Belieu Babies

Within moments of posting last week’s column on the pictures of Catherine Denison Belieu and her babies, I received an e-mail from Midge Frazel, Denison family historian. Turns out there’s nothing simple about those Belieu kids. Did Catherine have 11, 12 or 13 children? It’s still being debated.

I wrote that the family traveled to Oregon by boat, but another family historian commented that the family could have traveled overland. She’s right, but this family took the water route. You can read Midge’s note about how the family got to Oregon by clicking Comments below last week’s piece.

So which babies are depicted in these portraits? Catherine’s clothing is a simple dress with a small collar accented by a pin. This helps date the picture to a short time frame, the mid-1860s to at least 1869. After 1869, women’s collars changed. Of course there’s no guarantee Catherine stopped wearing her older clothing into the early 1870s.

Catherine and her husband, John Asbury Belieu, had several children in the late 1860s and early 1870s.

• Sarah Naomi Alice, born Dec. 4, 1864; died June 13, 1867.
• Jesse Leander, born Oct. 11, 1866.
• M. Elizabeth Evalin, born Feb. 3, 1869. This Eva is supposed to be Carole Hayden’s great-grandmother, but some genealogists claim this child died in 1872. There’s a mistake in here somewhere.
• James Asbury Elmer, born Jan. 2, 1871

It’s likely the two babies in the photos are two of these children, but it’s difficult to assign names. I think that at least one of them is Sarah, who died in 1867. It was a common practice to pose for a picture with a first child.

The two images show different children. I’ve come to that conclusion by comparing the shapes of their heads—they’re slightly different. Both children wear dresses, but you can’t jump to the conclusion they’re girls. The mother could be reusing a garment from her first baby.

Regardless of who’s who, these two images are treasures for the Denison/Belieu family. Now here’s a challenge to other descendants. Do you own pictures of Catherine with her other children? Send them in and let’s really try to settle the question of which baby is which.