Scott Crevier's Family History Scott Crevier's Family History
As any genealogist will tell you, sometimes you go down an unfamliar path only to find unexpected and incredible stories. This is one of those stories. As a matter of fact, this is the most incredible and tragic story that I've ever found, and I've been at this 28 years. I had already tracked down and identified all sixteen of my 2nd great grandparents. So, as I moved on to the next generation, to my thirty-two 3rd great grandparents, I started looking at Simeon & Pelagie (Skinkel) Gilson. It all happened the week of Thanksgiving, 1922, in Dyckesville, Wisconsin. Let me set the stage.
Simeon Gilson and Pelagie (Skinkel) Gilson were the great grandparents of my grandfather, Wilfred Crevier. Both were born in Belgium; Simeon in 1830 and Pelagie 15 years later. The two married in 1866 in Corroy-le-Grand, Brabant, Belgium; Simeon was 36, Pelagie 20.
They immigrated to Wisconsin in 1879, arriving at the port of New York on Wednesday, August 27 along with their three children: Hortense (12), Gustave (7), and Prosperine (4). Hortense married Joseph Crevier; these are my 2nd great grandparents. Gustave married Mary Ducat; their daughter Odile Gilson; is my 1st cousin 3 times removed. In other words, my 2nd great grandmother (Hortense) and Odile's dad (Gustave) were siblings.
This chart shows not only how I'm related to Odile, but it also clearly illustrates the obvious, that Odile is one of those people in our ancestry with no descendants.
While this chapter of my family history is mainly about Odile, I wouldn't know of her story had I not been reading records about her grandmother, my 3rd great grandmother, Pelagie (Skinkel) Gilson. As is normal, when I look at an ancestor for the first time, I look for birth, marriage, and death records along with census records. Imagine discovering this obituary:
What a sad way to die. As I'm sure you can agree, the next obvious path was to look for Pelagrie's granddaughter Odile and find out what happened.
Now, Odile is one of those people you find in your ancestry who died before marriage and kids. So she has no descendants to remember her, no one to tell her story. I'm fixing that right now.
Odile's parents, Gus & Mary (Ducat) Gilson were married about 1896 in
Wisconsin. Her dad was born in Belgium, her mom in Wisconsin.
They lived on a farm about a mile and a half east of Dyckesville.
Odile was born October 18, 1903 in Brown County, Wisconsin. She had five
brothers. Odile appeared in two census records in her family's household
in Green Bay. In 1910 she was 6, and in 1920 she was 16.
In the spring of 1922, Odile, 18 years old at the time, was set to marry a young farmer named Frank Ceasar. Unfortunately, Odile fell ill and they decided to postpone the wedding. After Odile recovered from an operation for appendicitis, they rescheduled the wedding for November 22.
So now, fast forward to November. Odile had just turned 19 the previous month. Frank was 21. Odile and her mother and her aunt spent several days making pies and cakes and other delicasies for the wedding party. The wedding Mass was scheduled for Tuesday, November 22 at 9:00 in the morning at St. Louis Catholic Church in Dyckesville, just two days before Thanksgiving.
Odile was up early that day, making breakfast and getting things ready not only for the wedding itself but for the party. It was about 5:00am. Odile's parents, Gustave and Mary, were out in the barn doing chores. Her uncle, Joseph Ducat, was upstairs still asleep.
As Odile was preparing breakfast, she added kerosene to the stove fire and it exploded. She immediately fell to the ground, on fire. Her uncle heard the screams and came running downstairs. He found Odile on the floor with her clothes in flames and her flesh burning. Her aunt, Angeline Ducat, wrapped her in a blanket. One of her brothers noticed the burning curtains and tore them down.
Odile's parents came running in from the barn. Neighbors summoned medical aid but nothing could be done. Her fiancé, Frank Ceasar, was also summoned, but the only thing he could offer was to hold her hand as a priest administered the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick (last rites). She succombed to the flames and burns around 12:00 noon. Her indescribable agony was over. One newspaper article put it thusly:
"The 21-year-old farmer who was to have been her husband was holding her hand when death mercifully freed her, three hours after the marriage was to have occurred."
Friends and family had still gathered at the church for the 9:00 ceremony, not knowing of the tragedy. They were stunned and grief-stricken when finally told that there would be no wedding. With the tragedy happening on Tuesday and Thanksgiving two days later, many friends and loved ones were in town and showered the family with flowers and prayers of condolence.
Her funeral Mass on Saturday was well-attended. It was at the same church where she would have been married four days earlier, with the same priest, Rev. J.W. Melchers, officiating. Odile was buried in her wedding dress with her bridal flowers beside her. One newspaper headline reported that over 1,500 people attended, so many that most of the faithful knelt outside, in the church yard, in the cold weather.
Odile was survived by her parents and her five brothers: William, John, Joseph, Fred, and Eddie. Her grandmother, Pelagie, also survived her, but was so affected by the tragedy that on the day of Odile's funeral, she lay at home, critically ill herself, where she received the Anointing of the Sick, just four days after hear granddaughter received the same sacrament. She died the next day. Her funeral was on Wednesday, December 6, 1922, eight days after Odile died.
Here's how the events played out on the calendar, the last week of November, 1922:
Numerous articles were written about the tragic incident. It earned the front page banner headline in the Green Bay Press-Gazette that evening.
I don't know for sure what happened to Frank, Odile's fiancé. As the days passed, perhaps he was left feeling lonely and distraught. That Christmas of 1922 must have been difficult to celebrate without his wife by his side, starting their new life together.
In my research, I found a man named Frank Ceasar who passed away in Green Bay in 1996. The dates seem to match up, and his father's name was also Frank, a detail noted in one of the 1922 newspaper articles. So, I believe this to be him. He married a woman named Ann Gerlikovski in 1934 and lived another 74 years after Odile passed.
