Ladue, Ladew, Ledoux, St. John, Blaisdell
The following letter was transcribed by me from a copy of the original letter written in 1911 by Lilian L. (Mrs Ralph) Blaisdell of Portland Oregon.
Letter follows:
#1145 Thurman Street
Portland, Oregon
My dear Miss _?_inette ,
Your letter of recent date inclosing Ladew notes of value and much interest, has been received and I find myself still further indebted to you for your generous response to my appeal for more light.
The brief family record of Abraham and Sarah Smith Ladue was of great interest to me, for if you will notice, the spelling of the family name of Ladew is also given as Ladou, proving to my mind, an intimate acquaintance of the person who wrote it, with the name of Ladow if not with the familys named.
I thought I had given you my line of descent, but must have omitted to do so, in the haste of sending the letter to the post office, or else failed to make it clear. As I wish to refer to other matters for your understanding, and in going into details, recall to your mind anything that co-incides with family history your Mother or Aunt Kate may have repeated to you, you will pardon the rather “long story.”
My great-grand-father was Stephen Ladow, altho so spelled, was pronounced as though spelled Ledou. My own inference is that as my father claimed the name to have been Ledoux, originally, the “x” was found superfluous, thus we have Ledou, and either from careless penmanship the “u” became eventually a “w”, the Dutch population of Dutchess Co. N.Y.which predominated during the family’s residence there, spelled it according to their pronunciations spelled originally, Ledoux. The younger generations adopted the capital D, but my father did not for business reasons. The name which is engraved upon the bronze tablet placed upon the Huguenot Monument recently (missing line, mostly cut off top of the page on my copy) the spelling, I don’t know, but the “age of Ann” is nothing, in comparison to the way vowels and consonants change their places whenever one tries to reach a final conclusion, as to the spelling of the family name originally. Early French records in this country give it “Ladoue,” and I sincerely believe the “e” was really meant for an “x”, with the La - Le, of course, this brings us back to Stephen Ladow, my ancestor. He was married twice. By his first wife Jane _____ he had several daughters and two sons, Jacob and Abraham (who married ______ Smith) His children known to have been living when Stephen made his will in 1817, recieved a small legacy, but their names are not mentioned.
By Stephen’s second wife, he had a number of sons, and my grand-father Daniel, was one of them. Stephen was born in Fishkill, but lived in Saratoga Co. the greater portion of his life. This same locality was the home of my grand-father Daniel, who married Laura St. John, and of their (turn?), my father Jacob St John Ladow and his family.
At the time your Uncle John (L.T.?) Ladew lived in Ballston, N.Y. there was another family, that spelled the name Ladow, John Stephen. he died there 1894. Strange that I never heard my father refer to either family, and as frequently as I visited my Aunt and Uncle living there, previous to the death of either your Uncle John, or the other individual, John Steven Ladow, that I never knew of either, altho Milton Ave is as familiar to me, as Olive Street is to you. I think he must have been located in business beyond my Uncles home, and advertising was not so universally followed, as at the present time. Whose son was John, the nephew mentioned as living with him? The Burtis family, of which your Uncles wife was a member, may have been of the same line as the Burtis descendants, I have known once a child, and their settling in Ballston, brought about through her desire to be nearer her relatives, one family still lives in the town of Milton, I think, altho it may be nearer Mechanicsville than Ballston.
The Major W.B. Ladue in the notes from West Point, N.Y. is a son of an officer from the Civil War, and I think was born in Salem, Oregon, anyway, he was appointed from here. He is of the same line of descent as Prof. Pomeroy Ladue, whom you may have heard of.
I’m sure glad to have obituary notices to copy that you were so thoughtful to inclose, but as Mrs. (Traders?) age is not mentioned in that of hers, I cannot estimate at what date she died. Will you please send me this.
Have you the “likeness”, Mrs. (Beulty?) presented to your grand-father in 1850, was it a silhouette or a daguerreotype? I am encouraged in having located her near Weedsport, N.Y. The last I knew of her, she was living somewhere near her brother Thomas in the town of Halfmoon, Saratoga Co., N.Y. From Thomas is descended a line of men, noted for their religious zeal one Rev. Thomas Ladow, or Ladue, of the Methodist persuasion. Have you ever heard of him?
I saw a copy of Edwards “Great West” in the Newberry Library, Chicago, a few years ago, and from it gained all I ever could learn of Augustus Philip Ladew, altho at one time, I felt I had almost identified him in another A.P. Ladue of St Louis, a lawyer, but he turned out to be a descendant of the same line as Capt. W.B. Ladue West Point, N.Y. and Prof. Pomeroy Ladue, Detroit, Mich.
Ladue, Henry Co, Mo was named for a journalist Albert Darratt La Due, and Amos M Thayer U.S. Dist Judge, St Louis, Mo, his nephew, (his mother was a Miss La Due). Their ancestor Abram had 3 wives - one of them was an Abagail - and I am hopeful, that with your co-operation, we shall find out for a certainty, whether this Abram or Abraham, was the son of Stephen and Jane Ladow, and the father of Thomas mine and Stephen, your ancestor, but to do this, we must learn the names of some of the half brothers of Stephen, which would have been the half-uncles, and their children, the half-cousins of your mother. If a “thinking-cap” is among your hierlooms do get it out and brush it off for service.
Mr P.A. Ladew, Clinton, Ia. regards me as a nuisance, very likely, as he is (mute?), or can’t tell me a thing. Will you please go into further details of James, George and the Daughter Sarah, or tell me where I may address the daughter. I exchanged a letterr or two with Herbert, Chicago, a son of P.A. but he referred me to his father, so I know he married Florella (sp?) - and of the ( __?__ ), only. This brings the family-record up to Stephenjr. - whose family-record lacks a few details to make it complete, the given given-name of Mr. Sparhawk, the names of the children of Mary Priscilla Ladew-Sparhawk and where the family lived! The maiden-name of the wife of Charles Ladew and the dates of birth of his children.
Then comes Thomas(Stephen & Catherine) whom did he marry, and did he have a family, if so where did he live?
In one of Munsells publications, (the exact title has escaped me now) a cousin Charles Ladew, Albany, N.Y. attempted to give a brief history of the family, but he did so with several errors, for the family never lived in Middletown, Conn. and my great-grand-mother’s name was Ruhannah (sp?) and my grand-mothers Laura, but the novel way in which the Huguenot ancestor escaped, is authentic, also that Stephen Ladow was his grand-son. If these refugees, are your ancestors too, then surely, Abraham is the link without doubt. I am returning the various clippings, and the me referring to the loss of your brother Oliver jr, brings to mind the same bereavement I experienced, in the loss of a dear brother, too. In fact, the death of my father, soon followed by an older brother, and then the death of this brother, which we all depended on, as he was a physician - proved such a shock, that I found it imperative, to take up some kind of study, that would absorb every moment of my time, aside from what my husband and two children required. About this time, my interest became aroused in the lineage of my grand-mother St. John, and with the accumulated data of a cousin of my father’s, I started out - after 3 or 4 months work, I ran across a St John descendent that had been assisting another of the same line too complete one he had begun, and he had died (in the attempt, I imagine) leaving the mantle to fall upon her shoulders. I turned all my data into her hands and am glad to have assisted her in its completion. Then I took up the task of the genealogy of the descendents of the Huguenot ancestor, and I confess, that if the faculty for “asking questions” had not remained with me from childhood, I should never have accomplished what I have.
There (__?__), never can express the appreciation I feel, over the amount of genuine encouragement I receive, whenever a correspondent takes the time and trouble to inclose what data he, or she may have at hand, or can procure in the interests of the work, therefor be assured, that whether we prove “long lost relatives,” or not, the memory of the (__?__) may you have tried to “pull me ashore,” will always be a grateful one.
Yours most sincerely
Lilian L. Blaisdell
Sept 2, 1911. (Mrs Ralph)