Josephine Elizabeth LaSota [53297] ¹⁰

  General Notes:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~chute/gp0.htm#head1


In the last year or so of her life, Jo was obsessed with finding out for sure if she was born in 1900 or 1899. Her son, George, studied both federal and state census reports which gave conflicting information, but she was tickled that he had discovered that she had been called "Josie". It turns out she was born in 1898.
Josephine LaSota was born in Withee Township in Wisconsin on July 29, 1898. She was born on the date of a barn raising on her parent's farm. Her father was French, the son of a a man who played first violin in the French Royal Orchestra, and her mother was Polish. Walter LaSota's father served as Consul in Warsaw, Poland. His mother's maiden name was La Galiante. There are conflicting stories regarding "La Galiante": either she died giving birth to Walter and his twin brother, or later lived in Bordeux with Walter's sister. While Walter's father was serving in Warsaw, Poland, Walter attended Paderewski's musical conservatory, where he met (or, probably) became re-aquainted with, his future wife, Anna. With the outbreak of hostilities in the area, the French government ordered the Council to remain in Warsaw. However, he sent his family home to France, including Walter's fiancee, Anna. The Council was killed in Poland.
Anna's mother was a ballet dancer with a French Royal group, and had been a language teacher, as she spoke both French and Polish. Anna's father was a music teacher (probably piano), and they spent much time in Paris. Anna and her sister were raised by their grandparents, who managed a large Polish government experimental farm, with a large house. They were experimenting with cross-pollination at the time that Mendel, an Austrian monk, was performing his genetic experiments in the mid 1800's. Either Anna or her mother attended a school taught by a Professor Sklodowska, who was the father of Marie Curie, born in 1867 in Warsaw, who became a close family friend. Jo remembers hearing about Marie visiting the large farm in Poland. (She thought the name of the Professor was Modesta or Majesta, but the name might have been the name or location of the school itself.)
Anna's parents knew Walter's father as they all worked in Paris in the field of music and dance. Anna's parents would invite Walter's father and his boys to the farm in Poland for vacations, and that is another version of how Anna and Walter met. They may have become reacquainted at the Conservatory. For years, Walter's father pushed him to work hard at being accepted by the Royal Orchestra as his twin brother had, but he did not make it. The struggle caused a permanent breach between father and son.
Jo remembers hearing about a gala evening when Anna and Walter were dancing under an arbor in Paris, lit by twinkling lights. They were married and Walter wanted to get as far away from the "Old Country" as he could; they took a boat to America. Their first son William was born in 1878 as they crossed the ocean. They traveled to Chicago partly by canal and then settled in LaSalle, Illinois, where a coal mine promised employment. All of their children were born there, except Josie, who was born in Wisconsin. Walter had heard of free land in Wisconsin, so they migrated there to an 80-acre homestead.
From Jo herself: "Dad (Walter) may not have been a good violinist, but he must have been a good carpenter. He built that house alone with some help from Bill and Phil. That house is still standing. But he knew nothing about farming. Mother (Anna) supervised and did what she had observed of her grandfather's farming. And when Dad died (1901), she had to farm by herself, with what help the five kids could give, as Bill and Phil were on their own. It's no wonder she cried whenever she thought of the easier life she gave up. Mother said she was taught French and German, but Dad was so bitter about the treatment by the French Royal Orchestra that he never allowed her to speak French. As time went on, she forgot most of it." As far as we know, Anna always spoke Polish. There was frequent music and dancing in the kitchen. Jo tells the story of Anna kicking up her heels so high that her slipper flew off and landed in a pot of soup! Whenever we visited Jo in Plymouth, Michigan, we always awoke to the sound of Polish music and would find Jo dancing around. George III still speaks a few phrases in Polish he learned from his grandmother, among them: "Would you like to spend the night in the doghouse?", and "How would you like a good spanking?" - phrases he no doubt learned in his more boisterous younger years.
Apparently, the fields that made up the 80 acres were marked off by planting berry bushes of different kinds that would grow into a thick hedge. Being so much younger than her sisters, Josie would stand guard while they picked berries, to warn of bears approaching to eat the berries. There were other disadvantages to being much younger and yet larger-boned, especially in her feet. She would be given hand-me-down shoes that had fit Estelle or Helen in second grade, which were supposed to be able to fit her, in second grade. She had to walk several miles to school and her mother finally had to take her to the doctor for foot pain. He said her shoes were too small. So Anna bought shoes for Josie that were several sizes too large. She would wear them until out of sight of the house and then go barefoot until she got home again.
Anna could make sound business decisions. One year she heard that good money would be paid for soybeans, so that's what she planted, despite the ridicule of other farmers. She made a killing, and then went back to regular crops the next year while the other farmers lost money the following year with soybeans. Jo was always real proud of her mother for that decision. We think she would have been as good a homesteader as her mother was! With 80 acre farms, houses were far apart. A log cabin that Jo used to visit aways down the road had also been built by Polish immigrants. In a trunk up in the loft of the cabin, she was shown unimaginable treasures: a tiara and jewels and beautiful ball gowns brought from the Old Country.
Eventually, her mother sold the farm, and the family moved to Thorpe, Wisconsin, where Jo attended secondary school. After graduating, she went to live with her older sister Estelle and her husband, Lee Jensen, living in Chicago. There she worked as a sales clerk in a department store, as a telephone operator, and also as a dance instructor, teaching ballroom dancing. In 1920 or so, she went to visit her sister Frances in Florida, where at a dance, she met George Maynard Chute, Jr., a student at the University of Michigan, visiting his parents in Lakeland, Florida, where they lived. They were married in Chicago and lived in Ann Arbor for a year, while George finished his senior year of college. He graduated in 1922. He went to work for General Electric, in their test engineering department, and was sent to Schenectady, New York. They lived in Scotia, where their eldest son, George III, was born. In 1927-28 he was transfered back to Detroit, where Robert was born. They built their home on Garfield, in Plymouth, Michigan; later, the street name was changed to South Evergreen.

  Noted events in her life were:

• Soc Sec Num: 381-20-5825.

Josephine married George Maynard Chute [53699] [MRIN: 551613027], son of George Maynard Chute [53942] and Gracelia Belle Hamilton [53787], on 24 Jun 1921 in Toledo, Lucas County, Ohio, USA.¹¹⁸⁰⁷ (George Maynard Chute [53699] was born on 18 Jan 1900 in Toledo, Lucas County, Ohio, USA ⁸⁹ and died on 21 Sep 1983 in Plymouth, Wayne County, Michigan, USA ¹¹⁷²⁹.)