Henry Payette

Henry packed a lot of things in his short 47 year life. He was probably less that 1 year old when his family left St Gabriel, Quebec for the Pacific Northwest in 1885. They settled in The Dalles, Oregon where we can see that Henry did well in school based on newspaper clippings. He enlisted in the Army in September 1901 but nothing is known of his service. Next he marries Edith Tyler in 1906. She is the daughter of his employer FC Tyler. Was it for love or was it a way to get in good with the boss? Whatever the reason, they must have divorced since Edith marries again and so does Henry. It does not appear that they had children. Henry next marries Allie Mae Dunkle York in 1916. This was Allie's third marriage, the other two ended in divorce. She had three sons from her first marriage, all practically grown up. This marriage ends tragically where they lose a newborn child and then Allie is found dead. The next place we find Henry is York, Canada when he marries Maude Dobson in 1919. The marriage certificate states that he is from California. This is plausible as his Uncle George Coutu lived in San Diego. But confusing as well since we see he registered for the draft in September 1918 in Walla Walla, Washington.

At this point we have a bit of a mystery. There is a daughter Beatrice who was born in 1917/18. Could have Henry married AND had a child AND lost another wife in a span of 1 or 2 years? Based on family legend, Beatrice was part Native American too. This all seems very unlikely. Perhaps Beatrice is really Maude's daughter born out of wedlock.

In 1923 the family moves to Cleveland, Ohio. My thinking is that they were drawn by Maude's sisters who had already made their way there. They have three children, William (Bill) in Canada and Lillian and Robert (Bob) in Ohio. In 1930 he was employed as a carpenter and was living with his family in a 2 year old house. It seemed he was doing well. Sadly he died of a heart attack in June 1932. His son Bob was only three.