LCV Winter 2012 - (Page 25)

Located in St. Charles Parish on the east bank of the Mississippi River, Destrehan was named after Jean Noël Destrehan (1759 - 1823), owner of a plantation that remains a major landmark along River Road. Like all family histories, the story of the Destrehans is filled with numerous episodes of joy and sorrow, as well as those recording the humdrum routine of daily life. But when set against the backdrop of Louisiana’s French and Spanish colonial history, the sale and transfer of the French colony to the United States, the achievement of statehood, the ravages of the Civil War, the demise of sugar production and the rise of petroleum refining, the Destrehan story becomes at once both significant and complex. The Destrehan Path to Louisiana By claiming the mississippi river drainage for france in 1682, rené robert Cavelier, sieur de La salle, extended the mother country’s hegemony in north america from the hudson Bay to the Gulf of mexico. Confirmation of La salle’s claim occurred in 1697 through the treaty of ryswick, which ended a pan-European conflict that had affected the north american colonies. with the treaty’s recognition of La salle’s claim of the mississippi Valley for france, development of the colony began in earnest. the destrehan family’s association with “la Louisiane” began in the first half of the 18th century when the colony named for Louis XiV described nearly a third of the present continental united states, not just today’s modern state. the father of Louisiana’s destrehan Jean Noël Destrehan family was Jean Baptiste destrehan (ca. 1670–1740), Councilor to the King (Louis XiV) and treasurer of all the arts and crafts guilds in Paris and its environs. Jean Baptiste destrehan’s son, also named Jean Baptiste (1716–1765), arrived in Louisiana during its second incarnation as a royal colony: his signature appears on an official document in 1739. Jean Baptiste destrehan, son of the Councilor and youngest of four brothers (he had a younger sister as well) came to Louisiana as a clerk in the office of ordonnateur, a position responsible for the finances of the colony. Louisiana’s early history under france was determined by the ability of the monarchy to finance operations in the colony. though his family’s involvement in accounting and financial matters as well as his own education gave him strong training in the field, destrehan found himself faced with an economic system that was byzantine in theory and chaotic in practice, operating on a mixture of hard currency (often in limited supply) and letters of exchange that served as a type of paper currency. Learning the ins and outs of this routine ultimately served destrehan well. when a new ordonnateur, sébastien françois ange Lenormant de mézy, who had served in that position in st. domingue, took control in 1744, A horizontal section of the original 1787 house, with garçonnières that were added circa 1805 to 1810, shows the superstructure of the double-pitched roof’s Norman truss. Winter 2012-13 • Louisiana CuLturaL Vistas 25 COURTESY OF HABS RRHS ARCHIVES 

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of LCV Winter 2012

LCV Winter 2012

https://www.nxtbook.com/leh/lcvwinter2012/lcvwinter2012
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com