Dear Claude                                                                     Jan 18, 1995

The Frichette family in MO. & WA. is a mixed up mess. If the rest of the family is the same heaven help us.

Now

Stephen Frichette - Emma baker had a farm 13 miles SE of Junction City Kansas. I talked to William (Will) quite a bit and this is what he told me.

Stephen had a brother who was with them awhile in the late 1880's or early 1890's. Adolph didn't like it there and went back to Concord, Massachusetts, where he intended to settle.

The family - William, Lou, Belle, Edward, Lawrence and possibly 2 small daughters who died & was buried on the farm. The mother, Emma and newborn baby, died and buried on the farm 1894.

1894 or 1895 Stephen loaded up 2 Studebaker wagons. He drove one & William drove the other and they headed back east. In Macks Creek, Mo (Camden County) the Dad, Stephen, took sick & died - with what is unknown. Stephen is buried in the Macks Creek cemetery. The kids were taken in by the area people except for William. The horses - wagons, etc were divided up among the people who took the kids. When they were all settled William left for several years, marrying Laura Sprague later. He then moved back to Macks Creek where they stayed quite awhile - they have a baby buried in Macks Creek Cemetery. Several other kids were born there.

Sometime around 1909 -10? They came to Washington by train to Everett for a couple of years. He had a job on the R.R. when he got here - Sprague’s came too. He worked in the valley between CleElum & Ellensburg for a couple of years then moved to Easton (section house). Bought a house in Easton in 1920. They moved to Morton, WA in 1957? Laura died in 1959 - Will in 1966.

Sister Lou and husband Ed Greene 1 child came out about the same time - settled in Yelm, WA. Ed died and Lou married Jack Rogers. They had several sons - the last anyone heard most of the sons settled in California, 60 years or so ago.

The ones who stayed in Missouri Ed, Belle, Lawrence.

Ed moved to Springfield (when??) And worked for many years making marble headstones. His wife Frances had Lester (twin sister died) who is now in a nursing home in Springfield. He’s about 88. His wife Marie & only son Bill both died in the last couple of years.

Virgel (twin died) has been dead several years. Had children but I don’t know them.

Chester is still there but I don’t know his circumstance.

Belle and Fred Greene lived and had a large family in the Camden County area. I knew some of the kids when I was young but don’t remember their names and, haven’t heard of them in many many years.

Lawrence My dad - and yes I married back into the family. James Chester 1919 and Jessie Marie 1923. Married 1944.

Mable Morelock died in 1944. She had 3 boys and 1 girl. Stella Morelock is still living in Springfield - has several boys and 1 girl. Girl died.

Emmett - brother has 1 girl. Emmett received your pkg and said he was going to fill it out for you. Jessie (me) married March 2, 1944. We have 4 girls. Sharon (Asbury) divorced and now Frichette again. Darleen (Midkiff) divorced and remarried Cassidy. Jane Mortimer and Ellen Laquerre. 8 grand kids & 3 great grand kids. Betty died in about 1960 Sister.

There was quite a to do in the early 1930. Evelyn? Frechette, Canadian, was girlfriend of John Dillinger - bank robber, etc. Was in the papers when he was shot & killed? Know anything of this?

I want to sit down and get this all in some kind of order but will take awhile.

After getting this letter and perusing it for quite some time, I pondered the question, Who are our ancestors? Who are these people that Aunt Jessie is talking about? Especially those in Missouri. I had relatives in Missouri! Wow!!

So I wrote a letter to this Claude Frechette myself, indicating that the letter was most urgent and that he needed to contact me most urgent.

Between the time Claude wrote back to me I proceeded to try and contact all the Frichette’s I could find on the Internet. Yes, I got extremely lucky and found some of my cousins. That was not good enough, I decided to write every Frichette I could find an address for. There were quite a few. Not all answered my letters but the ones that did sure made a difference in my attempts at research and compelled me further into the realm of genealogy.

One Frichette descendant that more than made up for the ones that never returned my letters, was Beatrice Celima Knott, daughter of Roswell Frichette. She was kind enough to send me her father memoirs for my research. After reading and retyping his memoirs into my computer to share with other family members, I thought maybe this family could be a part of our family.

Upon returning the copy of Roswell’s memoirs to Beatrice, along with the research from the book; Beatrice sent me her last two volume set of Roswell's memoirs as a gift of appreciation. I was speechless with her generosity, especially to someone she had never met, except for letters and occasional phone calls.

This Frichette family was from Keeseville, New York across Lake Champlain to Salisbury, Vermont where our Frichette Family started on their odyssey. But after many months of research it was determined that the Frichette’s of Keeseville are probably not directly related to us. I still continue to research this family and correspond with some of the family members.

Another great find was that of Carol Frichette, wife of the late Bill Frichette of Springfield, Missouri. Through correspondence and phone calls we were able to contact each other via the Internet through her daughter Elisa. This contact has been invaluable in providing information about the Frichette’s of Missouri.

Cousins Jane (Frichette) and Brian Mortimer, Jay and Terry Frichette and their families, S. Roger and his family, and my own brother Gary Frichette have greatly helped in this research. They helped to keep my spirits up when the research came to a dead end. Through the messages back and fourth between all of us I feel that we as a family divided, are somewhat closer though some of us have never met.

Cousin Carolyn (Green) Weaver and Cousin Carol (Rogers) Pilch have been the latest contact and has helped to fill in the empty spaces for the Frichette/Rogers/Green families.

Thank you all for your inspiration and devotion to the family.

Mikie : -)