THE IMMIGRANTS
After the organization of the company in Belgium on September 26, 1854,
immediate preparations were made to raise money and prepare the
colonists for their emigration to America. François Cantagrel and a Mr.
Roger, Belgian medical student, left Brussels October 3, 1854, for New
York, reaching that port October 27. Cantagrel's plan was to go overland
to Cincinnati where he was to purchase supplies and equipment for the
new colony. From this place he intended to continue his journey to
Texas, reaching his destination not later than the latter part of
November. However, his progress was far slower than he expected; he was
still on his way in February, 1855, and presumably did not reach La
Réunion until the latter part of that month.[1] The arrival of Cantagrel
and his party was announced as follows:
Some of the leading gentlemen connected with the French Colony of
Messrs. Brisbane and Considerant are now in town. From them we learn
some additional items in relation to the designs and objects of the
association. It is in contemplation to establish three provisional
settlements; one, probably, in this county, one in Tarrant, and one on
the Keechi or Brazos. A large number of the settlers for these
colonies are now en route, having left Cincinnati in December last.
They are probably detained by the low stage of the rivers.
We understand that industrial, mechanical, and learned professions
will be fully represented. It is their design to make everything they
use within themselves, and they will engage largely in manufactures of
different kinds. It is especially their intention we learn, to engage
largely in the cultivation of the grape and manufacture of wines. Such
a settlement in our midst, of a nation celebrated for its
intelligence, genius and skill in the mechanic arts, cannot fail to
add greatly to its prosperity. Some of the leading republican minds
and most distinguished authors of France, who, since the usurpation of
the "Man of the 2nd December" have been exiled from their country for
opinion's sake, are engaged in this enterprise. A welcome and success
to all say we.[2]
It is not known just how many were in the party, but some joined
Cantagrel and Roger at Cincinnati and others were hired along the way to
do labor at La Réunion. Brisbane explained that the work of Cantagrel
was to explore the country and decide on a definite location for the
project, begin the erection of buildings for the first immigrants, sow
crops, prepare gardens, vineyards, and in general construct the
colony.[3] He further stated that it was hoped that "a body of
intelligent and enterprising Americans" would be "attracted to the work
by the noble aim which it holds out, and the advantages of a higher
social life which it offers."[4] Other parties of immigrants soon
followed, some small, some large. One of these parties was reported by
the _National Intelligencer_, Washington, May 7, 1855, as having passed
through Anderson sometime previous to the date. It says:
The Central Texan says that a party of French emigrants, about forty
in number, passed through Anderson a few days ago enroute to Dallas.
They belong to the Colony which M. Considerant is engaged in
establishing. He proposed to introduce about two thousand this year.
M. Cousin, Belgian, conducted a party of twelve, eight Belgians and four
Frenchmen. One of this party was a young man named Guelles, son of the
French Consul-General at Jura, who had been exiled to Belgium. Savardan,
who disliked Considerant and his group, never tired of telling how
Considerant and his wife had persuaded this youngster to accompany the
party, even against the wishes of his mother, who yielded only when
Madame Considerant promised to look after the boy very carefully.
However, once in America, Guelles was turned loose to manage for
himself. He left the colony to live with some people near by and soon
fell ill with tuberculosis and died.
One of the largest groups was assembled by Dr. Savardan. He was one of
the outstanding disciples of Fourier in France and had assisted in the
formation of other phalanges. Savardan was ready to leave Brussels the
week Cantagrel left, but he and Considerant could not agree on terms.
Nevertheless, without agreement, he gathered his party at le Havre and
sailed on the _Nuremberg_, a ship of 1800 tons, on February 28, 1855.
Savardan had forty-three people and a considerable amount of material
which he was bringing to La Réunion. There were five members of this
party from Jura who remained in New Orleans and did not finish the trip,
eleven from Carcassonne, three from the Hautes-Alps, three from
Ardennes, four from Chateau-Renault, seven from Mons, one from Orleans,
one from Rouen, four from Paris, and four from Chapelle-Gaugain.
They all had a very pleasant trip which took its course from le Havre to
the Azores, where they passed on March 12, through the West Indies, and
from thence to New Orleans. Here the _Nuremberg_ stopped and the
colonists and materials were loaded on to another ship bound for
Galveston. On April 25, Dr. Nicolas, one of the leaders, and ten others
left for Galveston because they could not any longer endure the stifling
heat at New Orleans. Savardan and the other colonists tarried a few days
longer in order to purchase supplies for the party for the remainder of
the trip. The purchase consisted of:
20 barrels of biscuit, some sweet and some 1000 pounds
unsweetened
10 half barrels of beer 2000 pounds
50 pounds of candles;
100 pounds of coffee;
50 pounds of chocolate;
6 pounds of alcohol;
130 pounds of Swiss cheese;
200 pounds of beans;
180 pounds of salad oil;
200 pounds of smoked pork tongues;
150 pounds of lentils;
370 pounds of prune marmalade;
20 pounds of mustard;
25 pounds of onions;
20 pounds of pepper;
110 pounds of dried apples;
650 pounds of rice;
100 pounds of lard;
20 pounds of sardines in small boxes;
100 pounds of sausage;
100 pounds of salt;
68 pounds of white sugar;
137 pounds of brown sugar;
120 pounds of vermicelle and macaroni;
1000 pounds of wine in two barrels;
360 pounds of vinegar;
300 pounds of whiskey; and
25 pounds of powder and 100 pounds of bird shot.
The total weight amounted to 7000 pounds and cost, including freight
charges to Dallas, $1,000.[5]
The party embarked from New Orleans on May 3 with five women and one
young man, Christopher, added to the party. Savardan had been advised
that Considerant and his family would join his group at New Orleans, but
they did not arrive. However, they joined them later at Galveston.
Considerant brought with him his wife, a small child, M. Cesar Daly, and
two other Frenchmen from the North American Phalanx named Maguet and
Willemet. Galveston was reached May 5, and from here they sailed on a
small steamboat, the _L'Eclipse_, up Buffalo Bayou to Houston. Here
additional wagons and horses were purchased and teamsters were hired to
take the provisions, some of which had been sent from New York,
Cincinnati, and New Orleans, to La Réunion.
On May 18, the French wagon train, guided by a farmer who lived near
Dallas and who had come to Houston to sell two bales of cotton, moved
out through the woods toward Dallas. Some of the colonists were riding
horses, two or three riding in carriages, and some were walking. A few
of the men who had been drafted as teamsters were laboring with oxen,
trying to get them to move along. Poorly built wagons and the absence of
roads greatly hindered progress. They camped at night all together for
protection against Indians, the women and children sleeping in the
wagons and the men and boys on the ground. Eggs, milk, and poultry were
purchased at farm houses as the caravan traversed the sparsely settled
districts; some stealing was done, but, generally speaking, the
colonists conducted themselves well on the entire trip.
All the way from Houston to La Réunion Savardan reports the colonists
were expecting welcoming groups from La Réunion to come out and meet
them. This, of course, never occurred because the people already at camp
were finding it difficult to keep things going. They arrived at La
Réunion June 16, 1855.[6]
Several other groups and individuals arrived at La Réunion during the
following eighteen months. In fact, many arrived just in time to see the
colony disband, leaving them to shift for themselves. Philip Goetsel, a
Belgian, had a ranch of seventeen sections on Mountain Creek, twelve
miles west of Dallas, on which he established a colony of Belgians.
Several cabins were built on low lands which were subject to overflow;
other improvements were made, but the colony never did become more than
a dependency of La Réunion. Goetsel, however, planned to build a huge
city upon the land, which he proposed to name Louvain in honor of his
home city in Belgium. He had invested thirty thousand francs in La
Réunion and when he noticed that it was going to pieces, he demanded his
money with the intention of investing it in the "Louvain scheme." The
directors of La Réunion refused him his share on the grounds that he was
building Louvain in opposition to La Réunion and that it would draw all
the trade away from the community stores of the colony.[7] Still another
party, time of arrival uncertain, was the one led by M. M. Raizant
composed of nine people. These apparently came by New Orleans and
Galveston, perhaps preceding Savardan's party.
La Réunion was made up of high class, well educated and cultured people.
A brief biography of the founders of the colony has already been given
in the first chapter of this book, but a short sketch concerning several
will here serve to give the reader a better comprehension of the
colonists as a group.
Dr. Augustin Savardan had already helped to establish phalansteries in
France before coming to Texas. He had also organized and supervised an
orphans' home in Paris which Napoleon III had helped to sustain. He was
one of the first men Considerant and his colleagues called into
conference in Brussels when they began the organization of the
European-American Colonization Society, and they asked him to act as
chairman in one of their first meetings. In his report of his practice
as a physician at La Réunion, he stated that he treated 226 patients and
served in many other capacities during his stay here.[8]
Julien Reverchon came from a distinguished family in France.
His father, J. Maximilien Reverchon, was born at Lyons in 1810, and
died at Dallas in 1879; and his mother (born Mlle. Florine Pete) was
the daughter of a distinguished Lyonnaise advocate. Julien's
grandfather, Jacques Reverchon (1746-1829), was a Jacobin member of
the National Convention (1792-95), as well as the Council of Five
Hundred and of the Council of Elders. This Jacques Reverchon the
_revolutionnaire_ is that same citizen-representative from Saone et
Loire, Rhone-et-Ain, whose reports on the rapacity of the Maratists at
Lyons have been quoted in Taine's _Les Origines de la France
Contemporaine_.[9]
Julien and his father came to La Réunion as members of a colony arriving
there in December, 1856. The father was a trained agriculturist and
attempted to direct the colonists in scientific farming. He told them
that if they would plow and stir the land deep in the fall and plant
early in the spring, good crops would be produced. The men, however,
were inexperienced in farming and Reverchon had little success.
Nevertheless, in spite of the most severe drought that Texas had
experienced in a long time, Reverchon grew crops, planted fruit trees,
and introduced advanced methods in Dallas County farming.[10]
One of the most interesting names is that of François Santerre, farmer
and ex-soldier, who remained with his wife and children near the
colony site, engaged in sheep raising and farming when the colony
disbanded. His varied interests included a love of books, particularly
of the sixteenth century edition of Ovid's _Metamorphoses_ which he
took with him on six business trips he made to France.[11]
This book, among others, was in the possession of his son, Gustave,
former owner of the La Réunion Fruit Farm. His eldest son, Germain, was
one of two surviving immigrants in 1930, the other being M. Guilbot, who
lived near Alvarado.[12]
There is partial information concerning several others who were
outstanding in the colony. Madame Clarisse Vigoureaux, mother-in-law of
Considerant, was author of several books, and also intensely interested
in Fourierism. Emile Rémond was a scientific farmer and writer on soils.
A recent writer in explaining what Rémond did in Dallas County says,
The clay resources of Dallas County very early attracted the attention
of the pioneers, particularly the French, who settled the French town
of La Réunion west of Dallas in 1854. Prof. E. Remond (1840-1906) of
this colony was particularly active in his investigation and
experiments with the clays of the county. He made successfully brick,
vitri-brick, and sewer pipe. Prof. Remond was the first to import a
plastic brick machine. He was also first to use the lime and shale for
making concrete and instigated the founding of the Iola Cement Plant.
Remond made brick in South, East, and West Dallas, at Dawdy's Ferry
and Mountain Creek.[13]
Allyre Bureau, a director of the colony, was a trained musician who had
been director in the Odeon, a national theater in Paris. He tried to
revive the dying colony in 1856, but failed, and started to return to
France toward the close of the Civil War in the United States. He
contracted yellow fever near Houston and died in a sanitarium located
about fifty miles north of that city. Several architects were in the
group, among whom may be mentioned Ureidag, Flemish, who submitted plans
for the Dallas County Court House, and John B. Louchx, who was later
alderman and one of the fourteen bachelors who came to build houses and
prepare the ground for the coming of other colonists. Ben Long came from
Zurich, Switzerland, and later introduced a group of Swiss colonists in
Dallas. Before his death, killed while serving as a Dallas officer, Long
served as United States Commissioner, as Mayor of Dallas, and as an
officer in the Sheriff's office.[14]
Texas and Dallas were very fortunate in having a group of men and women
possessed of such attainments settle in their midst. Generally speaking,
Considerant was correct when he estimated that the French colonists who
were planning to come to La Réunion were far ahead in culture and
learning of the average Texas settlers in the state at that time.
On February 10, 1855, however, the _Texas State Gazette_ expressed in an
editorial a feeling of uneasiness when it announced that
According to a recent letter from Strausburg, which is published in
the National Gazette of Switzerland, the Socialist Party in Alsace is
about to emigrate en masse to Texas, where one of their chiefs, the
well known Victor Considerant, has purchased a large quantity of land.
The departure of emigrants is to take place during the ensuing
year.[15]
As far as can be determined, there is no roll of the colony in
existence, and thus statements of the survivors and descendants of those
in the colony must be taken as authority on the number who made up the
colony. One writer refers to a roll containing over three hundred names
formerly in the possession of the colonists. This roll, however, has
been lost and the writer had to depend upon the memory of the colonists
and lists given in various articles. Some of the survivors stated that
there were as many as 550 people in La Réunion, but it appears, through
a process of checking and rechecking, that the above-mentioned roll was
perhaps the complete roll of the members, and therefore there were no
more than three hundred in the colony at any one time--perhaps that
number included all that ever lived in the colony during its
existence.[16]