| 1795 |
A letter from Carondelet to Don Juan Filhiol mentions another possible contractor. He is a Dutch man Felipe Enrique Neri, the Baron de Bastrop. Like the Marquis de Maison Rouge, his French properties had been confiscated in the revolution and they had been banished from France. |
| 1795August 1 |
Another letter from Carondelet to Don Juan Filhiol mentions the expected arrival of Bastrop. |
| 1796June 2 |
Yet another letter to Don Juan Filhiol mentions Bastrop and describes him as a better candidate for a successful contract than Maison Rouge. |
| 1796June 20 |
A petition from Baron Bastrop to governor Carondelet for land in the Washita and rights to build a mill to process wheat and sell it to Havana if not needed in Louisiana Bastrop later states in an undated petition, perhaps 1801, that he did not ask for a grant immediately upon his arrival in New Orleans, but that governor Carondelet suggested he establish a colony. A Carondelet decree is sent to Don Juan Filhiol to designate 12 leagues square for Bastrop's settlers on Bayou Siard for the cultivation of wheat alone. |
| 1797 |
Carondelet to Don Juan Filhiol: An engineer is on his way to construct a new fort. Baron Bastrop is to arrive with wheat. |
| 1797June 10 |
Bastrop petitions the governor to give him land that is not already occupied. |
| 1797June 16 |
Juan Ventura Morales calls a meeting of the Junta de Hacienda Real at New Orleans which includes Morales, Don Manuel Serrano, Assessor of the Intendancy, Don Gilberto Leonard, Treasurer of the army, Don Cayetano Valdes, Secretary of the Intendancy. They decide that all colonization expenses up to this time should be paid, but the governor and the Baron should be told to forget any future colonization without permission of the crown. |
| 1797June 20 |
Carondelet executes a formal decree which is later construed as an absolute grant to the Baron Bastrop. This Act of Concession to Bastrop mentions 500 families to be introduced into the country. Regarded as the absolute grant, it ends by stating that the Marquis is not to admit or establish any Americans on the land. |
| 1797June 22 |
Bastrop travels to United States to get settlers, who he claims are detained in New Madrid for a month. When a barge he has purchased for their transportation reaches Natchez, the United States has maneuvered troops for an attack against the Spanish fort. |
| 1797 |
The Baron is buying up land not in the limits of the "grant", including a parcel from Don Juan Filhiol with ten arpents on the river at the point of and continuing along the southern bank of Bayou Siard that will be called Point Plantation. Here he builds his plantation and large warehouses. He will conduct extensive mercantile business ( see De Lisle-Serpi in N.O.) and Indian trade under an exclusive concession given to him by Casa Calvo in 1801. |
| 1797 |
The Baron sells the "grant" to Col. Abraham Morehouse before Gabriel J. Johnson a Kentucky Justice of the Peace. Morehouse was originally from Montgomery County New York, claimed to be a Colonel in the New York Militia, and had abandoned a wife and two young sons there before he began speculation on land in Kentucky, Virginia and Louisiana. |
| 1800 January 18 |
A decision from Don Gilberto Leonard, acting Comptroller General and Fiscal of the Royal Treasury at New Orleans that the concession to the Baron had not received Royal approval, was void due to the Baron's non-compliance and was not advisable to give to Americans at such a vulnerable area. |
| 1800 May |
The Baron arrives in New Orleans, having returned to the United States to find more settlers, preferably German, that he could introduce to Louisiana at his own expense., but Gayoso has died and the government there is in confusion. During the next year he will write an undated petition to introduce Abraham Morehouse and more settlers. |
| 1800 September 13 |
Abraham Morehouse deeds the grant back to Bastrop, since he cannot profit from his purchase. Soon after he and his new wife moved to Kentucky until the cession of La. to the U. S. |
| 1801 May 15 |
The Baron de Bastrop mortgages the entire grant to Stephen Wendt before Peter Pedesclaux at New Orleans. It is said to have been foreclosed in the Spanish Governor's Court before the cession, but the foreclosure was not executed. |
| 1802 |
The Baron is rebuilding mill at the entrance of Bayou Siard, the first having been swept away by flooding. |
| 1804 |
January 25 Bastrop deeds to Abraham
Morehouse an undivided 2/3s interest in the whole "grant" before Pedro
Pedesclaux in N. O. On the same day he passes the other third to Edward
Livingston. The Baron de Bastrop moves on to Texas and becomes a notable figure in history there. |
| 1805May 18 |
Settlement between Bastrop, Abraham Morehouse and Col. Charles Lynch which further complicates the land. |
| 1805October 18 |
Bastrop gets permission to emigrate to Texas, but is unable to induce his settlers at Ouachita to follow him there. He returns to Texas November 1805. He still owns 100,000 acres of the grant which is west of Bayou Barthelemy and mostly located north of the border of the territory of Orleans. |
| 1806 December |
General Adair was arrested and released and then re-arrested January 14 in New Orleans and taken to Baltimore. An accusing finger was also pointed at Livingston who was known to be sympathetic toward Burr's designs. |
| 1807 June 24 |
A grand jury of the Circuit Court of the U. S. at Richmond Virginia returns two true bills of indictment against Aaron Burr, for treason against the U. S. A misdemeanor charge was for mounting an expedition against Spain (in Mexico) with which the U. S was at peace. Trial Judge is Chief Justice John Marshall. Burr was not at Blennerhassett's Island at the alleged time of the conspiracy, he met the group later at the mouth of the Cumberland River and evidence showed that he had planned to settle the land in Ouachita. |
| 1807 September |
At this time Abraham
Morehouse owns 4/10ths interest in the remaining Bastrop land and Livingston
owns 6/10ths. Among buyers of Livingston's land: James Pitot, General John
Adair, Francois Duval, David Williamson, Stephen Wendt, Eli Fromentin and
Henry Carleton. An interesting side bar here is a claim by Aaron Burr to have control of a large part of the Bastrop "grant" for settlement of his emigrants through Judge Charles Lynch. |
| 1813 |
Colonel Abraham Morehouse dies. |
| 1844 March |
A new parish is carved from the northern and northeastern section of the County and Parish of Ouachita. It is called Morehouse Parish and its seat is called Bastrop. |