More About the Children of
Narcisse and Edesse.

A Note from Charles Francis Petelle's Family.

It's always seemed remarkable that Charles and Corinne separated after having nine children! My Dad, Francis Paul Petelle (Born to Paul Henry Petelle and Ruth Anderson Petelle in 1920) told me that Corrinne's mother had died giving birth to her. Her father was a jeweler in Montreal (I have a copy of his business card reading P. H. Desjardins at No. 87 Rue St. Zotique). Anyway. M. Desjardins was well-enough off that he was able to send Corinne to be raised and educated in a convent in Quebec City. Accordingly, she was more educated and more refined than probably most of our ancestors. Dad said his grandfather, Charles Francis, was a very devout Catholic but that he had a rough and sometimes mean-seeming demeanor. Dad's view was that his grandmother just had enough of Charles after all those years.

Dad also said that in his early youth, they would have huge Petelle family gatherings with Paul, his seven siblings and their spouses, and all their children. Paul was the eldest of the children of Charles and Corinne, and my Dad was the eldest grandchild. Dad always said it was quite a family scandal when his grandparents divorced (he always said "divorced", although maybe they didn't do so formally). Charles Francis even had some legal problems supposedly because he didn't believe in divorce and wouldn't pay alimony (or support). Dad said there was some coolness after the divorce between the older siblings (Paul, Leo, Marie and Charlie), on the one hand, and the four younger siblings, with the older siblings generally taking the side of their father and the younger ones more sympathetic to Corrinne. That may be why I had met Dad's Uncles Leo and Charlie, and his Aunt Marie Mammoser.

I've been to Uncle Charlie's bookstore, and am attaching a copy of a newspaper article about his store, but unfortunately can't remember from whom I received it. Dad always said Uncle Charlie was the intellectual of the family. Dad's closest cousins were Leon (I think Charlie's son) and Jackie Mammoser. I have a photo somewhere of the three of them--probably in early to mid-teens--when they visited their grandfather Charles Francis at a cabin in northern Wisconsin, almost at Lake Superior. He said that his grandfather still hadn't recovered from the divorce and spent much of the summer alone at this cabin. I believe it was in Bay View, so was probably owned by Noe Gervais and Hermine Petelle Gervais. I speculate that Paul and his siblings sent their sons there to be sure their father was doing OK.

I did meet my Dad's uncle James Frederick ("Uncle Freddy") and his Aunt Louise in my late teens, when both lived for a while in Southwestern Michigan, near where I grew up. Uncle Freddy was an accomplished engineer and quite a character. He and his third wife and the wife's two daughters lived in St. Joe. Michigan for a while.

Aunt Louise lived for a while in Coloma, MI, but ended up moving to Florida with her husband Claude Schweizer (I think this was a second marriage for both). I have a letter from Dad's Aunt Louise to me, responding to my question about how Charles Francis and Corrinne met, and she did say for sure that they had met because Corrinne visited the Columbian Exposition in Chicago and stopped on the way to visit Milwaukee friends, who introduced the couple. Apparently, she also stopped in Milwaukee on the way back, and the rest is history, leading to me and to my grandchildren!

You speculated whether Paul Petelle had attended the seminary and I can tell you absolutely that he did--he intended for much of his youth to become a priest. Somewhere I have a photo of him with a group of seminarians. I'm not sure what led him to change his mind about becoming a priest.

    ~Jim Petelle.