Editing St. Charles Parish, Louisiana (section)

===18th century===
As early as 1718, [[John Law (economist)|John Law]] and the [[Mississippi Company|Company of the Indies]] began recruiting [[French people|French]] settlers to settle [[Louisiana (New France)]], though not specifically to what would become the [[German Coast]].<ref name="JohnLawsChrtr">{{cite web|title=John Law's Charter|url=https://scphistory.org/wp-content/grand-media/image/DSC_0266_LesAllemandsAAA_web.jpg|publisher=scphistory.org/|accessdate=September 9, 2022}}</ref> The early French settlers were not suited or prepared for the harsh conditions in Louisiana.<ref name="JohnLawsChrtr"/> In 1719, [[Jean-Pierre Pury]], a director at the Company of the Indies, proposed recruiting Germans and German-speaking Swiss farmers to Louisiana and that same year with a twenty-five-year charter, Law merged the Company of the West with his Company of the Indies.<ref name="JohnLawsChrtr"/> Also in 1719, a small group of German settlers arrived in the Louisiana French colony and were transported by waterways thirty miles west of New Orleans to a location along the west bank of the [[Mississippi River]], north of [[Lake Salvador|Ouachas Lake]].<ref name="JohnLaw">{{cite web|title=John Law|url=http://www.acadian-cajun.com/germanc.htm|publisher=acadian-cajun.com|accessdate=August 24, 2022}}</ref> This area of German settlers was called ''les Allemands'' or ''the Germans''.<ref name="JohnLawsChrtr"/><ref name="les Allemands">{{cite web|title=les Allemands|url=https://scphistory.org/wp-content/grand-media/image/DSC_0266_LesAllemandsAAA_web.jpg|publisher=scphistory.org/|accessdate=August 24, 2022}}</ref>

In 1720, Germans were recruited in early spring to settle in ''les Allemands''. Roughly four thousand individuals (four hundred and fifty families) mostly from the [[Rhineland]], but also from [[Baden-Württemberg]], [[Bavaria]], [[Swedish Pomerania]], [[Alsace–Lorraine]], [[Belgium]], and [[Switzerland]] traveled across France to [[Lorient]] in [[Brittany (administrative region)|Brittany]] and then made the voyage to Louisiana on March 7, 1721.<ref name="FrnchLoui">{{cite book |last1=Cormier|first1=Steven A.|editor1-last=|title=French Louisiana|trans-title=|url=http://www.acadiansingray.com/Acadians%20of%20LA-history%205.htm|access-date=January 9, 2013|publisher=acadiansingray.com|location=|isbn=|page=}}</ref><ref name="EarlyVllgs">{{cite web|title=Karl Fredrick Darensbourg & Early Villages|url=https://scphistory.org/darensbourg/|publisher=scphistory.org|accessdate=August 24, 2022}}</ref> The settlers arrived in [[Fort Maurepas|Old Biloxi]] on June 4, 1721, and on December 15, 1721, [[France|French]] [[Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville|Governor Bienville]] issued an order for boats to transport the recently arrived German-speaking settlers including newly named Commandant [[Charles Frederick d'Arensbourg|Charles Frederic d'Arensbourg]], born Karl Friedrich von Arensburg, to the already established villages of [[Hoffen, Louisiana|Hoffen]], [[Marienthal, Louisiana|Marienthal]], and [[Augsburg, Louisiana|Augsburg]] on the west bank of the Mississippi River.<ref name="EarlyVllgs"/> The settlers left for the settlements in January 1722 and of the roughly four thousand individuals that initially began the trip in [[Europe]], when they reached their port of embarkation in March 1722, a Company of the Indies official counted only three hundred and thirty settlers because many of them perished due to the harsh conditions of their long journey to Louisiana.<ref name="FrnchLoui"/> d'Arensbourg's land grant concession on the west bank of the river near present-day [[Taft, Louisiana|Taft]], was named [[Karlstein, Louisiana|Karlstein]] after him and with its founding, the original four settlements in "les Allemands" were established.<ref name="EarlyVllgs"/> Besides the area being named "les Allemands", the collective name that the settlements were sometimes referred to as was Karlstein, also after Charles Frédérique d'Arensbourg or Karl Friedrich von Arensburg, who was the acknowledged leader of the settlements for more than 55 years.<ref name="EarlyVllgs"/>

[[Image:Mapofgermancoast-1775.jpg|thumb|right|226x226px|Map of the German Coast, 1775. ''Carlstein'' and ''German Church'' are located on the westbank of the Mississippi River.<ref>[http://rumsey.geogarage.com/maps/g0411044.html "Course Of The River Mississippi, from the Balise to Fort Chartres. Ross, Lieut. 1775" rumsey.geogarage.com]</ref>]]
Over time, "les Allemands" would come to be known as ''Côté des Allemands'' or ''[[German Coast]]'' and is located in present-day St. Charles and [[St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana|St. John the Baptist]] Parishes.<ref name="JohnLaw"/><ref name="EarlyVllgs"/> The German Coast Settlement established in 1722 was the third permanent settlement in what is now the state of Louisiana, after [[Natchitoches, Louisiana|Natchitoches]] (1714) and [[New Orleans]] (1718).

Also in 1722, the "La Grand Ouragan" Hurricane devastated the German Coast and many Germans considered leaving.<ref name="Bstrd’s Cove Stlmnt">{{cite web|title=Bustard's Cove – L'Anse aux Outardes|url=https://scphistory.org/bustards-cove/|publisher=scphistory.org/|accessdate=August 24, 2022}}</ref> In order to prevent this exodus, Governor Bienville decided to grant the settlement of additional lands to settlers on the west bank in addition to the east bank of the river.<ref name="Bstrd’s Cove Stlmnt"/> Later in 1722 and 1723, some [[French people|French]] and German settlers along with newly arrived [[Canadians]] moved across the Mississippi River to establish the first east bank settlement at ''L’Anse aux Outardes'' or ''Bustard’s Cove''.<ref name="Bstrd’s Cove Stlmnt"/> The tributary at this site connected the Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain via a previously discovered system of waterways through the [[LaBranche Wetlands]].<ref name="Bstrd’s Cove Stlmnt"/> The ecclesiastical parish and chapel, [[La Paroisse de St. Jean des Allemands]], was also founded in 1723 in Karlstein.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Becnel|first1=Joan|last2=Friloux|first2=Suzanne|last3=Richoux|first3=Marilyn|editor1-first=Anne|editor1-last=Cordry|title=St. Charles Parish Louisiana|date=June 2, 2024 |trans-title=A Pictorial History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hg9kbwAACAAJ&q=St.+Charles+Parish+Louisiana+A+Pictorial+History|access-date=January 9, 2013|publisher=Donning Company Publishers|location=Virginia Beach, VA|isbn=978-1578646388|page=26}}</ref><ref name="google1">{{cite web|url=https://sites.google.com/site/scblittleredchurch/church-history |title=Church History – St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church |date=May 22, 2005 |access-date=June 28, 2013}}</ref>
 
A 1724 census revealed that the German families were not only harvesting enough food and raising enough cattle for their families, but they were bringing their surplus to New Orleans markets.<ref name="BreadBskt">{{cite web|title=Breadbasket of the Colony|url=https://scphistory.org/breadbasket-of-the-colony/|publisher=scphistory.org|accessdate=August 27, 2022}}</ref> It is apparent from these records that from the beginning of their settlement, German Coast farmers were a major source of food for the city of New Orleans.<ref name="BreadBskt"/>

The granting of additional lands in 1722 and 1723, led to the founding of the ''Second German Coast'' in 1730 and the establishment of officially having settlements on both banks of the Mississippi River.<ref name="Bstrd’s Cove Stlmnt"/> The year 1729 saw the first attack by [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] on the German villages.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://scphistory.org/18thcenturytimeline/|title=18th Century Timeline|website=scphistory.org|access-date=September 9, 2022|language=en}}</ref> In 1731, as the first decade of settlement on the German Coast ended and the Company of the Indies charter was retrieved by France, Louisiana again became a French colony.<ref name="BreadBskt"/> The land farmed by settlers on the German Coast technically belonged to the Company of the Indies until France retrieved its charter.<ref name="BreadBskt"/> After France once again owned the land, more landholders began to petition France for individual ownership of property.<ref name="BreadBskt"/>

In 1740, the ecclesiastical parish and chapel relocated to the present-day site of the church in [[Destrehan, Louisiana|Destrehan]] on the east bank of the Mississippi River.<ref name="StCharChapel'">{{cite book |last1=Becnel|first1=Joan|last2=Friloux|first2=Suzanne|last3=Richoux|first3=Marilyn|editor1-first=Anne|editor1-last=Cordry|title=St. Charles Parish Louisiana|date=June 2, 2024 |trans-title=A Pictorial History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hg9kbwAACAAJ&q=St.+Charles+Parish+Louisiana+A+Pictorial+History|access-date=January 9, 2013|publisher=Donning Company Publishers|location=Virginia Beach, VA|isbn=978-1578646388|page=30}}</ref> A [[log cabin]] structure was built and both the ecclesiastical parish and chapel were renamed St. Charles in honor of [[Charles Borromeo|St. Charles Borromeo]].<ref name="StCharChapel'"/>

The [[Louisiana (New France)|Territory of Louisiana]] remained under French rule until 1763, when France ceded Louisiana to [[Spain]] after losing the [[Seven Years' War]] to [[Great Britain]]. The [[French and Indian War]] was a North American theater of this war. At the beginning of the Spanish colonial period, many [[Acadians]], people of French descent, began arriving in south Louisiana after being expelled by the [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] from what is now [[Nova Scotia]] after the British took over French territory in [[Canada]] along with North American territory east of the Mississippi river. The first French Acadian village was established in present-day [[Wallace, Louisiana|Wallace]] in the German Coast. The [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] settlers of the German Coast and French Acadians of what would become [[Acadiana]] thrived alongside each another with [[French language|French]] becoming the dominant language. The intermingling and marriage between these two groups and influence from additional groups and cultures led to the formation of what was to become Louisiana [[Cajun culture]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://64parishes.org/entry/cajuns|title=Cajuns|website=64 Parishes|access-date=November 21, 2021|language=en}}</ref>

The early 18th century settlers in the area received land grants from the Spanish or French royal governments, depending upon which country ruled the territory at the time of application. The French style of property allotments was made up of narrow frontage on the river so that each [[Plantation complexes in the Southern United States|plantation]] had access to high ground for ground transportation of goods to and from New Orleans and world markets. In addition to ground transportation, goods were mainly shipped by boat on [[bayou]]s and lakes and also via the Mississippi River. The main house and supporting outbuildings were constructed near the river. The remaining property extended away from the river into the wetlands, where land was cleared for cultivation of [[sugar cane]] and [[Indigo dye|indigo]]. Homes still existing in St. Charles Parish include [[Destrehan Plantation]], [[Homeplace Plantation House]], and [[Ormond Plantation House]]. [[LaBranche Plantation Dependency|Labranche Plantation]] no longer exists, but the Creole dependency house, known in French as a garconnière still exists.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/84000145|title = LaBranche Plantation Dependency|publisher=nps.gov|access-date=August 27, 2022}}</ref>