Watts in Steele Creek Cemetery

Back when I wrote up a short biography of my 4th-great grandfather, Rev. James Bell Watt, I had cited as one of my sources a history of the Steele Creek church where he was pastor.  What didn't make it into my earlier post was that along with a history of the church, the book also contains a full listing of the burials in the Steele Creek cemetery alongside the church, up to 1976.  The listing is actually very helpful, because the compilers provided a chart showing the layout of the cemetery and grave locations via a grid division of the chart.  The number and first letter correspond to the grid location, while the W or E that follow indicates whether the grave is on the west or east side of the cemetery.  I have broken up the listing of Watt burials located in Steele Creek and grouped them by their locations as provided in the book rather than by the straight alphabetical listing it provides.  In doing this I hope to give a clearer picture of the specific groupings within the family as a whole for reasons I will clarify below.

7FW - immediate family of Rev. J. B. Watt
Watt, Fannie - d. 12 Jun 1851 (aged 18 months) "Daughter of Rev. J. B. Watt"
Watt infants - "Two nameless babes, children of Rev. and Mrs. J. Bell Watt"
Watt, Reverend James Bell - 4 Apr 1820 - 16 Sep 1860 - "Pastor of Steele Creek"*
Watt, Louisa Angelina - 6 Dec 1835* - 8 May 1917 - "Wife of Rev. James Bell Watt"
Watt, Mary Caroline - d. 20 Aug 1838 (age 4 months) - "Daughter of J. B. Watt"
Watt, Mrs. Nancy M. - d. 10 Apr 1854 - "Wife of Reverend J. B. Watt"
Watt, William J. - d. 4 Feb 1857 (age 34 years)
(*I have corrected Louisa Watt's birth year from the book's printed date of 1865, which would be impossible as her husband died in 1860, to the correct year of 1835.  Rev. Watt appears in the full alphabetical list in 11DE, clear across the cemetery.  but a list of pastors buried at Steele Creek that precedes the full list places him in 7FW, with the rest of his family.  I have chosen to use that location for my list, but note the discrepancy.)

8GW - immediate family of Rev. Watt's youngest son, Walter
Watt, Elizabeth Reed - 4 Jun 1870 - 7 Jul 1937 "Wife of Walter W. Watt"
Watt, Walter W. - 27 Sep 1860 - 5 Nov 1941

11AE - family of William Franklin Watt, son of James Bell Watt Jr and grandson of Rev. Watt
Watt infant - 8 Jan 1917 - 8 Jan 1917 "Son of Mr. and Mrs. W. F. Watt"
Watt infant - 18 Dec 1918 - 15 Feb 1919 "Son of Mr. and Mrs. W. F. Watt"
Watt, William Franklin - 17 Jun 1886 - 23 Jun 1964
Watt, William Franklin Jr. - 13 Feb 1914 - 11 Jan 1973

11BE - family of James Bell Watt Jr
Watt, Emma Wilson 2 Jul 1859 - 25 Apr 1935
Watt, James Bell 25 Jan 1859 - 15 Apr 1925

The one burial in the list that really caught my attention was the one I couldn't immediately identify as a member of Rev. Watt's immediate family or as a descendant - William J. Watt, who was 34 years old when he died in 1857.  This would make him about two years younger than Rev. Watt, and born in either 1822 or 1823.  The biography of Rev. Watt's youngest son, Walter, that appears on page 25 of the History of North Carolina, vol VI, mentions that Rev. Watt was the elder of two brothers.  Might this William J. Watt be his younger brother?  I have as yet found no other biographical sources of Rev. Watt that mention a brother by name, but the age and grave location suggest that William J. Watt was a close member of the Reverend's family.

Happy Flag Day!

This photo probably dates from mid-1920s and depicts my grandfather, Robert Fagan of Hazleton, Pennsylvania.

Deaths at Cloutierville - Ancestors in Neighboring Newspapers

Today's post highlights one of my favorite tips for searching for ancestors among old sources - in this case, newspapers.  What I like to remind everyone is not to assume that just because your ancestors lived in one particular location, that information on them will be limited to that location!  Since newspapers were one of the best ways to spread information about ones' friends and neighbors, newspapers located outside of the actual hometown of an ancestor may provide you with better information, since they're meant for the people who didn't keep up with that person on a daily basis.  Check surrounding towns' newspapers for mentions of your ancestors, or even the papers of the towns where their families lived in other counties or states.

Today's news clipping comes from the Opelousas Courier, a weekly paper in both French and English editions published in Opelousas, Louisiana from 1852 to 1910.  Opelousas is the parish seat of St. Landry Parish, which is located three parishes away from Natchitoches, where the people it mentions were from.  The notice is of a list of recent deaths at Cloutierville, located along the Cane River in Natchitoches Parish, and states that among the deceased are also "names who are well-known in our Parish".

• The Opelousas courier. (Opelousas, La.), 05 Nov. 1853. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83026389/1853-11-05/ed-1/seq-1/>

Of particular interest to this blogger are the names Eusèbe Deslouches, Hyppolite Rachal, and Mmes. P. S. Compère and Julien Rachal, which match names in my own family tree.  The Eusèbe Deslouches in my records was the son of Appoline Rachal and Landry Deslouches, and the nephew of Hyppolite Rachal, who also appears in the list.  Hyppolite was, like Appoline and my ancestor Cyriaque, a child of Sylvestre Rachal and Marie Rose Michel-Zoriche.  If they are the same people as mine, Eusèbe Deslouches was about 9 years old and his uncle Hyppolite was about 28 years of age at the time of their deaths.  As neither of them could be found on the 1860 census, I think it likely but not 100% confirmed.  Also here in this list is an additional corroboration for the death of my 5th-great grandmother, Mme. P. S. Compère (née Lolette Rachal, daughter of Julien Rachal and Marie Louise Brevel) who died September of 1853, according to my records, which cited her succession filed with the Natchitoches clerk of court as the source for that date.  The Compères' elder son Joseph Maximin had married Clara Dejean of Opelousas, and so their name would indeed have been familiar in Opelousas.  The name in this list that precedes Lolette's, Mme. Julien Rachal, is not her mother, who died in 1815, but is probably instead her sister-in-law, Marie Melanie Lavespere, the widow of Mme. Compère's brother, Julien Jr.  Two of their sons were also married to Dejean sisters, so the Rachals would have been known in Opelousas as well.

The next column on the newspaper page (link in the caption above) contains a letter from the bishop at Natchitoches which may be relevant to this list.  In it, he laments the devastation brought upon the communities at Cloutierville, Shreveport, and Alexandria by a recent outbreak of yellow fever.