Terrebonne Parish Is Formed - 1822
| In 1822, the southwest
portion of Lafourche Interior was still primitive territory. John Landreth,
a U.S. Army engineer came to chart the coastal area of Louisiana from 1818
to 1819. His guide, Page Billiot told him of the abundance of bald eagles,
wolves, tigers, and buffalo in the area now known as Terrebonne Parish.
The name of Bayou Terrebonne was then Bayou Darbonne. (John Landreth, Journal,
p. 37-104) E.C. Wurzlow, in his 1897 Directory of Terrebonne Parish, stated
that the Darbonne family was one of the first in the area. |
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Why was the parish
named Terrebonne? In the 1822 act, the name of the parish is written
as two words "Terre Bonne". So it certainly seems that the intention
was to name it after the meaning "good earth." Perhaps Henry S. Thibodaux
used Darbonne as a starting point and altered it.
Led by Henry Schuyler Thibodeaux,
whose home was in present day Schriever, Terrebonne Parish was carved out
of the southwest portion of Lafourche parish. Though passed by the legislature
in 1822, it would be decades before the boundary lines were settled. |
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Louisiana Act creating Terre Bonne Parish ...
March 22, 1822
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| SECTION
1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
State of Louisiana, in General Assembly convened, That all that tract
of country, lying to the westward of bayou Lafourche, bounded as follows,
to the east, from the middle of the line drawn from the lower boundary
of Charles Ballot's plantation, to the lower side of Lacoupe of bayou Boeuf,
thence following a line parallel with the bayou Lafourche, to within eighty
arpens of bayou Terre Bonne, from thence winding round the settlement of
the said bayou Terre Bonne, to the distance of forty arpens from bayou
Lafourche, to be continued until a distance of eighty arpens from the latter
bayou, can be effected, without encountering the limits of the lands on
bayou Terre Bonne; from thence still at a distance of eighty arpens from
bayou Lafourche, a line parallel with the said bayou, to the bayou Blue-Water,
following whose right bank to the sea, shall terminate its eastern boudary,
to the west starting from the lower side of Lacoupe of bayou Boeuf to the
settlements on the Atchafalaya, and following the eastern shore of Atchafalaya
bay to the sea, including Marsh island, (Isle de Marais) shall form a separate
parish to be called the parish of Terre Bonne. |
| The first parish seat was located
along Bayou Terrebonne, about three miles north of downtown Houma. . The
first courthouse was built on the land of Alexander Dupre. A small jailhouse
was also constructed. The first attempt at forming a town in Terrebonne
Parish came in 1829, when William S. Watkins divided out lots in today's
Bayou Cane area. After only a few lots had been sold, Watkins died. His
idea for the town of Williamsburg faded away. But you can see the
town on an 1839 Mitchell map. |
|
The following year, Hubert M.
Belanger started a subdivision further down the bayou. Originally named
Newport, it had four streets ... Main, Front, Market, and Cypress. The
area became known as Canal Belanger. Shortly after the turn of the century,
the name was changed to Bourg. |
