1860

Marie Louise LaFleur Pluard Stone died August 13, 1936 in Alsea, Oregon. One obituary in the nearby Corvallis Daily Gazette-Times referred to her as Mrs. Mary "Grandma" Stone and told of her journey across the plains to Oregon with her parents.

As the previous story should make clear, there is much that will never be known about Grandma Stone's childhood.* But what we do know is enough to make me marvel at her strength and survival skills.

Marie was born to Elizabeth Barker and at a young age, she and her sister Modora were left in the care of Antoine LeFleur. He is variously referred to as her "father" or her "step-father." In 1877, Mary Louise LeFleur and Albert Pluard received their marriage license. Antoine LeFleur swore on the affadavit that he knew that Albert was over 21 and Mary Louise was over 16 years old. It's likely that Mary was about 17 and Albert was 33.

Mary and Albert Pluard had eight children**; the oldest was Elizabeth Susan Pluard, born in 1877 or 1878. (Elizabeth later married Samuel Daniels; she is Hollister's mother.) Mary and Albert had their children baptized at the St. Paul church. Elizabeth's record (translated from the French by Harriet Munnick) reads:

October 26, 1878, we the undersigned parish priest of this parish have baptized Joselle Isabelle, born the 19th day of August, 1878, child of Albert Plourde and Louise LaFleur, not married before the church. Godfather was Pierre Felix Erin, godmother Ursule Plourde.

Mary and Albert's other children were Albert, Frederic, Grace Dean, Maxie, Eva, Emma, and Margie. Margie was born in 1894, the same year that Mary's husband Albert died in a logging accident near Drain, Oregon.

Mary was left with a young family to raise. In 1900, they were living in the Hubbard area and both Albert and Fred were enrolled at the Chemawa Indian School, listed as 1/2 Indian, from the "Rogue River Tribe." If family stories are correct, Mary's children inherited Indian ancestry from both parents.

Mary split shakes, worked as a midwife (wrapping her feet in burlap in the winter so she could reach her patients) and was known as a healer. She smoked a corn cob pipe and roll-your-owns. She remarried in 1924 to John Stone, and when she died in 1936, she had 39 grandchildren and 36 great-grandchildren.

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*Many thanks to Joy Wulff for much of this information. Joy is also descended from these remarkable Pluard women and has talked with many others in this large family.

**Mary Stone's obituary in the newspaper said "seven of [her] eleven children survive their mother."