#52Ancestors - I'd Like to Meet....

                There are many people in the family tree I’d love to meet and visit with, but one stands out among the rest.  She isn’t even in my direct line.  She is my husband’s great-great grandmother.  She lived through so much and I have always been drawn to her.

                Julia Talbot was born 11 August 1847 in Henryville, Quebec, Canada.  She was the oldest child of Gedeon and Flavie (Provost) Talbot.  When Julia was around ten years old, the Talbot family moved to Kankakee County, Illinois.   Many French Canadians were moving to the area at that time.  On the 28^th of October 1866 Julia married Marcel Balthazor, also a French Canadian transplant to Kankakee County. 

                Julia was a petite woman, like her mother, but she didn’t let her size hold her back.  Julia was a strong woman.  She gave birth to fourteen children over the course of 25 years.  Marcel and Julia moved from Kankakee County in 1870, settling in Washington County, Kansas between the towns of Clifton and Clyde.  They owned quite a bit of land, including a half section in her name (not common back in those days).  Reading the agricultural census gives us insight into the work Julia did around the homestead.  In the year 1884, she made 500 pounds of butter. 

               

(The Marcel Balthazor family, circa 1887.  From L to R: Mary, Marcel with Philip on his lap, Georgianna standing in back - she died at 27 after childbirth - Nels, Julia holding baby Rosie and Eli.  Julia would have two more children after this.  Annie would survive and Celia would be killed in a horrible accident at the age of 4).

Marcel and Julia retired from farming when their boys were old enough to take over the farm.  They bought a little house in Clyde that was within walking distance from the Catholic Church.  They celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary by renewing their vows and then having a big party out at their farm.  Julia’s surviving brothers and sisters were in attendance as were two of Marcel’s siblings.   Marcel passed away at the age of 80 in 1924.  Julia continued living in the little house in Clyde.  Her children stopped by regularly to visit and help her with what she needed.  Julia passed away on the 23^rd of January 1933 at the age of 85.  She and Marcel rest in the Catholic Cemetery just two blocks from their little house in town. 

(Marcel and Julia in their later years)

                Julia had a strength of spirit that amazes me.  Of the fourteen children she brought into the world, seven of them died as infants or toddlers, including five of the first six she had.   The hope she had to have as she brought another child into the world, hoping it would be healthy and she would get to raise it to an adult, and the devastation of having to bury another child.  Family legend tells us that one of the babies was born while Marcel was gone driving a freight wagon into Nebraska.  She had the baby on her own, the baby died and she took care of the burial, all alone.   Five of the first six.  I don’t think I could have gone on.  But she did and had eight more babies.  She had her last daughter when she was forty-four years old.  It took years to find the births of each of the children and their names.  I have searched for fifteen years for the locations her babies are buried and have only found one of the seven that died.  Nothing in church records, nothing in newspapers, no family Bible to look to.  I want to ask Julia where her babies lie, so that they can be remembered.  I want to ask her how she survived the loss of those babies.  And most of all, I want her to know how much I admire her incredible strength and fortitude.