Jean Baptiste Le Moyne Sieur de Bienville, Founder of the City of New Orleans. First Planter in Louisiana. OLD LOUISIANA PLANTATION HOMES AND FAMILY TREES Herman de Bachelle Seebold, M. D. In Two Volumes—Vol. I PUBLISHED PRIVATELY Copyright 1941 By Herman de Bachelld Seebold Printed in United States of America Pelican Press, Inc. - New Orleans Affectionately Dedicated To MY WIFE who has greatly aided me in the collecting of the material for this work. ACKOWLEDGMENT rpHE author takes this opportunity of thanking the many families he has come in contact with for the numerous courtesies shown him while collecting material for this work. Their gener¬ osity in opening their homes with the same gracious hospitality associated with old plantation days has been greatly appreciated. These ante-bellum homes have intrigued me time and time again when visiting them. Their before-the-war quaintness spurred me to write of them and their owners. And I am glad that I have undertaken the task of recording their past greatness, as so many interesting old places have disappeared since this work was started five years ago. The author would like to offer a special word of thanks to those who so generously gave of their time, and put at disposal their treasured family books, family records frail with age, their family miniatures, ancestral portraits and old letters and docu¬ ments. Others offered able assistance so that this work may be authentic and of service to future students interested in the lore of an age that is gone forever, even the memories of which are rapidly vanishing. Many of these plantation families have been lifetime friends of our family, and it has made the task easier than it would have been had I been a stranger in their midst; still I have considered it a great privilege to be permitted to choose such material as was found best suited for my purpose. I wish to thank The Louisiana Historical Society for per¬ mission to reproduce portraits of members of distinguished old Louisiana Families in their portrait Collection and for the priv¬ ilege of reproducing extracts from the “Historical Quarterly.” I have also consulted freely “New Orleans As It Was” by Henry C. Castellanos; ‘“New Orleans the Place and the People” by Grace King; Gayarre’s “History of Louisiana”; Fortier’s “History of Louisiana”; and the New Orleans Times-Picayune; the New Or¬ leans Daily States; and the New Orleans Item-Tribune. I am indebted to Mrs. Thomas Sloo for permission to use her Family Book to obtain data on the Bringier, Kenner, Brent, Minor, Du Bourg, de Luzon, Trist and other branches of her family, for use of Miniatures, daguerreotypes, photographs, ancestral por¬ traits, memoirs and other private papers of historical interest, for my record of the Bringier Dynasty in Louisiana; to Mr. Trist Wood for his great assistance in correcting data and arranging branches of these families and of the many families to whom he is related; also for the use of many of the reproductions of minia¬ tures, ancestral portraits, and other paintings in his extensive collection of family data, family crests and eoats-of-arms, etc.; also for data on the Trist, Taylor, Stauffer, Wood, and other branches of his family; to Miss Tristy Bringier of Tezcuco Plan¬ tation for data on Bringier, Trudeau, Tureaud, and other branches of the family and history of her old plantation home at Burnside, La.; to Mrs. Sylvester P. Walmsley, Sr., and Sylvester P. Walm- sley, Jr., for data on the Semmes, Knox, and Walmsley families and photos, ancestral portraits, pictures of Knox Hall and Knox Crest and coat-of-arms; to Mrs. Fernan Claiborne for permission to reproduce the de Villere crest and coat-of-arms; to Mrs. A. Sidney Ranlett, Sr., for data on the Ranlett family and family photographs; to Miss Ethel Hutson, Secretary to the President of the Delgado Art Museum of Art, for permission to use her article on Ante-Bellum Artists, (Warrington Messenger, Sept. 1938); also for data on the Artist Association of New Orleans, La.; to Mrs. David Pipes, Sr., for data on the Pipes Plantation, the Pipes family, the Fort, Stewart, and Randolph families, for photographs, miniatures, daguerreotypes, etc., to be used in my article on the above families; to Dr. Rudolph Matas for use of his article on the late Dr. John Smyth; to Miss Nellie Farwell for data on the Milli- ken and Farwell families, and pictures of her ancestral portrait collection, miniatures, and daguerreotypes, and Farwell coat-of- arms; to Messrs. Charles A. and F. Evans Farwell for data and pictures of their families and homes; to Mrs. Henry Landry de Freneuse for data on the de Freneuse, de la Vergne, de St. Paul, Seghers, Schmidt, and Hinks families, also for the use of minia¬ tures, ancestral portraits, photographs, and the various crests and coats-of-arms of the various branches of the family and homes; to Professor Walter Prichard of the Louisiana State University, Ba¬ ton Rouge for use of extracts from his article on J. W. Dorr, in the “Louisiana Quarterly”; to Miss Marguerite Renshaw of the Howard Library, New Orleans, for assistance in research work; to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Dugue (de Livaudais) and Mrs. J. N. Roussel for data on the Dugue de Livaudais, the Forstall, De Dreux families, data on Home Place (Forstall) plantation, also for permission to reproduce letters written by Louis Philippe King of France to members of the de Marigny, and de Livaudais fam¬ ilies; to the late Mr. Leak of St. Francisville, La., for data on the Union Officer buried in the Cemetery of St. Francisville, La.; to Miss Eva Scott of the Shades Plantation for data on the Scott family and plantation; to Mrs. Gardner Voorhees (Ninette Chre¬ tien) for data and photographs of the Chretien family; for data on the Chretien plantation home at Chretien Point; to members of the Chretien family formally at that place; to Mrs. Joseph Louis Le Bourgeois for data on the Le Bourgeois and Lassasier families, and histories with pictures of Belmont and Mount Airy Planta¬ tions; to Weeks Hall for data on “The Shadows” New Iberia; to Dr. A. B. Fossier, Miss Clelie Labatut, Mrs. John Tobin and other members of the family for data on the Labatut Plantation and family pictures; to the D’Estrehan family for family data and pictures; to the late Robert S. Landry for data on the Mizaine plantation; to Mrs. Augustus H. Denis for data and crest and coat- of-arms of the de Marigny family; to Mrs. Robert Ruffin Barrow, Jr., for data and pictures of the Barrow, Perez, and other branches of the family; to Mrs. Mary Barrow Collins for permission to reproduce the portraits of her grandparents painted by Thomas Sully; to the Sparks, Daspit, and Barrow families of Baton Rouge and the Felicianas, also to Mrs. Livina Barrow Mays (Mrs. J. R. Mays) of Rosedale, La., for data that aided me with the various histories of the different Barrow mansions and plantations and article on the BARROW DYNASTY in Louisiana; to Mr. Emile Ducros, Louisiana Historian, for Authentic Notes on the de la Ronde, Plantation mansion. Avenue of Oak trees, the de la Ronde, Almonaster, de Pontalba, family and plantations in the St. Ber¬ nard Area, also the de la Ronde Crest and coat-of-arms; to Miss Louise Butler (Louisiana Historian), the family of Judge Thomas Butler, near St. Francisville, Mrs. Edward Butler, Sr., Misses Sarah and Mamie Butler of the Cedars plantation, for their united assistance in furnishing data for the various homes and families and permission to use and reproduce family portraits, memoires. miniatures, etc., and aiding in compiling THE BUTLER DY¬ NASTY in Louisiana; to Mr. and Mrs. Walter Charles Parlange of Parlange Plantation Home, Point Coupee for data on their old plantation home, the use of old family documents, records, of the Parlange, de Lassus, de Luziere, Reynaud de Cuzot, de Vezin, Van Vrandenburg, de Grand Pre, D’Herbigny (Derbigny) fam¬ ilies and a record of “River Lake” plantation, ancestral planta¬ tion home of Mr. Parlange’s grandparents the Denis family; to Thomas Hewes family for data on the Pleasant View planta¬ tion and Hewes and Grymes families; to Mrs. Breaux for data on Austerlitz Plantation; to Col. Henry Rougon for data on plantation and pictures of home and garden; to Dr. and Mrs. L. R. de Buys and other members of the family for data on the de Macarty, Forstall families and plantations, the de Buys, Rathbone, Duggan and Hicky families, pictures of many of the portraits painted by the late Miss Edith Duggan, also for crests and coats-of-anns of the de Buys, Rathbone, Forstall, Lopez families, and to repro¬ duce part of the portrait collection of the late Mrs. Rathbone de Buys; drawing of the old plantation home of Col. Hicky (Hope Estate); to Mrs. P. L. Howell, Curator of the Louisiana Histor¬ ical Assn., Confederate Memorial Hall, New Orleans; to Dr. E. D. Fenner for data on the old Payne Plantation home, and Payne Fenner home and families; to Senator Edward J. Gay for data on the St. Louis Plantation and the Gay family and family pic¬ tures; to Dr. W. J. Owen for data on Nottaway Plantation; to the Misses Smith for data on Asphodel Plantation and permission to photo home; to the Le Jeune family for data on the old planta¬ tion home of the family in New Roads, La.; to Mr. J. Hereford Percy and the family for data on Beechwood Plantation, the Percy Family and kodaks of graves in Beechwood Cemetery; to Mrs. John Smyth for data on the Sully and Smythe families, data on Wavertree manor and plantation, Rosedown plantation with histories of these places and pictures also for family portraits and crests and coats-of-arms; to Miss Julia Sully of Richmond, Va., for history of the Pocahontas picture, etc.; to Mrs. Mabel Richardson for data and pictures of her grandparents plantation and home, “Hickory Hill,” and family civil war record; to Miss Lucy Matthews of “Oakley Plantation” for data on Oakley, history of the fine collection of ancestral portraits by noted artists, data on the Pirrie, Alston, Bowman and Matthew families, etc.; to Mrs. Edwin Xavia de Verges for her great assistance in com¬ piling the record of the de Verges family and its branches, data on the family plantations, family miniatures, daguerreotypes and other portraits, pictures of Chateau Senlis and of the other ones of the Almonaster and de Pontalba families, coats-of-arms of the de Macarty, de Lino de Chalmette, de Cruzat, de Poupart, and others of her family. The description of the de Verges Crest and coat-of-arms; to Miss Marguerite Fortier of the Louisiana State Museum for photographs of the Edmond Fortier plantation “Con¬ cession” known as the Keller Place, also for data on the Fortier family; to Miss Laure Beauregard Larendon for data on the Beau¬ regard Reggio, and de Villere families and family photographs; to the Stauffer family for data on their old plantation Home in Metairie Lane; to Mrs. Helen Pitkin Schertz for data on her old plantation home (Old Spanish Customhouse) record of the Pitkin family in America, for photos of her home, garden and portrait by Allen St. John; to Mrs. John F. Coleman for data on the Rouyer de Villere, Lanaux, Rareshide, Baker, Poujaud de Jouvisy families and crests and coats-of-arms of these families, and family photo¬ graphs, also for copy of painting of Conseil plantation owned by Mrs. W. 0. Humphries; to the Walter Parker family for data on their old plantation home and family with photographs, crest, etc.; to Mr. and Mrs. Gustaf Westfeldt, Jr., for data on their old plantation home (The Old Dugue de Livaudais Plantation), the Westfeldt, Dugan and Monroe families and family and house pictures; to Miss Edith Kernaghan for data on the D’Arensbourg family and permission to use an ancestral portrait of the D’Arens¬ bourg family; to Mrs. Wilson Williams and Miss Doris Walker for data on Kenilworth Plantation and Wilson family with photo¬ graphs, etc.; to Miss Louise Crawford for data on Kenilworth Manor and the Bienvenu, and Crawford families; to the von Phul, Cade, Soniat, du Fossat and Allain families pictures, records, etc., of family and home; to Deleon “Belles, Beaux and Brains of the Sixties”; the Frotscher and Koch families for data on the Frotscher Plantation, the Koch home, and both families and pho¬ tographs; to Mrs. Grady Price (Miss Edith Dart) for data on the Plauche family; to Mrs. William MacCormac Younge for poem on “Molinary’s Grave”; to Mrs. Logan Perkins (Miss Elizabeth Kell) for data on her family’s old plantation home “Point Clear,” Madison Parish, La., and data on the family, also portrait; to Mrs. Eugene Ellis for data on the Ellis family and Magnolia Planta¬ tion; to Mrs. T. L. Raymond for memoirs of her grandfather's plantation and home “Evergreen,” Rapides Parish, La.; to her sister Mrs. P. L. Girault, now of Chicago, Ill., for data on the family and family pictures; to Mrs. Felix Larue for data on General J. B. Levert; to Mrs. Andrew Stewart for data on the family also of Oak Alley (Beau Sejour) plantation and home; to the various branches of the Prudhomme family for data on the family, the old plantation and home, family pictures and minia¬ tures, etc.; to Mrs. Cammie Henry for permission to visit her old plantation garden and lower floor, the studios, and for picture of home “Melrose Manor”; to Baron Albert deBeaulieu de Marcon- nay of Manitou Springs, Colorado, for data on the various branches of his family and pictures of the family and chateau; to Charles Konzelman for data and pictures of his family; to Miss Vera Morel for permission to use her drawing of Kenilworth Plantation Manor; to Rev. Father Eck for history of St. Catherine’s Chapel, False River; to Mr. Allan Wurtele for pictures of Ramsey Plan¬ tation home; to B. R. Foster of the Louisiana State Museum for use of portraits for illustrations; to Mrs. O. LeBlanc and Mrs. H. Lorio for aid in obtaining data; to Mrs. Flo Field for article on Molinary; to Mrs. Adel Lebourgeois Chapin for extracts on “Their Fruitless Ways” (Henry Holt & Co., N. Y.); and to many others —some of whom are mentioned in this work—for information and assistance in compiling this data. Naturally in a work of this kind, in spite of great care and thorough checking a few errors will creep in. Because of the thousands of details, names, dates, etc., it is impossible to avoid a few mistakes, also the spelling of names varies—even when spelt by different members of the same family. I therefore ask the reader's indulgence for such errors or failings as this work contains. I will endeavor to correct such mistakes in future editions. Herman de Bachelle Seebold, M.D.