story_emma_dalcour

Long lives don’t seem to interest most people. They don’t think of living a long life. Mrs. Dalcour once said, “ A long life isn’t impossible.” There are not so many well-known aged people in Oklahoma, but Mrs. Dalcour was of equal importance and greatness. She was the mother of six children, 18 grandchildren, 40 great-grandchildren, and 23 great great grandchildren, that came down through five generations.

In the spring of 1907, Mrs. Dalcour, her husband John, her father Eli, children and cousins left Louisiana and came to Oklahoma. At that time, Oklahoma was not a state, but part of the Indian Territory. Mrs. Dalcour and her family cam by train to what is now Okmulgee, after riding two days and nights. At that time, one baker shop, two dry good stores, and a meat market mad up the town. She said, “It was enough for a good life.”

The original home site of the Dalcour family consisted of a three-room log house near Grayson, Oklahoma. The area was populated largely by Indians, some of whom would bring her wild game occasionally. She raised her own food from farming. She remembers milking five and six cows, churning butter, grinding her own meal, raising chickens, pigs, and a lovely garden. She always loved working outside and sewing.

Mrs. Dalcour made her own hominy, soap, and meal. She dried meat in the sun (called Torso meat), and dried her fish for the winter. She had no utilities that we have today. All of her clothes and her families were homemade. She made corsets from heavy cloth and whale bones, hoop skirts with a basque waist, and bras called cossages. Gaters, which are shoes, were the style. She also weaved her own threads to make her stockings.

Emma had a spinning wheel and could make coats, pants, just about anything. Once she made three wedding gowns in one week. They had long trains and all the fixings on them. Then there was a camp meeting and she made suits for three preachers. She just loved to sew.

The men and women had to be 21 years old to be married. The boys wore nothing but shirts until they were 12. When they went to visit their fiancée, they greased their feet because the boys hardly ever wore shoes.

For entertainment in her childhood, they had dances. They played instruments such as the harp, guitar, fiddle, and they blew sugar cane poles and combs. Their big dance came in February, on Wednesday before lent. In Louisiana, they called this season Mardi Gras. The dances then were the waltz, two-step, and square-dance.

Mrs. Dalcour and her daughter Geneva, love the natural food and seem to think that is on e of the reasons for their longevity. “We used to eat crawdads, turtle, alligator tail, possum, and lots of other wild animals,” Geneva relates.

Mrs. Dalcour came from a family noted for its long life. Her maternal grandmother lived to see her 119th birthday, her paternal grandmother was over 100 when she died, and her father Eli, was nearing the centennial mark when he died.

Mrs. Dalcour’s grandmother was a slave before the Civil War and her father was of French descent. He could read and write both English and French, but taught his children the French language. So well did he teach the foreign language that his daughter Emma did not learn to speak English until her own children went to school and learned it.

When Mrs. Dalcour was in her late 80’s, blindness descended upon her, which comes form old age. Her brother Renes Fontenot, was blind the last ten years of his long-life. He died just before reaching the centennial mark also.

Mrs. Dalcour was a very religious woman. Her religious beliefs helped her form her philosophy of longevity. She always said, “When the Lord decides I’ve lived long enough, that’s when I’ll go.” The Lord finally called Emma on December 4, 1976, just two days before her 109th birthday.

In the 1900’s their weren’t many doctors available, but Emma was gifted with a special talent which she passed down to her daughter Mary Ann, and myself Leo Cazenave Jr., her great-grandson. We could cure warts, cuts, aches and pains such as arthritis, colds and other ailments. Also, the Indians in the area where Emma lived showed her certain ways to cure colds and break fevers by using certain plants that grew on their land.

Mrs. Dalcour was the oldest member of Uganda Martyrs Catholic Church in Okmulgee at the time of her death. She was laid to rest December 7 1976 at Our Lady of Grace Cemetery.

This Story was written by Emma’s great-grandson, Leo W. Cazenave Jr. of Okmulgee. Emma never seen me but would touch the top of my head and tell how fast and tall I was growing. She also taught me to count in French and taught me several French songs and their English translations.