USA > Louisiana > The settlement of the German coast of Louisiana and the Creoles of German descent > Part 6
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In the war following the Natchez massacre, the people of the German Coast seem to have taken a very active and a very creditable part. Charlevoix (IV., 269) says :
"The habitants commanded by Messrs. D'Arensbourg and de Laye (the director of the Meure concession, the river front of which was occupied by Germans) did also very well. They were also in- clined to do with good will all the work that they were ordered to do."
Even as late as 1747 and 1748 Indian raids and depreda- tions are reported. Most of these attacks were made upon the villages on the left bank, by Indians who were incited, armed, and often led by English traders. It was for this reason that the small military post on the German Coast, a wooden enclosure with one gun "en barbette," was built on the left side of the river.
In consequence of such instigation by the English, on the 8th of April, 1747, a band of Chacta Indians under their chief Bonfouca made a raid on the left bank of the Mississippi. On this occasion one German was killed, his wife wounded, and their daughter, together with three negroes and two negritoes, carried off as prisoners. The German girl was sold by the Indians to English traders, who took her to Carolina, "where the English governor was very active in stirring up other Indian nations to invade the Colony of Louisiana."
Then many Germans, fearing that the whole Chacta nation was on the war path, fled to New Orleans, and in order to in- duce them to return to their homes, soldiers had to be sent with them for their protection. When these, later, were withdrawn, the Germans crossed over to the right bank of the Mississippi where their principal establishments were, and "abandoned their houses and their well cultivated fields to the enemy and to the discretion of their animals." Thus governor Vaudreuil wrote on November 9th, 1748.
Another raid took place on November 9th, 1748. Indians appeared on the left bank "aux Allemands," on the habitation of one "Chuave" (Schwab) who had recently died. They found two Frenchmen there, Boucherau and Rousseau, and two ne-
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groes. All these were killed with the exception of a negro, who, having received only flesh wounds, jumped into the Mississippi to swim to the other side, assistance reaching him from the other bank when he was in the middle of the stream. Meanwhile the Indians, finding no further resistance, began to plunder. In their savaging they also seriously wounded a French dancing master by the name of Baby, who, on one of his regular tours of instruction, came riding along on a mule, which was too miser- able to save his master by running away from the savages.21
The wounded negro, according to negro fashion, gave a very exaggerated account as to the number of Indians from which he had escaped, and so the German militia of the right bank was called out by D'Arensbourg; but there being no means of trans- portation to get the men across the Mississippi in sufficient nun- bers to cope with the enemies, reported to be so numerous, and the people fearing that, in the absence of the militia, the sav- ages might cross the Mississippi and begin a massacre among the unprotected women and children on the right side of the river, the militia was kept back and divided into three troops to protect the upper, middle, and lower right coast. At the same time a messenger was sent down to New Orleans for troops to go up on the left bank and engage the Indians while the militia should prevent the savages from crossing over.
Instead of going to the aid of the Germans, however, Gov- ernor Vaudreuil went next day with twenty-two men to Bayou St. John, in the rear of New Orleans, to reinforce the soldiers already there and enable them to cut off the retreat of the In- dians, in which purpose he succeeded to the extent of killing two savages. Governor Vaudreuil should not have been sur- prised, as he seems to have been, at D'Arensbourg's not crossing the Mississippi with his militia, for he, as governor, must have known that there were no transportation facilities, which it was his duty as governor to provide, especially after the raid of 1747 and previous ones, which always occurred on the left bank of the river.
In the nineteenth century, the relations between the Ger-
21 "Baby taught the ladies the minuet and the stately bows with which they were to salute the governor and his wife." Fortier, I, 131.
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mans and the Indians became very friendly. As late as 1845, thousands of Indians, following the migrating game, used to come from Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas to Louisiana, to spend the winter in the south. They were given quarters in the outhouses of the farmers, and spent their time in hunting and making baskets. Like the migrating swallows, these Indians for generations visited at the same farms and became well ac- quainted with the white families, and much attached to them. On their arrival, the red men kissed the white children, and on returning from their hunting trips, they never failed to give them choice pieces of their booty. Their departure for the north was always a source of deep regret to the white boys, some of whom used to accompany the Indians on their hunting trips, and learned much about hunting from them.22
BETTER TIMES.
In spite of all the hardships which the pioneers had to en- dure and the difficulties to be encountered, German energy, in- dustry, and perseverance conquered all; and although hundreds perished, the survivors wrested from the soil not only a bare living, but in course of time a high degree of prosperity also. Early travellers, who came down the Mississippi, describe the neat appearance of their little white houses, which stood in endless numbers on both banks of the Mississippi; and they also tell how these thrifty Germans used to row down to New Orleans in their boats with an abundance of their produce : vegetables, corn, rice, and later also indigo, to sell their goods on Sunday mornings in front of the cathedral; and how, at times, when non-producing New Orleans in vain waited for the provision ships from France or San Domingo, these German peasants more than once saved the city from heavy famine. Thus, in 1768, the provisions they furnished saved the Acadians.
CHURCHES OF THE GERMANS.
In the Catholic church in New Orleans, on the site of the present St. Louis Cathedral, the first church in this part of the
22 Communicated by Felix Leche, Esq., a Creole of German descent.
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colony of Louisiana, the Germans of the German Coast first attended divine service; here they also had their children christ- ened, here their weddings were celebrated. The cathedral rec- ords from 1720 to 1730 contain many German names. 23
But in 1724, so the census of that year informs us, the Germans had already a chapel of their own on the German Coast, which then may have stood already for one or two years, as the river settlement was made in the late fall of 1721. This chapel was built on the right bank of the Mississippi, on the place now called "Le Sassier" (Trinity Plantation), below Bon- net Carré Bend in St. Charles parish.24 It is interesting to note this fact and to remember that this chapel was built about the same time when the Jesuit Charlevoix reported (1722) that the people of New Orleans had "lent the Lord half of a miser- able store for divine service and that they want the Lord to move out again and accept shelter in a tent." Visiting priests from New Orleans held divine service on the German Coast until a resident priest was appointed. In the colonial budget for 1729 (earlier budgets are not available) provision was made for such a one. He was Pater Philip, a Capuchin ..
According to a map of the year 1731 (Crown Maps), the German settlement of that time began on the upper side of Bonnet Carré Bend, about four miles below Edgard, in St. John the Baptist parish, and extended from there down the Mississippi. But the map fails to show the German settlement on the other side of the river, where the census of 1724 places a number of Germans.
The first chapel, according to tradition, was replaced in 1740 by the first "Red Church" on the other side of the river, twenty-five miles above New Orleans.
The first Red Church was burned in 1806, and in the same year replaced by the second, the present Red Church. An irre -- parable loss was sustained here when, in 1877, a demented negro set fire to the priest's house, and all records of the church were burned. The rectory of the Red Church was not rebuilt. A
23 See the author's Geschichte der deutschen Kirchengemeinden im Staate Louisiana, pages II to 17.
24 Louisiana is the only state in the Union in which the word "parish" is used to designate a "county."
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new parish was erected on the other side of the river, the Holy Rosary Church, where the parish priest of Red Church now resides.
CHURCH OF ST. CHARLES BORROMAEUS. "RED CHURCH."
The name "Red Church" is due to the traditional coat of red paint which both of these churches had and which made them a landmark for the boats on the Mississippi River. Nearby is the oldest existing cemetery of the Germans, with many beau- tiful tombs. One of them, that of the Rixner (originally "Rich- ner") family, is said to have cost ten thousand dollars. The tradition of the Rixner family about this tomb is that Geo. Rix- ner, who in 1839 married Amélie Perret, had, in order to please his wife, to whom he was greatly devoted, laid aside ten thou- sand dollars to build a fine residence on his plantation. Before this could be done, the good wife died, and the sorrowing hus- band built his wife a magnificent tomb with this money. George Rixner never married again. His only child Amélie married an Italian, Count de Sarsana. She died in Marsala, Italy, and left a son, Ignatio.
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In 1771, the Germans of the upper German Coast built the church of St. John the Baptist, in Edgard, upon the right side of the river, a few miles from the place where the first chapel had been. Fortunately, the records of this church have been preserved, and are in good condition. To that church the au- thor paid more than thirty visits, and there he gathered rich material for his work.
CHURCH OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST.
The corner stone of the present church of St. John the Baptist was laid on the 4th of June, 1820, and it was conse- crated on the 17th of March, 1822. It took the place of the first St. John the Baptist Church, erected about 1771. The rec- ords of the church begin in the year 1772 with the entry of the marriage of Anton Manz (now "Montz"), of the diocese of Strassburg, the son of Jos. M. and Anna Maria Laufer, who married Sibylla Bischof, daughter of Joseph Bischof and Anna Maria Raeser, of St. John. The Raeser family came to Louisi- ana in 1721.
On account of the dampness of the ground, the dead are
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buried here in tombs above ground, and some very fine tombs belonging to the old colonial German families may be seen in this cemetery. About 1864, the portion of this parish on the opposite bank of the Mississippi was organized as the indepen- dent parish of St. Peter. The station "Reserve" of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railway, thirty-five miles above New Or- leans, is about half a mile from this church.
When, in 1769, the first church and cemetery of St. John were planned, there was some trouble to find the necessary ground for them. The Spanish General O'Reilly, hearing that some old bachelor had more land, twelve arpents, than he could attend to ordered him to furnish the necessary ground for both church and cemetery. To compensate him for his loss, the com- munity was commanded to clear for him the same number of arpents on the remaining land of the man, and to give him the same number of new pickets as he had lost with the church land. This order was signed on the 21st of February, 1770. The original is still to be seen in the court house at Edgard.
Situation: The church of St. John the Baptist is imme- diately behind the levee, St. John the Baptist parish, Louisiana, two miles from St. John station of the Texas & Pacific Rail- way, thirty-five miles by rail above New Orleans. The post office on the place is called "Edgard."
The first parish priest (1772) was Pater Bernhard von Limbach, a German Capuchin, who later was transferred to St. Louis, Missouri.
THE CENSUS OF 1721.
The Louisiana Historical Society received from Paris, in December, 1904, a copy of the census taken by M. Diron, In- spector General of the French troops in Louisiana and signed by him, Bienville, Le Blond de la Tour, Duvergier, and de Cormes, on the 24th of November, 1721.
If this were a complete census of Louisiana, we would have an accurate description of the state of affairs on John Law's concession on the Arkansas River at the time when the German Law people were there; and also an accurate account of the two old German villages on the German Coast, which were flooded
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by the great hurricane of 1721. Unfortunately, however, it covers only New Orleans and vicinity, from below English Turn to Cannes Brûlées. 25
As a matter of general interest, it may be stated from this census that the white population of New Orleans in 1721 con- sisted of :
72 civilians, of whom 40 were married and had 29 children,
44 soldiers, I4 66
no
66
II officers, 66 2 66 one child each,
22 ship captains and sailors, 9
28 European laborers (engagés)
7 children,
The names of the engagés are never given, neither is it stated whether or not they were married. The church records show that some of them were married.
There were also :
I77 negro slaves, 21 Indian slaves, 36 cows, and 9 horses.
Only nine horses in the whole town! Not even the governor of the colony of Louisiana could boast of a horse, and the cannon and the ammunition for the troops must have been drawn either by the soldiers themselves, or by negroes or cows, for the nine horses were private property. Trudeau had four of them, and Pierre and Mathurin Dreux owned the other five.
Furthermore, in eleven years, front 1721 to 1732, the number of horses increased only from nine to fourteen! Dr. Manade, of Chartres street, had two horses in 1732; the butcher Caron, of Chartres street, owned one; the blacksmith Botson, the interpreter Duparc, and the concessioner Bruslées, all of St. Anne street, had one each; Dr. Alexander, of the hospital, owned one; clerk of the court Rossard, of Toulouse street, had three; and M. Mar- baud, of Bourbon street, had four.
Judging from the family names the whole population of New Orleans was French in 1721, but there lived also one Ger-
25 Cannes Brûlées was on the left bank of the Mississippi, six lieues or eighteen miles (by river) above New Orleans and immediately below the German Coast.
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man family in New Orleans: "Johann Gustav Freitag, wife and child".
The town limits of New Orleans were then the river front, Dauphine, Ursuline and Bienville streets. At a later time "Chapi- toulas Gate" was built at the upper end of the town, out of which ran the only road leading along the river up the coast, the "Chapi- toulas Road".
All the land from the upper side of Bienville street up to the present "Southport", above Carrollton (Nine Mile Point), and from the Mississippi back to the present Claiborne avenue-213 1/2 arpents river front-belonged to Governor Bienville, who, after selecting the site for the future city of New Orleans in 1718, hastened to lay hold of as much as possible of the best land, adjacent to the coming city, and caused 26 the Superior Council of Louisiana to grant him this land immediately above New Orleans, as a concession, and to give him also a second con- cession of 112 arpents front on the other side of the Mississippi, beginning below the point of Algiers, "Pointe Saint Antoine", near the present Vallette street, and extending down the Missis- sippi.
After these two grants had been made by the Superior Council of Louisiana, on the 27th of March, 1719,27 and while the matter was still pending before the directors of the Com- pagnie des Indes in Paris for their approval, a royal edict was issued on the 7th of November, 1719,28 forbidding governors, lieutenant-governors, and intendants (Hubert, the intendant, had a fine concession in Natchez and another opposite New Orleans) to own plantations. They were allowed to have "vegetable gar- dens" only.
Notwithstanding this royal edict, Bienville, who had already received Horn Island in socage tenure,29 had these two immense new grants approved by the directors in Paris on February 6th, 1720.30
26 That Bienville himself demanded these grants from the company is shown by the wording of the official documents. "Sur la demande de Mon- sieur de Bienville," and again : "le terrain que vous avez choisy." Pages 12 and 20, Concessions, New Transcripts of the La. Hist. Soc.
27 Volume Concessions, page 18.
28 Fortier's History of Louisiana, I, 83.
"" Grace King's Bienville, page 238.
30 Volume Concessions, page 18.
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In order to obey the letter, if not the spirit, of the royal edict, Bienville now designated 53 1/2 out of 213 1/2 arpents immediately above New Orleans as his habitation, "the vegetable garden", which extended from Bienville street to near our Fe- licity Road, and from the Mississippi to our Claiborne avenue- a pretty good sized "vegetable garden"-comprising more than the whole first district of the present city of New Orleans.
Not satisfied with this, Bienville made a second "vegetable garden" by taking forty-nine arpents front by a depth of eighty arpents of his grant on the other side of the river and designating this also as his habitation.31
And as he was not allowed to work the remainder of his two big grants as plantations, he conceived the plan of intro- ducing into Louisiana a system of feudal tenure, selling these lands to people for very burdensome annual ground rent in money and products, and also in manual labor.
Some of Bienville's first victims were twelve German fami- lies, storm victims, whom he placed on his lands above "the vege- table garden" above New Orleans, about January Ist, 1723, but who soon tired of enjoying the benevolent arrangements of "The Father of the Colony", and left for other parts of Louisiana. 82
On Bienville's land between Bienville street and Southport only one family lived in 1721. This was M. de Baume, attorney general of the colony at the time when the two grants were made to Bienville. He had six arpents front beyond the upper limit of "the vegetable garden", where he resided with his wife and two children. He had three engagés, nine negro slaves, five cows, and two horses.
In 1722 Bienville came to New Orleans and established him- self on his land where he occupied the square bounded by Bien- ville, Iberville, Decatur and Chartres streets.33 The square behind, bounded by Bienville, Iberville, Chartres and Royal streets, he sold, together with other lands, in 1726, to the Jesuit
31 Volume Concessions, page 448. The people settled by Bienville on his Algiers' grant were all Canadians. Among them were three by the name of "Langlois."
82 They went up to the German Coast.
" In a map of 1728 (see U. S. Census of 1880) this square is marked: "Terre concédée à Mr. de Bienville," and the square behind as : "Terrain aux Jesuites."
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fathers, who, on the first of May, 1728, purchased another five arpents from him and gradually acquired the whole territory up to Felicity Road. The original Jesuits' plantation therefore began on Bienville street and not on Common street, as the legend says. Common street may have been the lower boundary at a later time, when it became necessary to use the ground from Bienville street to Canal street for the purpose of fortifying the town. This was after 1729, after the great massacre in Fort Rosalie.
Where Southport now stands, in the center of the great bend of the Mississippi above Carrollton, began "le village des Chapi- toulas". Hence "Chapitoulas Gate" in New Orleans, "Chapitou- las Road" and our present "Tchoupitoulas street".
In Chapitoulas were the great plantations of Deubreuol, Chauvin de Léry, Chauvin la Frénière, and Chauvin Beaulieu, all Canadians. There was also, away from the river front, and two miles below Cannes Brûlées (Kenner), the so-called "Koly" concession. According to the census of 1721, there were on this place sixty-two white men, twelve white women with five children, forty-four negro slaves, two Indian slaves, five head of cattle, and four horses. The census says that on this place six hundred quarts of rice were made from fourteen quarts of seed rice.
There was a second so-called "Koly" plantation in Louisiana in 1721, called St. Catharine plantation, originally Hubert's con- cession, on which were, in 1723, forty-three white men, six white women with two children, forty-five negro slaves, two Indian slaves, fifty-two head of cattle, and two horses. These were, evidently, part of the same people who were moved to St. Cathe- rine when the first "Koly" plantation was abandoned.
The "Koly" estate also owned a large house in New Orleans, on Chartres street, in which six Ursuline nuns lived with six boarding scholars and twenty-eight orphan girls. This house was later bought for a hospital, a sailor named Jean Louis having left a legacy of 10,000 livres for that purpose. This was the beginning of the "Charity Hospital" of New Orleans.
KOLY.
All Louisiana historians merely refer to Koly as a Swiss. This is all they say about him. But in a volume of the New
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Transcripts of the Louisiana Historical Society the author found information which throws more light upon him.
This volume contains a large number of official documents relating to the "Concession St. Catherine"; and in these papers, which do not state that Koly was a Swiss, "Jean Daniel Koly" is called "Councilor of the Financial Council of His Highness the Elector of Bavaria" (Elector Max Emanuel, who ruled from 1679 to 1726).
It appears from these documents that in 1718 an associa- tion was formed in Paris, of which Koly and the banker Deucher of Paris seem to have been the leading spirits. Among its mem- bers were several French officials of high rank, and also "Jean Le Chambrier escuyer Envoyé de Sa Majesté le Roy de Prusse à la Cour de France." The association had a capital of 400,000 livres, and, on the IIth of December, 1719, received from the Compagnie des Indes a land concession in Louisiana of four leagues square, the location of which was to be decided by the association.
On the 29th of December, 1719, Koly and Deucher, in the name of their associates, entered into a contract with Faucon Dumanoir, engaging him for a term of eight years as the director general of the association, with instructions to proceed with the necessary number of officials and engagés to Louisiana and there to select and manage the lands of the association. The principal plantation was to be called "St. Catherine," smaller posts to be named by the director general.
Dumanoir embarked on the 28th of May, 1720, on board the ship St. André at L'Orient, and arrived in Biloxi on the 24th of the following August with eleven officers, 186 workmen, twenty-three women, and six children. According to the names on the passenger list, only a few Germans seem to have been among them : Jean Bierzel and Jean Mayeur. Among the French workmen of this concession was François Forestier of St. Malo, a locksmith (serrurier) who later became "armurier," i. e., keeper of the armory of the king. François Forestier was the progen- itor of the "Fortier" family in Louisiana.
In a letter dated Natchez, July 18th, 1721, Dumanoir de- scribes his experiences on the voyage and in Biloxi. The Compag- nie des Indes had engaged itself to transport gratis to Louisiana
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the men and belongings of the association, and to feed officers and men, the first named at the captain's table and the latter with sailors' rations, not only during the sea voyage but also until they should arrive at their concession. The food furnished on board was of such bad quality, that Dumanoir had to give his people of his own provisions, which he had taken with him for his concession to bridge over the time until the first crop could be made on the new concession; and, finally the company took forcibly from him more than four months' provisions and twenty- eight out of thirty-one large casks of wine. "This is the cause," Dumanoir complains in his letter, "why I have not drunk any wine for the last three months."
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