Voila 2007 Fall (PDF) - Nicholls State University

in the attic of the old Lafourche jail. Most
were in French and English, some in Spanish.
The collection includes an 1855 report
on conditions in the Lafourche jail (“filthy
and nauseating”), an 1855 dental bill and
cattle-brand certificates.
But most of those records are writs,
deeds and lawsuits, to say nothing of birth,
death and marriage certificates. Some are
original documents, some copies. “Can
you imagine copying documents by hand
way back then,” Legendre says in astonishment.
“Marge did the database for all
25,000 records,” she says. As a result, references
to plantations, people, businesses
and similar topics can be easily found.
Plantations start with Abby and end with
Waverly.
“I love it,” Legendre says of her volunteer
work. “You find out so many interesting
things.” She considers slave records
particularly interesting, “especially those
in the 1700s that list slaves coming from
Africa by way of Haiti.”
Speaking of her work on old Lafourche
records, Landry says, “That was
fun because most of my people are from
Lafourche – Guillots, Thibodauxs and
what-have-you. I was so interested that
sometimes I would come in for an extra
day.” While organizing a collection of
sheet music dating as far back as 1868, she
tells of having found bullets among the
Goldie Legendre (left) and Marjorie Landry (right) have worked as volunteers in the
library archives two days a week for more than a decade.
criminal records and information about a
nose being bitten off in one case, an ear in
another.
Seeing, touching history
Theriot can tell of dozens of fascinating
items in the collection. He can produce
documents signed by Henry Schuyler
Thibodaux, Francis T. Nicholls and James
Bowie. He can display 1796 slave-sale
information on the back of a 1787 baptismal
certificate. He can pull out hundreds
of printed public death notices, which
genealogists often find invaluable. He can
scan and e-mail documents or burn them
onto compact discs when requests come
from far away.
Theriot delights in introducing freshmen
to the archives when their classes
tour the library. He lets them see and hold
letters signed by Presidents Roosevelt,
Eisenhower and Johnson. They even see
and hold Ellender’s invitation to John F.
Kennedy’s presidential inauguration.
From the Martin-Pugh papers, which
extend from the 1830s to the 1920s, Theriot
is able to show letters from four sons
telling of their Civil War battlefield experiences.
There are also letters from their relatives
on the bayou describing home-front
conditions. Many envelopes have five-cent
“Confederate States” stamps. Because the
letters have been transcribed, no researcher
need wear gloves or be slowed by quaint
penmanship.
Theriot enjoys showing visitors Civil
War letters penned in the normal fashion
and then turned 180 degrees for additional
writing across the previously written lines,
all because of the paper shortage. He even
has letters on which the penmanship crosses
horizontally, vertically and diagonally.
Holding up a newspaper printed on
the back of green wallpaper, Theriot says,
“Students love this.” It is La Sentinelle de
Thibodaux issued in French on Feb. 7,
1863. Students are unlikely to forget the
Civil War paper shortage.
Theriot also shows students The Banner
of the Ironsides, a newspaper printed in
Thibodaux by Union forces on April 14,
1863. “We have two issues, the only two
in Louisiana,” he says, “although there are
one or two somewhere up North.” Students
are surprised to see the first Nicholls
catalog and its listing of the 1948 registration
fee of only $17.50.
When people give items to the
archives, they are asked to sign a formal
agreement before Nicholls accepts what
has historical value and declines inappropriate
items, such as museum objects. In
rare instances, exceptions will be made, as
in the case of Evangeline Baseball League
items like uniforms and mitts that accompanied
league photographs and records
dating from 1934 to 1957. Archives also
has a Civil War canon ball.
An ever-growing collection
Growth has created an “Archives II,” a
huge room on the other side of the building
housing mostly unprocessed items. An
assistant archivist was added to the staff
during the summer, primarily to process
collections according to professional
standards. The papers of former President
Donald Ayo await processing.
“Archives II” also contains the J.A.
and J.C. Lovell collection of historic field
notes, maps, abstracts and aerial photographs,
a boon to professional surveyors
interested primarily in Lafourche and
Terrebonne tracts. The collection, bought
by Louisiana Land & Exploration in 1962
and given to Nicholls in 1995, is stored in
enormous but shallow pull-out trays.
Some Nicholls collections have been
duplicated and shared with area libraries,
such as the genealogical papers of
Olga Laurent, a schoolteacher from the
river parishes, who gathered information
about many families along the River Road.
Original 1801 Engraving of Shakespeare’s “King Richard II”
Mathias also cites the popular collection of
Doris Mae Ledet of Thibodaux, “a premier
genealogist in this area, who allowed us to
make copies of much of her material.”
Nicholls archives began in 1964 when
the library moved from a few rooms in Elkins
Hall to Polk Hall. It expanded when
the Ellender building opened in 1980. In
addition to processing and maintaining
the collection, the staff stays busy responding
to requests, such as those of people
who planned the 2007 observance of
Lafourche Parish’s bicentennial.
Quirky Archives Finds
From an 1881 Lafourche Parish case involving stolen peas:
the charge sheet, the affidavit, the warrant, the subpoena,
the guilty judgment – and 22 peas in an evidence envelope.
18 | Voilà! 19 | Voilà!