Joseph Benjamin Zebenne1

M, #14719, b. Apr 28, 1807
Pedigree

Family

Elisabeth R. Thompson b. Jan 30, 1819, d. Sep 10, 1875
Children

Chronological Events

Birth*Apr 28, 1807 Joseph Benjamin Zebenne was born on Apr 28, 1807 at Rouen, Seine Maritime, France. 
Marriage*circa 1841 He married Elisabeth R. Thompson circa 1841 at Athens, Clarke County, Georgia, United States.2 
Residence*1850 Joseph Benjamin Zebenne lived in 1850 at Athens, Clarke County, Georgia, United States.3 
Residence1860 He lived in 1860 at Paulding County, Georgia, United States.1 
Occupation*1860 He was a butcher in 1860. 
Researcher's Note* 
Ingram: People-watching: Even a regular Joe can be interesting: Out of the Past by Tracy Coley Ingram

People-watching is irresistible to me. I don't mean to be nosy or rude, but I constantly find myself noticing, and perhaps staring at, regular people going about their daily lives. How they move, what they say and how they interact with the people around them is fascinating to me.
I have observed that although characters created for movies and books often seem unrealistic, real people do too. If you really start watching people you will soon discover that even regular Joe's can show real life is indeed stranger than fiction.
I came across a character from Athens' past that was a perfect example of what I'm talking about. Everyone knew him as Joe Keno, although his real name was Joseph Zebenne. He was a Frenchman with a poor mastery of the English language and most likely folks gave up trying to figure out what he was saying and just decided his name was something like Keno. In the 1850s he had a restaurant and a butcher shop on Jackson Street in the block between Broad and Clayton, along what was then known as ''Cat Alley".
Keno would come out of his shop and yell for the cats, which scurried to answer the sound of his voice and the food it promised. He gave them what was called ''offal,'' the tidbits left from his butcher shop. There is no way of guessing what could have been in those scraps, as Keno was said to have butchered everything from goats to dogs before labeling them as lamb and selling them.
He had a habit of showing up at the kitchen door of wealthy homes and telling the cook the man of the house had ordered meat. Many innocent cooks accepted the questionable meat and prepared it, and of course once it was cooked the master had to pay for it.
If Joe wasn't colorful enough already, add to that he was a small Frenchman married to a large Georgia woman. He also had a habit of getting sloppy drunk every Saturday and going home to beat his wife. After years of this abuse, she asked a judge what she could do and was told to defend herself. She ran home in gleeful amazement and prepared herself for the next Saturday. When Keno came home and prepared to beat her, she set upon him, wrapped him in a sheet and spanked him soundly with a bed slat. He never tried to beat her again.
Keno served in the Civil War and then returned to Athens, taking a job as the town lamplighter. Of course, he didn't just light the lamps, he had to do it with a twist. Keno traveled around town for years with a little step stool and a three-legged dog lighting the street lamps. We don't know why the dog only had three legs, but I like to call him ''Lucky'' because he came into Keno's life AFTER he gave up the butcher shop.

For more info: Joe Keno is documented in "Remembering Athens," written by Susan Frances Barrow Tate.


Ingram: Athens' quick and dead

In my March 17 column, I wrote about Joe Keno, a real life character I read about in ''Remembering Athens'' by Susan Frances Barrow Tate. Her words also painted an irresistibly funny picture of drivers in Athens' past.

Tracy Coley Ingram

more Ingram columns
Tate recalls going on a ride in Frances Long Taylor's (daughter of Crawford W. Long) electric car when she was a small girl. Taylor dressed for the afternoon outing in a floor-length black dress with a high-boned collar of net up to her ears. She also wore a hat with a veil and black kid gloves on her hands.
She drove the car sedately into the middle of the street, never taking notice of the startled cries of drivers and pedestrians forced to clear a path for her. The drive ended at the Lucy Cobb Institute where Taylor parked facing the wrong way on the left side of the street.
This reminds me of a ride I once took with my Grandpa. He was quite old when I was about 10 and needed a ride to a ballgame. Even though I never rode with Grandpa, this was a desperate occasion.
Rather than the pick-up truck you would expect Grandpa to drive (he had been a farmer all his life), he liked the Volkswagen Beetle. We crawled into the bug, he in his Pointer overalls and gray felt hat and me in my softball uniform, and off we went.
Anytime we neared a stop sign, Grandpa geared up that thing and put the pedal to the metal. Since Grandpa couldn't turn his head to look for oncoming traffic, I can only assume his plan was to outrun them. We shot out into the road like a rocket and bounced along in amazing safety to the game.
On the same subject, Tate also describes a lady who purchased a Model A car after becoming accustomed to a Model T's gearshift. Her solution was to skip low and second gears and simply start off in high. Tate wrote, ''(she) stepped on the gas and she, the car and her startled passengers leapt like a jack rabbit down the street for perhaps a block before the motor settled down.''
According to Tate, Sylvanus Morris, dean of the University of Georgia Law School, was once forced to leap from the street to the sidewalk in front of the campus where he snarled, ''There are only two kinds of people in Athens, the quick and the dead!''

Possible information for Joseph Zebenne in Passenger and Immigration records.

Personal Information

Name: Joseph Zabin
Arrival Date: Mar 29, 1843
Age: 31
Gender: M
Port of Departure: La Havre
Place of Origin: France
Ship Name: Lyon
Family Number: 28252
National Archives' Series Number: M259-22
Port of Arrival: New Orleans

Joseph Zebenne (age 41) is found in the 1850 US Census for Athens, Clarke County, Georgia, dated August 26, 1850. On the census are listed Elizabeth (wife, age 32), Nancy A. (8), Margaret (7) and Martha C. (1). Joseph's occupation was Butcher. He was born in France. Elisabeth was born in Georgia.

Joseph Zebenne is found as J B Zebenne in the 1860 U. S. Census for Paulding County, Georgia recorded on July 20, 1860. He was 52 years old. Also in the census are his wife, Elisabeth (age 42), and daughters Nancy (18), Margaret (16), Martha (10), Sarah (9), Susan (6), Lauseanna (4) and Josephine (2). All children were born in Georgia. Joseph's occupation was Butcher. His birthplace was Lenefane (Sunfano?), France.4
 

Citations

  1. [S509] Census 1860 - United States Federal.
  2. [S805] Site - One World Tree (SM), online at http://www.ancestry.com
  3. [S507] Census 1850 - United States Federal.
  4. [S771] Personal Knowledge - Valentine, Jack.