Many years ago Susan Brent Day wrote a research paper entitled "A Brief History of Lacombe." A copy of her research paper was recently found in the papers of the late Mrs. Bertha Neff, former parish archivist with St. Tammany Parish.
CLICK HERE for a link to a PDF file containing the Brief History of Lacombe.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAYOU LACOMBE by Susan Brent Day
The scenic community of Bayou Lacombe is located in the center of Ward 7 of St. Tammany Parish. Lacombe lies about six miles north of Lake Pontchartrain by road and nine miles by water. U.S. Highway 190 passes through the middle of town.
The small community is a very historic town. There is evidence that the first recorded white settler settled in the area as early as 1786. However the Choctaw Indians, natives to the area, were residents much earlier. The evidence concerning the appearance of the white man in the area is supported by the following letter dated 1760 from a Mr. Enrique Mentizinger to Governor Vaudreuil, Governor of the province of New Orleans.2 The letter reads:
I certify that in the year seventeen hundred and sixty Mr. Lavalle and I being on the other side of Lake Pontchartrain on Bayou Bonfouca, encountered a Mr. Francois Rilleaux and we asked him how many inhabitants there were in that place. He answered that there was only himself and his family Afterward it was found to be a mistake.
As stated in the above letter, Mr. Mentzinger was indeed mistaken. A letter from a Mr. Ducre of Bayou Lacombe stated that he had been a resident of that area since at least 1786. This information is substantial documentation of an approximate date of some of the first white settlers in Bayou Lacombe. The signed affidavit from Mr. Ducre to Governor Vaudreuil states:
I, the undersigned, certify that for the past seventeen years I am the first person other than Vincent Rilleaux who has occupied the lands of Bonfouca.
The above affidavit was dated as signed in Bayou Lacombe, October 4, 1803. This statement establishes the existence of at least two settlers in the Bayou Lacombe area in the later eighteenth century.
The story of how Lacombe, the village and the bayou, received their name is unclear. One legend is that the bayou was named after a Frenchman looking for a place to make charcoal. This was during a time long before there were bridges and roads and the countryside was still populated by Indians. The story is that Lacombe, a Frenchman looking for a place to make charcoal, sailed from New Orleans across Lake Pontchartrain in his schooner. Lacombe supposedly found the mouth of the bayou and sailed inland for nine miles through the swamp and marshlands, until he came to high ground near the head of the bayou. Here he brought his equipment for making charcoal and began a business which soon thrived. Since his schooner was always seen traveling up and down this particular bayou, people began to refer to it as the bayou used by Mr. Lacombe. Later, it was referred to as Lacombe's bayou and finally as Bayou Lacombe, which name it and the village were given officially by surveyors and map makers.
The area around Lacombe was originally settled by French slave owners. However, before the French settlers arrived in Lacombe the natives, Choctaw Indians, enjoyed the beautiful and bountiful land which is Bayou Lacombe.
The Choctaws villages east of the Mississippi were near Bayou Lacombe. In Colonial days, the Choctaw Indians were an extensive tribe. They occupied the territories of Alabama, Mississippi, and as far east as the northern coast of Lake Pontchartrain. The tribe has interested a scientist who specializes in the study of various cultures s of people, because of superior qualities and traditions. These traditions seem to indicate that they had wandered northward from old Mexico and were probably of Aztec origin. Their location between the English plantations of the lower Atlantic coast and the French settlements of Louisianans made them of considerable political interest.
The removal of the Indians from their land on the American frontier is not a very proud accomplishment in the annals of American history. By the middle of the nineteenth century, there remained approximately only 2,000 Choctaws left in the Bayou Lacombe area. These Indians had for generations lived in what is the present state of Mississippi and at one time possessed fifty-two villages and could muster up as many as 25,000 warriors.
The Choctaws were of the Muskhogean stock and were related to the Acolapissa and Tangipahoa Indians. Consequently, it is difficult to determine whether or not the term Choctaw in relation to the Indians in St. Tammany means pure Choctaw or mere ly a blending of the original stock.
The Choctaws still held their land and their villages under the French, but with the entrance of the Americans, they were forced from their land and fields. The Choctaws were pushed westward by the Americans to land that was in their eyes a foreign country. During the 1840's and 1850's emigration of the Indians westward was especially heavy. "There were 2,000 Choctaws left in the fifties," says Dominique Rouquette, "some of whom had drifted back from the west; they had villages on the banks of the Mississippi, on the edge of the bayous, and in, the country which fringed Bay St. Louis, Mississippi."
During the early 1700's England laid claim to Carolina going as far as the Mississippi River to the West. Consequently, some of the first white people in the Bayou Lacombe area were English traders. Tomahawks and firearms were used by the traders as objects of trade with the Choctaws of Bayou Lacombe. The Choctaws along with the other Indians of the Mississippi River Valley were encouraged by the traders to attach the Louisiana pioneers. However, the Choctaws were friendly and were not belligerent toward the French settlers.
Captain Bernard Romans is the first Englishman to write of the Choctaw Indians and did so in a rare book published in 1775. He wrote his book after having spent many years in their country. This book is a famous source book and seems to be a faithful account of the Choctaw people, who were then quite numerous. Romans was the first man to reside with these red men, and Father Adrien Rouquette, a French priest, was the last white man to live with the Choctaws before their expulsion to the Indian Territory. Romans was among the Indians as a student, but was called away by the revolution against England. With no English influence, the Choctaws remained neutral in the war for independence and continued on good terms with the French traders.
One of the Choctaws' most interesting villages was located at Bayou Lacombe, 17 It was to this particular settlement that Father Adrien Rouquette, who will be discussed later, decided to devote his life.
Some of the earliest recorded families of Bayou Lacombe are the: Cousins, Carrieres, Dubissons, Donnets, and of course the Rouquettes. One interesting aspect concerned with most of these families is that in modern-day Lacombe there are still remnants of most of these families. The names of Cousin and Carriere are very much a part of the modern population of the village of Bayou Lacombe.
The Cousins are an old and highly an old and highly regarded family whose relatives, as stated before, are still found in the town of Lacombe. In the early nineteenth century, Cousin owned an immense estate situated on Bayou Lacombe about halfway between modern Mandeville and Pearl River. The only neighbors they had in the early years of settlement were the Choctaws, who lived on the outskirts of the plantations and cultivated their plots of ground. The Choctaws would harvest their crops with the help of the Cousins, who were their friends, and would bring their surplus of crops and herbs to New Orleans by way of Lake Pontchartrain. The Cousin family dwelling was very simple, but comfortable. His residence on Bayou Lacombe measured 40 arpents front 20 by 120.
The estate was composed of a dwelling house, kitchen, and another small house. There were two barns, a poultry house, a dozen Negro huts and a cooper's shed. Cousin had a successful estate and owned many cattle, sheep and slaves. From the way Cousin presented his slaves as presents to his children, one can interpret that many of the plantation owners in early Louisiana felt their slaves were a very valuable commodity. Cousin was a very wealthy man, especially for the pioneer Louisiana settlements.
Francois Cousin owned another plantation which was located on Bayou Bonfouca seven miles east of Lacombe. This estate measured 40 arpents by 40. The estate at Bonfouca was not as large as the one at Bayou Lacombe, but it added a great deal of wealth to an already prosperous family.
Cousin was married twice and consequently there were many heirs to his estate at the time of his death. The first time he was married he wed Catherine Peche Carriere, the widow of Pasques Carriere, and the mother of two sons, Terrence and Francois Carriere. The widow Carriere and Cousin were married on January 7, 1786. Three children were produced from this union. These children were: Francois, Celeste, and Louise, later wife of Dominique Rouquette and mother of Father Adrien Rouquette.
After the death of his first wife, Cousin remarried. The marriage with Cesain Ducre occurred on October 15, 1800. To the marriage, the wife brought a total of $200.00, while the husband entered the marriage with a net worth of $32,602.00, a princely sum for a man of his time. From his second marriage, Cousin and his wife produced five children. These children were: Eliza, Martha, Terrence, Anatole and Adolphe. Louise, one of his daughters by his first wife, married Dominique Roquette.
Rouquette was a native of southwest France who at that time resided in New Or- leans. In 1800, Rouquette arrived in New Orleans to set up a wine importing business. Francois Cousin was originally from New Orleans, but his father was also a native of France. However, all of his children, including Louise, were born in St. Tammany on his estate on the banks of Bayou Lacombe. The family's estate in Lacombe endured for many years after the death of Cousin in 1819 and passed through many generations of the Cousin breed. Besides his legitimate children, Cousin also had two half- breed Indian sons. This fact was proven in a court of law by the two questionable sons when they were prevented from voting in an election because they were Indians.
Father Adrien Rouquette
As stated before, the Cousin and the Rouquette families were related. Francois Cousin was the grandfather of the renowned Father Adrien Rouquette. No story of Lacombe would be complete without the mention of this priest. As a boy Rouquette would travel from New Orleans across Lake Pontchartrain to visit his Lacombe relatives, and also in the summers to escape the dangerous yellow fever epidemics. Even though he enjoyed visiting his relatives, Adrien especially enjoyed playing with the Indian children. He learned their language, their games and their way of life.
As a child, Adrien especially loved hunting with the Indian children and navigating the curbing bayous with them in their pirogues.
Rouquette is one of the most striking figures in the later history of the lower Mississippi River Valley. He lived for a while in the Bayou Lacombe area. Father Rouquette seems to be the last of a long series of pioneers who worked for "the betterment and welfare of his people." Rouquette was a scholar and a priest who felt his mission in life was to help the local Choctaw Indians with whom he had played as a child. The impressions of a childhood spent among the Choctaws for whom he had great affection, eventually lured him back to these people.
On the outskirts of his grandfather's plantations, Rouquette had seen the Choctaw huts with their gardens of corn, pumpkins, and potatoes. These same Choctaws, Rouquette observed bringing his grandfather Francois and his uncle Terrence Carriere "haunches" of deer or small game in exchange for powder, shot, and blankets. Rouquette remembered in detail, as an old man, an Indian wedding festival he had witnessed as a child. Also, he recalled hearing the carousing and the shooting of the Indians when they had too much to drink. These reminiscences added to his deep desire to help the Choctaws later in his life.
For sport, Rouquette and his Bayou Lacombe cousins would go off to one of the pools of the bayou and fish. The fish seemed to congregate in dry weather in deep pools when the water was low on Bayou Lacombe. In speaking of the bayou in Lacombe, and in reality of bayous typical throughout southern Louisiana, Dagmar Lebreton an author concerned with the life of Father Adrien Rouquette, states: "Many of the streams of Bayou Lacombe were covered with the beautiful lavender blossoms of the water hyacinths so common in the Louisiana bayous.
In 1824, when Adrien was still a minor, his mother died leaving him as one of the heirs to her estate. The following list of articles was attained from the succession record of Louis Rouquette. The St. Tammany Parish holdings of Louise Cousin Rouquette had been the property of the deceased in partnership with her uncle Terrence Carriere and brother Francois Cousin along with her future son-in-law Louis Donnet. In 1826, when her will went into probate, the land consisted of 1,800 arpents. The estate also included the schooner "Celeste" with her tackle and apparel, slaves, cattle, sheep, bricks, and household effects. Louise Rouquette's heirs at the time of her death were five surviving children: Adele, represented in the transaction by Louis Donnet, her husband; Dominique, for whom Etienne Riene was a special curator; Adrien, Fell and Terrence, whose special guardians were, respectively Francois Cousin, an uncle, Terrence Carriere, and Francois Carriere.
It this point, it is necessary to distinguish between the two Francois Cousins involved with the development of Bayou Lacombe. The first Francois Cousin was the grandfather of Adrien Rouquette and owned the vast estate on Bayou Lacombe, while the second mentioned Francois Cousin was the uncle and guardian of Rouquette after the death of his mother. Upon his inheritance, Adrien was still a minor, consequently his uncle Francois Cousin was his representative.
Francois Cousin, Rouquette's uncle, was a very virtuous man and was concerned with the education of his wards. This concern is evident by the act of his mortgaging his land in Bayou Lacombe in order to acquire a tutor for his wards Dominique, Adrien, Felix, and Terrence Rouquette. He mortgaged his land for $500 on October 28, 1828.
Later in his life, when Rouquette was a young man, he fell in love with a beautiful Indian maiden named Oushola. To keep him from marrying her, his family sent him to France to a university to study. When he finished his studies at the Royal College of Paris and College Royal of Nantes, Rouquette returned to Bayou Lacombe. On his return, he learned that the girl had died. The Indians told him that the brokenhearted girl had died of grief for him. They led him to a wide spread oak, a former meeting place for the two lovers where the girl was buried.
The legend is that Rouquette was "so touched by her devotion that he decided to become a priest and work for the betterment of the Indians." Rouquette went back to France and studied for the priesthood. On his return to America in 1845, he was assigned as an assistant at St. Louis Cathedral. At every opportunity he would go to Lacombe to preach to the Indians. Rouquette built five chapels for the Choctaw Indians in St. Tammany Parish. One of these chapels was located in Bayou Lacombe and Rouquette referred to it as The Nook.
Adrien Rouquette stated that in The Nook or "LeCoin", as he referred to it in French, "stood his largest cabin- chapel clothed in trees of abundant foliage. The Nook was a converted dwelling, meant not only to serve the Indians but also to serve Rouquette's family and the residents of Lacombe. Father Rouquette held the title of attendant priest, although the Indians referred to him only as "Chata-Ima", which means Choctaw-like. The chapel was located deep in the woods of pine, cedar, magnolia, sweet gum, and oak native to the Bayou Lacombe area. On each side of the entrance Father Rouquette planted a crepe myrtle. Rouquette, in speaking of the crepe myrtle, referred to its beauty in the following way: "the crepe myrtle with its golden-green foliage, its foaming gossamer blossoms, white, pink, red, and wine-colored, seen against the darker green of trees or against gray moss, is extremely beautiful in the sandy soil and wooded beauty of St. Tammany. "
Rouquette was also a poet of great talent, and many of his works were concerned with the country around Lacombe. With his literature and religion he enriched the lives of those in early Bayou Lacombe. In the words of one author describing Rouquette's way of life, he said: "he lived a life of self-denial of incessant toil."39 The people of the Bayou Lacombe area, especially the Indians, loved "Chata Ima," and he symbolized American brotherhood, both literary and religious.
Another predominant early Lacombe family was the Carrieres. Although they do appear to be of great importance in the development of Bayou Lacombe, in relation to the Cousins and the Rouquettes, not much information is available in detail concerning this family. The main person of importance in the Carriere family is Terrence, who has been mentioned earlier.
The Carrieres were the maternal relatives of the Rouquettes, and this family was also the close friends of the Choctaws. The Carrieres together with the Cousins and other pioneer families built their houses in a sort of colony over-looking Bayou Lacombe.
By a previous marriage, Terrence Carriere was the son of the first wife of Francois Cousin. Terrence, who was Rouquette uncle, owned a brickyard at Bonfouca and many times helped Adri translate Indian materials for use in poems. Terrence was a pioneer businessman whose schooners, loaded with bricks and lumber, traveled the dark bayous and the waters of Lake Pontchartrain to convert into a neat fortune the products of their brick and lumber yards.
Terrence, or as Adrien Rouquette called his uncle, "White Logan," truly appealed to the red man. Terrence was a virtuous and amiable Louisianian. He spoke Choctaw as well as his native language, and there was great love between him and the Indians. There was rarely an Indian who met him who did not love and recognize his great kindness.
Having earlier discussed Father Adrien Rouquette, it is fitting to mention the religion which was predominant in early Bayou Lacombe, that of Catholicism. Religion was and is the principle unifying factor for the people of Lacombe. Because there is no civil government, Lacombe is an unincorporated village, the church was the only meeting place during the early years of Lacombe. Due to their French heritage, the people of Bayou Lacombe were in the early days and are today predominantly Catholic. One may interpret that the work of Father Rouquette aided the development of Catholicism in the Bayou Lacombe area.
Today Lacombe has four churches, the largest of which is the Catholic Church. There are much smaller Baptist and Methodist Churches. As mentioned earlier, Catholicism has had the greatest influence on the people of the area. Most of the early history of Lacombe centers around the Catholic Church. Catholic priests came out of New Orleans by way of Mandeville, eight miles from Lacombe, to take care of the spiritual needs of the people who were at that time 100 percent Catholic.
In the year 1800, the pastor of Mandeville supervised construction of the first permanent Catholic Church, which was on the site of the present day Catholic Church. The church was destroyed by the hurricane of September, 1915. Up until then it was known as the Church of St. Cecilia. In 1917, the church was rebuilt in the same place, but the name was changed to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the name it still bears.
Burying the Dead
Another interesting aspect in the early history of Lacombe was the manner in which they buried their dead. For funerals, the people of the area would make their way down the bayou in pirogues. Bayou Lacombe, or Buchuwa, as the Indians called it, the "squeezing" bayou was the sole means of transporting the dead for burial.
An example of a typical nineteenth or maybe even eighteenth century cemetery can be found in Lacombe. South on Highway 90, on the Hacken-Josh tract of land in Lacombe is an old French cemetery. This cemetery is entitled "La Ducre" family. The cemetery is located on a hill about 300 feet from an old style French cottage. It has a five- foot high brick wall around it, and the large gate is made of iron and still works. The wall is about 2 feet thick. Four large tombs are inside, but only one tombstone can be seen on the ground covered with earth. All the words inscribed on the tombstones are written in French.
The cemetery is surrounded by water in a swamp, and appears to be a typical cemetery of early nineteenth century Lacombe. Apparently, the early settlers of Lacombe had to travel in a procession down the bayou in pirogues to bury their dead. At that time, there were no roads or bridges and the only viable means of transportation was the bayou. One could assert from the above information that this cemetery could very well be typical of the cemeteries used by the Cousin and Rouquette families as well as the other early pioneers of Bayou Lacombe.
The old village of Bayou Lacombe has endured the past well. Although she has not grown industrially her beauty still remains. Lacombe possesses beautiful oaks, dripping with mosses, and magnificent piney woods. Father Adrien Rouquette recognized the beauty of Lacombe and at times referred to her as an "oasis."
Quite often, Rouquette would refer to the enduring beauty of Lacombe, He said that in spite of the "ominous presence of a sawmill on the banks of the bayou, and the vicious practice of the natives of burning the underbrush, thus systematically destroying most of the rare flora which made up a mass of fragrant and flowery grasses," Lacombe was still a paradise. Today the village of Bayou Lacombe has a population of 1,500. The town is not incorporated. The chief authority is the Police Jury backed by one Justice of the Peace, a Marshall, or Deputy Sheriff. Lacombe has no jail. The village has two public schools, both junior high level. These schools are split into a boys school and a girls school.
Recently, the boys' school, Chata Ima Junior High, was leveled by fire. Presently, the boys are attending the girls' school on the platoon system. Integration of the sexes in Lacombe schools is being planned for the future. Lacombe has no parochial school. The children in the area must commute to Slidell or Mandeville in order to attend elementary school and high school. There may be some changes made in this also in the future.
Over the years, Lacombe has not followed the trend toward industrial development and has remained essentially at a standstill. The village does not entirely fit into the mode of a traditional southern rural community. For example, Lacombe bypassed the stage of development which included the onslaught of industry into most southern towns. The town has no industry or commerce, and in the words of one local resident, "Lacombe is going nowhere fast."
The village of Lacombe has endured more than two centuries of habitation by white, black, and red men. There is no longer a distinct Choctaw community. But a number residents can trace a portion of their ancestry back to the Choctaws.
The beautiful community is still as scenic and quiet as when the Rouquettes and Cousins retreated there from New Orleans to find peace. As serene as the area was, the early settlers, the Cousins, Carrieres, and the Rouquettes still had to be an extremely strong breed to conquer the hardships of living on the banks of the bayou. But perhaps the beauty and peacefulness of Bayou Lacombe is the reason the little village has withstood the threat of time and strife for over two centuries.
END OF RESEARCH PAPER
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