By LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / June 19, 1999

The naming of Reserve is well-known, but the old story may not be entirely accurate.

According to the oft-told tale, salesman Leon Godchaux Sr. was turnedaway from a plantation house for lodging. He pledged he would return andbuy that plantation one day and told the owner, Antoine Boudesquie, to “reserve” it for him. In time, he did.Other sources indicate that Boudesquie already called his plantation “Reserve” before Godchaux ever came along.

Godchaux was born at Herbevile, France, on June 10, 1824. He came to NewOrleans in 1840 at the age of 16. Godchaux then talked his way into atraveling salesman job from Leopold Jonas and, carrying his goods in a backpack, hiked to Donaldsonville and back, earning $60 profit.

He opened a small store in Convent and, by 1844, he was able to establish the forerunner of Godchaux clothing store near the French Market in New Orleans. He married Jusine Lamm in 1854 and sired 10 children, sevenboys and three girls. In 1855, he established the large Godchaux store onCanal Street.

In 1860, he finally acquired the Boudesquie Plantation and built the Godchaux Sugar Refinery into the dominant industry in the area. Thebusiness, in one form or the other, continued into the mid-1990s.

On a side note, during a serious crevasse in 1893, Godchaux managed to close the levee-break and save the community of Reserve. Godchauxhimself died May 18, 1899.

The first post office was established in 1870 at the village then known as Bonnet Carre. The first postmaster was Charles Lasseigne Sr., who alsofounded the Le Meschacebe newspaper.

St. Peter Catholic Church was established in 1864 and Bonnet Carrebecame known as St. Peter. The name of the village finally became Reservein 1883 when a railroad station, first built behind the church, was moved to Reserve Plantation. It officially was changed because Bonnet Carre wasconfusing to people who already knew of Bonnet Carre Point, the area now known as Lucy.

Godchaux established Godchaux Sugar Refinery in 1883. The originalrefinery burned in 1918 in a major fire and immediately rebuilt. Remnantsof the later refinery still stand at Globalplex, though these remnants are soon to be demolished, while a local historical society is working to preserve the heritage at the Godchaux-Reserve House museum at the corner of West 10th and River Road.

In 1864, St. Peter Catholic Church was established by the Rev. Lacour toserve parishioners who previously had to go to services in Edgard. Theoriginal frame building burned in 1898, and a replacement was built in 1900.

The St. Peter train station was immediately behind the church and theClub Cafe fronted the levee nearby, where visiting “drummers,” or traveling salesmen, could hire a rig or find a room. Steps on the levee ledto the ferry.

Smaller communities since absorbed into Reserve include Surville Town (named for Surville Montz) in the lower part of town. It was soon calledSilver Town. Jacobtown was originally developed by D. Jacob. Kansas Townwas in the upper part of Reserve, named for the Kansas Store. To the rearof Kansas Town was, and is, Dutch Bayou. An African-American settlementcalled Rag Town was so named because of a local ragtime band which performed there. New Town is on part of the old Reserve Plantation.Cornland Place was named for the old Cornland Plantation.

One old-time landmark which lingers is the old Maurin Theater, now the St. John Community Theater. It had its origins in the Sugar Belt Club,established in 1897 to dodge local Sunday “blue laws.” The upper floorwas occupied by Louis Maurin’s Liberty Theater and the lower floor by the Liberty Restaurant.

In 1921, Godchaux Sugar built a clubhouse for employees and their families, which still stands on West 10th Street and widely known as the “Pink Building.” In its heyday, it included an auditorium and movie theater,pool room, library, gymnasium and refreshment room. Next to it was adance pavilion, tennis court and a baseball field. A fountain added in 1931now stands behind Godchaux Junior High School. The swimming pool acrossthe street was opened in May 1938.

The Belle Point Dairy was established in 1914 by Godchaux at Belle Point Plantation. Other businesses once included the St. Peter’s Bottling Works,a soft-drink factory, the St. Peter’s Drug Store and the People’s DrugStore. Other old-time stores included the Red Cross Store, the NewlandStore, the Live and Let Live Store, the Acorn Store, the Reserve and Star Store, the National Store and the Donaldson Drug Store.

The first private school in the Reserve area was established by Furatte Du Bois, Duke of Cascaronne, a member of French nobility who pioneered the teaching of phonics in Louisiana.

Leon Godchaux High School was opened in fall 1930 and cost $100,000 to build, with W.A. Sisemore as the first principal. Leon Godchaux GrammarSchool was built in 1908 as the original high school. It gained stateaccreditation in 1914 and served as thus until the new high school was built.

L’Observateur was founded in January 1913 by Wallace Lassaigne, son of Les Meschacebe’s founder, Charles Lassaigne. It began as a weekly and,after a move to LaPlace in the early 1970s and a change of format to twice-weekly, continues to inform the citizens of the River Parishes.

Shirley Terrio recalled her own early days in Reserve. The grand-niece ofWallace Lassaigne, she is the daughter of Effie Thibodeaux, 92, and the late Leelen Cassagne, once a local barber.

Her mother still wears a bonnet to protect her skin, as she’s done all her life. “We didn’t have all the skin creams and such.”She was born in Cornland, one of three girls, the others being Leatrice Keller and Leda Mae Madere. Shirley, now 73, says one of herearliestmemories is of when her home was moved because of the 1931 levee setback to Jacobtown while she was at school. “I lost my first tooththat same day!” she said.

Shirley remembers the social life of Reserve, from the dances to the Fourth of July fair, where other young people came from Lutcher and Norco. “It was the church and the school where the social life was.”At the water-cooled air-conditioned Maurin Theater (opened in 1932), along with the Gene Autry cowboy movies, were the vaudeville acts which would come to town, such as singer Rudy Vallee. There were sewingparties and card games, baseball and football, and swimming at the Godchaux pool.

“We’d sit on the top of the levee and study,” she said. “Very few peoplehad automobiles. You walked everywhere.”Shirley also recalls when The Airline Highway was built (two lanes only, at first), connecting New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Before then, thefamily’s twice-yearly treks to New Orleans were all-day affairs.

“It was a slower, quieter time then,” she said, except when politics was the topic of conversation. Politics have always been hot subjects offamily talk, as her grandfather, Pierre Cassagne, was a state representative with the Huey Long faction.

Shirley married Alton Terrio in 1945 and raised her family in Reserve.

Now, she’s an accomplished historian and genealogist, a subject which began to occupy her in 1966.

“There were no street lights and we never locked a door,” she concluded.

“It’s unfortunate that children today don’t have that freedom.”

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