The Box . . .

Aletha Moore, my niece and God Child, graciously gave me a box of materials from her mother's house.  The family had gone through Herrise's possessions and these were family things, writings, letters, newspaper clippings and family history items. Herrise was my sister.

The box was a treasure trove to me because it had a lot of material on the Morrison, Seghers and deGraffenried families.  It had numerous writings and typed sheets of family history, dates of birth, marriages and deaths from the family bible.  Stuff my mother, Polly Morrison, tediously copied out of the family bible.  It had reference books on Louisiana portraits of which both Jacob Haight Morrison, his wife and the Seghers family portraits are shown.  Jacob Haight Morrison's portrait hangs in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D. C.  It had a bit of Swayze material from my mother's mother, who was a Swayze.

I have the Jacob Haight Morrison bible as well as the bible of my father and mother.  I have only casually gone through the bible, not thoroughly like my mother did.  For instance, I found pictures of Mike Morrison taken at the time of his death.  A tragic death.  I sent those to Walter, his older brother for keeping for his family siblings.  Mike was their brother.  And it was a hard and sad time for all of them.

In the box for some unknown reason were such documents as copy of Uncle Walter and Aunt Flea's marriage certificate from St. Ann's Catholic Church in Morganza, Louisiana.   I have letters from Chep Morrison on State of Louisiana Legislature writing materials to my grandmother, his aunt, regarding my grandfathers death.  Even some references to the Libby family which happen to be part and parcel of the Seghers family.  Lots of pictures some of which are hard to identify. but some like a photograph of my father and mother together late in their lives.  Photos of Aunt Edna, a beautiful young lady. that went to Sophia Newcomb College in New Orleans in 1927.

In the box were three receipts signed by President Boyd at LSU circa 1878 and 1879 were my grandfather, William Hyppolite deGraffenried, attended school in Baton Rouge.  The William in his name is whence my name William comes from.  The Christian in my name comes from my other grandfather, Walter Christian Morrison.  Thus I became one of the many "W. C." Morrison but not a Walter Christian Morrison.  To this day I must write out my name on legal documents to differentiate me from all my cousins that are all Walter Christian Morrisons.  That is a lot of name to cram into the bottom of a personal check.

I have but gone through the box but once, so must do it again and again to learn more about our family.  There is very little about the Campbell's up in Clarksdale, Mississippi.  I learned from Herrise that Uncle Sharky Campbell married my grandmother's twin sister.  So they are a distinct branch of the Seghers family and I know there are but a few of them left today.

So I owe a great shout out to Aletha and her brothers and sisters for giving me the "box."  I will treasure it and try to move some of it on to the Pointe Coupee Library for historical purposes.

The Camp - Cypress Myrtle . . .

The camp carries on.  It is fast becoming the last vestige of the Bill Gremillion family in Pointe Coupee.  It is there in a nice prominent place lake side out on False River in the community of Mix.  Mix no longer has a post office and is fast losing its identity but us old timers know about it.

The Cypress trees are slowly become giants and perhaps a nuisance with there knees coming up all over the place.  But they are distinct and well mark the spot.  The old fish market has been torn down and turned into a deluxe camp next to us.  The new owners made us a ridiculous offer for the camp that was summarily refused.

Soon Paul's domain, the George Gremillion house on Gretchen street, will be on the market and maybe one of the heirs will buy it.  There is always that kind of talk.  But for sure the house will be cleaned up and sold moved on to some one who will also love and live in it.  Nice house, big trees and on a nice street in New Roads.

We have had many a good time at the camp.  Fish fries, crawfish boils and just time away from it all.  It survived the recent floods, and is perhaps in better shape structure wise than ever before.  Yes, we have to pay a bit of taxes and some up keep but it is well worth it as a family enclave.  From time to time some one is using the place to fish, to relax and even to stay for awhile in a semi-vacation.  So it has great value to us.

We are planning to stay overnight Labor Day.  We will be on our way to New Orleans for our annual respite from it all.  We had our honey moon in New Orleans and so return every so often to celebrate our marriage.  We stroll around, shop, dine and rest.  We go no where in particular and soak up memories of sorts.  We do something different, sometimes minor like a ride down St Charles Avenue in a street car or walk around the French Market.

We, Judie and I, will hold on to the undivided portion of camp.  I still retain stock in the plantation our on Pointe Coupee.  We shall ever be from New Roads.  We will return to see the changes and visit with our family.

The Battle . . .

My desk top computer automatically down loaded an update to Windows 10.  The new upload signed me out of my Blog, I had to go through convoluted process to get back in.  I'll go through that later.  It also removed some Adobe software in favor of its software, the new download contained that software.

I had to go Google and resign in.  Google did not want to recognize any old stuff, passwords, etc.  So I was in a "Catch 22" situation where nothing worked.  So I gave in started all over again, loading my phone number into the request box.  That was a no go.  So I tried my cell phone number just for the hell of it, that worked.  I do not know why as I have never used that telephone number on this computer.  How did it get there?  Yes, I do know I have a Google account on my cellphone but I have never ever used it.  So in the magic world of communications, they Google system seemed to do what it wanted to do.  Could Microsoft helped with the new down load.  I do not know.

I do know when working a crossword puzzle, it asked me if  I would allow the Adobe product could be used once or all the time.  Naturally, I checked all the time as I visit the crossword puzzles daily.  So far I have had no trouble accessing and working the crossword puzzles.

It makes me angry I have to go through these loops to get what I had before the update.  I am a victim of software wars between major ISPs.  That should not happen but of course they do not care a wit about me and my wants.  Just trying to edge the other guy out of their world.  Not funny and not requested.

Paul Gremillion . . .

Tragedy.  Paul had recently gone through a life threatening episode fighting a infection that got out control.  He was in the Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge fighting for his life.  He spent 11 days in the ICU but they finally got the infection under control.

From there he went to a rehab hospital and made unbelievable progress.  He was back walking albeit short distances but it was apparent as time went on he would do better and better.  He was released around the middle of June and returned to New Roads.  He was living in his house again with his beloved pet cat.

The cat at first was not to happy that he had been left behind but soon warmed to Paul again.

We visited with him and could tell he was independent again and happy to be at home.  Yes, progress would be slow and he health issues yet to deal with.  He had lost sixty pounds while in the hospital and needed to lose much more weight.

That will not happen now.  He died in his house July 8th by himself.  No one there to help.  His friends had called to check on him and go no answer.  So they went by to see if he was okay.  They found him face down by his walker in the living room.  He died probably from a blood clot and coronary thrombosis.  We may learn later but it really does not matter of how, it matters that it happened so suddenly.

We shall miss his wry humor, his sharp intellect and his capricious antics regarding his card playing, his gambling, his stock market investments, his taking care of Wood ducks and Purple Martins and his beloved school students.

It was a shock to us all.  Goodbye, Paul.

We Must Move On . . .

One of the good things about Gamie's passing is the family coming together.  It takes a death, a birth or a wedding to do that.  Two are joyous occasions one is sad. We had to experience the sad event but once again the family coalesced.  We met, we cried and we laughed.  And we all lamented Gamie's passing.

I have heard from a lot of the family and seen even more at the funeral.  Some were friends, some were kissing cousins and some were total strangers to me.  Herrise had a lot of friends in Baton Rouge, a lot of them associated with the church.  That is a normal family following, we all have different elements, some a blood relatives and some are extended family.  Many came to pay their respects to Gamie.

I have heard from both coasts of the US, from California in the West and Delaware from the East.  Many could not attend the funeral, age and infirmity abound amongst us older members of the family.  Others had things intervene to prevent attendance, that is normal for our fluid society.  We are spread out now and one my laments is that we are gradually losing touch with elements of our family.

One element that keeps us in touch is the family farm, the plantation, Angeles Plantation.  Our annual business meeting is as much a meeting as it is a social gathering.  We get to see on occasion our cousins who all free to attend our social gathering.  You never know who is going to show up and who is not going to show up and that is reflective of our society also.  Some can and do come, some can not attend for a variety of reasons.  It does not matter, it makes it interesting.

I am in hopes the plantation keeps on going for another 100 years.  Its value has grown with time and it is debt free.  It is a corporation now, former partners have stock in proportion to their inheritance.   Now with time, we have more and more stockholders.  It is only natural, some give shares to their children, some inherit their shares from their parents.  It is a measure of how our relative family has grown since 1856 when Brunswick was purchased by Jacob Haight Morrison.  True, Angeles is only a slice of Brunswick, but it can trace its roots back to Brunswick.  Some time before the year 1900 Walter Christian Morrison took his inheritance from Brunswick to start Angeles Plantation.

So that is where we are today.  Still going, still planting, still farming and the family is ever growing.