The family plot, Colfax, WA., cemetery |
How the family grew |
Our Family's Story Roberge, Cyr, Reid, Krausse, Andrews, Winter, Knight, Jennings by Robert Louis Roberge |
Isaac Knight was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England in 1793. He was the son of Joseph Knight and Judith Jennings. He emigrated to America in 1833 aboard the Bark Ruckers and landed in Philadelphia, PA . Nothing is known for the next 8 years until his marriage to Eleanor Brown (born New York, about 1810) in Lafayette Co, MO on 28 Feb 1841. Eleanor bore Isaac 4 children; Rachel Ann (1841), Joseph (about 1843); both born in Missouri. Two other children, Maria (about 1847) and Isaac (about 1849) were born in Illinois (probably Greene Co.) |
The Federal censuses of 1850, 1860 and 1870 show the Knight family living in Greene Co., IL. Records indicate that Isaac purchased 3 plots of land in Greene Co. on 20 Oct 1854. On 9 May 1861, Rachel married William Wallace Reed (born 22 Dec 1833 in Carrolton, IL little else is known of him) in Carrolton, IL. She subseqently bore him 11 children from 1862 until 1884. |
The family, less the eldest daughter, Annetta, came to Whitman Co., Washington on the OWR&N railroad in 1886 and homesteaded near what is now Lamont. William died on 9 Apr 1891 and is buried in the Gresham Cemetery near Sprague, WA.. Rachel remained on the family farm with the younger children following her husband's death. My grandfather (Richard Henry Reid, don't know when the spelling was changed) left home in about 1884 and walked to Colfax (about 40 miles from Lamont. Based on family information, I don't believe he ever returned home or had anymore contact with his parents prior to his father's death. Rachel lived until after the 1920 census with her son and/or daughter in Hermiston, OR. My mother spent each summer in Hermiston with her uncle, James Howard, yet never made any mention of meeting her grandmother (I have found a photo of my mother and Rachel from about 1908). Richard enrolled in the Baptist College and graduated in about 1889. He worked for Harry Cornwall making loans for the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Co. of Hartford, CT. He purchased a great deal of land on the south side of the Clearwater River, formerly known as Lewiston Orchards, in Lewiston, ID as a representative of Cornwell. He met Mary Elspeth Krausse from Troy Grove, IL, in Colfax and they married in the Church of the Good Samaritan on 27 Dec 1904. My mother, Elva, was born 17 March 1906 in Colfax. She attended Martha Washington School and Colfax High School and earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Idaho in 1927. She earned her teaching certificate at USC the following year. Her first teaching job was in Banning, CA at the local high school. She met Treffle Edouard Roberge in Banning and they were married on 30 May 1933 at her parent's home in Colfax. Richard died of cancer of the prostate on 4 May 1948 and is interred in the Colfax cemetery. Elspeth died of advanced age on 30 Aug 1969 in Banning, Riverside Co, California, and is interred next to Richard in Colfax. Ernest August Ferdinand Wilhelm Krausse was born in Kassel, Hesse, Germany in June, 1846. He emigrated to America and settled in Troy Grove, LaSalle Co., IL where he met and married Alphretta Henrietta Andrews on 26 Jan 1874. Alphretta bore him a child; Mary Elspeth, born 27 May 1875. Their second child, Elva, was born in 1881. The family moved to Mockonema, WA in about 1884. . Ernest owned and operated the cigar store on Main St. until his death on 30 Sep 1909. He is interred in the Colfax cemetery. Alphretta lived in the 3 story family home that Ernest built, that still stands at S. 512 Lake St. in Colfax until her death on 9 Aug 1918. She is interred next to Ernest. Alphretta's father and mother were Oliver A. Andrews and Mary A. Winter. Oliver was born in Sheffield, MA. in the family home shown below. Mary was born in New Haven, CT. Immediately following their marriage on 6 Nov 1846, they moved to Troy Grove, LaSalle, IL. Mary died in 1867. Orville remarried in 1869 and lived until 1895 (see obituary, below) . |
The Cyr (also Cyre) family was Acadian and, because of their allegience to the British Crown during many territorial skirmishes between the English and French, were banished from Canada beginning in 1755. Acadia was the region now known as the state of Maine and Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, Canada. The earliest known Cyr in the new world was Pierre, born in 1644, in St. Eloi, Dunkirk, Flanders. He died in Beaubassin, Acadia, Canada in 1679. Louis and Lea were the parents of 3 other children, Wilfrid, Yvonne and Bernadette. Lea and her daughter, Bernadette died in the influenza pandemic of 1918 and are buried in Saskatoon, Sask., Can. |
Treffle (Tref) Edouard Roberge, the fourth child of Louis Treffle Roberge and Lea Cyr, was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on 18 Sep 1907. The Roberge family came to Canada from Normandy around the turn of the 18th century. Louis was known as a very good baker. Without knowing this info at the time, I became a baker, 70 years later. He owned a bakery in Penticton, BC, Canada, until his death in 1913. He is buried as Louise (Oops) T. Roberge in Lakeview Cemetery, Penticton, BC. The first of my family's Roberges in the new world was Pierre (known as LaPierre) born in 1648, Caen, Bayeux, Normandy, France. Lea was born in 1879, in either Greenleaf or St. Joseph, Kansas. Following several years of drought and tornados, the family moved to Riviere Qui Barre (on the road to the Klondike), Alberta, Canada where she met Louis, marrying him 5 Nov 1895, the first marriage performed at the old St. Emerence Church. Lea's father was Auguston Exon (Xavier) Francoise Cyr and her mother was Philomene Talbot Gervais. They were married at the Blessed Virgin Mary Maternity Hospital in Bourbonnais, IL on 17 Sep 1861. |
Tref and Elva in the mid 1970's |
The house that Ernest Krausse built, S 512 Lake St., Colfax, WA |
Downstairs, Ernest Krausse's Cigar Store; upstairs, Dick Reid's insurance and real estate office on Main St., Colfax, WA |
The Andrews home on the Boston Post Rd., Sheffield, MA. |
From L to R: Seraphine Cyr, Louis T. Roberge, Francois Cyr, Victor Cyr and Treffle Roberge in about 1912. |
Ernest August Ferdinand Wilhelm Krausse |
Great Grandfather's obituary |
Rachel Reid and grandaughter, Elva Reid about 1908 |
Richard H. Reid in about 1906 |
Colfax, WA circa 1900 |
L to R: Wilfrid Francis Roberge, Lea Cyr Roberge, Treffle Roberge and Louis T. Roberge in front of the family's bakery, Penticton, BC, Canada. Building now houses a vacuum cleaner business. Unidentified gentleman on right |
Six of the eleven children of William Wallace and Rachel Ann Reid; L to R: Knight, Richard, Eleanor, Beatrice, Howard and Roland. Date unknown |
Louis Roberge's marker at Lakeview Cemetery, Penticton, BC, Can. |
William Wallace Reed's final resting place; Swannack-Gresham cemetery, between Lamont and Sprague, WA |
Click on family tree to view larger image |
Monument on Isle d'Orleans commemorating the Roberge family |
