Census gives insight on early settlement
Document reveals more than just population numbers
Submitted by N.O.V.A. January 2007
Times Picayune January 25, 2007


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This story is part of an occasional series celebrating the bicentennial of
the River Parishes.

Four villages highlighted the "German Villages" census of 1724, for the
region that is now known as St. Charles and St. John the Baptist parishes.

Listed were First Old Village, Second Old Village, Hoffen and Along River.
The census is broken down into five population categories, including
Karlstein, inhabited only by their commander, Karl Friedrich D'Arensbourg.
There were 51 men, 58 women and 52 children in the villages.

The census reveals more than population. Paul Perry, the census taker, gave
the occupations, amount of success in clearing land and harvesting crops,
and his personal observances of the character of his subjects. He offers
readers a glimpse of what life was like for the German Coast settlers.

Quite a few residences included orphans. "Many people died at the port in
France, a lot on the ships coming over and some after they arrived in
Biloxi (Miss.), so there were a lot of orphans," historian Fay Louque of
Destrehan said. "The more kids you have on a farm, the more hands to do the
work, so there was always somebody to take them in."

Occupations of the colonists were as varied as those found in their
hometowns. Carpenter, mason, weaver, miller, butcher, shoemaker,
blacksmith, tailor, cooper, and locksmith are listed. There are a few
hunters included, a couple of village provosts, and one former coachman to
a king. The most represented occupation in the census is laborer.

Perry described the village along the river. "This village has the
appearance of a French village. The huts are along a street. The yards and
gardens are behind, and then, their terrains. When we are in this area, we
forget that we are in Louisiana because it seems that we are in a French
village."

Louque said that the German and French national borders often changed from
one to the other, so the French influence on buildings in the villages of
the German Coast probably reflected this dual national background as well.

"Louisiana: A Narrative History," by Edwin Adams Davis, offers excellent
descriptions of houses, clothing, food and tools used by the early German
Coast colonists.

Davis wrote that houses consisted of one or two rooms that were built by
standing logs on end and filling the gaps between with bousillage, a
mixture of grass or moss, and earth or clay. They had steep roofs of straw,
grass or wooden shingles and most had wooden shutters instead of windows.
Water came from cisterns or the river.

Despite John Law's bankruptcy, the Company of the Indies reorganized and
continued to help their settlers on the German Coast until giving up their
charter in 1731. They provided seeds for local crops like rice, beans, corn
and pumpkin and some cows and pigs, but the company did not provide horses
to help the farmers clear or plow the land.

For income, small farmers concentrated on growing corn and rice, which were
well-suited to the climate. They had henhouses and pigpens, and tools for
farming like axes, hoes and spades.

Clothing was very simple, with men wearing loose-fitting shirts and
knee-length pants of coarse cloth or deerskin. Women wore ankle-length
skirts and short-sleeved blouses of coarse cloth. In the summer they went
barefoot. In winter they added shoes and stockings and a heavy cape to
their attire.

Perry, in the 1724 census, appealed to the company for slaves to help the
settlers with labor-intensive farm work so they could increase crop yields
and provide food for the New Orleans market.

By the census of 1731, there were 15 land grants on the east bank of the
Mississippi River, and all but one had slaves. The settlements on the east
and west banks were now called Cote des Allemands, or German Coast, and
boasted a population of 394, including 113 Negro slaves. German Coast
farmers were soon the major suppliers of food to New Orleans.

When bad weather on the coast in 1750 resulted in a sharp decline in the
food supply, France requested that more German laborers, more slaves for
field work and more soldiers for protection be brought in.