A Tale of Two Graveyards
Alice Lepretre Aldige’s Ship of Doom
This is a post about the history behind a notable tomb in one of New Orleans' "cities of the dead" and two voyages on the same ship. I love the America's Historical Newspapers (Louisiana State Package) database and I fond out this shivery piece of family history via a newspaper article I found on that database I just HAD to share.
The Aldige tomb in Metairie Cemetery has been the subject of many photographers and a stop on many cemetery tours. It is also, in these latter days, a PokéStop.
I knew my third great grandmother on the Aldige side, Alice Lepretre Aldige, died in a shipwreck with a daughter and granddaughter (see linked text for an article). That is commemorated on the monument. I also previously found out, through ships' logs, that the ship she died on, in the 1898 shipwreck, the same ship she brought her husband's body back from Paris on in 1893. I just found out that it gets creepier and more Gothic than that.
I didn't read the article about the death of her husband, Jules Aldige, as carefully as I should have when I first found it and I never searched the ship's manifests for Borde. Amelie Borde, the daughter who died with Alice in 1898, and R.U. Borde (her husband) were also on La Bourgoyne with Alice and Jules' body in 1893, five years before the wreck, bringing Jules' body back from Paris. Not only that but Amelie was pregnant with Amy. The article about Jules' death was dated August 1, 1893. Amy (the granddaughter who would die with Alice on La B.) was born Aug. 23 and R.U. Borde would die on Dec. 17, 1893 of what I don't know.
To continue with the story getting creepier, the family who met Alice, the Bordes, and Jules' body in NY, George Aldige and Mr. and Mrs. Walter Cook? George A. would die in 1904 of TB. Mrs. Walter Cook (Marie Leonie Aldige) died in May of 1894 (they had only been married since 1893). Only the non-Aldige, Walter Cook lived to any great degree afterwards (1870-1935). I am happy to report, though, that my Aldige (Anna Aldige Hindermann, variously the daughter, older sister, and aunt of those lost on La Bourgoyne) lived from 1864-1951.
Why were they on La Bourgoyne in 1898? My great-grandmother, the daughter of Anna Aldige, another daughter of Alice and Jules Sr., and her Swiss husband, Hans F. Hindermann, was in Switzerland with her Swiss grandmother. Her New Orleans family was going to get her and bring her back to New Orleans. Anna and H.F. were afraid to bring her back after La Bourgogne and she ended up spending much of her childhood in Switzerland.
One final thing, Jules Sr. had first been put to rest in St. Louis #3 but, after the La Bourgoyne when Jules Jr. had the more lavish Metairie tomb built, he moved his father's body there, as you can see from the inscription.
The pictures are as follows, the La Borgogyne inscription on the Aldige tomb, Amy Borde, Alice Lepretre Aldige, my great-grandmother at 9 in Switzerland, and the original Aldige tomb in St. Louis #3.
About the Creator
Caitlin Cooper
I am a native New Orleanian and avid reader with one cat.
Comments
There are no comments for this story
Be the first to respond and start the conversation.