Atchafalaya Basin People: Chapter 21

DATE:                        December 26, 1995

 INTERVIEWER:      Jim Delahoussaye

 LOCATION:              Residence of Joe Sauce, Jr., and his wife Florence Anslem Sauce, 208 Easy Street, Franklin, Louisiana, 70538.

 COOPERATORS:   Joseph (Joe) Sauce, Jr., Florence (Flo) Sauce

 [begins with some talk about genealogy of the Sauce family, looking at charts JD had made, and some records Joe: has]

 JD:      …cause it was Agnes’ grandfather who came directly from France.  And I don’t know….

 Joe:    …and here’s some taken from census, in here. 

 JD:      You got this from a commercial service?

 Joe:    Yeah.   I don’t know how much light it shed, but a lil bit…

 JD:      Well, every lil bit helps, cause like I say, all I have for this is word of mouth.

 Joe:    Well, that’s what all the old folks say, they came from France, but I think that’s assumed. 

 JD:      From what you showed me, it well may be assumed.  But the thing is, I think that what I want to…what I’m holding as important here is not so much where they come from but the fact that they did…this generation came from…at least this piece of this generation came from Europe.  Somewhere.  And they came and settled down here and gradually, between this generation and this generation, became houseboat people.  Between here and here…these people didn’t live on houseboats, they lived…these people right here lived on, uh, had a big farm on Lake Verret:  your grandmother and grandfather on this side.  And this generation…let’s see, that would be your great grandmother…your grandfather would have been Blaise Sauce? 

 Joe:    My great grandfather would have been Blaise Sauce.   My great great grandfather [on the chart] would have been Larnce.

 JD:      …so they lived on this…they lived on this big farm on Lake Verret, apparently.  And Blaise Sauce was a houseboat person. His family was on a houseboat.  So, somewhere between this area and this area [parts of the family], this family [Blaise Sauce] became involved on campboats in the Basin.  And the same thing over here.  I don’t know about these people right here, I have to ask…I have to find out more about them, about what they were like.  But, Myon is the one that became a houseboat person in this branch of the family.  Because apparently all of his people, these people, lived on Fourmile Bayou – just north of Grassy Lake, just south of Lake Verret. 

 Joe:    They lived on the land?

 JD:      On the land.  They sure did. 

 Joe:    I knew they lived on Fourmile Bayou, I didn’t know it was on the land. 

 JD:      Yeah, in houses on the land.  On Fourmile Bayou.  And they moved…

 Joe:    Because, uh, my grandfather, Momma’s daddy, had uh, he lived along The Pit [Morgan City].  They fished the Basin.

 JD:      The Pit would have been in Morgan City?

 Joe:    ..this comes from Myon.  Myon was Baileys, but uh, …

 JD:      Your mother’s last name was not Bailey.  She was Daigle. 

 Joe:    You see, Uncle Myon was a half brother.  But, Grandpa fished, and did just about everything people on this side did.  His house was a campboat on a barge that was pulled up on the edge of the…the other side of The Pit in Morgan City.   And then they moved it …

 JD:      Give me a name, give me a name…your grandpa on what side?  Daigle?  Your mother’s father was named Daigle, he’s not on here. 

 Joe:    Yeah, but you see, Ernestine Daigle was my grandmother, but she was married to, uh, to my…Albert Bailey, whoever he was, Uncle Myon’s dad, died or was killed, in a boating accident – nobody figure out.  Somebody think it was a murder involved in there.  That maybe my grandpa killed Albert Bailey.  Possibly.  Yeah, they went out in a boat together and one come back alive.  That’s what we understand. 

 JD:      The other one drowned?  Didn’t come back?

 Joe:    I’m not sure if he didn’t come back, or he came back dead.  And, and,  I don’t even know…I think his name….  Daddy would know his name, but he was married to Ernestine.  And they both were Daigles.

 JD:      That was her second husband then?   So, his name was what?   Daigre or Daigle? 

 Joe:    Uh, just like you spell the Daigle name, Daigle. 

 JD:      So, his second marriage was…

 Joe:    [he calls Neg Sauce]  Daddy, you remember, uh, grandpa Daigle’s first name, what it was?  Grandpa Daigle, momma’s daddy.  Yeah, Homer?

 JD:      Homer Daigle, I remember that… So, she married…so she was married to him, to Albert Bailey, and Albert Bailey was the father of…how many of these, you remember how many of these were halfs and how many…in other words of em were Daigles and how many of em were Baileys? 

 Joe:    Oh, just, uh, for as I know, I don’t know if Angelina was Bailey or not …she may have been.  I think so.  Rudolph and Myon…those three.

 JD: And the rest, Marie, Odelia, Eula, Norman, Azima, Ike and all of them,  they were all halfs.   So, they were all Daigles, then. 

 Joe:    All Daigles, right.  I don’t even know if, uh, Angelina was Bailey.  I think she may have been.  But for sure the rest were Daigles.   And you see…her…she was a Daigle and he was a Daigle.  Those two Daigles, maybe were kin, married to each other.

JD:      Interesting.  See, the more people I talk to the more complete this gets.  You’d be surprised how many people seem to be interested…in this sheet.  So that when I finish with it, I’m gone to give all of .y’all a copy of it so that .y’all’l all…you know, for whatever it’s worth…

Joe:    Larnce Sauce had a brother too…what I heard there were two brothers.

JD:      Yes, remember his name by any chance?  The other Sauce?  His brother?

Joe:    Not at the moment.   Like they got two branches of Sauce in this area that are not kin anymore, and that’s probly why…those two lines.  That’s the only two lines of Sauces that I know of. 

JD:      [do you] realize that we can put down on paper, for these people, seven generations of people?  Seven?  From what’s known right now, seven.  Starting with these and going to your grandchildren, seven, generations.  That’s a lot for a family to be able to just look at and say here’s for sure who they were. 

Joe:    And, boy, we just had, like, Daddy’s aunts just a few years ago…they all dead now.   Eight, ten year’s ago, somebody would do this?  They could a had all kind of information from those older people. 

JD:      Now, your daddy’s aunts would have been…would have been, uh…

Joe:    Felix, Felix…Blaise Sauce. 

JD:      Blaise Sauce’s brothers and sisters.  All these people here…all these people here.  [pointing to the family chart]   Now, there’s two more that I don’t have on here…but he had apparently…

Joe:    Well, Daddy could tell you...Agnes could, and Daddy could. 

JD:      This is as many as Agnes could come up with.  Uh, but there’s fourteen of em.  Fourteen brothers and sisters, of Blaise. 

Joe:    Now, Milton, Milton might still be alive…not sure.

JD:      But there’s some of em in here, like, nobody knows who this Chouki was, what his real name is, nobody knows that.

Joe:    That’s her, that’s a lady.   Chouki, Aunt Chouki, yeah.  She was married to a Aucoin.   His name was Phillip Aucoin.

JD:      But, we don’t know her real name.  And nobody knows the pronunciation of this “Souri”, that’s the best pronunciation I can come up with.

Joe:    I remember her, I knew her.  And probly the only one that’s in my memory because she lived next to Grandma Daigle not far from where we used to visit when we were children, so I kind of remember her. 

JD:      Where did .y’all visit?  Where was that?

Joe:    Uh, The Pit, in Morgan City.

JD:      All right, who would your Grandma Daigle have been? 

Joe:    Oh, Ernestine. 

JD:      Ok, Myon’s mother.  … this stuff gets complicated.   Now Edward, I put Edward down here so I could show him married to Lena Mae, and Edward’s brothers and sisters.  And Edward’s mother and father.  Now I’m going to follow his line, the Couvilliers, back, because he can take me…this family can take me to Keelboat Pass, and to people who were born and raised.  He wasn’t born on a houseboat, but he was 12 years old when they got their first houseboat.   He lived on land in Lil Pigeon when the got their first houseboat, in Catfish Bayou.  So u see, he can take me again from livin on land to livin on houseboats. So, to Keelboat Pass and to Hog Island. 

Joe:    The Langes could also, well of course the Couvilliers married the Lange family.  They could take you to Keelboat Pass. 

JD:      Dan Lange, right here, Dan Lange married Viola…Tete.  So, yeah, so that’s another one, so the more of these things I can get…the more stories I can get of how they went from livin on land to livin on houseboats, the better idea I have of how it was…what brought it about.  And I’m always interested in what caused people to go from livin on land to livin on houseboats. 

Joe:    I think it was probly the fishin. 

JD:      Well, they lived on land for a long time, apparently.  And fished from on land.  I think part of it, part of it may also be that when the built the levees that the water started rising so high that you couldn’t live on land inside the Basin anymore.   Because the idea is [the water] wouldn’t spread out…

Joe:    Well, they had a whole town in the center of the Basin, did you know that? 

JD:      That was at Bayou Chene, you talking…I think, isn’t it? 

Joe:    I got, uh, a book…a history of Baptists, that can take you back to some of that Baptist work in different areas of the Basin…too might be helpful.