Jacques André Lafleur (1738 - 1827)

Jacques Lafleur lived in Louisiana. Join: Louisiana Families Project Discuss: louisiana

Biography

Jacques Lafleur has French origins.

Jacques André Lafleur, son of Jean Lafleur and Marguerite Brignac, was born at Fort Toulouse des Alibamons in 1738. ^{[citation needed]}

As a young man he served as a fusilier, or infantryman, in military service to France from 1762-1763 at Fort Toulouse.^[1]

There he married Marie Anne Fontenot c.1767 and started a family.^[2]

Jacques La Fleur American Revolution

Within a few years they migrated southwest to the Opelousas Post in Louisiana.^[3]

Available church records suggest that Jacques was the main progenitor of most of the present-day La Fleur families in Louisiana. Sometime after his marriage to Marie-Anne Fontenot ca. 1767, Jacques La Fleur moved to the Grande Prairie area north of Opelousas Post. There, by 1777, he had acquired a herd of 60 cattle. The Grande Prairie district remained the main center of the La Fleur clan for the remainder of the eighteenth and most of the nineteenth centuries, Jacques and his four sons acquiring land along Bayou Boeuf, Bayou Cocodrie, and Petit Pass Bayou and adjacent prairies, in what is now the northwestern part of St. Landry and the west-central section of Evangeline parishes. The four sons, Jean-Baptiste (m. 1788 Marguerite Berzac), Don Diegue (m. 1795 Adrienne Deshotels), Jean (m. 1792 Eulalie Deshotels), and Cé- sake [Cesaire] (m. 1811 Marie-Anne Deshotels) became stockmen and farmers as did most of their sons. One of Jacques's grandsons, Marcellin (son of Jean with Eulalie Deshotels) developed two antebellum plantations, one near the present community of Grand Prairie, the other along Bayou Boeuf, near present Whiteville, where he cultivated cotton and corn with 53 slaves. His succession papers of 1868 listed 650 wild cattle, 100 wild horses, and 150 tame horses and cattle, most of which probably ran unattended in the open prairies near his plantations.^[2]

Known children of the marriage:^[4]

1. Jean Baptiste Lafleur (c.1768)
2. Helene Lafleur (c.1770)
3. Jacques "Diego" Lafleur (c.1774)
4. Celeste Lafleur (1776)
5. Cesaire Lafleur (c.1789)
6. Francois Anselme Lafleur (1787)^[5]

His wife, Marianne Fontenot died and was buried on 2 February 1794 at the Opelousas Post in Spanish Colonial Louisiana.^[6]

Residence

• Census: 8 Nov 1774 Opelousas Post, Spanish Colonial Louisiana. ^[7]

• Census: 4 May 1777 Opelousas Post, Spanish Colonial Louisiana.^[8]

• Jacques Lafleur United States Census, 1810; Opelousas, Louisiana ^[9]

He died in Opelousas, Louisiana in 1827.^{[citation needed]}

Sources

1. ↑ "André dit Lafleur-Brignac Marriage," in La Voix des Prairies No. 2, Summer 1980 (Ville Platte, Louisiana: Evangeline Genealogical & Historical Society, 1980);
   • Jacques was listed as a fusilier in Bonnille's company at Alibamons in 1762 and 1763. (Citing typescripts by Carl Brasseau (Lafayette, La.: Center for Louisiana Studies, University of Southwestern Louisiana) from microfilm of the Archives Nationales.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Robert C. West, An Atlas of Louisiana Surnames of French and Spanish Origin, online at FamilySearch (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Univ., 1986) p. 91.
3. ↑ Ancestry.com., "U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970," [database on-line], (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011) Original data: Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970. Louisville, Kentucky: National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. Microfilm, 508 rolls.
4. ↑ Rev. Donald J. Hebert, Southwest Louisiana Records 1740-1900 ("SWLR"), CD #101 (Baton Rouge, LA: Claitor's Publications Division, 2001).
5. ↑ Hebert, SWLR CD:
   • LAFLEUR, Francois Anselm (Jacques & Mariane FONTENO) b. 16 Jan. 1787, bt. 21 April 1787 Spons: Francois BRUNET & Jeannelle POIRET. Fr. Joseph de ARAZENA (Opel. Ch.: v.1-A, p.65)
6. ↑ Hebert, SWLR CD:
   • LAFLEUR, Jacques Mrs. bur. Sunday, 2 Feb. 1794. Fr. Pedro de ZAMORA (Opel. Ch.: v.1, p.22)
7. ↑ Winston De Ville, Mississippi Valley Mélange, vol. 1(Baton Rouge, LA: Provincial Press, Claitor’s Publishing Division) p. 41
   • Text: Jacque LAFLEUR and wife, with 4 children, no slaves, 10 head of cattle, 10 horses or mules and 15 swine.
8. ↑ Winston De Ville, Southwest Louisiana Families in 1777: Census Records of Attakapas and Opelousas Posts (Baton Rouge, LA: Claitor's Publishing, 2010) (citing Papeles Procedentes de Cuba, at the General Archives of the Indies in Seville, Spain; legajo 2358, folios 258 -300) p. 18.
   • 16.
   • Jacques LAFLEUR, 39;
   • Marianne FONTENAUT, wife, 27.
   • Garcons: Baptiste, 9;
   • Jean, 5;
   • Doubicque, 3.
   • Filles: Helene, 7;
   • Celeste, 1.
   • There were 60 cattle, 6 horses, and 12 hogs.
9. ↑ "United States Census, 1810," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XH2C-X3H : accessed 10 December 2016), Jacques Lafleur, Opelousas, Louisiana, United States; citing p. 321, NARA microfilm publication M252 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 10; FHL microfilm 181,355.

See Also:

• Ancestry Family Trees: Rider/Deshotel Family

Acknowledgements

• WikiTree profile Lafleur-111 and -142 created through the import of Rider_Deshotel Family 040809.ged on Jul 21, 2011 by Nadine Rider.