Eunice Elizabeth
Vaillancourt 1903-1993
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Eunice Elizabeth came with her mother Louise
in Sept 1903 to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
her sisters remained in Chicago.
Mabel b1899 and Estelle b1901 Vaillancourt
lived and were raised by Aunt Florence Wood eventually in 1908 at her new home
on 44 Hawthorne Place.
picture taken around 1905.
Her father was Samuel Vaillancourt.
She moved in Sept 1903 to
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with her
mother.
Elizabeth was included in 1920 Mackway census as Elizabeth age 16.
The family mystery today is - who was May Knaf in the linked below
actual copy of the 1930 Mackway Census sheet?
She is shown as a daughter with Penna. father and Germany mother.
My guess the child May never knew who her mother was.
Our guess is Eunice was the mother and father was the man who rape her.
Eunie, was nurse and would not abort and for family reasons elected to fully carry and have the child
but
she would have to live with Grandma. Eunie had to get on with her life.
While she finished nurse training, she would send money to Grandma for
her expenses.
Eunie married Jack Mairs around 1926-28. The child would have been 2 to
4 yrs old.
Jack had two children of his own to raise - about the same ages.
No one in the Mackway family talked about the child to their children.
So we are clueless.
Husband
John Mairs
Born: -
Marr: -
Died: -
Father:
Mother:
Other Spouses:
Wife Eunice Elizabeth Vaillancourt
Born: 14 JUN 1903 - Maywood Village, Cook Co., IL
Died: 5 AUG 1993 -
Father: Samuel Henry Vaillancourt
Mother: Louise Rosina Weinbauer
Other Spouses: Jack Crombie
Lived in N. Philadelphia in 1908. Lived at 23 South Sickel St., Philadelphia, PA in 1910. Lived on Hill Rd., Hilltown Twp., Bucks Co., PA in 1920. Lived in Norristown, PA in 1947, prob. until her death.
St Michael Cemetery Sellersville, Pa
Eunie Vaillancourt Meirs Crombie 1903-1993 and Louise Mackway
1920 United
States Federal
Census
about
Harold MacKway
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Harold Mackway Sr was Louise (Weinbauer) Vaillancourt's minister.
Each was married and
had children. He had two daughters and a son; she had two daughters
and was pregnant with Eunie by her first husband, Samuel Vaillancourt. There's no
doubt that Eunie was Samuel's child: she looked like him, and nothing
like our grandfather. Eunie and with her mother until she was grade school age.
Harold convinced Louise that if she left her husband and daughters, they
would go away and become missionaries. Unfortunately, she believed
him. She regretted the decision.
Eunie had no respect for Harold Sr. She said Louise was
the
only one who worked in the family. Louise ran a little store to earn
cash to supplement the garden on their 7 acres. She raised chickens
and rabbits for food, and sold rabbits to research labs.
Harold Sr, "a self-ordained minister", spent his time translating
the Bible, according to Eunie. After Grandma died, Grandfather took
over her store stock, and set up shop at the Reading Terminal
Market. When Grandfather was too old to live alone, he came briefly
to live with Harold Jr, until he went to live with his daughter Ruth in
Indiana.
Louise was previously married to Samuel Vaillancourt and they had three children - Mabel (Sniff), Estelle (Repenning) and Eunice Elizabeth Vaillancourt (Mairs). Eunie was called Elizabeth until she married Jack Mairs. Also she came with Louise when she left Sam and married Harold Sr. Eunie shown in the 1920 census as Elizabeth Mackway age 16 just prior to nurses training school. She was perhaps 20 and engaged to be married to someone, But she was raped by another man and the marriage was cancelled. In 1924 a girl May Knaf was included in the 1930 Mackway census family. We have no more facts then these so far. We speculate it was Eunies child. We never knew of this child until the census was found and we have lost touch with her name. She today would be 2008-1924 or 84 years old.
I'll give you what answers I have about the Mackways.
Eunie said that Louise Weinbauer abandoned her daughters and Sam Vaillaincourt to go to Philadelphia with Harold Mackway Sr. because of religion. Grandfather convinced her that they would be missionaries together.
Grandma regretted her decision lifelong. She always wore a heart shaped gold locket containing snippets of the blond curls of Mabel and Estelle. It must have hurt her deeply when little Eunie begged for a sister, knowing that Eunie already had two sisters. Eunie corresponded with her "Uncle" Sam for as long as he lived. She was especially pleased to have an Uncle Sam, since she was born on Flag Day. When she was old and ill, and briefly in the hospital, she told me delightedly that they were flying the flag for her and her birthday.
"Uncle" Sam became known to Eunie as her father when Eunie was about 14 years old, just before she entered Nurses' Training. Eunie was sent by train to Chicago to meet her father and sisters. Her Aunt Florence gave her a book that I still have, "The Little Lame Prince". Entering Nurses' Training gave Eunie a career (women still could not vote then), and a tiny salary for her work in the hospital, most of which went to Grandma to help raise the younger children. At fourteen, the first day of training, Eunie was sent to the morgue in the hospital basement to wash the body of a recently deceased patient. She had to climb up onto the granite table the corpse was on to screw in the light bulb to see what she was to do.
Grandma regretted her decision to leave Sam, but was unwilling to leave another husband and children. She was very much in favor of having her only son marry a Catholic, because "there would be no divorce".
I'm wondering about little May Knaf, born in 1924. Eunie was engaged or just married to the brother of one of her nursing school friends, when she was raped. The man abandoned her. Could Eunie have borne a child of the rape? If so, she would have had a very difficult time raising a child. Her nurse's wages were barely enough to keep one person, and she worked twelve hour shifts. Leaving a child with Harold Sr. would have been a terrible decision, knowing how he treated little girls. Eunie married Jack Mairs about 1926-1928. His parents urged Jack to forbid Eunie to have any children of her own for fear she'd favor a natural child over Jack's motherless girls, Betty and Jane. Eunie told me once, regretfully, that 'all of her husbands would not allow her to have children'.
So maybe there is another person we can bring into the family, May, if she's still alive. Eighty four isn't an impossible age these days. If she is Eunie's daughter, she deserves to know that she had a wonderful mother who was caught in difficult circumstances. Grandma would have taken good care of her granddaughter. What puzzles me is that my mother knew my father's sisters (both mother and Naomi were born in 1918), but there was never any mention of May. May would have been only 16 years old when my parents married, after a seven year courtship.
We have robins! Spring, soon!
AnnMarie
