MANY CHACHERES AND THEIR KIN AT ANNUAL REUNION SATURDAY AT KINDER; OLD HISTORY RECALLED

Crowley Signal August 26, 1929

If Grandfather Louis Chachere or his venerable shade, along with that of his good wife, Catherine, had been somewhere around Kinder in Allen parish Saturday they would have taken great pride in the gathering there on that day – because all in the crowd were Chacheres, either through blood or marriage.

Probably the annual gathering at Kinder Saturday ranks as the most unique in Louisiana, for members of the Chachere family, their kin and connection, descended from pioneer settlers of Southwest Louisiana, motored and marched on the little Allen parish town for the family reunion which has been held every twelve months for the past 127 years, with brief interruptions during the Civil and World Wars. The date marks the anniversary of the family’s patron, Saint Louis.

Among members of the Chachere family and connections going from Crowley were Mr. and Mrs. J.D. Haines and family, Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Toler and family, Mrs. W. F. Brooks, Mrs. J.W. Bernard, Mrs. B.A. Meaux, Mrs. A.J. Meaux, Howard Brooks, Mrs. Clotilde Meaux. Pete Brooks of Shreveport came down for the reunion.

Bearing two score names, but all direct descendants of Louis Chachere and Catherine Vauchere, founders of the reunion, members of the clan “dropped in” at the picnic grounds to swap the family gossip of the year, and talk of who has married whom, and who has gone on, and of the other reunions of a generation past whose memory is like a string of beads trailing back into the dusty mist of childhood.

There never was a time, save during the wars, when these survivors could not remember the annual gathering.

According to James O. Chachere of Opelousas, 84 year old life-time president of the reunion, there never was a time in his memory when less than 250 members of the family showed up for the yearly affair. “And often there were many more,” he adds.

He has long worked on a complete family tree, but is unable to say just exactly how many hundreds there are now in the family.

However, according to his partial compilation, Louis Chachere and Catherine Vauchere, the original settlers, had ten children and only the oldest son, Louis, never married. Of the other nine:

Veilland Chachere, born May 25, 1901, married Heloise Lavergne and had 13 children.

Constant Chachere married Celestine Lavergne and had 10 children.

Hermance Chachere married Dominique C. Sittig and had 11 children.

Pouponne Louise Chachere married Leon Boutte and had 5 children.

Lisle Chachere married Emeranthe David and had 6 children.

Beaurepaire Chachere married Eugenie Lavergne and had 5 children.

Jacinthe Chachere married Jack Bacon and had 2 children.

Emelite Melite Chachere married B. Martel and had 6 children.

Manette Chachere married Antoine Boutte and had 5 children.

From these are descended the:

Arnauds

Bacons

Beauchamps

Benguerelle

Bernards

Bertrands

Bouttes

Brooks

Cahanins

Carrons

Chacheres

Darbys

Davids

Deputys

Desmarais’

Diavilles

Elmers

Ewings

Fux’s

Gills

Goldmans

Grandres

Guidrys,

Hundleys

Lyons’

Martels

Meginleys

Milsteads

Moores

Pitres

Prudhommes

Richards

Roos’s

Sandoz’s

Sittigs

Staggs

Veltins

Youngs

Clarkes

Comptons

Daigles

Savants

Bouillets

Verrets

Perraults

Bourques

President Chachere declares that the records about the founder is vague, but that “our” grandfather Louis came to this country we think the latter part of the seventeenth century. He adopted St. Louis as our patron saint. The birthday of St. Louis was August 25, and we, the descendants of Louis Chachere, mark it to the present day, assembling at various parts of this parish  (St. Landry) with few exceptions when the meeting has been held nearby. The place is always decided by vote of the family, and Kinder was selected this year to meet the convenience of the majority. The 25^th being Sunday, and some objection being made, Saturday August 24 was agreed upon.”

President Chachere is the son of Veilland Chachere, second son of Louis and Catherine, who automatically became a sort of family head when the eldest son failed to marry. Referring to his father, President Chachere says: “He was born here in Opelousas in 1801 *** he always talked about the reunions and remembered them from his infancy.”

It is his hope, says the chief of the Chacheres, that the family reunion will be kept annually – “always.”

He emphasized that intoxicating liquors were never served at the reunions following the Eighteenth Amendent, and said the family’s meal together each year consisted of “barbecured meat, coffee, lemonade and cakes and salad of various kinds, with a barrel of ice water near at hand.”