Settleement of Louisiana 1715-1750 Written by: William Richard Stringfield Submitted by: Darnell Marie Brunner Beck Copyrighted material from Mr Stringfiled's book "Le Pays des Fluers Oranges" ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** 1715-1750 Mobile, New Orleans, German coast and lower Coast, as 'We' fit in. The lure of Louisiana was just a bunch of dreams that adventurers brought to the French Court before 1715. as little was done except establish a few Fort outposts. settlers, similar to the thriving farming communities of Quebec and Acadia were desired, as well as some more profitable crops as were found in the climates similar in the American east coast colonies. An early shi brought over several Swiss soliders who were former deserters. The ship UNION, had one soldier named JEAN GUILLAUME BEURET of Solieur {Southern}, Bishopric of Basle, Switzerland. He was four feet six inches tall and had auburb hair. His declared age was twenty-two. The arrival date was 28 May 1719. The majority of the settlers arriving were persons who were "criminals or undesirables" outside of the soliders, or indentured servants, who were to try to create "industries" in Louisiana. How Jean Guillaume returned to Europe in unknown, but his return to Louisiana is part of the story of the German Coast. This scheme apparently had a few persons who left Louisiana preaching its virtues up and down the duchies in the Rhine, from Switzerland to the lower Countries, in an attempt to draw many farming families. They also posted filiers as the one on the next page*. THe patron of this scheme, John Law, sought to bring some settlers to help make Louisiana a profitable venture area, bringing back enough merchadise to satisfy the needs of a colony in that climate. Mr Burat, as he is listed next, is a ship captain of the GARONNE, with a large group of German speaking settlers on board, hoping for a war-free area to call home, with fertile soil and a pleasent climate, as our young man probably told them, from hiss own experience! The families did indeed help creaate a strong settlement in the colony, their neighborhood becoming known obviosly enough, as the German Coast. Instead of exports, they helped France by reducing food impports to the colony, as they were among the early truck farmers of Louisiana. Mrs Janice Deitch Young, in her famiy history, THE BRIGNAC FAMILY {Metairie 1978}, gave a well versed tale of the feelings of the Rhineland in the period with a gloss of the previous two hundred years. Years of wars were spaced about a generation apart, but lasted up to one whole generation, as in 1618-1648. Later periods of warfare were in 1688-1697, and again 1712-1715. These people, even the "Neutral" Swiss were affected somewhat by the constant fighting of the neighboring cities and countryside {Basle, Switzerland was bounded on its North on one side by Alsace France and on the other side of the river was the German duchy of Baden). The German Coast, which survived an Indain uprising in 1727/28, was the eventual breadbasket of the Colony and the source of many of the families of other areas founded more recently. A book published in 1909, by J. Hanno DEILER gives as a very good picture of the settlement of the Coast and he also tells the tale of how they arrived on the "PEST ships." DEILER told of four ships which left L"Orient France bound for Louisiana with 875 Germans and 66 Swiss. There were LES DEUX FRERES, LA GARONNE, LA SAONNE, and LA CHARANTE. Another ship he grouped with these four was LA MUTINE which arrived on the 3rd of February 1721, while the other four landed on 24 January 1721. Aboard these ships were several families of importance for the creation of these lineages, far more than any other group of ships that came to Louisiana at this time. LA GARONNE was captainned by Mr BURAT, whom many interpret to be Jean Guillaume BURAT, the progenitor of the largest segment of our families. Among the settling families onboard, we find Jacob SCHAFF {Jacques CHAFF} family, eight of the passengers. Aboard LA CHARANTE, the widow of Jean Adam HEIDEL, with her sons. An earlier ship had brought over the Matthieu ROUGE family, LA MARIE, in 1718. A Mathurin ROGER was listed as arriving on an earlier boat. This Mathurin was a convicted salt tax breaker. At that time, it was illegal to buy salt from anyone but the goverment in France, and this guy was part of that early black market. Any connection between the two is unknown. Exactly which ship brought over the other persons, is still to be sorted out. THe first generation of Lousianians was thus the children of these immigrants, born slightly before, and after their arrival in what they soon called home. Another family whose arrival was not easily ciphered from the ship rolls was the CONRAD FREIDRICH {FREDERIC} family. In LES VOYAGEURS {December 1986} some of the story of this family in Germany was told. Their family home had been burned in a war between France and Germany in 1688. and they feared war again, even though there was a peace declared in 1715. Their rebuilt home was know to still be standing in 1986, many wars later*. Its adjacent barn was not destroyed in 1688, and like wise was still in usable shape in 1986. The steep roof keeps snow buildup down. They lived in the German Coast at the same time as the CHAUFFE and HEIDEL families. About the time when SEBATIAN FREDERIC and REGINA REINE HEIDEL leave the German Coast for Plaquemines is the second generation of Louisianas beginning {c. 1750}. The following three pages* are taken from LES VOYAGEURS from December 1986 submitted by Mrs. Marjorie VICKNAIR and researched by Mr. Klaus Peter BLUM of Rothemberg, Germany. * Please refer back to Mr Stringfield's book.