The Badeaux Family, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Sandra McLellan, Mar. 2007 Special thanks to Jim Perrin for donating it to the archives. ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ THE BADEAUX FAMILY OF RURAL PONCHATOULA BY JIM PERRIN, Local Historian The Badeaux family has been in southern Louisiana for over 250 years, settling first along the Mississippi River mainly in present day St. John the Baptist P arish. The family of John Badeaux moved from what was called "The German Coast," to St. Tammany Parish by Nov. 1806, when he claimed 538 acres of land on Bedico Creek. John and his wife Maria Juana Chast had a son named Augustus Badeaux (b. 1793), who grew to manhood in the Bedico area, served in the War of 1812, and married Carmelite Lavigne. Maria Badeaux died, probably in the early 1830's and John Badeaux married secondly in April 1833 in St. Tammany Parish to Jincy Arbelle Conway, the widow of John Sticker. John and Jincy Badeaux had children including a daughter Derota (Dorothy) Badeaux, who married Charles Ouilliber, leaving many descendents in the Madisonville area. Another daughter, Margaret Frances Badeaux married Thomas A. Morse, and became the ancestor many families living in the Bedico area today. John Badeaux died in Dec. 1844, and Jincy died after 1860. Augustus Badeaux, the eldest child of John and Maria Badeaux was born in 1793 and married 19 Nov. 1819 in St. Tammany Parish to Maria Carmelite Lavigne, the daughter of Antoine Lavigne and Maria Rousseau Lavigne. Augustus and Carmelite Badeaux had several children including their eldest daughter Mary Zoe Badeaux (1819-1899), who married in 1835 to Swiss immigrant Frederick Auguste Perrinjaquet {later simplified to Perrin}, and also had several children. A younger child of Augustus Badeaux and Carmelite Lavigne Badeaux was John Etienne "Jack" Badeaux, who was born 16 Dec. 1824 in St. Tammany Parish. John Badeaux grew to manhood in the Bedico area. He married 23 June 1857 to Caroline Mitchell, one of the daughters of schooner operator, Captain George Mitchell. Caroline was born in Nov. 1826 in Louisiana and was raised east of what would later be called Ponchatoula. A few years before Caroline Mitchell married John Badeaux, she and Charles Wagner were the parents of daughters Frances (b. 1853) and Emily (b. 1855). Caroline then married John Badeaux and they were the parents of a son George Thomas Badeaux, who was born 17 Feb. 1861 at Ponchatoula. John and Caroline Badeaux farmed east of Ponchatoula on what is now called the Weinberger Road and raised their three children. John enlisted in April 1862 in a local company of the 9th Louisiana Infantry during the War Between the States but seems to have only served for a brief time. As the years moved along the three children in the Badeaux home grew to be adults. Frances, the natural child of Caroline Mitchell and Charles Wagner, who was often called Frances Badeaux, married about 1869 to Jules Perrin, a son of Frederick A. Perrin and Mary Zoe Badeaux of Madisonville. Jules and Frances Perrin had fifteen children and left many descendents in this area. Emily, the natural daughter of Caroline Mitchell and Charles Wagner, who was often called Emily Badeaux, married Val Hoover. They were married 6 Feb. 1879 in John and Caroline Badeaux's home east of Ponchatoula. Emily and Val Hoover had eight children and also left many descendents in the area. George Thomas Badeaux, the son of John and Caroline Mitchell Badeaux who was born in 1861, grew up on the family farm east of Ponchatoula. As a young man he moved into Ponchatoula and clerked at the Jake Abels general store in Ponchatoula and also at the local post office, learning much about the business world. For several years George worked in New Orleans as an agent for the Central of Georgia and the Mexican National railroads. He later moved to Mobile, AL, and worked as clerk for a time and there met and married Edith Josephine Locke, the daughter of his employer. About 1901, the George Badeaux family moved to Hammond, where George purchased 65 acres and built an attractive 14 room, two-story home on a place he called the "Mulberry Villa Farm." About 1914, George sold this farm and moved back to Ponchatoula and the family lived here for a number of years. While living in this area in the early 1900's George Badeaux became increasingly interested in the cultivation and propagation of pecan trees. By 1906, he had planted 1,050 pecan trees over a tract of forty-some acres, and had another 500 trees growing in his nursery. "Badeaux's Pecan Orchard" became a local landmark for years afterwards, and many of the beautiful pecan trees on the south side of Weinberger Road today began from this orchard almost a century ago. George, Edith, and most of their family left Ponchatoula and moved to Laurel, MS, about 1926, where George worked as a salesman. Edith Locke Badeaux died in Jan. 1938 in Laurel, and was buried in Ponchatoula Cemetery. George died in Feb. 1938 in Laurel and was buried beside Edith in Ponchatoula. They had a large family: George T. Badeaux, Jr.; Edith Ruth Badeaux; Edward Raoul Badeaux; Joseph Adam Badeaux, John Lacy Badeaux; Simeon Locke Badeaux; David Kent Badeaux; and Mary Alice Badeaux. Of the Badeaux children, George Thomas Badeaux, Jr., born Nov. 1892 in New Orleans, lived his life mostly in the Ponchatoula-Hammond area. He was working as a stenographer in Ponchatoula in June 1917 when he registered for the draft during World War I. He died shortly thereafter from burns received when his home burned, and was buried in Ponchatoula Cemetery. Edna Ruth Badeaux, born Feb. 1897 in New Orleans, taught public school in Ponchatoula in the early 1920's. She contracted tuberculosis and was confined to a tuberculosis sanitarium. Edna never recovered from this then common and deadly disease and died in 1938. She was buried in Ponchatoula Cemetery. Some of the other Badeaux children stayed in Laurel, MS, where their parents had lived, and others moved to Texas and California. Their Badeaux grandparents, John and Caroline Mitchell Badeaux, remained at home in Ponchatoula. After 1879 with their children out of the household, they continued to farm on their place south of what was then called "the lower road," now named the Weinberger Road. In May 1905, John and Caroline Badeaux sold their home and last piece of land to their son George with the agreement that they could live there the rest of their lives. Caroline may have been in poor health when she sold the family property to her son as she died five months later. Caroline Mitchell Badeaux died 12 Oct. 1905 at her home east of Ponchatoula and was buried in the nearby Mitchell Cemetery that her mother had previously donated. John Badeaux, now in his eighty's, decided not to live alone but to reside with the Morris Perrin family on the nearby Raiford's Landing Road {now called the Estabrook Road}. Morris Perrin {born 1870}, was the eldest son of Jules Perrin and Frances Wagner/Badeaux Perrin and was thus the husband of John's oldest step-daughter. Morris Perrin was also a member of John's family since Morris' grandmother was John's older sister Mary Zoe Badeaux Perrin, who had married Frederick A. Perrin. John Badeaux lived with the Perrin family for several years and was listed in their household on the 1910 census. John Badeaux probably died in the 1910-1914 period. He was buried beside Caroline in the Mitchell Cemetery. The John and Caroline Mitchell Badeaux family were pioneers settlers of what later would be called rural eastside Ponchatoula. Hundreds of their descendents and relatives live in the Ponchatoula area, and although none of them bear the Badeaux name they are indebted to this couple for being there and for choosing Ponchatoula as their home. Anyone with questions, comments, or suggestions for future articles, may contact Jim Perrin at 386-4476.