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SECTION # 1 - Introduction
Several years ago I undertook a project to show that ALL Poussons in the United States are related - with a common ancestor. This proved to be easier than I thought due to the fact that the three original Poussons that came to Louisiana married three sisters - Jean Bertrand Pousson married Josephine S. Guillory, his brother Bertrand "Cadet" Pousson married Adele Guillory and their cousin Mathieu Pousson married Euphrosine Guillory. The three Guillory sister's parents are Siphroy (Leufroy) Guillory and Euphrosine (Johnson) Jeansonne - common grandparents to ALL Louisiana Poussons.
Early Pousson oral history tells us that there were two brothers and their cousin that came to America back in 1840's and 1850's. I then decided to find a common POUSSON ancestor in France, I did not know how many generations back I had to go before I could tie the two families together but I knew that they had to have a common ancestor since they were cousins. After many letters to France, trips to Iota, Lacassine, Opelousas, Chataignier, Crowley, Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, Franklin, etc., I now have the information that connects our families.
I am Willmer (Willie) Pousson (ref. exhibit 1) and I am a descendant of Jean Bertrand Pousson. I have tried to give credit to all those who furnished me with information, stories, pictures, maps, etc. If I overlooked anyone, I am sorry. If I have information that you know is incorrect, please let me know. My address is: 101 Wilbourn #307, Lafayette, Louisiana 70506 (phone 337 989 1361).
Section one - (A) - Introduction and design of this book (updated 2002) and possible reasons why and how the Poussons moved from France to Louisiana - this section has pictures and information for the time period of our ancestors move from France to Louisiana.
Section two will show our ancestors in France - this section will have records showing the "tie in" of the two families - this section will have maps, marriage records, birth records, death records, pictures, letters, charts, etc.
Section three, four, and five - due to the fact that we have three separate Pousson families in this book, I have given each family one section. Each section will have birth records, death records, marriage records, pictures, letters, etc.
Section six has information concerning the Guillory and Jeansonne families - our common grandparents here in the United States.
Section seven shows the descendants of Jeannet Pousson and Marie Lafosse - these are the common ancestors of ALL Louisiana Poussons. This list has MOST of the Poussons in the United States (ref. exhibit 2) - descendants of Joseph Pousson and Hattie Harwood - this family is not descendant of the three Poussons that came to Louisiana. I have found approximately 30 - 40 Poussons in the New York area that are not descendants of the three Louisiana Poussons.
Note : Several place and/or location names referred to in this book have changed over the years. I will use the current common names for each location with a reminder every now and then of it's old name or names.
l - St. Landry Parish was established on 10 Apr. 1805 and included most to southwest Louisiana. The present parishes of Acadia, Evangeline, Jefferson Davis, Beauregard, Allen, Calcasieu and Cameron were all part of St. Landry Parish.
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2 - Calcasieu Parish - "Imperial Calcasieu" was organized as a parish on 24 Mar. 1840 "Calcasieu" which means "crying eagle" is said to have been the name of an Attakapas chief. Calcasieu was part of St. Landry Parish.
2 - Calcasieu Parish - "Imperial Calcasieu" was organized as a parish on 24 Mar. 1840 "Calcasieu" which means "crying eagle" is said to have been the name of an Attakapas chief. Calcasieu was part of St. Landry Parish.
THE DIVISION OF ‘IMPERIAL’ CALCASIEU PARISH - from Southwest Louisiana Genealogical Society, KINFOLKS Vol. # 25 Issue # 2 - used with permission - How did “Imperial” Calcasieu Parish come into existence? The story is an interesting one, and it goes something like this:
In 1803, at the time of the Louisiana Purchase, the area that we now call Imperial Calcasieu, lay on the western border of the huge empire that the United States was lucky enough to be allowed to purchase from France under Napoleon Bonaparte. This purchase was a very hasty one: so much so that at the time neither the seller (France), the buyer (the United States), nor the western neighbor (Spanish Mexico), was sure what the western border of the purchase actually was. Seeking to get all of the land that it could out of its purchase, the United States took the position that the western boundary was the Sabine River, or possibly some river even farther to the west. Spain, on the other hand, took the position that the boundary was the Calcasieu River or a river east of the Calcasieu, such as the Mermentau. To prevent conflicts until an agreeable boundary was established, in 1806 the United States and Spain agreed that the land between the Calcasieu and the Sabine Rivers, in other words the western half of what was later to become Imperial Calcasieu, would be a “no man’s land.” This agreement lasted until 1819 when the western boundary was set at the Sabine River.
In the meantime, in 1812 Louisiana became a state, and southwest Louisiana was organized as St. Landry Parish and its seat of government in Opelousas. Almost three decades later, in 1840, when the population of St. Landry Parish had grown sufficiently to require division, Calcasieu Parish (old Imperial Calcasieu) was organized and named for this region’s principal river. The boundaries at the time were set at the Sabine River on the west and the Mermentau River on the east. The new parish comprised a huge area - over 5,000 square miles - and was made up of varied terrain that ranged northward from the Gulf of Mexico from coastal marshes, to grassy prairies, and then to dense forests in the central and northernmost parts. At this time the parish seat was established at a place on the Calcasieu River called Marion. In the years that followed a number of other changes were made in the political organization of old Calcasieu Parish that eventually transformed it into the five parishes - Cameron, Allen, Jefferson Davis, Beauregard, and Calcasieu Parish.
3 - Acadia Parish was established as the 59th parish on 11 Oct. 1886. Acadia was part of St. Landry Parish.
4 - Jefferson Davis Parish was formed on 12 Jun. 1912. Prior to this date is was part of "Imperial Calcasieu" Parish and as per item 2 above, Calcasieu was part of St. Landry Parish.
5 - Egan, La. - Crowley Signal 22 Aug. 1903 - "Post Office announces that the town of Abbott, formerly known as Canal Switch, will be known as Egan after 1 Oct. 1903, the town is named for William M. Egan, of Crowley, president of the Egan Rice Milling Co., who has large interest there". Note: Before the place was called Canal Switch the name was Jonas Point.
6 - Iota, La. - area was known as Pointe aux Loups (place of the wolves) and also Cartville (Location of a post office). In 1894 the railroad, from Midland to Eunice, bypassed Cartville and Pointe aux Loups. The railroad built a depot and named the station and area Iota, the Cartville post office was moved and the name was changed to Iota on l May 1900. Iota was incorporated as a village in 1902.
7 - Lacassine, La. - This was the name of a very large area of this part of southwest Louisiana (most of current Jefferson Davis Parish, and small portions of Cameron and Calcasieu Parishes). "La Cassine" is an Indian word meaning "hunting ground". After the railroads came through the
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area in the 1880's, a station in the area was called Rice Station and the local school was also called Rice (ref. exhibit 3). I also found an old map of Southwest Louisiana, dated 1908, showing the town of Rice - see exhibit 3. In the early 1900's the name Lacassine came to apply only to the current town and the name Rice was gradually dropped.
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area in the 1880's, a station in the area was called Rice Station and the local school was also called Rice (ref. exhibit 3). I also found an old map of Southwest Louisiana, dated 1908, showing the town of Rice - see exhibit 3. In the early 1900's the name Lacassine came to apply only to the current town and the name Rice was gradually dropped.
Mr. Jim Bradshaw, Advertiser Columnist - The Daily Advertiser, Lafayette, Louisiana, wrote the following in his “Acadiana Diary”;
Was Lacassine named for a hut, swans, or an ugly black drink?
I’d always thought that the name Lacassine, which refers to a bayou and a community in Jefferson Davis Parish, was the name of an Indian chief. But some other theories have recently come to hand.
Linguist WILLIAM READ discusses the name in his classic 1931 study, “Louisiana-French,” and gives it the Indian origin.
“Lacasine was an Attakapas chief whose memory is perpetuated by the name of a large bayou in Southwest Louisiana, now spelled Lacassine, bur formerly Lacasine, Lacacene, and Cassine,” Read says. But he wonders how the Indian chief got the name.
He thinks it ultimately may have come from the Louisiana French name for the Yaupon Shrub, cassinier. The shrub thrives in Louisiana and the Indians used its leaves, according to Read, “to prepare a famous black drink for use on all festive and ceremonial occasions. This black drink … was held in such esteem by the Southern tribes that they never went to war without drinking it in huge quantities.”
Read quotes an early traveler named Bossu, who in 1771, wrote “Travels Through That Part of North America Formerly Called Louisiana.” According to Bossu, the drink was called Cassine.
“This is the leaf of a little tree which is very shady: the leaf is about the size of a farthing, but dentated on its margins. They toast these leaves as we do coffee, and drink the infusion of them with great ceremony. When this diuretic potion is prepared, the young people go to present it in Calabashes (gourds) formed into cups, to the chiefs and warriors, that is the honorable, according to their rank and degree. That same order is observed when they present the Calumet to smoke out of: whilst you drink they howl as loud as they can and diminish the sound gradually; when you have ceased drinking, they take their break, and when you drink again, they set up their howls again. These sorts of orgies sometimes last from six in the morning to two o’clock in the afternoon.”
Read suggests that the Indian chief Lacassine was given the name by the French “because he was a noted drinker of cassine, or because his village was situated among yaupon trees.”
But the linguist and others say that the name could have simpler origins. It may have derived from la cassine, French for a little shack, and at first denoted the place where someone build a hut on the bayou.
And a regular reader says that he’s always heard that the place name is a derivation of lac a cygne (swan lake), because swans once gathered at a little lake formed by a widening of the bayou. Read does note that the Whistling Swan was once common in Louisiana and that swan feathers were once used for the headbands of Indian chiefs. Did Lacassine get his headband from lac a cygne? Who’s got it right?
(Article used with permission from Mr. Jim Bradshaw - The Daily Advertiser - Lafayette, La.)
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{exhibit 1}
left to right - Willmer (Willie) Pousson, Hermina Guillory Pousson, Leland Pousson, Eunice Blanchard Pousson, Philip Pousson, Marjorie Pousson Richard, Joseph Harry Richard, Michael Olan Pousson, and Cecilia Fay Guillory Pousson
Joseph Pousson m. Hattie Harwood
I. Chester Alden Pousson b. 1 Oct 1909, Manhattan, NY, m. 10 Jun, Anna Marie Obermeuer, b. 4 Mar 1908, d. 15 May 1987, buried: Shelter Island, NY. Chester died 11 Feb 1984, buried: Shelter Island, NY.
B. Robert Andre Pousson b. 29 May 1932, m. 10 Aug 1956, Joan Kapian.
2. Karen Ruth Pousson b. 8 Dec 1967, Port Jefferson, NY, m. 14 July 1990, in E.Setauket, NY, Donald Edward D'Apolito.
3. Ronald James Pousson b. 5 Apr 1972, Port Jefferson, NY.
4. Thomas Glen Pousson b. 21 Jul 1975, Port Jefferson, NY.
{exhibit 2}
Descendants of Joseph Pousson and Hattie Harwood - NOT descended from the three "Louisiana" Poussons
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{exhibit 3}
Early map of Southwest Louisiana (1908) showing the town of Rice
Rice School House - Lacassine, Louisiana
Some names - standing - L to R back row - Durel Pousson, Jack Dugas, Alcie Bertrand, next 4 unknown, Adia Bourgeois, Elodie Andie Ardoin Daigle, Aline Louvien, two teachers, etc. etc. Dora Pousson is also shown in this picture
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