Military Monday: Frank (Francois) Chenette, Civil War Pension File

Surgeon's Certificate for Frank Chenette

(Digital Image; Documents Privately Held by Cynthia Shenette; Image and Text Copyright (c) 2016 Cynthia Shenette)  A couple of years ago I ordered my great-grandfather, Francois Chenet's (1813-1886), Civil War pension file from the National Archives.  I didn't really know what or how much to expect for my 80 bucks, but I thought what the heck, and purchased the file for myself for a birthday gift.  Well, didn't I hit pay-dirt!  The file contained over a hundred pages and provides an interesting insight into a number of members of the family.  

Francois and his son Francois (1845-1864) volunteered on the same day on 10 December 1863, and Francois Jr. died of disease in Virginia on 3 November 1864.  Lucky for me Francois Sr.'s pension file includes information on Francois Jr., Francois Sr., Francois Sr.'s fourth wife, Lucie Touchette (my great-grandmother), and a number of other family members, friends and acquaintances who were deposed after my great-grandmother Lucie was caught collecting Francois Sr.'s pension after she married for a second time.

The handwriting in the documents is somewhat hard to read, and while I've skimmed through them over the last couple of years I really think I need to transcribe some of the documents to really take in the details and the whole of what they are trying to tell me about my great-grandfather's family.  My hope is to post some my transcriptions on my blog.  Unfortunately, my scanner is not able to scan the full size of the documents in the file.  I've included a portion of the document for a visual at the beginning of this blog post.  If you are related to Francois and would like to see the full document, please feel free to contact me, and I will be happy to scan the document as best I can and send it to you.  

If you are related to Francois (and given that he had four wives and 24 children, who isn't) I suggest you also take a look at the blog posts I've listed below.  He was an interesting character.  While you read the text of the surgeon's certificate keep in mind that at the time of the doctor's visit in September of 1884 Francois had seven children, ages 14 and under, including a two year old daughter.  Francois died at the age of 72 on 22 March 1886.  He left his fourth wife, Lucie, and 14 living children ranging in age from three to 46.

SURGEON'S CERTIFICATE OF EXAMINATION OF A DEPENDENT RELATIVE.

Claim No. 310,290

State: Vermont, County: Orleans

Post Office: Coventry, Sept 27th, 1884.

I HEREBY CERTIFY That I have carefully examined Frank Chenette, father of Frank Chenette, Jr who claims a pension as the dependent Father of Frank Chenette, Jr. who is alleged to have died Date not stated, and that in my opinion, based on such examination and a personal acquaintance with him for ----- years, the said Frank Chenette  - father is and has been physically incapacitated  for the support of himself and family, the nature, degree, and duration of his disability as follows: 

Age 73 - Weight. 130. Pulse 56. Respiration 16 Temp 97.5 Claims to be disabled by reason of partial blindness. and also by reason of Rheumatism which was incurred while in the service as Private in Co. K 11th Vermont Vols., in front of Petersburgh, Va in April 1865. - both of these disabilities have troubled him ever since he was in the service. constantly. Says now all the work he can see to do is to turn a crank in a printing office at Waterloo,, PQ. (formerly a laborer.) I find upon careful inspection of his eyes that there is an opacity of the vitreous humor of the R eye - which totally destroys the sight of  the R eye.  There is a like condition of the L eye - but of less opacity - He can see a little with it - cannot read half inch type in any position.  cannot see to pick up a large white beam from the floor except in a very strong light.  He is totally blind in R eye and partially blind in L eye. 

I rate for total loss of R eye 1/2 total }                     3/4 total 

Rating for partial loss of sight of L eye 1/4 total }

I also find the applicant has Rheumatism.  The positive signs being crepitus in shoulder or knee joints - enlargement of joints of great toes and joints of fingers of R hand - also a contraction of flexor tendons of 2d -3d - 4th fingers of R hand. 

over

Dr. C. F. Branch

Examining Surgeon.

There appears to be no cardiac complications from Rheumati [paper tear] His heart is acting very slowly - with five intermissions, each minute.  He uses no tobacco or liquors, he says, - His general appearance indicates that he was once a strong man , yet today aged + infirm, his disabilities are sufficient to entitle him to a rating. The facts  are not within any knowledge I simply find from his history and symptoms, and positive evidence of disease.  In my opinion the Rheumatism has existed about twenty years, the blindness may have begun as early and has been progressive - Probably he will be totally blind in a few years if he lives. - He is entitled to a pension of himself for service as a soldier, but prefers to ask for a Fathers pension.  His tongue is large and red, liver + spleen + Abdomen + Rectum normal. Muscles small + shrunken with age.  I should rate him for Rheumatism - one half tota [paper tear].

[Stamped: US PENSION OFFICE OCT 8 1884]



Other Posts You Might Like:

Tombstone Tuesday: Francois Chenette, Civil War Soldier
Sightseeing Around Civil War Richmond, Virginia
Four Wives and 24 Children: A Demographic Study
Flash Back! The Life and Times of Francois Chenet (Greatly Abridged)

Four Wives and 24 Children: A Demographic Study

(Copyright (c) 2014 Cynthia Shenette) A couple of years ago I did a tongue-in-cheek piece on my great-grandfather, Francois Chenet (1813-1886), for the Carnival of Genealogy.  While the piece is fun it doesn't tell the whole story.

Francois is notable in my family tree in that he was a Civil War soldier, but my main fascination with him is that he had four wives and 24 children.  I wanted to know what kind of a man has four wives. And 24 children.  Not only is the number of children fascinating, but the dates and places and events in his and his wives' and children's lives tell a story about the family as a whole. Thanks to the detailed birth, marriage, and death records in the Drouin Collection, the U.S. and Canadian Censuses, and his Civil War pension file I've been able to put together a reasonably comprehensive profile of Francois and his family.

Francois was born in St. Denis in Quebec on 18 April 1813.  He married his first wife, Marie-Marguerite Charron on 3 October 1836 in St. Denis. Francois was 23 years old and Marguerite was 21.  Marguerite may have been pregnant at the time of marriage as she gave birth to their first child, Marguerite on 16 June 1837, eight and a half months after the wedding. Marguerite was 22 and Francois was 24.  Over the next 12 years Marguerite gave birth to nine more children--Justine (1839), Jean Baptiste (1840), Julienne (1841), Celina (1842), Philomene (1844), Francois (1845), Marie-Reine (1847), Marie-Vitaline (1848), and Joseph (1849)--in quick succession.

I charted out Marguerite's pregnancies from 1837 to 1849, and figured out she was pregnant for at least a portion of every year of their marriage.  The longest stretch between pregnancies was 13 months.  On three separate occasions Marguerite only had three months off between giving birth and getting pregnant again.  Life must have been hard with constantly being pregnant, having multiple children to care for and working as a farmer's wife in rural Quebec. Two of the couple's ten children (Jean Baptiste and Marie-Reine) lived less than a year.  Marguerite gave birth for the last time in November 1849.  When she died on 5 June 1850 at the age of 35 she left eight children behind, ages 12, 11, 8, 7, 6, 5, 2, and 7 months.

A year and a half after Marguerite's death Francois married his second wife, Theotiste Tetreault, on 20 January 1852. Francois was a 38 year old widower with eight children, now ages 14, 12, 10, 9, 7, 6, 3, 2.  Francois and Theotiste had four children together--Francois Xavier born 1852, Louis born 1854, Louis Napoleon born 1856 and Toussaint born 1858. Francois Xavier and Toussaint lived less than a year. Daughter Celina from Francois marriage to Marguerite died in February 1858 at the age of 15. Toussaint and his mother, Theotiste, died on the same day, 8 April 1859, perhaps during an epidemic of some sort.  Daughter Marguerite died two months later on 15 June 1859 at the age of 21.  Francois was 45 years old.

Francois didn't mourn long.  He married his third wife, Louise Dubreuil, seven months later on 8 November 1859. According to my calculations Louise was almost five months pregnant when they married.  Whether the child was Francois' or someone else's and the the marriage was one of convenience who knows.  At the time of their marriage, Louise inherited eight step-children from Francois' previous marriages--ages 20, 18, 15, 14, 11, 10, 5, and 3.  

During their marriage Francois and Louise had two children of their own, Marie-Louise born in April of 1860 and Marie born in 1864. There probably would have been more children had Francois not joined the North to fight in the Civil War.  Francois Jr., also volunteered and died of disease at the age of 19 on a Virginia battlefield in 1864. Marie-Vitaline died in 1864 at the age of 16 and Philomene died in 1866 at the age of 22.  At the time of Louise's death on 14 December 1866, there were only three surviving children out of the ten from Francois' first marriage to Marguerite. When Louise died Francois was 53 years old.

Francois married my great-grandmother, Lucie Touchette, on 18 July 1867. He was 54.  She was 19. I wonder what life circumstances would induce a 19-year-old girl to marry a widower 35 years her senior. Upon marriage Lucie became "mother" to seven step-children--Justine age 28, Julienne 26, Joseph 17, Louis 12, Napoleon, 10, Marie-Louise 7, and Marie 3.  One month after their marriage Lucie was pregnant with her first child. Victorine Lucy was born on 13 May 1867.  Over the next 13 years Lucie gave birth to eight more children--Francois Adei in 1871, Joseph Theodore Hormidas (also known as Frank, my grandfather) in 1873, Joseph in 1874, Marie-Josephine in 1876, Flavi Joseph in 1878 and Marie Delina Vedora in 1882. 

Victorine Lucy died at the age of two in 1871.  I suspect there was a ninth child that died as there was a 23 month gap between pregnancies from July 1868 to April of 1870, a 13 month gap between July 1874 and July 1875, and a 23 month gap between October of 1879 and July of 1881.  The 1900 U.S. Census corroborates this. When the enumerator asked "Mother of how many children." Lucie's response was "9," and when asked, "Number of these children living." her answer was "7."

According to his Civil War pension file Francois weighted 130 lbs. in 1884, suffered from "rheumatism" and was blind from cataracts.  It's interesting to consider when you think about the fact that he had seven children age 14 and under, including a two-year-old daughter, at the time.  Francois died at the age of 72 on 22 March 1886. Lucie was 38.  Francois left 14 children from four marriages, ranging in age from 3 to 46.* Lucie died in 1917. She outlived her husband by 31 years.

* While I have not been able to find a death record for Justine, I do know she was alive at least until 1864 when she married Louis Debreuille.  For this exercise I am going presume she lived until 1886. If you have information to the contrary please contact me, and I will be happy to consider it.



Other Posts You Might Like:

Sightseeing Around Civil War Richmond, Virginia
Tombstone Tuesday: Francois Chenette, Civil War Soldier
The Death and Funeral of Charles Senecal - Amanuensis Monday
Photo Story: Dad and a Mystery Solved

Sightseeing Around Civil War Richmond, Virginia

Lincoln Statue at the
Richmond National Battlefield Park Visitor Center 

(Digital Images; Photographs and Text, Copyright (c) 2012 Cynthia Shenette)

Last year and earlier this year my husband spent some time working in Richmond, Virginia. My son and I took several trips to Richmond while my husband was there.  We all loved Richmond!  There was lots to see and do! While my son loved the Science Museum of Virginia I was interested in the area because of my Civil War ancestors.

My great-grandfather, Francois Chenette (1813-1886), was a Civil War soldier.  He and his son, also named Francois (1845-1864) both enlisted in the Union Army in Woodstock, Vermont on 10 Dec 1963 and mustered in on 16 Dec 1863.  Francois Sr. was 50 years old at the time and his son Francois was 18.  I found it interesting that Francois Sr. gave his age as 44 at the time of enlistment!  Both father and son served in the 11th Vermont Infantry, Company K.  Francois Sr. was wounded at the Battle of Cold Harbor.  Sadly young Francois died of disease in Strasburg, Virginia on 03 Nov 1864 and was buried at Bragg's Farm.  Francois Jr.'s body was later moved to the Winchester National Cemetery in Winchester, Virginia where my family and I visited his grave several years ago on our drive home from Charleston, South Carolina.  Francois Sr. transferred to Company A on 24 Jun 1865, and he mustered out on 29 Jun 1865.

American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar

Not surprisingly one of the items on my agenda was to visit the Cold Harbor Battlefield. While my husband was at work my son and I stopped at the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar and the visitor center for the Richmond National Battlefield Park at the Tredegar Iron Works which was only a short distance from our hotel in downtown Richmond.

Richmond National Battlefield Park Visitor Center

The iron works was quiet on the day we visited.  If you look at the sky in my photos you can see the storm clouds in the background that preceded Hurricane Irene which hit Virginia while we were in Richmond.  My then eight-year-old son was initially less than excited about the iron works, but one of the park rangers did an amazing job at keeping him entertained with a scavenger hunt activity while I looked around the visitor center.  We also discovered the gift shop sold a set of Civil War silly bandz (Remember those?) which included a silly band of Abraham Lincoln's profile, so thankfully the day wasn't a total write off at least as far as my son was concerned.

Richmond National Battlefield Park Visitor Center

The Tredegar Iron Works was the largest iron works in the south during the Civil War and survived the burning of Richmond relatively unscathed.  You can see a great vintage photo here.

Cold Harbor Battlefield

I'd wanted to visit the Cold Harbor Battlefield for quite some time. Unfortunately when we did finally visit the battlefield was closed due to damage from the hurricane which knocked trees down all around the area. While we were not able to drive through on the driving tour because of downed trees, we did take some time to walk around on the grounds near the small visitor's center.  I was a bit disappointed (My son was not...) that we were not able to do the driving tour.  It was interesting none-the-less to see the area where my great-grandfather fought and was wounded on 01 Jun 1864.

Cold Harbor Battlefield

The fields were lovely and serene the day we visited with a bright blue sky, the literal calm after the storm, and while the visit to Cold Harbor probably wasn't high on my son's "things to do list" he does know that his ancestors fought in the war.  It really is amazing to think that he is only four generations removed from a Civil War ancestor!  The battlefield visit might not have been the most exciting way for him to spend a day in Richmond, but I sure bet he'll have something to talk about when his class finally does get around to learning about the Civil War in school!

Cold Harbor Battlefield

Other Posts You Might Like:

Books of Interest: The Life of Billy Yank
Tombstone Tuesday: Francois Chenette, Civil War Soldier
Flash Back! The Life and Times of Francois Chenet (Greatly Abridged)
The Shenette Family - Wordless Wednesday

Flash Back! The Life and Times of Francois Chenet (Greatly Abridged)

(Copyright (c) 2012 Cynthia Shenette) Well, it's Carnival of Genealogy time again, and our assignment for this month is to create a "flash" family history of one of our ancestors in 300 words or less.  I decided to write about my great-grandfather Francois Chenet.  To use Francois as the subject for my flash family history is absurd to say the least, given the...um...details of Francois' life, but the concept was both fun and challenging.  Let's just say I tried my best to capture the highlights (cough) of Francois relatively long life.  While my flash family history is short, I think I've done a reasonable job in capturing the essence of the man.  What do you think?

Francois Chenet (18 Apr 1813- 22 Mar 1886)

My great-grandfather Francois Chenet was born in St-Denis-sur-Richelieu, Quebec in 1813.  He married Marie-Marguerite Charron in 1836.  Their first child Marguerite was born in 1837.  Their second child Justine was born in 1839. Their third child Jean-Baptiste was born in 1840.  Their fourth child Julienne was born 1841.  Their fifth child Celina was born in 1842.  Their sixth child Philomene was born in 1844.  Their seventh child Francois was born 1845. Their eighth child Marie-Reine was born in 1847. Their ninth child Marie-Vitaline was born in 1848.  Their tenth child Joseph was born in 1849. In 1850 Marie-Marguerite died.

Francois married Theotiste Tetreault (1852).  Their first child Francois-Xavier was born in 1852.  Their second child Louis was born in 1854. Their third child Louis-Napoleon was born 1856.  Their fourth child Toussaint was born in 1858.  In 1859 Theotiste died.

Francois married Marie-Louise Dubreuil (1859).  Their first child Marie-Louise-Delima was born in 1860.  Francois enlisted in the Union army (1863).  Their second child Marie was born in 1864.  Francois was wounded at Cold Harbor (1864). The Civil War ended (1865).  In 1866 Marie-Louise died.

Francois married my great-grandmother Lucie Touchette (1867).  Their first child Victorine-Lucy was born in 1868.  Their second child Francois-Adei was born in 1871.  Their third child Joseph-Theodore-Hormidas (my grandfather, who became Frank.  Go figure...) was born in 1873.  Their fourth child Joseph was born in 1874.  Their fifth child Marie-Josephine was born in 1876.  Their sixth child Flavi-Joseph was born in 1878.  Their seventh child Francois-Elzear was born in 1879.  Their eighth child Marie-Delina-Vedora was born in 1882.  Francois died in 1886.

And the women of Quebec breathed a collective sigh of relief...

Submitted for the 115th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy.


Other Posts You Might Like:

Tombstone Tuesday: Francois Chenette, Civil War Soldier
Photo Story: Dad and a Mystery Solved
Fascinating Ladies
More Than Meets the Eye (Again): A Tuesday's Tip Follow Up!