The Saucier Family - Page 31
Sallie Elizabeth Saucier was the third child and second daughter born to Evariste Marie Saucier and Missouri Virginia Bond. Sallie was born on 25 August 25, 1879, in Waco, Texas and died on August 17, 1946, at Mineola, Texas at the age of sixty-six. She was a granddaughter of Pierre Saucier and Elizabeth Nicaise, the great granddaughter of Philippe Saucier and Mary Louise Nicaise, great great-granddaughter of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix and her third great grandparents were Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary of Colonial Mobile. Sallie married in 1895 William “Billie”. Slaughter. William was born in Arkansas on January 11, 1872 and died in Dallas, Texas on May 27, 1964, at age ninety-two. Sallie and William or Billie resided in Texas and had six children, Viola, Claude William, Minnie Louise, Annie Lois, Willie, and William Slaughter.
Leon Steve Saucier was the fourth child and second son born of Evariste Marie Saucier and Missouri Virginia Bond. Leon was born in Dallas, Texas on April 24, 1880, and died there on April 6, 1951, at the age of seventy. He was a grandson of Pierre Saucier and Elizabeth Nicaise, the great grandson of Philippe Saucier and Mary Louise Nicaise, great great-grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix and his third great grandparents were Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary of Colonial Mobile. Leon Saucier, who had worked for years for Texas Power and Light, opened the Saucier Electrical Company, the second electrical contracting firm opened in Dallas. In 1901 Leon and his company wired the very first movie theatre to be opened in Dallas. In 1903, Leon then twenty-three-year-old married Annie Bates, age twenty-two at Dallas. She was born on May 14, 1881, at Dallas and died there on January 9, 1972, at age ninety. Annie was the daughter of William Henry Bates of Ripon, England and Emily Annette McDonald of Jefferson County, Mississippi. Leon Steve and Annie had six children, Leon Steve, Jr., Missouri Virginia, Jack, Roy, Lillie, and Mary Elizabeth Saucier.
Edward Joseph Saucier was the fifth child and third son born of Evariste Marie Saucier and his second wife Elizabeth Constance Roussell. Edward was born on August 27, 1885, at San Antonio, Texas and died in San Antonio on March 20, 1940, at age fifty-four. He married Clara Florence Crawford the daughter of Frank Crawford and Anna Maria Ahr of Texas. Clara was born on March 1, 1892, in Texas and died on December 29, 1974, in San Antonio, Texas at age eighty-two. Edward was a grandson of Pierre Saucier and Elizabeth Nicaise, the great grandson of Philippe Saucier and Mary Louise Nicaise, great great-grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix and his third great grandparents were Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary of Colonial Mobile. Edward and Clara had no known descendants.
Ferdinand Everest Saucier was the sixth child and fourth born son of Evariste Marie Saucier and his second wife Elizabeth Constance Roussell. Ferdinand was born on August 8, 1887, at Castroville, Texas, and he died on December 2, 1926, at Leming, Texas at age thirty-nine. He married Olivia C. Ohr in 1919, he was thirty-two years old, and she was thirty years old when they were married in San Antonio, Texas. Olivia was born on October 17, 1889, in San Antonio and died on December 21, 1975, at San Antonio. She was the daughter of August Ahr and Josephine Haby of San Antonio. He was a grandson of Pierre Saucier and Elizabeth Nicaise, the great grandson of Philippe Saucier and Mary Louise Nicaise, great great-grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix and his third great grandparents were Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary of Colonial Mobile. Records show one son for Ferdinand and Olivia, Everest August Saucier.
Emil Peter Saucier was the seventh child and fifth born son of Evariste Marie Saucier and his second wife Elizabeth Constance Roussell. Emil was born on June 6, 1889, at San Antonio, Texas and died on November 1, 1968, at Blanco, Texas at the age of seventy-nine. He was a grandson of Pierre Saucier and Elizabeth Nicaise, the great grandson of Philippe Saucier and Mary Louise Nicaise, great great-grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix and his third great grandparents were Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary of Colonial Mobile. He married Charlotte Mary Way in San Antonio. She was born on June 27, 1891, at San Antonio and died at San Antonio on December 19, 1976, at the age of eighty-five. She was the daughter of William Henry Way and Agnes Mary Heap of England. No descendants were found for Emil and Charlotte.
Leon Steve Saucier was the fourth child and second son born of Evariste Marie Saucier and Missouri Virginia Bond. Leon was born in Dallas, Texas on April 24, 1880, and died there on April 6, 1951, at the age of seventy. He was a grandson of Pierre Saucier and Elizabeth Nicaise, the great grandson of Philippe Saucier and Mary Louise Nicaise, great great-grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix and his third great grandparents were Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary of Colonial Mobile. Leon Saucier, who had worked for years for Texas Power and Light, opened the Saucier Electrical Company, the second electrical contracting firm opened in Dallas. In 1901 Leon and his company wired the very first movie theatre to be opened in Dallas. In 1903, Leon then twenty-three-year-old married Annie Bates, age twenty-two at Dallas. She was born on May 14, 1881, at Dallas and died there on January 9, 1972, at age ninety. Annie was the daughter of William Henry Bates of Ripon, England and Emily Annette McDonald of Jefferson County, Mississippi. Leon Steve and Annie had six children, Leon Steve, Jr., Missouri Virginia, Jack, Roy, Lillie, and Mary Elizabeth Saucier.
Edward Joseph Saucier was the fifth child and third son born of Evariste Marie Saucier and his second wife Elizabeth Constance Roussell. Edward was born on August 27, 1885, at San Antonio, Texas and died in San Antonio on March 20, 1940, at age fifty-four. He married Clara Florence Crawford the daughter of Frank Crawford and Anna Maria Ahr of Texas. Clara was born on March 1, 1892, in Texas and died on December 29, 1974, in San Antonio, Texas at age eighty-two. Edward was a grandson of Pierre Saucier and Elizabeth Nicaise, the great grandson of Philippe Saucier and Mary Louise Nicaise, great great-grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix and his third great grandparents were Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary of Colonial Mobile. Edward and Clara had no known descendants.
Ferdinand Everest Saucier was the sixth child and fourth born son of Evariste Marie Saucier and his second wife Elizabeth Constance Roussell. Ferdinand was born on August 8, 1887, at Castroville, Texas, and he died on December 2, 1926, at Leming, Texas at age thirty-nine. He married Olivia C. Ohr in 1919, he was thirty-two years old, and she was thirty years old when they were married in San Antonio, Texas. Olivia was born on October 17, 1889, in San Antonio and died on December 21, 1975, at San Antonio. She was the daughter of August Ahr and Josephine Haby of San Antonio. He was a grandson of Pierre Saucier and Elizabeth Nicaise, the great grandson of Philippe Saucier and Mary Louise Nicaise, great great-grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix and his third great grandparents were Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary of Colonial Mobile. Records show one son for Ferdinand and Olivia, Everest August Saucier.
Emil Peter Saucier was the seventh child and fifth born son of Evariste Marie Saucier and his second wife Elizabeth Constance Roussell. Emil was born on June 6, 1889, at San Antonio, Texas and died on November 1, 1968, at Blanco, Texas at the age of seventy-nine. He was a grandson of Pierre Saucier and Elizabeth Nicaise, the great grandson of Philippe Saucier and Mary Louise Nicaise, great great-grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix and his third great grandparents were Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary of Colonial Mobile. He married Charlotte Mary Way in San Antonio. She was born on June 27, 1891, at San Antonio and died at San Antonio on December 19, 1976, at the age of eighty-five. She was the daughter of William Henry Way and Agnes Mary Heap of England. No descendants were found for Emil and Charlotte.
Pictured above is a painting of Laurel Wood Plantation located on Mulatto Bayou in Hancock County, Mississippi. Built in the early 1800’s by Philippe Saucier and sold to Colonel J. F. Claiborne in 1849. It was renamed the Clairborne Sea Glen Plantation and remained on the Bayou until it was purchased and demolished to make room for an Industrial Complex in Hancock County, Mississippi in the 1960’s. Pictured below is another photo of Laurel Wood Plantation. The second photo was taken a short time before it was demolished.
Aimee Elizabeth Saucier was the eighth child and third daughter born to Evariste Marie Saucier and his second wife Elizabeth Constance Roussell. Aimee was born in San Antonio on January 28, 1891 and died on August 13, 1979 at San Antonio at the age of eighty-eight. Aimee was a granddaughter of Pierre Saucier and Elizabeth Nicaise, the great granddaughter of Philippe Saucier and Mary Louise Nicaise, great great-granddaughter of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix and her third great grandparents were Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary of Colonial Mobile. Aimee married John Paul Killeen in San Antonio. He was born in Houston, Texas on March 22, 1901 and died in San Antonio on October 15, 1984 at the age of eighty-three. No records for descendants for Aimee and John were found.
Anatole Jacques (James) Saucier was the ninth child and sixth son born to Evariste Marie Saucier and his second wife Elizabeth Constance Roussell. Anatole was born in San Antonio on September 5, 1897 and died on July 27, 1957 at San Antonio at the age of fifty-nine. He was a grandson of Pierre Saucier and Elizabeth Nicaise, the great grandson of Philippe Saucier and Mary Louise Nicaise, great great-grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix and his third great grandparents were Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary of Colonial Mobile. No additional information for Anatole.
Matthew Saucier was the sixth and last child of Pierre Saucier and Elizabeth Nicaise. He was born at Delisle on February 7, 1852 and died at the age of four years in 1856 at Delisle. Matthew was the grandson of Philippe Saucier and Mary Louise Nicaise, great grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix and his second great grandparents were Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary of Colonial Mobile.
The area of Delisle, located four miles north of Pass Christian, Mississippi, was first explored by our paternal ancestor, Jean Baptiste Saucier, in the early 1700’s when he along with other soldiers from the old Biloxi fort and then later at the Mobile settlement ventured through the area, trading, hunting and living with area Indians when food supplies ran short in the settlements. However, the area did not actually become settled until 80 years later when his grandson Philippe Saucier, the son of Henri (Henry), received a Spanish land grant in the Bay St. Louis area, recorded on August 27, 1781 for 680 acres of land. Philippe Saucier and his brother in law Bartholomew Grelot, along with their spouses, had moved from "Belle Fontaine" in the Mobile area in the late 1770s. They settled at present day Bay St. Louis in an area that they also called "Belle Fontaine Plantation" after their former plantation near Mobile. On August 9, 1893 Belle Fontaine Plantation was sold to the widow Mary Ann Hamon for either the sum of $60.00 or payable with seven head of cattle according to records of the transaction. A short time later, Philippe Saucier and Bartholomew Grelot and their families moved across the Bay of St. Louis to the Delisle area. On July 6, 1794, a second track of land on Bayou Delisle, adjacent to his brother-in-law Bartholome Grelot was granted to Philippe by the Spanish Government.
Family records show that Philippe Saucier and his family lived on the family plantation, in Delisle, located on a bluff overlooking the Wolf River. The plantation was located on a 7.9 mile land grant situated along the Wolf River. The family plantation was known as Windy Hill, and in 1960 it was owned and occupied by Thomas Parker who had purchased the property in about 1940 from Sylvester Dedeaux, a direct descendant of Philippe and Marie Louise Nicaise Saucier through their daughter Mary Magdeline Saucier and her husband Jean Pierre Dedeaux. Sylvester Dedeaux was a 2nd great grandson of Philippe and Mary Louise.
This writer would like to note that the French name of Nicaise which is prevalent in this genealogy was always spelled with an "i" in records before World War I. Sometime after the war the name began being spelled as it was pronounced, Necaise, "Knee-Case". There are still some local coast families that have kept the original French spelling of Nicaise. Whichever way it is spelled it is still the same family.
The Saucier's, early French Canadian settlers in the territory, were soon joined by other settlers with familiar family names that still survive today, Nicaise (Necaise), Moran (Morin), Lizana, Dedeaux, Cassibry and Ladner (Ladnier), who married into the Saucier family and settled in the area of Delisle and raised large families in coastal Mississippi.
The early Gulf Coast settlement of Delisle was originally known by the early French settlers as La Riviere des Loups, or The Wolf River. Before the Civil War, then still known as Riviere des Loups, the early Delisle settlement was comprised of numerous saw mills, brick yards, ship yards, and charcoal manufacturing companies. In 1880 after its French name was translated into English, it became known as Wolf Town. After the creation of its post office in 1884 its name was changed to Delisle, a name it still possesses. Located four miles north of Pass Christian, Delisle has never been incorporated. The timber lands have been cut over since the 1920’s, and today, with the lumber mills and timber business a thing of the past, the community is composed of a scattered population which has greatly increased in recent years.
After the Saucier Family settled on their Spanish land grant, in what afterwards became Hancock and Harrison Counties of Mississippi, they engaged in the lumber business on the Jourdan and Wolf Rivers, Later, on the Jourdan and Bayou La Croix they planted Sea Island cotton, a very fine grade of cotton, and sugar cane with the help of numerous slaves. A disastrous hurricane on September 15th & 16th of 1858 flooded the plantations with sea water, making the land useless for growing food and cotton crops for several years which affected the families income and finances.
The Saucier family also operated, Belle Fontaine Plantation, which was located in the area known today as Pine Hills, Cedar Bluff Plantation, a 1450 acre cotton plantation on Bayou Phillip, as well as a plantation on Bayou La Croix in Hancock County during the 1850’s. The plantation at Bayou LaCroix grew sugarcane and was known as the Sugar Farm. Francois Saucier’s plantation, Sea Island Plantation, located on Mulatto Bayou also raised cotton. His plantation house was demolished in the 1940’s by its then owner, International Paper Company, after it had become badly vandalized and became dilapidated.
Wolf Town, later known as Delisle, and the Wolf River area of Hancock County, Mississippi was one of the marshalling areas for the slave trading operations of famed pirate Jean Lafitte and his associates. It is said, according to many accounts, that Edward Livingston, a New Orleans attorney, and resident of Delisle, along with Philippe Saucier and his family were associated with Jean Lafitte in the slave trade. The Saucier’s of Delisle seem to have been partners in the slave procurement business with Jean Laffite, Specializing in slaves from Nigeria or Guinea who had Arabic or white blood. It has been written that New Orleans people of that era and time considered the Arabic or white blood slaves to be superior for housework.
Philippe Saucier's Laurel Wood Plantation is reported to have been used as a transfer point for slaves smuggled into the area to be “refreshed” after the long harsh sea journey that greatly reduced their value. After a short period of time to strengthen the new arrivals they were smuggled from Laurel Wood into the slave markets of New Orleans, other points in Louisiana and elsewhere.
The Mississippi Gulf Coast, especially secluded inlets such as the Pearl River and Mulatto Bayou, afforded cover for the transfer and furnishing of slaves to neighboring Louisiana plantation owners, the New Orleans slave traders and plantations in Texas. Francois Saucier's Sea Island Plantation on Mulatto Bayou is also believed to have been involved in the slave trade operations according to some reports. The former site of Francois Saucier's Sea Island plantation is now the site of the Hancock County Port and Harbor Commission's offices.
Laurel Wood Plantation was later called the Claiborne Sea Glen Plantation after it was sold by the family of Philippe Saucier to Colonel John F. Claiborne in 1849. It was located in a remote area on the east side of Mulatto Bayou, a tributary of the Pearl River, two miles southeast of Pearlington, near the mouth of Mulatto Bayou where it emptied into Pearl River. Built in early 1800 on a 2, 800 acre French Land Grant by Philippe with slave labor, the house was a typical Cotton Planter's Plantation and home of the era.
It was an attractive home, with a belvedere (open gallery across the front), a broad 150 foot front gallery or porch, and dormer windows protected by thick storm shutters. The main floor resting on high brick piers that formed additional rooms below the main house. The gallery and living area was reached by a single flight of steps, and its roof was supported by slender hand-hewn heavy oak and cedar beams that were so closely spaced that a person could hardly squeeze between them. It had a wide central hall from which opened huge rooms with 14 foot high ceilings. The renowned French artist of New Orleans, George D. Coulon, was hired by Philippe to decorate its interior walls with murals. The walls in the hall and dining room were attractively decorated with paintings of fishing and hunting scenes by Coulon. Historical records on the house say no nails were used in its construction; wooden pegs were used instead and created a very strong house that survived many hurricanes of those early years. The bricks used in construction of the house and other structures on the plantation were handmade and burned (fired) on the property. The original home had a hand hewn wooden cedar slate roof. Its inner walls were also made of solid cypress. The cedar slate roof in the homes latter years was replaced with a tin roof. All timber used in its construction was hand hewn from timber grown and cut on the property. Also constructed on the plantation were several large barns, a milk house and numerous small houses for its slave work force. Laurel Wood, later known as Sea Glen Plantation, was a cotton plantation that raised a fine grade of highly sought after cotton, only grown in this area, with the help of over a hundred slaves. It was the first plantation of the area to successfully grow Sea Island cotton.
The old plantation style home had withstood the elements, numerous hurricanes over the years and escaped destruction by accidental fire and a fire by the hands of invading soldiers during the Civil War only to be demolished in the 1960s by its then owner, a pulpwood firm. The last residents of the old house were the Alfred Staufflet family. Lester Alexander, the last owner had stipulated in his sales contract that the Staufflet family were to live in the house as long as they lived. Mrs. Staufflet however, vacated the home after the death of her husband and their children and grandchildren moved elsewhere, and its then owner would later demolish the remaining buildings on the property.
The WPA reported in its 1930's report that "the house with a pitched tin roof was supported by brick piers joined by iron bars forming areas to house slaves brought ashore from slave ships in the early days of the century". Some local inhabitants of Hancock County still remember what appeared to have been a slave prison or holding area under the raised house. Before the house was demolished in the 1960’s to build the Port Bienville Industrial complex, workmen demolishing the old plantation also reported what appeared to be cages under the house, possibly the slave block, or holding area, used to house new arrivals smuggled in aboard slave ships. Slave quarters were located behind the main plantation house for its workers. The brick above ground tomb of Philippe Saucier is supposedly, according to some accounts, located under the oaks in a small family cemetery near where the Laurel Wood/Sea Glen Plantation home was located, with an oak tree growing through his tomb. John Claiborne, who purchased Laurel Wood Plantation from the family of Phillip Saucier, continued to own and operate it after the Civil War, growing a fine grade of cotton and other crops there, until his death in 1884.
Before the Civil War the Saucier family had been land owners and slave holders on Wolf River, at Bayou Phillip, on Bayou La Croix in Hancock County, Mississippi and in other areas of the Gulf Coast as well as in Louisiana. The Civil War and its aftermath, along with the loss of property and wealth was very costly to the family, leaving them with financial problems for many years into the future…..
Anatole Jacques (James) Saucier was the ninth child and sixth son born to Evariste Marie Saucier and his second wife Elizabeth Constance Roussell. Anatole was born in San Antonio on September 5, 1897 and died on July 27, 1957 at San Antonio at the age of fifty-nine. He was a grandson of Pierre Saucier and Elizabeth Nicaise, the great grandson of Philippe Saucier and Mary Louise Nicaise, great great-grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix and his third great grandparents were Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary of Colonial Mobile. No additional information for Anatole.
Matthew Saucier was the sixth and last child of Pierre Saucier and Elizabeth Nicaise. He was born at Delisle on February 7, 1852 and died at the age of four years in 1856 at Delisle. Matthew was the grandson of Philippe Saucier and Mary Louise Nicaise, great grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix and his second great grandparents were Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary of Colonial Mobile.
The area of Delisle, located four miles north of Pass Christian, Mississippi, was first explored by our paternal ancestor, Jean Baptiste Saucier, in the early 1700’s when he along with other soldiers from the old Biloxi fort and then later at the Mobile settlement ventured through the area, trading, hunting and living with area Indians when food supplies ran short in the settlements. However, the area did not actually become settled until 80 years later when his grandson Philippe Saucier, the son of Henri (Henry), received a Spanish land grant in the Bay St. Louis area, recorded on August 27, 1781 for 680 acres of land. Philippe Saucier and his brother in law Bartholomew Grelot, along with their spouses, had moved from "Belle Fontaine" in the Mobile area in the late 1770s. They settled at present day Bay St. Louis in an area that they also called "Belle Fontaine Plantation" after their former plantation near Mobile. On August 9, 1893 Belle Fontaine Plantation was sold to the widow Mary Ann Hamon for either the sum of $60.00 or payable with seven head of cattle according to records of the transaction. A short time later, Philippe Saucier and Bartholomew Grelot and their families moved across the Bay of St. Louis to the Delisle area. On July 6, 1794, a second track of land on Bayou Delisle, adjacent to his brother-in-law Bartholome Grelot was granted to Philippe by the Spanish Government.
Family records show that Philippe Saucier and his family lived on the family plantation, in Delisle, located on a bluff overlooking the Wolf River. The plantation was located on a 7.9 mile land grant situated along the Wolf River. The family plantation was known as Windy Hill, and in 1960 it was owned and occupied by Thomas Parker who had purchased the property in about 1940 from Sylvester Dedeaux, a direct descendant of Philippe and Marie Louise Nicaise Saucier through their daughter Mary Magdeline Saucier and her husband Jean Pierre Dedeaux. Sylvester Dedeaux was a 2nd great grandson of Philippe and Mary Louise.
This writer would like to note that the French name of Nicaise which is prevalent in this genealogy was always spelled with an "i" in records before World War I. Sometime after the war the name began being spelled as it was pronounced, Necaise, "Knee-Case". There are still some local coast families that have kept the original French spelling of Nicaise. Whichever way it is spelled it is still the same family.
The Saucier's, early French Canadian settlers in the territory, were soon joined by other settlers with familiar family names that still survive today, Nicaise (Necaise), Moran (Morin), Lizana, Dedeaux, Cassibry and Ladner (Ladnier), who married into the Saucier family and settled in the area of Delisle and raised large families in coastal Mississippi.
The early Gulf Coast settlement of Delisle was originally known by the early French settlers as La Riviere des Loups, or The Wolf River. Before the Civil War, then still known as Riviere des Loups, the early Delisle settlement was comprised of numerous saw mills, brick yards, ship yards, and charcoal manufacturing companies. In 1880 after its French name was translated into English, it became known as Wolf Town. After the creation of its post office in 1884 its name was changed to Delisle, a name it still possesses. Located four miles north of Pass Christian, Delisle has never been incorporated. The timber lands have been cut over since the 1920’s, and today, with the lumber mills and timber business a thing of the past, the community is composed of a scattered population which has greatly increased in recent years.
After the Saucier Family settled on their Spanish land grant, in what afterwards became Hancock and Harrison Counties of Mississippi, they engaged in the lumber business on the Jourdan and Wolf Rivers, Later, on the Jourdan and Bayou La Croix they planted Sea Island cotton, a very fine grade of cotton, and sugar cane with the help of numerous slaves. A disastrous hurricane on September 15th & 16th of 1858 flooded the plantations with sea water, making the land useless for growing food and cotton crops for several years which affected the families income and finances.
The Saucier family also operated, Belle Fontaine Plantation, which was located in the area known today as Pine Hills, Cedar Bluff Plantation, a 1450 acre cotton plantation on Bayou Phillip, as well as a plantation on Bayou La Croix in Hancock County during the 1850’s. The plantation at Bayou LaCroix grew sugarcane and was known as the Sugar Farm. Francois Saucier’s plantation, Sea Island Plantation, located on Mulatto Bayou also raised cotton. His plantation house was demolished in the 1940’s by its then owner, International Paper Company, after it had become badly vandalized and became dilapidated.
Wolf Town, later known as Delisle, and the Wolf River area of Hancock County, Mississippi was one of the marshalling areas for the slave trading operations of famed pirate Jean Lafitte and his associates. It is said, according to many accounts, that Edward Livingston, a New Orleans attorney, and resident of Delisle, along with Philippe Saucier and his family were associated with Jean Lafitte in the slave trade. The Saucier’s of Delisle seem to have been partners in the slave procurement business with Jean Laffite, Specializing in slaves from Nigeria or Guinea who had Arabic or white blood. It has been written that New Orleans people of that era and time considered the Arabic or white blood slaves to be superior for housework.
Philippe Saucier's Laurel Wood Plantation is reported to have been used as a transfer point for slaves smuggled into the area to be “refreshed” after the long harsh sea journey that greatly reduced their value. After a short period of time to strengthen the new arrivals they were smuggled from Laurel Wood into the slave markets of New Orleans, other points in Louisiana and elsewhere.
The Mississippi Gulf Coast, especially secluded inlets such as the Pearl River and Mulatto Bayou, afforded cover for the transfer and furnishing of slaves to neighboring Louisiana plantation owners, the New Orleans slave traders and plantations in Texas. Francois Saucier's Sea Island Plantation on Mulatto Bayou is also believed to have been involved in the slave trade operations according to some reports. The former site of Francois Saucier's Sea Island plantation is now the site of the Hancock County Port and Harbor Commission's offices.
Laurel Wood Plantation was later called the Claiborne Sea Glen Plantation after it was sold by the family of Philippe Saucier to Colonel John F. Claiborne in 1849. It was located in a remote area on the east side of Mulatto Bayou, a tributary of the Pearl River, two miles southeast of Pearlington, near the mouth of Mulatto Bayou where it emptied into Pearl River. Built in early 1800 on a 2, 800 acre French Land Grant by Philippe with slave labor, the house was a typical Cotton Planter's Plantation and home of the era.
It was an attractive home, with a belvedere (open gallery across the front), a broad 150 foot front gallery or porch, and dormer windows protected by thick storm shutters. The main floor resting on high brick piers that formed additional rooms below the main house. The gallery and living area was reached by a single flight of steps, and its roof was supported by slender hand-hewn heavy oak and cedar beams that were so closely spaced that a person could hardly squeeze between them. It had a wide central hall from which opened huge rooms with 14 foot high ceilings. The renowned French artist of New Orleans, George D. Coulon, was hired by Philippe to decorate its interior walls with murals. The walls in the hall and dining room were attractively decorated with paintings of fishing and hunting scenes by Coulon. Historical records on the house say no nails were used in its construction; wooden pegs were used instead and created a very strong house that survived many hurricanes of those early years. The bricks used in construction of the house and other structures on the plantation were handmade and burned (fired) on the property. The original home had a hand hewn wooden cedar slate roof. Its inner walls were also made of solid cypress. The cedar slate roof in the homes latter years was replaced with a tin roof. All timber used in its construction was hand hewn from timber grown and cut on the property. Also constructed on the plantation were several large barns, a milk house and numerous small houses for its slave work force. Laurel Wood, later known as Sea Glen Plantation, was a cotton plantation that raised a fine grade of highly sought after cotton, only grown in this area, with the help of over a hundred slaves. It was the first plantation of the area to successfully grow Sea Island cotton.
The old plantation style home had withstood the elements, numerous hurricanes over the years and escaped destruction by accidental fire and a fire by the hands of invading soldiers during the Civil War only to be demolished in the 1960s by its then owner, a pulpwood firm. The last residents of the old house were the Alfred Staufflet family. Lester Alexander, the last owner had stipulated in his sales contract that the Staufflet family were to live in the house as long as they lived. Mrs. Staufflet however, vacated the home after the death of her husband and their children and grandchildren moved elsewhere, and its then owner would later demolish the remaining buildings on the property.
The WPA reported in its 1930's report that "the house with a pitched tin roof was supported by brick piers joined by iron bars forming areas to house slaves brought ashore from slave ships in the early days of the century". Some local inhabitants of Hancock County still remember what appeared to have been a slave prison or holding area under the raised house. Before the house was demolished in the 1960’s to build the Port Bienville Industrial complex, workmen demolishing the old plantation also reported what appeared to be cages under the house, possibly the slave block, or holding area, used to house new arrivals smuggled in aboard slave ships. Slave quarters were located behind the main plantation house for its workers. The brick above ground tomb of Philippe Saucier is supposedly, according to some accounts, located under the oaks in a small family cemetery near where the Laurel Wood/Sea Glen Plantation home was located, with an oak tree growing through his tomb. John Claiborne, who purchased Laurel Wood Plantation from the family of Phillip Saucier, continued to own and operate it after the Civil War, growing a fine grade of cotton and other crops there, until his death in 1884.
Before the Civil War the Saucier family had been land owners and slave holders on Wolf River, at Bayou Phillip, on Bayou La Croix in Hancock County, Mississippi and in other areas of the Gulf Coast as well as in Louisiana. The Civil War and its aftermath, along with the loss of property and wealth was very costly to the family, leaving them with financial problems for many years into the future…..