Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, November 25, 1997

Jeanerette nearly named for a live oak stump

by Jim Bradshaw

Zerangue's grant and those of three other early claimants, were bought in the late 1700's by Nicholas Edmond Provost, a native of the Illinois territory. Provost bought some 3,000 acres on the Teche and established a sugar plantation there. His property has been described as the area from the present LSU Experimental Farm on the west side of Bayou Teche between Jeanerette and New Iberia to the present St. Mary Parish line, and from Hwy. 90 to Bayou Teche. He also owned a strip of land on the east side of the bayou. Provost died in 1816.

The town was named for John W. Jeanerette, who came to the Teche country in the early 1800s from South Carolina. When Jeanerette first arrived in the area, he was hired as a tutor at one of the plantations in the area. A year later, he opened a store and a saloon. In 1830, he bought Pine Grove Plantation, eight miles below New Iberia, but apparently was more interested in playing cards than in raising sugar.

An early account describes John W. Jeanerette as "a man of affairs, and a great many of them--sugar planter, justice of the peace, our first postmaster, pioneer 'brag' player, and 'fine host of the inn.'" It said that "his friends claimed for him the character of the old, high-minded South Carolina gentleman."

His wife, according to the report "was a good, pious Methodist, (who) tried very hard to keep their only son, Tom, straight, but it was no use." The report says that "she did her level best to balance accounts in the family, always had a preaching place in the house, and there were often religious services going on in one part and a big game of cards in the other. Indeed, of all of (John Jeanerette's) many irons, this seemed to be the only one he did really keep hot. But his many pupils in 'brag' became experts, and so turned his lessons against himself that in 1837 he was sold out and the family removed to Alabama where it became extinct."

After Jeanerette's departure, says the account, "the post office was then continued in the same house, rented successively by postmasters Dr. Crawford, Charley Nettleton, and Isaac Applewhite." The old house was eventually torn down and the post office was moved two miles south, "to a small store kept by a Frenchman opposite Bayside dwelling." E. D. Richardson was postmaster then.

About this time, there was an attempt made to name the place Chicot Noir (black stump), because of a "gloomy and peculiar" live oak stump that was a landmark near the store, but postal officials refused to change the name. Still later, there was a suggestion that it be renamed Provostville, for Paul Provost, who ran a store and saloon there. That was also turned down.

Provost, we are told, "was a very clever Frenchman, who began with a very small adobe house and very large pipe, and often assisted the priest at Patout's Church in singing. His place grew steadily until it was a store, saloon, and a tavern. He was esteemed as a fair honest man, of pleasant, social qualities." He was the grandson of Nicholas Provost.

In 1854, W. E. Hudson came from Franklin to establish a store. He became known as the "Father of Jeanerette." He later started the Plantation Supply Store and Mercantile Business, which was sold to E. J. deGravelle in 1892.

The public school system began in Jeanerette in 1855, and the first graduation exercises were held in 1902 for two young ladies. The Sisters of Mercy organized a school there in 1888.

By 1860, Jeanerette had a hotel, the Hudson store, and about 40 houses. A blacksmith shop that eventually grew into a foundry was established by A. Moresi, who also established the first brick yard there and, in 1885, the first ice plant.

In 1870, Jeanerette was the center of an extensive agricultural district. It had five stores, the best sawmill on the bayou (operated by Joseph S. Witworth), a gunsmith, a hotel, a coffeehouse, a private school, two harness shops, a butcher shop, a barber shop, and several other businesses.

Jeanerette was incorporated on March 15, 1878. In 1880 the population was 698. A decade later, it was 1,309. An iron bridge across the Teche was completed there in April 1897.

There were two substantial fires in Jeanerette's early history. The first began at 1 o'clock in the morning on New Year's Day, 1885. Eleven buildings were burned as bucket brigades tried, futilely, to contain the blaze. Buildings destroyed or damaged included Mary Mestayer's Hotel, the Alfred Miller home, McGowan's Store, Knights of Pythias Hall, Doty's Store, a blacksmith shop, and a group of buildings owned by Henry Kramer. A store at the corner of Bourg and Main streets was saved when firefighters draped it with blankets that were kept wet by the bucket brigade.

The second great fire, on Oct. 2, 1895, began at noon in a shingle shed of the Jeanerette Sawmill. Millions of feet of lumber stacked in the yard were soon ablaze, then the fire began to spread up Main Street. The mill office was the first building to go, then the fire began to rage down both sides of the, street. Fire crews from New Iberia and Franklin joined local men in fighting the blaze. New Orleans sent an engine that arrived on the 4 p.m. train, just as the blaze was being brought under control. More than 50 buildings had been burned by the time the fire was finally put out.

According to William Henry Perrin, "A newspaper was established in Jeanerette about 1889 called The Hornet. It had a rather precarious existence, alternating for some four years between life and death--standing, as it were, with one foot upon the shores of dull mortality, and the other of the great Unknown, until in the early part of December 1890, it passed away among the things that were. The last issue of the paper contained a valedictory, couched in rather sarcastic terms by its editor, Mr. Percy W. Roane, in which The Hornet executed its last sting upon an unappreciative public. It then died."

Le Pilote du Teche, which, despite its French name, seemed to be published only in English, was founded in Jeanerette in 1887.

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