When Jennie gave birth to William’s and her first child, Joseph Albert Vadnais (my granduncle), on Saturday, June 23, 1883, she had just turned 17 years old and William was 19 years old.1 The young couple had married when he was 18 years old and she was 15 years old and up until a few months after Joseph (Joe) was born they resided with Williams parents’, Tharsile and Francois Vadnais, at their home, a farm, in Centerville, Anoka County, Minnesota.2 According to the birth record, William, is a farmer. Joe would be an only child for the first 15 months of his life.
Joe was baptized in Centerville at St. Genevieve’s Catholic Church.3 Very little of his baptismal record is legible.
By early September 1883, William, Jennie and Joe are living on Third Street and Murray Avenue in White Bear Village.4 The 6 children to follow would be born and raised in this home.
The young family is enumerated for the first time in the 1885 Minnesota census of White Bear Village: Wm. and Jane Vadnia (William and Jennie Vadnais), Jos. (Joseph), Wm. Jr. (William Francis) and one of Jennie’s brothers, Leo Belorge (Leon Baillargeon).5 At the time of the census, Jennie’s age is correct, but William was 21 years old, Joseph was 22 months old, William Jr. was 4 months old and Leon was 23 years old.
By the 1895 Minnesota census, Joe has welcomed 5 more siblings: Edmund, Harvey, Adlore (my grandfather), Amis and Alma. The 7 children range in age from 3 years old to 11 years old.6
Joe and his brothers, Edmund and William, went to the West Side School. It was located along Murray Avenue at Second Street in White Bear. Originally built as a one-story wood structure, a second story was added in 1878. The 1895 class picture shown below was the last year the school was used.
I’m guessing that Joe was one of the students in 3rd grade.
More than likely it was for a smallpox vaccination.
Here are a few pictures of Joe. My guess is that he is in his teens.
Sixteen year old Joe is not listed with the rest of his family on the 1900 U.S. census.8 However, he is once again in the household when the 1905 Minnesota State census was taken. On it, he is shown as being 22 years old (actually he was one month shy of 22) and he is working as a plasterer.9 Joe’s father had abandoned the family sometime before 1905; had Joe moved back home to help his mother?
In the early 1900s, many men were drawn at harvest time to the wheat fields of North Dakota where jobs were plentiful. The railroads had given the farmers a way to get their crops to the giant flour mills in Minneapolis, making North Dakota the bread basket of the United States. I think Joe was one of the young men who saw the opportunity and took it. What an adventure!
Notice the rail cars in the background. I’ll mention it later, but this is probably the home that gets sold in 1908.
I wrote about Joe’s playing baseball (click here) and his brush with the law (click here) while living in Ambrose, North Dakota. I won’t go into much detail on those events; instead I will fill in what I didn’t include.
On October 4, 1906, Joe married Nellie O. McGee at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Bowbells, Ward County, North Dakota; he was 23 years old and Nellie was 18 years old. James McGee, Nellie’s brother, and May McGee, maybe Nellie’s sister Mary or possibly James’ wife, witnessed the marriage.10
Who was Nellie McGee? Did Joe meet here in North Dakota or did he possibly already know her from Minnesota? To answer these questions I built more of her family tree. As it turns out, her family had emigrated from Canada with her father, John Henry, being born in Ontario and her mother, Julia (Majeau), born in Quebec.12, 13 Nellie, the youngest of 8 children born to the couple, was born on March 17, 1888 in Washington County, Minnesota.14 I looked through the Washington county townships records at the time of her birth and I was unable to find a record for her. It is possible that one was not filed.
The 1900 U.S. census enumerates the McGee family, including 12 year old Nellie, in Oneka Township, Washington County, Minnesota.15 Oneka Township included Hugo, Withrow and the surrounding area.
Laura S. McGee, Nellie’s sister, married Pierre (Peter) Bernier, Joe’s 2nd cousin.16 Peter was born in Centerville and after they married they lived in Oneka Township.17 It’s possible that Joe knew the McGee family because of this marriage.
Knowing what a small world they came from, I believe that Joe somehow knew, or knew of, Nellie. Whether both of them being in North Dakota at the same time was planned or not, we will never know.
At the time of their marriage, both Joe and Nellie were living in Bowbells, Ward County, North Dakota.18 They eventually settled in Ambrose, North Dakota. Life in Ambrose was probably a challenge unless you ran a business that supported the towns’ people, or you worked for the railroad. The facts were that there were not that many people, the town was isolated and work was probably seasonal since much of the population farmed.
The August 28, 1908 Ambrose Newsman is the first time I can verify that both Joe and Nellie are living in Ambrose. Elsewhere in the same paper it states that “Monday evening Joe Vadnais had sold his house to the Great Northern Telephone Company It has been moved west of the central office and will be used as a store house.”19 I do have earlier documentation that speaks of just Joe and his baseball adventures, possibly Nellie was there during that same time.
More than likely, Nellie left for her “extended visit” because she was about 5 months pregnant. The couples’ only child, Josephine Genevieve Ellen Vadnais, was born in the Village of White Bear on January 2, 1909; Nellie was 19 years old and Joe was 24 years old. On the birth certificate Joe and Nellie both state that they reside in Ambrose, North Dakota.20
Genevieve, as she was called, was baptized on January 10, 1909 at St. Mary of the Lake Catholic Church in White Bear. Adlore and Ellen (Peltier) Vadnais, Genevieve’s uncle and aunt and my grandparents, are shown on the record as her godparents. Father P. J. Hart performed the baptism.22
Joe and Nellie returned to Ambrose with their daughter Genevieve. A variety of short news clips about them appear in the local newspapers from 1909 into 1913.
Plentywood is in Montana.
I found a Sheriff’s Sale notice in the March 28, 1913 Ambrose Tribune.43 Joe, the defendant, was ruled against in a judgment made on April 7, 1911. I assume the payment, $63.25, which Joe was ordered to make, was never paid and as a result his property was seized. The description of the property and its contents speak to a very simple lifestyle. The property and contents were sold by the sheriff on April 1, 1913.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Thanks for visiting, come back soon,
Cynthia
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Footnotes for Joseph Albert Vadnais (18883-1954) (Part 1 of 3) post
Very interesting—thanks, can’t wait for part 2! oxoxo