APPENDICES

Acadians Who Found Refuge in Louisiana, February 1764-early 1800s

HUGON

[YOU-gonh]

ACADIA

Louis, son of Henri Hugon and Madeleine Lafond, born at Villefagnan, Angouleme, France, in c1695, married Marie, daughter of Claude Bourgeois and Anne Blanchard, at Chignecto in April 1720.  They had six children, two daughters and four sons, there:  Marie-Josèphe in c1721; Louis in c1723; Jacques in c1730; Joseph in c1732; Anne-Marie in c1733; and Michel in c1740.  The two sons created their own families:  

Older son Jacques, born in c1730, married a woman whose name has been lost to history probably at Chignecto.  

Younger son Joseph, born in c1732, married Théotiste Broussard probably at Chignecto.  They had at least one daughter, Marie, born probably at Chignecto in c1751.  

[See also Book Three] 

LE GRAND DÉRANGEMENT

[For the family's travails during the Great Upheaval, see Book Six]

LOUISIANA:  WESTERN SETTLEMENTS

None of Jacques Hugon's children were with him when he came to Louisiana, so his family either died or, in the case of his daughter Marie-Madeleine, remained in French St.-Domingue.  The place and time of Jacques's death are clues that he hooked up with the Broussard party from Halifax going to Louisiana via Cap-Français, St.-Domingue, in late 1764.  If so, he would have reached the colony in February 1765 and followed the Broussards to lower Bayou Teche in the Attakapas District that April.  Fate did not give Jacques the opportunity to start another family there.  He died on the Teche only a few months after he got there, victim of the epidemic that struck down dozens of his fellow Acadians that summer and fall.

Most likely, Jacques's younger brother Joseph's widow, Théotiste Broussard, and Joseph's daughter Marie Hugon, also came to Louisiana directly from St.-Domingue with the Broussard party.  Théotiste and Marie would have followed their kinsmen to Bayou Teche, and they probably were there when Jacques Hugon died that October.  Dozens of their fellow Acadians escaped the sickness by fleeing to the river, but Théotiste and Marie remained in Attakapas with their Broussard kin.  Théotiste never remarried.  Marie married cousin Paul, son of fellow Acadians Michel Trahan and Anne-Euphrosine Vincent, at Attakapas in July 1772.  Their marriage was recorded at Pointe Coupée, but the priest who recorded the ceremony noted that Marie and Paul were residents of Attakapas and that they had to secure dispensation for third degree of affinity in order to marry. 

NON-ACADIAN FAMILIES in LOUISIANA

Hugons lived at New Orleans during the late colonial period and probably were no kin to the Hugons of Acadia:

Jean-Baptiste, called Baptiste, Hugon, "captain of the mulatto militia," died at New Orleans in August 1792.  His daughter Céleste married Jean-Pierre, son of Augustin Claver, "corporal of the militia of free men of color," at New Orleans in October 1794. 

Marie-Dorothée, daughter of Constance Hugon, was born at New Orleans in February 1794.  Constance gave birth to daughter Clara at New Orleans in June 1796, son Andrés-Florence-Laurent in April 1799, and son François in October 1800. 

One wonders if the presence of this prominent Hugon family among the city's gens de couleur libres motivated Marie Hugon of Atakapas to call herself a Dugon. 

~

During the antebellum period, a Hugon, who would have been called a Foreign Frenchman by Louisiana natives, came to New Orleans from his native France:

Pierre Hugon, a 29-year-old cooper, reached New Orleans aboard the ship Ann Penhallon out of Bordeaux, France, in January 1838. 

CONCLUSION

Hugons settled "late" in Acadia, but they were among the earliest Acadians to find refuge in Louisiana.  Brothers Jacques and Joseph Hugon of Chignecto ended up in South Carolina, where Jacques became a widower.  After the war, they followed other exiles in the seaboard colonies to French St.-Domingue, where Joseph died.  Jacques's children died there, too.  Jacques, along with Joseph's widow, Théotiste Broussard, and Joseph's daughter Marie, came to Louisiana probably with the Broussard party from Halifax via Cap-Français in February 1765.  Jacques died in the Teche valley epidemic of 1765 before he could remarry and father another son. 

The only other Acadian Hugon who came to Louisiana was Jacques's niece Marie, so this branch of the Hugon family did not took root in the Bayou State.  Marie married a Trahan at Attakapas, and the Hugon family's blood lived on in a number of that family's lines.  In the many church records in which she is found, Marie is invariably called Marie Dugon, but there is no question that she was the daughter of Joseph Hugon of Chignecto, South Carolina, and St.-Domingue. 

The family's name also is spelled Dugan, Hugond.  [See also Book Ten]

Sources:  Arsenault, Généalogie, 1006, 2614; Brasseaux, Foreign French, 1:278; BRDR, vol. 2; Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 72, 197; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, vols. 1-A, 1-B, 2-A; Hodson, Acadian Diaspora, 232n146; Jehn, Acadian Exiles in the Colonies, 235; Milling, Exile Without End, 42; NOAR, vols. 5, 6, 7; Wall of Names, 19; White, DGFA-1, 260.

Settlement Abbreviations 
(present-day civil parishes that existed in 1861 are in parenthesis; hyperlinks on the abbreviations take you to brief histories of each settlement):

For a chronology of Acadian Arrivals in Louisiana, 1764-early 1800s, see Appendix.

The hyperlink attached to an individual's name is connected to a list of Acadian immigrants for a particular settlement and provides a different perspective on the refugee's place in family and community. 

NOTES

01.  Wall of Names, 19 (pl. 4L), calls him Jacques HUGON, & lists him singly; Arsenault, Généalogie, 1006, 2614, the Beaubassin & LA sections, calls him Jacques HUGON, says he was born in c1730, & that he died 12 Oct 1765; Hebert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A:423-24 (SM Ch.: v.1, p.13; SM Ch.: Slave Funeral Register v.1, #26), his death/burial records, call him Jacques HUGON, says he died 8 Oct 1765 & his death was recorded 12 Oct 1765, but do not give his parents' names or mention a wife.  See also Hodson, Acadian Diaspora, 232n146; Jehn, Acadian Exiles in the Colonies, 235; Milling, Exile Without End, 42.  

See Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 2-C:[21]; & note 02, below, for a claim by genealogist Stephen A. White that Jacques was the son, not the brother-in-law, of Théotiste BROUSSARD, widow HUGON.  White is not followed here. 

What happened to his wife & children?  Did they die in St.-Domingue, & he latched on to the BROUSSARD party when they came thru Cap-Français in early 1765?  How else could someone who had spent his exile in SC end up in the Attakapas District in 1765?  Jacques was the older brother of Joseph HUGON, deceased husband of Marie-Théotiste BROUSSARD (Joseph never made it to LA but died probably in NS).  See Arsenault, 1006. 

He perished in the epidemic that struck down dozens of fellow Acadians along the Teche that summer & fall.

02.  Wall of Names, 19, calls her Marie HUGON; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2606, the LA section, calls her Marie DUON, & gives her wedding date & her parents' names; BRDR, 2:253, 707 (PCP-2, part 2, 140), & Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A:279-80, 774 (BRDR: Pointe Coupée Ch.: v.2, Part 2, 140), her marriage record, calls her Marie DUGAN, gives her & her husband's parents' names, calls her parents Joseph [DUGAN] & Théotiste BROUSSARD, & says the witnesses to her marriage were Augustin GREVENBERG & Gérard de VERBOIS; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A:279, 774 (SM Ch.: v.1, p.27), another marriage record, calls her Marie DUGON, "of Acadie," calls her husband Paul TRAHAN, "of Acadie," gives her & his parents' names, calls her parents Joseph [DUGON] & Théotiste BROUSSARD, & says the witnesses to her marriage were ____ BORDA, ____ de VERBOIS, ____ BERARD, Augustin GREVEMBER, Francois GREVEMBER, ____ DURIEN, & Joseph LANDRY; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A:280, 775 (SM Ch.: Folio A-1, p.20), yet another marriage record, calls her Marie DUGON, "of Attakapas," calls her husband Paul TRAHAN, "of Attakapas," gives her & his parents' names, calls her parents Joseph [DUGON] & Théotiste BROUSSARD, says all parents were "all natives from Acadie," that "The couple is related in the 3rd degree of afinity[sic], Dispensed by virtue of the powers granted to foreign missionaries," that the witnesses to her marriage were ____ BERARD, Augustin GREVEMBER, Francois GREVEMBER, ____ DURIEU, & Joseph LANDRY, & that the recording priest was "of Pointe Coupée"; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 2-C:262 (Laf. Ch.: v.2, p.75, #121), her death/burial record, calls her Marie DUGON, "spouse of dec. Paul TRAHAM (TRAHAN)," says she died "at 1:30 a.m. at age 72 years," & was buried the same day she died.  See also Arceneaux, D. J., Attakapas Post in 1769, 25; De Ville, Attakapas Post Census, 1771, 15; De Ville, Southwest LA Families, 1777, 14; Jehn, Acadian Exiles in the Colonies, 236.  

 I originally had her coming to LA with her widowed mother & uncle direclty from French St.-Domingue, but Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 2-C:[21], a response from genealogist Stephen A. White to Fr. Hébert, contains her birth/baptismal information, which makes it impossible for her to have been in SC in 1756/57.  White adds:  "'Her parents were Joseph HUGON and Marie-Théotiste BROUSSARD.  I believe she had one brother, Jacques, who was buried at or near St-Martinville on 8 October 1765."  Fr. Hébert notes that "Jacques HUGON was buried on 8 October 1765.  The act was recorded on 12 October 1765 by Fr. Jean François [CIVREY] who signs himself as curé de la nouvelle Acadie 'pastor of the new Acadia' in St. Martinville, LA."  Fr. Hébert then adds:  "Mr. White concludes by adding: 'HUGON is, I suppose, what you may fairly call a 'rare and unusual' name, as it would appear to have disappeared with Anne-Marie's generation.  At least, I know of no males who passed it on any further...'"  This raises several questions:  If she was in SC in 1763, where were her parents in the 12 Aug 1763 census there?  Her mother, at least, would have still been alive.  If Anne-Marie was born & baptized at Petitcoudiac in 1756/57, as Stephen White attests, how could she have gone to SC, where Acadians were sent in 1755?  Who was the Marine HUGON counted in SC in Aug 1763, age 8, with Marie HUGON, age 12, & listed with no family?  Neither evidently was Théotiste BROUSSARD's daughter.  And why does Stephen White think Jacques HUGON is Anne-Marie's brother, not her uncle?  See the footnote to her mother's profile for more perspective on the family. 

Although Attakapas had its own church, or at least its own priest, as early as 1765, there were times in the early years of the parish when there was no pastor at the post on Bayou Teche.  Priests from Pointe Coupée would cross the upper Atchafalaya Basin and administer the sacraments to the settlers in the Opelousas District, which did not get its own priest until 1776, and in the Attakapas District when there was no priest residing there.  This is why Marie & Paul's marriage was recorded at Pointe Coupée as well as at Attakapas.  

The birth/baptismal record of granddaughter Julie ELLENDER, daughter of Marie's daughter Christine TRAHAN, dated 11 Aug 1800, in Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A:293 (SM Ch.: v.5, #329), calls the maternal grandmother Marie Anne DUGON, but the many other church records in which Marie HUGON is found call her simply Marie.  See the indexes to Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, vols. 1-A, 1-B, 2-A, 2-B, 2-C.  Moreover, all of these records, including her marriage records, cited above, call her Marie DUGAN or DUGON, never Marie HUGON, but, as Wall of Names points out & as other records show, there is no doubt that she was the daughter of Joseph HUGON & Théotiste BROUSSARD of Chignecto, SC, & St.-Domingue.  Note that the Attakapas census taker in 1769 calls her Marie DUGON, the census taker in 1771 calls her Marie DUGAS, but the census taker in 1777 calls her Marie HUGON, her actual name.  Since all other Marie DUGASs in LA in 1771 have been accounted for here, & Marie HUGON's age at the time would have been 15 or 16, it stands to reason that the Marie DUGAS with the Jean BERARD family in 1771 was the same person as Marie DUGON with the same family 2 years earlier.  Note also that Jean BERARD's wife was Anne-Henriette, daughter of Alexandre BROUSSARD dit Beausoleil & Marguerite THIBODEAU.  One suspects that Marie HUGON's mother, Théotiste BROUSSARD, was a close kin to Alexandre et al. 

In 1823 & 1824, 2 children, Joseph & Virginie DUGON, were baptized in Lafayette Parish.  See Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 2-B:322 (Laf. Ch.: v.1, p.40).  The children's parents were listed as Delphin [DUGON] & Victorie TRAHAN for Joseph, & Jean Baptiste [DUGON] & Pélagie TRAHAN for Virginie.  The godparents for Joseph were Joseph TRAHAN & ... Marie DUGON.  Virginie's godparents were Onésime DUGON & Eufrasine TRAHAN.  Were these DUGON children actually TRAHANs?  Again, Marie HUGON was the only member of her family who survived the rigors of life in colonial LA & created a family of her own.  So why were these children, probably her descendants, called DUGONs & not TRAHANs?

Her husband, who was about her age, died at Attakapas in Dec 1799, so she was a widow for nearly 30 years.  She did not remarry. 

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