COTE des
ALLEMANDS TOWN HISTORY
The towns of Cote des Allemands cease to exist today, as we know
it. It was a settlement on the German
Coast of Louisiana, located some distance, up river, from New Orleans,
approximately 31 miles. It was
comprised of three small villages.
Exactly where it was located cannot be pin pointed for sure, but many
writings have been put forth trying to discover its location. This is my attempt at locating it. Since my ancestral beginnings, in this area,
are anchored along the German Coast, along with my ability to interpret
writings, I feel that my interpretation is as well founded as anyone else.
The date of the first arrival of immigrants, to the German Coast,
from the German country of the 18th century is not known except that
the first arrivals were in 1719 and settled what is known as the Premier German
Village. Later arrivals of John Law's failed venture arrived in the early
1720s. Their numbers are not known
either since many left the homeland but many died on that hard sea trip before
ever landing on these shores. When they
finally arrived, it was at a place that was not divided by boundaries as today,
Parishes, but simply by landmarks on very inaccurate maps.
One thing for sure was that it most definitely was located where
the two parishes of St. Charles and St. John the Baptist join with a common
boundary today on the West bank of the St. Louis River (Mississippi). That location is a place called Bonnet Carre
Point, not to be confused with the Mississippi River Spillway by that name,
then as it is today. Why was this
location chosen for settlement?
First and foremost was that the land high, lightly wooded (formerly
used by Indians), and available. It is
at this point in the story that is very vague and I will try to interject some
of my own feelings as to why and maybe explain where the location really should
be placed.
Research has shown me that Bonnet Carre Point has been growing
because of the natural occurrences of the Mississippi River, that is,
depositing silt in time of flooding. Today in 1999 it can be seen how this
building has continued through the years.
The levee at this point is about one-half mile from the Great River Road
because of the levee having moved northward.
Sugar cane is even planted on the riverside of the levee since the
batture is so large. For this reason the land is high and the woodlands are
light since this was newly formed land.
This is the reason the Indians, the Ouacha Tribe, used this land for
farming when they migrated there during the winter. They returned from time to
time afterwards in yearly migrations and were welcomed by the new
settlers.
Another reason for this prime location could be that a small
outlet, or bayou, of the River was located there. Eventually this outlet was closed by a levee. This outlet was never more evident then in
1904, and to a greater extent when a huge crevasse, Emilia Crevasse, occurred
in 1912. This, along with evidence that
the river flowed down over the point, reaching the Des Allemands area by way of
Lake Ouacha, Lake Des Allemands, silting and raising the land for many miles.
It was these occurrences that formed the area of Bayou Gauche, Paradis, Mozela,
and Des Allemands. It is this area in which the early settlers from Germany set
down their first roots. Depending on
the time of the year, the bayou would have been flowing towards the lake in the
spring, high water in the Mississippi, or dry at the intersection in the fall. A good idea of this is to look at where
Bayou Lafourche, Donaldsonville, meets the river. Although today there are pumps to send water into Bayou Lafourche
today, in yesteryears it flowed freely at times. Today if a person was to visit there, they would see the
different levels between the river and the bayou.
Arriving at Bonnet Carre Point and seeing the land and the stream
moving away from the river must have been very strange to a people used to
seeing streams flowing towards great rivers.
Non-the-less, they decided to settle along all of the banks, Mississippi
and unknown stream (could it have been called Bayou Ouacho for the Indian
tribe, as was the lake to the south/west, Lac des Allemands). This area was even, for a time known as Auz
Ouacho ou le village des Allemands. It
consisted, in 1722, of the villages of Calstings (Karlstein, founded by Karl
Freiedrich D'Arensbourg) population (1), Mariedal (82), Wen (94), and Ansbourg
(70).
A map of St. John the Baptist Parish dating the area between 1804
and 1812 clearly shows the path of the Hymelia Crevasse.
Microsoft
TerraServer Image Page
By clicking the mouse on the above, you will see an aerial picture
of Bonnet Carre Point and how the land is laid out for farming. Also note the location of the Hemelia
Crevasse, which last opened in 1812.
It is in this area that I believe the first settlers stopped. I envision Bayou Ouacho flowing, at certain
times of the year, in a southwesterly direction towards Lake Ouacho, which was
a mere 5 miles away. Depending on the
time of the year, spring or fall, the river would have been overflowing banks
and also making the Bayou navigable.
The first settlers, probably the peoples from Hoffen, settled the upper
side of the bayou stretching upriver from the bayou. Later arrivals settled on the banks of the bayou, away from the
river. Augsbourg(0.7 miles from the
Mississippi) down the bayou from Hoffen and Mariental (1.4 miles from the
Mississippi) on the opposite shore.
Karlstein was located at the juncture of the Mississippi and the Bayou,
on the down riverside. Words to the effect that Karlsteins' lands were limited
by the location of a village to its rear would also explain that Mariental was
the culprit.
These locations fit nicely into the dialogue put forth by the
authors Deiler and Blume. Both talk
about the hurricane of the fall of 1722 in which waters surged up from the
southwest and inundated the first settlers.
These waters are spoken of as coming up a bayou and lowlands , including
Lake Des Allemands. This would indeed
put the settlers along the bayou in harms way. This was and is one of the
shortest routes between the lake and the river. A shorter route would be up river from this area at Lucy where
crevasses occurred also and is even a shorter distance to the lake. It is not
by chance that the line between the two parishes follows this natural boundary
when the Cote les Allemands was divided into the First German Coast and the
Second German Coast.
One other scenario is also
available for Karlsteins lands being limited and probably the most
correct. In one authors writings it
states that Karlstein was actually in the town of Lucy, four miles down river
from Edgard. Since Bonnet Carre Point is a right angle turn in the river, thus
the name Bonnet Carre (square bonnet for the shape of the outer curve) with
Lucy being on the up-river side those lands would not be as deep as the other
concessions on the point. The lands of
the Point would be a short distance to the back of the concessions located up
river around the bend. One of the
villages could have been located at the rear of the Karlstein property, but
still on the riverbank because of the sharp curve there.
This would explain why the census takers spoke of going to the
village to the rear of Karlstein. It could also account for the village being
0.7 of a mile to the rear since this the approximate distance of the properties
along the upper shores of the point from the River itself but vary slightly
because of the curves associated with area.
The distance from the place where the river makes the ninety-degree turn
to the upriver point of the Lucy crevasse is 1.7 miles. The properties on the Point extend back for
two miles to a point where present-day Goldmine Plantation exists. If you were to travel south down East 12th
Street in Lucy, you would come to an area at the rear where sugar cane field
can be seen. These fields intersect
East 12th Street at a right angle.
If you were to follow the rows of sugar cane, they would lead you to the
tip of Bonnet Carre. Goldmine is the
first plantation upriver from the Point whose lands extend into the swamps to
the rear. Also at this place the Mississippi
River is at its narrowest , enlarging as it goes around the point.
Lucy was also the seat of
the Parish of St. John the Baptist for many years following the creation of the
parish which would indicate that it was one of the favorite places at the
time. A ferry connected the West Bank
to the East Bank at this point in later years, making it seemingly the center
of activity. The two authors spoke of
this kind of communication between the two shores. It is logical to assume that the commandant of the area, Karl
Friedrich D'Arensbourg, would be station at this point. On the east side of the river at this
location was another outlet that got its supply from the Mississippi. That outlet offered a short route to Lake
Pontchatrain (2 miles). This outlet allowed passage to-and-from the lake and
the river. This was both good and bad since it allowed for travel by water to
the other areas of the colony but also allowed for the Indians to use it for
other purposes, which history has shown they did. This would explain how the
settlers could ship their produce to New Orleans down the river by boat. It would be a very hard journey to travel by
boat to New Orleans and then journey against the river's current. If the settlers traveled up Bayou St. John
in New Orleans to Lake Pontchatrain and then up the tributary across from Lucy,
they would have an easier time getting back to their settlements. It eventually
was blocked off with a levee which in the late 1800s broke and remained open
for eleven years, again making water transportation available between the
Mississippi and Lake Pontchartrain.
This lends another reason for Lucy's place in these writings. On January 22, 1750 the territorial governor
decided to station un corps de grade on the east bank side
of the river across from D'Arensbourg's concession. This location, like the Bonnet
Carre Point location, was high and lightly wooded land, since this is another
area that the Mississippi River continued to build new land. This area today exists east of the old Belle
Point Plantation, now the Dupont Chemical Plant. That happened in 1750 and an accounting made in 1751 of the
troops available in Louisiana showed a garrison of 30 soldiers on the Cote des Alemands for the first time. When the Spanish took over the colony the garrison, located in
the LaPlace area of Bonnet Carre, had
been vacant for some time.
The East Bank at this point in time was sparsely settled and was
named Bonnet Carre. It extended from a
tributary, below present-day Old LaPlace (now known as Crevasse), up-river to a village called Bonnet Carre,
which was later called St. Peter, for the Catholic Church founded there, and
finally its present name of Reserve.
This village was itself located at a place that was frequented by
Indians, namely the Colapissas. It too had been an area that was mentioned as
being high ground with little clearing required. In years later a crevasse would take place here also since it
was located at a channel crossover point of the river. This would explain the high ground and
little clearing needed. Today can be
seen in this area , Terre Haute, just
up river from and part of the small town of Reserve the high ground on both
sides of a depression which indicates that a tributary once existed there. At
this time the lands upriver were still being used extensively by the Indians of
the area on both sides of the river.
The French, mostly recent discharged soldiers possibly from the
garrison located in the Bonnet Carre
settlement, first settled the area of Bonnet Carre. Later, the German Coast families crossed the East Bank and
literally took over. The French,
however, assimilated them, so much that their names today seem to be of French
rather than German extraction.