Pine and Oak Alley
Title
Pine and Oak Alley
Description
Newspaper clipping by Gentry Dugat "YOU ARE INVITED TO THE WEDDING--
Pine and Oak Alley To Be Decorated With Gold and Silver Dust for Occasion"
Subject(s)
Acadian Bicentennial Celebration
Acadians
St. Martinville (La.)
Durand, Gerome Charles, 1806-1870
Labiche, Emmeline
Historical reenactments
Weddings
Creator
Fred G. Fournet (1904-1987)
Date
1955
Size of Original (W x H)
8 x 10
Spatial Coverage
Saint Martinville
(from Getty TGN online - http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/tgn/)
Type
black-and-white photographs
(from Getty AAT online - http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/aat/)
Language
Eng
Page Number in Scrapbook
Page 4
Citation
"Pine and Oak Alley," in Fournet Scrapbook, Item 4.1, http://abcstmartinvillela.weebly.com/5.html (accessed month, day, year).
Rights Statement
Collection Name
Fournet Scrapbook
Tags
St. Martinville, La., Acadian Bicentennial Celebration
Transcription
Gentry Dugat
Pettus, Texas
YOU ARE INVITED TO THE WEDDING--
Pine and Oak Alley To Be Decorated With Gold and Silver Dust for Occasion
By GENTRY DUGAT
You are invited to the wedding - in October of next year - in a tunnel of overhanging, massive live oaks and almost ancient pines where, perhaps, the most dramatic wedding of the South was performed more than a century ago. Gauze-like fabrics of gossamer webs, heavily sprinkled with gold and silver dust, will be hanging 40 to 50 feet high like coronation garments from the famed “Oak and Pine Alley” situated a mile and a quarter from historic old St. Martinville, La.
This will be a real wedding. A highly eligible pair are now being importuned to postpone their nuptial event until the highlight next October of the bi-centennial of the expulsion of the French Acadians out of the province of Nova Scotia in 1755. Next year will mark the 200th anniversary of the time when the English drove these devout French people down the coastline of the early English colonies now forming the United States.
The Acadia Bi-Centennial Celebration Association of Louisiana will conduct a series of celebrations over the Acadian country in the southwest portion of the state, starting in May. They will continue through the year, concluding with the grand events at St. Martinville, final resting place of Longfellow’s famed Evangeline next October. There is an interesting story behind the wedding to which all Texans are invited. Charles Durand arrived at what was then called Poste des Attakapas (also mentioned by Longfellow in his immortal poem) in 1820. Leona Martin Guirard (whom I had the pleasure of meeting), author of a delightful and useful book on St. Martinville, describes Durand as a “bon vivant, a lover of life, an original.” The things he did were the unexpected because they were the fantastic done in a grand manner.
He had his slaves plant a huge driveway cross of oaks and pines, extending then 10 miles back to the legend laden and historic Bayou Teche. A mile and a quarter of these colossal trees still stand. The wealthy Louisiana plantation owner determined to give his two daughters the most spectacular wedding in the history of Louisiana. Andre A. Olivier, historian of the Evangeline country, says Durand imported “a ship load” of spiders from China and released them in the miles long pine and oak tree lines bordering the majestic drive to the many columned mansion. These Oriental insects spun thousands of filmy cobwebs floating in the air from the highest arched limbs of a cavernous, flora hallway higher than the highest belfry of Westminster Abbey. Then the slave retinue was put to work with hand bellows, climbing the trees, blowing hundreds of pounds of gold and silver dust imported from California on the flimsy lace and dangling web patterns.
Under the shimmer of this glittering, fairland canopy, more than 2,000 invited guests marched to an altar in front of the Durand mansion for the most historic and bizarre wedding likely ever performed anywhere. It was followed by a bounteous feast. This is the story told present St. Martinville residents by their grandparents. And it has been published in innumerable publications, including the New York Times and Reader’s Digest.
As nearly as possible, the Durand wedding will be re-enacted in October of 1955 as one of the major bi-centennial events to be staged in one of the most historic towns in America. Lena and I drove the mile and a quarter out ot see the fabulously wooded place after we had spent four nights in hospitable St. Martinville. Figuratively, we reserved a place for you at this spectacular wedding next year.
You students of Evangeline )and who has not read the story?) will be permitted to see Evangeline (Emmeline Labiche) land from a barge moored in the slow moving waters of hte historic Bayou Teche (pronounced Tesh), concluding her 10 years wanderings from Grand Pre, in the Minas Basin area of Nova Scotia. You will see her searching for her long lost lover, Gabriel (Louis Arceneaux). It is one of the incidents of high drama in Longfellow’s classic.
When you witness this event, you will be standing near the famous Evangeline Oak, perhaps the best known oak in America, and a member of the hall of fame among trees. A little walk will take you to Evangeline’s grave and monument, where Evangeline still waits, unrequited in her uncomforted love. Children all over America, including Bee county schools, have cried over the heart pangs of this simple, confiding young French girl.
There will be foot and auto tours, street dances, folk dancing, folk songs, a Miss Evangeline contest among eligible, single girls (who must be dressed as was Evangeline), the pageant, and likely a French opera such as were held at old Poste des Attakapas (St. Martinville since 1803, at the time of hte Louisiana Purchase) when exiled royalty from France nicknamed the community “Le Petit Paris.”
St. Martinville and Louisiana invite you. You will have the opportunity of meeting the most hospitable, gracious people anywhere. Among these are Marcel M. (Blackie) Bienvenu, editor and publisher of the Teche News, weekly newspaper, who took me to Rotary with him: Dr. John A. Foti, optometrist, who had me as his guest at a meeting on the bi-centennial celebration; Andre A. Olivier, the grand old man, historian and museum keeper, who all newspapermen, magazine and book writers visit, and whose exhibits keep Evangeline enshrined; Sidney Dugas, who brews at his grocery store a most acceptable flavor of French coffee; Millard Segura who would likely give you his store for the asking; and Carroll J. Fuselier, secretary-treasurer of the St. Martin Parish Police Jury (not what you think it is--it is equivalent to our county commissioners court), who showed Mrs. Dugat and me every possible courtesy - including a cordial letter since our return.
St. Martinville invites you to the wedding, pageant, and all else in celebration of history at a bayou side where history was made with gilded trappings long before the American Declaration of Independence was signed.
Durand Wedding Narration Given
Title
Durand Wedding Narration Given
Description
Newspaper clipping "Durand Wedding Narration Given"
Subject(s)
Acadian Bicentennial Celebration
Acadians
St. Martinville (La.)
Durand, Gerome Charles, 1806-1870
Labiche, Emmeline
Historical reenactments
Weddings
Creator
Fred G. Fournet (1904-1987)
Date
1955
Size of Original (W x H)
Spatial Coverage
Saint Martinville
(from Getty TGN online - http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/tgn/)
Type
news clipping
Language
Eng
Page Number in Scrapbook
Page 4
Citation
"Durand Wedding Narration Given," in Fournet Scrapbook, Item 4.2, http://calliope.simmons.edu/alice/items/show/136 (accessed April 10, 2012).
Rights Statement
Collection Name
Fournet Scrapbook
Tags
St. Martinville, La., Acadian Bicentennial Celebration
Transcription
Durand Wedding Narration Given
Many persons have asked to publish the narration of the Durand Wedding re-enacted at Pine Alley last Sunday.
This magnificent alley of pine and oak has witnessed a hundred years of history. It has become part of the living legend of the Teche Country. It has seen moments of poverty and moments of splendor, but none to rival that spectacular day in 1870 when Charles Durand, in effect, gilded the proverbial lily and turned this alley into a gleaming avenue of gold and silver.
The occasion was the marriage of his two eldest daughters by his second marriage and Durand, a man of taste and generosity who had spent his life indulging in exquisite and expensive whims, decided to make the event the crowning achievement of a lavish life.
He imported a cargo of huge spiders to spin clouds of silken webs among the interlacing branches of the alley, and then on the morning of the wedding had the dewy webs dusted with a fortune in gold and silver dust. The result was a glittering canopy that stunned his guests with its opulence.
But Durand had not yet begun to decorate. Along the roadway where the guests would pass he had rare and costly carpets laid to allay the dust. For the refreshment of the thousands who attended, he scattered about the grounds (like so many hot dog stands) buffets loaded with rich foods and heady wines. A magnificent alter was constructed at the entrance of the alley before the mansion house. And the Durand, at last satisfied that he had demonstrated to the world that he held his two daughters in at least token affection, decided to relax and enjoy the reception that lasted throughout the night, and for several days and nights to come.
This re-enactment today is spectacular in its own right. It is, in a way, a miracle. The spider webs have been produced without spiders. The gold produced without mines, or a raid on Fort Knox, and the entire event without Charles Durand’s fabulous wealth. Only the oaks and pines are the same as they were that day 85 years ago - only that, and our desire to produce an occasion that you would long remember.
There are, however, a number of points of similarity. The young ladies who will renew their vows here today are direct descendants of Charles Durand. And, just as it was in 1870, they are sisters. The costumes and the carriages in the procession you are about to see, while they do not date to 1870, are accurate duplicates of the clothes and method of transportation used in those days.
Riding in one of the carriages today is Charles Bede, who as a young boy - a free man of color - worked as a yard boy for Charles Durand. Charles Bede is now in his ninety-sixth year and he can remember the days when this pleasant alley was young and Durand and Pine Alley Plantation were in their glory.
The splendid manor house no longer stands. Its bricks and mortar have been outlived by the alley of trees that gave it its name. But while the house stood, and Durand’s fortune lasted, it was a thing of magnificence. Every morning the rooms were sprayed with French perfumes. It was furnished with the costly, the exotic and the rare. Nothing was too good for Pine Alley or Charles Durand or his family.
Despite popular belief, Durand was not born fabulously wealthy. He was not even born rich. Upon his arrival in the Acadian country he was a poor man, a tailor by trade. He founded his huge fortune on his skill as a tailor and his ability to cut and sew swallow tail suits to the elegant fancy of the planters in the St. Martinville, Lafayette, New Iberia, Opelousas area. With the money he made he went into the inviting and lucrative sugar business. Being a man of energy and ability, he quickly built up a huge fortune.
Besides the handsome alley of trees, Pine Alley boasted a garden and orchards that were famous throughout Louisiana for the excellence of their produce. So fine were the lush fruits and vegetables that the river boats that landed at the old Castillo Hotel made special efforts to receive provisions from the Durand plantation.
The wedding you are about to witness was the final dramatic gesture of the man and the plantation. With this single stroke he created a legend. The guests who attended spread the name of Durand, and Pine Alley and St. Martinville far and wide.
We hope the proceedings today do as much.