Hello, I've been working with an inter-library loan book which turns out to have several pertinent references to our DeGruys and allied families. I will also eventually put on our website.... under Review. The title of the book is "New Iberia: Essays on the Town and Its People" by Glen R. Conrad. Mr. Conrad is a true scholar who is painstaking with facts and details but who is also gifted as a fluent writer. He is able to take the facts and weave them into an interesting narrative which captivates the reader. I hope you will enjoy the following. I just wish I could include longer passages, but I must fit this to the Rootsweb requirements. Unfortunately some of the accent marks may look garbled to you, again because of Rootsweb limitations. Renee *************** New Iberia: Essays on the Town and Its People Compiled by Glen R. Conrad Center for Louisiana Studies, University of Southwestern La, Lafayette, La Page 18 "The /vacherie /was moved to these lands and D'Hauterive bought out Massé, who had prospered and owned much property in different parts of the province. D'Hauterive died soon thereafter; his widow, Elizabeth Monteau de Monterault, married a second time to Jean-Baptiste DeGruÿ and they moved to St. Charles Parish." Page 19 "Among the few others who settled along the Teche prior to the Acadian migrations were probably the families of Barré, DeGruÿ, De Glanc and possibly Darby and Devezin. Nearly all these early settlers founded families that have remained in the land of their heritage and been faithful to its development.... West of the bayou, these grants, from north to south, were made to Louis-Charles de Blanc, John Stine, François Prévost, Joseph Carlin, E. C. Nicholls, Jean-Baptiste Macarty and François Cézar Boutte. Page 31-2 The large grant to François Cézar Boutte extended from the boundary separating the Conrad and Jefferson lands, southward about 7,200 feet along the Teche. Tradition has it that the grantee was one of two brothers of French descent living and possessing much property around New Orleans, as well as tracts in other parts of the province. Tradition also has it that after the cession of Louisiana to Spain, and Governor O'Reilly's arrival in 1769, Boutte refused to salute the Spanish governor as required and was thrown into jail; finally, it is said that when he was released his financial matters were seriously impaired. Probably, he, in later years, moved to the Teche [fn 34] At any rate, on July 7 1806, one of his daughters, Marie-Therese, married Samuel Charles Meyer, a young man born in France in 1781 and educated in Paris, whose political views differed from those of the then government of France. As a consequence, he emigrated to New Orleans in his early twenties. Two children were born to this marriage. Euphémie Ida Meyer [b. June 1, 1807] who married François Mestayer at Plaquemine, and Emelie Leocade Meyer [b. September 5, 1809] who was first married to Ursin Gonsoulin and, after his death, to Dr. Jean-Baptiste Hacker. Charles Meyer and his wife died prior to 1818. Another daughter of François Cézar Boutte, Hortense, was first married [July 2, 1806] to Achille Bérard, and after his death on March 2, 1816, she married Baron Bayard [December 20, 1819]. He died in 1839. His widow continued to live in the two-story brick house on their property through the disastrous years of the war and until she died in 1868. One of her sons, Hipolyte, was the candidate for the Democratic nomination for sheriff of the parish in 1892 on the Anti-Lottery ticket, but he went down to defeat with nearly all the others on that ticket. After Mrs. Bayard's death, the entire tract [except the Caulking and Conrad lands] was partitioned among her children. Most of it remained the property of the grantee for many years thereafter.... [Footnote 34, bottom of page 32] The Bouttees were among those French families in the Mobile area who left their homes when the territory became British in 1763. Although they were in New Orleans for a brief time, it would appear that François' father, André Claude, moved to the Attakapas country in the mid to late 1760's. In 1770 François Cézar and his brothers were listed as being in the New Orleans militia. André Claude and his family are recorded in the 1774 census of the Attakapas. François Cézar and his brother, Antoine, married don the same day, July 12, 1778, to two sisters. François Cézar's wife was Marie-Thérèse DeGruÿ Page 33 "The lands next above the François Cézar Boutte tract had been entered by Jean-Baptiste Macarty [FN 36] His heirs in 1810 sold this tract of twenty arpents front along Bayou Teche to what is now the upper line of Mrs. Wofford Sanders' property [presently the J. Patout Burns property, the north line of which corresponds to the dividing line between Township 12, Range 6 east, sections 38 and 39] to Daniel Clark, who died in 1813. This land was, therefore, involved in the families Myra Clark Gaines litigation, which is one of the most celebrated of private litigations in the history of the United States. A history of the matter would provide all the thrills of a novel. [FN 37]. There was the vast estate at issue, as a motive for the alleged wrongdoing. There was romance, 'the affair,' and the birth of Myra. The alleged secret marriage of the parents which was so secret that it was not known even to the child for more than twenty-five years after the death of her parents. The suppression and destruction of the will to the child [if it was really ever made] and this only asserted after an equally long lapse of time. Then followed the fiercest of legal battles. Nothing is lacking in the story for material for a best seller. The executors under the will of [Page 34] Daniel Clark sold the above-mentioned tract regularly in his succession and it passed into the ownership of John F. Miller and his mother, Mrs. Sarah Canby [This section continues for another page or so; therefore it cannot all be included here] Page 61-2 The sale referred to was effected on the 10^th day of September, and on the 19^th was followed by an outbreak of yellow fever....A few days after the service, the pallbearers, and others, who had attended the funeral, were taken sick with yellow fever. The epidemic developed rapidly....In the absence of medical assistance and the epidemic raging, he placed himself under the immediate charge of an old Santo Domingo servant who had always lived in my family. 'Aunt' Félicité, as she was universally known became the physician and nurse for all the cases that followed in rapid succession. Her experience, as a nurse, made her successful in her practice. She was kindly assisted by Mrs. Maximilien Decuir, Mrs. David Hayes, Mrs. Baron Bayard and Mrs. Don Louis Broussard, all residents of the country who constituted themselves a corps of good Samaritans [FN 24] The sense of charity and humanity that prevailed in those days contrasted greatly with the cruel and selfish treatment that we have witnessed in late epidemics of a much milder character. [Footnote 24] Mrs. Maximilien Decuir was the former Susanne Broussard. She married Decuir on November 11, 1811. They had 10 children. One of them, Eugene, died on October 2, 1839, at age 20, probably of yellow fever. Mrs. David Hayes was the former Josephine Lambert. She married David Hayeson January 28, 1834. Mrs. Baron Bayard was the daughter of François Cézar Boutte and Marie-Therese Degruÿ. She first married Achille Bérard and it was their daughter, Hortense, who married Henry Frederick Duperier. After Bérard's death, she married Benoit Baron Bayard, a native of France, on December 17, 1819. Mrs. Don Louis Broussard was the former Felonise Broussard. She married on August 6, 1810.

Wow, Renee. Just delicious. Thanks. ~Bonnie