USA > Louisiana > The settlement of the German coast of Louisiana and the Creoles of German descent > Part 3
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But punishment which was meted out so severely to the small pilferer did not reach the guilty ones in high positions. Though the Germans on the other side of the bay died by the hundreds from starvation, Hubert, the commissioner general,
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The Settlement of the German Coast of Louisiana
who, as an investigation proved, had not kept any books during the whole tenure of his office, did not even know that there was a shipload of provisions in the hull of a vessel stranded near Ocean Springs and left there for eleven months. Yet Hubert was not punished.
Even this description, perhaps, does not give the whole truth, as contemporary writers did not dare to say what they knew. Dupratz says (I. 166) :
"So delicate a matter is it to give utterance to the truth that the pen often falls from the hands of those who are most disposed to be accurate."
GERMANS IN PASCAGOULA.
In January, 1721, 300 engagés came to the concession of Madame Chaumont in Pascagoula. There were no Germans among them, as the census of 1725 shows, but Pensacola must be mentioned here, as there was a German colony at that place very early, arising, perhaps, on the ruins of this concession or of some other enterprise. The date of the founding of that German settlement is not known; but, in 1772, the English captain Ross found there, on the farm of "Krebs," cotton grow- ing and a roller cotton gin, the invention of Krebs, and, perhaps, the first successful cotton gin in America.8
In the same year (1772) we hear of a great storm which raged most furiously "on the farm of Krebs and among the Germans of Pascagoula."
His last will and testament, written in New Orleans in the Spanish language in 1776, gives his full name as "Hugo Ernestus Krebs." He was from Neumagen on the Moselle, Germany, and left fourteen grown children, whose descendants still own the old Krebs farm, which the author visited in August, 1906. It is situated on a slight elevation on the border of "Krebs' Lake," near the mouth of the Pascagoula River, and a mile and a half north of the railroad station of Scranton (now incorporated with East Pascagoula), Mississippi.
" Cotton was planted in Louisiana much earlier. Charlevoix saw some in a garden in Natchez in 1721; and Dupratz constructed a machine for extracting the seed; but his machine was a failure.
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The Creoles there call the Krebs home "the old fort," and the three front rooms forming the center of the house, the rest consisting of more recent additions, were evidently built with a view of affording protection against the Indians. The walls of this part of the house are eighteen inches thick, the masonry consists of a very hard concrete of lime, unbroken large oyster shells, and clay. The post and sills are of heavy cypress, which, after serving at least 175 years, do not show any signs of decay. The floor is made of concrete similar to that of the walls, but a wooden floor has been laid upon it, taking away about eighteen inches from the original height of the rooms. All the wood work was hewn with the broad axe.
In front of the house lies an old mill stone which once upon a time served to crush the corn.
Near the house is the "Krebs Cemetery," with the tombs of the members of the Krebs family, of whom a great number are buried there. The accompanying pictures were taken on the spot.
According to the family traditions the old fort was built by "Commodore de la Pointe," who is said to have been a brother of Madame Chaumont. Hamilton, in his "Colonial Mobile," page 140, says that Joseph Simon de la Pointe received, on the 12th of November, 1715, from Governor Cadillac, a land con- cession on Dauphine Island for the purpose of enabling him to raise cattle. As Dauphine Island was practically abandoned, after the great storm of 1717, de la Pointe probably also gave up his concession, and a map, drawn about 1732 ("Colonial Mobile," page 86) shows "Habitation du Sieur Lapointe" 9) on the very spot where the Krebs homestead now stands, near the mouth of the Pascagoula River.
La Pointe's daughter, Marie Simon de la Pointe, became the first wife of Hugo Ernestus Krebs. Thus the old fort came into possession of the Krebs family, where it still remains, the present owner and occupant being Mrs. J. T. Johnson, née Cécile Krebs, an amiable and highly intelligent lady to whom
'Every concessioner was given the title of "Sieur".
THE KREBS HOMESTEAD (TIIE OLD FORT).
KREBS CEMETERY.
KREBS CEMETERY.
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the author's thanks are due. She is the great grand-daughter of Joseph Simon Krebs, the eldest son of Hugo Ernestus Krebs and Marie Simon de la Pointe.
Francesco Krebs, the second son of Hugo Ernestus Krebs and Marie Simon de la Pointe, received Round Island in the Bay of Pascagoula, containing about 110 acres of land, as a grant from the Spanish government, on the 13th of December, 1783, after having occupied it for many years. The family of his wife had received permission to settle there from the French governor Bienville, who left Louisiana in May, 1743.
PEST SHIPS.
On the 3d of February, 1721, the ship "La Mutine" ar- rived at Ship Island with 147 Swiss "Ouvriers" of the Compagnie des Indes, under the command of Sieur de Merveilleux and his brother. French speaks of 347 Swiss.
Shortly before, on the 24th of January, 1721, four ships had sailed from the French port of L'Orient for Louisiana with 875 Germans and 66 Swiss emigrants. The names of these ships were "Les Deux Frères," "La Garonne," "La Saonne," and "La Charante." Of these four ships the official passenger lists, signed by the authorities of L'Orient, have been preserved, and a copy of the same came into the possession of the "Louisiana Historical Society" in December, 1904. From these it appears that these emigrants, who had, perhaps, traveled in troops from their homes in Germany and Switzerland to the port of embarka- tion, were divided on board according to the parishes whence they had come. Each parish had a "prévôt" or "maire," whilst the leader of the Swiss bears the title of "brigadier." We find the parishes of
Hoffen (there is one Hofen in Alsace, one in Hesse-Nassau, three in Wurtemberg, also five "Hoefen" in Germany) ; Freiburg (Baden) ;
Augsburg (Bavaria) ;
Friedrichsort (near Kiel, Holstein) ;
Freudenfeld (some small place in Germany not contained even in Neumann's "Orts-und Verkehrs-Lexicon," which gives the names of all places of 300 inhabitants and upwards) ;
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The Settlement of the German Coast of Louisiana
Neukirchen (many places of that name in Germany, but this
seems to have been Neukirchen, electorate of Mayence) ; Sinzheim (one Sinzheim and one Sinsheim, both in Baden) ; Freudenburg (Treves [Trier], Rhenish Prussia) ;
Brettheim (Wurtemberg) ;
Wertheim (on the Tauber, Germany) ;
Sinken (one Singen near Durlach, another near Constance, both in Baden, Germany) ;
Ingelheim (near Mayence, Prussia) ;
Hochburg (Baden).
It would seem strange that, in spite of the great number of people whom these four vessels had on board for Louisiana, not one of our Louisiana historians should mention by name the arrival in the colony of more than one of these ships. There is a horrible cause for this : but few of these 941 emigrants survived the horrors of the sea voyage and landed on the coast of Louis- iana!
The one ship mentioned as having arrived is "Les Deux Frères," which La Harpe reports as having reached Louisiana on the Ist of March, 1721, with only 40 Germans for John Law out of 200 who had gone on board in France. The official passenger list before me mentions 147 Germans and 66 Swiss, or 213 persons on board. Therefore 173 lives out of 213 were lost on this ship alone on the sea!
And the other three vessels? Martin says that in March, 1721, only 200 Germans arrived in Louisiana out of 1200 em- barked in France. Martin, no doubt, refers to the 875 Germans and 66 Swiss on board the four ships just mentioned, with, per- haps, one or two additional ships.
"La Garonne" was the ship with the 300 "very sick" Ger- mans which was taken by the pirates near San Domingo.
What suffering must have been endured on board these pest ships, what despair! Fearful sickness must have raged with indescribable fury.
The history of European emigration to America does not record another death rate approaching this. The one coming nearest to it is that of the "Emanuel," "Juffer Johanna," and "Johanna Maria," three Dutch vessels which sailed from Helder,
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The Settlement of the German Coast of Louisiana
the deep water harbor of Amsterdam, in 1817, with 1150 Ger- mans destined for New Orleans. They arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi, after a voyage of five months, with only 597 passengers living, the other 503 having died on the sea from starvation and sickness, many also in their fever and utter despair having jumped overboard.10
There is a document attached to the passenger lists of the four pest ships from L'Orient, giving the names of sixteen Ger- mans who were put ashore by the ship "La Garonne" in the port of Brest, France, a few days after her departure from L'Orient, and left at Brest at the expense of the company "chez le Sieur Morel as sick until their recovery or death." All sixteen died between the 10th and the 27th of February, 1721, proving the deadly character of their malady. This disease having broken out immediately after the departure of "La Garonne" from L'Orient, and evidently on all four vessels, we may assume that the passengers were already infected while still in port, and it must have broken out a second time on board "La Garonne" after her departure from Brest. The heartless treatment given the emigrants of that time, the lack of wholesome food, drinking water, medicines and disinfectants accounts for the rest.
Among the sixteen victims "chez le Sieur Morel" in Brest are found members of two families well known and very numer- ous in Louisiana at present :
Jacob Scheckschneider (Cheznaidre) whose parents, Hans Rein- hard and Cath. Scheckschneider, were on board La Garonne with two children ; 11
Hans Peter Schaf, whose parents, Hans Peter and Marie Lis- beth Schaf, were on board the same vessel with two chil- dren. The whole family seems to have perished, but there was a second family of that same name on board which will be mentioned presently.
Of other passengers of La Garonne on this terrible voyage should be mentioned :
10 See the author's Das Redemptions system im Staate Louisiana, p. 14.
11 The surviving child, Albert Scheckschneider, became the progenitor of the Scheckschneider family in Louisiana.
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Ernst Katzenberger and wife, founders of the Casbergue fam- ily
Adam Trischl, wife and three children, founders of the Triche family ;
Andreas Traeger, wife and child, founders of the Tregre fam- ily ;
Jean Martin Traeger and wife, who seem to have perished ; Joseph Keller, wife and two children, founders of the Keller family ;
Jacob Schaf, his wife and six children (probably related to the Schaf family mentioned above), the founders of the Chauffe family.
On the passenger list of the other three pest ships are found :
Heidel (Haydel) Ship La Charante. Widow Jean Adam Heidel and two children. They were two sons, the elder of whom, "Ambros Heidel," married a daughter of Jacob Schaf (Chauffe) and became the progenitor of all the "Haydel" families in Louisiana. His younger brother is not mentioned after 1727.
Zweig (Labranche) Ship Les Deux Frères. Two families : I) Jean Adam Zweig, wife and daughter;
2) Jean Zweig, wife and two children, a son and a daugh- ter. The daughter married Jos. Verret, to whom she bore seven sons, and later she married Alexandre Baure. The son married Suzanna Marchand and became the progeni- tor of all the Labranche families. "Labranche" is a trans- lation of the German "Zweig" and appears in the marriage record of the son of Jean Zweig.
Rommel (Rome) Ship Les Deux Frères. Jean Rommel, wife and two children.
Hofmann (Ocman) Ship Les Deux Fréres. Jean Hofmann, wife and child. Ship La Saone. Michael Hofmann, wife and two children from Augsburg, Bavaria.
Schantz (Chance) Ship Les Deux Frères. Andreas Schantz and wife.
These vessels having arrived in Biloxi during March, 1721, the 200 survivors of the 1200 Germans no doubt were in Biloxi in the following month, when the greatest of all epidemics raged there, and, after their escape from the dangers of the sea voyage, they again furnished material for disease. Jean Adam Zweig is especially mentioned in the census of 1724 as having died in Biloxi.
Towards the end of May, 1721, the "St. André," which
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sailed April 13th, 1721, from L'Orient with 161 Germans, ar- rived in Louisiana. Among them are named Jean George Huber (Oubre, Ouvre), wife and child. A few days later, the "La Durance," which sailed April 23d, from L'Orient with 109 Germans, reached Louisiana. On the passenger list of this ship appears "Caspar Dubs, wife and two children." Caspar Dubs was the progenitor of all the "Toups" families in Louisiana. He was from the neighborhood of Zürich, Switzerland, where the "Dubs" family still has many branches in the Affoltern district.
Finally there came, according to la Harpe, on the 4th of June, 1721, the "Portefaix" from France with 330 immigrants, mostly Germans, and originally intended for John Law's con- cessions. They were under the command of Karl Friedrich D'Arensbourg, a former Swedish officer, then in the service of the Compagnie des Indes. La Harpe says that thirty more Swed- ish officers came with him.
CHARLOTTE VON BRAUNSCHWEIG-WOLFENBUETTEL.
A very romantic legend has come down to us from that time. It is said that with the German immigrants of the four pest ships who arrived in Louisiana in March, 1721, there came also Charlotte Christine Sophie, a German princess of the house of Braunschweig-Wolfenbuettel, who had been the wife of the Czarevitch Alexis, the oldest son of Czar Peter the Great of Russia. She is said to have suffered so much from the brutality and infidelity of her husband that, in 1715, four years after her marriage, she simulated death, and while an official burial was arranged for her, she escaped from Russia, and later came to Louisiana, where she married the Chevalier d'Aubant, a French officer, whom she had met in Europe.
Gayarré (Vol. I, page 263) made a very pretty story of this legend, and added a touching introductory chapter. According to him the Chevalier d'Aubaut, a young Frenchman, was attached to the court of Braunschweig as an officer in the duke's house- hold.
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"He had gazed so on the star of beauty, Charlotte, the paragon of virtue and of talent in her ambrosial purity of heaven, that he had become mad-mad with love!
Now the princess is on her way to St. Petersburg and her bridegroom is with her, and fast travelers are these horses of the Ukraine, the wild Mazeppa horses that are speeding away with her.
In her escort is a young Cossack officer riding closely to the carriage door, with watchful care and whenever the horses of the vehicle which carried Alexis and his bride threatened to become unruly, his hand was always first to interfere and to check them; and all other services which chance threw in his way, he would render with meek and unobtrusive eagerness; but silent he was as the tomb.
Once on such an occasion, no doubt as an honorable reward for his submissive behavior and faithful attendance, the princess beckoned to him to lend her the help of his arm to come down the steps of her carriage. Slight was the touch of the tiny hand; light was the weight of that sylphlike form: and yet the rough Cossack trembled like an aspen leaf, and staggered under the convulsive effort which shook his bold frame."
It was d'Aubant, of course, the Chevalier of the Braun- schweig court, her lover in disguise.
"On the day of their arrival in St. Petersburg he received a sealed letter with two papers. One was a letter; it read thus: 'D'Aubant.
'Your disguise was not one for me. It could not deceive my heart. Now that I am the wife of another, know for the first time my long kept secret-I love you. Such a confession is a declara- tion that we must never meet again. The mercy of God be on us both.'
The other paper was a passport signed by the Emperor him- self, and giving to the Chevalier d'Aubant permission to leave the empire at his convenience.
In 1718 he arrived in Louisiana with the grade of captain in the colonial troops. Shortly after he was stationed at New Orleans, where he shunned the contact of his brother officers and lived in the utmost solitude.
On the bank of the Bayou St. John, on the land known in our day as the Allard plantation, there was a small village of friendly Indians, and beginning where the bridge now spans the bayou, a winding path connected it with New Orleans. There the chevalier lived, and his dwelling contained a full length portrait of a female surpassingly beautiful, in the contemplation of which he would frequently remain absorbed, as in a trance, and on a table lay a crown, resting not on a cushion, as usual, but on a heart, which it crushed with its weight, and at which the lady from out of the
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picture gazed with intense melancholy. Every one felt that it was sacred ground out there on the Bayou St. John.
It was on a vernal evening, in March, 1721, the last rays of the sun were lingering in the west, and d'Aubant was sitting in front of the portrait, his eyes rooted to the ground-when sud- denly he looked up-gracious heaven! it was no longer an inani- mate representation of fictitious life which he saw-it was flesh and blood-the dead was alive again and confronting him with a smile so sweet and sad-with eyes moist with rapturous tears-and with such an expression of concentrated love as can only be borrowed from the abode of bliss above.
Next day they were married, and in commemoration of this event they planted those two oaks, which, looking like twins, and interlocking their leafy arms, are, to this day, to be seen standing side by side on the bank of the Bayou St. John, and bathing their feet in the stream, a little to the right of the bridge as you pass in front of Allard's plantation."
Such is Gayarre's account. It is a pity to destroy such a pretty legend, but the historian is not the man of sentiment- hie seeks truth.
Let us examine this story critically, first acquainting our- selves with conditions in Russia, whence it emanated.
Alexis, the husband of the German princess, was at the head of the old Russian party which violently opposed the re- forms introduced by the Czar Peter the Great, the father of Alexis. A conspiracy was formed by this party to frustrate the reforms, and the Czar, fearing for the success of his plans, forced Alexis, the heir apparent, to resign his claims to the Rus- sian succession and to promise to become a monk. When Peter the Great was on his second tour through Western Europe, how- ever, Alexis, with the aid of his party, escaped and fled to Aus- tria. Very unwisely he allowed himself to be persuaded by Privy Counsellor Tolstoi to return from Vienna to Russia, whereupon those who had aided him suffered severe punishment, and Alexis himself was condemned to death. It is true, the sentence was commuted by the Czar, but Alexis died, in 1718, from mental anguish, it was said, but according to others he was beheaded in the prison. To meet the accusations of unjust treatment of his son, the Czar published the records of the court proceedings, proving the conspiracy.
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There can be no doubt that the enemies of the Czar, espe- cially the very strong and influential old Russian party, did everything in their power to make the treatment Alexis had re- ceived at the hands of his father appear as one of the blackest crimes, and that the Czar's party retaliated by blackening the character of the Czarevitch as much as lay in their power.
At that time, and for the purpose of defaming the character of the dead prince, the story that the German princess, his wife, had simulated death to escape from the martyrdom of a sup- posedly wretched married life, must have been invented by the partisans of the Czar. Why should she have gone to Louisiana, and nowhere else? Because everybody went to Louisiana at that time. It was the year 1718. That was the very time when John Law and the Western Company were spreading their Louis- iana pamphlets broadcast over Europe; it was the time when thousands of the countrymen of the dead princess were preparing themselves to emigrate to the paradise on the Mississippi; it was the time when the name of Louisiana was in the mouth of every one. Moreover, Louisiana was at a safe distance-far enough away to discourage any attempt to disprove the story.
The tale, too, was repeated with such persistency that many European authors printed it, that thousands believed it, and that even official inquiries seem to have been instituted.
As to the princess' alleged Louisiana husband, the Cheva- lier d'Aubant, who was said to have married her in New Orleans in March, 1721, the present writer desires to say that he has carefully and repeatedly examined the marriage records of New Orleans, Mobile and Biloxi from 1720 to 1730 without meeting with such a name, or any name similar to it. Moreover, Mr. Hamilton, of Mobile, the author of "Colonial Mobile," 12 who examined the Mobile records completely and with infinite care, found only a French officer "d'Aubert" (not d'Aubant), who, in 1759, thirty-eight years later, commanded at Fort Toulouse; but this d'Aubert was married to one Louise Marg. Bernoudy, a daughter of a numerous and well-authenticated French pioneer family of Mobile.
12 See pages 89 and 164 of that work.
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The story of the romantic Louisiana marriage is therefore without foundation, and so the legend is a myth, although Allard's plantation, near New Orleans, is pointed out to us as the dwelling place of the lovers, and the two "leaflocked oak trees right by the bridge still bear witness to their happiness."
Pickett, in his "History of Alabama," claims the couple as residents of Mobile. Zschokke, the German novelist, makes them residents of "Christinental on the Red River," and others place them in the Illinois district; i. e., the country north of the Yazoo River.
1192577
Martin says the King of Prussia called Charlotte's alleged lover "Maldeck." How the King of Prussia was hauled into the story can easily be explained. Louisiana was a French prov- ince, and (as will be shown in the chapter "Koly") the Prussian ambassador at the court of France was either for his own ac- count, or as a representative of his king, financially interested in the St. Catherine enterprise in Louisiana; and he was therefore believed to be in a better position and nearer to the channels of information to make inquiries about affairs and people in Louis- iana than any other German official in Paris. If, therefore, the family of Braunschweig-Wolfenbuettel desired to investigate the rumors current at that time, they had no better means of doing so than to request the King of Prussia to instruct his ambassador in Paris to make researches. The Prussian ambassador possibly reported that there was a man in Louisiana, by the name of "Maldeck" who claimed his wife to be the princess.
As to the name of "Maldeck," the writer will say that he found that name, or, rather, a name so similar to it that it may have stood for the same. In the passenger lists received by the "Louisiana Historical Society" from Paris in 1904 (see page 106), a laborer named "Guillaume Madeck" is mentioned, a passenger on the ship "Le Profond," who, from the 8th of May, 1720, to the 9th of June, 1720, the day of the departure of the vessel for Louisiana, had received thirty-three rations. A man of such humble station, however, would certainly not have suited a princess for a husband, and so, if the story was ever circulated in Louisiana, either Wilhelm Maldeck, or his Louisiana wife, claiming to be a princess, must have imposed upon the people.
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JOHN LAW, A BANKRUPT AND A FUGITIVE.13
With the ship "Portefaix," so La Harpe informs us, the news of the failure of John Law and his flight from Paris reached the colony of Louisiana.14 The news of Law's flight seems to have paralyzed the Compagnie des Indes, for it took them many months to decide what should be done with Law's con- cessions on the Arkansas River and below English Turn. The German engagés on the Arkansas River, who probably arrived there about the end of 1720, or in the spring of 1721, had not yet been able to make a crop, as the preparatory work of clearing the ground and providing shelter for themselves had occupied most of their time, and much sickness also prevailing among them, they were unable to begin farming operations on a larger scale before August, 1721.
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