New Orleans daily crescent., 1866-03-06

NuMBER TwENTY-sE

We have stated in former numbers that the
plantation belonging to the Gravier family COM |
prised that part of the now First District of the
city between the Canal Avenue and Delord street,
near the St. Mary's market. This was at the time
of Baron Carondelet's administration, who left the
country for some South American vice royalty In
1877. About that period this plantation was iaia
out in town lots, with pretty nearly the same diVi'
sions and outlines as at present preserved. Inc
names given upon this plan to several o! .he
streets do indeed indicate the relations OF the
owner at that time. Thus we have, IN 'he htst
place, his own name, that of GraVler' 10 'he hrs'
street. running from the evee towards tne cypress
woods, which now is preceded by common street,
| then not existing, inasmuch as all the grouho
between the square proper OF the clty, from even
Bieuyille street towards the lower limits OF the
nlautation or Grayier street, had formed an empty
| ground or common pasture ground Tor the commu-
] nity. being outside of the city fortlhcatlons.
Next. in ascending the plan, we come to Poydras
street, a somewhat enlarged avenue, in honor of
one of his influential friends and great patron, the
Hon. Julien Poydras This gentleman had at that
time figured already very extensively ; arrived
Young in the Spanish colony, we find that mention
already is made of him i'll the various military
eypedIlOnS OF 0OVeEuOF OhlVeH, tueI ellufSluS
the limits of the Spanish jurisdiction byrepossess
ing in 1779 the formerly occupied posts of Man
chac, Baton Rouge and Natchez, Of which the
English, under the treaty ceding to them the
Floridas in 1763, had laid hold of.
Julien Poydras, whom we have only seen in
1920, or thereabouts, then at least man of 70 or
Is years old, must have been distinguished char
acter; for we find that he presided as president
in 1912, the territory into a State organization.
We also see him mentioned in many of the legis-
atve proceedings and other political movements.
during the time of the territorial administration.
HWhat, further, we would remark upon this occa-
sion, is the circumstance related in the history of
our country, that, in 1895, when the news of the
French revolution and its consequences in the
French colony of st. Domingo had spread among
the black slave population, it upon his panta-
ton, in the settlement of Point Coupee, that
serious revolt occurred-Julien Poydras, himself,
then being absent, taveling in the United States.
This revolt was Immediately and severely sup
pressed by the Baron of Carondelet sixteen of the
rngleaders executed upon the very spot, or plan
taton, and some fifty more embarked upon yes
| sci, as the statement goes, which landed
the culprits at different stations all along the
|
had them severally, to intimidate the slave popula
ton, executed within sight Of the plantations.
This measure, it appears, was then called for, on
4 account of the horrible massacres to which the
infuriated slaves of the French colony of St. Do
mingo had had recourse to, by being stimulated
principally by the free-born colored population,
who intimated to the blacks that they would again
be re.enslaved by the whites, unless they made a
clear field of their Caucasian oppressors. Although
this may have been the cause of the horrible do
| ings in that former French colony, we do not find
that anything approaching the like spirit ex-
listed in Louisiana, neither among the slave or the
| free-born colored population. On the contrary,
| it appears, that the identical negroes of Julien
Poydras, in particular, were much attached and
devoted to their master that he himself in his tes-
lament, left them, besides their freedom, ample
| landed and other means for their sustenance and
| provision. Similar bequests in real estate and
revenues were also instituted by the same Poydras,
in favor of female orphan asylum, and some very
valuable stores and extensive warehouses; situated
in the street bearing his name still attest the bepe
| cence of this wealthy and influential man. Pur-
suing our present object, that of the nomenclature
of the plan of the former faubourg St. Mary, or
| Gravier plantation, we come now to the street
named after Nicholas Girod, afterwards, that is in
1913, IA and Is, mayor of New Orleans.
| AT the time of the making of the plan there
| were several Girods, all eminently Industrious
| men, and from country, Savoy, proverbially
| known for its active inhabitants, and those
who voluntarily leave their mountainous regions
to exert their inventive genius in foreign countries
Were they countrymen of old Gravier? This is
what we ignore, but they must have taken an
active interest in his plan and endeavors for they
possessed considerable real estate in the newly
laid out Sabborl. Now we come to the names of
TIVE of the Oldest black and trusty people, Julia
and Joseph, of our Sir Gravier, and in order to
immortaze their memory he inserted, as we have
been told, their names; and their old cypress
houses were still to be seen in that street until
lately. Thus we have stated in short the origin of
the names of the principal streets running from
the leyee towards the forests. With respect to
the others, those lying parallel to the stream, the
reader needs hardly any assistance in dvning their
appropriateness. Tchoupitouas was the name of
the public road along the river, towards some
Indian huts above the Macarty's point. Magazine
and Camp streets relate to the first public stores
erected in their vicinity. ST. Charles, of this we
do not divine the origin, but the name of
Carondelet and Baronne streets are evidently
! in compliment Of the then commanding Governor
and his spouse; and that we bethink ourselves,
st. Charles or San Carlos street, may possibly be,
in reference to the then reigning king of Spain,
that is, his Majesty Carlos w, who reigned from
l7ss to 1908. These were the original streets laid
out upon Gravier's plan or plat. But several of
the squares have been subdivided, and hence new
names added thereto; besides the batture formed
| outside Of Front Levee or Tchoupitoulas street
again furnished field for the invention of new
names just as the further extension towards the
cypress woods in later years added an almost in
| terminable nomenclature to the former names of
the streets. 1t would be little interesting to pur-,
sue this subject so far, but at other times we may
have occasion to recur to the naming of some of
the old suburb Marigny and the old city proper as
an elucidaton of long past chronical events and
conditions. We have touched but lightly upon the
circumstance of the first serious outbreak among
the black population in 1906; there was another
one in the parish Of st. John de Baptist in 1911,
when similar scenes of severity took place. lLet
US hope that Louisiana now that the former cond-
tion of slavery has been abolished, may be spared
the repetition of such rigorous admonitions.
Old inhabitants to whom we mentioned the re-
volt in Point Coupee parish in 1905, told us
that they very well recoected the circumstance
and that the Baron Carondelet had acted perfectly