Eugène Denis Burguières
June 19, 1804 - 1876
Eugène Denis Burguières was born on June 19, 1804, the same year that 35 year-old Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself emperor of the French. During this chaotic time in French history, thousands of French émigrés escaped to the shores of Louisiana. In the year 1830, Eugène Denis, with his first cousin, Eugène Denis Lalande, became part of a mass emigration of Europeans. He and his cousin had signed up with French promoters to colonize a remote area that is now Veracruz, Mexico. When they arrived in February 1831, after a harrowing journey on the French brig La Glaneuse, it became very apparent that conditions at Veracruz were not as represented by the businessmen. Colonists were dying of yellow fever and starvation. Some even committed suicide. By April, the two cousins were on the schooner Jane, bound for New Orleans. The young men arrived on April 29, 1831.
Eugène Burguières was 27 when he arrived in Louisiana. He settled in the southwest frontier village of Houma, along the banks of Bayou Terrebonne in Terrebonne Parish. There he worked as a recorder in the parish courthouse where he made social and business contacts that would serve him and his family well in the future. By the mid-nineteenth century, Eugène is listed in public records as an attorney in Terrebonne Parish. Eugène was also a teacher at Thibodeaux College and a private tutor for the prominent Jacques Santiago Verret family. At age 33, he married Jacques Verret's oldest daughter, Marie Marianne Verret Delaporte. They would become the progenitors of the 170-year-old Louisiana House of Burguières.
Marie Marianne Verret Delaporte
September 16, 1812 - January 5, 1883
Marie Marianne, born on September 16, 1812, had been married previously to Joseph Delaporte from Dinan, France. Marie Marianne was a beautiful, auburn-haired, green-eyed, 24-year-old widow. She and Eugène lived in a white cypress cottage on what is now East Park in Houma, Louisiana. According to oral history, Marie Marianne was a remarkable, well-respected, highly intelligent woman who had accumulated an extensive medical library. Since there were few doctors in the area, people generally sent for her when they were ill.
Children
Eugène and Marianne had eight children together, plus two from Marianne's first marriage to Joseph Delaporte(*).
- Alfred Delaporte*
- Marie Elvire Delaporte*
- Lucien Auguste Burguières
- Ernest Denis Burguières
- Camilla Pauline Burguières
- Jacqueline Annette Burguières
- Marguerite Nadege Burguières
- Marie Annette Burguières
- Jules Martial Burguières
- Leufroy Burguières
