Catherine Marie (LeBleu) Sallier (1786 - 1860)

Born 12 Jan 1786 in Opelousas, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, United States

Ancestors

Wife of Charles Anselm Sallier — married 9 Aug 1802 in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana

Descendants

Died 3 Dec 1860 at age 74 in Lake Charles, Calcasieu, Louisiana, United States

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Laura Gerwood [send private message] and Sarah LeDoux [send private message]

LeBlue Family Research

First there is the question is Bart the son of Louis Chauvin?

• The history of LeBleu posted at LaBleus Landing restaraunt is well written. Though it is not sourced, most of the information appears to be accurate. However, it states Bart's parents Louis LeBleu and Marie Gentils were immigrants from Bordeaux France. However, [the blog of Nancy Marguerite Anderson] appears to mention Louis LeBleu as Sieur de Beaulieu, or Louis Chauvin who was from Quebec.

• Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley and Adjacent Coast of the Gulf; John R. Swanton; Courier Corporation, Feb 20, 2013 pg 243 states that around 1730, Perrier sent Sieur de Coulonge, a Canadian, to the Akanasas, who were to assemble at the French fort at Natchez. The Sieur de Beaulieu embarked with him.

Secondly, what does The Will of Martin Camersac tell us? It was written in 1817.

• Apparently Martin Camersac was a good friend of the Leblue family, the Leblues even naming some of their children after him.
• Is he saying he had children with Josette or that he is simply claiming them for inheritence purposes?
• The children in question are:

Arsene Leblue

Baptiste Leblue

Martin Leblue

Catherine Leblue Sallier

• Some speculation: Barthelemy LeBleu married Marie Josette delaMirande at Pointe Coupee on Oct. 16, 1769. He was about 47 at the time and she was abound 20. They had no children until 1780 (after nearly 11 years of marriage). The sixth child was born in 1793 (when Barthelemy would have been about 70 years of age). During the Spanish colonial period of Louisiana history (1763-1804), divorce was not legal. It was common for couples to break up and live with new partners, only marrying after the legal spouses were deceased.

Martin Camersac was a neighbor who was about 25 in 1780. In his last will in 1817, he claims to be the father of four of the LeBleu children (one of the children and probably another were already dead by then and would therefore have no reason to be included in the will).

I am descended from one of these children, Jean Baptiste LeBleu. Though only a DNA test could prove it today, I believe that Josette left Barthelemy LeBleu and lived with Martin Camersac, bearing him the children. The children were baptized listing Barthelemy as the father possibly because of inheritance issues or to prevent gossip. The nearest civilization was the frontier post of Opelousas and this was a long way from where the family lived in the then-wilderness (near what is now Lake Charles).

Biography

Catherine LeBleu married Charles Sallier in 1805. Sallier was a political exile until Barthelemy LeBleu and Jean Lafitte brought him to settle in Louisiana in 1781. Sallier remained in Opelousas, Louisiana until 1797 and then travelled westward until he reached the Arsene LeBleu home, east of the lake that now bears his name. Sallier fell in love with Catherine and settled with her in a cabin on the southeast shore of the lake, which was later called Charles’ Lake. The village that grew around this lake was called Charlestown, and finally it became Lake Charles. During the years of 1815 to 1821, when Jean Laffite was headquartered in Galveston, he spent many hours slipping up through the Calcasieu River and Contraband Bayou into Lake Charles. Here he visited his friends, Charles and Catherine Sallier often, docking directly in front of the shell mounds before the house. Their children were loved by Laffite. One day, Jean Laffite told their little girl, Sydalise, “See this bag of gold? If you can pick it up, you can have it.,” Needless to say, the weight of the bag was too much for the child, but she remembered it and told the tale often to her own grandchildren. Sydalise would listen from their lakefront home to songs sung by the pirates on their ship. “They accompanied themselves on little accordions,” she told her grandchildren, “and I got in trouble when I sang the songs and my mother heard the words!”

The early inhabitants of the Neutral Strip held Jean Lafitte in high esteem and he reciprocated by showering them with luxuries rarely seen on the frontier. Laffite was considered a war hero rather than an outlaw due to his help in defending New Orleans during the Battle of New Orleans. In his journal, Lafitte made many references to the Neutral Strip and its residents. The Lebleu family furnished his crews with beef and vegetables when their ships were in the Calcasieu River. It was their descendants who have perpetuated the legendry of Jean Lafitte in Calcasieu Parish. Laffite made his Louisiana headquarters with his good friend LeBleu, spending many days at his home with the family. Arsene, whom Laffite called “My Captain,” always welcomed Laffite and his men into the LeBleu home on English Bayou. LeBleu built a “double-pen” log house, for storage of Laffite’s silks, spices, teas, liquor, jewels, and other contraband. This building stood the wear and tear of many years, but was finally destroyed by the hurricane of August, 1918. It was rumored that Lafitte hid some of his treasure there. “Part of my merchandise was unloaded at the mouth of the Calcasieu, in the care of Mr. Arsene LeBleu,” Laffite wrote. Once, when LeBleu admired a diamond stud Laffite was wearing in his silk shirt, Laffite unscrewed the gem and tossed it to LeBleu, remarking that he’d better keep it as it was much too beautiful for a rough pirate privateer.

Legend says Lafitte spent a lifetime in love with a woman that couldn’t be his, the sister of his best friend Arsene. Charles became jealous of Laffite and accused Catherine of being too friendly with the handsome buccaneer. One day, shortly after the birth of their sixth child, Charles returned home from a business trip to find her wearing a brooch given to her by Lafitte. Raging at Catherine, he drew a pistol and shot her. When she fell to the floor, Charles assumed she was dead and hastily exited the home. Story is told that news of the shooting was sent to Arsene and Lafitte and they made chase. Sallier was never heard from again. Catherine survived and found that the bullet had hit her hand and then the brooch that she was wearing. The brooch kept the bullet from penetrating her body and saved her life. Catherine lived on at Shell Beach until she died at the age of 75. She never remarried, and most people believe that she was innocent of Charles’ accusation. Handed down from generation to generation, the family still has this amethyst brooch and there are creases where it was struck by the bullet.^[1]

• Fact: Christening (18 May 1787) St Landry Catholic Church, Opelousas, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, United States
• Fact: Residence (1830) River Quelqumine, St Landry, Louisiana
• Fact: Residence (1840) Not Stated, Calcasieu, Louisiana
• Fact: Residence (1850) Calcasieu parish, part of, Calcasieu, Louisiana
• Fact: Residence (1860) , Calcasieu, Louisiana, United States
• Fact: Burial (1860) Sallier Cemetery, Lake Charles, Calcasieu, Louisiana, United States

Sources

1. ↑ Leblues History

• Find A Grave Memorial# 7042615

Find A Grave website [1]

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "Pedigree Resource File," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/2:2:39DH-3WS : accessed 2015-09-20), entry for Marie Sidalise /Salier/, submitted by cbpeters2716093.

"Louisiana Marriages, 1816-1906," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F4Z4-RV7 : accessed 20 September 2015), Charles Salier and Catherine Lebleu, 09 Aug 1802; citing reference ; FHL microfilm 6,010,598.

"Louisiana Births and Christenings, 1811-1830; 1854-1934," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FWGN-7K7 : accessed 20 September 2015), Catherine Lebleu in entry for Osite Salier, 01 Nov 1812; citing Opelousas, Saint Landry, Louisiana; FHL microfilm 6,010,599.

• "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 15 July 2018, 21:26), entry for Marie Catherine Lebleu(PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:9VPH-HKJ); contributed by various users.