This page is dedicated to the memory of my Great-Grandfather, Aurelius Absolom ORY, whom everyone called either "Gramps" or "Bee". His parents were John Phillip ORY and Catherine Boullion ORY. He was born somewhere near Hope Villa in Ascension Parish on January 02, 1865. He was baptised on July 15, 1865 and his sponsors were Adolphus White and Felicie Landry. Aurelius died on November 07, 1958, and is buried in Prarieville Cemetery, Ascension Parish next to his mother and father. He died not of old age, but of a fall. Gramps had broken his hip and while he was laid up in bed he developed pneumonia. He had prostate cancer and that weakened him and possibly his hip, although every female Ory I have known has had a defect in their hip area and are very prone to breaks there. Aurelius married the former Virginia Landry, the legitimate daughter of Adolph Laurent Landry and Telcide (Telcine) Bergeron. She was born August 20, 1867 in Ascension Parish, and died February 28, 1929. According to the Louisiana Death Records, she was in Reserve, Louisiana where she was staying with tow of her children, Hilda and George "Uncle Harry" (they were married and living next door to each other). She was brought back to Ascension Parish and is also buried in Prarieville Cemetery, although well away from the site of Aurelius' grave. Together they raised five children:
George "Harry" Ory, b. January 26, 1907, d. July 1984
Aurelius was born nearing the end of the Civil War and spent his first twenty years of his life under the Reconstruction Era. Not mch is known of his early life. He apparently moved around in this early part of his life. I do know he had a variety of jobs including an accounting job with Messrs Picard and Geismar when they were located on Burnside Avenue in present-day downtown Gonzales. My father recently told me that while taking inventory they discovered a missing saddle. Aurelius told them to just charge each person for a saddle and the one's that complained they would take the charges off and the one that did not complain was the one that had the saddle. Sure enough he was right. Aurelius was a pretty smart codger and he did alright for himself and his family despite what the Depression did to him.
I knew Gramps for the first four years of my life. We would take afternoon naps together with his big cat. He was very fond of cats, had the largest one I've seen to this day. One day while we were lying down I kept pestering the cat and Gramps told me at least twice to leave the cat alone. I pestered the cat until I got scratched in my right eye and had to go to the doctor. Gramps just grunted and told me, "I told you to quit pestering that cat." He rolled over while we went to the doctor and took his nap. Other granchildren had somewhat bad relations with Gramps and claimed he was mean to them. He and I got along well I thought. One of his sister's son's recently told me that he did not like Gramps and remembered being spanked by him. His granddaughter Ruth also told me about how Gramps would give a horse some 'pep' pills and then sell the lively horse to an unsuspecting buyer. A few days later the buyer would come back to Gramps and want his money back because the horse had died.
Aurelius (which means 'gentle one') was an entrepeneur, he bought and sold land, and even ran a small grocery store with Arthur, his oldest son. The store was on the eastern side of Hwy. 44 South just before you crossed the Panama Canal on the road presently known as the Brittnay Tower Road. He lost all his lands during the Great Depression because he could not pay the taxes ($8.00 I believe) on the lands that he owned and the store he ran made more chickens and eggs than cash. Several of the other properties he owned have been or still are oil fields.
