CONVENT TOWN HISTORY

 

The soul of the Convent community is St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church, which had its origins in 1809 as St. Michael de Cantrelle chapel of St. James, named for Michael Bernard Cantrell, son of Jacques Cantrelle, Commander of the Second German Coast.  It became a separate parish in 1831 and was dedicated by Bishop de Neckere in 1833.  It was initially under the supervision of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), until the Marist fathers took over in 1861, the first such Marist parish in the United States.  A horse drawn hearse once used by St. Michael's is now on display in Baton Rouge at the LSU Rural Life Museum.

 

Other attractions of St. Michael's for visitors are the altar, built in 1870, and the unique Lourdes Grotto behind the altar and built of local bagasse, a left over of crushed sugar cane, in 1876 by Florian Dicharry and Christophe Columb.  The bell was christened in 1832 under the name, Eugenie Louise.

 

The town of convent draws its name, naturally enough , from the convent founded in 1825 by the sisters of the Sacred Heart. 

 

When Father de la Croix arrived as pastor of St. Michael's, he remembered the work of the Les Dames du Sacre Coeur nuns who, in 1819 founded the first convent in America.

 

He invited them to form another at St. Micheal's but they were financially unable to at that time.  He raised $7,000 from the community, a considerable sum at that time, and on Halloween 1825, Mother Hamilton, Sister Mullanphy, Sister Labruyette and three novices arrived by boat at St. Michael's.  They occupied a tiny frame building on November 20 and opened their first school in April 1826.  By 1838, there were more than 200 girls at the convent.

 

However, time and the economic changes, which swept through St. James Parish had its toll o Sacred Heart convent. In 1926, a hurricane wrought severe damage and it was closed.  A school later occupied the building itself for Mexican refugees and as girls' school before it was finally demolished.

 

The Convent area also saw another milestone with the founding in 1831 of Jefferson College by Etienne Mazureau, Dr. f. Burthe, J.H. Sheppard and others.  The magnificent Greek architectural structure took shape at a cost of $124,000 and named for Thomas Jefferson.  In its glory days, it boasted a natural history museum, laboratories, paintings and an annual legislative grant of $15,000.  Professors from as far away as West Point and even Paris taught at the institution.  However, on March 6, 1842, a fire razed the college except for one building which still remains as part of the Manresa Retreat.

 

Jefferson College found more hard times as it struggled to continue until it closed again in 1855.  Governor Andre Bienvenu Roman (of St. James Parish), Valcour Aime and other prominent locals reopened it under the name of Louisiana College but it once more closed in 1859 when it was seized and sold at auction.  In 1861, the school again reopened under a local corporation under the name of Jefferson College but in the following year, New Orleans fell to the invading Union navy and Federal troops occupied the building, destroying everything.

 

After the war, the Society of Mary acquired the property and Valcour Aime donated $20,000 for a chapel in memory of his late son.  In 1928, it closed once more and sold to the Jesuits, who now operate Manreasa Retreat Center on the site.

 

The present day IMC-Agrico grain facility rests on the site of the former Uncle Sam Plantation, built in the early 1840s and demolished in 1940.  The plantation was built by Samuel Fagot and called Constancia, for Colonel Joseph Constant, a local landowner after the War of 1812.  However, Fagot's nieces and nephews apparently took to calling it "Uncle Sam's Place," and the name stuck.  Fagot died in 1858 but it stayed in the family.  The plantation was swamped by the Nita crevasse in 1890, and the family retained it until 1920 when it was sold in a sheriff's sale.  Later levee setbacks forced its destruction and the National Park Service tried to rescue it.   A telegram from the National Park Service to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in charge of the destruction, arrived too late, as demolition had already begun.

 

Convent became the parish seat in 1869. The first East Bank courthouse burned in 1964.  The present courthouse was completed and opened June 13, 1971.

 

It St. Michael's is the soul of Convent, however, Hymels's Restaurant in the Central area is the heart.  The restaurant has lasted 52 years I business so far.  In 1918, James Sr. and Marie Gravois Hymel came to Convent from St. Philip (now Vacherie).  He was a World War I veteran who taught French to Allied soldiers.  He came over the river to buy the Wilton and Helvetia sugars plantations.  He also opened the Hymel General Merchandise store, which endured t the mid-1970" before it closed its doors.  The family business, Hymel Planting and Manufacturing Company, kept the plantations.  In 1965, Hurricane Betsy blew the Helvetia roof into the river.  In 1969, it was sold to the Ethyl Corporation. Wilton Plantation likewise closed it sugar operation and Hymel consolidated operations at Helvetia.  The Wilton plantation was demolished in 1972, not long after Ethyl bought that site.  James Sr. died in 1980 at the age of 85

 

James Jr. as a young man soon went to work for his father, delivering everything from coal oil to rice, sugar and beans, everywhere from Lutcher to Burnside.  "Our motto was 'Dealers in almost everything,'" he recalled - everything from farm equipment to dry goods, from clothing and fabrics to a pharmacy.

 

In 1945, James Jr. married Marie Simon, who was born and raised in Lutcher, the daughter of Joseph and Elmira Murray Simon.  "He and his friends used to come to Blakely's, the hot spot in town," she remembered.   "We got married when we were 20.  We lived in the little apartment attached to the store."

 

The general merchandise store was going well, so James Jr. prompted his father into opening a filling station and oyster bar.  Soon, the oyster bar expanded to boiled seafood and, in 1947, the seafood restaurant opened with James Jr. as the cook and Marie as the waitress.

 

The present dining room for the restaurant once had another purpose, though - a dance hall.  "The Terrazzo Room ran for awhile in the 1940's," Marie said.  The bands were mostly local musicians, including the Dukes of Rhythm and the Hi-Lighters.  The entrepreneurial Jimmy also had a movie theater in the building for awhile.  "We laugh," Marie said.  "We sold everything but our children."  James Jr. and Marie went on to have three children - Marie "Winkie" Nobile, James III, and Jackie Holdridge.

 

The popular restaurant still has its devoted fans.  "We've never really advertised, since we have all the business we can handle," Marie said, "We keep doing things all the time, but we never change."

 

The restaurant has largely been turned over to James Hymel III and Eric Chauvin, but James Jr. still drops in to do the books and check on the quality of the food.  "Jimmy's very particular about this food," Marie declared.