Rapides Cemetery, Pineville Louisiana

Date added: October 20, 2024
General view (1979)

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The Post of Rapides was founded by the French in 1722 or 1723, apparently as a result of two main factors. The first was the need to protect whites from the Indians. In May, 1722, the Inspector General of Troops for the Province of Louisiana, Diron d'Artaguette, made an inspection trip up Red River. In his report he advocated that a post be established at "the place called the Great Rapid which is a point almost halfway between the beginning of Red River and Naichotoches (sic) and where the river ceases to be navigable four or five months of the year." He cited barbarous acts perpetrated by the Indians in the area, alleging, for example, "that the Chickasaws would station themselves at the river bank near the rapids and lie in wait for small parties of whites passing by below."

The second factor was the administrative situation. In 1723 the administration of Louisiana was revised when the colony was divided into nine districts, each with a principal trading post. The site near the "Great Rapid" was included in the Natchitoches district under the command of St. Denis. It was his responsibility to establish small trading posts in strategic places. Indeed, it was also in his personal interest to do so since he received a percentage of the profits from such trade.

Some type of post and rest stop was thus established at the rapids in 1722 or 1723, Apparently a few crude buildings were built on the bluff overlooking the rapids, a site which is now part of Rapides Cemetery. That the cemetery was the site of the post was established by a deposition of 1819 signed by two of the post's former commandants, Valentine Layssard (who was also the son of another commandant) and Enemund Muellion. It was one of a series of depositions taken on the boundaries of Rapides and Avoyelles Parishes. Layssard stated that in about 1769 "a Priest was established on the River opposite to the Town of Alexandria … near to the burying Ground and that the place has been continued ever since as a burying Ground." He went on to state that "that place (the burying ground) was always called and considered the situation of the Post of Rapides."

Throughout the French colonial period, there was never more than a small detachment of soldiers at the Post of Rapides. According to historian Elaine Brister, "With so few of the amenities of life at the little frontier post as compared with the attractions of the older settlement at Natchitoches, no doubt it was considered an onerous duty to be stationed at the Rapides." The main activity at the post during the French period was trade with the Indians in the area.

In 1762 France ceded Louisiana to Spain, and during the Spanish regime the settlement at Rapides grew. During his brief stay in Louisiana, Governor O'Reilly sent out commissioners to report on conditions in the colony. At the Post of Rapides he found 33 whites and 18 slaves. They also stated that there was a "small village of Apalache Indians--twenty-six men and about eighteen women of all ages." In livestock there were 98 horses, 258 cattle, and 97 pigs. The commissioners also reported that "In this district only tobacco and corn are cultivated, and cattle … of the same quality, size, and good meat as those of Natchitoches with which they maintain themselves."

Under Spanish rule, the main activity changed from the Indian trade to agriculture. By 1785 the population in and around the post had grown

to 212 whites and 138 "free persons of color." In 1799, according to the commandant, it had increased to 760 persons, including 127 men, 101 women, 199 male children, 157 female children, 99 male slaves, and 77 female slaves. These persons lived in 112 separate habitations and owned 678 horses and 3,131 horned cattle. Little additional information is available on the appearance of the post and conditions there.

In the last years of the Spanish regime, a wave of English-speaking people from other states came into the area, and most of them settled on the opposite side of the river from the original post. Although there never ceased to be residents on the north side of the river in the area of the Post of Rapides, in the final years of Spanish control the old post was all but abandoned. Nearby was the public cemetery which was the beginning of the present-day Rapides Cemetery. In about 1805 the settlement which had grown up around the original post was named Pineville,

Since the records in the Rapides Parish Courthouse were destroyed by fire in 1864, there is little available information on the cemetery from the years prior to the Civil War. The Rapides Cemetery Association was founded March 18th, 1872 by a group of 14 men for the purpose of fencing the cemetery and beautifying it by "cleaning away the undergrowth and planting shrubbery, making walks, and in short, to permanently improve, repair and maintain the same in such a manner as it shall be a lasting credit rather than a standing disgrace to the people of Rapides." From that statement it is logical to conclude that the cemetery had suffered years of neglect during and following the Civil War.

Two years later the association received a donation of 10 acres of land from Thomas H. Maddox; in 1875, another deed was filed returning part of the property to Maddox. Robert P. Hunter was president of the association in both transactions as well as the notary before whom the original articles of incorporation were drawn up.

The Rapides Cemetery is still used for burials today. Buried there. are soldiers and sailors who fell in all the wars in which colonial French and Spanish forces from Louisiana participated as well as America's wars, including those of the 20th century. This information is noted on a bronze marker, placed in the cemetery in 1964 by Loyalty Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, Alexandria.

Some of those known to be buried there are:

Pierre Baillio II, the builder of Kent House died in 1824. A verification of the section on which the home is located is in the patent signed by President John Tyler, bearing the date March 1st, 1845, the date on which this land was legally recognized by the United States as the property of Pierre Baillio.

Pierre Baillio was one of the trustees of the College of Rapides. The legislature of 1819 incorporated the group, whose members were interested in giving the youth the best that could be had in the way of education.

Enemund Meullion, a later commandant of the Post of Rapides is buried in the Rapides Cemetery with his wife Jennette. Next to their grave is the grave of Meullion's body guard. Meullion was serving as commandant when the Louisiana Purchase was completed in 1803 and was the last commandant under the flag of the United States. He was a native of Normandy, France; was educated as a physician; and came to Louisiana during the French Revolution to escape the political conditions there. Gov. W. C. C. Claiborne, Governor of the Territory of Orleans, 1803-1812, retained Meullion as the official in charge of the Rapides area until a county judge could be named. Then Gov. Claiborne appointed him as the first treasurer of the County of Rapides.

Gen. George Mason Graham, also buried in the Rapides Cemetery, lived at Tyrone Plantation on Bayou Rapides, nine miles from Alexandria. It was at Tyrone that Gen. Graham conferred with Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, who was named the first president of the Louisiana Seminary of Learning in 1859, and with members of the official board of trustees of that institution of higher learning. The seminary was the forerunner of Louisiana State University.

The grave of the eminent physician, Dr. John Casson and his wife are located in Rapides Cemetery. Mrs. Casson was the former Adelia Thomas, daughter of Gen. Isaac Thomas. Gen. Thomas built the first sugar mill in the area, but the mill was later demolished when the bricks and the lumber were needed to build Bailey's Dam in the rapids of Red River during the Union retreat following the Confederate victory at the Battle of Mansfield (April 8th, 1864).

Adelia was first married to Ebezener Hubbard Flint, the second son of Timothy Flint and Abigail Hubbard. Timothy Flint was a well-known graduate of Harvard University.

Only the grave of Dr. Casson and his wife, who are buried together, is marked. However, another memorial is erected to her and her five Flint daughters, who are buried there also.

Site Description

Rapides Cemetery, where the Post of Rapides once stood, is an irregularly shaped plot of ground containing 7.05 acres with its main entrance on David Street. It is not laid out in regular rows and there is no official record of burials in the cemetery. (Antebellum records were destroyed when the Rapides Parish Courthouse was burned May 13th, 1864 by the Union Army.) It is publicly owned and maintained through annual contributions from friends and relatives of those known to be buried there, usually demonstrated through maintenance of family plots.

Approximately 25% of the marked graves are above-ground tombs, 60% are upright monuments, and 15% are flat in the ground. Many of the granite markers are fashioned of stone from Barre, Vermont and Quincy, Massachusetts. The fences were manufactured by such companies as F. Guerdan, St. Louis, Missouri; Steward Iron Works, Cincinnati, Ohio; and T. M. Lincoln & Company, Hartford, Connecticut. Many of the graves are marked only by carved marble ledgers resting on brick bases. A chain link fence surrounds the cemetery and many family plots are enclosed by iron fences or low concrete curbs.

Some of the more outstanding burial sites are as follows:

Mary Henrietta Wells Fulton Hooper

Mary Henrietta Wells Fulton Hooper was the wife of Alexander Fulton, the founder of Alexandria. He was the first bonafide merchant in Rapides Parish, had Alexandria platted, and was the first- coroner and first postmaster of the parish. It was also reported that he was elected to the Louisiana legislature in 1805.

As his will was probated in 1819, he is believed to have died in 1818.

Mary Henrietta married Thomas Hooper in 1820. He is buried near Pollock, La. It is not known where Alexander Fulton is buried.

James B. Ashley plot

The Ashley plot is an obelisk of granite enclosed by a striking iron fence, each panel of which has a lamb beneath a weeping willow. The lower portion of the fence has a rinceau motif. The gate contains a figure of hope holding a cornucopia in her right hand with her left hand resting upon an anchor. A putti tops the gate. Two concrete tombs and a mausoleum are also found in this plot. James B. Ashley was born in 1837.

The Thomas-Flint-Casson Plot.

Although this plot contains no notable funerary architecture, it has a Gothic cast-iron fence with two exceptionally fine gates, which were made in Philadelphia. Each gate is set between a pair of pinnacles flanked, in turn, by square posts which are ornamented with regularized rinceau motifs. The posts are surmounted by foliated urns. The gates themselves each consist of a pair of doors which come together to form a large finial lancet which is composed of a lower colonnette screen which rises to an elaborate interlacing of rinceau motifs with cusps, crockets, and foils.

The Mead Plot

The Mead plot contains a monumental twenty-five foot granite obelisk with paneled base. The cast-iron fence, which is composed of ovals, round arches, and ball drops, was made by T. M. Lincoln and Company of Hartford, Connecticut.

Rapides Cemetery, Pineville Louisiana Cemetery Sign (1979)
Cemetery Sign (1979)

Rapides Cemetery, Pineville Louisiana General view (1979)
General view (1979)

Rapides Cemetery, Pineville Louisiana General view (1979)
General view (1979)

Rapides Cemetery, Pineville Louisiana General view (1979)
General view (1979)

Rapides Cemetery, Pineville Louisiana General view (1979)
General view (1979)

Rapides Cemetery, Pineville Louisiana General setting 1975 (1979)
General setting 1975 (1979)

Rapides Cemetery, Pineville Louisiana Mead Plot 1975 (1979)
Mead Plot 1975 (1979)

Rapides Cemetery, Pineville Louisiana Thomas-Flint-Casson Plot 1975 (1979)
Thomas-Flint-Casson Plot 1975 (1979)

Rapides Cemetery, Pineville Louisiana Close up of gate 1975 (1979)
Close up of gate 1975 (1979)

Rapides Cemetery, Pineville Louisiana Ashley Plot 1975 (1979)
Ashley Plot 1975 (1979)

Rapides Cemetery, Pineville Louisiana Ashley Plot 1975 (1979)
Ashley Plot 1975 (1979)

Rapides Cemetery, Pineville Louisiana Wrought Iron fence around Ashley Plot 1975 (1979)
Wrought Iron fence around Ashley Plot 1975 (1979)