Easter Breakfast, Dinner & Frog City 4/4/2010

WE got up this morning and the campgrounds had a Easter breakfast for everybody which consisted of scrambled eggs, pancakes, sausage, juice and coffee which all was very good and we met some very nice people as we ate. After breakfast it was on off into Rayne, LA "The Frog Capital of the World and the Mural Capital of Louisiana. Romance…violent vigilantes…a settlement on the move: These phrases establish the drama that played itself out in the mid-1800s, when what is now Rayne was still part of St. Landry Parish, before the coming of the railroad, before the establishment of Acadia Parish, and before anyone even spoke the name Poupeville. First came Township 9 South Range East located along the banks of Bayou Queue de Tortue (literally, "line of turtles). This small settlement, eventually named Queue de Tortue for the bayou along which it was located, was the setting for the humble beginnings of Rayne, Louisiana, a town rich in Cajun heritage and just hopping with frogs! Bayou Queue de Tortue divides Acadia Parish and Vermilion Parish in the south and Acadia Parish and Lafayette Parish in the east. Between what is now Rayne and its east neighboring community, Duson, the bayou turns into little more than a coulee or drainage ditch. At the time, however, Acadia Parish had yet to be divided from pre-existing St. Landry Parish. Along the banks of the bayou, J. Damonville Bernard established a store, which also served as a tax- collection point and a voting precinct. In 1855, 72 people voted at the Queue Tortue poll. By 1863, there were two polls for Queue Tortue: one at Onezime Trahan, fils, and the other at J. Damonville Bernard's store. However, on September 3, 1859, along the banks of the bayou, "the battle of the spurs" took place in an effort to put an end to the vigilante groups that dispensed their own brand of justice in southwest Louisiana. The vigilante force was a small group of armed men who were sworn to secrecy. Many were prominent citizens of the area comprising the five southwest Louisiana parishes: St. martin, Lafayette, Vermillion, St. Landry, and Calcasieu. Among the vigilantes were General Alfred Mouton, a West Point graduate who served as drillmaster; Alexander Mouton, a former Louisiana governor; and Alcee Judice, a highly respected citizen. The vigilantes' unorthodox tactics of punishing those suspected of having been acquitted of a crime because of perjured witnesses or packed juries dispensed swift, certain justice of banishment, the lash, or the rope. Denounced as rebels and ordered by Governor Robert C. Wickliffe to disband, the men disobeyed and a strong anti-vigilante sentiment took hold. The vigilantes learned of an alleged plot by an anti-vigilante group in Queue de Tortue to murder Emile Mouton, brother of the ex-governor, and Francois d'Aigle; to attack, pillage, and burn the village of Vermillionville (now Lafayette); and to put an end to the group. They were swift in making a counter-defensive move. The anti-vigilante group assembled in the fortified home of Emilien Lagrange. The house faced the coulee of Queue Tortue and was described by Alexandre Barde, a native of France and an itinerant newspaperman, as "a vast house with walls made of tree trunks, crenalated on all four sides. It contained a store constructed in the fashion of a log cabin." Barde describes Lagrange as "a man of very bad reputation" and added that "the widow of a Frenchman named Valette, mother of a tall and beautiful girl, had become the concubine of this man." On September 3, the vigilantes converged on the Lagrange household with a cannon in tow. The mere sight of the cannon sent many anti-vigilantes into the thickets along the bayou. Those who remained surrendered their weapons. Inside the house was a vast store of ammunition and weapons of every variety. The vigilantes took 200 anti-vigilantes prisoner. Approximately 120 anti-vigilantes were released on their promise never to again disturb the peace of the region. The remaining 80 or so prisoners were bound and lashed until they swore to leave Louisiana, never to return. While many people were going to Queue Tortue for the life of pain perdu, others were traveling to the bayou settlement to visit the general store of merchant Jules Poupeville. The expression, "Je vais au magazin de Poupeville" (I am going to Poupeville's store) brought the name Poupeville into prominence. Eventually, it became synonymous with Queue Tortue. Jules Poupeville, a native of France, was one of the settlements original merchants. He moved from France to Louisiana at an undetermined time, setting up his residence and a store on public land. In 1854, he sold the movables on the property to Jean Remy Vion, including two houses (one occupied as the store and the other as a residence). The exact location of Poupeville and its store was undetermined as late as 1871, when the editor of the Opelousas Courier, accustomed to identifying the village as Queue de Tortue, seemed uncertain of Poupeville's location: "We learn that a man by the name of Louis Anding was shot and killed at a ball near Poupeville, in the western part of this parish, on the night of the 23rd inst. There is no clue as to who perpetrated the deed, nor were we able to learn the particulars of the affair." In 1872, Father Joseph Anthonioz was put in charge of the settlement of Queue Tortue. Records at St. Joseph's Catholic Church show that the first marriage and the first baptism took place on the same date, January 18, 1872. The child baptized was Valerien Dupuis, son of Alexandre Dupuis and Ordalise Blanchard. The marriage was between Louis Theogene Richard and Celeste Trahant. In 1875, Father Anthonioz bought 162.25 acres of land from the U.S. government in the southwest quarter of Section 27, Township 9 South Range 2 East. A church was erected by the Jesuits, completed in early 1877 on the purchased property. The post office was re-estaablished near the church on October 23, 1878 in the northeast section of Section 33, Township 9 South Range 2 East, two miles north of Bayou Queue de Tortue. The United States Post Office officially named the station Pouppeville, a corruption of the spelling of the merchant's name (Poupeville) that had been formerly used to refer to the area in a colloquial manner. In 1880, The main line of the Louisiana Western Railroad neared completion. Pouppeville was by-passed and the settlement was moved farther north to meet the railway. Dr. William H. Cunningham, at the time an employee of the railway company, is considered founder of the new town. The station was named for another railroad employee, B. W. L. Rayne. Three Pouppeville merchants, J. D. Bernard, M. Arenas, and Francois Crouchet moved their businesses approximately a mile north to the railroad and the Rayne station. In 1882, Father Anthonioz raised the church, placed on large wooden wheels, and used teams of oxen to haul the building to the new village on a site of land donated by M.Arenas. Finally, in 1883, the town of Rayne was incorporated, with J. D. Bernard serving as the first mayor. Councilmen were B. H. Harmon, A. S. Chappuis, L. R. Deputy, M. Arenas, and J. F. Morris. E. C. Fremeaux was the first town clerk and J. O. Bull the first town marshall. The Frog Capital of the World had leapt upon the United States and Louisiana maps. Grave Today, folks know us for our frogs, but it all started when a trio of Parisians, Jacques Weill and his brothers, began a profitable export business, shipping our hoppy residents to restaurants across the country. Rayne has the distinction of being designated the official Louisiana City of Murals. This designation is the result of a cooperative effort between the City of Rayne and a group of citizens who formed the Rayne Beautification Board. The Board commissioned Robert Dafford, an internationally renowned muralist, to decorate the blank brick walls of buildings in the town with renderings of the town's history and its claim to fame--frogs!
Rayne is also listed in Ripley's Believe It Or Not reagarding St Joesph's Cemetery. The old St. Joseph's Cemetery in Rayne is the only known cemetery in the United States facing north and south, in contrast to the traditional east-west orientation. The most likely reason is simply that the grave-digger initially misunderstood instructions and decided the project was too far along to change the direction of the graves.

We started out looking at a few murals and the statue you see in the pictures and then did 3 caches all NRV. Then we drove into the center of the city and looked around at some more murals, did a cache outside St Joesph's Cemetery, did another NRV cache and drove around looking at some more murals. Then we drove out to the "Tail of the Turtle Bayou" for a cache in the woods on the bayou. As we went for the cache we were standing near the Bayou Queue de Tortue (French for “tail of the turtle”). The Bayou Queue de Tortue, into which the Indian Bayou flows, empties into the Mermentau River near Lake Arthur, about 22 miles southwest of here. The Mermentau gets its name from the corruption of the name of Nementou, an Attakapas Native American chief from the area. The land upon which you are now standing is part of an original claim of 1400 acres and was first settled by Europeans about 1799, the original claimant deriving his title from a deed of sale from another Attakapas chief referred to as “Bernard”. The Indian Bayou, flowing about 1 ½ miles to your south, empties into the Bayou Queue de Tortue about 2 miles southwest of here. Native Americans from the Attakapas tribe would have lived and hunted all along these bayous. The Indian Bayou is aptly named, and bears witness to the area’s history. Through its name it reminds us to reflect a moment upon the past, to imagine a time not so long ago when virgin forests of hickory and oak lined these bayous and teemed with white-tailed deer, bobcat, fox, raccoon, and turtle.

After we found that cache we drove back into Rayne and finished looking around the city at the murals and headed out of town. After we finished in town we headed back out of town and did one more cache at a massage therapy house and headed back to the coach. We got back had lunch, did logs, and got ready to go to dinner. We went to Ruth Chris Steak House in Lafayette, got there about 5;00 and had the WHOLE restaurant to ourselves. There was not another soul there except for the wait staff. We had a wonderful dinner as Mom had soup, lobster tail and salad and I had a blue cheese encrusted rib eye steak, sweet potato casserole and mushrooms. we also split an order of crabmeat stuffed mushrooms as an appetizer and also split carrot cake for dessert. It was a wonderful meal and we had a wonderful time. We drove back to the coach and I got prepared to watch opening day in baseball between the Yanks and Red Sox and I should have gone to bed and got my sleep instead as the Yanks lost 9-7.

Well that's it for Easter Sunday and we hope everyone else had a GREAT day with there families and until tomorrow we love and miss you all. Mom & Dad Dori & Dick