Isle Brevelle is named after Jean Baptiste Brevelle, Jr. (French: Jean Baptiste Brevel, Jr.), its earliest settler and the 18th-century explorer and soldier of the Natchitoches Militia.[5] He is the son of Jean Baptiste Brevelle, a Parisian-born trader and explorer, and his Adai Caddo (French: Natao) Indian wife, Anne Marie des Cadeaux. The baptism of Jean Baptiste Brevelle Jr. is recorded on May 20, 1736 in the oldest Catholic Registry in the Louisiana colony.[6] Jean Baptiste Brevelle Jr. was granted the island by David Pain, the subdelegate at Natchitoches in 1765 for his service to the French and Spanish crowns as a Caddo Indian translator and explorer of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico.[5]
The island is a narrow strip of land some thirty miles in length with three- to four-mile breadth located south of Natchitoches, Louisiana. It is delineated and split by waterways to include the Cane River, Red River, Old River, and Bayou Brevelle (named after Jean Baptiste Brevel). Isle Brevelle was considered "the richest cotton-growing portion of the south". Father Yves-Marie LeConiniat, a priest from France, referred to it as an "earthly paradise".[7][8]
As the colony changed hands from France to Spain, the spelling of the Brevel surname changed to Brevelle. Records kept by the Spanish Crown (and later by the United States of America after the Louisiana Purchase) changed the names of the Brevelle family members to reflect the new spelling: Jean Baptiste Brevelle. The Brevelle Plantation grew to become one of the largest plantations in the South producing cotton, tobacco, indigo, lumber, bear grease, cattle, and food crops.[9][10]
The Louisiana Creole community is made of descendants of French and Spanish colonials, Africans, Anglo-Americans, and Native Americans of the Caddo Confederacy (Natchitoches,Adai).[11][12]
Nicolas Augustin Metoyer (1768–1856), was the son of Marie Thérèse Coincoin and Claude Thomas Pierre Métoyer, and he has been considered the "grandfather" of the community of Isle Brevelle.[13] He was born into slavery and remained in bondage (initially to Don Manuel Antonio de Soto y Bermúdez and wife Marie des Nieges de St. Denis DeSoto)[14] until 1792, at the age of 24.[13] Around this same time his mother, Marie Thérèse Coincoin was also freed from enslavement and they, as a family started collecting local land, which eventually amassed to 6,000 acres.[13] At the center of this collected land was Isle Brevelle.[13] During this era and in this location, mulatto people lived similarly to white Southern planters, in large mansions with expensive furniture, and in some cases they held their own slaves.[13] Nicolas Augustin Metoyer's home no longer stands, but the church he built, St. Augustine Parish still does.[13]
St. Augustine Parish Church (or Isle Brevelle Church) was established as a mission church by Creole Nicolas Augustin Metoyer and other prominent Creole families of Isle Brevelle, St. Augustine is celebrated as the first church in Louisiana to be built by and for free people of color.[15] Augustin's father, Claude Thomas Pierre Metoyer had taken him to France in 1801 to visit his homeland. While there Augustin was struck by the arrangement of the French villages where community life was centered about the church. Upon his return to the Isle Brevelle and with the help of the Creoles of Isle Brevelle, the first church was constructed in 1803 using their own money and land.[16][17] Tradition also describes the role of Augustin's brother Louis (founder of the nearby Melrose Plantation, a National Historic Landmark), as the chapel's designer and builder.[18] As a means of collecting money for the church in earlier times, families of the parish were required to rent pews for their personal use and to donate religious items. Name boxes where attached at the end of each pew which allowed its owner exclusive use, even if the church was full. The blessing of the church was done by Fr. J. B. Blanc on July 19, 1829 under the title of St. Augustine, the patron saint of Augustin Metoyer. At this time, the church was to be a mission of St. Francois of Natchitoches.[19]
On March 11, 1856, the mission of St. Augustine at Isle Brevelle was decreed by Bishop Auguste Martin, the 1st Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Natchitoches, to be a parish in its own right and assigned his brother, Fr. Francois Martin to be its first resident pastor.[20] With the financial backing of Creole families Metoyer, Brevelle, Guidry, Balthazar and Roques, St. Augustine expanded to found four mission churches in the area: St. Charles at Bermuda, St. Joseph's at Bayou Derbonne, St. Anne Chapel at Old River, and St. Anne Church (Spanish Lake).[19][21]
In 1913 under Bishop Van de Van, the order of Holy Ghost Fathers took charge of the parish and remained until 1990. The dedication of the existing church structure by Bishop Van De Van was at a solemn high mass on February 15, 1917 with Fr. J. Baumgartner as its pastor.[19]
Schools and convents
In 1856, the Daughters of the Cross convent were invited to establish a school on Isle Brevelle called Saint Joseph's School. The nuns had established a convent and school the previous year in Avoyelles Parish named the Presentation School. Mother Superior Hyacinthe LeConniat wrote to her brother of the Isle Brevelle Creoles, “These are people of leisure and many of wealth and means. The Bishop bought us a house with sixty acres of land there.” The Daughters of the Cross expanded to operate 5 schools in Louisiana and relied heavily on donations from wealthy Creole families such as the Prud’homme, Metoyer, and Brevelle's. The Brevelle family with plantations along the Red River at Grand Ecore, Isle Brevelle, andMarksville Brouillette (Avoyelles) provided funds, food, and religious artifacts for both the Presentation School and Saint Joseph's, which their children and those of their workers attended.[22][23] By 1859 the school listed between 120 and 130 girls. Additional nuns were brought in as enrollment continued to rise. A larger school, Saint Joseph's, and a convent were built closer to St. Augustine Church. The school flourished through 1862, until the effects of the Civil War resulted in a plummeting enrollment; in December 1863, the convent was closed, and the nuns were called home to the Avoyelles.[24]
St. Genevieve Catholic Church of Brouillette
In addition to the Daughters of the Cross Presentation School in Avoyelles Parish, the descendants of Isle Brevelle founder were amongst the founding patron families (Brevelle, Ponthier, Bordelon and Lachney) of the St. Genevieve Catholic Church of Brouillette. Their names appear prominently at the entrance of the church and its iconic cemetery with above-ground tombs. Brouillette is a small Creole community located on the banks of the Red River approximately 80 miles southeast of Natchitoches. St. Genevieve is a parish church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Alexandria.[25]
Brevelle station
While railways had changed the commercial nature of agriculture and passenger service throughout the country beginning in the 1830s, the Cane River region was late in attracting the large investments of capital that rail service required. The area did not see rail service until well after the end of the Reconstruction era (after the Civil War). Among the early railroads established in Natchitoches Parish was the Natchitoches Railroad, established in 1887. By 1898, it was operating as the Natchitoches & Red River Valley Railway, which lasted until 1901, when it was incorporated into the larger Texas and Pacific Railway. One of the stops on the 32-mile-long railroad line, which stretched from the City of Natchitoches to Grand Encore, was the Brevelle Station. Oral tradition by the members of the Prud’homme family states that Alphonse I constructed the wood-frame Brevelle Station depot. Alphonse II recalled that “Grandpa Alphonse had built a place there, so they put a side track there [to] pick up cotton, or anything that had to be shipped.” The depot continued to serve as a stop on the Texas and Pacific Railroad until it was destroyed in a fire in 1914. In 1915, the Texas and Pacific Railway Company petitioned the Railroad Commission for permission to discontinue service to the Brevelle Station. It was not until 1927 that the Texas and Pacific Railway constructed its still-extant depot in Natchitoches to service its spur to the city. The spur that connected Natchitoches to the main rail trunk had existed since at least 1903, according to the official Texas and Pacific map. However, neither Magnolia nor Oakland took advantage of railroad spur connections to facilitate transport of their goods to market, instead relying on road transport to transshipment points on the rail line or into the city of Natchitoches. Even though less efficient than direct connections to the railroad, this was still much quicker and easier than transporting goods on the Cane River.[26]
Representation in literary work
Descendants of Jean Baptiste Brevel: Soldier of Fort St. Jean Baptiste at Natchitoches (2015): Author Tony Vets' historical novel of one of the first settlers and soldiers of the Louisiana colony draws upon his research of early settlers of Louisiana including the nearby French post, St. Jean Baptiste des Natchitoches and the Spanish post, Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Los Adaes. The son of Jean Baptiste Brevel is the first Creole settlor and founder of Isle Brevelle. The island was a land grant to him by the Spanish Crown for services rendered as a translator, explorer, arbitrator, and colonial militia soldier.[27]
Isle of Canes (2004): Elizabeth Shown Mills's historical novel draws upon her research in both family tradition and primary sources. She explores the founding of St. Augustine Church and the character of the religious leadership of the Isle Brevelle community in Creole Louisiana.[28]
Natchitoches and Louisiana’s Timeless Cane River (2002): Philip Gould's book spotlights the Creole settlement of Isle Brevelle, which dates back to the area's colonial period. Gould celebrates the music, food, folklore, architecture, and landscape of this vibrant multiethnic community. Harlan Mark Guidry, one of the many descendants of Isle Brevelle now living throughout the United States, narrates the story of this unique cultural treasure.[29]
Recipes from the Isle (1999): Recipes from the Isle - Isle Brevelle, Louisiana Cookbook is a Creole cookbook featuring recipes from members of the St. Augustine Catholic Church.[30]
That Was Then (Memories of Cane River) (2017): Isle Brevelle resident Joseph Moran, photographs the historic settlement of Cane River—also known as Isle Brevelle-reputedly the oldest American settlement founded by and for people of color.[31]
Representation in film
Cane River: The Isle Brevelle Church is depicted in the 1982 historical romantic drama Cane River, which was lost for decades before being rediscovered a distributed digitally and in theaters beginning in 2020.
Clementine Hunter’s World: Clementine Hunter’s World is a 2016 documentary filmed on Isle Brevelle featuring life along the banks of the Cane River and colorful paintings of self-taught, primitive artist Clementine Hunter.[33]
Cemeteries and burial sites
There are numerous historically significant cemeteries and Native American burial sites on Isle Brevelle. Natchitoches and Adai Native Americans are buried on the isle including a cemetery near Bayou Brevelle at the old Brevelle Plantation and the St. Augustine Catholic Cemetery. Enslaved persons who died at Bermuda Plantation were buried in a cemetery on Prud’homme property, also near Bayou Brevelle. Some slave burial markers included wrought iron crosses, such as those attributed to Bermuda’s blacksmith,
Solomon Williams.[35]
Robert Brevelle (born 1977), entrepreneur, venture capitalist and professor, is a lineal descendant of Isle Brevelle founder Jean Baptiste Brevelle II and Anne des Cadeaux.[36]
Marie Thérèse Coincoin (1742–1816), a planter, former slave turned slave owner, and businesswoman.
Anne des Cadeaux (unknown–1754), former Native American slave, mother of Jean Baptiste Brevelle II, and buried on Isle Brevelle at the Brevelle Plantation.
^ abMills, Gary (1977). The Forgotten People: Cane River's Creoles of Color. LSU Press. pp. 50–67. ISBN0807137138.
^Mills, Elizabeth (2007). Natchitoches. Abstracts of the Catholic Church Registers of the French and Spanish Post of St. Jean Baptiste des Natchitoches in Louisiana 1729-1803. Heritage Books Inc. pp. 4–8. ISBN978-0931069109.
^Mills, Gary (1977). The Forgotten People: Cane River's Creoles of Color. LSU Press. p. 51. ISBN0807137138.
^Vets, Tony (2015). Descendants of Jean Baptiste Brevel: Soldier of Fort St. Jean Baptiste at Natchitoches. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. pp. 6–89. ISBN9781508913740.
^Fr. J.B. Blanc, Reg. 6: 116. For a lengthy analysis of the evidence surrounding the construction of the chapel, see Gary B. Mills, The Forgotten People: Cane River's Créoles of Color (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 197), 145–150.
^"Bishop Auguste Martin". Diocese of Alexandria. Roman Catholic Church. Retrieved 17 January 2024.
^"Creoles in the Cane River Region", Cane River National Heritage Area: A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary, National Park Service, accessed 15 Jul 2008
^Vets, Tony (2015). Descendants of Jean Baptiste Brevel: Soldier of Fort St. Jean Baptiste at Natchitoches ([better source needed]). PatriotDescendants.com. ISBN9781508913740.
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