CHURCH
OF ST.
JOHN THE
BAPTIST
PARISH
In
1771,
the
Germans
of the
upper
German
Coast
built
the
church
of St.
John the
Baptist,
in
Edgard,
upon the
right
side of
the
river, a
few
miles
from the
place
where
the
first
chapel
had
been.
Fortunately,
the
records
of this
church
have
been
preserved,
and are
in good
condition.
To that
church
the
author
paid
more
than
thirty
visits,
and
there he
gathered
rich
material
for his
work.
The
corner
stone of
the
present
church
of St.
John the
Baptist
was laid
on the
4th of
June,
1820,
and it
was
consecrated
on the
I7th of
March,
1822. It
took the
place of
the
first
St. John
the
Baptist
Church,
erected
about
1771.
The
records
of the
church
begin in
the year
1772
with the
entry of
the
marriage
of Anton
Manz
(now
"Montz"),
of the
diocese
of
Strassburg,
the son
of Jos.
M. and
Anna
Maria
Laufer,
who
married
Sibylla
Bischof,
daughter
of
Joseph
Bischof
and Anna
Maria
Raeser,
of St.
John.
The
Raeser
family
came to
Louisiana
in 1721.
On
account
of the
dampness
of the
ground,
the dead
are
buried
here in
tombs
above
ground,
and some
very
fine
buried
here in
tombs
above
ground,
and some
very
fine
tombs
belonging
to the
old
colonial
German
families
may be
seen in
this
cemetery.
About
1864,
the
portion
of this
parish
on the
opposite
bank of
the
Mississippi
was
organized
as the
independent
parish
of St.
Peter.
The
station
"Reserve"
of the
Yazoo
&
Mississippi
Valley
Railway,
thirty-five
miles
above
New
Orleans,
is about
half a
mile
from
this
church.
When, in
1769,
the
first
church
and
cemetery
of St.
John
were
planned,
there
was some
trouble
to find
the
necessary
ground
for
them.
The
Spanish
General
O'Reilly,
hearing
that
some old
bachelor
had more
land,
twelve
arpents,
than he
could
attend
to
ordered
him to
furnish
the
necessary
ground
for both
church
and
cemetery.
To
compensate
him for
his
loss,
the
community
was
commanded
to clear
for him
the same
number
of
arpents
on the
remaining
land of
the man,
and to
give him
the same
number
of new
pickets
as he
had lost
with the
church
land.
This
order
was
signed
on the
21st of
February,
1770.
The
original
is still
to be
seen in
the
court
house at
Edgard.
Situation:
The
church
of St.
John the
Baptist
is
immediately
behind
the
levee,
St. John
the
Baptist
parish,
Louisiana,
two
miles
from St.
John
station
of the
Texas
&
Pacific
Railway,
thirty-five
miles by
rail
above
New
Orleans.
The post
office
on the
place is
called
"Edgard."
The
first
parish
priest
(1772)
was
Pater
Bernhard
von
Limbach,
a German
Capuchin,
who
later
was
transferred
to St.
Louis,
Missouri.
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on this
website
is ©
Copyright
2007 by
Genealogy
Trails
with
full
rights
reserved
for
original
submitters.
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