Breauxs together again
Family remembers city's female founder
By Ron Delhomme, Daily Advertiser,
8/8/99
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BREAUX BRIDGE - The smoke from Dan Breaux's barbecue pit
drifted into the branches of the oak tree he and his family were
sitting under in Parc Hardy. Alex Breaux and his extended family
were cooking gumbo under the pavilion.
Another was looking for a cold beer, because, cher, it was hot. She
settled for a glass of ice water - for the time being, she said.
Breauxs from all over the western hemisphere and Europe reunited
in Breaux Bridge this weekend for their largest gathering since the
deportation of Acadians in 1755. A Brow from Utah complained to a
Braud from Louisiana that he was fed up with people trying to put
an "n" at the end of his name.
"I'm a Brow, you're a Braud, and we pronounce it the same," he
said to a distant cousin he had just met, his western twang
mingling with Cajun and Acadian accents in the park.
Accompanying the Breaux family reunion during Congrès Mondial
Acadien was the Breaux Bridge Founder's Day Festival in honor of
Scholastique Picou Breaux. She founded Breaux Bridge in 1829
when she was just 33.
A wreath was placed at Scholastique's life-size bronze statue
Saturday morning in City Park.
Nicole Breault, a school principal from Neguac, New Brunswick,
was with her sisters Dorina Breault Holden and Christianne Breault
Jones, who both live in New Hampshire. All are fluent in French
and English and, except for their name tags, could have hailed
from the Bayou Teche country judging from their melodic accents
that swayed to and fro from French to English.
Richard Breault, the mayor of Neguac, New Brunswick, attended
the wreath-laying ceremony before Scholastique's statue, as did
Edgar LeGresley, a land developer from Dieppe, New Brunswick,
the sister city of Carencro.
Nicole explained the variations in the spelling of the Breaux
surname.
"Our ancestors came from France to Canada as military men," she
said. "They were made lieutenants by the king of France, hence the
'lt' at the end of our name."
Whatever, the reunion drew about 350 people by noon Saturday,
with more expected as activities extend through the weekend.
Shade was at a premium as the temperature hit 95 degrees in the
shade.
"Hey, cher, you know where Lake Charles is?" Dan Breaux asked
another cousin he'd just met. "It's west of Lake Ponpon - that's
where we live."
Everyone smiled and laughed, popped a few more cans of Coors
Light, and the cousins' shared sense of humor combined with a
camaraderie that only a family reunion could engender.
U.S. Sen. John Breaux, perhaps one of the most prominent Breauxs
and Cajuns in the country, was invited but did not attend. Neither
did he attend the dedication of the statue of his ancestor,
Scholastique Picou Breaux.
Nancy Tabb Marcantel performed for the Breauxs and the Founder's
Day crowd. A genealogy forum was presented at the library. Jim
Bradshaw - journalist, historian and bon vivant - spoke to an
audience of 150 people in the afternoon at City Hall.
"It's remarkable that there is a Cajun culture to be celebrated,"
Bradshaw said.
"There are myriad cultures in South Louisiana but it's the Cajun and
Creole that have become pervasive largely because of allegiance
to family and church." |
