HAHNVILLE TOWN HISTORY

The namesake of Hahnville is Michael Hahn whose career as an attorney also included stints as a notary public, school board member, police juror, newspaper editor, district judge, U.S. Mint director, congressman and Louisiana governor.

The site of Hahnville was once an Indian village known as Quinnitassa.� In 1882, after an arduous journey, Lasalle reached what is now known as St. Charles Parish.

Settlers, especially the German colonists at Karlstein , upriver spread along the riverside,� Many local names represent descendents of those first European settlers,� including Tregre, Oubre, Schexnaydre, Haydel, Triche and LaBranche.

When the first courthouse was established her in 1804, a community known simply as "St. Charles Courthouse" grew up around it.� The second courthouse was built in 1826 and remodeled and expanded in 1926.� However, in 1976, the historic structure was razed to make way for the present courthouse.� In the upstairs lobby is a scale model of the old courthouse, constructed and donated to the parish by then court bailiff Lt. Lawrence Dasch.

The first post office in the area, called St. Charles, was established December 9, 1843, with Francois Chaix the first postmaster.� This finally closed on May 13, 1880 and the Hahnville post office opened the following day,� with Thomas C. Madere the first postmaster.

In February 1872, civil engineer Thomas Sharpe laid out a village around the courthouse and named it Flaggville, for Othelle J. Flagg, a district judge and one time elector for the Prohibition Party.

At the same time, Hahn laid out the streets of Hahnville on his sugar plantation just upriver form Flaggville, including stores, streets, a dance hall and an upgraded levee.� Home Place Plantation and Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Catholic Church separated it from Flaggville.� Flaggville, however, never caught on as a name.� In time, the entire area became commonly accepted as Hahnville.

Hahn was born in Bavaria, Germany, on November 24, 1830.� The family moved to America after his father's death and settled in New Orleans around 1840.� Hew earned his law degree in 1851 from the University of Louisiana, later Tulane, became a notary public in 1854 and , at age 22, began serving on the Orleans Parish School Board, at one time as president.

He opposed succession from the Union but secession came and he remained in New Orleans as Union forces arrived in 1862.� Accepting the Union victory, he was elected to Congress representing "Union" in Louisiana.

Likewise a vigorous opponent of slavery, he made anti-slavery speeches everywhere from Haiti to the halls of Congress. In 1864, he became owner and editor of the New Orleans True Delta.

In February 1864, with Louisiana still split between Union and Confederate control, elections were held for governor.� The Union held portion included St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin and Orleans parishes.� The other 35 parishes considered themselves Confederate.

Henry Watkins Allen was elected the Confederate governor and Michael Hahn the Union governor.

In 1865, in the waning days of the war, Hahn resigned to take a seat to the U.S. Senate but was not admitted by the postwar Congress.� In 1867, he took over management of the New Orleans Daily Republican, which job he held through 1871.� At that point, he retired to the sugar plantation he owned in St . Charles Parish.

He was elected as judge in the 26th judicial District in November 1879, including Jefferson, St. Charles and St. John the Baptist parishes, and re-elected in 1884.� In November 1885 he won election to Congress, abut he died in Washington D.C on March 15, 1886.� Hahn's old home still stands, unnoticed, at 141 Elm Street, moved in later years from its original location on River Road.

Another area historic figure was Lt. General Richard Taylor, son of President Zachary Taylor, whose Fashion Plantation was destroyed in 1862 by Union troops.� Following the war, he wrote "Destruction and Reconstruction," a history of the conflict.� Recently, the plantation's bell was recovered and is being prepared for public display.

Hahnville High School was dedicated on March 28, 1925 and, after years of service the school was razed in the mid 1970's.� A new school, also named Hahnville High School, was built on U.S. Highway 90 in Mozella.� While the board briefly considered naming the new school "West St. Charles High School," popular sentiment prevailed, and Hahnville High School, though now located between Boutte and Paradis, kept its name.

Charlie Oubre Jr., 69, says, with intermarriage, Oubre grew up "related to 90 percent of Hahnville."� His mother, Felicie, was a Keller. His father's mother was a Madere. His wife, Carol, was a Troxler, and his mother-in-law, Beatrice, was a Triche who once ran the St. Charles Herold.

"When I was a teenager, I knew everyone in Hahnville by name," Oubre said.� He remembered as a young boy playing baseball in vacant fields, swimming (against his parents' wishes) in the river, fishing and robbing watermelon fields.� "We used to get a watermelon out of the field, put it in a ditch of water for and hour to cool off, and then eat it," he said.

There were several small country stores through Hahnville, including those of his grandfather Ulysses Keller, and his uncle, Alvin Keller. "People used to come sit on the store's porch and play cards and talk. Politics was a favorite topic of conversation on those country store porches, and parades and rallies always punctuated politics.�"  You'd better believe everybody voted," Oubre recalled.�� Ticket politics were the thing and political controversy on every one's lips.� Family political affiliations were also all important.� "If you gave a Madere a job, that took care of the Maderes," he added.� He graduated in 1947, served on General Douglas MacArthur's headquarters staff in Korea and played semi-pro baseball.

Oubre worked for Shell, then the St. Charles Sheriff's Office, where he was chief criminal deputy from 1968 to 1972.� He was the parish's first judicial administrator until 1978 and then elected to his present position.

As smaller towns faded, Hahnvilles's post office came to absorb them.� Taft, just upriver, lost its post office in August 1967.� Killona, likewise, lost its post office in 1987.� Now, Hahnville is considered to stretch from Union Carbide in the upriver side, to the Hale Boggs Bridge on the down river side.� As of this writing, a study is planned to finally establish community boundaries throughout the parish.