The Osbornes and the Orttes of New Orleans
The following historical information was written by Roger C. Smith, December 1997. Updated May 5, 2003.
Sources: Ortte / Osborne Family Bible; numerous obituaries, news clippings and original documentation.
The marriage of Theodore Junior Osborne and Elizabeth E. Bannister produced seven children, the eldest of whom was Rinaldo Osborne (born November 26, 1862). Eliza died on August 28, 1924. The other children were Edna (who married A. Schultz), Sallie, Zema, Jennie, Elma, and Mintie. Only Rinaldo, Edna, and Mintie had children. Edna produced two; Edwyn and Eugene. Mintie bore one child, Hattie (who married Eugene Butner). Rinaldo married Allene May Ortte, and produced nine children, of which seven survived.
Allene May Ortte (born November 24, 1864) was the daughter of Allen H. Ortte and Elizabeth E. Wardle. Allen Ortte was a native of Yorktown, Virginia, but had been a resident of New Orleans since boyhood. He was a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River, an occupation that he began prior to the Civil War. He was the helmsman on the steamboat Belle of Acton when she made her record-breaking trip from New Orleans to Alexandria in 1871. Among other steamboats he piloted were the Texas and the New Orleans. During the Civil War Captain Ortte was pressed into service by the Union General Banks to pilot a federal gunboat on an expedition up the Red River. His last service on the river was as a pilot on the steamboat Gem running between New Orleans and Shreveport. He died in New Orleans on March 31, 1901.
Henry Ortte, Captain Ortte’s brother, was also a riverman, and died aboard the steamboat Teche. Before the Civil War, he was a clerk with the Opelousas Railroad, and enlisted in Company A, Fifth Louisiana Regiment, and lost a leg during the battle of the Wilderness. After the war he ran a harbor towboat, and later tended bar on a number of steam packets.
The union of Captain Ortte and Elizabeth Wardle produced five sons and three daughters. The daughters were Bessie (who married Walter T. Long), Oneida (who married James Campbell Tourne) and Allene (who married Rinaldo Osborne). The sons were Edward P. Ortte, Richard, James A., Henry, and Charles. Elizabeth Wardle Died on February 20, 1924.
The May 31, 1887 New Orleans marriage of Rinaldo J. Osborne and Allene May Ortte produced nine children, two of whom died in infancy (Milton Renaldo, six months, and Iris Bertha, two years, eight months). The surviving children were Theodora, Mabel, Gladys, Thelma, Alma, Eugene, and Allene. All the children were born in New Orleans, and lived there until the young Allene was about 14 years old, at which time her mother moved with Gladys, Eugene, Alma and young Allene to Portland, Maine to be near Mabel. Allene May spent her last days living with her youngest daughter Allene, and died May 7, 1948 in Summit, New Jersey. She is interred in Cypress Grove Cemetery, New Orleans.
Theodora Eveline was the first child, born August 9, 1889. She married Edward Rudolph LeBlanc on May 15, 1912 in Brooklyn, New York. They produced two children. The first, Theodora Eveline (called “Little Theo”) suffered an accident by falling from her high chair, and died on December 29, 1914 of her injuries. She was 22 months old. The other Child was Gretchen Marilynn, born on October 26,1915. Her mother, Theo, never recovered from the loss of her first child, and died herself shortly thereafter.
Mabel Allene was the second child (born October 13, 1892) and was married to William Stewart, a native of Scotland. They lived in Portland, Maine at 151 Pine Street. Both were Christian Science practitioners. In addition, they both had banking and clerical occupations. Their union produced no children. William Stewart preceded her in death; Mabel died on November 13, 1960.
Gladys Amelia (born September 7, 1895) married Joseph Irving Clark, Jr. on June 16, 1917 in Washington, D.C. They produced three children: Joseph, Beverly, and Nathalie. Joey (Junior) was a graduate of Georgia Tech and settled in the Atlanta, Georgia area. Beverly married Hector Kidd, and in the late 1940’s and ‘50’s they lived in Stratford, Connecticut before moving to Dallas, Texas. He had moved as an employee of the Chance Vought Aircraft Company. Nathalie married Eugene Suponski; they had three male children, and lived nearly their entire lives at Lordship Beach outside of Stratford, Connecticut. Eugene was a Lieutenant in the Army during World War II, and later worked for Chance Vought and then for a company that customized aircraft interiors. Their three sons still live in Connecticut. Gladys and Irving moved to Dallas to be near Beverly; Irving retired there and was an inventor of games, one of which was bought by a major board game manufacturer, and Irving received royalties the rest of his life.
Thelma Emma was the fourth child, born July 6, 1897. She met and married Otis Joslyn of Missouri, who was a World War I veteran and a recognized poet. They spent the majority of their married life in Oklahoma; Otis Joslyn had a volume of poetry published while living there. Their children were Otis (Bubba), Thelma (Sister), and Dan.
Alma May was born on May 2, 1902, and never married. She lived in Portland, Maine with her mother, and later in Stratford, Connecticut with her sister Gladys. She contracted tuberculosis, and believing in the tenets of Christian Science, refused to take prescribed medications. She died on her birthday, May 2, 1941 in Stratford. She had been engaged to be married, but her illness and death intervened.
Eugene Benedict (born August 5, 1904) was the only surviving male child. After his youth in Portland, Maine, he moved to Stratford, Connecticut, where he worked for the Chance Vought Aircraft Company, and later for the Sikorsky Helicopter Company. He married Phyliss Raffio of Bridgeport, Connecticut when he was 42 years old. They produced five children, all of whom currently reside in Connecticut. Eugene died on December 11, 1982.
Allene Ortte was the youngest of the Osborne children. She was born on July 27, 1908. She was raised in New Orleans and in Portland, Maine. She met Robert Goodhue Smith, a native of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, when she worked in the Portland City Assessor’s office. At that time, he was employed by Dunn and Bradstreet. He later became a salesman with Simonds Saw and Steel Company of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, which required extensive travel throughout the East coast. Allene and Robert were married October 1, 1929 in Lynchburg, Virginia. Their union produced three sons: Robert Allen (born April 1, 1933, died in South Thomaston, Maine on April 19, 2004); Roger Chilton (born March 8, 1937) and Barry Preston (born September 5, 1943). Allene died on January 31, 1985; her husband Robert Goodhue Smith, had preceded her in death in 1972. They are both interred at St. Stephens Cemetery, Millburn, N.J.
