Christine Fairchild - Daughter of Carlotta Nelson and Louis Fairchild

This is the fifth in a series of posts about Carlotta Nelson Fairchild and her family.  Today's post is about her daughter, Christine.


Christine Fairchild, born in New Orleans on October 30, 1911, was likely named for her maternal grandmother, Christiane Frederikkson Nelson.  She was the first child born to Carlotta and the eleventh child fathered by Louis Fairchild.  Although her father's first marriage to Mary Winnemore Fairchild had produced a total of ten children, only six had lived to adulthood, five daughters and a son. With Christine's birth, Louis now had seven living children. At the time of her birth, Christine's father, as a member of the New Orleans Cotton Exchange and the New York Cotton Exchange, was able to provide his family security and many of life's comforts.  And it is almost certain that Christine, as her mother's only natural child and her father's youngest, received more than her share of her parents' attention.  

Archives of the social pages of the Times-Picayune, the New Orleans newspaper, offer extensive insight into Christine Fairchild's young life.  At least one trip to Goodman, Mississippi, to visit Carlotta's relatives who still lived in that area, was reported in those pages. Although their mode of travel was not mentioned, it seems likely that Christine and her family would have ridden the Panama Limited, a "premier all-pullman train" whose northbound route made stops in Mississippi between New Orleans and its destination of Chicago.  Since Christine's maternal grandmother lived until 1917, it seems certain the young girl would have become acquainted during these trips with the woman for whom she was named.  Also living in Holmes County, Mississippi during this time were Florena ("Rena") Nelson, Christine's unmarried aunt, and her uncle, William J. Nelson, and his family.  Back in New Orleans, Christine and her extended family of half-sisters, a half-brother, and their respective families, often enjoyed summers spent at "The Myrtles," the Fairchild's beach cottage in Waveland, Mississippi, sometimes spending as much as two months at one time.

But in 1918, tragedy struck the Fairchild family when Louis Fairchild, then a 69 year old father of seven, died after an extended illness. Married to her husband for slightly less than ten years, Carlotta Nelson Fairchild became a widow with a seven year old daughter. 

Next:  "Life Without a Father"


Sources:
Times-Picayune, Archived newspaper artiles, 1900 - 1920, accessed online Jan. 11, 2011


New York Times, Archived copies of newspaper articles, 1910 - 1918, accessed online Jan. 11, 2011