been recognized for an outstanding contribution - we all like to be related to them! Then there are those we never heard of - who maybe died young, or who lived a common life with no extreme story to tell, or maybe who died so long ago and without leaving any descendants that most of us didn't even know they ever lived at all - the forgotten. I hope to honor both ends of the spectrum, because every life really does have a story to tell
          For this first Friday blog, it just so happens that both ends are in the same family so I decided to tell you about both - Friday's Famous, and Forgotten.

Frederick William Pickhard, Jr.


Fred Pickhard
All-American
University of Alabama
1925-1927

 Fred Pickhard was born in Mobile, Alabama on July 20, 1906. He was the youngest child of Frederick William Pickhard (1862-1951), also from Mobile, and Estella "Stella" Guise (1865-1955), a native of Ohio. Fred's father, Frederick, Sr., had been widowed when his first wife, Amelia G. Helmetag (1862-1898), died just short of her 36th birthday. Amelia was the oldest child of Frederick William Helmetag (1834-1883) and Wilhelmina Amelia Horst (1843-1885), the half sister of my 3rd great-Grandfather Martin Horst (1830-1878). [See story below]

Fred, Jr. attended the University of Alabama and played on the Crimson Tide Football Team from 1925-1927. Fred was a 6'3", 205 lb. Offensive Tackle for the Tide. His bio on rolltide.com states:

"Pickhard was an All-American choice in 1926 and an All-Southern Conference selection in 1926-27. He played on national championship teams in 1925 and 1926 and was captain of the 1927 squad. Perhaps the biggest play of the year in 1926 was Pickhard’s block of a fourth-quarter punt by Sewanee that Bama recovered for a safety to win 2-0 which kept Bama perfect en route to a Rose Bowl berth. Against LSU the very next week, Pickhard blocked two more punts for touchdowns. Only 16 punts were blocked for scores in 1926 and Pickhard had three of them."



University of Alabama 1925 National Championship Team
(Fred Pickhard pictured middle row, center)



Fred was selected as the "Rose Bowl Player of the Game" in the 1926 National Championship game, in which Alabama tied Stanford 7-7 (the last Rose Bowl to end in a tie).

In 1938 Fred moved to Oregon, where he married Lucille Hoober and together they had 3 children. Only son Fred, III, went on to play Left End for Michigan, playing in the 1951 Rose Bowl, where his Wolverines beat the California Golden Bears 14-6.

Fred Jr. retired from Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. as a service manager in 1971. He died on April 11, 1993 and is buried at Portland Memorial Mausoleum. He was survived by his wife of 53 years, his three children and nine grandchildren.

Amelia Helmetag Pickhard


AMELIA G. HELMETAG
Wife of FREDERICK W. PICKHARD
Born Dec. 24, 1862      Died Dec. 4, 1898 
Our Baby
AMALIE ST. JOHN,
Aged 3 months and 6 days.
OF SUCH IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.

Amelia, the first wife of Frederick William Pickhard (Fred Pickhard, Jr.'s father), was the cousin of my great-great Grandfather Charles Frederick Horst (1856-1912). Her mother Wilhelmina, later called Amelia, and Charles' father Martin immigrated with their father Johan Eckhard Horst (1802-1852), Eckhard's second wife Elisa Geiss (1817-1852), and three other siblings, from their home in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, arriving in New York on August 7, 1846. Amelia Horst married William Helmetag in 1861 and they had 5 children. William, also an immigrant from Germany, was a shoemaker by trade. They lived in Mobile.

  

William and Amelia's first child, Amelia was born on Christmas Eve, 1862. The date of her wedding to Frederick Pickhard is unknown. Frederick was a carpenter for the L & N Railroad during their marriage. They had a daughter, Amalie St. John Pickhard - exactly when is unknown. Amalie lived 3 months and 6 days. Amelia Pickhard died on December 4, 1898. Mother and daughter are buried together at Magnolia Cemetery in Mobile. Their grave seems very solitary, no one next to them, under a small tree. Frederick remarried around 1902. His wife Stella Guise was Amelia's first cousin. Frederick is buried next to Stella in Mobile's Pine Crest Cemetery.