On the Frontier: Jefferson’s Children

The new century held so much promise. The memories of the Civil War were fading, the country was enjoying an extended period of prosperity and technology marvels were starting to change everyone's way of life. It was a time to take stock and plan for the future. Pioneer and patriarch Jefferson Toulouse had passed away in 1890 and his nine surviving children, "the Civil War Generation," were in their fifties and sixties. It was their children, Jefferson's grandchildren, that would experience the wonders of the new century. Those grandchildren, all seventy-three of them, would see the transition from horse-drawn carriages to the automobile, would live to see people flying across a country that took them months to travel through and would see modern medicine reduce childhood mortality and extend their lives. Tragically, some would fight in Mexico and against Spain in Cuba and the Philippines. Their sons would experience the horrors of World War I. Five family members would die as a result of "the Great Influenza." Some would endure the Dust Bowl years of the mid-west and all would experience the sacrifices brought on by the 1930s Depression. Henry Rech, first grandchild, arrived in 1850 and the last grandchild, Lucille May Toulouse, was born in 1903. During the years in between, their families grew, some suffering the loss of children, all meeting the challenges of life and joy of success tempered by the regret of failure. They mostly migrated westward from Wisconsin, assisted by the Homestead Act, to pioneer new communities as far north as Montana and south as New Mexico. They were among the earliest settlers in Sonoma County, California and helped build Spokane. They joined churches and populated schools, becoming valued members of towns and villages where they made their homes.