E Pearl Van Gelder Lawrence, my Grandmother

My Grandma Lawrence was the matriarch of the family. I remember one time when I was about four years old my parents were having a party and I was just getting over some childhood disease like whooping cough or measles. I wanted to go and join the others outside, but my Mom didn't want me to expose them to my germs. My Mom, who could be a stern taskmaster, didn't have much sympathy for me but my Grandma comforted me. She took good care of me and my sister when my Mom had to go to a sanitarium for TB for four years.

After my Mom came home, she still wanted us to come over to her house for dinner almost every Sunday. She never wanted us to leave. I remember her standing at the kitchen window waving goodbye as we drove away. I usually spent a couple weeks at her house in Vernon, NJ every summer. I remember practising the trumpet with old sheet music sitting on her porch. Grandma played the piano. She got rustier as she got older, but she always had a piano in a little room off the parlor in Vernon. I remember her playing "My Dreams are Getting Better All the Time."

Grandma was a good cook. She made home made bread and apple pie. I remember, when I was attending Andover, she would make me my lunch for the all day train ride up there with home made bread roast beef and meat loaf sandwiches.  Then I would order a Tropicana orange juice from the porter on the train to go with it. Her kitchen was fascinating; it was really old timey. I remember the stove she used to have was one of those monstrous iron contraptions, and her toaster was the old fashioned kind with two sides that flipped down. You had to turn the bread around to toast the other side. She used a coffee percolator which probably gave rise to my Grandpa's favorite expression, "How ya percolatin'?" She had a little pantry off the kitchen where she kept little cans of deviled ham that I liked.

I think Grandma was an undiagnosed manic depressive. She loved us a lot but she also suffered a lot especially over the fact that my sister wasn't normal. She never learned to talk and had the mental ability of about a two year old her entire life. But she was emotionally normal; she laughed, she cried and she benefited from all the love and affection Grandma gave her. I remember one time when we had just left the house after Grandpa died, we had forgotten something, and went back to get it. I found Grandma in tears. She said "It's so hard without Grandpa." She was OK every day until 4 o'clock when Grandpa usually came home from the station. After that Grandma got lonely. She lived another 25 years after Grandpa died.

She was born on a farm in Bellvale, NY just outside of Warwick in 1891, the middle girl of three  sisters. She met Grandpa when she took the train to school every day. He was the station agent. They lived as a young couple in Sugar Loaf, NY, where my father was born, and that was the ancestral home of the Laroe family of which she was a descendant. Grandma saved news clippings her entire life and I remember one that told about how she learned Morse code and took over the telegraphy duties when my Grandpa was sick. She saved all the numerous clippings about my Dad too. She was very proud of him. 

Before they moved to Vernon around 1945, they lived in Warwick where my Grandpa was station agent there with the Lehigh and Hudson RR. They rented a house on South Street and I remember spending time there and going to the nearby park. Grandma took me to Akins drug store for vanilla  ice cream sodas. They had glass top tables with merchandise displayed inside. Akins drug store is still there but they don't have the soda fountain any more.

Grandma knew all the townspeople in Vernon, which in those days was just a little hamlet. There was Alvey Mott, the postmaster, who lived next door. I used to go up there to get the mail.  Across the street were the Garlinghouses, who used to sit on a couch on their front porch, the Martins, who were  more respectable, and Berniece whom my Grandma didn't like much. There was Inez who lived up the hill. There was Oscar Lozaw, the local service station owner, and his wife Florence whom Grandma commiserated with. She used to tell about how mean Oscar was to Florence. "Florence cooks him a dozen eggs, a pound of bacon and a loaf of bread for breakfast every day and he never gives her any of it!" To which I replied "Why doesn't she just take some for herself since she's cooking it? Why does she have to wait for Oscar to offer it to her?"

After Grandpa died, Grandma just had a small railroad pension to live on, but she always managed to send me $5.00 for my birthday. She lived in the house in Vernon by the brook until she got too old and sick. I  remember visiting her every day in the hospital in Middletown, NY when I was home on vacation. She told me "Take good  care of Justine," my daughter.  I promised her I would. She died in 1980 at the age of 89.

I always felt close to my grandmother emotionally. Unfortunately, I think I inherited from her my manic depressive tendencies. It's interesting that it skipped a generation because my Dad was never the least bit depressed as far as I could tell. He was the most cheerful person I ever knew. I was always attracted to women more like my Grandma than like my Mom. My Mom was a fantastic person, but she was more managerial than emotional. Even the maid called her the General and the Slavedriver. She obviously thought this was the best way to be for the good of all concerned. Grandma was very emotional and affectionate, and, if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have known what that felt like and how much I needed it. I have her to thank for all the love and care she gave me!

Grandma's family goes way back in New York State and New Jersey. She talked about it a little bit, but as a kid, I wasn't interested. Her father, George Van Gelder, married Mary Laroe Hallock who was the daughter of Sarah Jane Laroe. The Laroe family goes back to Jaques Laroe who landed in New Amsterdam in about 1670 with his mother and two siblings. They were French Huegenots fleeing religious persecution and were some of the original settlers of the country. The complete genealogy is as follows.

Jacques Le Roux first appears in the records of New Harlem in 1673 when he took the Oath of Allegiance. The surname is variously spelled Le Roux, Laroe, Larue, La Rue and Lereau. Jacques' mother, Jannetje (Jane), landed in New Amsterdam (New York City) about 1670 with 3 children. The father died at sea. Their son, Jacques, was born 1657 and married Wybrecht Helling in Bergen, NJ in 1681. Several of Jacques' children were born in Hackensack, NJ. At his death, he left a large estate including 600 acres of land in Ramapo, NJ. He had 12 children one of whom was Hendrick. Hendrick married Marritie (Mary) Lammerse Smidt in 1715 at Tappan, NY. He inherited a large part of his father's estate at Ramapo and died at Ramapo in 1760. Hendrick had 9 children one of whom was Jacobus baptized in 1721 who was the oldest son and had rights of primogeniture.

Jacobus Laroe married Rebecca Bertholf in 1742 at the First Reformed Church of Passaic, NJ. In 1765 Jacobus moved to Warwick, NY, the first relative to live in Orange County, NY. Jacobus and his wife are buried in Locust Hill Cemetery just off route 94, the King's Highway, between Warwick and Chester, NY. Jacobus died in 1781 and his wife died within 24 hours. They were both buried at the same time. I visited the Locust Hill Cemetery recently, a place I had driven by all my life but had never realized the significance of.  Many of the headstones have suffered the ravages of weather but names and dates are still discernible. Crynis was Jacobus’ and Rebecca's son born in 1762 in Bergen, NJ and moved with his parents to Warwick. He had sequentially 2 wives, the first of whose name is lost and the second of whom was Joanna Howell. He and his 2 wives are buried in Locust Hill Cemetery. Crynis served in the Revolutionary War under Col. John Hathorn. Crynis had 9 children by his first wife and 1 child by his second.

One of the children, James Buskirk, was born in 1803, married Adeline Benedict born 1804, and died in 1853. Starting in 1858 after her husband died, Adeline composed a journal, of which I have a copy, in her own handwriting. It tells about John Brown being hanged, the railroad coming to town and other historical events leading up to the Civil War as well as everyday life around Sugar Loaf, NY. She died in 1874.

James Buskirk Laroe and Adeline had 4 children: Mary Elizabeth, Sarah Jane (1831-1888), Abigail and John Henry. Sarah Jane married James Hallock (1832-1892) around 1855. They had 5 children the oldest of whom was Mary Laroe Hallock (1866-1930) who married George Van Gelder (1857-1912).

George and Mary had 3 children: Mary (Maisie) H. (1888-1976), Edith Pearl
(1891-1980) and Mina. Mary married Thomas Relyea (1879-1969). They had 2 children: George (1907-1995) and Evelyn (1908-2004). Pearl married James S. Lawrence (1888-1952): They had 2 children: Clifton E. (1913-1975) and Edith (1914- ). Mina married Charles Beecher. They had no children.

Evelyn married George Zimmer. They had 1 son George Harold. He married Linda. They had 2 daughters, Wendy and Amy.

Clifton married Florence E. Clark (1913-1997) in 1940. They had 2 children John C. (1941- ) and Jeanne E. (1945-1978). Edith married George Leatham (1914-1987). They had 2 children: George Lawrence (1948- ) and James (1953- ). George married Mary Pipes (1950- ). They have 2 children Sydney Alicia (1982- ) and George Taylor (1984- ).

John married Janice Olson (1946- ) in 1970. They had 1 child: Justine N. (1970- ). Justine married L. Quartez Wynn in 2003. They have 2 children: Jasmine A. (2001- ) and Monique I. (2003- ).

So the direct line from Jacques Laroe to the youngest descendant is: Jacques Laroe, Hendrick Laroe, Jacobus Laroe, Crynis Laroe, James Buskirk Laroe (marrried Adeline), Sarah Jane Laroe (married James Hallock), Mary Laroe Hallock (married George Van Gelder), Edith Pearl Van Gelder (married James S. Lawrence), Clifton E. Lawrence, John C. Lawrence, Justine N. Lawrence (married L. Quartez Wynn), Jasmine and Monique Wynn.

So Jasmine and Monique are 10th generation descendants of Jacques Laroe, the French Huegenot, or 11th generation descendants of his mother, Jannetje
(Jane), who was the first ancestor to set foot in North America in about 1670.

Comments

[Justine]

Dad,

That is a very touching tribute to Grandma Lawrence. I like the picture of you and her and Grandpa. Thanks for all of the history and touching stories!! Love you, Justine