Labadieville is rich with history, but one would have no idea just driving through it. #louisianahistory #louisiana #nativeamerican #cajun #history
Host: Kyle Crosby
Camera/Editor: Michael Malley
Coordinator: Samantha Rohr
We are now in Labadieville and the first people to settle in the area were believed to have been members of three distinct native American tribes. The people of the Kasha, Chawasha, and Chitimacha were around Bayou Lafourche for a few hundred years prior to European arrival and the Chitimacha specifically were composed of four powerful bands that would roam around the vicinity west of Bayou Lafourche. By the year 1700, when Europeans arrived, the Chitimacha would be one of the six leading tribes in Louisiana. They had a culture unique to the other tribes in the area and the women were expert basket makers and weavers of cane mats. There was also a strict caste system with tribal chiefs and nobles being forbidden to marry a commoner. They would build burial mounds near Lake Verret just outside of Labadieville.
Tensions between the Chitimacha and French settlers soured fairly quickly and would reach a fever pitch after a band of Chitimacha would murder a Catholic priest, a slave, and three Canadian travel companions. In response to this, Governor Bienville would incite the other tribes by giving them supplies, ammo, and weapons. These tribes began to attack the Chitimacha and drive them further west of the bayou. Later, the rival tribes would make several successful attempts at enslaving members of the Chitimacha and warfare broke out intermittently until Bienville demanded peace to be reached in 1718. By the time Louisiana was sold to the US in 1803, there were only about 100 members of the Chitimacha in the entire territory. By 1860, all of them had been killed or left the territory completely.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much recorded history of the other two tribes mentioned. The Washa and Chawasha had villages along Bayou Lafourche and the Chawasha had their principal settlement in this area near Labadieville. By 1721 there were only about fifty Washa warriors left and the Chawasha had even less. All of the records I’ve come across report that by 1880 there was only one person left from both of these tribes.
The French, followed by the Spanish, would settle along Bayou Lafourche with a large portion settling near Labadieville. When the Spanish took control, most of the people in Louisiana didn’t agree and caused a good bit of trouble. One story claims that there was a man with the last name of St. Amant in the Labadieville area that was particularly averse to the Spanish. He was loudly against the new rulers, so much so that St. Amant placed a keg of gunpowder in the doorway to his home and defied officers. He said he would blow himself and the officers up if they tried to subdue him, so at the behest of St. Amant’s community friends, the Spanish left him alone.
In the 1760s the area would then become the new home for the first Acadian refugees arriving in Louisiana that would later become known as Cajun People. Joining the Acadians, Spanish, and French were the Germans from the Cote des Allemands or the German Coast of the Mississippi River. Labadieville takes its name from a pioneer resident, Jean Louis Labadie, and was originally called Brulee Labadie.
One of the more striking images when you arrive in Labadieville is the St. Philomena Catholic Church. The long history of Catholicism goes beyond available records, but the first mission held in Labadieville was performed by Father Charles Menard in 1842.
In 1855, Father Cyprian Vennisat was named the first pastor and soon after, he decided to form a religious community of native women named the Institute of the Immaculate Conception in 1871. The present St. Philomena Church was built in 1888 and the cemetery dates from the early years of the parish. The founder of “Labadie” is buried there and a monument to those who died in the yellow fever epidemic still exists. St. Philomena School provided Catholic education for more than 100 years from its beginning in 1871 until it closed in 2005.
This place would not be spared from the unholy act of war when the Union and Confederate forces met at Georgia Landing. It was the first major battle on Bayou Lafourche during the Civil War. Confederate forces under General Mouton concentrated along the property line of Georgia Plantation and Himalaya Plantation called Texana Road. The Battle of Georgia Landing would result in a Union victory, but the fighting was far from over.
The area still holds true to their Acadian heritage to this day and is definitely worth stopping by to see on your next Louisiana road trip.
29 авг 2024