Written by Pamela Lynn
My 3rd Great Grandmother Eugenia Patterson nee Primeau is buried next to her husband James S. Patterson, survivor of the Battle of San Jacinto, in Section 1, Plot 390.
Eugenia was born on 19 Sep 1810 in St. Martinville, Louisiana, to Marguarite Albert and Joseph Audien Primeaux, who were both also born in LA. She had several siblings all born in Louisiana.
However, her heritage goes back to Quebec and France through her paternal grandparents, Pierre Francois Primeaux and Suzanne Marguerite Plante. Her grandfather Pierre was born in 1739 in Quebec, Canada, and died in LA in 1790. The Primeaux line goes all the way back to Francois Primeaux who was born in 1669 in Haute-Normandie, France. Her grandmother Suzanne was born in Maryland in 1753 and died in in 1811 in LA. The Plante line, with several generations in Quebec, went back to Nicolas Plante born in 1587 in Basse-Normandie, France.
Eugenie was only 14 in 1825 when she married her first husband Benjamin Hargrave who was 25. She gave birth to two children, Marie in 1826 and Joseph in 1830, before Benjamin died in August 1830, leaving her a widow at 19 or 20 years old. Since she had family nearby, I can only hope she was able to move in with some family members. However, she did not waste any time in finding another husband, the usual thing a young widow often did.
She married her second husband Albert McCall in Lafayette, LA, in June 1832. She had three children with him, Marie in 1833, Emilie in 1835, and Albert, Jr., in 1837. Sometime in the next 5 to 6 years Albert McCall died or disappeared. She now had five children to raise on her own.
Fortunately, she met James S. Patterson somewhere in Louisiana, who had returned to LA after the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836. James S. Patterson was 43 years old and although it seems hard believe, there is no record of him being married until he married the two-times widow Eugenia, now aged 33, in 1843.
Their first child, James W. Patterson, was born in 1845 in LA, then James S. Patterson heard that Texas was giving land grants to veterans of the Texas Revolution. He took his family to Texas to get his land grant, and their 2nd child Elvira Jane Patterson was born in Victoria County, TX in 1848. By 1860 he had obtained a land grant in Goliad County, but quickly sold it for the cash. By 1870 the family was living in Austin, Travis County TX.
In 1865 Elvira Jane, known as Jennie, had married William Bradley James, in Victoria County and they too were living in Austin by 1870. When Elvira’s father, James S. Patterson died in 1872, William B. James bought Section 1, Plot 390, in Oakwood Cemetery, where James S. Patterson was then buried. In 1877, Elvira herself died and it would seem that William would bury Elvira in this plot, but it is not so recorded by Oakwood records.
Now a widow and with her other children grown, Eugenia again had to rely on family for a place to live. After her husband’s death she lived at the home of her son-in-law William B. James. Then in 1891 she lived at the home of Mrs. Nancy Overstreet, who was the mother of William Bradley James’ 2nd wife, Sophronia Overstreet, who he married after Elvira’s death. Eugenia died on 24 Jan 1891 and was buried next to her husband of 48 years.
Section1 lot 390