MANCHAC TOWN HISTORY

Manchac was settled in early colonial times and named for a Manchac Indian who in 1699 informed French explorer Iberville of a shortcut to the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River.� That's one story. It's also said the worked "manchac" is from the Choctaw word, "ashaka,"meaning rear entrance.� Or that it's a French word meaning a strait or pass.� However, yet another story has offered itself that Antonio Manchac, a circuit judge, named Manchac during the Civil War years, who drew up the survey and laid out the village, naming it for him.

Lake Maurepas was named for Jean-Frederic Phelypeaux, compte de Maurepas.� Lake Pontchartrain was then named for Jean-Frederic's father, Jerome de Pontchartrain, Minister of the Marine of France.

Split by Pass Manchac, the northern side of the tiny community is located in Tangipahoa Parish once part of Spanish Florida, and the southern side, St., John the Baptist, in French Louisianna.�

On Valentine's day 1894, the Akers Post Office was established at Manchac, named for its first postmaster, William "Witte" Akers, grandson of the founder of Ponchatoula, William Akers.� Although there hasn't been a post office building there since the 1950's, mail is delivered from Ponchatoula and the official address is still Akers.� At the opening of Pass Manchac into Lake Pontchartrain stands the Pass Manchac lighthouse.� First built in 1839 and once including a large house alongside for the resident lighthouse keeper, it now precariously perches on a shallow, waiting either toppling into the lake or preservation by the Lake Maurepas Society.

It was lumber and truck farming which sustained the tiny communities which stretched along the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad between LaPlace and Ponchatoula - Owl Bayou, Strader, Sharkey, and Jena going north, and Wagram, Galva, Ruddock, and Frenier going south.

Much of Manchac history is clearly remembered by "Miss Jenny,"Virginia Mae Rakocy.� "I was a Saltzman, and we've been here over a hundred years," she said, during a recent interview at Andy's Seafood in Manchac, where she works six days a week, selling boiled and soft-shell crabs, turtle meat, alligator meat and catfish.� Rakocy, 84, has been in love with the area all her life.� "I went away a few times, but I never liked it like I like this."

Her grandparents, George and Barbara Wihelmina Saltzman, lived on Blind River in the Civil war years and had five children.� After a disastrous crevasse, a cypress houseboat was constructed and maneuvered to Manchac.

Her parents, Godfrey and Alice Saltzman, raised three children, Jessie, "Miss Jenny" and Merlin, all living on the 27 acres which supported the Manchac Lighthouse on Lake Pontchartrain.

Miss Jenny; also clearly recalled musicals at the grandparents' flatboat, where nearly everyone played music and she loved to dance.� "I was about 15 years old and we'd dance barefooted. My dad played the guitar beautifully!"� She later married Andy Rakocy Sr. and has one son, one grandchild and two great grandchildren.� In earlier days, Miss Jenny worked for years with Josie Bates Middendorf at the restaurant which most people remember best about Manchac.� "I was a real good friend with Miss Josie. She was an excellent seafood cook."

Louis and Josie Middendorf, who built the restaurant's reputation and handed it down to Richard and Helen Middendorf after World War II, opened Middendorf's on July 4, 1934.� A second Middendorf's restaurant was built on the other side of their parking lot and opened in 1972 and now, daughter Susie, and her husband Joey Lamonte, began in 1980 to carry the business into the third generation.

Miss Jenny also recalled the start of the Manchac Baptist Church after World War II.� She related that a young man studying to be a Baptist minister died from an auto accident in Manchac in which his car fell into the pass.� The young man's mother, in memory of her son, donated $1,000 to help start the church.� St. Joseph's Catholic Church was founded in Manchac in July 1949, thanks to and extent to the fundraising and pie baking skills of Miss Jenny.� That church relocated in later years to Ponchatoula.

She commented, "I've been here so long, everybody's like a brother or sister to me."� Later developments included construction of the "new" U.S. Highway 51 and Interstate 55.� The Manchac Volunteer Fire Department was started in July 1977.

The village of Frenier, first settled in 1850, was originally called La Frenier, in honor of Nicholas Chauvin de La Frenier, the then Attorney general for Louisiana.� At one time, it boasted a post office, school and its own tiny church.� Martin Scholesser from Germany noticed the rich, black, "coffee ground " soil and rightly assumed it would make his vegetable crops thrive.� Soon, the region included several truck farming settlements, including Ruddock, named for the president of the Ruddock-Orleans Lumber Company.� Wagram and Galva were named for local families.

There was only one way in and out, a muddy, rutted path to LaPlace.� For a time, there was talk of building a road to connect the towns.� However, in 1868 all but one house was destroyed in a storm.� In 1894, Frenier got its own schoolhouse and the tiny Holy Cross Church, dedicated by Archbishop Janssens and Fathers Prim and Roth.� Mass was celebrated once a month. �Then disaster struck.� On September 29, 1915, the lake, powered by a gigantic hurricane, killed most of the residents.� Prior to the storm, an elderly black woman named Julia Brown predicted, "When I die, I'm going to take half of Frenier with me."� She died September 28. The following night, the storm hit.� Forecasters in New Orleans were able for the first time to predict the coming storm.� A warning was printed in newspapers which reached Frenier ahead of the hurricane.

Most residents, however, trusted in the sturdy construction of their homes. stayed and perished.� The next notable event in that area was the apparent murder on November 25, 1956, of Audry Moate, and her Lover, Thomas Hotard Sr., 46, there one night in his 1953 Nash.� He was found in his car dead.� She had disappeared.� Audry, a petite blonde, left only her purse and clothing, her 1949 Oldsmobile still parked in front of Stein's Restaurant in LaPlace.� Naked footprints dashed for a short distance away from the car in the sand and vanished into mystery.

The future of Frenier remains as murky as the lake.� Manchac, however, continues to thrive. As &qMiss Jenny put it: "If the whole world was as friendly, we'd be just fine!"