La Reunion — Resolved Timeline
One dated spine of colony events. Each entry carries which witnesses attest it and where they diverge. The site's timeline page is parsed from the event spine; the reasoning behind each reading lives in the source dossiers and src/findings.md.
Conventions
- Date —
YYYY.MM.DD;??for unknown month/day (??sorts after known values). - Attestation — after the event,
[ … ]lists the attesting witnesses. Keys are the per-source folder names insrc/sources/(=REGISTER.mdrows):sceat-statutes,savardan,wolski,considerant-du-texas,burkli,colas,cordillot,sandell,santerre,pratt,beecher,hammond,kagay;brown1892/lewis1892= the officers lists and subscriber biographies in the 1892 Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County;dmn= a Dallas Morning News piece,doc/text/newspaper/frenchtown/; structured data =deeds.py,census1860. Optional locator: page⟨n⟩, deedvol/p. ‹key›— the witness this entry's date/wording follows (the lead).- plain
key— corroborates. key✗— attests a different value; see the↳divergence line.[cite?]— entry not yet sourced (step 6 closes these).- Divergence — a
↳sub-line states the conflict and the current adjudication (which reading is favoured and why). Open conflicts are taggedUNRESOLVED. - Other dated layers (reception/DMN, life-events) live in their own headed sections at the bottom, never interleaved with the event spine.
Migration note: this replaces the flat list. Old key
[naufrage]→savardan;[new_light.pdf]→wolski. Spine below is the seed; step 2 pours per-source extractions in against this schema. Poured so far: wolski, savardan, burkli, colas, hammond, santerre, sandell, kagay, considerant-du-texas, cordillot (per-source extraction files, eachsrc/sources/<key>/timeline.md).
Event spine
Genesis — Considérant's first Texas trip (1852–53)
From hammond and santerre, which independently narrate the site-selection trip (both retellings of Au Texas, so not fully independent of each other).
1852.11.28 - Considérant leaves Antwerp on his first US trip; sails Liverpool 12.01, lands New York ~12.14, winters ~6 weeks at the North American Phalanx, NJ [‹santerre VI›; hammond II] ↳ note: santerre 12.14 vs hammond "about two weeks" after 1 Dec — agree to within days.
1853.04.30 - Considérant and Brisbane leave the Great Lakes for Texas via Cincinnati, Little Rock and Fort Smith [‹hammond II›; santerre] ↳ corrob: santerre dates Fort Smith 05.19; they reach Fort Worth and Bryan's cabin, and Considérant fixes on the site ~3 mi W of Dallas.
1853.08.05 - Considérant and Brisbane reach New York on the return (Colorado, Austin, Galveston ~07.01, New Orleans, Havana) [‹hammond II›; santerre]
1853.08.29 - Considérant reaches Ostend — a nine-month trip [‹hammond II›; santerre]
Founding and recruitment (1854 – spring 1855)
From the Brussels act to the ships' landfall at New York and New Orleans.
1854.05.?? - Au Texas published — the recruiting instrument the SCEAT statutes (art. 1) name as the colony's purpose [‹hammond III› (Paris); santerre VI (Brussels, with the company articles)] ↳ note: place of publication diverges, Paris [hammond] vs Brussels [santerre]; both 1854.
1854.09.26 - SCEAT / EACS declared constituted at Brussels — Considérant, Bureau, Guillon, Godin-Lemaire; the act reprinted in hammond App. C [‹sceat-statutes›; hammond; santerre] ↳ diverge: cordillot✗ gives 1854.09.14, probably the agreement vs the act. Favour 09.26. UNRESOLVED. ↳ diverge: capital — hammond 5,250,000 fr vs santerre 5,400,000 fr (both = $1M). Defer to the statute text.
1854.10.03 - Cantagrel and Roger leave Brussels for America; met at New York by John Allen and Bourgeois [‹savardan ⟨377⟩›; hammond; santerre]
1854.10.27 - Cantagrel and Roger arrive New York, to go overland via Cincinnati [‹hammond V›]
1854.late - Cantagrel, with the surveyor Cousin and the dozen Frenchmen and Belgians already there, contracts the colony tracts from former Peters Colony owners: Horton 320, McCracken 640, Coombs 640, Griffin 320, Reed 160 ≈ 2,080 acres [‹santerre VI›] ↳ open: santerre is the source of the "≈2,080 acres"; check each survey against deeds.py (the Griffin/Reed discrepancy). UNRESOLVED.
1854.12.?? - Cantagrel reaches Dallas with funds and the Brussels committee's authorization [‹wolski ⟨277⟩›; burkli] ↳ cause: burkli's first letter from Cantagrel (~Dec 1854) — nearly all North Texas reserved by the legislature for a Pacific railroad company, so no state land was buyable; hence the costly private-farm purchases. ↳ diverge: hammond✗ has Cantagrel still en route in Feb 1855. Favour Dec 1854 (two contemporaries). UNRESOLVED.
1855.01.07 - James Knight conveys Considérant a league and labor (certificate 3169/3270), "probably the first land purchased," $100 / 320 acres [‹hammond App D / VI›] ↳ open: check against deeds.py (Considérant as grantee; the McLaughlin certificate chain).
1855.02.04 - Considérant arrives at New York on his second voyage, to a cascade of reverses — the costlier site, no American support, abolition-suspicion blocking a land grant, settlers already en route [‹cordillot RtF›]
1855.02.21 - the Uriel (from Antwerp, ~211 aboard) arrives at New York [‹manifest: doc/colonists/ships/uriel›]
1855.02.24 - the Lexington (from Le Havre, ~267 listed) arrives at New Orleans [‹manifest: doc/colonists/ships/lexington›]
1855.02.28 - Savardan's group (~45) embarks at Le Havre on the Nuremberg [‹savardan›; hammond; santerre] ↳ note: savardan's text prints "1853"; corrected to 1855 from ch. II. ↳ note: hammond's chain (Azores 12 Mar → New Orleans → Galveston 5 May → Réunion 16 June) is second-hand from Savardan and inherits his 06.16 arrival misdate (see 1855.07.17).
1855.03.16 - L.G. Coombs receives his land patent [‹pratt›] ↳ open: the Coombs→Cantagrel transfer is not yet in the deeds. UNRESOLVED.
1855.04.01 - Raisant arrives; ~24 persons present (1 woman, 2 youths, 2 children) [‹pratt›]
1855.04.12 - Bürkli's group (27 Swiss) said to sail from Bremen [‹beecher›; considerant-du-texas; burkli✗; wolski✗] ↳ RESOLVED by the Franziska manifest (1855.07.04): Bremen 13 May → Galveston 4 July — beecher a month early, burkli's "arrived July" confirmed; wolski's ~Nov Swiss may be a second wave.
1855.04.21 - the Nuremberg arrives at New Orleans [‹manifest: doc/colonists/ships/nuremberg›; savardan; hammond; santerre]
The colony (May 1855 – July 1856)
The parties arrive, the Société de Réunion is constituted, the ~130 peak, the sickness, the reimbursement-in-kind exodus, the lawsuits, and the winter that followed.
1855.05.03 - Cousin, Wolski et al. reach Réunion after a 32-day march from Houston; one house ready, a second begun [‹wolski ⟨276–280⟩›]
1855.05.07 - the National Intelligencer reports ~40 French emigrants passing Anderson for Dallas; Considérant "proposed to introduce about two thousand this year" [‹hammond V›]
1855.05.16 - Cantagrel reports 51 persons at Réunion [‹pratt p158›] ↳ RESOLVED: no conflict with the ~24 of 04.01 — the jump is the 05.03 arrival; colonists.py reproduces both waypoints.
1855.05.17 - 51⅛ acres bought near Houston as a way-station for incoming colonists [‹hammond VI›] ↳ note: same day savardan ⟨796⟩ has Considérant leaving Houston ahead of the convoy — distinct events.
1855.06.15 - Considérant et al. arrive at Réunion [‹wolski›] ↳ note: Wolski's diary implies ~06.17 ⟨290⟩; a two-day spread.
1855.07.04 - the Franziska (Bürkli's ~31 Swiss from Bremen — Bürkli, Baer, Boll, Long, Frick, Knœpfli, Studer, the Nägelis) lands at Galveston; Nussbaumer not aboard [‹manifest: doc/colonists/ships/franziska›; burkli; cordillot✗] ↳ corrects: cordillot's "embarked 12 April / arrived Réunion 5 July" — 4 July is the Galveston landing; the colony was reached weeks later.
1855.07.17 - Savardan's group (~75) reach Réunion via Houston [‹wolski ⟨298⟩›; cordillot] ↳ diverge: savardan✗ self-dates 06.16, copied by hammond✗. Favour 07.17 (Wolski's 20 July entry + cordillot's explicit correction). RESOLVED.
1855.08.07 - Société de Réunion constituted in Texas to operate the domaine — Cantagrel directeur; Cousin, Savardan, Bürkli on the conseil; Savardan secretary-treasurer; capital 600,000 $ in 4,800 shares; art. 48 reimbursement-in-kind [‹savardan ⟨182, 1707–1741⟩›; cordillot] ↳ note: the statute text survives only via savardan/cordillot; the withheld "reserved parts" become the pivot of the dissolution fight.
1855.08.?? - ~130 persons at Réunion, the peak — never the ~300 of the hostile press [‹wolski ⟨303⟩›; burkli ⟨I⟩; colas; hammond] ↳ RESOLVED by triple attestation; hammond's "no more than three hundred" is consistent.
1855.08.?? - sickness peak: the spring dry, "6 dead in 15 days" (Vezian, Ruppert named); savardan's register 228 patients, 5 lost [‹wolski ⟨300–302⟩›; savardan ⟨1104⟩; colas✗] ↳ diverge: colas✗ (1 Sept) calls the high ground healthy and pins fever on Dallas; both agree on the drought. UNRESOLVED — the disagreement is the finding.
1855.~10 - share-reimbursement in kind begins under art. 48: Leguay recovers 10,000 fr in land and livestock; Goodseels (~30,000 fr) demands his and founds "Louvain" at Montagne Creek (Jan 1856) [‹wolski ⟨304–305⟩›; colas; savardan]
1855.late - ~30 of the best workers leave for wage work, ~20 wage suits pending in Dallas, and the dozen expelled "anarchists" found "Mutuelle" on the Fort Worth road [‹colas›]
1855.10–11 - District Court suits against Considérant — Ross (No. 308, 10.26), Comé (309, 11.01), Priot (310, 11.05), Bowie (311, 11.10), Despard (312, 11.10) — unpaid contractors and carters over bills topping $1,400; the colony pleads the debt belongs to the Belgian board [‹kagay n55›] ↳ corrob: these specify colas's "~20 wage-lawsuits"; related land-division suits ran to 1890.
1855.12.?? - Considérant petitions the Texas legislature for a land grant (~200 sections); all vacant north-Texas land is taken or "reserved to the Pacific Railroad Company" [‹hammond IV›] ↳ corrob: the same squeeze burkli dates to Dec 1854.
1855.12.31 - end of SCEAT's first financial year [‹sceat-statutes›]
1856.03.24 - Considérant returns after ~5 months in the south-west (Austin, San Antonio) to a community "on the brink of disaster" [‹cordillot RtF›; hammond]
1856.04.?? - the built colony at its peak: soap and candle works, laundry, offices, kitchen, grocery, forge, the Executive Agent's cottage, two 8-apartment dormitories begun [‹hammond VI›]
1856.05.early - a late freeze: rivers frozen, hay crop and gardens destroyed; little of the replanting survives the summer [‹cordillot RtF›; santerre X; considerant-du-texas] ↳ RESOLVED: a real event on three witnesses — distinct from the 1855–56 Northers and the Jan 1857 cold.
1856.05.07 - a deliberation restores the associative centre and administrative unity; Cantagrel withdraws his resignation [‹savardan ⟨2893⟩›]
1856.05.10 - the by-portion restaurant replaces the communist mess [‹savardan ⟨3066⟩›; hammond VI]
1856.07.06 - Cantagrel resigns the directorship for good; Savardan resigns as councillor, secretary and cashier; Duthoya acting director [‹savardan ⟨2937–2965⟩›; cordillot]
Dissolution (July 1856 – 1859)
From Considérant's flight to the receivership — the corporate end. Led by ‹savardan›, the administrative insider; the outcome independently confirmed by burkli.
1856.07.08 - Considérant's flight — gone at dawn with Cousin, the day fixed to sign the reserved-parts settlement; never seen at Réunion again [‹savardan ⟨2975⟩›; hammond✗; considerant-du-texas✗] ↳ diverge: hammond✗ dates it 07.07, collapsing the 07.07 agreement and the 07.08 flight. Favour 07.08. ↳ diverge: considerant-du-texas✗ recasts it as an illness-driven withdrawal — undated, no mention of the payment due.
1856.07.19 - the legislature's Committee on Public Lands reports against the land grant but recommends incorporation [‹hammond IV›]
1856.08.03 - Cantagrel leaves Réunion with his family [‹savardan ⟨3080⟩›]
1856.09.01 - Texas incorporates the European and American Colonization Society (Ch. CCCX; 20 years; capital ≤ $1M; shareholders liable as general partners) — House 08.16, Senate 08.29 on Bryan's reconsideration [‹hammond IV / App C›; sandell II; kagay n44] ↳ note: a domestic charter distinct from the Brussels act of 1854.09.26 — the "Sept 1 1856" of santerre's plat caption; kagay n44 pins Bill 767 (29 Jul 1856).
1857.01.17 - Bureau arrives to take over, at 15° below zero, already overwhelmed after 48 h with Considérant at San Antonio [‹savardan ⟨3122⟩›; hammond]
1857.01.28 - a notice signed Bureau declares the Société de Réunion dissolved; statutes arts. 7 and 18 violated [‹savardan ⟨3262⟩›] ↳ diverge: the management's bulletin dates the dissolution 5 May 1857 ⟨63⟩. Note both.
1857.02.15 - Cousin arrives and takes control of Bureau; Feb–Apr he liquidates — the "town of Réunion" plan, land sold at 10–20 $/acre while the bulletin advertised "4 $ at most" [‹savardan ⟨3336, 3559, 3759⟩›; considerant-du-texas✗] ↳ diverge: considerant-du-texas✗ has Cousin as "the only man who could conjure away the final disaster." Executioner vs saviour.
1857.04.06 - Cousin returns from Dallas holding Considérant's powers of attorney; the liquidation is complete [‹savardan ⟨3649⟩›] ↳ diverge: the loss — burkli ⟨II⟩ Fr. 120,000 of ~2 million invested vs savardan ⟨68⟩ ~1,800,000 fr "swallowed up." UNRESOLVED.
1857.07.16 - the Dallas court inquires into the colony's administration; Simonin sent from New York to audit 200+ accounts [‹hammond VII›] ↳ open: savardan ⟨2677⟩ has Simonin's audit ending 23 May 1856 — possibly an earlier audit. Reconcile.
1857.08.06 - Considérant signs Du Texas at San Antonio, telling the shareholders the affairs are "resurrected" [‹considerant-du-texas›] ↳ note: Savardan's Naufrage (1858) is the page-by-page rebuttal — see considerant_savardan_correspondence.md.
1857.fall - the shareholders, two years without dividends, meet at Brussels and ask for a receiver [‹santerre XI›]
1857.~autumn - Savardan leaves Réunion; the "Nuremberg" building becomes the colony store [‹savardan ⟨924, 3551⟩›] ↳ note: burkli ⟨II⟩ confirms the outcome — Considérant bought the West-Texas tract, refused further funds, dissolved the East-Texas provisorium.
1857.10.15 - the first colonist town lot from Sarah Cockrell: Ferdinand Michel, 3½ acres (Vol. G p. 2) — the move into Dallas begins in the deed record [‹sandell III›; deeds.py]
1858.01.06 - an amendatory Texas act (Ch. 32) limits shareholder liability to capital subscribed [‹hammond App C›]
1858.?? - receivership: Michel Thévenet and Alexandre Bessard appointed to liquidate; stockholding colonists take land at $4/acre — Reverchon, Crétien, Gouffé, DeLord, Rémond, Loupot, Santerre, J.P. Henri [‹santerre XI›; sandell II; cordillot✗] ↳ RESOLVED: sandell independently attests the receivers and the same eight buyers. ↳ diverge: mechanism — savardan's Cousin sales at 10–20 $/acre (1857) vs sandell's Thévenet sales at 12½¢/$ through Gaston & Thomas under Cantagrel (c.1860). Read as successive phases; a deed-record question. UNRESOLVED. ↳ diverge: cordillot✗ omits Thévenet and has Bessard appointed after Bureau's death (1859), asked in 1861 to sell the remainder and repatriate the money.
1858.02.17 - Cockrell to P.P. Frichot, 2 acres (G/313) [‹sandell III›; deeds.py]
1859.?? - the county tax roll: eleven colonists own rural land — P.P. Frichot 266 acres, the Goetseels 86 and 86, Bessard 78⅞, Farine 160, the Reverchons 50, Nussbaumer 34, Boll and his father 13 and 149; the townsite has a blacksmith, a mechanic's shop, a store, a hotel, a bootmaker and a tailor [‹sandell II/III›; deeds.py]
1859.06.27 - Cockrell to Michel again, 2¾ acres (F/664) [‹sandell III›; deeds.py]
1859.10.31 - Bureau dies at Kellum Springs, of cholera contracted at Houston on a buying trip for the colony store; his family returns to France [‹cordillot›]
1859.11.01 - Considérant takes title in his own name to Griffin and S.M. Williams tracts (J/111, K/174; recorded 1866–67) [‹deeds.py›]
Fire and war (1860–1865)
1860.?? - the receivers sell colony assets at 12½ cents on the dollar through the Gaston & Thomas bank (J.B. Adoué agent), under Cantagrel's direction [‹sandell III›] ↳ diverge: savardan has Cousin selling at 10–20 $/acre in 1857 — successive phases, or the same sales twice told; a deed-record question. UNRESOLVED.
1860.07.18 - the Dallas fire burns the south and west sides of the square; the rebuild pulls the colonists into the city as its building workforce (Crétien, the Frichots' brick business) [‹sandell III›] ↳ note: no colonist business is on the burned list; the significance is demand — sandell's George-Crétien interview supplies the link.
1860.summer - the federal census: Dallas County 8,665 (821 enslaved), the town about 2,000; 173 foreign-born, most of them ex-colonists, 63% of their household heads in a trade; the Réunion-area run at Palace Hill, 46 households, ends just before Jean Priot [‹census1860›; sandell III]
1861.?? - Lanotte runs the colony store until the war; Nussbaumer buys the communal stove for his Dallas abattoir; Capy rents the forge [‹santerre›; sandell II]
1861.?? - the Civil War begins; the company dissolved, the un-naturalized colonists take a neutral stand under a general exemption (Girard wounded; Capt. Cochran parleys) [‹santerre XI/XII›; sandell IV; kagay] ↳ note: the receivers' last sales are taken in Confederate money; Bessard carries it to Belgium, where the shareholders refuse it and pursue colonists' European property. ↳ note: the enlistments follow below; the full register is src/colonists/offices.py.
1861.11.11 - Cockrell to Charles Capy, 1 acre (L/519); Capy had moved into the city in 1860 and married Nativa Charpentier that year [‹sandell III›; lewis1892]
1862.01 - Henri Boll enlists — the commissary department, sent back for cattle in the spring, Burford's regiment to January 1863, then Post Waco to the end; Achille Frichot joins Co. B, 19th Texas Cavalry the same year [‹santerre XII›; lewis1892]
1862.05.16 - 25 colonists petition the Governor for reimbursement of firearms seized by Darnell's Regiment [‹sandell IV›] ↳ diverge: Sandell's text says 16 May; her footnote to the document (TSA box 301-40, no. 21) says 16 March 1862. The 25 signatures are not in any source held here.
1862.?? - Goetsels moves from Mountain Creek into Dallas with several Belgians — the end of Louvain [‹sandell III›]
1863.03.21 - Émile Rémond volunteers: Co. B, 19th Texas Cavalry, then Pratt's Battery as colour-bearer; Louckx enlists in Co. F, Waller's Battalion the same year, for two years [‹cordillot›; santerre XII; lewis1892]
1863.?? - Cantagrel returns to Europe [‹santerre XI›]
1863.?? - the six-month state levy: Pierre-Philippe and Christophe-Désiré Frichot in Co. H, 3rd Texas Infantry State Troops (1863–64); Louis Reinhardt in Good's Dallas Light Artillery, state troops; Charles and Alfred Voirin and Julius Royer already in Darnell's 18th Texas Cavalry [‹nps›] ↳ note: none of this is in a narrative source; from the NARA M227 name index via nps.gov.
1864.?? - Joseph Charpentier, shoemaker, killed at the old Trinity ford by renegades — the war's one colonist death by violence [‹sandell II/IV›; lewis1892] ↳ note: Capy's 1892 sketch dates his father-in-law's death 1864; Sandell only "during the war."
1864.07.24 - Julien Reverchon marries Marie Henri, Paul Henri's daughter [‹lewis1892›]
1865.?? - Confederate defeat; La Réunion "little more than a ghost town" of scattered farms; within a few years ex-colonists hold Dallas property assessed at ~$37,000 [‹kagay›; sandell]
Reconstruction — the colonists at city hall (1866–1871)
1866.?? - the Santerres move into the big house on the land from the liquidation, at today's Colorado and Westmoreland [‹cordillot›]; Dominique Boulay leaves for Louisiana, to farm there until 1882 [lewis1892]
1866.07.25 - Cockrell to A.J. Gouffré, 8 acres (J/300); December 17, to Michel, 1½ acres (J/428) [‹sandell III›; deeds.py]
1867.03.02 - First Reconstruction Act; military appointees displace ex-Confederate officials and ex-colonists (none ever slaveholders) are appointed across Dallas government — Gouffré* county Treasurer (11.1867), Long* (06.1868), Thévenet* (11.1868) [‹sandell IV›; kagay]
1867.?? - Louckx returns to Dallas from Fort Worth and marries Mary Desmet, the colony doctor's daughter, at Weatherford; the Swiss begin arriving again ahead of Long's trip — Henry Noetzli (1867), Rosina Getzer (1867) [‹lewis1892›]
1868.06.02 - Ben Long appointed District Clerk of the county, superseding Spillman [‹brown1892›; sandell IV]
1868.06.04 - the memorial for a Trinity-navigation tax is signed by the colony's Dallas men — Long first, Thévenet, the Bolls, J.F. and Alexius Barbier, Louckx, Gouffé, the Van Grinderbecks, Frick, Julien Reverchon, Priot, Poitevin, Nussbaumer — and by an "F. L. Churignon" [‹brown1892›] ↳ note: Churignon is very probably Thuvignon, Willemet's real name, in print; the manuscript would settle it (src/findings.md).
1868.09.?? - Gen. Reynolds appoints the city slate: Mayor Ben Long, Marshal John F. Barbier, Asst Marshal Alexis Barbier*, Treasurer Gouffré*, Alderman Boll* (resigns at the first meeting, not a resident; eventually John Loupot*) [‹sandell IV›; kagay n76]
1868.fall - Michel Thévenet* appointed District Clerk, following Long [‹brown1892›; sandell IV]
1868.12–1869.02 - Nussbaumer* contracts and completes the grading of Main Street ($250) — the colonist council's first public work [‹sandell IV›]
1869.10.04 - Jean Loupot* marries Rosina Getzer; four years keeping a bar and bakery in Dallas and building, the Odd Fellows' Hall (1872) among the buildings [‹lewis1892›]
1870.04.01 - Mayor Long* resigns to visit Europe and Henry S. Ervay is appointed; Long returns with ~35 Swiss settlers, the second wave that builds East Dallas [‹brown1892›; sandell IV] ↳ diverge: sandell has the trip announced 4 Apr 1870 with Ervay pro tem, and its own dates conflict — 1869 [V], 1870 [IV], 1870–71 [II]. Fretz, one of the party, dates its arrival 3 Dec 1870, 27 people [dmn 1924.11.23]. Favour 1870 trip, return December 1870. RESOLVED.
1870.11.19 - F.L. Willemet* joins the council; over 1870–73 the colonist council lays out east-side streets (Barbier St, 1871.02.15) and picks the city burial ground [‹sandell IV›]
1871.03–04 - the council selects 9 acres of Nussbaumer* land (Jefferson Peak Addition) for the H&TC depot, voters approving 167–11 ($14,650); Boll* City Treasurer (05.01) [‹sandell IV›] ↳ diverge: Boll's own 1892 sketch has him "elected City and County Treasurer" in 1869, for three or four years [lewis1892✗].
The railroad city (1872–1875)
1872.07.16 - the Houston & Texas Central reaches Dallas (pop. ~3,000 → ~7,000; Nussbaumer* donated the station land); 725 buildings rise in 1873 [‹sandell III/IV›; santerre]
1872.11.05–08 - first election under Reconstruction: Long* elected mayor 348–246; Capy* (1st Ward) and Thévenet* (3rd Ward) aldermen; Boll* Treasurer on Long's casting vote [‹sandell IV›; kagay n77]
1873.?? - the colonist council's boom-town year: ordinances published (06.15), a Pest House against smallpox (02.13), the hospital-ladies commendation that seeds Parkland (02.25); then a charter dispute with Austin drives 7 of 8 councilmen (Capy*, Thévenet*) to resign [‹sandell IV›]
1874.04.08 - W.L. Cabell defeats Long* for mayor; city hall passes to the railroad-era newcomers [‹sandell IV›]
1875.?? - Cantagrel authorized to sell the last colony assets [‹sandell II›]; Willemet* elected alderman, Ward 1 (04.10), the last colonist on the council until 1885 [sandell IV] ↳ diverge: sandell II has Willemet on council 1870–75 continuously, sandell IV a gap then the 1875 election; findings.md gives the 1875–76 seat to Capy*. UNRESOLVED — check the minute.
1875.12.31 - SCEAT charter duration concludes [‹sceat-statutes›] ↳ diverge: hammond's reprint says 31 Dec 1874; the Texas act runs 20 years to 1876. Two charters, two durations.
Afterlives (1879–1901)
1879.?? - Rémond returns from Hutchins to his Dallas property and resumes the clay and soil analysis that seeds the cement industry [‹sandell III›]
1884–1885 - Louckx* on the first Dallas school board (1884) and alderman, Ward 1 (1885–90); Louckx builds Sacred Heart, Knopfli & Sons raise "the first skyscraper" (Poydras & Main), Priot* builds the brick post office [‹sandell III/IV›]
1889.05.12 - Mayor Connor presents Boll* a testimonial signed by 130 citizens [‹sandell II›]
1893.12.27 - Victor Considérant dies in France [‹santerre›; kagay]
1901.?? - the Texas Portland Cement Co. organized (James T. Taylor et al.) on Rémond's research; the chalk under the townsite becomes the cement industry [‹sandell III›; dmn✗] ↳ diverge: the company was already drilling a well "four miles from the city" in April 1900 and taking Fuqua's Laughlin and Coombs tracts in July 1900 [dmn 1900.04.05, 1900.07.01] — organized by 1900, not 1901.
Other dated layers
Registers kept distinct from the event spine: press (hammond), life-events and attrition (santerre), property tables and civic firsts (sandell), the afterlife run (kagay), the political dispersal (cordillot). GEDCOM life-events still to add.
Reception / press (contemporary Texas + national)
From hammond Ch. IV–V, drawn from the papers themselves.
1855.02.10 - Texas State Gazette: the Alsace socialists "about to emigrate en masse" to
Considérant's purchased land [hammond V]
1855.02.17 - Texas State Gazette anti-socialist editorial ("as a political sect, our whole
people are against them") [hammond IV]
1855.05.07 - National Intelligencer reports ~40 emigrants through Anderson (also a spine
entry, as an in-transit tally) [hammond V]
1855.06.02 - Texas State Gazette, "The Socialist in Texas" [hammond IV]
1855.10.13 - State Gazette on the colonists' anti-slavery sentiment [hammond IV]
Favourable: Dallas Herald, Northern Standard, Galveston News, New York Tribune. Hostile: Texas State Times, Austin State Gazette, Washington Sentinel.
Life-events (births/deaths, war service)
From santerre XIII (cemetery) and XII (war service); check against src/ged/santerre.ged.
# Cemetery birth–death pairs (Fishtrap Cemetery), santerre XIII
Julien Reverchon 1836–1905 Marie Reverchon 1842–1901
Michel J. Reverchon 1865–1888 Adelaide Henri 1817–1858
Margaret Henri 1823–1857 Emile Rémond 1840–1906
Césarine Rémond 1839–1923 François Santerre 1809–1889
Marie Santerre 1816–1892 Emanuel Santerre 1850–1939
Germaine Santerre 1848–1932
# + unmarked: Josephine Cantagrel (the Director's young daughter), Appollinaire Santerre
# (François's eldest son); Père Lagogue named among the first buried.
# hammond V: J. Maximilien Reverchon 1810 (Lyon)–1879 (Dallas); Jacques Reverchon 1746–1829.
# Civil-War enlistments, santerre XII (year + unit)
1862.01 - Henri Boll — commissary dept under Col. Buford → Post Waco; returns to Dallas
1862 - Achille Frichot — 19th Texas Cavalry, Co. B (Nat G. Burford); Corporal that year
1863 - Emile Rémond — Co. B 19th Texas Cavalry → Pratt's Battery; POW at Saline KS, escapes
? - J.B. Louckx (Co. F, Waller's Battalion, 2 yrs) · Paul Henri (arms factory) ·
Maxime Guillot (Army wagons) · Jean Priot (wagon supply trains, quartermaster)
# Principals' deaths / departures
1863.?? - Cantagrel returns to Europe [santerre XI] (also in spine)
1893.12.27 - Victor Considérant dies [santerre XI; kagay] (also in spine)
1906.?? - Émile Rémond dies [santerre XIII]
Life-events from the family trees, 1854–1925 (GEDCOM; tree-asserted)
Generated by src/ged/events.py from src/ged/santerre.ged and src/ged/reverchon.ged — the Santerre and Reverchon–Henri trees as their descendants keep them. Every line is a tree assertion with no source behind it but the tree; agreement with a record above (the cemetery, the census, Cordillot) is corroboration, disagreement a flag. Dates as the tree gives them (~ = about). Regenerate and re-paste when a tree changes.
1854.~ - Robert Santerre born, France [gedcom:santerre] 1855.02.13 - Marie Florence "Asia" Henry born, Asia Steamship in route from France to USA [gedcom:reverchon] 1856.?? - Victoria Lanotte born, Indiana, United States [gedcom:santerre] 1857.05.20 - Nancy Dunaca Nannie Knox born, Rocheport, Boone, Missouri, United States [gedcom:reverchon] 1857.06.17 - Gustave Santerre born, La Reunion, Dallas, Texas, USA [gedcom:santerre] 1858.08.08 - Jacques Henry dies, Chatellerault, Vienne, Poitou-Charentes, France [gedcom:reverchon] 1858.08.26 - Adélaide Florence Dehogues dies, Dallas County, Texas, USA [gedcom:reverchon] 1858.?? - Jennie Marie Guiot born, Reunion Colony, near Dallas, Texas [gedcom:santerre] 1862.05.19 - Andrew Jack Scott marries Mary Elizabeth Penny, Nebraska, USA [gedcom:santerre] 1862.10.30 - Robert M Freeman born, Arkansas, USA [gedcom:reverchon] 1863.?? - Mary Elizabeth Penny dies, Nebraska, USA [gedcom:santerre] 1864.09.27 - Riela Scott born, Nebraska, United States of America [gedcom:santerre] 1864.?? - Julien Reverchon marries Marie Aude Adelaide Henry [gedcom:reverchon] 1865.05.31 - Michel J. Reverchon born, Dallas County, Texas, United States of America [gedcom:reverchon] 1865.07.28 - Emile Remond marries Cesarine Santerre, La Reunion, Dallas County, TX [gedcom:santerre] 1865.08.02 - Ernestine Cornetet born, Texas, United States of America [gedcom:santerre] 1865.?? - Ernestine Priot born [gedcom:santerre] 1866.?? - Appolinarie Santerre dies, Dallas, Texas, USA [gedcom:santerre] 1867.03.04 - Jacques Guiot dies, Crowley Prairie, Texas [gedcom:santerre] 1867.04.28 - Maximilien Paul Reverchon born, Dallas County, Texas, United States of America [gedcom:reverchon] 1868.~ - George Freeman born, Texas [gedcom:reverchon] 1869.01.26 - Andrew Jack Scott marries Emma B. Scott, Nebraska, USA [gedcom:santerre] 1869.02.07 - Paul Anthony Reverchon, M.D. marries Florestine Marie Pauline Menereul, Quimper, Finistère, Bretagne, France [gedcom:reverchon] 1869.?? - Joseph Paul Henry marries Margaret, Lancaster, Texas [gedcom:reverchon] 1870.~ - Andrew J. Freeman born, Texas [gedcom:reverchon] 1870.~ - Andy Scott born, Texas [gedcom:santerre] 1871.10.31 - Fleury Paul Caillet born, Dallas, Texas [gedcom:reverchon] 1871.11.11 - Rosa Loupot born, Dallas [gedcom:santerre] 1871.?? - George Caillet marries Eugenie Reverchon [gedcom:reverchon] 1872.~ - Katie Freeman born, Texas [gedcom:reverchon] 1873.09.01 - Jean Joseph Girard marries Louise Reverchon, Dallas, Texas, USA [gedcom:reverchon] 1873.~ - Minnie Scott born, Texas [gedcom:santerre] 1874.12.21 - Germain Santerre marries Jennie Marie Guiot, Dallas County, TX [gedcom:santerre] 1875.06.01 - Paul Girard born, Dallas County, Texas, United States of America [gedcom:reverchon] 1875.11.25 - Emanuel Santerre marries Victoria Lanotte, , Dallas, Texas, USA [gedcom:santerre] 1875.12.05 - Emile Santerre born, Dallas, Texas [gedcom:santerre] 1875.?? - Elizabeth J. Caillet born, Dallas, Texas, USA [gedcom:reverchon] 1875.~ - Annie L Freeman born, Arkansas [gedcom:reverchon] 1876.05.?? - Rene Paul Henry Sr marries Nancy Dunaca Nannie Knox, Lancaster, Texas [gedcom:reverchon] 1876.09.04 - Delphine Ernestine "Della" Santerre born, , Dallas, Texas, USA [gedcom:santerre] 1876.~ - Laura Caillet born, Illinois [gedcom:reverchon] 1877.03.14 - Stella Florence Henry born, Lancaster, Dallas, Texas, United States [gedcom:reverchon] 1877.05.01 - George King Caillet born, Texas, United States [gedcom:reverchon] 1878.10.06 - Paul Henry Lloyd born, Texas, United States of America [gedcom:reverchon] 1878.?? - Henry Benjamin Lloyd marries Marie Florence "Asia" Henry [gedcom:reverchon] 1878.~ - Peter Santerre born, Texas [gedcom:santerre] 1879.05.?? - Mary C Henry born, Texas, United States [gedcom:reverchon] 1879.~ - Refia Santarre born, Texas [gedcom:santerre] 1879.08.?? - Jacques Maximilien Reverchon dies, Oak Cliff, Dallas, Texas [gedcom:reverchon] 1879.~ - Ida Scott born, Texas [gedcom:santerre] 1880.10.?? - Wallace Lloyd born, Texas, USA [gedcom:reverchon] 1880.?? - Emma Scott born, Eagle Ford, Dallas County, Texas, USA [gedcom:santerre] 1880.~ - Paul Santerre born, Texas [gedcom:santerre] 1881.08.15 - Leona Cecilia Santerre born, Irving, Dallas County, Texas, United States of America [gedcom:santerre] 1881.11.19 - Paul W Henry born, Texas [gedcom:reverchon] 1882.07.?? - Maras Lloyd born, Texas, USA [gedcom:reverchon] 1882.12.20 - Emanuel Santerre marries Riela Scott, Dallas, Texas, USA [gedcom:santerre] 1883.05.?? - Eugenie "Kitty" Caillet born, Dallas, Texas, USA [gedcom:reverchon] 1884.02.?? - Jennie M Henry born, Texas, United States [gedcom:reverchon] 1884.06.22 - Michel J. Reverchon dies, Texas, USA [gedcom:reverchon] 1884.12.09 - Maximilien Paul Reverchon dies, Dallas County, Texas, United States of America [gedcom:reverchon] 1884.~ - Gussie Santerre born, Texas [gedcom:santerre] 1885.03.23 - Adelaide Lloyd born, Texas, United States of America [gedcom:reverchon] 1885.04.30 - Emma B. Scott dies, Eagle Ford, Dallas County, Texas, USA [gedcom:santerre] 1886.09.05 - Leontine L Santerre born, Dallas, Texas, USA [gedcom:santerre] 1886.09.?? - Rina Lloyd born, Texas, USA [gedcom:reverchon] 1886.11.20 - Infant Son Henry born [gedcom:reverchon] 1887.05.09 - Margaret dies, Dallas County, Texas, USA [gedcom:reverchon] 1888.01.?? - Emma Santerre born, Texas, USA [gedcom:santerre] 1888.04.11 - Infant Son Henry dies [gedcom:reverchon] 1888.11.?? - Asia Loyd born, Texas, USA [gedcom:reverchon] 1889.01.24 - Georges Henry Santerre born, Dallas, Dallas County, Texas, United States of America [gedcom:santerre] 1889.08.?? - Rene Paul Henry Jr born, Texas, United States [gedcom:reverchon] 1889.12.09 - Francois Santerre dies, Colorado Blvd & Westmoreland, Dallas, Dallas County, Texas; burial: Fishtrap Cemetery [gedcom:santerre] 1889.12.22 - Joseph Paul Henry Jr. dies, Lancaster, Dallas County, Texas, USA [gedcom:reverchon] 1889.12.?? - Maude Santarre born, Texas, USA [gedcom:santerre] 1890.01.13 - Jean Joseph Girard dies, Dallas, Texas, USA [gedcom:reverchon] 1890.12.18 - Joseph Paul Henry dies, Lancaster, Dallas County, Texas, USA [gedcom:reverchon] 1891.02.06 - B Catherine Lloyd born, Ferris, Texas [gedcom:reverchon] 1891.10.08 - Victoria Lanotte dies, Irving, Dallas, Texas, United States [gedcom:santerre] 1892.01.01 - George Santerre born, Dallas County, Texas, USA [gedcom:santerre] 1892.02.02 - Marie Catherine Launay dies, , Dallas, Texas, USA [gedcom:santerre] 1892.02.10 - Joseph Knox Henry born, Texas [gedcom:reverchon] 1892.05.10 - Eugenie Reverchon dies, Dallas County, Texas, USA [gedcom:reverchon] 1892.12.25 - Roland K. Lloyd born, Texas, USA [gedcom:reverchon] 1893.08.18 - Raphael Santerre dies, Dallas, Texas, USA [gedcom:santerre] 1894.02.26 - Gustave Santerre marries Rosa Loupot, Dallas, Texas, USA [gedcom:santerre] 1894.09.30 - Julian Lemonde Henry Sr born, Lancaster, Dallas, Texas, USA [gedcom:reverchon] 1894.~ - Delia Gerard born, Kentucky [gedcom:reverchon] 1895.12.?? - Totty Santara born, Texas, USA [gedcom:santerre] 1896.~ - John R Santerre born, Texas [gedcom:santerre] 1897.11.07 - Laurence L Henry born, Texas, United States [gedcom:reverchon] 1898.07.?? - Annie Santerre born, Texas, USA [gedcom:santerre] 1898.12.02 - Pearl Marie Santerre born, Texas [gedcom:santerre] 1900.01.03 - Enid Frances Lewis born, New Orleans, Orleans, Louisiana, USA [gedcom:santerre] 1900.?? - Fleury Paul Caillet marries Laura Caillet [gedcom:reverchon] 1900.~ - May Santerre born, Missouri [gedcom:santerre] 1901.09.08 - Florestine Marie Pauline Menereul dies, Quimper, Finistère, Bretagne, France [gedcom:reverchon] 1901.11.26 - Marie Aude Adelaide Henry dies, Dallas County, Texas, United States of America [gedcom:reverchon] 1901.?? - Helen E Henry born, Lancaster, Dallas, Texas, United States [gedcom:reverchon] 1901.?? - Inez Sonterre born, Texas [gedcom:santerre] 1902.08.18 - Andrew Jack Scott dies, Dallas, Dallas, Texas, USA [gedcom:santerre] 1902.~ - Louise Caillet born, Texas [gedcom:reverchon] 1902.~ - Mcleo Santerre born, Texas [gedcom:santerre] 1904.~ - Shirly Caillet born, Texas [gedcom:reverchon] 1905.09.16 - Louise Reverchon dies, Dallas, Texas, USA [gedcom:reverchon] 1905.12.30 - Julien Reverchon dies, Dallas County, Texas, USA [gedcom:reverchon] 1906.05.21 - Emile Remond dies, Dallas, Dallas, Texas, USA [gedcom:santerre] 1906.~ - Otto Caillet born, Texas [gedcom:reverchon] 1906.~ - R G Santerre born, Texas [gedcom:santerre] 1907.03.06 - Paul Anthony Reverchon, M.D. dies [gedcom:reverchon] 1909.~ - Elmer Santerre born, Texas [gedcom:santerre] 1911.?? - Elysee Elise Reverchon dies [gedcom:reverchon] 1912.12.27 - George Caillet dies, Dallas County, Texas, USA [gedcom:reverchon] 1913.~ - Clifford Santerre born, Texas [gedcom:santerre] 1914.?? - Marie Florence "Asia" Henry dies, Texas, USA [gedcom:reverchon] 1916.~ - Margaret Caillet born, Texas [gedcom:reverchon] 1916.~ - Marie Caillet born, Texas [gedcom:reverchon] 1918.11.03 - Rene Paul Henry Sr dies, Lancaster, Texas, USA [gedcom:reverchon] 1918.~ - Zelma Cormer born, Missouri [gedcom:santerre] 1920.~ - Sylvia Cormer born, Texas [gedcom:santerre] 1921.~ - Neil Santerre born, Texas [gedcom:santerre] 1922.02.15 - Henry Benjamin Lloyd dies, Dallas, Dallas County, Texas, United States of America [gedcom:reverchon] 1922.03.05 - Ida Scott dies, Dallas, Dallas County, Texas, United States of America [gedcom:santerre] 1922.~ - Ellen L Gerard born, Texas [gedcom:reverchon] 1923.08.05 - Cesarine Santerre dies, Dallas, Dallas, Texas, USA [gedcom:santerre] 1924.~ - Gladys Cormer born, Texas [gedcom:santerre] 1925.~ - Patsy Ruth Cormer born, Texas [gedcom:santerre]
Attrition / who-stayed (the build-Dallas dataset)
santerre's Epilogue lists ~80 colonists with arrival year and fate (stayed in Dallas, returned to France, died, moved on). Held in full in src/sources/santerre/timeline.md; feeds the outflow edges of colonists.py.
Property & demographic tables (structured) — sandell
Finding-aids to primary data; the deeds and tax roll are in deeds.py, the census in census.xlsx.
# S.H. Cockrell → colonist town-lot deeds (vol/page), sandell III
1857.10.15 Michell G/2 3–4 ac 1858.02.17 Frichot G/313 2 ac
1859.06.27 Michell F/664 2¾ ac 1861.11.11 Capy L/519 1 ac
1866.07.25 Gouffré J/300 8 ac 1866.12.17 Michell J/428 1–2 ac
1872.10.22 Crétein R/538 7 ac
# 1859 Dallas County tax roll — rural acreage owned, sandell III
Goetseels 86 · Nussbaumer 34 · Boll & father 13 1/10 · Bessard 78⅞ · P.P. Frichot 266 ·
Farine 160 · C.D. Frichot (illegible) · Girard 50 · L. Goetseels 86 · Reverchon J&M 50 ·
Vangrinderbeck 80
# 1867 Town Assessor register — lot/block owners, sandell III
Poitevin · Gouffé (×4) · Bourgeois (×3) · Capy · Moulard · Michell (×8) · S.S. Jones
(m. Louisa Dusseaux, ×6) · Leinhart · Vanderbosch · Charpentier-for-Capy · Boulay (×2)
# Census, sandell III–IV
1860 - Dallas town ~2,000; county 8,665 (incl. 821 slaves); 173 foreign-born (most
ex-Réunion); 63% of foreign-born heads in a trade vs 37% farming — the county at
large 26% vs 74%
1880 - Dallas 10,358; county 33,488
Foreign-born by origin (1850 / 1860 / 1870): France 0/85/45 · Belgium 0/6/8 · Switzerland 0/12/4
Civic & economic firsts — sandell
1856 - Gouhenant closes his Dallas saloon/art-room and leaves [V]
1857 - TX Supreme Court rules for Gouhenant vs Cockrell; Capy* organizes a singing society
(the first in Dallas) [V]
1859 - first Dallas County fair (~2,000) [V]
1860 - second fair (~10,700) — the seed of the State Fair of Texas [V]
1862 - Goetsell moves Mountain Creek → Dallas with several Belgians [III]
1874 - Dallas Grütli Verein (Swiss Benevolent Society) + Swiss Bell Ringers Maifest [V]
1878 - the Dallas city directory first includes many colony names (1875 directory had none) [III]
1904 - city park board established; Emil Fretz a founding commissioner [V]
Reception — the Dallas Morning News, 1891–2020 (read per article)
The 24 pieces in doc/text/newspaper/frenchtown/ (plus two later web articles), read from the clippings in Aug 2026. One line each: what the piece claims, who its informant was, and where it departs from the record. This is where the "impractical dreamers" story was written; the spine above is what the witnesses say. Key: dmn.
1891.07.01 - "French Celebration": the surviving colonists' annual celebration on the 14th
(Bastille Day) at John Loupot's grove, a mile west of the old French town —
basket picnic, fireworks, addresses, managed by E. Remond. The earliest DMN
notice; the survivors kept 14 July. [dmn]
1893.08.27 - "Small Model Farms" (Farmers' Voice reprint) and 1893.09.19 "Truck Farming"
(Louisville Post): general market-gardening pieces, no colony content found —
held for the West Dallas gardening context (Loupot, Santerre). [dmn]
1898.01.19 - "Round About Town": J. C. Knox on Julius Royer's funeral — a colony boy of five
in 1855, drummer with Walker's division at Mansfield, schooled in Paris after
the war, a Louisiana sugar plantation, the Adams & Leonard bank, the county
assessor's and collector's offices; buried beside his father at Oak Cliff, no
veterans present. Knox's potted Considérant biography (Condé-sur-Vesgre 1832,
deputy 1848–49, Texas 1853, "a company organized in Paris 1854") and the
families he names: the Henrys, Loupot, Crétiens, Cantegrals, Royers. [dmn]
1900.04.05 - Notice to contractors: the Texas Portland Cement Co. invites bids for a
six-inch well "about four miles from the city" — the cement company at work
on the colony land a year before the spine's 1901 organization date. [dmn]
1900.07.01 - Real estate transfers: G. C. Fuqua and wife to the Texas Portland Cement
Company, two tracts (220×260 and 600×980 ft) out of the W. B. Laughlin survey,
and a two-story house on an 80-acre tract out of the L. G. Coombs survey
"previously conveyed" — the cement company assembling Laughlin and Coombs
land in 1900. [dmn]
1900.07.15 - "A French Town Trip," by the painter Frank Reaugh: a dozen art students
(Josephine Loucks, "daughter of one of the early settlers," among them; Mrs
Loucks chaperoning) hunt for the site and find locals who know only "Jim
Town"; hospitality at "the old French house of Mr. Calloway" — the President's
house is Calloway's residence, the old store his barn; the public well in the
ravine and the stone pike curving up to the house; Reaugh's history (550
souls, $200,000, mill, shops, schoolhouse, "the President's Mansion," the
storehouse "the largest building for miles"). Jesse Calloway living in
Considérant's house in 1900 is the Iola/Calloway thread's earliest date. [dmn]
1903.04.26 - "French Colonists in Dallas": occasioned by the Rock Island, Frisco and Cotton
Belt demolishing the colonists' boxed-rubble houses between Market and Austin
streets — the technique described (pounded limestone laid up in wooden boxes),
survivors at Live Oak & Harwood, Harwood & Bryan (Frichot's), Jefferson St. The
history: "an experiment in corporate colonization," the "Franco-American
Colonization Company" with branch offices in Paris, Brussels and Geneva,
Considérant president, Cantagrel director; sawmill and flour mill on the
Trinity; 500–600 colonists to Dallas's ~300; the Houston farm as rest stop; two
groups brought up the Trinity by steamboat to Magnolia and Porter's Bluff; the
first Fourth of July celebrated with Dallas; drought 1855, grasshoppers 1856;
the company ends the corporate plan 1857 but keeps the land; "official end
about 1874" at liquidation. A survivor roster: Mr and Mrs Emile Remond, John
Loupot, Julien Reverchon, Henry Boll, Mrs Nussbaumer, Mrs Frick, Adolph Frick,
Mrs Cretien, Mrs von Grinderbeck, Mr and Mrs Charles Capy, A. Daley [Dailly],
J. B. Louckx, Charles Louckx (Fort Worth). Standing: "the residence of the
director, M. Considerant," and the colony store on the bluff near the cement
works; the cemetery partly extant, few graves marked. [dmn]
1904.09.18 - "Dallas Pioneer's Discoveries," signed "Helveticus": a sketch of Prof. Emil
Remond as its subject told it — born 2 Aug 1840, "came to Texas in 1854"
(1856), one silver dollar, English from Capt. Swindell; enlisted "1861" (1863)
in Co. B, 19th Texas Cavalry, Parsons' Brigade, Marmaduke's Division; Pratt's
Battery colour-bearer, the transports Dubuque and Galena sunk, Cape Girardeau,
Price's raid, Pilot Knob, Prairie du Cygne where "he saved the flag";
discharged at Marshall; Sterling Price Camp, UCV; one of the first to marry
after the war, "his license granted by the Federal commander"; Hook & Ladder
Co. 2 of East Dallas and its brick engine house; first Dallas fire brick;
clay at Dowdy's Ferry and Mountain Creek; first plastic brick machine; the
Nussbaumer and Waggoner buildings on the square; trained by Prof. Jacob Boll,
"a pupil of Agassiz"; the mastodon dug near Eakins Park; State Fair exhibits
1894–95; an offer of land for a park with a lake. [dmn]
1905.06.18 - "Dallas County Clay": Remond's stratigraphy — thirty feet of "the richest
lime in the United States," alum shale, the "alumina lustra" clay — and his
products (vitrified brick, flint-hard sewer pipe, terra cotta, fire brick,
oil briquettes); "owns a farm of 160 acres" (the deed says 60); sewer pipe
"made in Dallas years ago by John B. Louckx" still in use. C. B. Gillespie's
sketch adds: came to Dallas 1856; ensign of Co. B; helped make the brick of
A. Cockrell's two-story hotel, "the largest building in Dallas," burned in
the July 1860 fire; instrumental in securing the Iola plant. [dmn]
1907.07.17 - "Expedition for Fossils": the Texas Anthropological Society by the T&P to the
Iola Cement Works "where the day will be spent investigating prehistoric
remains." [dmn]
1907.10.01 - "Results of Remond's Faith in West Dallas' Mineral Wealth" (anniversary
issue): the cement era's own origin story — "a colony of political exiles and
refugees from France, Switzerland and Belgium," "scientists, political
economists, men of letters and masters of the crafts"; Reverchon "ranking
with Agassiz"; Remond's Flanders Heights sea theory, his fossils, his offers
refused by "practical business men," dead without reward; now ~$4,000,000 in
brick and cement, the Iola Portland Cement Co. at $1,500,000 and 500 men,
doubling; the Northwestern States Portland Cement Co. to match; the Harry
brickyards; the Texas Company oil plant; the abandoned "dummy" line and the
test well on the Turner farm. [dmn]
1907.10.10 - "Tribute to Remond": Judge Thomas F. Nash, who knew him fifteen years, asks the
city commissioners to name a street Remond Street — the origin of Remond Dr.
[dmn]
1910.10.01 - "Some of the Oldest Citizens…" (silver anniversary issue), section "Old French
Colony Founded in 1852, Did Not Flourish and Faded Away": Considérant "a
Parisian journalist, in 1854 became a disciple of Fourier"; 12,000 acres
"directly across the Trinity"; the colonists to pay the company 6 per cent;
volunteers from France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium; grasshoppers and
drought; "not more than a dozen of the 500 colonists were farmers … long on
doctors"; the efficient argue to keep their surplus; "the Swiss colonists
seceded, setting up shop across the Trinity at Moon's Lake." The "dozen
farmers" line, in print. Also: Guillot's carriage shop at Elm & Houston. [dmn]
1919.11.23 - "The Story of Old Frenchtown": a January 1908 picnic to the site by the
painters Frank Reaugh and E. G. Eisenlohr, Evelyn Fargo and others — the
commissary walls, old fence lines, a surviving plum tree; "the residence of
Victor Considerant, Prosper Cantegral, Allyre Bureau in turn"; a portrait of
Prof. Julien Reverchon (d. 30 Dec 1905); Fourier's doctrine summarized; tales
of colonists "deceived by promises of promoters." The artists' Frenchtown. [dmn]
1923.04.15 - "Field near Akard Once Grew Cotton" (W. S. Adair): the colonists who came into
Dallas when Reunion "went to pieces" settled south of Commerce, west of Lamar,
"from this circumstance that quarter of town became known as French Town" —
the name migrates to the city. [dmn]
1924.06.15 - Louise Boyer, "The Story of the Old French Colony," prize essay from J. B.
Louckx's papers and recollections (ingested as `lists/boyer1924`). [dmn]
1924.11.23 - "Emil Fretz Tells of Early Dallas" (Adair): "I arrived in Dallas with the
Swiss colony Dec. 3, 1870 … twenty-seven of us," recruited by Ben Long's visit
home in the summer of 1870; welcomed by Jacob Nussbaumer, Henry Boll, Henry
Bohny, Adolph Frick and John Loupot, "who had come over with the French
colony"; Long elected mayor 1872, the fire cisterns, Long's Lake and its
steamboat, the 1873 yellow-fever quarantine held at Mesquite with a shotgun;
Moullard's concrete building collapsing in 1871; "Michel's brickyard on the
river bank between Houston and Jefferson"; Cockrell's ferry; seven of the 27
alive in 1924. Dates the second Swiss wave: 3 December 1870, 27 people. [dmn]
1934.12.07 - "Architect to Make La Reunion Colony Building Replicas": Jon Carsey of Oak
Cliff volunteers replicas for the 1936 Centennial and asks for photographs or
paintings of the original buildings. [dmn]
1938.07.24 - "Early Settler Revisits French Colony Ruins" (Paul Crume): Emanuel Santerre,
88, "last survivor," at the stone house on Westmoreland road — built after the
colony by "Leon DeLord and his son Alphonse," walls by John Gentry, the lime
burned in log fires in the river bottom; the DeLords "well fixed"; Alphonse
sold to Doc Freeman and sailed for France; the north wall down in the 1933
storm; the land the Episcopal diocese's; "historians say" a dozen farmers among
230; Santerre "just 3 years old when my family came over in 1855" (1856; b. Dec
1850). Sandell credits the last house to Emile De Lord — conflict. [dmn]
1949.12.25 - "Piano of Debater Who Met Webster" (Kenneth Foree): Col. Elam Sharpe's family,
ruined ex-Confederates from South Carolina, "settled in the dying Utopian La
Reunion Colony in West Dallas" in 1871 because Frances Hayne Sharpe spoke
French — the Sharpes of the 1882 Sharpe-heirs deed in the Calloway chain. [dmn]
1962.08.01 - Frank X. Tolbert, "Communism Didn't Work in 'Dollos'": prompted by a Timken
inquiry; Cantegral Street; "Mon Dieu! I am sent to Dollos to direct a colony of
farmers and I have no farmers!"; ~300 colonists, a dozen farmers, the rest
professors, writers, doctors, artists, "even some florists"; 12,000 acres of
"the worst farm land in Dallas County"; six weeks' walk from Houston in wooden
shoes; "a complete failure by 1858"; Cantagrel "left so as not to get involved
in the War Between the States." Every element of the myth in one column. [dmn]
2010.06.14 - "La Reunion Cemetery's upkeep an eternal problem" (dallasnews.com): the city
declared the 1.3-acre cemetery a nuisance in 1973 and assumed upkeep, a 1987
memo confirmed it, nothing done in twenty years; the Housing Authority
disclaims; George Santerre's 1956 plea and 1961 restoration; Bonnie Parker
first buried there 1934; the colonist stones (Julien and Marie Reverchon,
Michel, Emile and Cesarine Remond "Born in France," Emanuel Santerre d. 1939
"the last surviving colonist"). [dmn]
2020.04.15 - Mark Lamster, "New revelations tell why a socialist commune failed in Dallas"
(dallasnews.com): review of Pratt's *Sabotaged* (Nebraska, 2020) — failure by
leadership, Considérant the villain, Savardan the hero; "$400,000" raised; the
beer, coffee and Gruyère of the Houston march; 430 acres cleared and 600
cattle after the first winter. The reversal the project also argues. [dmn]
Afterlife / commemoration (1891–2010) — kagay
From the Dallas Morning News archive (doc/text/newspaper/frenchtown/).
1891 - DMN "Old French Colony" — the foundational retrospective [n19] 1906 - 50th-anniversary commemoration 1923 - Césarine Santerre Remond dies — the colony's last adult member 1924.05 - colony-site marker placed (DMN 4 May; unveiled 7 May; DAR; "Settled 1854") [n89] 1936 - Texas Centennial lectures; Eloise Santerre's translation of Savardan published 1951 - Eugenie Roessler dies — last of the children born at La Réunion 1956 - 100th-anniversary commemoration 1967 - Benjamin Capps, *The Brothers of Uterica* (La Réunion novel) 1974 - Fish Trap cemetery marker placed 2005 - 150th-anniversary celebration 2008–09 - Reunion Arena closed (2008) and demolished (2009) # Site fate: Lone Star Cement kilns → 1943 war housing (~1,000 units) → 1954 razed → 1962 # Loupot builds 175 homes → 1975 school + bulk-mail center; cemetery neglect to 2010. # DMN obituary death dates (kagay n96–97) — for the life-events layer 1904.10.08 John (Jean) Loupot · 1906 É. Remond (critically ill 05.21) · 1923 Césarine Remond · 1929.01.10 Mrs. (Nativa) Capy · 1931.04.15 Emile Crétien · 1936.07.18 "first person born at La Reunion" · 1943.10.22 Emile Voirin · 1951.11.24 Roessler · 1952.12.06 Jacob Boll · 1953.04.20 Minnie Louckx · 1953.12.24 Max Loupot
Dispersal & the First International (1858–1876) — cordillot
The colonists' political afterlife, from cordillot's "Rethinking the Failure" — the AIT/Fourierist trajectories no other source carries.
1858 - Savardan publishes *Un Naufrage au Texas* in France; later mayor of La Chapelle-Gaugain
1859 - 1859 amnesty opens Cantagrel's return to France (from Switzerland)
1861 - Bürkli returns to Switzerland; becomes a founder of the First International there
1868.04.07 - Louis Louis stages Fourier's 96th-anniversary celebration in New Orleans; cofounds
section 15 of the AIT
1869 - Considérant joins the International on his return to France; Icarians/Cabet followers
launch the Union Républicaine de Langue Française (Saint Louis) → first French IWMA
sections in the USA
1871.11 - Louis Louis dies in New Orleans
1872 - **section 46 of the AIT founded at Dallas** by former colonists; Capy charter member +
secretary-correspondent (Long re-elected Dallas mayor 1872–74)
1873 - Cantagrel runs the Vienna-Exhibition trades-delegate election (Paris)
1874 - Santerre writes in an IWMA paper that he is still "in favor of integral association"
1875 - Chrétien sends a Fourierist declaration to the *Bulletin de l'Union républicaine* (NY);
Cantagrel becomes an alderman of Paris (+ National Assembly)
1876 - Communard exiles settle in Iowa among the Icarians
1888/96 - Bessard re-elected mayor of Tournus (1888); succeeded by his son 1896–1908
1893 - Bürkli, at the Zurich congress of the Second International, eulogizes Fourier
AIT sections founded by ex-colonists: 15 (New Orleans), 46 (Dallas). Papers they funded: Le Socialiste / Bulletin de l'Union républicaine (NY), La Commune (New Orleans), L'Étoile des Pauvres (Neuchatel, Kansas).