Poche Family, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana
Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Sandra McLellan, Mar. 2000
Special thanks to Jim Perrin for donating it to the archives.

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By JIM PERRIN
Published in the Ponchatoula Enterprise, 16 Feb 2000

Several miles east of the City of Ponchatoula is an area where the Weinberger Road, which 
runs from town to near the Tangipahoa River, meets the Estabrook Road.  The location where 
these two old roads converge and the surrounding neighborhood has been called "French 
Corner" for many years.

Although not first generation immigrants from France, many of the old families who settled 
in this area were of French heritage.  Most of these families had, in prior generations, lived 
along the "German Coast", in which is now St. James and St. John the Baptist parishes.

Among the families of French derivation who settled in the French Corner area during the 
19th Century were the Lavigne, Badeaux, Perrin, Poche, Mitchell, Hano, and Hoover families.  
With the rural isolation of 19th Century Louisiana, many of these family members 
intermarried, forming a common bond of kinship, community, and heritage.

One of the last of the above meantioned families to settle in the French Corner area was that 
of the Poche brothers, formerly from St. James Parish. After the Civil War, brothers Pierre 
Arthur Poche and Felix Numa Poche, both sons of Jacques Poche Jr. and Elise Baudry Poche, 
moved to the Ponchatoula area.

Pierre Arthur Poche

Pierre Arthur Poche was born in 1834 in St. James Parish.  He married Philomene Caroline 
Hoover in 1857 at St. Michael's Catholic Church at Convent.  Caroline was born in 1836, and 
was the daughter of August Hoover and Eulalie Lavigne.

Pierre reluctantly left Caroline and their two small children to enlist in the Confederate 
Army to defend Louisiana from invading Northern soldiers.  Pierre served in the Pelican Light 
Artillery Battery, and was discharged at the end of the war in Navarro County, Texas.

He returned to St. James Parish after the war and resumed farming.  In the early 1870s, 
Arthur, Caroline, and their growing family moved to the French Corner area east of 
Ponchatoula.

Pierre purchased 120 acres of land, including some swampland, and began to grow truck 
crops on the best of this land.  Arthur and Caroline lived out their lives as solid citizens of 
this rural farming community.  Caroline died in 1907, and Arthur in 1908.  Both were buried 
in Sandhill Cemetery.

They had a large family: (1) Philomene E. Poche (1857-1858) (2) Joseph Arthur Poche 
(1859-1910) m. Mary L. Davies (3) Mary Alice Poche (1861-1931) m. John L. Davies (4) 
Catherine Noelie Poche (1863-1933) m. Benjamin G. Davies (5) Aline Poche (1866-1913) m. 
Gustave G. Poche (listed as Octave in some records) (6) Peter R. Poche (1868-1943) m. Celie 
Shelton (7) Daniel Edward Poche (1871-1937) m. Nora Lee Wells (8) John R. Poche 
(1874-1909) m. Margaret Moulliet (9) Paul Melville Poche (1879-1955) m. Cora Perrin.

Felix Numa Poche

Younger brother of Pierre Arthur Poche, Felix Numa Poche was born in 1838 in St. John the 
Baptist Parish.  He enlisted with his brother, Arthur, in the Pelican Light Artillery Battery 
of the Confederate Army.

Numa was wounded in the left arm during the Battle of Bisland, La., in 1863.  He was later 
captured and sent to an enemy prison. After being discharged from the Yankee prison, Numa 
rejoined his unit and served the remainder of the war in Louisiana and Texas.

When he returned home, Numa married Marie Aurelia Bourgeois, daughter of Thomas and 
Celeste Bourgeois.

Numa, Aurelia, and their young family moved to Ponchatoula in the early 1870s, settling in 
the French Corner area.  Numa purchased 320 acres of land from Zelotas Tucker in 1875 and 
soon became a successful truck farmer.  Aurelia died in 1915 and Numa in 1918.  They are 
buried at Sandhill Cemetery.

Their large family included:  (1) Gustave G. Poche  (listed as Octave in some records) 
(1867-1941) m. Aline M. Poche (2) Aurelia M. Poche, b. 1868, died of typhoid fever as a 
child (3) Felix Numa Poche (1870-1956) m. Eudora Tucker (4) Raoul J. Poche, b. 1872, died of 
typhoid fever as a child (5) Louise Poche (1874-1966) m. Harry Mitchell (6) Ulysees G. Poche 
(1876-1974) m. Eudora Hoover (7) Alcee Poche (1878-1938) m. Amelia Hoover (8) Andre V. 
Poche (1880-1963) m. Claire Fannaly (9) Lee Celeste Poche (1882-1969) m. Robert L. Lavigne 
(10) Laura M. Poche (1885-1945) m. Byron Stevens (11) Emile J. Poche (1888-1976) m. Beulah 
I. Hoover.

Anyone having information, photographs, or documents on the people, places and 
events that have shaped our community are invited to communicate with the 
author, Jim Perrin, at 14187 Randall Ave., Hammond, LA 70403