MySource:Aberksan/Guidry family history in Calcasieu Parish

The Guidry family history is a story of self-reliance

BY: NOLA MAE ROSS American Press Writer

Dec 09, 1990

The Guidry families of Cameron and Calcasieu Parishes sprang from a long line of sturdy Acadians who weathered all kinds of hardships before reaching the Acadian coast in Louisiana.

Some of them, exiles from Canada, were sent back to France and then later to Louisiana. Others came to Louisiana aboard schooners from the Maryland area. One such group came by an English schooner bound for New Orleans, which was blown off course and ended up near Galveston. From there the Acadians were sent to Natchitoches and finally found their way to the coast with other exiles.

Judith Kinney of Sulphur is a 10th- generation Guidry. She has done extensive work on a family history and says, “Many of the Guidrys were sent to Maryland because that was the only colony which would accept Catholics.

“Later, they came to Louisiana and settled on the Acadian Coast,” she said. “Some moved to the Attakapas District, which included St. Martinsville, Lafayette, St. Landry and parts of Imperial Calcasieu Parishes.

Vigilantes of Attakapas

“These Guidrys were involved in a little-known association, the Vigilantes of Attakapas, which was organized between 1830 and 1859 in an area where law and order was almost non-existent.” The Vigilantes were upright citizens who decided to take the law into their own hands. They did so because bandits had become proficient at stealing cattle, horses or anything of worth. The bandits also committed vic-ious and uncalled-for murders, but were turned loose by crooked judges and lawmen.

At least 13 Guidrys were involved in that vigilante group. Among them were Pierre, Joseph, Eloi, Dupre and Treville Guidry, all of whom served as patrol captains.

Lufroy Guidry (who spelled his named Guedry) was a deputy sheriff near Abbeville at this time. He was the first Guidry to cross the Sabine River to settle in Texas about 1835.

There were many battles and confrontations between the vigilantes and the bandits, but in 1859 as the Civil War loomed on the horizon, the last confrontation took place at a LaGrange home, a few miles east of Rayne. The bandits were captured and given proper punishment. The Vigilantes then called it quits because many of them became involved in defending the South against the Yankees.

Judith Kinney's grandfather, Adam, was a descendant of Pierre Guidry. He came to Edgerly about 1900 to work as a logger and farmer. His children, Bernice Kinney, Willis, Ulysse, Ellis and Antonine, all live in Sulphur today. Another child, Odile, died as an infant.

Claude Guidry

Claude Guidry was born in Grivois, France. He was the first known Guidry to settle in Acadie, Canada, living around the St. John River. He married Marguerite Pitipas. Their sons, Augustin and Jeanne Hebert Guidry, also lived in Canada. But members of the third generation, including Pierre and Jean Baptiste Guidry, moved to Maryland and then came south to the Acadian coast about 1769. These are the ancestors of most of the Southwest Louisiana Guidrys.

Pierre Guidry - patriarch of Grand Pointe

Gradually drifting west, the Guidrys settled in and around Lafayette, St. Martin, Crowley and Rayne. Pierre Guidry of the Opelousas District was called the “patriarch of Grand Pointe (now Cecilia) and lord of a vast domain.”

Arriving about 1769, he traded “110 bulls for three tracts of land fronting 50 arpents on Bayou Teche and 40 arpents deep.” He also had 27 slaves and his estate was valued at over $200,000 when he died.

Ron Guidry

Ron Guidry, the New York Yankees pitcher, is a descendant of Jean Baptiste and Madelaine Breaux Guidry and their son Joseph, who married Melizere Melancon. In his book, “Guidry,” Ron talks about his Cajun family:

“My mom and dad are both Cajuns,” he wrote, “and as far as I know that makes me the first Cajun ever to play in the major leagues.

“The Cajun lifestyle is unique. We're easy-going, but that doesn't mean we're not tough. Because of the hardships suffered by my people, they learned to be self-reliant. They had to use their wits and guile to stay alive.”

Ron's grandfather, Augustin “Gus” Guidry is no longer living. But his brothers Valrie, Eugene and Zephaire, as well as a sister, Rosa Dugas, are.

Valrie Guidry recalls: “My grandfather Eugene came to Lake Arthur about 1870, and he and his sons were all cowboys. They worked the big cattle drives from Lacassine, Welsh and Lake Arthur, and every year took part in a big roundup.

“They told us that the land around Lake Arthur was not cultivated when they first came. It was covered with the yellow grass that they called prairie du paille jaune. This grass grew three or four feet high and provided good food for their cattle.

“But one of my uncles, Joseph, was not a cowboy. He operated a pool hall in Lake Arthur, and I can remember him charging five cents per game.”

Descendants of Jean Baptiste and Madeline Breaux Guidry

Mrs. Abby (Olite Guidry) Boullion of Lake Charles is also a descendant of Jean Baptiste and Madeline Breaux Guidry. Her sister, Gladys Shoates, lives in Winnie, Texas. She also has five brothers, Percy of Sulphur, Lester of Carlyss, Howard of Kansas, Lee of Highlands, Texas, and Albert of Sweelake.

Their great-grandparents, Narcisse and Emeranthe Blanchard Guidry, and their son Desire and his wife Josephine Trahan Guidry, all lived near Rayne. Desire fought in the Civil War. He enlisted in the Louisiana Infantry and Yellow Jacket Battalion and later became a prisoner of war, captured at Grand Pointe. He was sent to the Red River Landing and then to New Orleans in a prisoner exchange.

Desire's son, Albert, and wife Emelie Bertrand Guidry moved in the early 1900s from Rayne to Andrus Cove between Lake Arthur and Jennings. There they raised 11 children: Electa Cormier, Addie Benoit, Lillian Dyers and Milton Guidry, who are still living, and Walter, Adolphine, Gladdes, Pauline McLean, Aresta, Oldon and Beulah Landry, who are deceased.

“I remember our early Christmas celebrations with my grandparents, Albert and Emelie Guidry,” sayd Mrs. Olite Boullion. “All of the children and their families would go to the grandparents' home in open trucks and wagons. For some it was a day's journey.

“When we arrived on Christmas Eve, grandmother would have a big dishpan full of popcorn balls which she called 'boule du-tac-tac' which she made with syrup from grandpa's syrup mill. All the grandchildren would be given a popcorn ball and then sent outside to play until dark. One of the favorite games was Pop the Whip.

“After supper we'd sit around on the floor and listen to grandpa tell stories. Then we'd find a bed, mattress or quilt and bed down, probably on the floor, for the night.” Mrs. Vera Guidry Coe of Lake Charles is a descendant of Joseph and his son Hermogene Guidry. She recalls that the first Guidry, according to census records, was in Lake Arthur by 1850.

“My great-grandfather, Thellismar, came to Big Lake before 1872 when my grandfather Joseph Lenor Guidry was born. Then my father, John Tellismar Guidry who married Mary Azema Benoit moved to Lake Charles. He operated a grocery store on the corner of Kirkman and Gulf in the 1940s.”

John Tellismar and Mary Azema Guidry also had a son, Clifford, who is deceased.

“Thellismar first married Carmelite Broussard and second, Ortance Pellerin Lebouef,” says Vera Coe. “His homestead was about a mile south of the Catholic church in an area called Big Pasture.” Thellismar Guidry died in 1910. He and Carmelite had eight children: Joseph Lenor, Armogene, Armenie, John, Odelia, Severine, Victoria and Eugenie. His second wife, Ortance Pellerin, had six children when they married. They became the parents of Rena Duhon and Luke Guidry, who are deceased, plus Dupra Guidry of Big Lake and Mallius Guidry of Lake Charles.

“My father Thellismar died when I was real young,” recalls Dupra Guidry. “We raised garden crops and sheep to make a living. The sheep ran loose on the prairie until time to shear them. Then all the neighbors got together and rounded them up.”

The 1918 hurricane brought tragedy to the family.

“The day of the storm, my mother, who was a midwife, was called to a neighbor's home about a mile away to deliver a baby,” says Dupra Guidry. “While she was there, the hurricane blew their house down. The mother was found in her bed not hurt. But my mother was found about a half mile away, badly injured. She only lived for about a week. Then we were all placed with different families.

“Our home, where we were staying with a grandmother, was also destroyed in the hurricane,” says Dupra, “but we managed to crawl from it to another little house in some trees and were not hurt.”

George Guidry, who lives in Lake Charles with his wife, Janice Stewart Guidry, is a great-grandson of Thellismar. “My grandfather Armogene lived near the old Guidry home place in Big Lake,” he says. “He was a school bus driver for the first Big Lake School which was located where the present day fire station is.

“My grandparents, Armogene and Lydia Hebert Guidry, had five children. Beside my father, Mayo, there was Norman, Clarence, Murphy and Vonnie (Mrs. Sampson Granger), who are all deceased.” George also has a sister, Mary Swire, living in Lake Charles.

Mrs. Fenelia Romine of Lake Charles, daughter of Joseph Lenor Guidry, had eight children. In Lake Charles are Bert (Mrs. Ray Hebert), Florence (Mrs. Clovis Istre), Floyd and Randall. In Germany is Gene Romine while Vern (Mrs. Everett Smith) is in Massachusetts and Inez (Mrs. Kenneth Marleuski) is in Michigan. Houma is deceased.

Mrs. Ivan (Ella Guidry) Fontenot, daughter of Joseph Lenor Guidry, lives in Big Lake near the original home palce. Her children are Malcolm, Twila Savoi, Valarie Vincent, Reginal and Bristow Fontenot. Carmelite Guidry, who married Garfield Hebert, has two children in Lake Charles, Waverlyn Bayard and Arthur Hebert. Mrs. Moice Young Guidry, widow of Joseph Lenor Guidry, lives in Lake Charles.

The children of Thellismar included Odelia, who married Elie Demarest and had three children Durphey Demarest of Lake Charles and Cleve and Edmand, deceased; Severine (Mrs. James Henry); Victoria (Mrs. Sebastain Nunez); Arminie (Mrs. Dupliss Hebert); and Eugenia, who married Adonia Duhon and had three children Swenford of Port Arthur, Texas, and Alvin and Leora of Hackberry. Gabriel Guidry, grandson of Thellismar and son of Joseph Lenor, married Lese Broussard and has two children, Amos and Ethel Andrews.

The Guidrys have become the third largest group of French families living in Louisiana today, and all of them proudly carry the Acadian mantle handed down from their ancestors on the long road to freedom.