On January 24, 1870 a baby girl was born to Mr. & Mrs. John Bouvier
at Peamone, France. After some deliberation she was named Louise Madeline.
When nine years of age Louise's parents left her with her grandparents
and came to America. Being such a small child Louise became homesick. About
a year later a friend in the community where Mr. & Mrs. Bouview lived,
was going back to France to get his family. This friend said he would bring
Louise over with his family if her parents wished. Of course Mr. &
Mrs. Bouvier rejoiced at the thought of having Louise with them again.
They gave the man plenty of money for Louise's food and passage.
All of the people on the boat Louise came over on were Catholics. When
they heard Louise wasn't a Catholic they wanted to dump her out at the
next port. The man who had promised to bring her over would not let them
though. Louise happened to hear the priest's daughter tell them their wish.
This scared her very much and after that she was especially shy around
all of the Catholics and this girl of whom she was deathly afraid. In fact
she was of most afraid of going to sleep for fear of being harmed.
Louise was terribly sick all the way over, but the man she was with took
care of her as well as he could. She had very little food for the man divided
her money among his family instead of spending it all on her.
Louise celebrated her tenth birthday on the boat, but there was no cake
and candles like she usually enjoyed.
She was happy indeed when she landed at New York, but she knew a long train
ride awaited her. She could not understand American language and when someone
spoke to her all she could do was stare at them.
One day while on the train she noticed a nice friendly man sitting behind
her. He spoke to her but she didn't have an answer. She was so terribly
hungry that the man must have seen it in her face so he laid a box of crackers
over on to her lap. The children with her were so hungry that they grabbed
the box away from her and she didn't get but two crackers. When she arrived
at Pierce City, Missouri they were a day late and her parents were no where
to be seen. The could not come back that day but had asked two young neighbor
boys to pick her up. That day it was so terribly cold. After riding on
a wagon the ten miles to her home she was so nearly frozen and starved
that she could not talk to her parents. They had to carry her into the
house and rub her until she could move.
She worked on the farm until she was seventeen years of age. Her brother,
which was four years older than she, had gone to California some years
before. She and three other girls went to see him and stayed for two years,
doing housework, etc.
At the age of twenty she was bitten by the love bug. The lucky young gentleman
was Paul William Planchon. Paul was born in
Uruguay, South America. He was six years older than she. After a lovely
wedding Mr. & Mrs. Planchon started house keeping near Monett, Mo.
They lived there one and one half years then moved to Powell, Mo. Where
they farmed for 25 years. Then they lived near Wheaton, Mo. For a few years.
The next move was to Dawson, Oklahoma where Mr. Planchon was janitor of
the school for 2 years. Because of Mr. Planchon's health theymoved back
to Wheaton, where they lived until they moved to Big Sugar Creek near Pineville,
Mo. There they lived until Mr. Planchon's death August 23, 1934.
Mr. & Mrs. Planchon had six children, two boys and four girls. One
of the older boys was in the first World War. One night Mrs. Planchon was
awakened by a bright light in the corner of the room. She had a feeling
that her son was either killed or wounded. Several days after that she
received a letter from her son saying that his best pal had been killed.
After Mr. Planchon's death Mrs. Planchon stayed at Pineville with her daughter
in the summer and at Neosho in the winter with another daughter.
On January 24, 1943 Mrs. Planchon celebrated her seventy third birthday
and hopes to see many more in the future. She is now living happily with
her daughter and family, Mrs. Eva Couch of Pineville, Missouri.
Doris Goodnight