At the onset of revolution in France, Louis Chachere fled for North America. like so many other French citizens, he undertook a journey through Canada, the Mississippi River, and ultimately laid down roots in Louisiana.
At the onset of revolution in France, Louis Chachere fled for North America. like so many other French citizens, he undertook a journey through Canada, the Mississippi River, and ultimately laid down roots in Louisiana.
Paula Chachere discusses how Louis Chachere may have been traveling and conducting his life in a very secretive manner upon entering North America, and how it has contributed to his mystic legacy.
By the mid 1780s, France faced a myriad of problems that contributed to the unrest and disdain for the monarchy among the general population. The debt accrued from financing France’s involvement in the American Revolutionary War triggered an increase in taxes to the general public. This burden, along with Enlightenment ideals that challenged commoners to question the current power structure of society, would eventually spark a violent overthrow of the monarchy starting in 1789.
King Louis XVI arrested in 1792 by revolutionaries while on the run in Northern France after being recognized because of his likeness on paper money by a villager. Louis XVI stopped at Varennes, by Mariano Bovi, 1796. Courtesy of the National Galleries Scotland.
One of the most significant ways that France financed the war was by borrowing money from noble families, and promising to pay it back with a large amount of interest in the coming years. By the mid 1780s, it was clear that the way Louis XVI was going to pay back the French nobles (plus exorbitant interest) was by putting the financial strain on the lower classes by increasing their taxes. These nobles began to be known as rentiers, or people who are able to live lavishly on debt interest from the government while contributing little to society. Based off of the information that can be ascertained about Louis Chachere, it is quite possible that he was a rentier and may have chosen to flee in order to avoid the growing animosity towards nobles.
A noble of the Bourbon line, he escaped in the early days of the Revolution with a brother, and they arrived in North America, landing at Canada. It is presumed that the brother either disappeared or took another name unlike that of Chachere, for this was not the family name.
Excerpt from the Opelousas Daily World, “St. Landry History from the 1690’s”, July 29, 1982
Louis left France in 1789 with his brother and his wife and arrived in Nova Scotia shortly after. There is no record of Louis’s brother from this point on, so he is assumed to have taken a different name and gone elsewhere. From there, they would have traveled along the Great Lakes or American Midwest in order to get to the Mississippi River.
Louis and his wife, Catherine (1764-1825), seemed to have bought property and settled down in Natchez, Mississippi for around a year. Though it is not known exactly when Louis took the surname of Chachere, its first recording can be found in a document from 1790 in which he gives his power of attorney to an acquaintance in Natchez to sell and liquidate all of his property.
“Louis Chachere, the founder of the prominent Chachere family… having moved to Opelousas from Natchez, executed a power of attorney of which the first page is reproduced above, to settle his affairs and take care of his property in Natchez.
The document signed November 20, 1790, Gave Chachere’s power of Attorney with regard to his Natchez property to Piere Camar (may be Camur), a resident of the Poste de Natchez.
Chachere signed the document in the presence of the then commander of the Post des Opelousas, Lt. Louis DeVillars. Witness who signed with Chachere were Francois Brunet and Philipe Boutte.
Chachere gave Camar full legal authority to liquidates affairs in Natchez.”
Featured in the Daily World, “St. Landry History from the 1690’s”, July 29, 1982
As previously mentioned, Louis’s original surname was not Chachere, and in fact, Chachere was not a surname that existed in any way shape or form until its first known documentation in 1790. It is thought that in order to evade detection by French revolutionary sympathizers in North America, Louis and his wife decided to combine their two surnames "de Charette," and "Vauchere."
From Natchez, Louis and Catherine continued to make their way down the Mississippi River towards New Orleans, and traveled westward towards to Opelousas, a small city north of Lafayette.
Louis and Catherine Chachere’s route down the Mississippi River towards New Orleans and then finally to Opelousas in 1790.
It was in Opelousas that the Chacheres would settle down for good. Louis and Catherine would go on to have ten children, nine of which would later have their own children. Needless to say, the Chachere family has had a big presence in Opelousas ever since, with a great deal of the people living there bearing some sort of relation to each other through their common ancestry of Louis and Catherine.
It was told that he had regular visits from a “Mystery” man, whose name no-one knew, but sometimes in their conversations, which were always held in seclusion away from other members of the family and friends, Louis was heard to call him “General”.
Excerpt from the Opelousas Daily World, “St. Landry History from the 1690’s”, July 29, 1982
Paula Chachere discusses a mysterious visitor that would come around the Chachere home every once in a while to chat with Louis Chachere.
Anecdotes about Louis, like the one above, have contribute to his descendents speculating and claiming that he may have held some sort of royal importance in his early life in France. Louis died in 1827 at the age of 67, from unknown causes, but his legacy and the story of his journey to Louisiana has lived on, largely shrouded in mystery and intrigue for over two-hundred years. Descendents of Louis and Catherine have continued to use the original Chachere spelling as well as Chassere, Chacherez, Chache, and Schasseret.
The Chachere family gravesite at the St. Landry Church Cemetery in Opelousas, Louisiana housing the graves of Louis, his wife, and other members of the Chachere family. Photo courtesy of Mary Creamer, findagrave.com.
