In the Wake of Mrs. Andris' death: Two Brothers Separate 


A reconstruction of the reasons why Arthur L. N. and Fernand Andris didn't speak for over half a century. 

Arthur and Fernand Andris were half-brothers. They had the same father, Arthur Louis Nicolas Andris, who was a master glass maker. I'll call the father Arthur L. N. and the son Arthur N. L.

I have reason to believe that this Arthur L. N. was a powerful and lusty presence on this earth. I can't even tell all the stories I have heard. Arthur had three children, Louise, Arthur and Amié by his first wife. She died just before the turn of the 20th Century, and Arthur took another wife, Victorine Dorval. This marriage produced another three sons, Louis, Alphonse, and Fernand. Victorine brought a daughter from another marriage to her marriage with Arthur. There were seven children altogether. The oldest brother, Arthur, was born in 1896, and the youngest living brother, Fernand, was born in 1910. This family position is important if we are to understand the lifelong separation that emerged between them.

I know that times for Belgians in general, and for glassmakers in particular were difficult around the turn of the last century. Arthur L. N. struggled with making a living. It is said that he took his entire family to Russia to find work, probably around 1902, when Louie was a baby. He had his mother, Louise Lebrun Andris, with him. They had to flee Russia to escape the cossacks.  Louise may have died and been buried there. It is putting it mildly to say that Arthur detested the Bolsheviks. 

Late in 1908, the Arthur Andris  family made a move to come to America. Arthur L. N. came first and settled in Charleston, West Virginia, undoubtedly seeking work in a glass factory. Early in 1909, his wife, Victorine, and their two young sons, Louis and Alphonse, met him in South Charleston. A year later, Arthur's two sons by his first marriage met him and his wife in Clarksburg, West Virginia. In October of 1910 my father, Fernand, was born in Clarksburg. Assuming Mrs. Andris was nursing Alphonse, which delays the birth of the next child, this timing makes sense. 

Let it be noted that Arthur, being the oldest son, no doubt felt a strong connection and obligation to his father. It's not clear, but Arthur may have traveled to Russia with his family, or he may have stayed with relatives. But imagine the perilous adventure of going alone on a ship to America with your younger brother in tow, and the close bond with the family that would ensue, once there. 

Arthur grew up doing the hardest and hottest of glass making jobs. He was his own father's apprentice, just as the father had probably apprenticed to his father. It was the family line: Artur to Arthur L. N. to Arthur N. L. They weren't even numerologically distinct. Arthur N. L. lifted up the 85 pound glass-on-lead pipe out of the pit and onto the horses where it was cut, once Arthur L. N. had blown it. No doubt he practiced blowing the glass, too. You just can't imagine a closer male-male bond.

Master glass makers were an endangered species in the early 20th Century. Modern mass-production techniques had already made the competition severe. Master craftsmen like Arthur L. N. Andris survived by working in areas where "old-fashioned" glassworks could be competitively built and run. West Virginia had several such factories, which were close enough to raw materials such as coal and sand, to function profitably. 

But mass production was ultimately to triumph. The Pioneer Window Glass Company was formed in Marietta, Ohio in 1916. This is how the family ended up there. Arthur L. N. and his family was imported from Clarksburg or Salem. By this time, my dad was born, and had strong memories of his father and half-brothers working in the glass factory. 

Shortly after this Arthur N. L. met Emilienne Mauriocourt. Around 1918 they were married and started their own family. Eugene was born in 1919 and Robert Arthur in 1921. During this time, Arthur N. L. worked with his father-in-law, Emile Mauriocourt, as a glass worker. The 1920 Census shows them sharing a room in Salem, WV, probably during the week. 

In the meantime, Arthur L. N.'s job came to an end because the Pioneer Window Glass Co. closed in 1923, no doubt succumbing to market pressures. It was around this time, possibly a year earlier, that the Arthur L. N. family bought a grocery store on Greene Street for $900. No doubt there was a connection between buying the store and the glass factory going out of business. There had to be a steady income. Many stories I have heard lead me to believe that Arthur L. N. became somewhat difficult to manage in his last years, these would be from 1925 to his death in 1930. 

Regardless of what that situation proves to be, it is clear that Victorine Andris, possibly even from the inception of the grocery store, took more and more responsibility for running it. She continued to be the proprietress of the store after Arthur L. N.s death in 1930, until the destruction of the store by the 1937 flood in January, 1937, and her own death in the late winter of that year. 

Some things need to be said about the relationship of Victorine to her step-son Arthur. I really don't know if it was cordial or not. The fact remains, however, that her two natural sons, Alphonse and Fernand (my dad) were helping her there in the store, while her two step-sons were out of the home with their own wives and children. I'm about to tell a version of how the feud got started from my mother's mouth. I think, though, that we need to keep in mind that even if the dollar-for-dollar figures of indictment aren't there, there was still very probably some favoritism towards Fernand and Alphonse by Victorine. I'm saying that it is a definite possibility, but not a certainty.

Besides that, it can't have been easy, starting a family in those days. To take just one example, Arthur N. L.'s brother Amié, had started a family in 1921 with two children, Louise, b. 1923 and Robert, b. 1926. Amié put both of his children in an orphanage around 1931. It was the heart of the depression, and we don't know the details. But apparently, Mrs. Andris and her grocery store somewhat thrived even during the 1930's.

In January of 1937, the Ohio River crested at 55 feet, which put it on the second story of the store at 313 Greene run by Victorine Andris and her two sons, Alphonse and Fernand. All sacks of sugar and flour were destroyed and canned goods covered with water. Victorine was unconsolable and devastated by the loss. She died on March 4. 

As a side story, but important, was the fact that my father was very attached to Torrienne, as she was called. He had been dating my mother, but she suspects that he would never have married her as long as Victorine was alive. My mother made a death bed promise to Victorine that she would marry Fernand and take care of him. And in fact they were married in August of that year. 

According to my mother, Victorine left no will, and the estate went through probate. A. A. Schramm was the lawyer charged with the disposition of the estate. After all the debts were settled, about $12,000 was left. This would have been split among the seven surviving children, but Julia Munier Bourmourck , Victorine's only daughter, gave her share to Louie, who was trying to start his own grocery in Belpre, Ohio. (Records show that a Julia Munier—Victorine's first married name—was present at Louis' baptism in Binche in 1902.)The money was thus split six ways. The value of the business itself was $2700, and Fernand and Alphonse bought that business out using their share of the proceeds. After the distribution of the money to the survivors, all the children were still speaking.

Some time later that year, however, Arthur became convinced that there was more money than had been reported, and that possibly Fernand ("Squee") and Al had secreted it away. Arthur thought that as much as $50,000 had been unaccounted for. He called a meeting of the survivors in Lorene Sullivan's front room at 107 South 4th Street. He asked her if he could search her house, and then looked all over it for hidden money. 

There was a fight in the front room of that house between Arthur and the two brothers, Fernand and Alphonse. His brother Aimé and wife were there. A lot of it was spoken in Belgian Walloon dialect, and so my mother couldn't understand it. She and Harriet, the wife of Louis, the other son of Victorine, stood in the kitchen and fearfully listened. In the end, Arthur and Emilienne "stomped out," according to Lorene. But Amié said to her that she and Fernand were welcome in their house. He said, "I'm glad you got the store." He bought a new car with his share of the money. 

Well, there you have it, the facts as I know them. On one interpretation, they seem to stand against Arthur. It looks like he was just stubbornly wedded to his point of view. It certainly looks like he didn't trust my dad, Fernand. I know for a fact that Fernand was scrupulously honest in his business dealings, even though he sometimes was taken advantage of. My dad had lots of faults, but blatant theft was not one of them. In fact, he was rather generous in sharing his wealth. 

I want to state the other side of this though. No matter how you stack it, Arthur N. L.'s sense of justice was violated. He felt in his gut that to go through all he had with the family, and being the oldest son, he had a right to more than what he ultimately got out of the deal. Maybe in the end, it was just his sense that his two younger half-siblings got more of their mother's favors than he did that led to the collapse of these family relationships. About that, I can only say, you would have had to have been in his shoes. 

It's not for certain that Arthur and Fernand ever spoke after 1937, although my dad tried several times to reconcile. My cousin Karen said that Arthur N. L.  was concerned about money he had spent for helping care for Arthur L. N. in his infirmity, and thought he might get it back, and that lawyers later said that he didn't have a good case. 

I really hope they did make up and forgive each other.  

Posted: Fri - July 28, 2006 at 12:03 AM          

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