By Benjamin D. Maygarden

and Jill-Karen Yakubik

By Benjamin D. Maygarden

and Jill-Karen Yakubik

Bayou Chene Bayou Chene

Preserving Louisianas Heritage Preserving Louisianas Heritage v Two

Atchafalaya Basin Community Atchafalaya Basin Community

The Life Story of an

The Life Story of an

1999

New Orleans District New Orleans District
Serving Louisiana

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers involvement in Louisiana dates back to

 1803 when an Army engineer was sent to the newly acquired city of New

 Orleans to study its defenses. The Corps early work in the area was of a

military nature, but soon expanded to include navigation and flood control. Today, New Orleans District builds upon these long-standing responsibilities with its

commitment to environmental engineering.

New Orleans Districts jurisdiction covers 30,000 square miles of south central and coastal Louisiana. The district plans, designs, constructs and operates

navigation, flood control, hurricane protection, and coastal restoration

projects. It maintains more than 2,800 miles of navigable waterways and

operates twelve navigation locks, helping to make the ports of south Louisiana

number one in the nation in total tonnage (number one in grain exports). The Corps

has built 950 miles of levees and floodwalls, and six major flood control structures to

make it possible to live and work along the lower Mississippi River.

The Corps cares for the environment by regulating dredge and fill in all navigable waters and wetlands, and by designing projects to reduce the rate of

coastal land loss. Besides constructing major Mississippi River freshwater diversion structures, the District regularly creates new wetlands and restores

barrier islands with material dredged from navigation channels. The District also chairs the multi-agency Louisiana Coastal Wetlands Conservation and

Restoration Task Force, which is planning and constructing a variety of projects

to restore and protect the states coastal marshes. In addition, the District manages the clean up of hazardous waste sites for the Environmental Protection

Agency.

One important aspect of the New Orleans District program is its historic

preservation and cultural resources management program. The Corps protects a great variety of prehistoric and historic sites to meet the requirements

of the National Historic Preservation Act. The New Orleans District recognizes its responsibilities to communicate the results of its numerous studies to

the public, and this booklet is the second in our series of popular publications.

The booklet was prepared in connection with the Districts Atchafalaya Basin

Floodway, an important component of the comprehensive plan for flood control in the Lower Mississippi Valley. This multi-state plan, called the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project (MR&T) provides flood protection for the

alluvial valley between Cape Girardeau, Missouri and the mouth of the river.

New Orleans District
Preserving Louisianas Heritage v Two

BAYOU CHENE

By Benjamin Maygarden

and Jill-Karen Yakubik

The Life Story of an

Atchafalaya Basin Community

 1999
PRESERVING LOUISIANA’S HERITAGE

2

Bayou Chene residents gather beneath the oaks at the Methodist Church to hear the

preaching of Pastor Chase, ca. 1904.

Bayou Chene 3

Introduction

The Atchafalaya River Basin

has changed a great deal in the

past century and a half. Twisting bayous where steamboats

traveled, loaded with barrels of

sugar or towing huge rafts of timber, are now filled with sediment

and grown over with trees.

Other bayous, broad lakes and

the Atchafalaya itself have been

straightened and dredged to

greater depths. Willow thickets

now stand where immense live

oaks and cypress once grew,

robed in Spanish moss. Arrowstraight canals crisscross the landscape, ignoring natural terrain.

And every year the spring floods

of the Atchafalaya River leave

more silt and sand behind, burying the basins past further beneath the surface. However,

some people can recall a different Atchafalaya Basin. They remember a beautiful environment that repaid hard work with

rich harvests of timber, fish and

game. They remember a home

where their ancestors lived for

more than three generations, and

where they themselves grew up.

They remember a small community that no longer exists, but

that still draws them together,

like a family, after the passage of

decades. They remember a place

called Bayou Chene.
PRESERVING LOUISIANA’S HERITAGE

4

Colonial Period

We do not know when the

first Frenchman traveling in the

Atchafalaya Basin named Bayou

Chêne or Oak Bayou. Whoever it was, Native Americans

had been there first. When the

French arrived in Louisiana in

the late-1600s, the Chitimacha

tribe, numbering about 3,000

persons, lived in the area stretching from Bayou Teche to the

Mississippi River. Several

Chitimacha settlements were

around Bayou Chene, including

Kame naksh tcat namu, on

Bayou de Plomb, Kushuh (or

Kucux) namu (Cottonwood

Village) on Lake Mongoulois

and Namu katsi (Village of

Bones) on Bayou Chene itself.

The precise locations of these

sites are not known.

Contact with the French

was eventually a disaster for the

In the 1700s, the Louisiana

colonists usually saw the

Atchafalaya Basin as an obstacle

to east-west travel rather than as

a place to settle. Travelers noted

the areas fine timber, but they

preferred the better farmland

elsewhere in Louisiana. By the

late-eighteenth century, cattle

ranchers from the Attakapas

prairies drove herds of cattle

across the basin to eastern markets. As they established

drovers roads across the basin,

people became more familiar

with the areas potential for

settlement. Scattered settlements

were established in the basin by

the 1790s, including at least one

family at Lake Chicot near

Bayou Chene. Frenchman C.C.

Robin described a trip through

the Atchafalaya Basin in 1803:

...The bayou breaks up into innumerable channels, as it flows

along, in which one is easily lost

if he is not familiar with them.

Chitimacha. The two

battled from 1706 until

1718. The French killed

or enslaved many of the

Chitimacha. Only a

handful of the

Chitimacha were left by

the time of the Louisiana Purchase. Their descendants resided along

Bayou de Plomb into

the late-nineteenth century, but they moved to

Bayou Teche near

Charenton by 1900.

Bayou Chene

5

Sometimes, the channel enlarges

into lakes, sometimes it narrows

suddenly and one finds oneself in

shadowy avenues, overhung with

enormous trees, impenetrable by

the rays of the sun, interlaced with

dense vines, and loaded with grayish streamers of Spanish moss,

barely leaving room for the passage

of the boat. One imagines himself

crossing the shadowy Styx with

Acheron. Alligators in swarms

surround the travelers or are seen

sleeping everywhere on the shell

beaches. Mixed with the deep

throated bugling of giant frogs...

[are] the sharp cries of black cormorants and the melancholy love

note of the owls.

After long sinuosities which form

innumerable islands, among which

the inexperienced traveler would

require the thread of Ariadne in order not to wander forever, the river

opens suddenly into a magnificent

lake of several leagues extent. The

sudden light surprises the traveler

and the beauty of the water, set about

with tall trees, forms an enchanting

sight.

These tall trees are cypresses.

Stretching away from us as far as

the eye can see, each cindery column, based upon a broad, deeply

furrowed cone, crowned with

branches which hardly bend down

at all. These columns seem to form

the portico, and one fancies that he

is before the immense palace of the

God of the Waters... the mysterious lair of Old Proteus... [Robin

1966:184-185]

Antebellum Period

1804-1861

Residents of the Atchafalaya

Basin were few at the time of the

Louisiana Purchase, and much of

the basin interior remained unknown. However, in the late1820s and early-1830s, a growing

demand for agricultural land

prompted widespread surveys of

the area. Parts of Grand River

had been surveyed by 1829 and

were settled by the early-1830s.

During the 1830s, settlements also

developed on Bayou Grosse Tete

and Bayou Sorrel, with planThe oldest

form of boat

used in the

Atchafalaya

Basin was the

dugout

pirogue,

adapted from

Native

American

canoes.
PRESERVING LOUISIANA’S HERITAGE

6

Pirogues were traditionally carved from a single

cypress tree. Pirogues began to be built of planks by

1920, but cypress dugouts continued in use because

they outlasted plank-built boats.

Original

U.S. land

claimants in

the vicinity

of Bayou

Chene,

1848.

Bayou de Plomb. The first claims

of land in the Bayou Chene area

were registered with the U.S.

government in June 1848, and

nearly all the tracts in the vicinity were claimed by the end of

September 1848. The descendants of many of the original

Bayou Chene claimants still lived

there a century later.

The 1850 census was the first

to list residents at Bayou Chene;

it counted 184 free persons in 41

households. Fifty-seven Bayou

Chene inhabitants were Free

People of Color, accounting for

30% of the free population in

1850. Many of these Free People

of Color migrated out of the area

during the 1850s. Twelve slave

owners in the area held a total

of 93 slaves, who also constituted

tations following soon after at Bayou

Chene. By 1841, at least 16 planters

were homesteading along Bayou

Chene, Bayou Crook Chene and

0 1 mi

Bayou Chene

7

about 30% of the

population. The

total Bayou Chene

area population

was about 277 persons. A post office

was established at

Bayou Chene in

1858, indicating

that the population

was large and stable

enough for official

recognition.

tive Americans were probably in

the area in 1850, but were missed

by the earlier census. There

were about 375 plantation slaves

in 1860, outnumbering the free

inhabitants. Several original residents still resided in the area,

notably members of the Carline,

Falcon, Lafontaine and Verret

families. The Allen, Mendoza

and Seneca families came into the

area by this time and remained

into the twentieth century.

Bayou Chene planters raised

smaller amounts of sugarcane

than the great planters along the

Mississippi River, Bayou Lafourche and Bayou Teche. Most

basin planters still had horsepowered cane mills when the

Civil War began, but a few had

steam-powered cane mills. All

Bayou Chene sugar houses used

old-fashioned open kettles to

boil the sugar instead of the more

advanced vacuum pans. Some

other inhabitants were subsistence farmers who also hunted,

fished, collected Spanish moss

By the 1860 census, the total Bayou Chene population increased to about 675 persons.

Two-hundred and ninety-four

free persons were listed as resident at Bayou Chene or on

nearby bayous. Free People of

Color made up less than 10% of

the total number of free persons

by this time. The 1860 records

also indicate that Native Americans composed 5% of the total

population in 1860. These NaSteamboats

transported

sugar from the

Atchafalaya

Basin to

market during

the antebellum

period. Many

of the basin

waterways

they used have

vanished, filled

with sediment.
PRESERVING LOUISIANA’S HERITAGE

8

ingly frequent and made life

more difficult for Bayou Chene

residents.

Union forces defeated the

Confederates at Bisland, Grand

Lake and Fort Burton in the

spring of 1863, giving them control of the Atchafalaya waterways wherever they could operate gunboats. The Confederates

could not match the firepower

of these vessels. Even with this

advantage, though, Confederate

guerrilla forces, as well as

jayhawkers and smugglers, constantly harassed the federals, especially in the summer of 1864.

Jayhawkers were bands of deserters, draft dodgers and criminals who infested much of Louisiana during the last three years

of the war. Confederate irregular forces used the familiar terrain of the basin to their advanses, cotton and firearms from

basin residents. These forays by

federal troops became increastage, relying upon

pirogues, skiffs and

horses in their hitand-run forays

against the federals.

To deal with

these problems, the

Union command

decided to destroy

all ferries, bridges

and boats in the basin as well as confiscate all contraband goods. Anything not produced locally, including flour, salt and other

staples, became unavailable to

and cut timber. Before 1860,

floods ruined some crop years in

the basin, most notably in 1851.

Floods became worse after the

Atchafalaya was cleared of logjams in 1861, making life more

difficult in the basin.

The Civil War In The

Atchafalaya Basin

Basin waterways were considered a route between the

Union forces on the lower

Atchafalaya River and Union

forces in the Baton Rouge area.

In turn, Bayou Chene became

the main route from Grand

River to Grand Lake, drawing

attention to the area. Before attacking Confederate Fort Burton at Butte-à-la-Rose (Butte La

Rose), Union troops raided the

basin, confiscating sugar, molasU.S. Gunboat

#53 was

typical of the

shallow-draft,

lightly

armored

tinclads that

brought the

Civil War to

Bayou Chene

and other

Atchafalaya

Basin

waterways.

Bayou Chene

9

Waterways

and landforms

in the Bayou

Chene vicinity

before channel

alterations in

the twentieth

century.

residents. These policies antagonized local Union sympathizers

and hindered the collection of

intelligence. In November 1864,

the Union command conceded

that small loyal planters in the

basin could keep their boats if

they were hidden at night from

guerrilla thieves. However,

the federals still withheld supplies from inhabitants who did

not inform on the guerillas. Basin residents, including families

at Bayou Chene, also suffered

from jayhawker activity into

1865.

Much damage at Bayou

Chene was the direct result of

military action. Many boats,

sugarhouses and stores of sugar

were destroyed by Union gunboats and troops. By February

1865, the levee on Grand River
PRESERVING LOUISIANA’S HERITAGE

10

The large family of Charles and Agatha Larson, ca. 1897.

was broken in many places, and

the entire region below Bayou

Plaquemine was impassable because of flooding. This caused a

number of Union sympathizers

at Bayou Chene to leave the basin on federal gunboats. Large

numbers of livestock could not

be saved and were left to drown.

The end of the Civil War in

Louisiana found Bayou Chene

flooded and abandoned. The

post office at Bayou Chene had

stayed open through the war but

was officially closed on June 22,

1866. It would not reopen for

ten years.

the free population in

1850. By 1876, the

population had grown

to approximately 450

persons despite the

1874 flood. A dramatic change was the

departure of most African-Americans, the

majority of whom

moved during the war

and Reconstruction.

By 1900, not a single

African-American resided at Bayou Chene.

Bayou Chene from the

Civil War to 1907

Some antebellum residents

returned to Bayou Chene after

the 1865 flood. For the most

part, planters did not share the

post-war recovery enjoyed by

the sugar growers on the Mississippi River. Only W.W. and

E.T. King produced any sugar

between 1862 and 1873. Finally,

a severe flood in 1874 ended

commercial agriculture in the region. Some former residents can

still remember seeing plantation

cane field features in the Bayou

Chene area when they were

young. Today, these have all

been obscured by sedimentation

and tree growth.

New settlers also moved into

the Bayou Chene area after the

Civil War, including at least one

Union veteran. By 1870, the

Bayou Chene population totaled

277 persons, roughly the same as

The number of French or

Acadian families also declined

during the late-nineteenth century. Among those that remained were the Theriot,

Landry, Daigle, Verret and

Broussard families. Even a few

European immigrants and firstgeneration Americans moved to

Bayou Chene, but most new settlers were Anglo-Americans

from southern and northern

Bayou Chene

11

An

Atchafalaya

Basin swamper

on a chopping

board

preparing to

cut down a

cypress tree, ca.

1888.

An Atchafalya

Basin swamper

floating out a

log, ca. 1888.

states. Family histories relate how

people from all over

ended up in Bayou

Chene. Bayou

Chene offered these

post-Civil War migrants cheap land (for

as little as $.25 per

acre) where they

could make a living

as members of the community,

but no one tolerated foolishness. Residents sometimes substituted personal action for distant legal authority. The St.

Martin Parish sheriff usually visited Bayou Chene at election

time, though rarely otherwise.

The lumberjacks and others

at Bayou Chene could be a rough

crowd. One newcomer to

Bayou Chene, Robert Wisdom,

was reputedly challenged to

prove that he was tough enough

cutting timber, hunting, fishing

or raising livestock.

Bayou Chene retained its

frontier character in this period.

Education levels were generally

low, although Oswald Templet

established a school in the latenineteenth century, holding class

in any available building. In the

frontier tradition, a persons past

was behind them at Bayou

Chene. Former residents indicate that if newcomers behaved

themselves, they were accepted
PRESERVING LOUISIANA’S HERITAGE

12

vention of the pullboat in 1889

and the overhead cableway railway skidder in 1892 brought on

full-scale industrial exploitation

of swamp cypress. Louisiana

sawmills produced 248 million

board feet of cypress lumber in

1899, and one billion board feet

in 1915. The largest logging company in the Bayou Chene area

was the Schwing Lumber Company of Plaquemine. The steamboat Carrie B. Schwing was a frequent sight at Bayou Chene,

towing large rafts or booms of

logs to Plaquemine to be milled.

Cypress was rapidly depleted after 1915 and production declined. Large-scale logging was

virtually over by 1925, little

more than a single generation afbasin. Trees were

cut down with axes

and saws, and the

logs floated out of

the swamp during

periods of high water. Float logging

had little impact on

the vast stands of

cypress in the

Atchafalaya region

because of the difficult process of removing the logs

from swamps.

However, the inThe Carrie B. Schwing was a familiar site on

Bayou Chene booming timber to Plaquemines.

to stay. A small crowd had gathered at Cyrus Cases store to

meet the steamboat on which

Wisdom happened to arrive.

Some locals told Wisdom that he

had to fight them or he could not

stay in the community. Wisdom

rolled his sleeves up and met

the challenge.

Luckily, the construction of

railroads across the region allowed the basins products to

reach distant markets, resuscitating economic development in

the region. The most important

of these basin products in the

late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries was cypress lumber, which fed into a burgeoning national market for building

materials. By the 1870s, most

male residents of Bayou Chene

were involved with logging,

while a few planted and farmed.

Float logging was the early

method used to cut timber in the

A pull-boat in

a Louisiana

cypress swamp,

ca. 1900.

Bayou Chene

13

A cut-over cypress stand, 1920s.

maintain water levels, altering

drainage in the region. Many

pullboat roads, logging canals

and tramways were still visible

in the basin a quarter of a century ago, but many have vanished because of sedimentation.

Trapping, fishing and moss

picking remained important to

year-round residents of the

Atchafalaya Basin during the

boom in the cypress logging industry. Fishing became the most important of these

other activities to

the Bayou Chene

community. The

development of

ice-making machines and the

tow-car allowed

live fish to be transter it began. Industrial logging

was a brief but intense ecological and cultural phenomenon in

South Louisiana. It greatly affected both the ecosystem of the

Atchafalaya Basin and its human

residents. Removing stands of

virgin cypress trees rapidly transformed the landscape. Pullboat

roads pierced natural levees to

ported to the rail terminal in

Morgan City, making commercial fishing in the basin viable.

By 1894, state records listed 756

general fishermen in the

Atchafalaya Basin.

Life at Bayou Chene

ca. 1907-1927

The golden age of Bayou

Chene may have been the period

from the introduction of the internal combustion boat motor

before 1907 to the disastrous

1927 flood. Cypress lumbering

still flourished in the region, and

the inboard boat motor made

commercial fishing more profitable. Only one major flood in

1912 and two lesser high-water

years, 1913 and 1922, damaged

homes, livestock and fields in the

basin. After every major flood

some families left Bayou Chene,

but a few new ones would move

into the area, and a substantial

core of families remained resident through the vagaries of

floods and other events. The

population of Bayou Chene in

1927 was about 500 persons.

The skiff was

one of the

major forms of

transportation

in the basin

before the

introduction

of boat motors.

Outrigger-like

jougs allowed

the rower to

stand and face

forward in the

push-skiff; a

pull-skiff was

rowed while

seated facing

backward.
PRESERVING LOUISIANA’S HERITAGE

14

Many Bayou Chene residents farmed or raised livestock

in this period. By the early-twentieth century, no one grew any

quantity of sugarcane at Bayou

Chene, but several farms developed on the extensive tracts

cleared in the nineteenth century

for cane-growing. Residents

grew corn, potatoes, beans, cabbage and fruit trees, and raised

milk cattle and oxen, hogs,

chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese

and guinea hens. Hogs and cattle

ranged freely, marked with earnotches. In frontier style, people

built fences not to keep livestock

penned in but to keep them out

structures built in late-nineteenth

or turn-of-the-century style.

Most houses were more modest.

Numerous families lived in tworoom houses, and some lived in

one-room houses. Architecture

varied widely. Acadian-style

houses and shotguns raised on

wood blocks were common.

Some families resided on houseboats, those of fishermen in particular. Drinking water was collected in cypress cisterns. Only

a few families had brick fireplaces

and chimneys; some had traditional stick and mud chimneys.

Most families cooked on iron

stoves. The favored heating and

An Atchafalaya Basin houseboat, 1920s.

of yards and gardens.

Some of the

homes at Bayou

Chene, such as

those of John

Snellgrove, Albert

Stockstill, John

Crowson, Gertrude Tenpenny

and Cyrus Case,

were large frame

The Cyrus

Case house and

store, 1920s.

The Cyrus

Case store was

located near

the geographical center of

the Bayou

Chene

community

and was long a

popular

meeting point.

Bayou Chene

15

cooking wood was ash, which

had a low market value and

could be cut freely anywhere.

Among the important developments in the Bayou Chene

lifestyle was the introduction by

1907 of the gasoline-fueled internal combustion engine for powering boats. Prior to the introduction of these engines, the average resident of the Atchafalaya

Basin owned only a pirogue or a

push-skiff. The small early

single-cylinder, two-horsepower

engines greatly increased the

range of fishermen or independent loggers. Larger engines

were soon developed. The inboard engines were installed in

what French-speakers called a

bateau and English-speakers

Small, twocycle gasoline

engines

revolutionized life in

the basin by

making

transportation much

faster and

easier for the

average

basin

resident.

An

Atchafalaya

Basin puttputt.
PRESERVING LOUISIANA’S HERITAGE

16

was quickly depleted near

ground level, and harvesters had

An Atchafalaya Basin fish-boat. In the 1920s and 1930s, the fish-boats

were often luggers; in later years, large bateaux were often used.

called a joe boat. The bateau

was up to about 25 feet long,

heavy, flat-bottomed, and had a

blunt bow and stern. Fitted with

the small Lockwood-Ash, Kelly

or Nadler engine, these boats were

also called putt-putts.

The adoption of putt-putts

corresponded with strong consumer demand for freshwater

fish. Fish-boats from the railheads came to the community

several times a week, collecting

mostly catfish (blue and yellow),

buffalofish and gaspergou from

local fishermen. They also purchased turtles, alligator skins and

furs. The fishermen kept their

daily catch in live-boxes of cypress, which were kept submerged. The fish-boats also sold

ermen used a wide variety of fishing techniques. They typically

fished for catfish with baited lines,

using shad, river shrimp or crawfish for bait. Buffalofish were

usually caught in unbaited hoop

nets. Fishing lines and nets were

made of cotton, and had to be

dipped in vats of hot coal tar

about every two weeks to keep

them from rotting quickly.

grocery staples, coal oil

and tar, kerosene and

gasoline to the basin residents. The fish were

brought to a dock by the

fish-boats and then

shipped by rail to urban

markets.

Bayou Chene fishto use a long

hooked

pole from a

moss barge,

a raised

wooden

platform on

a flatboat.

The moss

Spanish moss-picking reached its peak during the 1920s when moss

was in high demand for

upholstery stuffing.

Some moss could be collected as black moss

that had fallen to the

ground and dried out,

but it was usually

picked green. The moss

The puttputt was

made by

installing a

two-cycle

motor in a

bateau or joe

boat.

Bayou Chene

17

was laid on the ground to cure

in large piles. The piles were watered and turned with a pitchfork so that the moss would not

catch fire. Eventually, the moss

An

Atchafalaya

River

fisherman

hauls a large

hoopnet into

his joe boat,

1940s.

Before the

introduction

of nylon in the

1950s, cotton

nets and

fishing line

had to be

tarred about

every two

weeks.

was spread out on a fence,

wire or tree branches to

finish drying. The outer

covering of the moss decomposed, leaving the

horsehair-like core. After

about six weeks of curing,

the moss weighed 2/3 less

than it did when picked.

The dried moss brought the

picker only about one cent

per pound. The fish-boats

quantities for a

longer period.

Reminiscent

of its early days,

Bayou Chene

continued to be a

rowdy place.

Several saloons

operated at various times, most

of them simple barrooms attached to grocery stores. After

Prohibition, some residents

brewed their own beer, while

Patins store in Butte La Rose

supplied illicit liquor in the basin. Fiddlers and accordionists

from St. Martinville, Catahoula,

Butte La Rose and elsewhere

provided music for dances until

the beginning of the 1930s. Even

though a minority of the Bayou

Chene population were Acadian

or French, the community retained some Acadian cultural influence. The most popular

dances at Bayou Chene were

round dances or roundelays,

mazurkas and waltzes; all shared

in Cajun tradition. The presence

of the saloons may have contributed to the rough-and-tumble atmosphere of Bayou Chene in

this period, but drunkenness and

fighting were probably no more

common here than anywhere

else in rural south Louisiana at

the time.

The shooting of Joe Carpenter by Nick Burns around 1919

purchased the cured and baled moss

from basin residents, taking it to

a moss gin. Moss was harvested

at Bayou Chene in large amounts

until the late-1920s, and in smaller
PRESERVING LOUISIANA’S HERITAGE

18

has entered community folklore

as an unusual, late example of

violence at Bayou Chene. Carpenter came to Bayou Chene as

an older man and was deemed

half crazy. Once a visitor spat

on the floor of Carpenters

house, and Carpenter shot a hole

in the floor next to the visitors

chair. He then ordered the

visitor to spit through the hole

next time. Carpenter disliked

the family of Nick Burns, who

lived across Bayou Chene, and

suspected they were stealing

from his house. One day Carpenter dusted the floor with

flour before leaving. Upon returning home, Carpenter found

several footprints, and interpreted them as the footprints of

Burns sons. Carpenter proclaimed that he would kill

Burns family from the little

baby up to the father, from

blond to bald. He asked two

fish-boat operators to bring him

rifle cartridges from town, but

each gave Carpenter excuses why

they could not obtain the shells. Finally, Carpenter

entered a pirogue

with a shotgun

and began paddling toward

Burns residence.

Mrs. Burns saw

Carpenter first

and said she would

kill him if her husband would not.

Rafting out

hardwood

lumber, 1920s.

Fashionable

students pose

at the Bayou

Chene School

cistern, 1926.

Bayou Chene

19

through the sixth grade. The inboard boat engine enabled more

children from a wider area to attend the Bayou Chene school,

and no later than 1912, motorized school boats or boat transfers were in use. They were a

pleasant ride in fine weather, but

could be bitterly cold in the winter. In later years, a traditional

prank was for a line of children

in the boat to hold hands while

one on the end touched the

engines spark plug. The children along the line got shocked.

The Decline of Bayou

Chene, 1927 to 1953

The great flood of 1927

marks the period of decline of

Bayou Chene. Most residents

evacuated the area during the

1927 flood. Myrtle Burns Bigler

recalled 1927 flood waters reaching seven feet above the bank of

the Atchafalaya River. Some

Bayou Chene residents remained

in the area living on houseboats

during the flood, but most resiNick Burns grabbed his deer rifle

and warned Carpenter to turn

back. Carpenter answered with

further threats and obscenities.

Burns, a crack shot, fired and

hit Carpenter in the chest. Despite his wound, Carpenter continued to paddle toward Burns.

Burns fired a second shot, hitting

Carpenter in the head and killing him instantly. John

Snellgrove, Carpenters employer, interceded with the St.

Martin Parish sheriff on Burns

behalf, and no criminal action

Devastating

floods in 1927,

1937 and

1947, plus high

water in other

years,

ultimately

persuaded

many residents

to leave the

Atchafalaya

Basin.

was taken in the

case. Coincidentally, Carpenter

was buried next to

one of the pastors

of the Bayou

Chene Methodist

Church. This

caused a resident

to comment that

Bayou Chene is

the only place in

the world where a

preacher and a

criminal could be buried side by

side (quoted in Case 1973:130-

131).

The rough character of

Bayou Chene was tamed somewhat during later decades. The

population became more settled,

more connected with the outside

world, and better educated. The

St. Martin Parish Public School

at Bayou Chene was built in the

early-twentieth century, replacing the old one-teacher school.

In early decades, the school went
PRESERVING LOUISIANA’S HERITAGE

20

dents homes were

on the flooded

banks. A few residents put their

livestock on hastily-assembled log

rafts during the

high water and

kept them there as

long as they could,

or until the water

subsided. Other

residents returned

to find four feet of

water in their

homes, and built

scaffolds or plank

walks inside their

houses. Bayou

Chene folklore

tells of Warren

Stockstills goat

The Great Depression years

of the 1930s were hard on

Bayou Chene residents. Increased flooding in the

Atchafalaya Basin made it more

and more difficult to pursue any

agriculture or raise livestock.

Logging declined and hunting,

fishing, trapping and moss-pickstranded in the Methodist

Church during the 1927 flood.

The goat survived weeks of high

water by eating the hymnals and

wallpaper in the church. Many

residents returned to Bayou

Chene after the great flood, but

others left the area to settle outside of the basin.

ing assumed new importance. For most of the life

of the Bayou Chene community, no restrictions

had been recognized on

hunting season, location

or game limit. On the

other hand, fishing

grounds were considered

proprietary and were respected by other fishermen. By 1933, there were

Fur trapping helped many Atchafalya Basin 1,073 full-time fishermen residents make a living.

An

Atchafalaya

Basin resident

picking moss

from a skiff,

ca. 1948.

Bayou Chene

21

in the basin who received more

than 50% of their income from

fishing, frogging and crabbing,

and about twice as many parttime fishermen. The rise of

truck transportation about 1940

meant that fish-boats took the

Bayou Chene catch to a larger

number of docks at the edge of

the basin.

Former Bayou Chene residents agree that fish and shellfish

were never a major part of the

typical diet in the community,

despite commercial fishing by

many residents. Apparently

fishing and crabbing were primarily for outside markets, as was

the case also with hunting alligators and frogs. The only two

species of fish eaten with any

regularity were catfish (usually

fried) and gaspergou. Alligators

were hunted or caught on a line

for their skins, since the meat

was rarely or never eaten by

Bayou Cheners. Crawfish were

eaten rarely, only on Good Friday by many Bayou Chene

Catholics. More important than

fish or shellfish in the diet were

beef, pork, poultry, game and

beans. In traditional fashion,

hogs were typically killed in the

cool weather months and the

meat ground and salted for preservation.

Raccoon, otter and mink

furs were other basin products

bought by the fish-boats. After

the early-1930s, higher water levels reduced the population of

some game in what had been a

teeming habitat. Before the live

oaks of the Bayou Chene vicinity succumbed to sedimentation,

squirrels were particularly plentiful in the area. Bayou Chene

folklore says that a man could

put a pot on to boil, leave the

house with his gun, and return

with a potfull of squirrels before

the water was boiling.

Cypress logging and moss

picking declined during the

Great Depression. The last large

virgin cypress stand in the central basin was Buffalo Cove,

south of Bayou Chene. Buffalo

Cove was logged in the early1930s by John Snellgrove and

several other Bayou Chene residents. Moss-picking remained a

sideline for many Bayou Chene

residents in the 1930s and 1940s,

but finally died out when foam

rubber replaced moss for upholstery use.

Former Bayou Chene residents recall the excitement created by federal works projects in

the Depression, a time when

Despite the

importance of

commercial

fishing to the

community,

livestock were

a more

important

food source for

Bayou Chene

residents.
PRESERVING LOUISIANA’S HERITAGE

22

people were hard-pressed for employment. Numerous residents

of the community worked on

the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers levee and dredging projects

in the basin that began in the

early-1930s. Some of these

projects payed $3.20 per day 

a dollar a day more than cutting

timber. The Works Progress

Administration also enlarged the

Bayou Chene schoolhouse and

constructed a levee around the

schoolyard.

Despite flooding and the

economic hardship of the Depression, living standards eventually improved for many Bayou

Chene residents. Tin roofing replaced wooden shingles. By the

late-1940s, stores and some

homes had gasoline-powered

electric generators for lights, and

coal oil- or kerosene-powered refrigerators. Radio also came to

the Bayou, lessening the isolation of the community. Some

residents served in World War

II, also widening their horizons.

Former residents recount

the reliability, honesty and civicmindedness of the Bayou

Cheners. They contrast Bayou

Chene with other parts of the

basin in the past, and particularly

with current society. The occasional livestock or timber theft

in the early decades of the century were rare in the 1930s and

1940s. Houses and sheds were

never locked, and permission was

unnecessary to borrow tools or

equipment. People generally respected ownership of fishing

grounds and rarely disturbed

nets or lines. These conditions

have vanished in recent decades,

and property crime plagues the

basin today.

Former residents speak

highly of the education they received at the Bayou Chene school

in this period. During the late1930s, approximately 100 students attended through the seventh grade; this total decreased

to 72 children in 1944, mirroring the declining community

population.

The school

was moved to

a new building on the

north side of

the Bayou

Chene Cut

about 1945,

and closed by

1953. At St.

Martin Parish

school rallies,

the Bayou

Chene team

often won academic honU.S. dredge

Zeta being

pushed by U.S.

steamer

Chisca in

Whiskey Bay

during the

U.S. Army

Corps of

Engineers

Atchafalaya

River Channel

Rectification

project,

January, 1933.

Bayou Chene

23 The Bayou Chene School photographed during the 1927

flood. The school averaged around 100 students during

the 1930s.

The Catholic

Chapel of St.

Joseph was

constructed on

Bayou Crook

Chene right

before the 1927

flood.

1940s. A Catholic mission

chapel had been present at Bayou

Chene in the early-twentieth

century but closed, perhaps at

the time of the 1912 flood. A

new chapel was built around

1927 on a plot donated by the

Landry family on Bayou Crook

Chene. The Reverend

Monseignor R.J. Gobeil served

as pastor of the mission church

at Bayou Chene from 1938 to

1948. A Methodist church had

been established at Bayou Chene

by the 1880s. After the closure

of the first Catholic chapel at

Bayou Chene, the Methodist

Church remained active at

Bayou Chene. As a result, a few

Bayou Chene Catholics

converted to Methodism

during the late-1910s and

1920s. Pastors of the

Bayou Chene Methodist

Church included Brother

Pines, Brother Newton

and Delos Cassels. The

Methodist Church was

moved from Little Bayou

Chene to east of Big

Bayou Chene about 1946.

The original church bell

from the Bayou Chene

Methodist Church is now

located in the Methodist

Church of Bayou Sorrel.

ors. The Bayou Chene school

taught at a relatively high level

because the first year of schooling in St. Martin Parish was

primer, in which Acadian

French-speaking children were

taught English. This was not

necessary at Bayou Chene, since

most families spoke English or

were bilingual. Riding in the

school boat is a vivid memory

for former Bayou Chene residents. School boat drivers of this

period, including Edwin Curry,

Leon Curry, Earl Stockstill and

Kervin Chauvin gave many

Bayou Chene youngsters the

nicknames they carried for life.

Nicknames were so universally

used at Bayou Chene that the

real first names of people were

sometimes not known by others in the community.

The Bayou Chene community had a growing diversity of

religious faith in the 1930s and
PRESERVING LOUISIANA’S HERITAGE

24

Two other Protestant sects

were newly established in Bayou

Chene in this period, the Baptists and the Seventh Day

Adventists. The Baptists visited

Bayou Chene with a chapel boat

for several years and constructed

a small church east of Big Bayou

Chene. During this period, the

Seventh Day Adventists also

constructed a church on Bayou

Crook Chene, below Bayou de

Plomb.

By the late-1930s, a few Bayou

Chene residents made homebrew for their own consumption, but the bootleg liquor trade

seems to have declined. House

parties largely replaced the saloons and dances that had been

held with Acadian musicians.

Late in Bayou Chenes existence

as a community, young people

would sometimes even go to

Bayou Sorrel or Charenton

Beach for socializing.

Bayou Chene

Methodist Church,

during the 1927 high

water. Originally

located south of Little

Bayou Chene, the

church was adjacent to

a large cemetery.

The social evolution of the

Bayou Chene community was

reflected in the demise of the saloons and dances of an earlier

era. There were still a couple of

bars, including one on a boat, at

Bayou Chene in the early-1930s.

Baseball was long popular

at Bayou Chene, and community teams would host games or

travel to play Plaquemine,

Loreauville and other regional

teams. Bayou Chene produced

several gifted athletes, and the

Bayou Chene

children

costumed for a

play at the St.

Martin Parish

schools rally,

1930s.

Bayou Chene

25

baseball team was highly competitive. Other pastimes were

occasionally available, such as silent movies (shown in a tent) and

the Harry Williams air show

from Patterson, which appeared

at Bayou Chene in the 1930s.

After the 1937 flood, several

Bayou Chene residents moved

their homes to the high spoil

banks created by the dredging of

the Bayou Chene and Bayou

Tarleton cuts. The first of these

residents on the spoil bank east

of Big Bayou Chene was Ernest

Verret, nicknamed Canoe, and

the area took the name of

Canoeville. The U.S. Post

Office at Bayou Chene moved

to the spoil bank adjacent to the

Tarleton Cut after 1937, and

then to Canoeville about 1945.

On December 24, 1952, the

Bayou Chene community symbolically came to an end with the

closing of the U.S. Post Office.

Virtually all remaining residents

left Bayou Chene soon after.

Former Bayou Chene residents

clustered in New Iberia and St.

Martinville to the west of the

basin and Bayou Sorrel and

Plaquemine to the east, as well

as several other communities.

The Curry

home on

Bayou de

Plomb, 1930s.

The 1941

graduating

class of the

Bayou Chene

School.
PRESERVING LOUISIANA’S HERITAGE

26

The End of Bayou Chene: Disappearance and

Remembrance

projecting from ground level.

Houses, graveyards and other

features of Bayou Chene lie silent beneath the shroud of sediment. Fishermen and hunters

speed down the bayou with

powerful outboard motors,

oblivious to the buried history

of a once-thriving community.

Former residents of Bayou

Chene are nostalgic for the byDecades of annual flooding

have blanketed the Atchafalaya

Basin with an average of more

than 12 feet of deposited silt.

The landscape of Bayou Chene

is unrecognizable even to former

residents, unless they have

closely observed the transformation over the years. The magnificent live oaks that gave

Bayou Chene its name are rotting stumps, their dead boughs

Aerial photographs taken in 1935 and 1947 show the devastating effects of

flooding and sedimentation on buildings, fences and fields at Bayou Chene.

Bayou Chene

27

gone beauty of Bayou Chene and

appreciate the self-reliance of its

tightly-knit community. Some

former residents suggest that the

passing of Bayou Chene was the

loss of a tradition, even a privilege, of personal autonomy and

freedom in a demanding but

bountiful environment. They

suggest that this was an American heritage that Bayou Chene

was among the last communities

to enjoy. However, the passage

of time and an acceptance of

providence has generally tempered any bitterness over the

basins environmental deterioration and the disappearance of

Bayou Chene. Former Bayou

Chene residents and their families have met recent efforts by

the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to document the history

and physical remains of the

Bayou Chene community with

strong interest, enthusiasm and

cooperation. The profound

family and community feeling of

former Bayou Chene residents

is evident most dramatically at

the annual Bayou Chene reunions that have been held since

1971. Bayou Chene has been

gone for half a century, but in a

sense the community still lives;

proud of its past, and grateful for

the legacy it can give its descendants.

The Bayou Chene Post Office had several locations between its opening in 1858 and

closing in 1952. Postmaster Lynn Curry (center) poses with visitors from the U.S. Postal

Service, ca. 1948.
PRESERVING LOUISIANA’S HERITAGE

28

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING:

Abbey, D. Gail

1979 Life in the Atchafalaya Swamps. The Lafayette Natural History

Museum, Lafayette, Louisiana.

Barry, John M.

1997 Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed

America. Simon & Schuster, New York.

Case, Gladys Calhoon

1973 The Bayou Chene Story. The Harlo Press, Detroit.

Castille, George C., Charles E. Pearson, Donald G. Hunter, Allen R. Saltus Jr.,

Rodney E. Emmer and Susan Wurtzburg

1990 Cultural Resources Investigations, Cross Basin Channel Realignments, Atchafalaya Basin, Louisiana. Submitted to the New Orleans District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans.

Comeaux, Malcolm L.

1972 Atchafalaya Swamp Life: Settlement and Folk Occupations. Geoscience and Man 2. Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge.

Coulon, George A.

1888 350 Miles in a Skiff Through the Louisiana Swamps. George A.

Coulon, New Orleans.

Daniel, Pete

1977 Deepn as it Come: the 1927 Mississippi River Flood. Oxford University Press, New York.

Gobeil, R..J.

n.d. High Water, Low Water. Privately published.

Guirard, Greg

1989 Cajun Families of the Atchafalaya: Their Ways and Words. Privately published.

Kniffen, Fred B., Hiram F. Gregory and George A. Stokes

1987 The Historic Indian Tribes of Louisiana: From 1542 to the Present.

Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge.

Lockwood, C.C.

1981 Atchafalaya: Americas Largest River Basin Swamp. Beauregard

Press, Baton Rouge.

Mancil, Edwin

1972 An Historical Geography of Industrial Cypress Lumbering in Louisiana. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Geology

and Anthropology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge.

Maygarden, Benjamin, Aubra Lee, Roger Saucier, Melissa Braud and Jill-Karen

Yakubik

1998 National Register Evaluation of the Bayou Jean Louis Cemetery

(16SM89), Atchafalaya Basin Project, St. Martin Parish, Louisiana.

Submitted to the New Orleans District, U.S. Army Corps of

Engineers, New Orleans.

Bayou Chene

29

Norgress, Rachel Edna

1947 The History of the Cypress Lumber Industry in Louisiana. Louisiana Historical Quarterly 30(4):979-1059.

Prichard, Walter, Fred B. Kniffen and Clair A. Brown

1945 Southern Louisiana and Southern Alabama in 1819: The Journal

of James Leander Cathcart. Louisiana Historical Quarterly

28(3):735-921.

Raphael, Morris

1975 The Battle in the Bayou Country. Harlo Publishers, Detroit.

Reuss, Martin

1998 Designing the Bayous: The Control of Water in the Atchafalaya

Basin, 1800-1995. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Alexandria,

Virginia.

Robin, C.C.

1966 Voyage to the Interior of Louisiana. Translated by Stuart O.

Landry, Jr. Pelican Publishing Co., New Orleans.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The memories of former Bayou Chene community residents were vital to the writing of this booklet. Ben Maygarden spoke with the following oral informants (in

alphabetical order): David Allen Sr., Electa Guillot Allen, Michael Allen, Philip

Allen, Walter Allen, Darl Ashley, Carl Carline, Joyce Kelly Carline, Ray Carline,

Stella Larson Case, Amos Curry, Lila Larson Curry, Lynn Curry, Pearl Theriot

Curry, Curtis Larson, Sarah Larson, Leota Buck Megas, Douglas Mendoza, Charles

Roe, Rene Seneca, Harold Snellgrove, Stanley Stockstill, Wesley Stockstill, Charles

Verret and Horace Wisdom. Mr. Maygarden would like to express his sincere appreciation for having been invited into their homes to hear about Bayou Chene, and

asks their forbearance for his telling of the Bayou Chene story.

Former Bayou Chene residents accompany a U.S. Army Corps of

Engineers site visit to the Bayou Chene cemeteries, July 1997.
PRESERVING LOUISIANA’S HERITAGE

30

PHOTO CREDITS

Front cover: Mr. Edwin Currys Bayou Chene school boat transfer carried community

children to school. Mr. Curry stands with grandson Ronnie Curry, son of Amos and

Pearl Curry. Pearl Curry and her daughter Lana are inside the cabin. Courtesy of

Mr. Amos Curry and Mrs. Pearl Theriot Curry.

Title page: Atchafalaya Basin houseboats, 1920s. Courtesy of Mrs. Mary Chauvin

Robichaux.

Pages 2 and 3: Identifications by Mrs. Flavia Carline Ashley. Top row, left to right:

unidentified, Oscar Delord, Anatole Verret, Clayton Verret, Jonny Gamble, Sidney

Verret, Husville Verret, unidentified, John Stockstill, Jr., Albert Stockstill, Evis

Carline, Charles Ashley, Sr., Nat Smith, James Case, unidentified, Frank Seneca,

Arthur Fowler, ONeil Bruno, Agricole Theriot, John Daigle, unidentified, Felix

Seneca, Sr. Second row from top, left to right: John Stockstill, Sr., George Head,

Virginia Ferguson, Emma Broussard, Amanda Seneca, Leslie Verret, unidentified,

Joe Seneca, Patrick Daigle, Mrs. Emile Verret Allen, Nettie Verret, Dennis Carline,

Blanche Verret, Lizzie Carline, Leah Carline, unidentified, Ellen Verret, Jerome

Case, unidentified, Grandmother Crowson, Emma Wisdom, unidentified, Willie

Crowson. Third row from top, left to right: unidentified, unidentified, Ethel Case,

Lena Gamble, unidentified, Elodie Theriot, Antonia Smith, Lilly Mendoza, unidentified, unidentified, Rose Case, Martha Allen, Annie Fowler, unidentified, Mary

Daigle, Nancy Carline, Sarah Case, Kate Crowson, Laura Daigle, Lorena Larson,

unidentified, Pastor Chase, Pastor Chases daughter (playing the melodeon). Fourth

and fifth rows from the top: all unidentified, with the exception of two persons in

dark clothes. Baker Verret standing in white shirt, dark coat and pants; Warren

Stockstill between the fourth and fifth rows in dark clothes. Courtesy of Mr. Amos

Curry and Mrs. Pearl Theriot Curry.

Page 4: The Louisiana Collection, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University.

Page 5: Photographed ca. 1950 near Pierre Part, Assumption Parish. Courtesy of

Mr. William Knipmeyer.

Page 6, upper: Earth Search, Inc.

Page 6, lower: Photographed ca. 1950 near Pierre Part, Assumption Parish. Courtesy of Mr. William Knipmeyer.

Page 7, upper: The Louisiana Collection, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane

University.

Page 7, lower: Photographed ca. 1950 near Pierre Part, Assumption Parish. Courtesy of Mr. William Knipmeyer.

Page 9: Based on a map prepared by Henry L. Abbot in 1863, other nineteenthcentury surveys and interviews with oral informants. Earth Search, Inc.

Page 10: Back row: Carl, Henry, Charles, Agatha, Christine, Ellen, Mable, Annie,

Matilda; front row: Carl Sonny Mendoza (son of Christine Larson), Otto,

Christines daughter, Mary, Amelia and Lottie. Courtesy of Mr. Charles Roe.

Page 11, both images: From Coulon (1888). The Louisiana Collection, HowardTilton Memorial Library, Tulane University.

Bayou Chene

31

Page 14, both images: Courtesy of Mrs. Mary Chauvin Robichaux.

Page 15: Courtesy of Mr. Gregory J. Dupre.

Page 16: The putt-putts of Tom Pirie (left, upper image) and Tony Latiolatis, Belle

River, Assumption Parish, 1998. Earth Search, Inc.

Page 16 and 17: Courtesy of Mr. William Knipmeyer.

Page 17, both images: Courtesy of the Simmesport Historical Society.

Page 18, upper image: Courtesy of Mrs. Mary Chauvin Robichaux.

Page 18, lower image: Back row, left to right: Rachel Case, Mattie Larson, Dolly

Verret, Myrtle Theriot. Second row from back, left to right: Mary Chauvin, Florence Chauvin, Dorothy Verret, Georgie Ferguson, Bertha Case. Third row, left to

right: Victor Case, Henry Diamond, Walter Chauvin, Hervey Hobo Snellgrove.

Lying down: Harold Snellgrove. Courtesy of Mrs. Mary Chauvin Robichaux.

Pages 19: The Chauvin Store at Bayou Sorrel during the 1927 flood. Courtesy of

Mrs. Mary Chauvin Robichaux.

Page 20, upper image: Photo by John Gasquet, taken near Pierre Part, Assumption

Parish. Courtesy of the Louisiana State Archives.

Page 20, lower image: Courtesy of the Louisiana Department of Conservation.

Page 21: Left to right: Charles Roe, Winnie Roe (Smallman) and John E. Roe, children of Edd and Maude Verret Roe, on the Verret property adjacent to Bayou Jean

Louis, 1932. Photograph taken by Verona Verret Richardson. Courtesy of Mr.

Charles Roe.

Page 22: Courtesy of the New Orleans District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Page 22-23: Courtesy of Mrs. Mary Chauvin Robichaux.

Pages 23: Courtesy of Mrs. Mary Chauvin Robichaux.

Page 24, upper image: Courtesy of Mrs. Mary Chauvin Robichaux.

Page 24, lower image: Courtesy of Mr. Amos Curry and Mrs. Pearl Theriot Curry.

Page 25, upper image: Left to right: Eldridge Larson, Ann Carline, Ray Carline,

Hazel Seneca, W.A. Carline, Bonnie Verret, Roy Seneca, Katy Snellgrove, Lynn

Curry, Edith Curry and Russell Seneca. Courtesy of Mr. Lynn Curry.

Page 12, upper: The Louisiana Collection, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane

University.

Page 12, middle: Courtesy of the Louisiana Department of Conservation.

Page 12, lower: Courtesy of Mrs. Mary Chauvin Robichaux.

Page 13: Photographed ca. 1950 near Pierre Part, Assumption Parish. Courtesy of

Mr. William Knipmeyer.