The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 1, July 1897 - April, 1898 Page: 204
334 p. : ill., ports., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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204 Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
SIEUR LOUIS DE SAINT DENIS.
REV. EDMOND .J. P. SCHMITT.
One of the most striking figures on the stage of early Texas his-
tory, undoubtedly, is the Sieur Louis de Saint Denis, called Hu-
chereau de St. Denis for the first time by Yoakum in his History
of Texas.
The writer of these lines had for ten years been investigating
the career of the Sieur Louis Juchereau de St. Denis, the founder
of Poste Juchereau on the Wabash (or lower Ohio) river, when he
came across the aforementioned statement in Yoakum.
From the collation of documentary evidence I am led to believe
that the Sieur de St. Denis who plays such an important and inter-
esting part in early Texas history is confounded by the writers on
this topic with Juchereau de St. Denis; for, not once in all his cor-
respondence does the Texas St. Denis sign himself Juchereau (or
Huchereau), nor is there a single piece of documentary evidence
to bear out the assertion that he bore that name. For, though
Yoalkum, in his History of Texas, calls him Huchereau, and quotes
in evidence the Testimonio de un Parecer, from the Archives of
Bexar, the original document as reprinted in the Appendix calls
him Don Luis de San Denis.' All subsequent writers on the sub-
ject, such as French in his Historical Collections of Louisiana and
Florida, Sydney Lanier, H. S. Thrall, John H. Brown, have failed
to produce or quote any authority for the name of Huchereau.
When Anthony Crozat obtained the charter to farm the revenues
of the Pro.vince of Louisiana, he directed the newly ,appointed
Governor of the Province, Lamothe Cadillac, to establish a trade
with Mexico. To carry out these orders he selected Louis de St.
Denis, who had been an efficient officer in the French colonial
army, but having failed to receive any salary, had retired to his
plantation (of Ile St. Jean). Pursuant to the orders of Governor
Cadillac, St. Denis set out from Mobile to Natchitoches, where he1 H. Yoakum, History of Texas, pp. 47, 49, 390, Vol. I.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 1, July 1897 - April, 1898, periodical, 1897/1898; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101009/m1/226/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.