The Evolution to Formal Education in Mouton Cove,

Vermilion Parish, Louisiana

A Short Story

In 1754, England and France verged on a new intercolonial and European war. The British saw the war as inevitable and knew that the -hostile Frenchmen of Nova Scotia posed a serious threat to New England. When war finally came, the decision was made to destroy this French menace on British soil. The English issued an ultimatum to the Acadians-take an oath of allegiance to King George or be driven into exile. The Acadians chose exile. The world-wide deportations began in September 1755 and continued over several years. It has been well noted that "the exile of the Acadians still remains the largest compulsory dispersion of Europeans in the history of the New World." The Acadians were determined to settle in Louisiana as most of them wandered along the eastern seaboard of the future United States. They were in search of a home, but not just any home. They were determined to settle where the French language was customary speech, where they could practice Catholicism freely, where they could be governed by the fellow Frenchmen under the fleur-de-lis flag, and where they could live in peace beyond reach of the British. For most, the journey from Acadia to Louisiana took several years.

Salvador Mouton and Anne Bastarche with their young son, Jean, arrived in Louisiana from Halifax, Acadia, around 1756. Upon arriving in Louisiana, the young family settled in St. James Parish, about fifty miles from New Orleans. A second son, Marin, was born to Salvador Mouton and Anne Bastarche in St. James Parish in 1758. The two young brothers were reared in the Acadian Coast of St. James. In subsequent years, the Acadians were allotted a vast territory to the west known as the Attakapas country. Eager to begin their new life, the Acadians wasted little time in settling the area of the present day Iberia, St. Martin, Lafayette, St. Mary and Vermilion Parishes.

When the Spanish government began awarding land grants in the middle 1760's, young Jean and Marin qualified to receive a tract of land in the Attakapas country. Among the first settlers in the vicinity of Carencro were Jean and Marin, who took up lands in nearby Bayou Carencro. They first engaged in cattle and horse raising, using some of the Indians as herders. A livestock brand was issued to Marin in 1782.

In this region of the Attakapas, the Acadians established a quick friendship with the resident Indians. According to Glenn Conrad, director of the Center of Louisiana Studies at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, the Indians got along with the Acadians better than did any other early American immigrants. The Puritans, for example, feared the Indians, but the Acadians did not find the Indian culture threatening at all. It is postulated that the immigrants from many European providences, which formed a greater part of the pre-Expulsion Acadia, were a pagan based population with a diversity of backgrounds. This allowed for a greater tolerance with certain pagan cultural elements, which formed the basis for a mutual compatibility with the Indians.