Chapter Two - Finally in Louisiana
(Reprint of an article in The Advertiser, Sept.
14, 1997)
Claude-Amable, Honore, and Charles
all eventually made their way to Louisiana. Claude-Amable was deported to
New England and came to Louisiana in 1765 with his wife, by way of
Martinique. Claude and his wife, Marie-Josephe Vincent, and their
two natural sons, Firmin and Joseph, along with an adopted son, Paul (Jeansonne)
settled first on the west bank of the Mississippi in present day Ascension
Parish. Claude-Amable and his family eventually relocated to the
Attakapas country and Claude's death in 1811 is recorded at St. Martin de
Tours church in St. Martinville, Louisiana.
Honore was first imprisoned at Halifax in 1755 with a group
of Acadians where he stayed until he and several other Acadian families
were able to make their way to Louisiana. He also settled on the
west bank of the Mississippi with his family and died at Donaldsonville in
1784. The children of one of his sons, Jean-Bapiste, settled in the
Donaldsonville area. The children of another son, Francois, left
that area and settled near St. Martinville.
Charles Duon was also held captive at Halifax with his family
and came to Louisiana in 1765 and settled near his brothers on the west
bank of the Mississippi. He and his wife, Marie-Josephe Prejean, and
their families eventually moved to the Attakapas country.
Claude-Amable, Charles (pere) and Charles (fils), and Jean
Baptiste all acquired Spanish land grants in the Jeanerette-Chicot Noir
region of what is Iberia Parish, Louisiana, today. They soon sold
this land to Catherine Toupart and moved to the area near present-day
Lafayette, Louisiana.
Some Duon (Duhon) offspring participated in the westward migration
across Vermilion, Acadia, Jeff Davis, and Calcasieu parishes of
Louisiana. Before the Civil War, some Duon (Duhon) families had migrated
into Vermilion Parish near Abbeville, Louisiana, and others had migrated
all the way to the western shore of the Mermentau River, still in
Louisiana. Others later moved all the way into southeastern Texas,
USA.
Jean-Baptiste and Joseph, the two sons of Cyprien Duon who
came to Louisiana in 1785 with the second wave of Acadians to come to
Louisiana, also settled in the St. Martinville-Lafayette area.
Later, one of Joseph's sons, Cyprien (m. 1820 Julie Granger) took part in
the westward migration of Louisiana Acadians into the southwest Louisiana
prairies. Cyprien and his family settled along what was then called
Little Lake in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana. Since Cyprien owned most
of the land surrounding the lake, it eventually came to carry Cyprien's
nickname, and it is now known as "Prien Lake."
In the early years, the Duhon (Duon) clan was mostly
involved in subsistence farming and cattle. Indeed, census records
from the 1800's indicate that several Duhon (Duon) families were grazier,
or cattlemen, in the Mermentau district. Others were engaged in cattle
operations on chenieres (oak tree ridges) east of Creole in
present-day Cameron Parish, Louisiana.
The "h" in the Duhon name was added in Louisiana
for reasons unknown. Today, the main concentration of Duhon families
remains in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana. Other concentrations of the
family name follow an east-west axis from Lafayette to the Texas
border. There are scattered families in southeast Louisiana and
southeast Texas.
It is interesting to know that the Duon name change also
occurred with the decendants of Abel.. Their name changed to "d'Eon."
One will find a concentration of these families in the area in and around
Pubnico, Nova Scotia, Canada.
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