Henry Woodrow Vadnais

My uncle, Henry Woodrow Vadnais, was born to Adlore and Ellen on October 4, 1914, just over nine months after his older brother Lawrence had passed away. In all likelihood Ellen was pregnant with Henry previous to Lawrence’s death.

Henry’s birth certificate shows that his father Adlore was now working as a freight man [for the Northern Pacific Railroad], Dr. J. H. McClanahan assisted Ellen with the delivery and Henry was born at 3:30 A.M..  There seems to be a pattern forming in regards to the time of day that Adlore and Ellen’s children were born.

Henry was baptized on October 18, 1914 at St. Mary of the Lake Catholic Church, White Bear Lake, Ramsey County, Minnesota.  His godparents were his uncle, William Vadnais and his aunt, Vina (Peltier) Bloom.²

What a great picture!  They are all so adorable and I love the outfits.

Another of my favorite pictures!  Again, the boys’ outfits are great.  Adlore and Ellen would have been in their late twenties when this picture was taken.  It is hard to wrap my brain around the idea of my grandparents in their twenties.

In 1919 another tragedy struck the family when Henry became sick and passed away. His demise was chronicled by the White Bear Press.

Henry passed away on June 19, 1919. Adlore and Ellen had now lost 2 of their 4 sons. When Henry died, Ellen was 7 months pregnant with their next son, Richard Andrew.

Both Henry and his uncle, Amis Henry, passed away at a young age from tubercular meningitis. I was told a story by a family member a number of years ago that the family felt that Henry had contracted tuberculosis from Blanche (Black) Vadnais. Blanche had married Adlore’s oldest brother, Joseph Albert, in 1917 in Montana. Sometime between 1917 and when Henry died, Joseph (Joe) and Blanche visited White Bear and stayed with Adlore and Ellen in their small home. It was told that the family was frightened because Blanche coughed all the time. I recently found that Blanche died on February 23, 1920, about 8 months after Henry’s passing, from chronic pulmonary tuberculosis at Hopewell Hospital, Minneapolis City Hospital’s quarantine hospital and tuberculosis sanatorium.⁴   She was only 23 years old. It is very possible that she passed the tuberculosis bacterium to Henry and it resulted in his death. Even though we know the cause of her death, there really is no way to confirm if the story is actually true.

Henry is listed in the Index to Death Records for Ramsey County.⁵  Both his uncle Henry Amos [Amis Henry] and his brother Lawrence T. [Thomas] are listed on the same page in the index.  Henry’s actual death record is the second picture shown below.  One of the pieces of information given in it is that Henry died when he was 4 years, 8 months and 15 days old.

Henry was buried on Sunday afternoon June 22, 1919 at St. Mary of the Lake Cemetery.⁷

Thanks for visiting, come back soon,
Cynthia

© 2021 Copyright by Cynthia Vadnais, All Rights Reserved

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Footnotes for Henry Woodrow Vadnais post