| 1519 |
Alonso Alvarez de Pineda spends 8 or 9 months exploring the Gulf Coast from Florida to Panuco in Mexico, including about 40 days at the mouth of the Mississippi River. De Garay forwarded Pineda's charts to the king with a request for a grant which he received in 1521. It included the shore of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas as far as the Cape Roxo in Mexico. |
| 1523 | De Garay landed in Mexico in 1523 and moved up the coast , but is hindered and finally captured by Cortes. |
| 1528 |
In 1528 the ship on which de Vaca was sailing landed on an island which the Spaniards would soon christen "la Isla de Mal Hado," or Bad Luck Island. This may have been on the Louisiana Coast, but since he claims to have traveled at least 50 leagues up and down the coast he most surely visited Louisiana during this time. The Indians of the island lived there from October to February, the cold months, and when the weather was too cold to hunt, the Indians simply did not eat. The Spanish, however resorted to cannibalism and made the Indians angry. Ironically the Indians were later reputed to be the cannibals. De Vaca did not report any cannibalism in 1528, but rather the native's affection toward their children. |
| 1699 | Iberville forms an alliance with four tribes, one of which is the Chitimacha. |
| 1700 April 1 |
The Chitimachas arrive at Bayagoulas for a visit. Father du Ru is supervising the construction of a church. |
| 1703 |
Bienville sends three Frenchmen up the Riviere de la Madelaine (the Sabine). One of the men is reported to have been eaten by the seventh tribe they meet on the expedition . They were the Attakapas. |
| 1705 |
St. Denis may have raided the Chitamachas to take slaves. St. Denis had been bored at Mobile and said the Bienville approved of the raid, but Bienville orders the slaves released as soon as he hears about it. |
| 1706 |
French Missionary François Buisson de St. Cosme and three other Frenchmen are killed near present day Donaldsonville by a group of Chitimachas. They were avenging the death of their brethern at the hands of the Tensas who in August 1706 had invited the Chitimachas and Yakna-Chitas to share the corn of some Bayagoulas they had killed. The invitation was a trap. |
| 1707 February 20 |
Bienville writes to Pontchartrain that these Indians are treacherous. |
| 1714 |
The Attakapas are one of 14 tribes that come to De l'Epinay while he is fortifying Dauphin Island. |
| 1718 |
Historian Le Page du Pratz in Louisiana 1718 to 1734 Mentions that the Avoyelles Indians were already raising long horned Spanish cattle and trading with the Mexicans. |
| 1718 |
At a peace ceremony with the Chitimachas Le Page du Pratz watches the Chitimachas approach with calumets and Chichicois, gourds filled with dried beans or pebbles for rhythm. |
| 1725- 1726 |
During this time Bienville writes to the regent of Louis XV about the Indians of the Attakapas: The Attakapas have promised to settle in a village on the river and are preparing to do so. The Chitimachas, those that are left after an expedition to avenge the death for father Cosme, have settled in a village on the left bank but the Opelousas refuse to do so. |
| 1700 |
Madame de Mezieres' plantation is burned and two Frenchmen murdered in the area. Governor Perier blames it on the Chitimachas, now reduced to 40 warriors. |
| 1731 April 1 |
St. Denis uses a reinforcement of Assinai and Attakapas warriors to fight the Natchez. |
| 1733 |
The king asks Bienville to investigate the Indian problems of 1731 and he finds out that the Natchez, not the Chitimachas, are responsible. |
| 1735 |
Attakapas warriors are in New Orleans posing for artist A. de Batz. |
| 1737 |
Louis and Barthelemy Grevemberg are branding and raising cattle in the Attakapas country. |
| 1738 December 11 |
Joseph Blanpain forms a partnership with Joseph Le Kintreck (Le Quintrek), called Dupont, who is custodian of the prisons in New Orleans. |
| 1738 December 11 |
Joseph Blanpain forms a partnership with Joseph Le Kintreck (Le Quintrek), called Dupont, who is custodian of the prisons in New Orleans. They agree to trade pelts, horses, bear grease and tallow with the Opelousas and Attakapas Indians and Gerard Pery. |
| 1739 |
Cattle brands are registered in St. Martinville in 1739 (Grevembergs), 1748, 1751, 1758, 1762 at Poste Des Attakapas before the Acadian migration. The first brands in Texas are registered in 1762. |
| 1740 April 21 |
A contract strengthening the partnership between Blanpain and Le Kintreck is signed in Opelousas. |
| 1745 June 16 |
A partnership between Andre Fabry de la Bruyere and Blanpain is annulled, Blanpain agrees not to trade with either Frenchmen or Indians in the Attakapas country. Fabry signs a contract for deer skins obtained in the Attakapas from a man called Masse. |
| 1745 May |
La Superbe is a French vessel that goes aground enroute from Vera Cruz to New Orleans. It was commanded by the Chevalier Grenier who had sailed for Vera Cruz on March 14 to purchase flour for the Louisiana Colonists. La Superbe left on the return trip April 19 accompanied by the Spanish brig St. Jean Baptist. The French ship is faster and leaves the brig behind about April 27, butthe crew is lost, and believe they had passed the mouth of the Mississippi. The ship runs aground on May 12 and begins to break up. On land, Grenier to heads west, thinking that he would reach Pensacola. Grenier's second in command, the Sieur Yvon, stays with the flour and Indians. Meanwhile a small group heads east and finally reaches New Orleans on August 14 1745, where they learned that the St. Jean Baptiste had arrived long before. Joseph Blanpain is directed to find the lost ship and travels through Bayou Plaquemine and the Chitimachas lakes all the way to the Bay of St. Bernard (Matagorda Bay?). He finds no survivors, but it is believed that Sieur Yvon may have decided to live among the Attakapas. |
| 1765 April 4 |
Contract by eight chiefs of the Acadians with Antoine Bernard Dauterive, former captain of the infantry who owns large tracts of land in the Attakapas around Lake Dauterive in Iberia Parish. The eight chiefs: Joseph Broussard, dit Beausoleil, Alexandre Broussard, Joseph Guillebeau, Jean Duga, Olivier Thibaudau, Jean-Baptiste Broussard, Pierre Arsineau, and Victor Broussard. The contract is signed before notary Jean-Baptiste Garic, and Charles Aubry acting governor, Nicolas Foucault, ordonnateur; Nicholas Chauvin de la Freniere; Attorney General, Mazange and Couturier. |
| 1767 June 19 |
Governor Aubry recognizes the Chitimacha nation and orders the commandant at Manchac to treat the Chief with respect. |
| 1774 |
The Chevalier Alexandre François Joseph de Clouet de Piedre replaces Gabriel Fuselier de la Claire as commandant of the Posts of St. Martinville and Opelousas and serves until replaced by Captain Jean Farault de la Villebeuvre. |
| 1777 September 14 |
Governor Galvez Recognizes the Chitimacha Indians and commands local commandants and other subjects of the Spanish government to respect the rights of these Indians in the land the occupy. |
| 1782 |
De Clouet is still commandant of the Attakapas and Opelousas Posts. |
| 1783 January 13 |
Clair Dauterive Bubuclet receives an original Spanish Land grant covering a vast expanse of virgin forest from Parque Perdue on the south to the winding of the Teche on the north. |
| 1788 |
Clair Dauterive Bubuclet contracts to have a house built by Jacques Touchet on a high ridge overlooking Lake Tasse, now Spanish Lake. Before De Clouet. For 1200 dollars, half in milk cows. |
| 1792 August 5 |
Lt. Don Francisco Caso y Luengo is civil and military commandant of the Attakapas Post. He is ordered by the governor to choose syndics: Mr. Sorel, M. Philippe Verret, Mr. Dauterive Daubclet, and the eldest Boutte son, Mr. Olivier de Vezin and Philippe Wils. Mr. Pierre Broussard and Alexandre Declouet, Mr. Pierre Nezat and Cadet St. Julien, Mr. Charles Dugas and Marin Mouton, Augustin Broussard and Joseph Broussard, Jean Baptiste Broussard and Joseph Grange. |
| 1793 July 29 |
The brand of the Grevembergs is sold to Baptiste Bernard. |
| 1795 April 1 |
Jacques Fontenette petitions the Spanish Government to extend his bayou-front farmland to include land that will later become Oak and Pine Alley built by Charles Durand. |
| 1805 |
As the Territory of Orleans is formed the Attakapas country, along Bayou Teche and the Vermilion River, there were extensive settlements. An 1803 census indicates that it contains 2,270 whites, 210 free people of color, 1,266 slaves. in all 3,746 soul as well as 58,871 horn cattle and 7,315 horses. Actual settlers had been granted 300,000 acres of land. |
| 1805 April 10 |
The Territory of Orleans is divided into 12 counties. |
| 1805 September |
Under orders from Lt. Col. Constant Freeman, commander of American forces in New Orleans, Lt. Enoch Humphries explores the Atchafalaya Basin, however his field notes and map do not survive. Humphries first travels up the Mississippi to the Red River and then two miles to the Atchafalaya. This was years before the Shreve cut off changed the river regime in the area. He takes a boat to the first raft and then travels by foot on the west bank to Bayou Plaquemine. He returns to the boat, descends the Mississippi to Bayou Plaquemines, ports his boat and travels 3 leagues to the Big River. Next he goes up Big River to Cow Island, down the Atchafalaya to Bayou Courtableu to Lemelle's Landing, over to Opelousas, back down to the Atchafalaya, past Plaquemines Bayou, through the lakes to Bayou Teche, down Bayou Teche to the Atchafalaya to the Bay, along Belle Isle to Myrtle (Big Wax) Bayou back to the Atchafalaya, to Bayou Teche and Lac Plat to Bayou Long 26 miles NE to Lake Taches to Big River. Humphries mentions several settlers which the editor (Malcolm Comeaux) tries to name. A fmc named Jean Baptiste Mars lives on an island. He sells 640 acres to Samuel Russell Rice, Sr. from Kentucky in 1808. The island is known as Bateman Island today near the mouth of the Teche. Another could have been a disreputable squatter Lemuel Paris found on Beers Island across Bayou Perault by Cathcart in 1819. Below the mouth of the Teche is the family of Thomas Berwick, Sr. who was in the Opelousas area as a surveyor in 1784, later moved south on Teche where his family owns 1600 arpents on Berwick Bay. Another is the family of Christopher O'Brian Sr. who was given permission by the Spanish to settle on the lower Teche in 1801. His descendants called Bryan. Son Luke married a Berwick. Michel Infel granted land on Berwick Bay in 1797 but sold land in 1806. Belle Isle is a large salt dome purchased by Dr. Walter Brashear before 1813, but the claim was contested by Dautrieve Dubuclet, Benoit de St. Clair and Francois Gonsoulin three long-time residents of the district. They claimed to have received it as a grant from the Spanish in 1783. They were eventually confirmed as owners. A family on the island in 1805 was that of Samuel Watson who sold to Brashear. |
| 1807 March 31 |
The Territory of Orleans is divided into 19 civil parishes. |
| 1811 April 17 |
A territorial act divides the county of Attakapas into two parishes: The parish of St. Martin and the parish of St. Mary - The parish of St. Martin shall contain all that part of the country north, or above a line running east from the upper line of the plantation of Francisco Boutte, on the Bayou Teche, to the great lake, and west from the said Francisco Boutte to the mouth of the petite Anse on the Bay; and the parish of St. Mary shall contain all the remainder of the county, that is to say, all that is south or below the said line. |
| 1817 March 31 |
Robert Perry builds a bridge across the Vermilion River. |
| 1819 |
Live oak in the area was important in ship construction. In fact as early as the first half of the 18th century French ships were coming here to cut oak timber. Near Flat Lake. Cathcart sent here in 1819 to set aside land for the U. S. government to harvest live oak for shipbuilding. |
| 1823 January 17 |
A state act to create and establish a new Parish in the County of Attakapas, to be called the parish of Lafayette, La. Acts, 1823 1st session of the 6th Legislature; That the Parish of St. Martin is and shall be divided and a new parish be formed out of the western part of the said parish which shall be called and known by the name of the Parish of Lafayette. |
| 1824 October |
The first issue of Attakapas Gazette appears. It continues as weekly until ca. 1850. |
| 1834 September |
A Police Jury votes to completely replace Perry's bridge. |
| 1844 March 25 |
An act to create a new parish in the County of Attakapas to be called the Parish of Vermilion; La. Acts 1844 2nd session of the 16th Legislature No. 81 |
| 1848 January 17 |
Attakapas country's youngest member encounters problems in its creation, First proposed in an 1848 Louisiana Senate resolution, Louisiana Act No. 297, 1850 directed the State Engineer to ascertain the land contained in the proposed Parish of Iberia, to be created from parts of St. Martin and St. Mary Parishes. |
| 1850 January 17 |
Proposed creation of Iberia Parish from the parishes of St. Mary and St. Martin La. A. 1850, 3rd Legislature No. 297. |
| 1859 |
By this year cattle rustling is so prevalent in the Attakapas country that the ranchers form vigilance committees. Many rustlers are exiled to Texas until after the war. After the civil war the vacheries were bare and much of the land is transformed into rice fields. |
| 1868 October 30 |
An act to form a new Parish to be called the Parish of Iberia, La. A., 1868, 1st session of the 1st legislature No. 208, Sect 1...That from and after the passage of this act there shall be a new parish formed from a portion of the north part of the parish of St. Mary, to be called and known by the name of the Parish of Iberia. Nineteenth century maps locate a missing member of the original Attakapas County. According to Louisiana Act No 102, 1870 the parish of Cameron in its organization has as its westernmost boundary the southwestern portion of the Parish of Vermilion. Thus five parishes and a portion of another all evolved from the land originally part of the Poste des Attakapas. |
| 1870 |
Cameron parish is formed, including in its boundary, a portion of Vermilion parish that was formaerly a part of Attakapas County. |
| 1880 |
Eleven German families leave their homes in Gelienkirchen near the Holland border to escape Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's Kulturkampf. They settle in Robert's Cove, a few miles outside Rayne La. and plant their culture and their crops. In lean years they work the near-by salt mines, but today most are successful rice farmers. |
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