Joseph Adams Hand Frame was born in New York City on December 10, 1899. A woman who identified herself as Mary O’Reilly, the child’s cousin, brought him to the New York Foundling Hospital on Dec. 11, 1899. She had in her possession a note from a priest of St. Anne’s Church in New York City, asking the sisters to accept this infant because the mother was unable to care for him properly.
Reverend J.A. O’Neil, O.P. of St. Vincent Ferrer Church, also located in New York City, baptized Joseph on December 11, 1899.
Records indicate that Joseph’s father was Bernard Hand, whose occupation was listed as that of a plumber. Joseph’s surname on the birth certificate application at the Foundling Hospital is recorded as Adams. At that time Jo- seph was placed in one of the nurseries, run by the Sisters of Charity, where he received excellent care until he was indentured, which was a form of adoption, to Mr. and Mrs. Dalcour Frame of Prairie Rhonde, Louisiana, after prior arrangements were made by the pastor of St. Landry Catholic Church in Opelousas, La., Father John Engherink.
Joseph came to Louisiana by way of the original Orphan Train with several others. I’m told he came with fifty other children accompanied by two Sisters of Charity from the New York Foundling Hospital. Joseph’s I.D. number was 33.
This is an accurate account as far as we know of the first seven years of his life. Joseph is my brother, the brother that my mother and father “adopted” just a few months after they were married on Sept. 24, 1906. He was the oldest of 15 children. My mother and father had 14 children after getting Joseph on May 6, 1900, and indentured on May 11, 1900.
Many years went by before anyone, least of all Joseph, showed any interest in finding out more about Joseph’s early years, such as the details of his birth, his birth parents, or anything about the orphan train.
I do remember that when Joseph was in his late 40s or early 50s, he finally showed some interest in the first few years of his life. He wrote to the New York Found- ling hospital and asked the Sisters of Charity to give him some information about who his birth parents were, etc. He received a reply indicated the above information. When he found out he was born illegitimately, he went no further in his search for many years. He told me, when he came to live with us, that he had found out all he needed or wanted to know. He sort of “shutdown” on it.
Joseph did tell me about the agency that placed him after coming to our parents’ home. The new York Foundling Hospital came by to check on him periodically to see if he was happy, until he came of age. He also talk- ed of an older gentleman whom he presumed later on to be his grandfather. He had come to call on him when he was about 15 years old. The gentleman spoke with my parents and asked if he could take Joseph back to New York with him. They told him to talk to Joseph, and the decision was up to him. Joseph also told me that he told the gentleman that he did not want to go with him and that no amount of money could persuade him to leave the only parents he ever had. Joseph told me that he thought the gentleman said he would never want anything else and could reward my parents substantially (This could have been hearsay).
Not a lot of time went by that Joseph began working in an area apart from his parents’ farm. He wanted to become self-sufficient and was always looking for ways to make money to help out. Joseph drove a converted wagon “school bus” to take the children to school from the area. A few years later he left home to make his own living, working in sawmills in the Iota, Eunice, and Oberlin areas.
Though this was not revealed until much later, he fell in love with a young woman named Gobert from Eunice, La. This was during or just prior to the great Mississippi flood and the beginning of the Great Depression, so the families of Joseph and Miss Gobert were displaced. Their transportation was horse and buggy. They had no telephones; therefore, they lost track of each other.
Joseph said a few years later, perhaps a couple, he tried to located Miss Gobert after learning that he could have fathered a child, but was told that the child had died. He had no other contact with Miss Gobert or anyone in the family until 1979 when unbeknownst to him, his daughter called and said she had been searching for her dad all her life. She was 54 years old. She had been told that her father had died. He was reunited with his daughter and her family. He found out that he had grandchildren and was elated! He continued to have a relationship with them until his death in 1986.
Throughout the years, Joseph remained close to my parents, our family. He came by as often as he could. Because he had no personal transportation, the visits were far and few between. I do remember, though, that he occasionally sent a little money to my parents to help with their needs. It was always welcome. I was number 13 or rather number 12 of the biological children born to my parents so I do not remember a great deal about Joseph’s visits except that when he was able to come home to the farm, there was much joy!
In the 1950’s, my husband, children and myself purchased a home in the rural area of Lafayette, (until then we were in the city). We found out that Joseph was now working in Lafayette as a night dispatcher at the Federal Transportation Co. and lived in a very small room on the northwest part of Lafayette. We visited him there a few times and realized that as he was getting older, he might like
to come live with us, since we had a very large lot. We could add on to our home a room for him, and he would not be alone if he needed anything.
We proposed this idea to him and he agreed only if he could be of help to us. We had 5 children at that time and were expecting our 6th. A few months later in July of 1959, our youngest child was born. She was a “new lease” on his life, as the saying goes. Being around our children made him feel young again. But mostly he enjoyed the baby, catering to her every whim. It was as if she was his own and they established a lifelong relationship. They were very close.
Joseph remained with us for a few years and then decided to go and live with my mother, who was in her declining years. My father had passed away so she was all alone. He felt
it was his duty since he was the only one with no family. My mother passed away after a few years and Joseph came back to live with us until his death in 1986.
As I stated earlier, Joseph never talked much about his “roots.” Perhaps it was to shut it out of his memory, but in the last few years of his life, after “finding” his daughter and her family, he was very happy and always talked about his grandchildren. He saw them as often as he possible could. Before the death of my father in the 1950s my mother and father legally and formally adopted Joseph. They really always felt that the indenture was an adoption. Somehow it was not. They wanted him to have all the legal rights of their biological children.
Louanna Frame Melacon
