A Lumberman's Daughter Comes of Age In Michigan's Upper Peninsula: A Memoir

By Patricia Schaut McMartin

A Lumberman’s Daughter Comes of Age in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula: A Memoir by Patricia Schaut McMartin is a firsthand account of growing up during the depression years as the eldest child in a family of fourteen children. The author’s description of everyday routines at her grandparents’ farm home in Labranche, and of her early childhood “back in the woods” of Northland, Michigan, transport the reader back to a time when the lumbering industry was past its heyday, and survival depended on resourcefulness, persistence, and constant hard work. McMartin describes her love of learning and her experiences transitioning from homeschooling to a one-room schoolhouse; and to public and parochial schools in Escanaba. The author’s heartfelt vignettes bring the characters in her narrative to life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Jul 16, 2019
• ISBN: 9781684700530

Book preview

MCMARTIN

Copyright © 2019 PATRICIA SCHAUT MCMARTIN.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

ISBN: 978-1-6847-0050-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6847-0053-0 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 04/26/2019

This

memoir is dedicated to

My parents Louis Schaut and Edna Niquette Schaut

and

To my siblings for sharing their memories of home with me.

A special thank you to my daughter Heidi McMartin Heeringa

for assistance in editing this memoir.

INTRODUCTION

This book is a memoir and as such it reflects my current memories of past events. In writing this memoir, my hope is to give the reader some idea of what it was like to grow up in a large family in the depression years of 1929 through 1940 in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The endless work, stress and joys of raising a large family continued during the World War II years and beyond. Our parents had to send their children off on their own into a world so different from the one they had known growing up. This memoir is based on memories of my childhood and young adult years, as well as stories I have read or heard as a young child, and letters and news clippings I have saved. Our parents did their best to instill in us the value of hard work, honesty and the importance of giving back to the world using our God-given talents and knowledge of right from wrong. They taught us not by Bible reading, but primarily by daily prayer and example. Attendance at Mass and the Holy Sacraments and Catechism classes were their tools.

When we lived in Northland the priest came only every three weeks for Mass and to hear Confessions. The Sisters came for two weeks each summer to give instructions for First Communion and Confirmation classes. At home we said the Rosary on our knees all during the months of May and October. Daily bedtime prayers were said on our knees. Bedtime prayer consisted of saying the Our Father, Hail Mary, Apostles Creed, Acts of Faith, Hope and Charity, the Act of Contrition, ending with the Glory Be To The Father and the usual God Bless Grandma and Grandpa, Mama and Daddy all the brothers and sisters by name and any other special requests. This practice started for me at a young age and was supervised by our mother the years we lived in Northland.

Does this sound like a lot? It was and I continued these routines for many years, at least through most of my first year of college. Yes, there were modifications but prayer had become a habit, and a necessity for me. I make no claim that all of my brothers and sisters clung to that rigid prayer schedule. Some probably did more, others less. Times were achanging. As time went on the serenity and comfort of those prayers was mixed with some confusion brought on by exposure to the world out there and by my meeting and getting to know a young handsome, upright, honest and kind, patriotic, gentle, clean ex-Navy man who also happened to be a Methodist.

Image2.ChuckSailor.jpeg

Charles Edwin McMartin

When we met I was 16 and he was almost 21. Strangely, no one brought up the difference of religion or age for that matter to me; not my family or friends, clergy or teachers. I dealt with the mental conflict by myself.

CHAPTER 1

MY ANCESTRY

My Niquette Ancestors

My mother, Edna Marguerite Niquette was the youngest of thirteen children born to Alfred Simon Niquette (1860-1925) and Clara Philomene Burbey (1872-1919). They were both descended from people who emigrated from France to Quebec, Canada. Edna’s parents’ families had already been in Quebec for about 200 years by the time the Bonchers and Schauts emigrated to the United States. Clara’s 6th great grandfather on her mother’s side, Louis Houde (1617-1712), was born in Chartres, France. He emigrated to Quebec in 1647. Louis Houde met Noel Juchereau at the hotel du Cheval-Blanque in Tourouvre, France (6). An inventory of the estate of Noel Juchereau from 1649 lists Louis Houde among his designated servants. Louis Houde married Madeleine Boucher (1641-1709) on January 12, 1655. Madeleine’s parents had emigrated from Basse-Normandie to Quebec in 1634 (7,8).

Clara Philomene Burbey’s 5th great grandfather on her father’s side, Damien Berube, was born in Rocquefort on the Normandy coast of France, in 1647. He probably spoke Cauchois, a dialect of the Norman Language. Damien Berube emigrated to Quebec in1679 and married Jeanne Savonnet/Sauvinier (1647-1721) on August 22 of that same year (9,10,11).

Alfred Simon Niquette’s 5th great grandfather on his father’s side, Pierre René Niquet (b. 1642) emigrated from Brizambourg, Saintes, Saintonge, France in 1657. His wife, Francoise Lemoine was born in Paris in 1645, and emigrated to Quebec in 1665 as one of the King’s daughters, or Filles du roi, about 720 single women from France (not actually related to the King) who elected to emigrate to Quebec in order to help settle New France, between 1663 and 1673. Pierre René Niquet and Francoise Lemoine were married on June 15, 1666, in the city of Cap-de-la-Madelaine, Quebec, which is now part of Trois-Rivières, Quebec. Alfred Niquette’s third great grandmother on his mother’s side was Marguerite Pachat Campeau Jolivet (1709-1765). She was a Pawnee Indian slave. Pawnee or Panis slaves were taken as captives in wars among American Indian tribes. In the early years of the 18th century, French traders could make a little money buying Pawnee slaves from other Indian tribes and selling them to Canadians. Most of these slaves were purchased from the Otoes, Poncas, Iowas and Osage tribes. According to the Programme de recherche en demographie historique at the University of Montreal, Marguerite was an American Indian born in Nebraska about 1709. She was baptized on April 13, 1716 at the age of 7, at Notre-Dame Church in Montreal. It is unknown exactly how she came to be in Montreal. When she married Charles Jolivet on April 4, 1731, she was in the household of Jeanne Faucher, the widow of Etienne Campeau (1664-1723) (12,13,14,15). Jeanne Faucher was the sister of Michel Lemire in the Niquette family tree. Marguerite had by then taken the name Campeau. Marguerite and Charles Jolivet had seven children of which five survived to adulthood; their daughter, Marguerite (1745-1821) (16) is Alfred Niquette’s second great grandmother.

My Maternal Grandparents: Clara Burbey and Alfred Niquette

When Clara Philomene Burbey and Alfred Simon Niquette married on August 7,1888, Clara was 16 and Alfred was 28 years old. He worked as a lumberjack in the winter and a farmer during the summer season. Clara had her first child in 1889 and her 13th child in 1908. The last two babies born in 1907 and 1908 died in infancy at nine and ten months, respectively. Imagine thirteen single births in a span of 19 years! Clara had suffered for years with severe arthritis and was bedridden at home. On August 8, 1919, she ended her suffering by hanging herself. Clara was 47 years old and my mother, Edna, her youngest living child, was only 13 years. Leona, an older sister aged 24 was watching Clara that fateful day and stepped out on the porch to talk to a neighbor. My mother told me of this many years after I was married. She said she could still hear her sister Leona’s screams. Some time after that fateful day Leona suffered a nervous breakdown. I did not know any of this when at ten years old I was visiting my Aunt Leona and her family. I was startled to see her light up a corncob pipe. I had never seen a woman smoking anything, let alone a pipe so I asked her about it. She told me that a long time ago her doctor had advised her to smoke a pipe when she needed to know what to do to relax. He must have been a wise doctor because she seemed quite a relaxed and lovely lady to me. Alfred Niquette died six years after Clara, at age 65. Edna was only 19 years old and had lost both of her parents.

My Mother - Edna Marguerite Niquette

Edna Marguerite Niquette was born on May 29, 1906, in Lena, Wisconsin. To the best of my knowledge she was born in the farmhouse where they lived on Belgian Road. It was a neat, two-story home. It had a piano, and on the grounds stood an impressive barn, that was built while Edna was still a young girl at home. She was close to her sisters. Julia (1889-1957), the eldest, married Henry Netzer and had three children; Agnes (1890-1972) married Clifford Dionne and they had two daughters; Lillian (1897-1983) married Ray Elfner and had seven children; Leona (1895-1968) married Frank Nechodom and they had a daughter and a son; and Dorothy (1905-1955) married Bruce Peterson and had 6 children. Dorothy was only one year older than Edna. Edna also had five brothers. Norman (1899-1973), a Wisconsin cheese maker, married Loretta and they had a son and daughter; Lewis Ralph (1900-1966), a farmer, and his wife Hazel had one daughter; Rudolph (1901-1979), a retail store manager, married Violet and had two daughters; Gilbert (1892-1983) and his wife Laura had five children; and Leo (1903-1985), a lumberjack married Lulu and they had one son. The youngest two siblings, Rachel (1907) and Howard (1909) died as infants at 9 and 10 months of age.

Image3.Barn%201.jpeg

Barn raising on Niquette Farm, Belgian Rd., Lena, Wisconsin

The following is a letter Mama wrote to her sister Agnes and brother-in-law Cliff Dionne, May 30, 1915.

Dear Agnes and Cliff

Hello! How are you? I am all right.

Did you know that my birthday was yesterday and Louise Gilles gave me a nice pair of white slippers? I am to Julia’s now (Mama’s eldest sister) and that is why I am writing to you now.

We didn’t go to Catechism this afternoon. Today is the last day of Catechism and I am so glad. Pa said that school is out and he was going to Green Bay and he said I could go with him. He was to Mounts this afternoon.

Henry is so silly. He was trying to say that he was my uncle. (Henry was her sister Julia’s husband). When are you coming home? I am getting lonesome for you. You ought to see how cute Donald is. I think he is the cutest baby I ever saw. (Donald was Julia’s baby). Dorothy (another of Mama’s sisters) is here too and she’s got to go and watch Donald while I help Julia set the table.

Edna

XXXXXXXX

Edna was Auntie to many nieces and nephews who lived nearby. Her sisters were her surrogate mothers and they all valued their religious faith and Education with a capital E. I remember Mama saying she and her sisters were not allowed to do farm or barn work and she had always really wanted to do that, especially milk cows. Edna and Dorothy graduated from High School in Lena and then Edna went to Teachers Normal in Oconto, Wisconsin and earned her teaching certificate in August, 1926. She enjoyed her teaching years at Sunnybrook School in Rockwood, Wisconsin in 1927 and 1928 and made girlfriends to whom she remained close for many years. In those days one stayed in touch with friends by writing letters. Her mother’s sister, Laura Burby Landry, also taught in the same school and they enjoyed each other’s companionship. I remember Mama telling of the children’s long walks to school in the cold and how they appreciated a hot lunch prepared by the teacher which often consisted of only mashed potatoes. There were many teachers in the family. Aunt Agnes’ daughter, Jeanette Dionne Bitters, wrote in a letter to me:

Your mother must have had the attitude that ‘You can do it’. I remember her pushing me to sing. She must have made life more fun for me while she was with us on the farm. The piano and singing stands out in my memory. The day she came home to say she was marrying Louie Schaut my father was really angry. He couldn’t see how she could waste all that education and get married. Looking at your family there is no way to believe it was wasted.

Two of Aunt Julia’s three children were Professors at the University of Wisconsin, and their third child was also a teacher. Edna’s brother Gilbert had at least one daughter who retired as a teacher. Edna also had the pleasure of knowing before she left this world that her daughter Jane had been a teacher as well as an aspiring opera singer in New York City. Several of her grandchildren went on to become teachers.

The original Sunnybrook School was a wooden structure, 24’ x 30’, constructed in 1901, in the township of Lena. The first wooden school building held 50 students. The teacher’s salary was $24.00 a month, gradually increasing to $40.00 a month. The original school building was replaced by a cement block building on the same site in 1913. N.C. Netzer was paid $3,000 to build the new, two-room cement block school, which had double desks. A box stove heated the school. There was one classroom for grades 1-4 and another for grades 5-8. Two teachers taught an average of 60 students. Electric lights were installed in 1938. The original wooden school structure is now the Lena Historical Museum (18).

Image4.LaBrancheSchautHome.jpeg

LaBranche Schaut home

My Schaut Ancestors

Louis Joseph Schaut, my father, was the fifth child born to John Batiste Schaut and Mary Constance Boncher. John and Mary were of German and Belgian descent, respectively. Mary Boncher’s mother, Louis’s maternal grandmother Ferdinande Servais (1836-1902) emigrated from the Walloon province of Belgium, and probably spoke the Walloon dialect of French. Ferdinande departed Antwerp and traveled to New York via Liverpool, England on the ship Yorkshire. She spent the voyage in ‘steerage’, the lower deck of the ship, arriving in New York on September 18, 1855. Ferdinande married Constant Boncher on March 24, 1856, in Brown County, Wisconsin (4). He was from the Dongelberg, Brabant, Walloon Province of Belgium. Constant departed Antwerp on June 6, 1855 on the ship Richard Alsop. He arrived in Mackinac, Michigan, in July of 1855 (1,2,3). In the 1860 census Constant Boncher, had real estate holdings of $220.00 and a personal estate worth $40.00.

Louis Schaut’s Great Grandfather, Gerhard or Gerardi Schaut (1815-1899) was born in Koenigsfeld, Niederheckenbach, Rheinland, Prussia. He emigrated to New Franken, Wisconsin, in 1848, as reported in the St. Killians Church register (5) joining some 30 German families in New Franken, Wisconsin. Gerhard’s wife, Annae Hoffman, was born in Prussia in 1822. She departed Le Havre, France and arrived in New York aboard the ship, Bavaria, on September 23, 1847 with son Johann Peter age 4, and infant daughter Elizabeth.

My Paternal Grandparents: Mary Boncher and John Schaut

John Batiste Schaut and Mary Constance Boncher were married on January 6, 1898, in New Franken, Wisconsin. John was 23 years old and Mary was 19. John hired on as a Jobber (timber worker) with the Northland Timber Company and he worked in Northland, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. There he built a cabin back in the woods and returned home to Wisconsin to marry. When the happy couple returned to Northland they found their cabin had burned to the ground. They lived in Viau’s store and hotel until the cabin was rebuilt. They bought a team of horses and a wagon and John built a second home in Perronville, Michigan. Over the years my Dad must have heard a lot of stories about Northland, and about his parents’ first home burning down. He was familiar with the area. So moving his family to Northland so deep in the north woods, made sense to him.

While living in Northland, Louis’ parents, John and Mary had heard about homesteading in Labranche, Menominee County, Michigan, in 1902. So they traveled about 30 miles on rough, logging roads with their wagon and team of horses and bought land in Labranche. He bought the forties in Labranche from Bill and Joe Bezdek. There was a house on the property which became a good home for their growing family, with many improvements over the years. In later years they provided electricity in the house and barn with a Delco Generator. The basement of the home had a wall of batteries to store the electricity. Grandma Mary Schaut used to run Sunday chicken dinners in a hall in Hardwood, Michigan, on M-69 north and west of Labranche. When they stayed back in the logging camp, which was seasonal, Grandma Mary always walked home carrying her rifle. Family stories tell about wolves following her, their eyes shining in the night. For a time Grandpa drove a horse and buggy school bus to the Labranche School where a Miss Houle taught their children. (This information is from John and Mary Schaut’s youngest son,