Jeff Davis communities add to region's history Jefferson Davis Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Kathy LaCombe-Tell Source; Jim Bradshaw; Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, Submitted June 2004 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ANDRUS COVE This community on the Mermentau River between Jennings and Lake Arthur was named for the Andrus family. Andrus is an example of a Gallicized Scottish surname, Andrews, belonging to an early Anglo-American family in southwest Louisiana. About 1780, Benjamin Andrews, his wife Mary Hargrove, and several of their children migrated, apparently overland, from South Carolina to Louisiana. Benjamin was the progenitor of most of the Andrus families in Louisiana today, and his children first settled along Bayou Plaquemine Brûlée, southwest of the Poste des Opélousas, probably near Church Point. On arrival in Louisiana, the Andrews family included at least five sons, four of whom married Anglo-American women: James (m. c. 1780 Louise Hayes), Joseph (m. 1782 Marie Hayes), Benjamin Jr. (m. c. 1788 Martha Hayes), Solomon (m. c. 1788 Rachael Garrett, c. 1793 Sarah Clark). A fifth son, John, the first of the Andrus family to take a French wife, married Anastasie Savoie of Opelousas in 1793 after his conversion to the Catholic faith. Having settled on the prairies of southwestern Louisiana, the Andrews became cattle ranchers like most of their Anglo compatriots and had their name Gallicized, probably by their French neighbors. Although most of the Andrus family remained in the Plaquemine Brûlée and adjacent areas for many generations, by the 1790s, Solomon had moved south to the Attakapas region, where he found land near Grande Côte, between St. Martinville and Lafayette. Some of the other sons of Benjamin raised cattle as far west as Bayou des Cannes, probably near the present community of Evangeline, where in 1798 he had a vacherie of some 1,000 acres. About the same time, James, Joseph, and Benjamin Jr. claimed land on the west bank of Bayou Nezpiqué, north of Jennings. Before 1850, several Andrus families were living west of the Mermentau River between Jennings and Lake Arthur. ARDOIN'S COVE This is a farming community almost due south of Welsh, named for the Ardoin family. Most of the Ardoin families in Louisiana probably descend from the French-Canadian Etienne Ardouin of Montreal, and his wife Marie- Josephe LaPointe. The couple first settled in Detroit in the early 1770s, where three of their children were born. Sometime later, the family moved down the Mississippi River to the Illinois country. From there Etienne moved again, this time down river to Pointe Coupée, arriving in the early 1780s. At least one of the couple's sons François, moved with his wife Louise Quebédeaux, into the St. Landry Parish area and produced a brood of eight boys and seven girls. By the 1870s, 20 families, sons and grandsons of François, comprised practically the entire Ardoin clan in St. Landry and Evangeline parishes. During the late 1880s and 1890s, several Ardoin families left the Ville Platte and Eunice areas to settle around Iota in Acadia Parish and near Jennings, Welsh and Lacassine in Jefferson Davis. The boom in rice cultivation in southwestern Louisiana was just beginning, and it is likely that these families moved to take advantage of it. In 1889, two Ardoin brothers had 60 acres of rice ready for harvest near Welsh. By 1896, there were five Ardoin families in Lacassine, three in Welsh, and a few others along Bayou Serpent, Bayou Chine, and Liberty Ridge farther north. BARNSDALL This old farming community is on U.S. 190 between Basile and Elton, in the upper northeast corner of Jefferson Davis Parish. There is ittle trace of its early history there today. BULLER Buller is a farming community on Hwy. 383, west of Fenton. It is named for the Buller family. The Thomas Buller family came from St. Landry Parish around 1840 to settle near Elton. The Bullers were descendants of Joseph Buhler Sr., born in 1781 in Opelousas. He was the son of John Buhler, who was born in Germany. The name had been changed to Buller by the time Thomas reached adulthood. Thomas was born in 1808 in Opelousas and married there in 1831 to Emilie Brignac. Emile Buller, brother of Thomas, also moved to the Elton area some years later. He served in the Civil War and moved from Washington (La.) after the war, settling at a spot about a mile north of the town. He was married to Elizabeth Johnson. Descendants of these families moved west to the Buller community. CASTEX LANDING Jean Castex was born near Rouen, France, where he became a baker's apprentice. When he came to America as a young man, he first established himself in Lafayette as a baker. About 1850, he homesteaded 1,500 acres on the west bank of the Mermentau River, opening a store on the river bank. Before too long, he was also operating a steamboat from his store to Grande Chênière. Next, he built a sawmill to cut the cypress coming from his and his neighbors' lands. When Castex learned that the Southern Pacific was going to come through Mermentau, he quickly built a general store that sold everything from buggies and harnesses to wearing apparel. His store, at the junction of the river and the railroad, stood until the 1950s. CHINA China is on Hwy. 395, south of Elton, about 15 miles north of Jennings. William Jackson, an Englishman, was the first postmaster there. It's said that China got its name because postal authorities misunderstood Jackson when they asked him the name of the place. In his British accent, he tried to say chêneau, meaning "young oaks." The mail inspectors heard "China," and that became the name of the town. A post office was established there about 1890, but was moved to Elton when the Missouri Pacific railroad bypassed China. The W. H. Tupper General Merchandise Store was opened between 1910 and 1912 at China. It was closed in 1949, and everything that was in it was simply kept on its shelves. Those items were warehoused in the middle 1970s, until Joe Tupper Jr., a grandson of the store's original owner, offered the items to the town of Jennings. They were then moved into a remodeled building on North Main Street in downtown Jennings, which is now called the W. H. Tupper General Merchandise Museum. Tupper's grave dominates the tiny China Cemetery which sits in the middle of the prairie off Hwy. 395, also called the Raymond Highway, between Raymond and Elton. EDNA Edna is on U.S. 165, south of Kinder, near the Jefferson Davis Parish line. There was a post office here as late as 1910. FOREMAN'S HALL Foreman's Hall is on Hwy. 101 south of Lacassine. The name probably came from a family name. There are still a few homes and a church there. GUIDRY Guidry is identified in old documents as a post office between Fenton and Edna. There are few traces of the early community today HATHAWAY Hathaway is at the intersection of Hwy. 26 and Hwy. 102 in eastern Jefferson Davis Parish. Among the early settlers of this area were the Browns, Bucklins, Harlow White, the Shoesmiths, the Wildmans, the Andersons, the Bryans, Simmonses and others. ILLINOIS PLANT Illinois Plant is on the border with Calcasieu Parish on Hwy. 101, south of Hayes and Bell City. It was an early pumping station for a large rice irrigation system. JACKSON POINT This area was settled by William Jackson, who came to the Elton area after the Civil War. His homestead south of Elton came to be called Jackson Point probably because the tree lines came to a point at that spot. LACASSINE The town of Lacassine is on U.S. Hwy. 90 at its intersection with Hwy.101 in western Jefferson Davis Parish. There are two versions of how this place got its name. One is that a tribe of Comanche Indians, led by their chief Lacassine, migrated to southwest Louisiana to hunt and fish in the early 1800s, settling near this place. According to this version, it was named for the chief. Under the second version, this part of the parish was visited regularly by different tribes of the area, including Attakapas, Choctaw and others. Game was abundant here, and the Indians called it their "hunting ground," or, in the Choctaw language, La Cassine, though the phrase sounds more French than Indian. LAUDERDALE Lauderdale is a farming community on U.S. 190, between Elton and Kinder, just at the Jefferson Davis Parish line. LOWRY One of the first settlers in this community on the south side of Lake Arthur was Désire Hébert, who came to be one of the wealthiest men of the lower parish area. Around 1890, Hébert sold his 8,000 acres to Captain Lowry, for whom the place was named. Captain Lowry came from Indiana, and wanted to grow rice on a large scale on the old Hébert lands. Heavy rains washed out the first two crops, and that was that. For many years, Jules Bailey used a skiff to deliver mail between Lake Arthur and Lowry. MAMOU PRAIRIE The Mamou Prairie extends from the north and east of Jennings into Acadia and Evangeline parishes, from the confluence of Bayou Nezpiqué and Bayou des Cannes, running north to the vicinity of the town of Mamou in Evangeline Parish. One of the early settlers was an Englishman by the name of F. E. Garrold, who brought other Britons to the area, establishing a settlement once called "Little England." NIBLETTS This farming community was once a focal point on a substantial irrigation system. The old Nibletts oil field is 10 miles south of Welsh. PANCHOVILLE This tiny community north and east of Hathaway was once a crossing point on the Mermentau River. PINE ISLAND This farming community is at the intersection of Hwy. 99 and Hwy. 102 in the center part of the parish. It is built around a hill that still contains pine and oak trees. RAYMOND Raymond is at the intersection of Hwy. 395 and Hwy. 102 ten miles north of Jennings in the center part of the parish. Lumber was hauled by oxen from Elton to build the first Raymond Church. The first one room school nearby was called Fairview School. A post office was established there about 1890. ROANOKE Roanoke is on U.S. Hwy. 90 between Welsh and Jennings. Until about 1895, it was known as Esterly, for pioneer storekeeper Adam Esterly. Southern Pacific also operated a railroad branch, called Evangeline Switch, from the main line to the Esterly store, which caused confusion about the name of the place. In the middle 1890s, J. M. Booze and W. T. Hutcheson, who bought the Esterly store, petitioned the Southern Pacific and the government to have the name changed to Roanoke, honoring the Virginia city that had been their home. Many of the early settlers here were members of the so-called German Baptist Brethren Church, and were recruited to come to Louisiana because they were known as good farmers. S. A. Sutter, a native of Abilene, Kansas, and a deacon in the Brethren church, promoted the advantages of the area in the church newspaper, bringing a stream of settlers from Pennsylvania and Kansas. SHELL BEACH Louis Gaîthé, a musician in the army under Napoleon III, was one of the first settlers in this community on Lake Arthur. Gaîthé had served in the ill-fated attempt to set up Maximillian, the Austrian crony of Napoleon III, on a throne in Mexico. Gaîthé came with his bride to New Orleans in 1872 and played several seasons in the French Opera House there. While in New Orleans, the Gaîthé became friends of another French family, the Deschamps, who had fled the rising revolution against Napoleon III. Deschamps persuaded the Gaîthé to come with them to the new country where Deschamps had purchased land at Shell Beach. The Gaîthé settled there in 1873, building his home under the great oaks where the Lake Shore Club stands. Here, he entertained lavishly, and the great singer Adelina Patti often came there as a guest. SILVERWOOD Silverwood was a predominantly African-American community across the Mermentau River from the town of Mermentau. THORNWELL Thornwell is in southern Jefferson Davis Parish, on Hwy. 380. This farming community centers today around the vast Petitjean Farms, on which are grown rice and soybeans. The St. Francis of Assisi Church remains in the community, although the old Petitjean Grocery is closed. The Thornwell Warehouse and Rice Dryer, built it the 1940s, continues to operate there. VERRET Verrett is on Hwy. 101 at the Calcasieu Parish border. It is a small rice-growing community named for the Verret family. Census records indicate that the earliest-known member of the clan in Louisiana was Michel-Josef Verret of Quebec, who was living on a farm in Cannes Brûlées near present-day Kenner as early as 1724, only six years after the founding of New Orleans. He was the father of Nicholas Verret, the most prominent person in the family in colonial times. In 1749, Nicholas married Marie Cantrelle, daughter of an early resident of New Orleans. In 1769, he moved his family to St. Jame Parish, where both he and his father-in-law, Jacques Cantrelle had obtained land grants. There Nicholas was prominent in military and political affairs of the parish, becoming commandant in the late 1770s. During the 1780s and 1790s, his five sons migrated from the Mississippi River to Bayou Lafourche or to Bayou Teche to become the forebears of most of the Verrets who now live in south-central Louisiana. After the Civil War, the descendants of two of Nicholas' sons, Philippe and Louis, began to migrate from Bayou Teche. In the 1880, some of these Verret families move into Vermilion Parish, and, by 1890 others had settled as rice farmers, around Welsh and Lacassine. WOODLAWN Woodlawn is a farming community on U.S. Hwy. 165 at its intersection with La. Hwy. 101. The was a post office here as late as 1910. The Woodlawn oil and gas field nearby was once one of the most productive in the parish.