Scott Crevier's Family History Scott Crevier's Family History
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Florian & Odile (LeRoy) LeGrave • my great grandparents

As I've researched my family history over the years and found so much information and many details about my ancestors, my great grandparents, Florian & Odilia LeGrave, have fascinated me the most. They were typical, hard-working, Belgian farmers in northeast Wisconsin, raising a family of 13 children (including my grandmother Emerence) in a small farmhouse. They had 65 grandchildren and 175 great grandchildren (including me)! Over the years, I've had the fortune to meet several of my relatives with whom I'm connected through those 13 children. Note that Odelia was commonly called Odile; I've used those names interchangeably here.

Florian LeGrave Odelia (LeRoy) LeGrave

Family group sheet.

Here's some data that you might find on a traditional family group sheet. With each child having a spouse, and James and Clifford having two, there are a total of 30 people mentioned in this section. I was able to track down all 30 obituaries and gravesites. Click on the name of any person in this section to see more details/links.

Florian LeGrave (1880-1960)
     m. 1900
Odile LeRoy (1882-1971)

  1. Daniel LeGrave (1901-1952)
        ↳ m. 1923: Palmy Gerondale (1906-1982)

  2. Elsie LeGrave (1903-1973)
        ↳ m. 1920: John Nellis (1901-1988)

  3. Rosamond LeGrave (1905-1997)
        ↳ m. 1925: Steven (Goldie) Nellis (1892-1981)

  4. Clayton LeGrave (1906-2001)
        ↳ m. 1921: Myrtle Virlee (1909-1997)

  5. Anna LeGrave (1908-1994)
        ↳ m. 1928: William Virlee (1902-1987)

  6. Mary LeGrave (1910-1968)
        ↳ m. 1927: George Dart (1908-1971)

  7. Celia LeGrave (1912-2006)
        ↳ m. 1929: John Adams (1907-1978)

  8. Lawrence LeGrave (1914-1991)
        ↳ m. 1936: Dora Agamaite (1917-2003)

  9. Florence LeGrave (1916-2011)
        ↳ m. 1934: Myron Lardinois (1915-1992)

  10. Emerence LeGrave (1918-2000)
        ↳ m. 1935: Wilfred Crevier (1915-1989)

  11. Clifford LeGrave (1921-2003)
        ↳ m. 1942: Esther Vandervest (1923-1987)
        ↳ m. 1988: Anna DuBois (1926-2000)

  12. Ruth LeGrave (1921-2012)
        ↳ m. 1939: Edmund Engebose (1919-1997)

  13. James LeGrave (1926-2008)
        ↳ m. 1945: Mathilda Guellette (1928-1971)
        ↳ m. 1972: Betty Weyenberg (1939-2019)

×

Florian LeGrave

born: Monday, March 1, 1880
died: Sunday, January 31, 1960
lived: 79 yrs

×

Odile LeRoy

born: Monday, August 7, 1882
died: Saturday, June 26, 1971
lived: 88 yrs

×

Daniel LeGrave

born: Saturday, August 24, 1901
died: Thursday, January 10, 1952
lived: 50 yrs

×

Palmy Gerondale

born: Saturday, June 16, 1906
died: Thursday, April 15, 1982
lived: 75 yrs

×

Elsie LeGrave

born: Sunday, February 15, 1903
died: Friday, January 26, 1973
lived: 69 yrs

×

John Nellis

born: Monday, July 8, 1901
died: Thursday, November 10, 1988
lived: 87 yrs

×

Rosamond LeGrave

born: Sunday, June 11, 1905
died: Sunday, May 4, 1997
lived: 91 yrs

×

Steven (Goldie) Nellis

born: Friday, April 22, 1892
died: Friday, November 27, 1981
lived: 89 yrs

×

Clayton LeGrave

born: Friday, December 21, 1906
died: Wednesday, October 10, 2001
lived: 94 yrs

×

Myrtle Virlee

born: Tuesday, August 31, 1909
died: Wednesday, March 26, 1997
lived: 87 yrs

×

Anna LeGrave

born: Friday, August 14, 1908
died: Tuesday, October 11, 1994
lived: 86 yrs

×

William Virlee

born: Thursday, December 4, 1902
died: Tuesday, July 7, 1987
lived: 84 yrs

×

Mary LeGrave

born: Sunday, December 18, 1910
died: Thursday, January 11, 1968
lived: 57 yrs

×

George Dart

born: 1908
died: Monday, February 15, 1971
lived: 63 yrs

×

Celia LeGrave

born: Wednesday, April 10, 1912
died: Sunday, July 2, 2006
lived: 94 yrs

×

John Adams

born: Friday, January 25, 1907
died: Sunday, May 21, 1978
lived: 71 yrs

×

Lawrence LeGrave

born: Sunday, June 7, 1914
died: Sunday, October 13, 1991
lived: 77 yrs

×

Dora Agamaite

born: Wednesday, February 21, 1917
died: Sunday, October 19, 2003
lived: 86 yrs

×

Florence LeGrave

born: Wednesday, May 10, 1916
died: Saturday, September 24, 2011
lived: 95 yrs

×

Myron Lardinois

born: Wednesday, May 12, 1915
died: Thursday, March 26, 1992
lived: 76 yrs

×

Emerence LeGrave

born: Thursday, July 25, 1918
died: Friday, April 7, 2000
lived: 81 yrs

×

Wilfred Crevier

born: Wednesday, May 5, 1915
died: Thursday, December 21, 1989
lived: 74 yrs

×

Clifford LeGrave

born: Tuesday, August 23, 1921
died: Friday, January 10, 2003
lived: 81 yrs

×

Esther Vandervest

born: Friday, November 23, 1923
died: Friday, April 24, 1987
lived: 63 yrs

×

Anna DuBois

born: Thursday, May 20, 1926
died: Friday, March 31, 2000
lived: 73 yrs

×

Ruth LeGrave

born: Tuesday, August 23, 1921
died: Monday, May 7, 2012
lived: 90 yrs

×

Edmund Engebose

born: Friday, April 4, 1919
died: Friday, September 5, 1997
lived: 78 yrs

×

James LeGrave

born: Tuesday, August 10, 1926
died: Monday, November 24, 2008
lived: 82 yrs

×

Mathilda Guellette

born: 1928
died: Monday, October 25, 1971
lived: 43 yrs

×

Betty Weyenberg

born: Wednesday, September 13, 1939
died: Sunday, August 4, 2019
lived: 79 yrs

Incomplete dates.

I have incomplete dates for the following pieces of info. If you can help me fill in the blanks, please let me know.

Family notes.

Family news.

Click any of these thumbnails to read the entire article. I included the first one here as it was the announcement of the birth of my father, Stanley, Florian & Odile's grandson.

1939-09-30 GPBG Parents-of-Son
1939-09-30 GPBG Parents-of-Son
1939-09-30 GPBG Parents-of-Son
1948-05-15 GPBG 12-Farms-Sold-In-Kewaunee-County
1956-10-12 GPBG Yarn-Spinner
1956-10-12 GPBG Yarn-Spinner

Ancestors.

Belgian flag

Florian & Odile lived on the family homestead in Kewaunee County, Wisconsin, originally settled by Florian's grandfather, Alexis LeGrave. Alexis was born in Ohain, Belgium and emigrated in July 1856. His son Francois LeGrave and Francois' wife Harriet (Meunier) LeGrave (Florian's parents) bought the homestead in 1868. In 1907, Francois and Harriett retired from active farming and sold their land to three sons, including Florian. 41 years later, Florian sold the farm to his son Clifford (as mentioned in the above newspaper article).

Here's a chart of Florian's ancestors and here's a chart of Odile's ancestors. (I'm always open to receiving new data to fill in the holes in my tree.)

The spelling.

The original spelling of the last name is "LeGrave." However, at some point in their lives, the following LeGraves changed the spelling to "LeGreve":

So of course, all of their descendants now have the surname "LeGreve".

Family photo.

This photo includes the entire family, yes, all 13 children. I don't know the year or occasion. I figure that with such a large family, a photo like this must have been rare and perhaps a very special occasion. The boy in the front center looks like the youngest, so that must be James. He looks to be about 14 or so, which would put the photo at about 1940. The woman in the front far right is my grandmother Emerence (who turned 22 in 1940).

Click the photo to see an enlarged version with the names I know of indicated.

Florian and Odile LeGrave family
Florian and Odile LeGrave family

50th wedding anniversary.

Florian & Odile celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1950. This photo (with all 13 children like the one above) along with the article below was printed in the Algoma Record-Herald on Thursday, November 9th, 1950. It was taken on the church steps at a special Mass a week earlier. What a treasure to have!

Florian and Odile LeGrave 50th wedding anniversary

Celebrating 50 Years of married life together, Mr. and Mrs. Florien LeGrave, Rosiere, renewed their vows at St. Hubert's Catholic church, Rosiere, with an 8 o'clock high mass Sunday, Oct. 29th 1950. The couple has 13 children and their sons and daughters were present for the golden wedding celebration. They are shown here with their parents.

In the front row (left to right) are Mrs. Goldie (Rosmond) Nellis, Forestville; Mrs. John (Elsie) Nellis, Dyckesville; Mr.( Florien) & Mrs. (Odile) LeGrave, the golden wedding couple; Daniel LeGrave, Algoma, and Mrs. William (Anna) Virlee, Brussels.

Second row — James LeGrave, Green Bay; Mrs. Edmund (Ruth) Engebose, Duvall; Mrs. George (Mary) Dart, Tonet; Mrs. John (Celia) Adams, Lincoln; Mrs. Myron (Florence) Lardinois, Kradow, and Clifford LeGrave, Rosiere.

Third row — Lawrence LeGrave, Lincoln; Mrs. Wilfred (Emerence) Crevier, Green Bay, and Clayton Legrave, Kolberg.

Besides the 13 children, there are 58 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. As Mrs. LeGrave repeated her vows before the alter in St. Hubert's church, she was wearing a grey suit with velvet trim and a corsage of yellow roses. The attending couple were Mr. & Mrs. Florien Gilson, Rosiere, and Mrs. Gilson had a corsage of yellow carnations pinned to her black dress. The junior choir sang.

As the couple was about to depart for home, they were ushered to a horse and buggy and rode to their wedding dinner in the same manner as they had 50 years before. This time, however, a procession of cars followed.

Dinner was served about 170 families. Out-of-town persons on the guest list were Mr. & Mrs. Fred Baudhuin, Milwaukee; Judge & Mrs. A. G. Murphy, Kewaunee; and Mr. & Mrs. Norbert Verthein, Madison; Mr. & Mrs. Hamilton LeGreve and Amanda LeGreve, Nathan, Mich; Mr. & Mrs. Herman Delwiche and Mr. & Mrs. William Hall, Sturgeon Bay.

Mr. & Mrs. Elmer Malcore, Appleton; Mr. & Mrs. Anton Jenquin, Seymour; Mrs. Sadie Simon and daughter, LeNore, Antigo; Mr. & Mrs. Anton LeRoy, Mr. & Mrs. Gilbert LeGreve, Green Bay, Sister Rose, St. Theresa convent, Appleton, and Joan Virlee and Pearl Crevier of the Holy Family convent, Manitowoc.

Algoma Record-Herald — Thursday, November 9th, 1950

Belgian roadside chapels.

It's a very common tradition for a Belgian farmer to build a small chapel on his farm, usually dedicated to a specific cause or saint. Most of these chapels are near the road and open for all to use. The LeGrave homestead is no exception, with their St. Jude chapel being at the northeast corner of the farm.

Several organizations have published pamphlets and maps of these chapels over the years, like this one. On most of those maps, the LeGrave homestead is chapel #15.

  St. Jude Roadside Chapel • LeGrave Homestead
chapel
chapel
chapel
chapel
chapel
chapel

If you want to learn more, here are some related links:

Census.

I found Florian & Odile and their family in the censuses of 1920, 1930, 1940, and 1950, all in the Town of Red River in Kewaunee County, Wisconsin. When you click on a census image below, you'll see the full image of that page from the census, with Florian and Odile's household outlined in red.

In addition to the images, I've transcribed as best I can the key data from each image and listed it in table format for easy reading. Some of the text is very difficult to read, especially in the older documents. Even the column headings can be difficult to read. I'm open to any thoughts or corrections you may have.

Interestingly, from 1920 to 1940, Florian was the head of household. But by 1950, the census shows that he and Odile were living in the household of his son, Clifford LeGrave and his wife Esther (Vandervest) LeGrave and their two children.

U.S. Census • Kewaunee County, Wisconsin
14th Census • Wisconsin, Kewaunee County, ED 104 p. 2?
1920 census
Surname Given Rel. Sex Race Age M? Person Father Mother
Birth Place Mother tongue Birth Place Mother tongue Birth Place Mother tongue
LeGrave Florian Head M W 39 M Wisconsin BelgiumLC BelgiumLC
Odelia Wife F W 37 M Wisconsin BelgiumLC BelgiumLC
Daniel Son M W 18 S Wisconsin Wisconsin Wisconsin
Elsie Daughter F W 16 S Wisconsin Wisconsin Wisconsin
Rosamond Daughter F W 14 S Wisconsin Wisconsin Wisconsin
Clayton Son M W 13 S Wisconsin Wisconsin Wisconsin
Annie Daughter F W 11 S Wisconsin Wisconsin Wisconsin
Marie Daughter F W 10 S Wisconsin Wisconsin Wisconsin
Cicilia Daughter F W 7 S Wisconsin Wisconsin Wisconsin
Lawrence Son M W 5 S Wisconsin Wisconsin Wisconsin
Florence Daughter F W 3 2/12 S Wisconsin Wisconsin Wisconsin
Emerence Daughter F W 1 5/12 S Wisconsin Wisconsin Wisconsin

Census observations.

1920

1930

1940

1950

Obituaries.

Even though I provided link to their obituaries in the 'Family Group Sheet' section above, I've included the text of their obituaries here as well to make them easy to find when searching the web. In addition to the obituaries, a nice memorial was written about Odelia by her sister-in-law Grace LeMense. Grace (Florian's sister) was married to Harvey Lemense. I believe this was submitted as a letter to the editor to a local newspaper (I don't know which one). My grandmother (Emerence) saved it along with the death notice at the top.

Be sure to click the "newspaper article" link in each of these to see the original.

Obituaries
Green Bay Press-Gazette • Monday, February 1, 1960

Florian LeGrave

CASCO — Florian LeGrave died Sunday evening at his home in Rosiere after a long illness.

He is survived by his wife, the former Odile Leroy; four sons, Clayton, Lawrence, Clifford and James, and eight daughters, Mrs. John Nellis, Mrs. Goldie Nellis, Mrs. George Dart, Mrs. William Virlee, Mrs. John Adams, Mrs. Myron Lardinois, Mrs. Wilfred Crevier and Mrs. Edmund Engebose. A fifth son, Daniel, died Feb. 9, 1952. There are 63 grandchildren and 67 great grandchildren.

Mr. LeGrave was a member of the Holy Name Society of St. Hubert Church, Rosiere.

Friends may call at the Wiesner and Massart Funeral Home in Casco after 6 o'clock this evening. Services will be held in St. Hubert Church at 10 a.m. Wednesday with the Rev. Henry Zelinski officiating. Burial will be in the church cemetery.

Odelia LeGrave memory

Cemetery.

Florian and Odile, along with many LeGraves, are buried at St. Hubert's Cemetery on the grounds of St. Hubert's Catholic Church in Rosiere, Wisconsin. Their headstone is located at these coordinates: 44.674715, -87.612724.

Florian and Odelia LeGrave headstone
Florian and Odelia LeGrave headstone

Geography.

These links are maps to some key locations:

Links.

There are a couple of sites that feature a single web page for one person. These links are to the unique pages for Florian and Odile.

Their descendants.

Years ago, my family and I were at a birthday party for my grandmother Emerence (LeGrave) Crevier and I recognized an older couple there as the parents of my neighbor, Mike Nellis. We got to talking and, long story short, it turns out that Mike and I are 2nd cousins. His grandmother, Rosemond (LeGrave) Nellis, was my grandmother's older sister.

We had moved into Nellis' neighborhood in De Pere, Wisconsin a few years prior and our daughters (he has 2, I have 3) had become very good friends. And now they all found out that they are actually 3rd cousins!

Our families continue to be very good friends. In 2004, we vacationed together on a drive out to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota and we had this picture taken in Wall of our two families together. The 5 girls in the photo are Florian and Odile's 2nd great granddaughters.

Crevier and Nellis families
Crevier and Nellis families

Grateful.

I was fortunate to have heard stories first hand about my great grandparents and life on their farm; I didn't have to just read it in a book. I've been able to visit the farm on occasion and chat with my cousin who still owns it. This connection has given me a great appreciation for how they lived and what it took for me to be here today. I find it hard to complain about anything these days, knowing how they persevered.

I'm grateful for their unwavering faith in God and for passing that down to me through the generations.

Scott
Last update: Wed, Jul 23, 2025