First Generation American

Victor Blanchard was a stone cutter, carpenter and farmer. Owing to the dangerous nature of farming, Victor Blanchard lost his life in a barn accident. The following is a news report from the time.

Blanch[ard] was to fix up heavy doors for Fred Lavasseur on the latter's barn and arrived at the place early Monday morning. After repearing a pump he went at the barn doors. There were four, each about 12x16 feet. These were piled against the barn wall and held in place with a wooden cleat. While Lavasseur went to the corn crib to get the iron rails on which the door wheels run, Blanch[ard] evidently took a piece of 4x4 and knocked off the cleat in an attempt to take the doors to the ground alone. All four fell over and crushed him to the ground. No one saw the accident, but Lavasseur found a few moments later and pulled him out.

Victor was married to Elizabeth Frye and together, they had eight children, two of whom died as infants. Laurence Victor, their son, is the great-grandfather of Donald, Johnathan and Edward Blanchard of a Howard hog farm.

photos courtesy of the Blanchard family

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