Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, November 25, 1997

Jefferson Island named for famed actor

by Jim Bradshaw

Throughout its history, the island has been known by several names including Butte a Peigneur, Ile des Torreaux (probably a misspelling of the French word for bulls, taureaux), Pine Island, Miller's Island, Orange Island, and Jefferson Island. The prairie lands that fall away to the southeast of the island were generally known in the 19th century as "Prairie Carlin" or "Prairie Peigneur." The name Peigneur given to the nearby lake is the French term for "wool-comber" and is probably derived from the shape of the lake, which is similar to 18th century wool combs.

Probably the first man to settle in the area was Joseph Vincent Carlin, a native of Genoa, Italy. His name given at birth was Giuseppe Vincenzo Carlini. He was born about 1730, the son of Joseph Carlini and Maria Gerbinatti. He arrived in New Orleans as a French soldier sometime between April 1758 and Jan. 1, 1759. He was discharged from the French army in Louisiana on Aug. 8, 1769.

In February 1774, he received a grant of 25 arpents facing Lake Peigneur by a depth of 40 arpents, which comprised roughly the southwestern half of the island. Most historians think that Carlin was probably on the island some time before the formal land grant was recorded. In 1813, when the U.S. government was sorting out the old land grants, there was testimony that the Carlins had been living there for at least 31 years, "and from the appearance of the house and fruit trees, the land must have been inhabited and cultivated several years thereto." The best guess is that Carlin moved into the area in 1772 or 1773. His son, Alexis, was baptized at St. Martinville on Dec. 5,1773.

About the same time, on Feb. 6, 1778, Joseph Prevost received a grant for the northeastern half of the island, this one 24 arpents wide by 40 arpents deep, also fronting on Lake Peigneur. Prevost was probably born at Natchitoches in 1726. His land would eventually pass to his son, Francois Prevost.

The Carlin side of the island also passed to the descendants of the original settler, but, on March 7, 1820, Joseph Carlin's heirs sold their land to a Scotchman, Isaac Randolph, who was reputedly the brother-in-law of the pirate, Jean Lafitte.

The Carlin and Prevost families had apparently used their lands primarily for grazing cattle. Randolph converted part of the grazing lands into sugar cane fields, but apparently could not turn a profit. His plantation was seized in June 1833 and sold to John Brownson, an attorney. Randolph moved to Natchitoches.

The next owner of the Carlin tract, John Fitz Miller, would be the first to unite the Carlin and Prevost grants. On Sept. 9, 1833, Miller bought from Eliza Prevost Dismukes part of the property she had inherited from her grandfather. The following month, he bought the original Carlin grant from Brownson.

Miller was regarded as one of the most flamboyant of the early plantation owners in the area, described by Glenn Conrad of the Center for Louisiana Studies as a colorful character, "a man of popularity and pleasing address (who) for a time represented the southern ward of St. Martin. He was a bachelor and fond of horses and horse racing. He owned a race track (which was on Jefferson Island) where gentlemen of this section raced their horses for many years."

Dr. Alfred Duperier would write a reminiscence about Miller's racing interests: "Miller was, for a long time, a controlling spirit in the turf association, being among the first to import racing stock from England. ...He organized the Attakapas Turf Association and opened on his land a mile-long track which for many years was liberally patronized. ...These annual races were a great attraction to New Iberia and contributed much to bring it into notice."

Joseph Jefferson, for whom the island is named today maintained that Isaac Randolph planted many fruit and pecan trees and that it was during his ownership that the place became known as Orange Island. Others say that Miller planted an orange grove on the north slope of the island. Whichever, the grove, according to early accounts, at one time included about 6,000 orange trees, 2,000 pecan trees, and many cherry, fig, peach, lemon and quince trees. Most of the citrus trees were killed during a freeze from Jan. 13 to Jan. 16, 1892. Some of the hardier trees survived only to be killed by the record cold of Feb. 11 to Feb. 13, 1899. (The New Iberia Enterprise would report of that freeze, "For the first time within the recollection of man, the bayou Teche was frozen over its entire surface.")

Miller was a native of Philadelphia. He arrived in Louisiana in the 1820s, bringing with him his mother, Sarah Canby (who lived to the remarkable age of 107) and his sister, Mary Ann Jane. He was living in New Orleans when he purchased the island. He was instrumental in the formation of Citizens' Bank of Louisiana in 1833 in New Orleans. Just after the formation of the bank, Miller began to buy large tracts of land in the Teche region. Besides the island property. he bought a large block of land that is now within the New Iberia corporate limits. He lived in New Iberia but visited the island regularly. In fact, in order to make his travel easier, he had a bridge built over Bayou Petite Anse which became known as Miller's Bridge.

Miller died in 1857. He had never married, so his estate passed to Cordelia Wheeler Lewis, the only child of his sister, Mary Ann Jane. The estate, besides including the island, apparently included some mortgages and debts. To help satisfy them, Cordelia sold Orange Island and Miller's Bridge to Faustin Dupuy of Hancock County, Miss.

Dupuy held on to the island during the hectic days of the Civil War, but could not weather the rigors of Reconstruction. On May 21, 1870, he sold the island's 3,600 acres to Joseph Jefferson for $28,000 -- $7.81 an acre.

Jefferson was an actor known for his roles in theater productions of "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Rivals." He had apparently been performing in New Orleans when he learned through a friend, New Iberia druggist James A. Lee, that the island was for sale. Shortly after he bought the place, Jefferson hired New Iberia architect and builder George Francis to construct a home there. The building materials for Jefferson's house were assembled in New Iberia, and then, according to Jefferson biographer Grace Bordelon Agate, they were "transported by ox cart over twelve miles of almost impassable roads to the island."

Jefferson used the island as a winter retreat and entertained there regularly, including among his guests President Grover Cleveland, who visited there in 1892. Jefferson also owned homes at Buzzards Bay, Mass., and Hohokus, N.J. He raised cattle and citrus crops at Jefferson Island.

William Ballou, a reporter for Cosmopolitan, visited the island in 1899, and described it as an "immense grove of magnolias and live oaks." He described Osage shrubs that kept cattle from the grounds around the residence, and an arched corridor of oaks leading from the house to Lake Peigneur through a tangle of hanging vines, mistletoe, mosses, and gourds.

"At the foot of the hill, toward the east, is a jungle where the cypress reigns, together with the alligator, which makes the night weird if not hideous with its unearthly baying," Ballou wrote.

Some of Lafitte's treasure was said to have been buried on Jefferson Island. In 1923, a man named "Daynite," who was supposed to be a "voodoo man," dug up three pots containing Spanish, Mexican, and American coins. Others have dug on the island since, but that's all the treasure that has been found.

Although drilling on the island in 1901 uncovered a deep deposit of salt, Jefferson would not allow salt mining there because he did not want to spoil the natural beauty of the island.

Jefferson died in 1905, and his heirs, after some legal wrangling, formed the Jefferson Plantation Co. In 1917, a group of Kentucky businessmen headed by J. Lyle Bayless Sr. bought the island from the Jefferson Plantation Co. as a hunting preserve. Bayless operated a rice and sugar plantation and raised Brahman and Black Angus cattle on the island.

The salt mining business began in 1920. The Diamond Crystal Salt Co. of St. Clair, Mich., acquired the plant and mine in 1957. The company operated the mine until Nov. 20, 1980, when, in a bizarre chain of events, a drilling operator on Lake Peigneur punctured the salt mine.

J. Lyle Bayless Jr. began developing Jefferson Island's Live Oak Gardens there in 1952.

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