Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, August 26, 1997

Acadia communities have colorful histories

by Jim Bradshaw

Bayou Mallet was once called Bayou Catar. It was later named for Pierre Mallet. He and his brother Antoine were early French settlers of the Opelousas district. They were minors in 1768, when Jacques Courtableau acted as their guardian in a transaction involving a French land grant. The Mallet land was just west of the Maxie community, about eight miles north of Crowley.

Early landowners in the Bayou Mallet area included Jacob Bihm, a native of Germany; Joseph C. Poiret, Chevalier de l'Ordre Royal et Militaire de St. Louis; Joseph Armand, who owned a large tract on Prairie Cottereau; Francois Rozas, who owned land on Bayou Catar; and Michel Prudhomme Sr. and Michel Prudhomme Jr., who together owned land on both sides of Bayou Mallet. The Prudhomme home, built in 1796, was identified in the Crowley newspaper of Aug. 25, 1888, as the oldest home still standing in the parish.

Other early settlers in the area included Jean-Baptiste Young, who had land on the north side of the bayou about three miles East of Eunice; John Fruge, who owned land adjacent to the Young tract; Frederick Miller, whose land extended across the parish line into St. Landry Parish; John Miller, Frederick's brother; Jean-Baptiste Stelly Sr., who owned land on a small stream west of Frederick Miller's property; and Michel Carrier, who had 800 arpents extending into Prairie Faquetaïque and 1,000 arpents in "Woods Bayou Mallet."

Bennet Jopling claimed a large tract "in the bayou of Mallet's woods," though the land was first owned by Joseph Chevalier Poiret. Adjacent to the Jopling tract was land owned by Thomas Bledsoe, which had originally been claimed by Jean Doucet.

Father Louis Buhot, a French priest from Normandy, held land on the South side of the bayou about halfway between Eunice and Mowata. He was curate for the Opelousas church about 12 years, coming there in 1801, and remaining there until his death in 1813. He also claimed land in St. Landry Parish and in the Avoyelles District "for the use of the church."

Patrick Gurnett's land was on the south bank of Bayou Mallet, just west of the Frey community. William Johnson held a large rectangle of land on Prairie Faquetaïque. Johnson's neighbors to the west were Fabien and Louis Richard, probably brothers, perhaps uncle and nephew.

This bayou forms the western boundary of Acadia Parish. It is a combination of two French words, nez, for nose, and piqué, meaning tattooed. Linguist William A. Read pointed out in his seminal study of Louisiana-French in 1931 that the designation "tattooed nose" (Nezpiqué) for the Acadia Parish waterway "simply emphasizes the fact that the Indians in its vicinity practiced (sic) the art of tattooing."

Bayou Wikoff was known by other names before 1798, when William Wikoff received a Spanish grant to lands fronting it. About three miles of the bayou bisected Wikoff's square of land east of Branch. The early historian William Darby called Wikoff "the most wealthy stock-holder in the United States." Wikoff had connections with high-ranking Spanish officials and was named to several important post when the Spanish took over Louisiana.

Bois Mallet, or Mallet Woods, was a voting precinct in St. Landry Parish before Acadia was separated from it. A Catholic chapel for free mulattos was established before 1865. David Guillory had a store there in 1856.

Eleven riverbank strips on Bayou Plaquemine Brûlée in the area of today's Branch community were owned by colonial families who settled on their lands and became prominent in building the new Acadia Parish. These were the Andrus, Harmon and Hays families, all of which settled in the Branch area. Branch is named for Branch Hayes. Some of these pioneer families had land holdings on Bayou Plaquemine Brûlée; others owned property fronting on nearby Bayou Wikoff, identified in early times as "the eastern branch of Bayou Plaquemine Brûlée.

A post office was established at Plaquemine Brûlée on May 11, 1838, with John Cook as postmaster. The name was changed to Branch on Nov. 12, 1890.

At the start of the century, Edgar Barousse, owner and operator of a large general store and cotton gin, maintained the only businesses there. The business was expanded in 1903, when Willie Hayes and Branch Hayes began operating a grist mill there.

In 1907, Dr. J.B. Parrott had the town plotted by surveyors and sold lots for $50 to $150 each. By the end of the year, Branch had three general stores, a cotton gin, a drug store, a barber shop, and a cane mill.

A post office was established at Cartville on Feb. 6, 1884, with the appointment of Samuel Cart as postmaster. The name was later changed to Iota.

There were five post offices established in Acadia Parish before the Civil War, the earliest of them dating to Dec. 6, 1832, at Cole's Settlement, about five miles east of Crowley. Joseph T. Calligan was appointed postmaster there. This post office was discontinued on Nov. 18,1840.

Coulée Croche, meaning crooked coulee," takes its name from a stream in the southern section of St. Landry Parish. The general area northeast of Rayne, from Mire to Bosco, was once called Coulée Croche. The Coulée Croche area is part of a larger region called Marais Bouleur. That name supposedly comes from the settlement in a swampy place (marais) by a German named Buhler, whose name was eventually corrupted by the French to Bouleur.

The Ebenezer Methodist Church was organized near here on Sept. 1, 1889, by Rev. W.H. Cline, and the community eventually took the name of the church. The name comes from the Bible and means "a commemoration of divine assistance." Settlers in the area included the Barrow, Hoffpauir, and Spell families.

Summer revivals here sometimes lasted 10 days. Families brought bedding and provisions and pitched tents near the church. The preaching was done in a big revival tent. Eventually a dining hall and dormitory were built for people who came to the revivals.

As early as 1899, the Ebenezer school had two teachers. By 1913 Ebenezer had a high school. There was a post office at Ebenezer for nearly 30 years. Charles W. Faulk was the first postmaster. The post office was opened Sept. 11, 1891.

The roadbed for the Louisiana Western Railroad was built westward from Lafayette as far as Egan in the early 1870s, but it was later decided to move the line to the south so that Bayou Plaquemine Brûlée and Bayou des Cannes would not have to be bridged.

The old roadbed, built by convict labor, remained there for many years. I-10 was built on, or very nearly on, the old railroad roadbed.

Eunice is primarily in St. Landry Parish and will be dealt with in fuller detail in September in the St. Landry Parish history edition. The town is named for Eunice Pharr Duson, the wife of pioneer developer C.C. Duson.

The first Lutheran congregation in southwest Louisiana was established at Evangeline in 1873, and what is believed to be the only organized group of Quakers in Louisiana flourished there for a time.

A Lutheran missionary, Rev. H. Gellert, came to the Evangeline vicinity in 1872, along with several other Germans. He bought land in 1873 and started a congregation of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Dr. Andrew Tomlin son was the minister for the Society of Friends (Quakers). The Tomlin son's house was used for church services and also for a school. Dr. Tomlin son practiced medicine in the area and was also Evangeline's first postmaster. The post office was established there on April 21, 1887.

Robert's Cove has become known throughout Acadian as the home place of a substantial German settlement. But the first German settlement in Acadia Parish was begun by Joseph Fabacher and Zen Huber on Prairie Faquetaïque between Bayou des Cannes an Bayou Mallet.

Joseph Fabacher, born in 1830 in Bavaria, came to America as a small boy. By the time of the Civil War, he had amassed a fortune operating a distillery in New Orleans and later founded the Jackson Brewing Co., which made Jax Beer.

The war interrupted Fabacher's distillery business, and it was then that he persuaded his friend, Huber, also a native of Germany, to help him found a German colony in southwest Louisiana.

Fabacher and Huber came to Prairie Faquetaïque in 1870, and the first group of colonists from Germany had arrived by January 1871. A few months later, there were 60 persons in the colony.

The Fabacher post office was established June 11, 1873, with Joseph Fabacher as postmaster. It was closed about the turn of the century. The place also became known as German Settlement, and later became known as Ritchie.

There are several references to "the prairie Faquetaïque" in descriptions of land claims in the Acadia Parish area. The land area lies between Bayou Mallet and Bayou des Cannes in the northern section of Acadia Parish and extends across the bound ry into St. Landry. The word Faquetaïque is a derivative from the Choctaw fakit tek, turkey hen.

Zeno Huber owned a store at Faquetaïque Prairie southwest of Eunice in 1878. At that time, the entire land area between Bayou Mallet and Bayou des Cannes was called Prairie Faquetaïque. Martin Carron ran a store there in 1881. The Opelousas Courier of April 2, 1881, reported that on March 26 there had been "a fatal affray at Faquetaïque, at the store of Martin Carron; Portalla Sonnier was fatally stabbed by Octave Fuselier. The killing was said to have been the result of "drinking too much Whiskey," and Carron announced his intention not to sell whiskey in the future."

The settlement of Faquetaïque had a post office for six months in 1873.

John Frey was postmaster of the Santo post office when it was established Aug. 16, 1895. The name of the post office was later changed to Gassler, then to Frey.

Grand Marais is between Pitreville and Prudhomme and many familles à gens de couleur libres farmed there.

On Sept. 11, 1886, a bridge was opened across Bayou Plaquemine Brûlée, west of Rayne. The bridge, identified in the Rayne Signal, as the "Duson Bridge," the newspaper said, "would greatly facilitate travel between Rayne and a large section of country on the other side of the bayou." The bridge later became known as Long Bridge.

The Long Point settlement was about six miles north of Crowley on Long Point Gully. Both the Opelousas Courier and Rayne Signal reported on Oct. 23, 1886, that a large bear had been killed near the Willie Higginbotham farm. The animal was found in the Allen Laughlin cornfield eating corn. Laughlin and his brother, Tom, chased the bear with a pack of dogs and killed it with buckshot. The bear measured 5 feet 3 inches from nose to tail, and weighed 230 pounds.

Lyon's Point, about seven miles directly south of Crowley, was named for John Lyon, the colonial settler who bought land here from the Attakapas. According to family tradition, Lyon had settled first in the Bayou Queue de Tortue area, but was badly treated by pirates there in 1819 and moved to the Robert's Cove area. His original land holdings on Bayou Queue de Tortue were said to have been divided among his children when he moved to Robert's Cove.

A Catholic chapel was established there in 1908. There was a school at Lyon's Point in 1902, but it didn't last more than a year or so.

The Star post office was established on May 10, 1899 with Lyman L. Clark as postmaster. The name was changed to Maxie on March 4, 1908.

Located on Bayou Nezpiqué about six miles west of Iota, Millerville was named for Dennis Miller, who owned a store and sawmill there. In 1888, there were two general stores, a saloon, a hotel, a blacksmith shop, and "a good schoolhouse" at Millerville.

There was a post office at Millerville for about eight years. Dennis Miller was appointed first postmaster on May 18, 1887. Millerville, was a major shipping point in the 1880s. Rice, lumber, eggs, and chickens were shipped down Bayou Nezpique to the railroad at Mermentau.

This settlement was first called Castille. In 1900 the voting place at Castille was the Deshotel & Dejean Store. Ernest Higginbotham also ran a store there. There may have been a post office named Dejean here for a short while.

At the turn of the century, the land which is now Mowata was a big rice plantation known as the Jones Plantation. In 1906, the railroad built a station at the plantation. Deep wells had been drilled to irrigate the crops on the plantation there, and times were dry on the plains, so the station was named to advertise the abundance of water. The water shortened to Mowata -- according one story, because there was not enough room on the station's board to print the longer name.

This area is between Bayou Cannes and Bayou Nezpique and extends across the parish line, through the neck of St. Landry Parish in which Eunice is situated, and on into Evangeline Parish. The lower part of the prairie is called Tee Mamou; the upper part is Grand Mamou. On old maps, the place name appears as Prairie Mammouth, French for Mammoth Prairie.

Mammouth could have been the remains of an early mammoth found there. More likely the mommouths of this prairie were bison., called mammouth by the first Acadia settlers

The Prudhomme City post office was established April 15, 1873. It was discontinued on July 6, 1894.

This area was once known as "Light and Tie." An old resident recalled in a 1975 interview that " there were few trees and hitching racks on the prairie in the old days. 'Light and tie' meant to dismount and hobble your horse by tying the bridle around the horse's front leg so that the animal would not wander away." It was also known as Thrailkill and as Coe, for families that lived in the area. The present name comes from the Richard School, built on land donated by Théogène Richard.

Tasso supposedly got its name from the persistent aroma of smoked meat that hung over Bois Mallet. Supposedly the rustlers and jayhawkers of the area had numerous boucanieres in the thick woods of the area to smoke rustled beef, hence the odor. The name is sometimes seen as Tasseau, but the Louisiana-French word is properly spelled Tasso, because it is derived from the Spanish tasajo, which means "jerked beef."

This was the name of a post office established Jan. 11, 1893, with Anna B. Jarvis as postmistress. The post office was closed in 1904. Whitehouse was located on the Mamou Prairie, on Bayou des Cannes near the Acadia-St. Landry parish boundary.