GRAND POINT TOWN HISTORY

Talk about Grand Point and you talk about perique tobacco.� It is after all the only place in the world where it is still produced.� Perique had its origins with the local Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians who had developed a process for curing tobacco under pressure.� Air-dried leaves were twisted and packed tightly into hollowed out tree trunks and covered tightly.� Then a block was set on top and a sapling used as a lever to apply pressure for days at a time.� It was only opened occasionally to drain off accumulated juices and then re-pressurized.

In the 1790's, Pierre Chenet, whose home was located across Lutcher Avenue from the present St. James Historical Society Museum, learned the technique from the Indians and contributed his own nickname to the finished product.� The perique farming took place at several locations in the River Parishes.� Garyville, Paulina, and Grand Point were the major places.� It was Grand Point, however, where it remains to this day in the hands of the Martin family.�

The tiny farm community, which was larger that present days, at the end of Louisiana Highway 642 (Grand Point Road), had stores, bars, schools and even its own church at one time.� Michel Martin donated a small plot of land for the establishment of a Catholic Chapel on August 5, 1874.� The land was one-fourth of and arpents wide and three-fourths of arpents in depth.� St. Vincent de Paul Chapel was built and maintained here by the Marists.� In 1900 when St. Joseph's in Paulina became a separate parish, the chapel came under the supervision of St. Joseph's.� It survived until a windstorm demolished it in 1909, with the exception of a statue of St. Philomena.� When the chapel was rebuilt in 1911, it was renamed St. Philomena de las Grande Pointe Catholic Chapel, serving the community until 1929.

Establishment of the chapel in tiny Grand Point may seem to have been a luxury to modern residents.� In those days a trip to Paulina was an all day affair.� Consequently, religious instruction was haphazard, depending on when the priest could come from distant St. Michael's.� A private Catholic school also stood next door.� Operated by Desiree martin, the daughter of Michel Martin, she conducted classes in her home, which doubled as the school.� She also found time to write an autobiography entitled, "Une Fille de Mousse."� After her death, the work was taken over by Celestine Melancon, who was also at the same time principal of the Grand Point Public School.� In time, she joined the Dominican Sisters.� The Grand Point School apparently enjoyed a fine reputation.� In an 1874 report, teacher R. Martin is praised thusly:� "Mr. Martin loves his profession and is impressed with the importance and responsibility of his calling.� There were present 14 boys and 20 girls; the school day is six hours.� The morning hours are devoted to French; the afternoon to English, Writing fair, geography is oral.� The blackboard is frequently used - all that is left of it.� The school is clean and spacious, the children neat and clean.� Desk and benches needed.� The parents and children of the Grand Point area are to be complimented on the fine showing of the school."

Percy Martin, patriarch of Perique, remembers his own lifetime spent in the tiny community where now the remains the world's sole perique tobacco farmer.� "We only planted about half of what we wanted, what with the drought." He said in a recent interview.�" We wound up with six barrels.� The normal is 28 to 32 barrels."� Martin, 80, recalled when his father, Voltere Martin, had his own little store in Grand Point. The building still stands next to his house on Grand Point Road.� His father had been born and raised in Grand Point, as had his grandfather, Leo Martin.� His mother, Louisette Louque Martin, was born in Belmont, just upriver from Grand Point.� Percy was he second child in the family of eight children and the only male.� Back in 1918, when he was born, "everybody planted it," and the fields were filled with tobacco.� Nowadays, Martin's major income is derived from his sugar cane.� However, despite the rich tobacco, there wasn't a lot of money around.� "I tell my boys often nobody had any money.� If you picked up everybody's cash, you'd maybe have $50 for the whole town."

As a youngster, Percy played a lot of Baseball, as a baseball park once stood behind his father's store.� "We used cow pies for bases," Martin smiled.� "I got to be pretty good."� Martin attended the Grand Point School, which once stood next to St. Philomene Chapel to the fifth grade.� Then he went to Paulina School through eight grade and finally to Lutcher High School, where he graduated in 1935.� "We've never had a class reunion," he said, and recalled he was the only student in that class from Grand Point.� However, he added, he still keeps in touch with a few of his old classmates.� "Me, Felix Nobile and Bobby Pollet were the Three Mousketeers."

Percy met his wife, Edith St. Pierre, when she would visit relatives.� "I met her at a shindig one Saturday night.� One old man was playing violin, another the clarinet, making a little noise at the old schoolhouse.� All the older people would gather and watch."� After a two-year courtship, Percy and Edith got married and began their family of six boys and four girls.� Tragedy, however, followed his family in 1959.� His daughter, Amy, died when she followed her daddy into the cane field while the stalk burning was going on. Her dress caught on fire and the 4 year old quickly died.�

Martin later became involved in the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Depression but when his father was hurt, he went home and never went back.� Despite his short-lived term with the CCC, Martin's memory is fresh at his pool playing skills.� " I was a very good pool player."� Once he returned to Grand Point, he started farming and has stuck with it.� His father opened the Martin Store in 1946 with a tiny barroom on the side.� At first, Martin was truck farming, with vegetables supplied to several regional supermarkets.� In time, though he started with cane and Tobacco and still raises cane along with his children and grandchildren.

His mother died in February 1965,and Hurricane Betsy that same fall knocked down the old Grand Point School.� The old Martin store finally closed its doors in the early 1980's and his father died in 1986 at the age of 86.� Martin's days are spent now growing and marketing his tobacco which, he insisted, he does not smoke himself.� He's working with tobacco brokers and a friend is promoting Martin's own website, promoting perique.