A wonderful email was received from Sandy Coleman. Her father was Tommy DeMoulpied. Tommy's sister is Jennie. Sandy has been visiting Aunt Jennie, age 93, and has put together a narrative below. Sandy's Great Grandfather, Thomas, was born to Nicholas who came over to Wisconsin from Guernsey and established the "Midwest" lineage of de Moulpieds. More to come...enjoy!
Archie
and Jessie (Currier) DeMoulpied were married on March 23, 1914. They rode in on horse and buggy
to Traverse
City from Central Lake to get married at the Justice of
the Peace.
Dad was
born at home in what Aunt Jennie calls the “Tarpaper shack” (or tenant house) in
Yuba. Aunt Jennie recalls that when the
baby (Dad) was close to being born, Grandma and Grandpa made her walk to her
Aunt Margie’s house in Yuba (Archie’s sister). They did not want her to be
there when he was born. She was 8 at the time.
The
tarpaper shack was moved to the farm after the original farmhouse burned down.
The roof caught fire when sparks and hot ashes fell on it from the
chimney. Aunt Jennie recalls her mom
& dad putting her in the first “enclosed” vehicle they had. She may have been 3 or 4. They told her to stay there while they
retrieved belongings from the burning house.
She also recollects feeling the heat of the fire inside the car.
Archie
& Jessie DeMoulpied lost the Yuba farm in the depression. From there they
moved to a house near the Yuba Creek just off the main “highway” (31). Then they moved to a farmhouse on the Elk Lake Road.
When they moved again in 1935 to Acme’s Deepwater Point, Aunt Jennie
stayed with friends so that she could finish out her 8th grade
school year at Williamsburg High School.
In 1937 they moved to Cedar Street in Traverse City.
The house was and still is at the corner of Cedar and Third Streets,
right across the street from Mark & Kerri’s duplex. That’s when Dad started Kindergarten at the Elmwood School at age 7. He would walk to and from school on his own
until the kids at Immaculate Conception school made fun of him. Then his sister-in-law, Edith (Ervie) started
walking with him. They moved to Monroe Street after that. The fourth house from Randolph Street, on the east side. Aunt Jennie says they live on Randolph Street too, either before or after Monroe.
They also lived on Wayne Street after that. When Dad was in his late teens, his parents
had a cottage built on Spider Lake.
Grandpa Archie’s friend asked “Why in the hell would you want to be way
out there in the sticks” according to Aunt Jennie. They stayed at the cottage in the summers and
rented a cottage at 818 East Front Street near the college in the
winters. I asked Aunt Jennie where they
got the money to build the cottage. She
said she really didn’t know. She thinks
that friends and neighbors help build it over a period of time. Archie was not
much of a carpenter or particularly handy.
In the early years, Aunt Jennie recalls her dad working on the
railroad. But later when they lived in Traverse City, he worked as a janitor in the TC
School System. Grandma Jessie worked odd
jobs. She remembers she worked at the
“Little Mill” on Front Street sorting beans. She also worked at a small café called “Tom’s
Red Hots” downtown. She worked in the
kitchen. Tom wanted her to waitress but
she suggested that he hire her 15 year old daughter, Jennie. And she did.
Jessie also worked in the kitchen at the Elmwood School.
After
Archie passed away, Jessie apparently sold the cottage and bought a house on Rose Street by the railroad tracks (now the
TART trail). Archie died at the county
hospital which was out on Cass Road where the TCAPS busses are now
kept. He died of heart failure. A family friend worked at the hospital and
called Jennie’s house to say that he was not doing well. Jessie was staying with Aunt Jennie and Uncle
Dan at the time. Jessie did not want to
go to the hospital so Jennie went by herself.
When she arrived, her dad was in a back storage room with 6-7 other men
on cot-like beds. It was like they were because they knew they were near death
and there was nothing they could do for them. When she realized how bad off he
was, she went to get her mother. By the
time the two returned, Archie had passed.
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Thomas
James DeMoulpied (my great-grandfather) was married to Lavina (Hosmer). They had children Clarence, Archie (my
grandfather) and Margie. They were quite a “well to do” prominent family and
lived in Central
Lake in
what looks like quite a nice house. Aunt Jennie has mentioned a couple of times
that Thomas donated a fair amount of money to the Seventh Day Adventist Church.
Lavina died from some sort of cancer Aunt Jennie thought. Thomas then married a gal named Lois. That is who Aunt Jennie remembers most. When Thomas passed away everything was left
to Lois. The kids never received
anything. Thomas was originally from South Dakota then moved to Racine, Wisconsin and then to Central Lake.
He left a brother, John in Racine.
Thomas
James DeMoulpied and Levina (Hosmer) DeMoulpied
(Levina had a twin sister, Laveena)
Children:
Clarence, Archie and Margie
Son,
Clarence married a woman named Tressie, had three children; May, Irma and Bud
(Clarence Jr.). Clarence moved out west
for some reason and nobody had heard from him after that. Margie married a
Pearce and had a daughter, Betty who lives in Copemish today. Betty would be
Dad’s and Aunt Jennie’s cousin. Jennie
still sees her from time to time.
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Archie
William DeMoulpied and Jessie (Currier) DeMoulpied
Children: Ervie, Evelyn, Jennie and
Tommy
Jessie
was from Charlotte, Michigan.
Jessie met Archie at a Seventh Day Adventist Church camp or some similar
event. Her mother died from Typhoid Fever when Jessie was 8-9. Jessie had a
sister named Florence and a brother named Harry. She also had half-brother named Charlie. Jessie brought her elderly father, Charles A.
Currier to Traverse City when he was older to live out his life at the State Hospital.
It was said that he lost his mind over religion. Aunt Jennie thinks it was Alzheimer’s
disease. Jennie’s mother took her to see her grandfather in the State Hospital.
She remembers being afraid because of the stories she had heard. Her mother told her that everything would be
alright once that got into his room.
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