PAUL
LOUIS VUAGNIAUX
Paul was my maternal
grandfather. He was born on the 9th of Sept 1868 in Greenville,
Illinois, the second of ten children. One child, a boy, died at birth on
October 12, 1874.
The family migrated to Missouri in 1873 and stayed until the spring of 1877.
They came to Iowa in a covered wagon, a family of three children at that time.
They crossed the Missouri River on a raft piloted by two men.
Grandpa used to tell me
that the family lived in St. Joseph, MO. near the home where the outlaw Jesse James and his
brothers lived. He said he knew who the James family were in those days. Jesse James was killed at
St Joseph, Missouri in 1881 in his own home in the heart of the city.
When my mother was born in
1904, the third of nine children, grandpa listed his occupation as working for
an implement company in Council Bluffs, Iowa. He later went to work for the
Northwestern Railroad and was a "car man" and "car
inspector".
My recollections of
grandpa are of the big old house at 719 Mill St. in Council Bluffs. It was a
house built before the turn of the century and had high ceilings and a long
staircase. In the rooms the pipes for the "gas lights" were still
there and electric wires had been strung up the walls from the switches and
across the ceiling to the fixtures. The walls and ceilings were covered with
plaster back in those days. In the living room was a player piano with the
rolls of music nearby. On one side of the room a large console radio. Grandpa
always smoked cigars and I remember the smell in the room where he spent so
much time. The dining room, off the parlor, had a long table for the large
family.
My recollections of this
house extend from the mid 1930’s until the middle 1940's. The house was
always filled with people. Grandma had died in 1928 of peritonitis after
surgery for appendicitis. The youngest daughter, Ruth, was only four years
old. Some of the other children were still living at home. Grandpa worked
nights and we had to keep a little quiet during the day when we were visiting.
Sometime in the late
forties grandpa moved in with my mother. I think it would have been after
Frank and I went into the military service in mid 1948. Grandpa used to sit in
a rocking chair in the dining room by the side door and smoke his cigar and
read his bible. This is the last scene I recollect of Grandpa. He was tall and
straight, a good looking man and of a quiet disposition.
Several years after
grandpa died, my Mother received a legacy of $5000 from a man who live next
door to us in a converted garage apartment. He told my Mother that he was
going to give her something in remembrance of my Grandfather teaching him to
read and write when he was a young man from the Bible.
Grandmother Anna May Post Vuagniaux was born at Storm
Lake Iowa in Buena Vista County. Her Mother’s maiden name was Lucetta Seaton. Anna had a sister named Nell. The father deserted the family
when the girls were children. Lucetta later married Charles Noonan and she had
two girls and one boy by him. By the early 1970’s, all of the children by
the second marriage were deceased. Lucetta is buried in Fairview cemetery in
Co. B. Paul and Anna and my Great grandparents (Vuagniaux) are buried in
Walnut Hill in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
The children of the family
are as follows:
