INTRODUCTION
ST. JOHN THE
BAPTIST PARISH, in which the second permanent
settlement in Louisiana was established, is located some
thirty-five miles up the Mississippi river from New
Orleans. It is bounded on the north by St. James parish
and Lake Maurepas; on the east, by Lake Pontchartrain; on
the south, by St. Charles parish, and on the west, by St.
James parish. The parish has been designated as La Côte
des Allemands, Creole Parish, Golden Coast (Côte d'Or),
and, by some, a St. Jean Baptiste (the French
translation); but the term most frequently affixed to
that region has been German Coast, primarily settled and
inhabited by Germans and their descendants. The
governmental unit has evolved from the colonial district
of German Coast, including the ecclesiastical parishes of
St. John the Baptist and St. Charles, to the county of
the German Coast, to a civil parish, retaining, to the
present day, the original name given by the church.
The territory was first explored by Iberville in 1699. He
traversed Bayou Manchac in Iberville parish, looking for
a short cut to the Gulf. Deserted by his Indian guides,
he continued alone through Blind river, in that area that
is now St. John the Baptist parish. The first lake
bordering the region he named Lake Maurepas, in honor of
Count Maurepas of France, and the second lake he named
Lake Pontchartrain, in honor of Count Pontchartrain of
France. The connection between the lakes he named Pass
Manchac, in honor of a Manchac Indian guide.
Although no permanent settlements are known to have been
established within the boundaries of the present parish
within the twenty years following Iberville's
exploration, the territory, lying on
both sides of the river, was in the path of numerous
explorers and traders. The date of the first settlement
is not definitely known: however, a document known as the
census of 1724 records the founding of a second German
village in this area, leading one to believe that the
first village was established soon after the founding of
New Orleans —probably around 1719. The exact
location of these villages is not known, except that they
were back from the Mississippi river. The two villages
were destroyed and many of the inhabitants were drowned
by a hurricane in September, 1721. It is assumed these
early settlers were the twenty-one German families, urged
by John Law's Western Company to come to Louisiana, who
arrived, in 1719, on the ship Les Deux Freres. In
October, 1721, another group of settlers, for the most
part German, arrived in Biloxi on the ship Portefaix,
under the leadership of Karl Friedrich D'Arensbourg, who
brought news to the New World of the collapse of John
Law's "Mississippi Bubble." When the group
under D'Arensbourg arrived in New Orleans, they were met
by the Germans from the settlements of the Arkansas
river, who had abandoned their homes. With the aid of
Bienville, these were persuaded to join the new
colonists, and the combined group founded a new
settlement midway between the two older villages. These
settlements were called "bourgs" by the
Germans. The new settlement was called Karlstein, after
their leader, D'Arensbourg, who served more than forty
years as commander and judge of the German Coast.
From 1729 to 1748, these settlers suffered from attacks
by the Tchacta (Choctaw) Indians. Most of the Indian
trouble occurred...
History
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