Houssiere 1883 Family History, Jefferson Davis Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Kathy LaCombe-Tell Source; NOLA MAE ROSS, American Press Writer Publication Date: 07/21/1991 Page and Section: 18 IM Submitted April 2002 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************Parish History Houssiere 1883 In 1883, the Houssiere family left northeast France for America. Landing first at New York, they traveled on to Chicago and finally to Southwest Louisiana, where they'd heard there were lots of French families. They first settled around Mamou and Prairie Hayes, but then headed to Evangeline, where they built a timber house with a dirt floor. Among those first Houssieres was Eugene, the patriarch of the Jeff Davis Parish Houssieres; his two sisters, Ismarie (Mrs. Arthur Latreille) and Athenais (Mrs. Edouard Villere); plus the mother and father, Adrienne and Henry Houssiere. The Houssieres had little money, and also suffered a lot of trouble and strife in those first few years. The land they first homesteaded belonged, due to a filing technicality, to someone else, and they had to return the land to the original homesteader. But the original owner let the Houssieres live on the land, and before long offered to sell it to them. However, the Houssieres could not come up with enough money for the down payment, so a neighbor loaned them the money. Their next problem was a bad oil lease. An oil company was drilling on neighboring land, pulling the oil out from under the Houssieres. But the company paid the family $25 every three months to keep others from drilling on their property. One month, the $25 was not received on time. Eugene Houssiere rushed to a lawyer to have the lease declared void, then leased the property to a new oil company, which was ready to drill. Of course the former lessee took the Houssieres to court, and even though the court decided in their favor, it took years to get the right to drill for oil on their own land. In the meantime, Eugene Houssiere and his brother-in-law, Arthur Latreille, had been saving, investing and accumulating more property and business. They moved to Jennings so the children could be close to schools and began building farms and businesses there. Eventually, oil wells were drilled on their property at Evangeline that were some of the best. It was during this time that Charles Houssiere, a 16-year-old boy in New Orleans, went to work for a lawyer as ''a sort of janitor.'' One day, the lawyer saw a newspaper notice of the Houssiere oil litigation in Evangeline. ''Is this your family?'' he asked Charles. Charles Houssiere took the paper home and showed it to his mother. He'd lived with her ever since he was a small child, after his parents divorced. She said Eugene Houssiere was his father, and told Charles he was free to contact him if he wanted to. Charles contacted his father, and Eugene Houssiere asked him to come to Jennings to live. Eugene had by this time married Denezia Clementa niece of Jules Clement on whose land the first oil well was drilled. They had nine children, Mrs. Israel (Annette) Herbert and Mrs. John (Adrienne) Garbarino, who both live in Jennings today. The other seven children were: Mrs. Reese (Margaret) Broussard, Mrs. Garrett (Jeanne) Caraway, Mrs. Gus (Emma) Broussard, Mrs.Peter (Marie) Van Geffin, Joseph, Eugene and Jochaim Houssiere, who are deceased. When Charles Houssiere arrived in Jennings he also met his older brother, Henry, whom he hadn't seen since he was a young child. Henry had been raised by their aunt Ismarie and her husband Arthur Latreille. Latreille was a partner in nearly all of the Houssiere's holdings, and he was also the postmaster at Evangeline for several years in the late 1890s. Eugene Houssiere sent his son, Charles, off to school at the Massey Business College. But once, when Eugene was visiting his son at the school, he found Charles teaching a class. ''If you know that much,'' Eugene said, ''come back to Jennings and I'll put you to work.''He did, and soon Charles became quite involved in the management of the rapidly growing Houssiere and Latreille concerns. They soon built a large hotel on Main and Railroad Ave. which was first named The Madeline Hotel and then later the Adrennes Hotel. But most people in Jennings just called it the Houssiere Hotel. It was the popular headquarters for visiting celebrities and conventions for the next 50 years. The Houssieres operated land companies as well as the Houssiere- Latreille Oil Company and the Welsh Motor Company. Charles Houssiere and his father went back to France for a visit, and there he met Louise Gelu who became his bride. They had seven children: Louise Herrington of Jennings, Renee' Tuthill of Tulsa, Andree Macabeso of Austin and Robert Houssiere of Sequin, Texas. Charles Jr., Jules and Helen are deceased. ''Charles Houssiere,'' wrote Franklin Hildebrand in his book As I Remember, ''had the best brain for figures of any businessman I ever knew. He could add mazes of figures in his head, knew the assessed valuation of every ward and town and their millages. He had his fingers on every deal in the parish, and knew what land, crops, cattle, oil leases and timber were worth. ''He was also a great civic leader,'' Hildebrand said. ''Nothing big was ever undertaken in his community without this dynamic man of affairs being part of it. When he sat down at the council table, his agile mind could quickly point out mistakes. Usually his way was the way it was done. His vitality was amazing.'' His brother, Henry Houssiere, was the other member of the dynamic team and ran the Houssiere estates. Henry and Charles were inseparable but they had quite different personalities. Henry was the manager of the farms, cattle and crops, while Charlie's drive was for business and bargaining. Henry Houssiere is remembered as the man who built the first sweet potato dry kiln in Jeff Davis Parish. He also built one of the first cotton gins at Jennings and Pine Island. He was overseer of the drilling of at least 10 irrigation wells which helped change the Pine Island area from a cotton culture to one of rice. The cattle tick also got Henry's attention, and he worked hard to eliminate it. At the peak of his operations, Henry managed over 1,000 head of cattle as well as supervising over 7,000 acres of land, at least 3,500 in rice and 700 in corn, plus other highland crops. Married to Ernestine LeFevre, Henry Houssiere had two children, Mrs. Earl (Henrietta) Evans of Jennings and Ernest, who is deceased, but whose wife, Virginia Houssiere, lives in Jennings today. The two sons of Eugene's second marriage to Denize Clements, Eugene and Joseph, were both Jennings businessmen with Eugene Houssiere, the owner of the Houssiere Funeral Home. They both died while fairly young. The first Houssiere home in Jennings was built by Eugene in about 1906. It was a two-story frame building on the corner of Shankland and Lake Arthur Ave. As each of the children married, Eugene Houssiere gave them a piece of land and built them a house. Most of the homes on Shankland west of Lake Arthur Avenue belong to Houssiere descendants. Houssiere Park occupies property given to the city in 1937 by Mrs. Eugene Houssiere as a fitting monument for the colorful Houssiere family who spent a great part of their lives helping make Jennings a better place to live.