Pointe a la Hache Cemetery Moved as River Wins Fight, Plaquemines Parish Louisiana Submitted by Derik LeCesne Loggie3@aol.com ************************************************ Submitted to the LAGenWeb Archives ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** THE TIMES-PICAYUNE NEW ORLEANS STATES, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1946 Pointe a la Hache Cemetery Moved as River Wins Fight BY ELLIOTT TRIMBLE The dead of St. Thomas cemetery at Point a la Hache have lost the battle at last to their some-time enemy - the river. In life they very often successfully fought the Mississippi; in death, it has claimed the little plot of land to which they traveled to final rest. Prior to the construction of a new levee, workmen are moving the cemetery to a spot 350 feet away, where the human remains, some of them more than 100 years old, will be placed in new and modern tombs. They are also destroying St. Thomas church, the third church of the name, built in 1924 after fire had consumed the second one. It, too, will be raised again next to the cemetery, this time molded along modern lines. FIRST IN 1843 History records the presence of a "small chapel" near Point a La Hache about 1820, but it was not until 1847 that what is regarded as the first St. Thomas church was built. It was destroyed by a cyclone in 1898. The first recorded interment in the cemetery, according to church records, occurred in 1843 when Abbe Baron D'Auragne, distinguished French ecclesiastic, died in Point a la Hache of the dread yellow fever he had sought to escape by leaving New Orleans. He had come to New Orleans after 20 years of service in France, to rest and visit with missionary friends in Louisiana. Upon the outbreak of yellow fever in the summer of 1843, he requested a temporary assignment in the country, and was sent to St. Thomas church. Since his burial, approximately 1600 Catholic residents of the area have been laid to rest in the spot which they now must leave. No exact figures are available. Some of the graves, below and above ground, are not marked, and "progging" as far down as six to seven feet with a special stick has been resorted to by workmen in an effort to find all the bodies. NEARLY FINISHED The majority of them are in tombs which, in some instances, house as many as 14 bodies. Burial in the new crypts across the highway will follow the old pattern, contractors have said. Transporting of the dead and sealing of the new tombs should be completed this week. Lumber and materials from the church, which rested on one of two Indian mounds in the cemetery, have been salvaged by the pastor, the Rev. Peter Osward, SVD, who came to St. Thomas in 1941. They will be used, he said, in the construction of a mission house in Davant, seven miles from Point a la Hache. Meanwhile, the 1400-odd members of the St. Thomas congregation will have to wait for construction of the new church, which will be made of hollow tile and equipped with the latest fireproofing material. Definite construction plans have not yet been drawn. INDIVIDUALITY The pastor's rectory, occupied also by the Rev. Andrew Staricek, who joined Father Oswald in 1944, has been moved from its place behind the old church to the new location. Even though he has been at St. Thomas only a short while, Father Oswald has a deep love for the cemetery and the moss-draped oaks, willows and palms which shade the individualistic tombs of the Plaquemines parish leaders of another generation and century. The United States government, through the corps of engineers, is footing the bill for the removal of the cemetery and the loss of the old church, but Father Oswald feels that more than money is involved when he gazes upon the flat, sun-drenched land of the new plot. The work of removal is under the supervision of August Bigniolo, Port Sulphur.