St. Joseph Catholic Church, French Settlement, Louisiana

From the French Settlement Historical Register, published by the French Settlement Historical Society, French Settlement, Louisiana 70733. 

Vol. 2, December 1977

St. Joseph Church

French Settlement or LaCote Francoise is located in Livingston Civil Parish between Baton Rouge and Lake Maurepas.  The area along the Amite River from Port Vincent and beyond French Settlement was first settled in the early 1800's.  These first settlers were ministered until the late 1830's by Spanish Capuchin and Franciscan Friars from the little church of St. Bernard in Galveztown and from the St. Gabriel Church of Iberville.

     In 1838 the Lazarist or Vincentian Fathers were placed in charge of the church at Donaldsonville and began to minister as far as the Amite River.  Appeals were made by the Catholic settlers requesting that the Lazarist priests cross the Amite to the established settlement of Port Vincent.

     Thus, the mission of St. Vincent Ferrer at Port Vincent had its beginning.  Vincent Scivicque, a native of Italy, donated to the diocese the land and chapel for the mission of St. Vincent Ferrer in February, 1837.  At the beginning of the St. Joseph Parish Book of Baptisms appears this important entry:  "On the 20th day of August, 1839, I Father Thadee Amant, authorized by Bishop Antoine Blanc, blessed with the rites of the Catholic Church a small chapel built on the land of Mr. Vincent Scivicque, built by him in honor of St. Vincent Ferrer for the benefit of all the Catholic surroundings."  

     Vincent Scivicque had built the small chapel so his mother would have a place of worship upon her arrival from Italy, but she died before coming to this country.  This historic pioneer chapel was sold in 1909.  The second chapel was destroyed by a storm before its completion.  In 1914, the second chapel was completed and was placed under the invocation of St. Agnes.  In 1959, the present chapel was built and, at the request of a substantial benefactor, was once again placed under a new patron, St. William.  Most parishioners, descendants of Vincent Scivicque, think the chapel should be renamed after the original patron, St. Vincent Ferrer.

     The church at French Settlement got its start during the pastorate of Father Juhel at Cornerview in 1873.  Father Branche was considered the first resident priest, but he remained only about a year.  Prior to 1873, missionaries had served the people in individual homes and in a small chapel (built of logs and mud) near the old community cemetery in French Settlement. After Father Branche, missionaries again ministered to the parish from New River from 1874 to 1878.

     On October 6, 1876, Hubert Haydel donated a piece of land, measuring two arpents by five arpents and situated on the public road at French Settlement, for the purpose of building a church.  This site was located down the road towards the ferry (Amite River) about a mile from the present church.

St. Joseph Church Choir

     In 1882, the citizens of French Settlement signed two petitions, one requesting a resident priest and the other requesting that a church be built.  This church when built was placed under the invocation of St. Joseph. The first confirmations that took place in the parish were conferred by Archbishop Lemay of New Orleans on April 17, 1883.  Two hundred five persons received the sacrament that day. Persons from all over the parish gathered there for the occasion in order to be confirmed.  Several among the confirmers were already married and some were elderly.  After a storm destroyed this church the members decided to change the location to the center of the community in order to accommodate more people.

     By 1887, Rev. Joseph Maumus was the resident pastor of St. Joseph, which had been set up as parish, serving the missions of Port Vincent, White Hall, The Lake, Bear Island, and Head of Island.  The present church was built in 1889.  On July 22, 1891, there was another confirmation conducted by Mgr. Janssens of New Orleans and one hundred nineteen received the sacrament. Another confirmation took place on July 9, 1895, conducted by the same bishop with one hundred forty-four receiving the sacrament.  On February 16, 1922, Archbishop J.W. Shaw established the Parish of St. Joseph at French Settlement, giving boundaries, after placing it under the care of Oblates of Mary Immaculate in 1918.  Rev. J.A. Sirois, O.M.I., the first Oblate pastor, not only looked after the established mission, but added Denham Springs, Hungarian Settlement, and others when an assistant was assigned to St. Joseph Church.

     Our Lady of Perpetual Help Mission Chapel of St. Joseph Church, Head of Island, was dedicated on May 31, 1942, by Archbishop Rummel of New Orleans.  The building of this chapel was possible because a rich lady in New Orleans, hearing of the condition of this community, donated all the necessary money to acquire a piece of land and paid for everything else needed to prepare the chapel for services.

     Starting in 1839 with the baptism records of St. Vincent Ferrer, marriages in 1873, and funerals in 1887 are the earliest records of St. Joseph.  There are a few scattered marriage and funeral records before these dates.  Early records are now located in the Diocese Archives, Baton Rouge.

Compiled by Mercy Cambre

Reviewed by Father John Courchesne

History of the Cajuns

NOTE: the Brignac family are not descendants of those who were expelled from Acadia, but the proximity of the two peoples in south Louisiana and elsewhere compels the telling of the story.  At the Acadian Memorial in St. Martinville, LA., there is a ‘Wall of Names’ listing those families who came from Nova Scotia.  The Brignac name is not there.

Mr. Randall Whatley and Mr. Harry Jannise are two gentlemen who taught an informal class in Conversational Cajun French for the LSU Union in Baton Rouge.  When they discovered that Cajun French could be written as well as spoken - and it wasn’t as hard as was believed - they expanded the book they had written and made audio tapes to be used by the students to help in pronunciation.

In the introduction to the book, they explored the origin of the Cajuns, how they originally settled in Canada.  Some settled in the area now known as Nova Scotia.  They named their settlement “Arcadia” after a popular Italian poem written in the 1400s, about a utopian land.  When the French settlers saw the magnificent beauty of Nova Scotia, they were reminded of the beauty described in “l’Arcadia” and named the land after it.  In time the “r” was dropped and the settlement became known as “Acadia”. 

As Mr. Whatley and Mr. Jannise said in their book, “the actual story of the Acadian exile was best told in 1959 by Dr. Harry Oster in the booklet entitled “Folksongs of the Louisiana Acadians”.

The Dramatic and tragic story begins when the first French colony in the New World was established in Acadia (modern Nova Scotia) in 1604 by settlers from provinces of northern France - Brittany, Normandy and Picardy.

During Queen Ann’s War the English won control of Acadia.  According to the Treaty of Utrecht of April 13, 1713, the Acadians were to enjoy the free exercise of their religion, the choice either to remain in the country, keeping the ownership of all they possessed, or to leave the country, taking away with them all their movable goods and also the proceeds of the sale of their movable property. 

Despite the apparent freedom of choice the English granted the French colonists, the governors were actually quite reluctant to permit the Acadians to settle in any other part of Canada, for they feared the influx of a substantial number of Acadians into another part of the country would create a concentration of Frenchmen potentially dangerous to British rule.  Also, the British rulers took a sterner stand in their official demands; they insisted that either the Acadians ‘take an unrestricted oath of allegiance to the British Crown or leave Acadia without taking their possessions’.  

Although the Acadians refused to take an unrestricted oath, the English did not begin to dig their claws into the settlers until General Phillips came from Annapolis in 1720 to take over as governor.  Almost at once Phillips ordered the settlers to ‘take the oath of allegiance without any reservations or to leave the country within four months without being able either to sell their possessions or to transport them’.  When the Acadians took him at his word and began arranging for their departure, Phillips expressed his annoyance at their refusal to take the oath by doing everything he could to prevent their leaving.  The sentiments of his administration are amply clear in a letter Craggs, his Secretary of State wrote him:


My dear Phillips:
I see you do not get the better of the Acadians as you expected . . . it is singular all the same that these people should have preferred to lose their goods rather than be exposed to fight against their brethren.  This sentimentality is stupid.  These people are evidently too much attached to their fellowmen and to their religion to make true Englishmen . . .  The Treaty be hanged!  Don’t bother about justice and other baubles . . . Their departure will doubtless increase the power of France; it must not be so; they must eventually be transported to some other place, where mingling with our subjects, they will soon lose their language, their religion, and their remembrance of the past, to become true Englishmen.


Although Phillips finally accepted a restricted oath of allegiance which would exempt the Acadians from bearing arms against their own countrymen and Indian allies, the British government, when it was expedient to do so, declared the oath invalid on the technicality that parliament had not given its consent.

In the French and Indian War, which began in 1747, the English and French once more locked horns in another of their innumerable wars.  Lawrence, the governor of Acadia at that time, plotted secretly to exile the Acadians from Canada and to expropriate their rich lands.  Since the British had brought over twenty-five hundred settlers from England in 1748 and established the city of Halifax, the government decided that the Acadians had outlived their usefulness to the empire.  Lawrence insisted that the inhabitants of Grand Pre take an unqualified oath of allegiance to the English crown, swearing loyalty forever to England and agreeing to bear arms against her enemies.

When most of the Acadians refused, Lawrence summoned the men of Grand Pre to the village church on September 5, 1755.  There Lawrence’s aid, Winslow read them their cruel fate, ‘that your lands and tenements; cattle of all kinds and livestock of all sorts are forfeited to the Crown with all your effects, saving your money and household goods; and yourselves to be removed from this province’.  Winslow then put the assembled four hundred and eighteen men of Grand Pre and vicinity under arrest.

Five days later the young men, the most likely source of rebellion, were forced onto the five transports then available.

As the two hundred and fifty young men were lined up between files of soldiers with fixed bayonets, the scene of grief that followed is almost indescribable.  Every evidence of grief and excitement became manifest - cries of anger, tears, and pleading for mercy, stubborn refusal to march, calling of father to son and son to father, brother to brother . . . A great many people from the village lined the road to the landing place, a distance of a mile and a half away, and as the young men moved down the road between the files of soldiers, praying, crying, singing, many of the people fell on their knees and prayed or followed with wailing and lamentation.  As soon as the other Acadians had been driven from their farms, Winslow ordered the buildings burned to the ground, often before the eyes of their agonized owners. 

During the next eleven years the British continued to deport Acadians, more than eight thousand of them, four thousand of whom died at sea of smallpox and other diseases.  The surviving exiles were scattered widely, at first to New Haven, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Hampton Roads, Charleston and Savannah - usually without advance notice to the governors.  Almost everywhere their reception was cold; the governor of Virginia sheltered them through the winter, but sent them to England in the spring.  Philadelphia received them reluctantly and Governor Reynolds of Georgia banished them as soon as they arrived because of a statute which forbade the settling of Catholics.  Since almost everywhere the pathetic exiles found themselves unwanted, most of them pushed on to Louisiana, hoping to join other Frenchmen.

The Acadians became known simply as Cajuns and adapted very quickly to Louisiana.  Soon they began doing something which they were able to do up until World War II, they began assimilating other cultures.

The Germans had been brought to Louisiana in the early 1700s to aid in the settlement and development of Louisiana.  Soon the Germans and the Cajuns began intermarrying, and the Germans became less German and more Cajun with each passing generation.  As evidence of this, some of the most common Cajun surnames in some regions of Louisiana were originally German names like Huval, Schexnayder, Waguespack and Zeringue.

The Cajuns also assimilated the Spanish. When the first Acadians arrived in 1756, Louisiana was under Spanish rule. But the Acadians, like the French who were here before them, never really recognized the Spanish and continued to be loyal to France.  The Spanish and the Cajuns also intermarried, which made the Spanish less Spanish and more Cajun.  Most of the marriages were between Spanish men and French or Cajun women.  It is interesting to note that in the case of these marriages, the children usually spoke the language of the mother, which was French.  After a couple of generations, the Ortegos, Diazes, and Romeros were Cajuns.

For a more complete history of the dispersal of the Cajuns, I would recommend a book by Carl A. Brasseaux, “Scattered to the Wind”. It is one of several of his books about the Cajuns and South Louisiana.  They are available from The Center for Louisiana Studies, University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, LA.

1 Conversational Cajun French 1 – by Randall P. Whatley and Harry Jannise – Pelican Publishing Company – Gretna, LA. 

2 Folksongs of the Louisiana Acadians – by Dr. Harry Oster

Settling Colonial Louisiana

In 1682, the French explorer, Rene’ Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, traveled The Mississippi River from the north to it’s mouth, erected a cross on the banks of the river at what is now Plaquemines Parish, and claimed all the lands that drained into it for France.
    

In 1700, Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur de Iberville, made his second voyage down the river in his own exploration.  Among those with him was a man named Jean Baptiste Turpin.  It is thought that Turpin’s daughter, Marie, was the one who married Simon Jacques Brignac at Ft. Toulouse, Alabama in 1725.  Simon was the progenitor of The Brignac family in Louisiana.
 

Later in the 1700s, the French made attempts at settling areas along the West Bank of the river between New Orleans and what is now Baton Rouge. The First Acadian Coast and The Second Acadian Coast were the names given to the areas.  These French people had been recruited and were being escorted to areas up-river called “The Demeuves Concession”, whereby workers, farmers, and others were given land in return for their developing those lands.  However, they elected to stop at the Acadian Coasts because of some difficulties of the projects up river.  Eventually, spring floods, Indian raids and a severe hurricane caused a lot of them to abandon the area and move on to places such as Opelousas, Natchez, Arkansas Post, St. Louis, etc.  The hurricane occurred on 11 September 1722. 

“As the screaming winds swung from southeast to south, then southwest, the settlers were trapped between the Mississippi on the east, Lac des Canards and Ouacha Lac on the southeast and Lac des Allemands on the southwest.  The hurricane lasted five days, New Orleans was destroyed as well as the bean, corn and rice crops.  For five days, the people were exposed to the elements and by clinging to trees and other floating objects, many escaped drowning as the waters rushed in.  Those fortunate enough to survive left this village for other lands in the colony”.
 

Then in 1721, the John Law “Company Of The West”, having gained exclusive rights (in 1717) to settle and exploit the products of Louisiana, began to settle German families on these lands, and it became known as “The Village Of The Germans” or “La Cote des Allemands” and other names.  It started out in what is now St. Charles Parish and soon extended to include St. John the Baptist Parish: the First German Coast and the Second German Coast.

The census of 1724 listed 58 families residing in three German settlements:  Marienthal, Augsburg and Hoffen.  Among those families were some currently well known names as Darensbourg, Trosclair, Oubre, Haydel, Matherne, Mayer and others.
 

Eventually, the descendants of the first settlers expanded to other locations in Louisiana, including the village of Cabanocey in St. James Parish, one of the main settlements. The area of “La Cote Francais”, which was to become French Settlement, was discovered as a place of higher ground and rich earth and proved to be ideal for habitation.  Families such as Brignac, Haydel (Aydell), Wichner (Vicner) and Guitrau were among those making their homes here.

 “Au Chaloupe” they came, in the cold month of January, eighteen hundred eight to clear and inhabit this land (defrechie’ et habite’ une terre).  Three families joined a few settlers along the Amite River.  They were the families of Alexandre Brignac, Joseph Lambert and Paul Guitreau.

Other related families came to the Amite River colony called “La Cote” and by eighteen hundred ten starting at Bayou King George to Bayou Colyell, included the following settlers:
Alexandre Brignac married to Agnes Poche’
Joseph Lambert married to Theotiste Vickner
Paul Guitreau married to Josephine Vickner
Mathew Brignac (Alexandre’s brother) married to Marguerite Vickner
Henri Villar married to Rosalie Vickner
Louis Lobell married to Leonide Vickner
And six or so others

The Vickner sisters; Theotiste, Rosalie, Josephine, Marguerite and Leonide were daughters of Nicholas Vickner and Apolonie Helfre of German Nationality.

Joseph Lambert and Theotiste Vickner were to be the maternal great grand parents of both Henry Severin Brignac and of Alphonsine Mayer, our own grand parents.   This made Henry and Alphonsine second cousins.  The church records confirming the marriage of Henry and Alphonsine on 04 September 1875, listed the marriage as ‘third degree consanguinity’, meaning they married blood relatives.

A partial listing of settlers related to the Brignac family in French Settlement follows:

Joseph Lambert was born in St. James Of Cantrelle the 26th of August, 1772, son of Pieire Lambert and Marie Duaron.  He was baptized 22 October 1772 at St. John The Baptist Catholic Church in Edgard, Louisiana.  He married the 6th of February 1794 in St. John The Baptist Church.
 

Theotiste (Osita) Vickner (no birth date listed on baptism records) was baptized 23 August 1777, Baptismal Book 1, page 34A, St John The Baptist Catholic Church, Edgard, Louisiana.  She was the daughter of Nicolas Vickner and Apolina Helfre (Elfre).

Known children of Joseph Lambert and Theotiste Vickner:
   1-a- Joseph Lambert -  Henry Brignac’s grandfather
   2-b- Pierie Leon Lambert
   3-c- Eufrosyna Lambert
   4-d- Michael Drausin Lambert - Alphonsine’s grandfather
   5-e- Joseph Lambert
   6-f- Marie Zelina Lambert
   7-g- Jean Cyprien Lambert

4-d- Michael Drausin Lambert
   Born 07 May 1801, St James Of Cantrelle
   Baptized 07 August 1802, St. James Of Cantrelle
   First marriage to Arthemise Babin, 24 December 1828, Ascension parish
   (vol R, page 56) Daughter of Eusebe Babin and Francoise Landry
   Arthemise died 20 January 1829
Child of Michael and Arthemise:  
   4-1-d- Joseph Timeleon Lambert
Second marriage to Marie Eulalie Gautreaux, 29 May 1831
    Marie daughter of Charles Gautreaux and Marie Marthe Richard
   Children of Michael and Marie:
      4-2-d- Celestine Lambert -  Alphonsine’s mother
      4-3-d- Sosthene Lambert
      4-4-d- Drogan Lambert
      4-5-d- Louise Lambert
      4-6-d- Alexandre Lambert
      4-7-d- Marguerite Utisea Lambert
   Michael Drausin is deceased before the 1850 census
   Marie Eulalie second marriage to Francois Delattes
 

Paul Guitreau (Guidroz) was born in New Orleans, Louisiana about 1770.                  
There are no records of his birth because of the fire that destroyed the early records of The St. Louis Cathedral.  Paul was the son of Abraham Guidroz and Catherins Buquoy.  He married Josephine Vickner 28 April 1802 at St. Ann’s Catholic Church, Morganza, Louisiana.  They were residents of False River, Pointe Coupee Parish.  The marriage made legitimate their three children, Paul, age 7 years, Charlotte, age 4 years and Artimise, age 2 years.  Josephine was born 19 March 1775.

Alexandre Brignac was born in 1763, son of Simon Pierre Brignac and Marie Louise Fontenot.  He married Agnes Poucher (Poche) of St. Charles Parish.  She was the daughter of Francois LaChapelle Poche’ and Agnes Mayer and the grand daughter of Nicolas Mayer and Anna Marie Kautzen.
 

Children of Alexandre and Agnes:
Alexandre II  married to Marie Conrad
Eleanore married to (1) Alphonse Mayer and (2) Vincent Scivicque
Pierre married to Emelite Leche
Marie married to Auguste Gregoire
Louis died in New Orleans 29 May 1829 at about age 26
Francois married to Delphine Haydel -  our direct ancestors
Henry
Celeste married to (1) George Millet and (2) Vincent Scivicque 

Agnes

Alexandre and Agnes were both deceased by 21 March 1816.  Succession in the St. Helena Parish Court House. (Parts of St. Helena and Ascension Parishes were used to form Livingston Parish later, in 1832).  They settled on Bayou Colyell in section 60.
 

After the Germans settled into life in South Louisiana, they and the French who were left in the area melded together and took on the French culture, including the language.  This was especially true of those German men who married French women.  As you might imagine, the French mothers had much influence over their children and the French characteristics prevailed.
   

Another family of note to us is the Salassi family.  They came to French Settlement somewhat later, around 1849.  The progenitor of the Salassi family in Livingston Parish was Joseph Salassi.  He was born on 24 November 1806 in Venice, Italy to Pietro Salassi and Stella Galvani.  It is not known when Joseph migrated to Louisiana. However, he was married to Marie Louise Scivicque on 26 October 1837 at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans.

  

The more recent Salassi family history begins in Venice, although  the name is apparently of Gallic or French origin. ‘The New Century Cyclopedia Of Names’ lists the family as living in Northwest Italy as early as 143 B.C. when they were in conflict with the Romans.  Through the centuries the inhabitants of the area have been an ethnic French-speaking people. The family migrated to Northeast Italy and was found there in 1700.
   

The connection between the Brignacs and Salassis has been made several times over the years:  Joseph Salassi married Marie Louise Scivicque, the daughter of Vincent Scivicque and Eleanore Brignac.  Eleanore was the daughter of Alexandre Brignac and Agnes Poche’.  Vincent was her second husband, in 1817, after the death of Alphonse Mayer, who was the son of Christophe Mayer and Marie Josephe Haydel.  Yes, Christophe is another of our direct ancestors, Alphonsine’s fraternal great grandfather.

Eleanore died in 1832 and Vincent married her sister, Celeste in 1842.
Grace Salassi, grand daughter of Joseph married Hercule Brignac
Joseph Leonce Salassi, Grace’s brother, married Mary Brignac, Alphonsine’s daughter.
Noemie Brigette Salassi, great grand daughter of Joseph, married Thomas Severin Brignac, Alphonsine’s son.

Vincent Scivicque

Vincent Scivicque was involved in the history of Livingston Parish and of the Brignac family.  He was the founder of the town of Port Vincent, Louisiana, having settled  there around 1810. It was originally called Scivicque’s Ferry, on the Amite River, at the border of Livingston and Ascension Parishes. He operated that ferry, on the main road between Lake, La. (Le Lac) and French Settlement. Brignac ancestors resided in the town of Lake as well as French Settlement. He also was a boat owner, he bought and sold slaves, purchased a large amount of property and donated land for the cemetery and built the Catholic Chapel of St. Agnes, also known as St. Vincent, but is now St. William Chapel.  His mother had planned to move to Port Vincent from Italy after he built the chapel (she attended mass every day and wouldn’t come unless there was a church), but she passed away before she could come to this country. Being able to read and write several languages, Vincent was called on to participate in legal, business and civic matters.

Vincent was born “de La Ville de Gaeta de le Roune de Naples”,  Italy.  Simply, in Naples, as we know it. His birth date was 06 December, 1784. He was baptized Nicola Vincenzo Francesco Antonio Scivicco, the son of Saverio Scivicco of Naples and Hedwigi Figliola of the suburb of Gaeta.
According to articles in “A History of Livingston Parish” and other publications, Vincent spent his boyhood on a boat bringing goods and supplies to New Orleans.  Very little is known about his early life,  but, Salassi 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. The ship’s captain could very possibly have been Pietro Salassi, who was, in fact a “civilian officer of the mariner of the fourth class”, and the father of Joseph Salassi, the progenitor of the Salassi family in Livingston Parish, Louisiana.
Vincent eventually married Eleanore Brignac, daughter of Alexandre Brignac and Agnes Poche’.  Alexandre and Agnes were some of the first to settle in French Settlement, in 1808.

Eleanore Brignac was first married to Alphonse Mayer, son of Christophe Mayer and Marie Josephe Haydel.  Alphonse died before 1816.  Vincent became her second husband on 24 July, 1817.  They had seven children.  Eleanore died on 30 March, 1832.
After Eleanore’s death, Vincent married her sister, Celeste on 25 February, 1836.  They had four children. Of the marriage of Celeste to Vincent, it was said that Vincent was a prosperous man and his many slaves made life very comfortable. His marriages to Eleanore and Celeste were the connections to the Brignac family.

There have been found no records of other marriages of Vincent Scivicque except an article in The Baton Rouge Gazette of 29 May, 1834:   NOTICE: All persons are hereby forewarned not to trade with my wife (Cynthia Montgomery) only on her own accountability, as I shall no longer be answerable for any debt, by her contracted - there being a suit instituted for separation of bed and board - given under my hand this 8th day of March, 1834.  Signed Vincent Scivique, Parish Of Livingston.

Newspaper and magazine articles have referred to Vincent Scivicque and his relationship to Jean Lafitte, the pirate.  In fact, Vincent, himself, has been called ”the old pirate”. But any of his activities with Jean Lafitte have been well hidden from his life in Livingston Parish.
The land on which is located Port Vincent has an historic and romantic interest.  It was the property of Scivicque, a companion and follower of the famous Lafitte, who found the tall cypress growing along the Amite River a good hiding place in his endeavors to outwit the government, and many of his daring escapades were planned in the solitudes of these beautiful trees. 
 (From MEN AND MATTERS - a monthly magazine of fact, fancy and fiction- New Orleans, January - February, 1902.)

Another article in the same issue of MEN AND MATTERS:  Another interesting settlement on the Amite River is that known as the French Settlement, as most of the people are descendants of the French settlers in Louisiana, and speak the French language. Cypress groves are abundant around this settlement, and the land is very fertile.  Just beyond is one of the finest stretches of land in the state, and continued chains of beech, magnolia and poplar abound on the ridges along the Amite River, extending to Lake Maurepas, a distance of about twenty-five miles.  Thousands of acres of this land have never had a tree cut on them.  The land is well drained and can be bought for $3 to$7 an acre.
There is a saw mill, gin and several merchandise stores, besides a college and numerous pretty residences; while a comfortable and neat church points the people heavenward. The most prominent people in the settlement are Messrs. Hebert and Salassi, who, under the firm name of John P. Salassi & Co., operate various commercial enterprises - ice, lumber and mercantile.  The large saw mill is theirs, and turns out about 18,000 feet of lumber per day.  Cypress is the principal wood used, a great part of which is sold in the country, for furniture and building purposes. 
They ship oak, gum and poplar to order, and sell pine from the land.  The logs are hauled to a creek or bayou and at high water drift to the river, and are there scaled, bored and reeved, and when ready for use, are sold to mills in New Orleans and other points, the buyers then have the rafts moved down the river.
These gentlemen do a large ice business, as they have the only plant between Baton Rouge and the settlement.  They make four tons of ice a day.
Two fine gentlemen of the old school, polished, courteous, kindly of heart, successful business men, these gentlemen have the respect and esteem of all who know them, and their acquaintance is wide.
Mr. Henry Brignac is the esteemed manager of the saw mill and gin.