Maryellen's Information on the Parquettes

 

Maryellen's well coordinated information. I'm good at collection information but fall short with making it into a story.

 Parquette Family

Henry and Elizabeth

Henry E. Parquette (abt. 1842 – 1/7/1922) and Elizabeth LeSage (abt. 1854 – 1/30/1906) were born in Canada and later lived in Haverhill, Massachusetts where Henry worked in the shoe factories.  His son Louis’ WW I draft record says that Henry was born in Ottawa Canada.  Henry gave various immigration dates in the census ranging from 1857 to 1876.  His Civil War service described below means that he was in New Hampshire in 1862. Henry does not appear in the Haverhill street directory in 1874, but he is listed in the 1878 directory.  He reported twice that he was a naturalized citizen, but later said he was a resident alien.  Elizabeth reported that she arrived in 1873.  Henry and Elizabeth were married around 1875, but they do not appear in the Massachusetts State Archive marriage index, so they may have been married in another state or possibly in Canada before moving to Haverhill.  Their first language was French.  They reported in the 1900 census that their parents were also born in Canada.  Elizabeth was the daughter of Francois LeSage and Marie Latour of Canada according to her death certificate.  She died of pulmonary phthisis (tuberculosis) on January 30, 1906.

Henry signed up for the 1^st New Hampshire Volunteer Heavy Artillery from Manchester New Hampshire on July 10, 1862. He was mustered as a private.  The unit was originally assigned to guard the port of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, but was later sent to Washington D.C. to help guard the city.  On September 14, 1864, he lost his right leg following the accidental explosion of a shell in Washington DC.  He was discharged in 1865 because of his wounds.  In the U. S. Census, taken on July 7, 1870, Henry Parquette was a resident of the United States Military Asylum in Chelsea, Maine.

In the 1900 census, early Haverhill street directories, and the birth records of most of Henry and Elizabeth’s children, the family name is spelled “Paquette,” the spelling used by most families of that name in Haverhill.  Beginning with the 1910 census, however, they consistently spelled their last name as “Parquette.”  Birth records of two of the daughters were spelled with the “r.”  Henry could not read and write, but Elizabeth could.

The Parquettes lived at 184 Essex Street in 1878; 219 Essex Street in 1883; 19 Oak Terrace in 1900 and 1910.  Henry moved to Watertown around 1919 and lived with his son Archibald while several of his children remained in Haverhill.  He died on January 7, 1922.

According to the 1900 census, Henry and Elizabeth gave birth to twelve children, of whom nine were alive at that time.

• Rose or Rosanna (March 1877), a shoe stitcher in 1900; died of tuberculosis in October 1904.
• Elizabeth or Lizzie (Oct. 1878), a shoe packer in 1900; vamper in a shoe factory in 1910 and still living at home and working in a shoe factory in 1915; living on Lansing Avenue in 1920 and 1923 and still at the shoe factory.   She owned the Lansing Avenue house with a mortgage.  When she was 47 she married Charles Reardon, who also worked in a shoe factory.  Elizabeth and Charles were living at 22 Lansing Avenue in a house they owned in 1930 and 1940.  He was a laster in a shoe factory, but had been unemployed for 26 weeks in 1940.  Elizabeth still worked as a shoe stitcher in 1930, but was not working in 1940.  Charles had completed two years of high school; Elizabeth completed seventh grade.  She died in 1952 and is buried in St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Haverhill.  Charles died in 1948.
• Henry J (May 1880), a heel cutter in a shoe factory in 1900, continued to work in the shoe factories into at least the 1920’s.  He lived in a boarding house in Haverhill after his father moved to Watertown, but later lived with his sister Isabelle and her husband in 1930 while he was unemployed.  When he registered for the World War II draft in 1942, he was still living with the Drews at 108 Lake Street and worked for the Haverhill W.P.A.
• Archille or Archibald (Dec 18, 1883), a helper in a shoe factory in 1900, moved to Cambridge by 1907 (see below)
• Odela E. (April 1887) married John W. Drew, a shoemaker in Haverhill, in June 1909.  He was the son of Nathaniel B. Drew and Mahala F. Kimball and was about a year older than Odela.  Odela and John lived on Locust Street in Haverhill in 1930.  They both worked in the shoe factories.  In 1940 and 1948 they lived on Main Street and still worked in the shoe industry.
• Hector (Nov 18, 1889), listed as “Actor” in 1900 census, was a cutter in a shoe factory in 1910; in 1917 when he registered for the World War I draft he was living at 48 Summer Street in Watertown (Archibald’s address), worked at the Waltham Watch Factory and had a wife and two children.  The draft form describes him as short, medium build, blue eyes, light brown hair.  Sadly, Hector was killed on July 21, 1918 and is buried in Oise-Aisne American Cemetery in France (Plot A Row 21 Grave 23).   He served with the 102nd Infantry Regiment, 26th Infantry Division as a private.
• Ernest (Aug 9, 1891), listed as “Earnest” in 1900, was a cutter in shoe factory in 1910; lived at 10 Parker Street in 1917 when he registered for the World War I draft and worked at a shoe factory.  He had a wife and two children.  He was tall and slender with blue eyes and brown hair.  In the 1920 US Census, Ernest’s three children (Mary W, Hazel and Ernest) were listed as boarders with the Spinney family in Haverhill.  The 1922 Haverhill street directory says that Ernest and Lilas (maiden name Young) had removed to Newton Center.  The 1925 New York State Census lists an Ernest Parquette of the appropriate age with a wife named Ruth W and three children matching Ernest’s children’s names and ages living in Little Falls in Herkimer County. (Maybe Lilas sometimes used the name Ruth.)  In 1930, he lived at 6 South Middlesex Street in Haverhill with his wife Lilas W. and their three children.  Mary W. was 15, Hazel was 14 and Ernest Henry was 11.  He worked for a retail coal company, Lilas was a packer at a shoe factory and Mary was a bench worker at a shoe factory.  In 1940, Earnest, Lilas and Earnest Junior lived on Hillside Street in Haverhill.  Earnest Sr. worked for the WPA, Earnest Jr. was a painter for NVA (not sure of the handwritten initials).  When Earnest Sr.  registered for the World War II draft, he lived at 19 Grand Street and worked for the W.P.A.  He died in June 1968.  A Hazel Parquette born in January 1916 died in Herkimer County New York in July 1985.  An Ernest H. Parquette, born in 1918 enlisted from Essex County Massachusetts for the Panama Canal Zone in 1940.  He was five feet nine, 142 pounds, single and had completed grammar school.  An Ernest H Parquette from Massachusetts, born on August 9, 1918 (Ernest Jr.’s birth date in Haverhill), died in Buffalo on May 27, 1992.
•  Isabelle or Bella (July 1893), packer in a shoe factory in 1910; married Fred Nelson Drew (6/4/1896-) about 1920 and lived at 51 Pecker Street in 1930 with Fred, their son Fred Junior born in 1926 and her brother Henry who was unemployed.  Fred has the same parents as Odela’s husband John Drew, so they must have been brothers.  Fred was a drug clerk and Isabelle was a liner at the shoe factory.  In 1942 they lived at 108 Lake Street in Haverhill and Fred worked for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.  In 1948 Fred was a salesman.  Her brother Henry still lived with them in 1940.  Isabelle died in July 1975 in Haverhill.
• Lewis or Louis (Aug 1896) lived with his sister Elizabeth on Lansing Avenue in 1920 and worked as a cutter in a shoe factory.  His WW I draft card says that he was of medium height and build with blue eyes and dark brown hair.  The draft card says that his employer was the Watertown post office, but his address was in Haverhill.  He lived at 59 Tremont Street in Haverhill in 1922, but I couldn’t find him after that.

Archibald William Parquette

Archibald was born on December 18, 1883 in Haverhill, Massachusetts, the fourth child of Henry Parquette and Elizabeth Le Sage, immigrants from Canada.  Archibald worked in the shoe factories of Haverhill in his youth, but left home around 1906 to pursue his fortune.  He moved originally to Cambridge where he found a job as a car conductor on the steam railway.  In 1907, he roomed at 1120 Massachusetts Avenue.  On June 18, 1907, he married Mary Magdeline Cullen and moved to 40 Elm Street.  Mary was born on 8/26/1875 in Worcester.  Her parents, Michael J Cullen (2/2/1844 – 1922) and Margaret Martha Fitzgerald (2/14/1844 – 7/20/1917), had both been born in Ireland.

By 1909, Archibald was a telephone operator at the train station in Cambridge, and in 1910 he was the station agent in West Cambridge.  He and Mary lived in Somerville in 1910, but had moved to 37 Sargent Street in Cambridge in 1912 and to 21 Sargent Street in 1914.  When Archibald registered for the World War I draft in 1917, he and Mary lived at 48 Summer Street in Watertown and he worked as ticket agent at the Watertown Station of the Boston and Maine Railroad.  The registration describes him as medium height, medium build, with blue eyes and brown hair.

In the 1920 census, two more family members lived at 48 Summer Street – Archibald William Junior, then nearly five, and father Henry.  (Henry died in 1922.)  A 1923 Watertown directory gives Archibald’s occupation as “auto accessories.”  The 1928 Watertown street directory lists Archibald’s folding chair company at 48 Summer Street, but says he lived in Weston.  The Parquettes had moved to 44 South Central Avenue in Quincy according to the 1930 census; Archibald was still a chair salesman.  Archibald Junior was 15 by then and daughter Elaine was 10.  Archibald and Mary’s first child had been stillborn in Rutland in 1910.

Archibald had a new career in 1931 running a filling station at 2107 Commonwealth Avenue in Newton, but when he registered for the draft in 1942, he listed his employer as the Parquette Chair Company at 48 Summer Street in Watertown.  He also listed 48 Summer as his residence.

Mary Cullen Parquette died in Watertown on December 5, 1946; Archibald died on July 15, 1968.