The Schneiders

I’ve posted about a number of the lines in my family history but I don’t believe I’ve posted about the Schneiders. My maternal grandmother’s given name was Annunciata Augusta Schneider. She was named for her father, August Schneider, who in turn was named after his mother’s uncle, August Didier. Her given name was Celestine Didier.

My maternal grandmother’s mother’s given name was Mary Jane Flanagan. I’ll write a separate post about the Flanagans. There’s a lot to write about there, particularly my great-great-grandfather Edwward Flanagan. He was in the Civil War, was a cowboy, working on some of the famous trails out west in the 1870s, and then became a cattle grader.

August Schneider was an alcoholic. He deserted the family and he and my great-grandmother were divorced, quite a scandal in those days. My grandmother was the oldest of five children: Sylverius (William Sylvester), Celestine, Edward, and Joseph. Her mother managed to eke out a living as a cook for a prosperous family. That left my grandmother to care for her four younger siblings.

They were incredibly poor. They lived in the cheapest possible housing in St. Louis—a houseboat moored on the Mississippi. One room with just a stove for both heating and cooking. No central heat, no electricity, no plumbing. I presume they dredged water from the river. The stench must have been unimaginable. No wonder my grandmother ran away and joined a vaudeville troupe.

All but one of the Schneider children died relatively young: my grandmother, known as “Joanne” or “Babe” at 51 of a brain aneurysm, Bill (Sylverius) at 28, Celestine at 18, and Joseph at 12. Jennie (Mary Jane) outlived all of her children but my grandmother and Ed. Hers was a tragic life.

Ed was called up for World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam. He served in the Navy. He lived to be 96. I met Ed many times. I wouldn’t say we were close but I definitely knew him and was fond of him and his family. His children are my closest living blood relatives other than my siblings.

August lived into his 80s. He died in a poor house on the other side of the river. I’ve seen his grave.

Those are the Schneiders. One of the great mysteries in my family history is how August’s father, William Schneider, and his mother, Celestine Didier, met. Although a third generation American Celestine was a native speaker of French. I presume she also spoke English at least a little but when my mother met her as a very young child she spoke only French. Her family was prosperous and her uncle and guardian August Didier was married into one of St. Louis’s most prominent families, one that went back before the city’s founding. At the time of his death her grandfather’s estate was valued at nearly $600,000 in today’s money.

Update

It has been pointed out to me that I did not represent how awful the Schneiders’ circumstances actually were. The Schneider kids were in and out of orphanages throughout their childhoods, as their parents’ fortunes varied. Ed was quite resentful about that. The youngest, Joe’s, official cause of death was epilepsy. Ed said he died of malnutrition. Celestine’s grave was violated by a graverobber.