In the mid-1700's the Tchefuncte River basin became more widely known as a desireable place to settle and own land. Persons came from far and wide not only to enjoy the rich resources of the river and the land on both sides of it, but to pursue land grants and perhaps begin a business enterprise. They also told their friends and relatives about the river and its beauty and potential for becoming a port and trading hub.
British land grants along the Pearl River, Bayou Lacombe and Bayou Castine were in demand as the word spread about the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. For various reasons, people wanting more opportunities and a better life began coming to the southeast Louisiana area. Several came from Mobile, Al.
Here is the "pre-corridor" timeline for the Tchefuncte River developed by Donald J. Sharp as a result of his years of research into the area. He discovered that many of the first settlers were somehow related, either through family, marriage or business connections.
1718 The founding of New Orleans by Bienville.
Pierre Gabriel Montault de Monbeaut born May 17,1718. He is the third son of Joseph Hector de Montault, Marquis de Monberaud, at Palaminy, overlooking the Garonne River, It is about a mile west of the town of Cazeres in France. His daughter Catherine and her children will play important roles in the establishment in the town of Wharton (now known as Covington).
Tar Works Factory near Madisonville
1734 A tar works factory was started on the west bank of the Tchefuncte River about two miles from its mouth by retired Captain Charles Pierre de St. Julien and Antoine Aufrere, a Merchant of New Orleans in 1734. This tar factory was still operating twenty years later.
1735 Lt. Pierre Gabriel Monberaut arrives in the Louisiana Colony and is stationed at Mobile. He will spend the next thirty years in Louisiana, mostly around Mobile and Fort Toulouse. His daughter Catherine will play an important part in the settlement of the upper Tchefuncte River.
1736 Lt. Monberaut marries Anne Marie Lamie (Lamay) at Mobile on March 7,1736.
1740 John Hinton, native of England, settled in Baltimore in circa 1740. He marries Sarah Sharswood in Phildelphia in April, 1747
1745 There were French land grants issued at the mouth of the Tangipahoa River to Louis Hery dit Duplanty, Madam Ansmar, and M. Dupard.
1748 Mary Hinton was born in Philadelphia in 1748. She marries Lt. Thomas Wharton Collins on June 25,1773. Thomas and Mary were the parents of William, Maria, Lydia and Thomas Wharton Collins.
1754 Lt. Pierre Gabriel de Monberaut appointed Deputy Superintendent of Fort Toulouse in the Heart of Alabama. He is well liked and respected by the surrounding Choctaw and Creek Tribes.
1764 Catherine Montilemar, daughter of Pierre Gabriel and Anne Lemay marries Joseph Badon On June 19,1764 in the Church of St. Louis in New Orleans.
1765 Lt. Pierre Gabriel de Monberaut returns to France after being treated badly by the British Governor George Johnstone of West Florida. Catherine stays with husband Joseph Badon and children at Mobile. Joseph runs a trading post and mercantile store at Mobile.
1766 Montfort Brown, the Lt. Governor of West Florida, makes a tour of the western part of the Province. He reports of the small French settlement at the mouth of the Tangipahoa River And the smuggling by traders with New Orleans.
1766 John Jones was given the first recorded British land grant of 500 acres on the Tchefuncte River in 1766. There was a Lt. John Jones stationed with the 16th Regiment at Pensacola And it is assumed that the two were the same but there is no proof.
Land Grants on the Pearl River
1767 Jean Claude Favre and Herpin de la Gautrais are given British grants on the Pearl River.
1768 George Gauld, a cartographer and marine surveyor, working for the Royal Navy, ascends the Tchefuncte River past the Bogue Falaya fork and surveys the area. He is accompanied by Sailing Master John Payne and five sailors.
1771 Thomas Berwick, first British settler on the Tchefuncte River. is given a land grant where the Site of the old French Tar works were on the west side, two miles up from the mouth. He lives there until 1779 when he joins Colonel Francisco Bougilny in the settlement of the Canary Islanders on Bayou Tech. Several of his children are born on the Tchefuncte River.
1775 The American Revolution begins to heat up on the East Coast driving refugees to West Florida.
1775 John Perry was the first British settler to receive a land grant at the mouth of Bayou Castin.
1776 The first families who permanently settled along the lake shore at Bayou Castin were the Spells, Smiths, Ambrose, Geoffegons, Labateauxs, Davis and Webb families.
1778 Captain James Willing and his American raiding party destroy all the British plantations, livestock and crops on the Amite and Tickfaw rivers.
William Wharton Collins, brother of John Wharton Collins, was born in 1778.
Battle of Lake Pontchartrain, Oath of Allegiance
1779 War between the Spanish and British breaks out in West Florida in August, 1779. There is a Naval battle on Lake Pontchartrain between the British sloop of War "West Florida" and the American Tender "Morris" under Captain William Pickles.
Pickles wins and has the remaining British settlers at Bayou Castin sign an "Oath" of allegiance to the American Colonies on October 16,1779.
1780 Charles Parent and Augustin Rochon had their plantations destroyed on the east side of Mobile Bay in the "Battle of the Village" in January, 1780, by the British and their Indian allies. Parent and family abandon Mobile and moved to New Orleans. They would later settle on The Tchefuncte River.
1781 Morgan Edwards (Huet) settled at Bayou Castin in 1781 on abandoned British land grants and married Marguerite Smith.
1783 Juan Baptiste Baham dit Gentil and his five sons are living on their Spanish land grant on The Tchefuncte River as early as April 24,1783, so stated Spanish surveyor Carlos Trudeau. The Baham grant is the same site as the old French tar factory of 1734, two miles up from the mouth on the west bank.
The Treaty of Paris is signed on September 4,1783, ending hostilities between the English and Spanish. Spain assumes control of West Florida.
Parent Appointed Commandant
1784 Charles Parent is appointed Commandant of the Tchefuncte River Corridor. He receives a Spanish land grant on the east side of the Big Bogue Fayala River for a cattle ranch.
Frank Bernard dit Dunkirk, a 46 year old bachelor from New Orleans, petitions for and receives, a land grant on the upper Tchefunce River. He is accompanied by a free woman of color by the name of Mary as his companion. Bernard is one of the first to practice the custom of Placage on the Tchefuncte River.
Joseph Badon, the husband of Catherine Montilemar and father of Henry, Robert, Felicite, and Francesca, dies in Mobile. He had run a store and trading post at Mobile for twenty years. His widow Catherine, and children move to New Orleans.
1785 Catherine Montilemar, widow Badon, petitions for and receives a Spanish land grant on the west side of the upper Tchefuncte River. She moves over to her grant in 1785 with her family.
1786 Silvestre Sarpy Delord, native of the city of Fumel in France, in the province of Lurema, marries Marguerite Foucher December 26,1786. Marguerite is the sister of Antoine Foucher who will marry Felicite Badon, daughter of Catherine and Joseph Badon.
1787 Antoine Foucher marries Felicite Badon on January 30,1786. He petitions for a land grant on the northwest side and adjacent to his mother-in-law Catherine Badon. They now have the land on the west bank of the Tchefuncte and Bogue Falaya River fork. This land, which lies between the fork, will later become the Jacques Drieux tract.
1790 Joseph Ursin, five year old son of Commandant Charles Parent dies. It is likely that at this time the Parent Family Cemetery is started. The Parent Family Cemetery later evolved into today's Madisonville's Municipal Cemetery.
1790 Marie Chauvin dit Joyeuse, widow of Hugo Krebs, receives Spanish land grant at the mouth of the Tchefuncte River, east bank. Her son Basil and wife Felicite Marchand will live there many years.
1790 Pierre Antoine Foucher born March 20,1790.
1792 Felicite Foucher born June 7,1792.
1794 Carlos Foucher born February 16,1794.
Basil Krebs Seeks Land Grant at Mouth of River
1795 Basil Krebs, living on the east bank at the mouth of the Tchefuncte River, petitions The Spanish Intendant Juan Morales for the land on the west bank. After some delay, it will finally be surveyed for him by David B. Morgan and Thomas Fenton in 1804.
1798 The Great Migration, as called by historians, starts after the Pinckney Treaty.
1801 Madam Catherine Badon, widow of Joseph Badon and a resident of the Tchefuncte River for sixteen years, dies on January 4,1801. She was 55 years old.
1801 Robert Badon, son of Catherine and Joseph Badon, marries Maria Collins, sister of John Wharton Collins, August 17,1801 in New Orleans.
1803 Jacques Drieux, grandson of the early settler at New Orleans Mathurin Drieux, receives a Spanish land grant in the fork of the Tchefuncte and Big Bogue Falaya River on December 6, 1803, and confirmed by Spanish Intendant Juan Ventura Morales. Drieux's father was a Cousin of the Spanish surveyor Carlos Trudeau.
Louisiana Purchase, Spanish West Florida
1803 The Louisiana Purchase took place on December 20,1803. Spain remained in control of West Florida.
1804 Surveyors David Bannister Morgan and Thomas Fenton are hired by Spanish Surveyor General Carlos Trudeau to survey Spanish land grants along the lower Tchefuncte River. There was a rush for land grants in West Florida before and after the Louisiana Purchase.
1804 Commandant Charles Parent dies on his plantation on the Tchefuncte River on September 25,1804. He became sick several weeks before death and Robert Badon, who lived a couple miles to the north, came down and stayed with Parent until he died.
1805 Massey West Baker, daughter of William West on the Amite River, and wife of William Baker, receives a Spanish land grant, by donation, adjacent and to the north and east of Jacques Drieux tract.
1805 Governor W. C. C. Claiborne of the Orleans territory sends United States Marine Captain Daniel Carmick to Pensacola to receive permission for a mail route to come overland from Washington to the Tchefuncte River and on to New Orleans. Permission was granted and a Mail stop was established on the Tchefuncte in 1805. It was called Post Oak.
1806 Spanish West Florida surveyor, Ira C. Kneeland surveys 2,000 arpents along the Big Bogue Falaya for himself. It was north and west and adjacent to the Massey West tract. Kneeland died in Pensacola in 1810.
Tchefuncte Gunboats Arrive
1806 The first two United States Gunboats, Nos. 11 and 12, arrived on Lake Pontchartrain and sailed up the Tchefuncte River and drop anchors at Baham Village. They will have a major impact, both historically and economically on the north shore for years to come. The gunboats were the "brain child" of President Thomas Jefferson and his Secretary of Treasury Albert Gallatin. Their idea was to save money on a small gunboat Navy instead of large deep-water frigates. The commanders of these gun vessels were from some of the most prominent families on the east coast.
First Settler Dies
1807 Juan Baptiste Baham dit Gentil, the first settler on the Tchefuncte River Corridor, after the British settlers left, died. Juan Baptiste and his five sons first settled on their Spanish grant in April of 1783. Old Juan Baptiste is buried on his son Pierre's land on the bank of the Tchefuncte River in lower Madisonville. His five sons will be buried with him.
1807 Adelaide Badon, daughter of Robert and Maria Collins was born June 1,1807.
1808 Master Commandant David Porter arrives in New Orleans in June to take command of The United States naval facility at New Orleans. He divides the gunboats into divisions. One is the Mississippi River Division, another is the Belize Division, another is the Lakes Division. Each gunboat is given a number and each division flies a different color pennant. The Lakes Division, (Pontchartrain, Borgne, and Maurepas) files the blue pennant.
Tchefuncte River Gunboat Division
1808 Master Commandant David Porter, Commandant of the New Orleans Station, designates the Tchefuncte River as a major repair, provision and watering stop for his Divisions of Gun Boats on Lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas. Porter went on to become a naval hero In the War of 1812 as Captain of the U.S. Essex. His son, David Porter, Jr. was appointed An Admiral in the Navy.
1808 Frank Bernard dit Dunkirk, who settled on the upper Tchefuncte River in 1784 died. He was 70 years old and the first recorded person to bring a free woman of color to the Tchefuncte River. The system of doing this in French and Spanish Colonial times was called "Placage".
1809 In February Lt. Merrill was cruising near Pass Manchac and spotted the Spanish schooner Precious Ridicule, Captain Joseph Aguiler of Baton Rouge, had crossed the line into American Waters. This was the time of President's Jefferson's Embargo. Lt. Merrill took into custody The Spanish Schooner. The Precious Ridicule had been built on the Tchefuncte River in 1806.
The First Mayor of Covington
1809 Jacques Lorreins III established and claimed a Spanish land grant just below the Drieux tract On the east bank of the river. Lorreins married Margaret Edwards and after his death in 1819 Widow Margaret Lorreins married Thomas Tate, who would become the first mayor of Covington.
1809 Louisa Mathilda Badon, daughter of Robert and Maria Collins was born.
1809 Henry Badon, brother of Robert, son of Joseph and Catherine Montilemar, marries Lydia Collins on July 31,1809. The Badon brothers and Collins sister are now living on the Tchefuncte River.
Yellow Fever Takes Toll
1809 Midshipman Thomas ap Capsby Jones pulls his Gunboat into the Tchfuncte River in October and anchors at Baham Village. His entire crew is sick with "yellow fever" and he is the only one standing. The surgeon of the gun vessel, insane with fever, attempted to reach the western shore in a small boat, capsized and drowned.
Thirteen members of the crew die of yellow fever and are buried in the swamps opposite the Village. It will be January before the fever subsides and another gunboat assists the stricken vessel to sail to Bayou St. John.
1810 Henry Badon Jr., son of Henry and Lydia Badon was born May 13,1810 on the Tchefuncte River.
1810 Jacques Lorreins is a surveyor for West Florida and working for Vincente Pintado, Surveyor General of Pensacola. Pintado asks Lorreins to survey the Boisdore Tract at Pearl River.
1813 Jean Baptiste Lille (de Lille), who was related to several families on the Tchefuncte River, moved to the north shore and settled on Jacques Lorreins land. He took with him Marie-Josephe "Pouponne" Diaz, a free quadroon. There is no known record of the year that Sarpy made his move from New Orleans, but what is known is that Jean-Baptiste and Marie-Josephe Diaz had four known children, one died in infancy, and that Henriette was born in 1813.
The year 1808 is a pure guess and could have been earlier or later. How long did Jean-Baptiste and Marie-Josephe Diaz live in St. Tammany Parish is not known at this time.
1810 Master Commandant David Porter is reassigned to Boston Harbor to be Captain of the Frigate Essex. Porter went on to become a naval hero. When he left he took along his foster son David Glasgow Farragut. Farragut would later come back during the Civil War and capture New Orleans. He would also be appointed the first Admiral in the United States Navy.
First American Flag Is Raised
1811 Lt. George Merrill of the United States Navy, a native of Hartford Connecticut, raised, for the first time, the American Flag in what is now St. Tammany Parish, at tfhe Tchefuncte River, on January 6,1811.
1811 Dominique Montilemar, daughter of Henry and Lydia Badon, was born July, 19,1811.
1811 A Cantonment is established in the spring of 1811 five miles north on the road to the Bogue Chitto river settlements by Lt. Colonel Leonard Covington on orders of Mississippi Governor David Holmes. It was established where the Little Bogue Falaya crosses the road.
It was placed there to protect settlers from roving bands of hostile Indians. The locals gave it the Name "Military Road".
1811 Marie Chauvin, Widow Krebs, dies. Her plantation at the mouth of the Tchefuncte River now passes to her son Basil and his wife Felicite Marchand.
1811 Jesse R. Jones settles on the Drieux tract in St. Tammany Parish in 1811, so stated his daughter. He came down from Natchez after practicing law there for three years, as a young lawyer. He saw the opportunities that St. Tammany held and took advantage of such. He obtained a 640 acre tract north of Massey West Baker. Jesse R. Jones died in 1880 and is buried in Metairie Cemetery.
1811 John Wharton Collins marries Marie E. Tabitau, a ward of the Livaudais family in New Orleans and a refugee from Santo Domingo. Marie brings $2,000 into the marriage and the Livaudais family gave them a house in New Orleans as a wedding present.
1812 The news of a Declaration of War with Great Britain was received in New Orleans in June. The Detachment of the 3rd Regiment stationed at the Cantonment on the Little Bogue Falaya River is recalled back to Mississippi Territory and the post is closed in July, 1812.
1812 James Tate arrives in New Orleans and is appointed Judge in St. Tammany Parish by Governor Claiborne. He later purchases a house and three lots in the newly named town of Madisonville. He will be joined by his brother Thomas in 1814. James and Thomas will play important roles in both the history of Wharton and Covington for the next decade.
1812 William Collins receives the mail contract to deliver the mail in his swift packet between Madisonville and Bayou St. John.
1812 David Bannister moves to permanently settle in Madisonville. He buys several lots on the riverfront from the Bahams.
Florida Parishes Become Part of Louisiana
1812 The State Legislature of Louisiana accepts the Florida Parishes as part of the State and St. Tammany becomes part of Louisiana on August 4,1812.
Covington Land Bought and Surveyed
1813 John Wharton Collins purchases the Drieux Tract on the Bogue Falaya River for $2,300. He Immediately makes plans to have a town laid out on part of the tract and hires a surveyor, Engineer, and landscape architect by the name of Gilbert Joseph Pilie, a refugee from Santo Domingo, like Collins' wife Marie.
It is completed in June and the town was named Wharton, after his grandfather.
1813 Jesse R. Jones watched surveyor Gilbert Joseph Pilie drive the first stake in laying out the Town at New Hampshire and Portsmouth Street in June, 1813.
First Lots Sold In Covington
1813 Moses Harrell purchased the first three lots in Square one from John Wharton Collins on July 10,1813. These lots were located along the river bank landing. He purchased these lots with all the buildings and improvements and the privilege of a landing for a Ferry Boat. This Privilege was established by an act of St. Tammany when the town was called St. Jacques.
1813 On July 10,1813, the same day, Jesse R. Jones and Jonathan Gilmore purchased lots Nos. 5 And 7 in Square 1. Square 1 was on the river by the landing and Jones and Gilmore planned to Open a store.
1813 Captain John Shaw, Commandant of the U. S. Naval facility in New Orleans, leases 20 acres On the Tchefuncte River above Madisonville from owner Jacques Lorreins for constructing a large flat-bottom frigate for the defense of New Orleans. He will hire 150 workers from New Orleans and St. Tammany Parish. The frigate will be called the "Tchefuncte". He places Lt. Michael Brown Carroll from Maryland in charge of the facility.
1813 Governor Claiborne writes to Governor Holmes of the Mississippi Territory and tells Holmes that since the Cantonment was closed on the Little Bogue Falaya roving bands of Choctaws have become increasing hostile along the area of the Bogue Chitto River.
Indian Uprising
1813 In August of 1813, the Upper Creeks called "Red Sticks" attacked Fort Mims, 30 miles upriver from Mobile and massacre over 300 men, women, and children. The settlers on the North shore of Lake Pontchartrain, including Wharton, were in a state of panic and appealed to Governor Claiborne for protection.
1813 In early September, Governor Claiborne accompanied by Capt. John Shaw made a trip to Madisonville to meet with the local leaders. He took along a hundred rifles, powder and lead and a plan for the protection of the settlers.
Gov. Claiborne and Capt. Shaw told the leaders that they would build a stockade fort across from Madisonville and stock it with the rifles. In addition Captain Shaw would man the fort with a detachment of U. S. Marines and large cannons.
Fort Oak
The Fort would be called Fort Oak. The "protection plan" as proposed by Governor Claiborne would be a string of forts from the Pearl River to Baton Rouge for the use of the settlers. There would be Ford's Fort on the Pearl River, Fort Oak on the Tchefuncte River, the fort at Springfield, and the Fort San Carlos at Baton Rouge.
1813 The block ship "Tchefuncte" is quickly taking shape by early September. There are 150 civilian carpenters and workers from New Orleans and St. Tammany Parish that Captain John Shaw hired. It is an economic boom for the parish. The location Shaw chose was a bend in the river two miles up by trail from Madisonville. Today's location is the Beau Chene Subdivision.
1813 John Baptiste "Lille" Sarpy has a house on the Tchefuncte River near the Navy Yard. He is living with a free woman of color named Diaz. His daughter, Henriette Delille, is born in the Year 1813. Henriette becomes a Nun and begins "The Sisters of the Holy Family" in New Orleans. Today in 2013, she has been nominated for Sainthood by the Catholic Church. Henriette Delille may have been born on the Tchefuncte River!
1814 Thomas Tate joins his brother James, the Judge of St. Tammany Parish. It wasn't long before they were selling lots in the new subdivision of Wharton on the Bogue Falaya River.
1814 The Secretary of the Navy orders Master Commandant Daniel Patterson, the new
Commandant of the New Orleans Station, to stop construction on the "Tchefuncte," close her in on her "stocks" and lay off the workers.
Indian Threat Ends
1814 General Andrew Jackson and his army of Tennessee volunteers defeated the "Red Sticks" Creeks at the battle of Horseshoe Bend in central Alabama on March 27,1814. This ended the Indian threat in St. Tammany Parish.
1814 On November 29, General Jackson and five aides, including Major Howell Tatum, who kept a dairy, came down the Military Road from the Bogue Chitto River settlements. They passed the abandoned Cantonment at the crossing of the Little Bogue Falaya and entered the newly dedicated town of Wharton.
Andrew Jackson Passes Through Covington and Madisonville
1814 On November 30th, after spending the night at Madisonville, General Jackson and his aides boarded Captain William Collins fast sailing packet for Bayou St. John. The trip took ten hours to cross Lake Pontchartrain.
1815 On January 8,1815, the Battle of New Orleans takes place. There were many inhabitants and future settlers of St. Tammany Parish who took part in this great victory! There was a Lt. Elijah Terrell who fought with the Mississippi Militia who would later settle in Covington and become one its leading merchants.
1815 Basil Krebs, owner of a plantation at the mouth of the Tchefuncte River dies. Ownership is now passed on to his widow Felicite Krebs.
1815 William West, father of Massey West of Wharton, dies on the Amite River.
1816 John Wharton Badon, son of Robert and Marie Collins, was born March 13,1816. He was Baptized with his brother William on November 3,1816. Sponsors were John Gibson and Marie E. Tabiteau, wife of John Wharton Collins.
1816 General David Bannister Morgan's wife, Elizabeth Middleton, died. He marries his second wife, Mary Constance Baham, daughter of Renez Baham, in 1819.
David Bannister Morgan
1816 William Collins, brother of John Wharton Collins and Captain of the mail packet, is drowned in an accident off the shore of the mouth of the Tchefuncte River. Captain Collins carried General Andrew Jackson and his staff across Lake Pontchartrain on Nov. 30,1814, on their way to the Battle of New Orleans.
New Parish Seat To Be Decided
1817 An act of the Louisiana legislature in 1817 called for St. Tammany to decide on a permanent Parish seat.
1817 John Wharton Collins died in New Orleans in December of 1817.
1817 The Louisiana Legislature in New Orleans changes the name of the town of Wharton to Covington in honor of General Leonard Covington who was killed in a battle in Canada.
1817 Thomas Tate, brother of Judge James Tate, is elected the first Mayor of Covington.
1817 James Tate, Parish Judge and brother of Thomas, marries Anne Corran, widow of William Collins.
Claiborne Courthouse
1818 Judge James Tate signed off on an agreement on July 10,1818, holding a group of men, (the Claiborne Co.), led by Robert Layton "formally bound to the Parish Judge and the Police Jury" to build a parish courthouse and jail in the town of Claiborne, across the Bogue Falaya From Covington. They did, but the town of Claiborne never materialized.
The Claiborne Courthouse
Large Madisonville Hotel
1818 Joshua Aydolette, son-in-law of Haden Edwards, arrives at Madisonville. He purchases several lots and builds a large hotel/business complex on the bank of the Tchefuncte River. His infant daughter, who died in 1819, is the oldest recorded grave site in the Madisonville Cemetery.
1818 Jacques Lorreins, the owner of a large plantation, on the east bank opposite Madisonville, and the one who leased 20 acres on the Tchefuncte River to U. S. Navy Captain John Shaw for a Navy facility, died. His widow, Margaret Smith, later married Thomas Tate.
1819 Jesse R. Jones is appointed St. Tammany Parish Judge by Governor Jacques Villere and replaces James Tate.
1819 General David Bannister Morgan marries Mary Constance Baham, daughter of Renez Baham And Isabelle Millon.
1820 Levi and Gadi West owned lots in Covington. They moved to Texas in 1829 in The Great Migration, Phase Two begins.
First Steamboat In The Lake
1821 The first steamboat crosses Lake Pontchartrain and arrives at Madisonville.
1821 The Louisiana Legislature granted to Richard S. Chappel on January 21,1821, permission to operate a ferry across the Bogue Chita River on the road from Covington to Jacksonville Springs.
Colony In Texas To Be Established
1821 Joseph Hawkins of Madisonville and Stephen F. Austin sign a contract agreement to become partners in establishing the first Anglo-Colony in Texas.
1821 Anne Corran, wife of James Tate, dies in East Texas on September 21,1821. Later James Tate, the ex-Judge of St. Tammany Parish abandoned his step-son, George Thomas Wharton Collins, in the East Texas wilderness to perish. Tate then comes back to St. Tammany Parish And disposes of George's inheritance to pay off his own debts. What a scoundrel!
1822 Lt. George Merrill of the U. S. Navy and one time Commandant of the Navy facility on the Tchefuncte River, died in Madisonville in 1822. He is buried in the Madisonville Cemetery. Lt. Merrill lived on the Tchefuncte River at Madisonville from 1816 to 1822.
1822 The Secretary of the Navy orders the Navy facility on the Tchefuncte River closed, the Block Ship Tchefuncte broken up, the oak pieces sent to the Navy Yards on the East Coast.
1822 The first hotel in Madisonville was built and in operation by Joshua Aydelote. This is confirmed by the Reverend Timothy Flint in 1823.
1822 Widow Marie E. Tabitau sells to the city of Covington land that becomes its cemetery.
1823 The Reverend Timothy Flint visits Covington. He describes the town and its people. He states that there is a hotel operating in Madisonville.
1823 In June of 1823, the Navy Yard is closed and the last navy personnel, Sailing Master Jonathan Ferris, closes the yard and is transferred to Pensacola.
1825 The Covington Academy was incorporated under Act 10 of 1825. Men involved were Jonathan Gilmore, David B. Morgan, James Hosner, William Bagley, Branch Miller, Moses Moore, Daniel Edwards and others.
1826 The first mention of a lighthouse at the mouth of the Tchefuncte River is 1826 according to The United States Coast Guard report on Lighthouses.
1830 Jean-Baptiste Lille Sapry is found to be living in Natchitoches, Louisiana. He appears as a sponsor in several baptisms in the next several years.
1832 The first newspaper was printed in Covington.
See also:
The timeline history of theTchefuncte River corridor
