Joseph (Guiseppe) Salassi

                                                     by Edward R. Millet

The New Century Cyclopedia of Names lists Salassi as an “ancient Ligurian (or perhaps Celtic) tribe which occupied the Valley of the Dora Baltea in northwest Italy.  They were in conflict with the Romans (143 B.C. and later) and were finally subdued in 25 B.C.”

Today, we find the Valle D’Aosta as an autonomous province in the northwest corner of Italy, south of St. Bernard Pass and the Matterhorn of the Alps.  Aosta is the capital of the province.  It was the ancient capital of the Gallic Tribe of the Salassi and became a Roman colony under Augustus in 25 B.C.

Through the centuries and to the present the inhabitants of this region and Aosta are an ethnic French-speaking people.  In the Valle D’Aosta the names of the villages and towns are in French, not Italian.  Except for short intervals, Aosta was under the rule of the House of Savoy from the 11th century on.  However, through the years the region became governed by Italy, and by 1938, the French-speaking parts of Valle D’Aosta were being forcibly Italianized.  DeGaulle tried to claim and occupy it during World War II but the other Allies stood firm.  In the 1947 peace terms, it was accepted by Italy and its autonomy was restricted within fairly narrow bounds.

Thus we find that the name Salassi was apparently of ancient Gallic or French origin rather than Italian.  But how members of the tribe migrated to Venice in northeast Italy and we find it there as a family name in 1700, is not known.  Joseph Salassi (1806-1868) was the progenitor of the Salassi family in Livingston Parish. 

This Salassi family history begins in Venice, Italy where Joseph (Guiseppe) Salassi was born November 24, 1806 to Pietro Salassi and Stella Galvani.  Three more generations beyond Pietro (Peter) have been traced in Venice to near 1700 and it was found that they were mariners, sailors, on merchant vessels.  In fact, Joseph’s father, Pietro, was a “civilian officer of the mariner of the fourth class”.

It is not known when Joseph migrated to Louisiana, but old family tales passed down said Joseph was one of three brothers that came to Louisiana.  Nothing has been found of the two brothers.  There is evidence of a Peter Salassi who died at the age of 43 in New Orleans in 1849 (possibly a half-brother); a Francis Salassi, listed as Godfather on the birth certificate of one of Joseph’s sons, Denis Francis Salassi in 1848; and an F. Salassi, Jefferson Township #203, Jefferson parish, 1850 census for Louisiana. These could perhaps have been the two brothers.

 
Joseph married Marie Louise Scivicque, age 19, daughter of Vincent Scivicque, a native of Naples, Italy, and Eleanor Brignac.  Vincent Scivicque founded the village of Port Vincent in Livingston parish.  Joseph and Marie were married in St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans on October 26, 1837.

Joseph was a partner of Charles Montechio who had married Marie’s sister, Angelina.  Charles was also from the environs of Venice.  Joseph and Charles were the owners of the “Orleans Theater Coffee House and Bar” (Caffee Davis) located between Royal and Bourbon Streets, where the present Bourbon Orleans Hotel now stands.  Joseph and Marie resided at 150 Rue d’Orleans between Burgundy and Rampart.  Charles Montechio died on May 3, 1844.

Joseph and Marie had six children born in New Orleans between 1838 and 1848. Why Joseph moved to French Settlement about 1849 is not known, but it may have been influenced by Vincent Scivicque, the yellow fever epidemic of 1848, or the steam boat trade that had developed on the Amite River.   What was the relationship between Joseph Salassi, Charles Montechio and Vincent Scivicque?  Joseph and Charles were both from Venice while Vincent was from Naples in Southern Italy.  

Family tradition states that Vincent Scivicque promised his two oldest daughters to Joseph and Charles.  What connection dating to their early years in Italy prompted this liaison?  In Charles Montechio’s succession petition there are evidences of this.  Old family tales relate that Vincent’s father died when Vincent was a small boy and his mother lived in poverty in Naples and could not support him, so she gave him to a ship’s captain to raise and he grew up on a ship.  Could Pietro Salassi, who was a marine officer been this ship’s captain?

After establishing a home and business (a wharf, store and bar) in French Settlement at the junction of the Amite River and King George Bayou, the family of Joseph and Marie  continued to grow with six more children from 1850 to 1861.

 
The twelve children of Joseph and Marie were: 1. Peter Vincent, 1838; 2. Charles Felix, 1840; 3. Marie Estelle,1841; 4. Joseph Severe, 1844; 5. Alexander, 1846; 6. Denis Francis, 1848; 7. Jean Placide, 1850; 8 & 9. Leon and Eleanor, twins, 1853; 10. Marie Louise, 1855; 11. Edmund Bruno, 1857; 12. Henry, 1861.  

Five of the children married in French Settlement and had families; Peter. Charles, Jean Placide (John P.), Marie Louise, and Edmund.  The other children of Joseph and Marie died young or as infants and did not marry.  Marie Estelle married Charles Montaldo in New Orleans in 1860. Peter married Marguerite Lambert in 1859.  They had four children: Elizabeth, Peter Vincent, Theodule Amelus and Alexander.  Charles married Marie Noemi Lambert in 1870.  They had five children: Charles, Jr., Jean and Joseph, twins who lived only one month and 18 days, Desire and Henry.  John P. married Alice Landry in 1870.  They had five children:  Joseph Placide, John Roger, Marie Julia, Marie Estelle, and Marie Dina.  John P.’s wife, Alice died about 1885 and he married his sister-in-law Marine in 1887, after her first husband, Leon died in 1883.  They had no children.  

Marie Louise married Joseph Hebert in 1874.  They had eleven children:  five boys and six girls.  Edmund married Mary Agnes Fontenot and they had eleven children, four of who died young or as infants.  Seven of them were: Edmund, Jr., Gerard, Leonce, Paul, Lina, Grace and Dewey.  Leon Lafayette married Marine Berthelot in 1879, but he died in 1883, as shown above, with no children.  Joseph died September 24, 1868 and was buried in the family vault in the old French Settlement Community Cemetery.  Marie Louise died November 12, 1873 and was also buried in French Settlement.

In the early 1900s and up to 1918, the Salassi family was the most prominent, social, and well-to-do in French Settlement.  John P. Salassi & Company in its prime at the junction of the Amite River and King George Bayou consisted of a soft-drink plant, an ice factory, a saw mill, a general store, a bar, a post office (first begun by Joseph in 1856, closed in 1866 and later reopened).  There was even a telephone at that time.  The Knights of Honor Lodge was organized by the Salassi family.  The first Christmas tree, a revolving one, with gifts underneath is remembered by Mrs. Grace Brignac and Mrs. Ella Lambert.  This was an innovation of “Uncle” John P. at the old school in French Settlement.
 

The Salassi family had acquired hundreds of acres of land in southern French Settlement, the old Fulton Junction of land (sec. 40) and hundreds of acres from Bayou Manchac at the Amite River in Galvez to Hobart in Ascension Parish.  It has been stated that even the present site of Cortana Mall in Baton Rouge was once Salassi land.  Yet, John P. Salassi is reported to have died a poor man.  Many Salassi descendants still remain in French Settlement, Baton Rouge, New Orleans and other locations in Louisiana.  Some have moved to Vicksburg, Jackson and the Gulf Coast.

The Garyville Northern Railroad 1896-1937

By Bobby Hill

                                                                       1930 - 2011


There is a small town on the east bank of the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans named Garyville.  In the early nineteen-hundreds there was a logging railroad that ran north from Garyville into the cypress swamps.  It was built to haul cypress trees harvested from the swamp to the mill in Garyville.  As the trees were cut, the line was extended further northward.  By 1915, the company had reached the Amite River and the end of the cypress forest.  At that time the mill in Garyville was completely remodeled to handle pine and hardwoods, and the rail line was extended northward across the Amite by way of a swing span bridge at Whitehall.  The bridge went into operation on 09 December, 1915.

It was after this time, probably around 1920 or so, that the residents of French Settlement were using the rail line as a means of transportation to Baton Rouge or New Orleans.  They would be taken, by horse and wagon, to the town of Frost to board a flat car (containing a water tank) and ride it south to Whitehall, just across the Amite River, where they would transfer to a passenger car for the remainder of the trip to Garyville.  There they could catch a train to Baton Rouge or New Orleans on The Illinois Central line.

 
My mother, Della Brignac, told of one of her experiences during these times: She made the trip numerous times, transporting others to Frost.  On occasion, there might be two wagon loads of people.  Della would drive one wagon and her father, Henry would drive the other.  Sometimes they would be coming home after dark.  Henry would drive ahead in his wagon with Della following.  Every few minutes he would strike a match to show where he was - sometimes he was immediately ahead and some times he was several hundred yards ahead.  Della’s horse probably didn’t know the way home, so Henry would make sure they stayed together until they got closer to home, where Della’s horse would recognize the area and “head for the barn”.

It was almost an all-day trip from French Settlement to Baton Rouge by this route.  Later, in the late 1940s, before highways 16 and 42 were paved through Port Vincent to French Settlement, the trip was “only” three hours by car for the thirty-or-so mile trip from Baton Rouge.  At present, the town of Frost is little more than a cross-roads with several stores and an elementary school.  Highway 63, running north/south through Frost to Verdun, is built on the old railroad bed.  The town was once the site of a saw mill, planing mill, and dry kiln as well as a stopping place for The Garyville Northern Railroad.  The lumber in the kiln was dried with steam.  The concrete walls of the kiln are still standing today.  There was a slanted unloader for the logs.

The name for the town came from one of the owners of the Frost-Johnson Lumber Company which had large holdings of land in Livingston parish in the early 1900s.  At the height of development, Frost had two churches, two hotels, two beauty shops, two meat markets, three grocery stores, a dentist, a doctor and a large residential area.

At the northern end of the rail line was the town of Livingston.  It was important for the owners of The Garyville Northern Railroad, The Lyon Cypress Lumber Company, to have a connection to the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad (later, Baton Rouge, Hammond and Eastern Railroad and then Illinois Central Gulf) which ran from Baton Rouge eastward through Livingston to Hammond, LA.  Livingston was really brought into existence after the cypress was depleted, around 1915, and pine forests attracted the lumber companies.  Livingston is in the heart of pine country.  The railroad facilities at Livingston included a station, coal chute and repair sheds.  It is said that there was a round house and a raised, trestled engine maintenance area 30’ wide and 1/4 mile long also at Livingston.  

                   


In 1899, Mr. John Lindsey of Laurel, Mississippi patented the eight-wheeled wagon for hauling felled timber in the woods and swamps. It was used throughout extensively and his company soon became Mississippi’s largest manufacturer.