Creole Hauntings
Despite the modern-day meaning of the term Creole, originally it was used to describe the first generation of New Orleans settlers, both French and Spanish who were born in Louisiana and not Europe.
In Spanish the word is very similar—it is criollo. This was the same term used in Cuba to indicate that first generation born there and not in Spain. It was this mixture of the original French and Spanish settlers, which explains why the oldest streets of New Orleans are a mixture of French and Spanish names.
Both of these countries were strongly Catholic, and it was the predominant religion of New Orleans. St. Louis Cathedral located at Jackson Square, is the oldest continuously operating church in the United States. The first church built in 1722, was destroyed within a few years by a hurricane, however since 1721 persons of note were buried underneath the cathedral.
On March 21, 1788 lace draperies on an altar caught fire from a nearby candle. The fire spread and engulfed the Church of St. Louis, and the surrounding buildings. A year would pass before the ruins of the church were removed and a new one was started in 1789. The first Mass was held in Christmas, 1794.
Replete with history the cathedral is the place where two prominent priests are said to wander.
PERE DAGOBERT DE LONGUORY
In 1764, the Treaty of Fontainebleau ended the French and Indian War, and New Orleans became a Spanish colony, however the French king did not tell the colonists that they were now under the rule of Spain. When the Spanish flag was flown, prominent Creoles organized a militia that forced the Spanish to flee to Cuba.
Don Alejandro O’Reilly (1723-1794), the new governor returned with reinforcements. He retook the city and executed the five leaders of the rebellion. After being shot their bodies were dragged to the entrance of the cathedral and left to rot. The governor forbade anyone to touch the corpses.
Pere Dagobert, a Capuchin friar who arrived in New Orleans in 1722, twice asked Don Alejandro to allow burial of the remains, but he was refused.
The priest accompanied by the families of the dead men, took advantage of a rainy night to retrieve the bodies and bury them in unmarked graves. Pere Dagobert died in 1776, and it is said that on still, foggy night a ghostly voice is heard singing the Kyrie, just as he did when they buried the five Creole men.
PADRE ANTONIO DE SEDELLA (1748-1829)
Pere Antoine was born Idelfonso Mareno, and in his teenage years he joined the Capuchin friars. As a new priest he was sent to New Orleans in 1774.
In 1789, Pere Antoine told Governor Miro that he had been appointed by the Spanish crown to serve as Commissary of the Inquisition, and that he was to establish a tribunal in New Orleans. The governor, aware that the presence of the Inquisition would scare away new immigrants, arrested Pere Antoine and expelled him from New Orleans, by putting him on a ship bound for Cadiz, Spain the day after his arrest.
Within a few years, Miro had left and Pere Antoine returned, but there was no more mention of establishing the Inquisition.
He was named the pastor of the Church of St. Louis. In his youth he was known for being inflexible with the people of New Orleans, however later in life he became known for his kindness to prisoners, and the common people. He helped anyone regardless of their nationality or their religion. He was tireless in working with the sick when yellow fever swept through the city.
He baptized Marie Laveau and presided over her wedding in 1819.
In 1803, New Orleans came under the rule of the United States. Friar Antonio continued as rector of St. Louis until his death in 1829.
The ghost of Padre Antonio has been seen walking in an alley once known as Cloister Alley, which lies northeast of the cathedral, engrossed in reading his breviary. The holiday season is when he is most seen. He has also appeared at the altar and on the balconies of the church. St. Anthony's Garden behind St. Louis Cathedral was named after his namesake saint, and was dedicated in Antoine's memory.
The calaboso or the old jail adjacent to St. Louis Cathedral had been rebuilt various times since the early 18th century. New Orleans needed a new prison, and in 1836 a three-story structure that spanned an entire block was built at Congo Square.
With the new prison open, a crew was sent to tear down the old calaboose. The work was difficult as the Spaniards had built it with mortar and solid bricks. The land sat between St. Peter and Orleans streets.
In February 1840, 8 feet below the surface vaults were found. They were arched with strong iron bars. A gold crucifix weighing 28 pounds was found in one of them, also several human bones. At the bottom of this vault was a door leading to a deeper one.
The buildings which formerly occupied the square were the property of the Jesuits more than 100 years before.
Even the oldest citizens of New Orleans were unaware of their existence, and what purpose they served.
A chain gang was used to clear away the debris but their work was stopped when they encountered an iron door.
It's believed the Jesuits constructed the vaults as a place to leave manuscripts and other valuable items in case of war. This explanation however could not account for the human bones. Some wondered if these vaults were to be used when Spain made plans to establish the Inquisition in New Orleans.
The excavations continued into October of that year and the gold crucifix turned out to be only an andiron, used to hold burning logs in a fireplace. Several fine houses were eventually raised on the property.
KATE CHOPIN (1850-1904)
She was born Katherine O’Flaherty and she became one of the most frequently read writers of Louisiana Creole origins. She is best known for her novel The Awakening (1899).
Her mother came of French origins and father, Irish. She married Oscar Chopin in 1870, and had six children between 1871 and 1879.
In 1882, her husband died leaving the family heavily in debt. Within a few short years she had become a widow, suffered the loss of her husband’s business which she tried to salvage, and her mother’s death. She started to write in order to deal with her sadness. By the early 1890s her short stories and articles appeared in various periodicals and literary magazines.
She wrote one short story with a supernatural theme titled Her Letters (1895) in which a woman leaves letters from an extramarital affair to be destroyed unopened by her husband. The man fulfills her request, and eventually drowns himself in the same river where he disposed of the letters, haunted by the curiosity of was contained in them.
THE MURDER OF MR. RONSON
In February, 1852 a mysterious murder came to light.
Two hatters, Charles Duree and Mr. Ronson ran a business on Exchange Alley until August 1851. Duree, 30, was unmarried, and Ronson who was middle-aged was married to a young and beautiful woman who was about 28 years old.
On August 19, 1851 all three went on a pleasure excursion to Lake Ponchartrain. That evening Mr. Duree and Mrs. Ronson returned without her husband. Duree claimed that Ronson had absconded taking all their business funds.
Soon after this Mrs. Ronson starting going by the name of Mrs. Duree. Her new husband continued to run the business as usual.
On November 11, 1851 Coroner Spedden was called to hold an inquest upon the discovery of skeletal remains found covered with sand on the lakeshore, a short distance from the terminus of Ponchartrain Railroad. The skull was fractured in three places. Nearby a hatchet and cane sword were found near the bones. The skull was taken to the coroner's office and examined by Mr. Wilkinson in place of Captain Spedden. Initially none made a connection between the discovery of the skeleton and the disappearance of Mr. Ronson.
Within a few months of the discovery of the human remains, the relationship between Charles Duree and Ronson's wife had soured, to the point that he had beaten her. When they argued she could be loudly making allusions about her former husband, and that she was haunted by his murder.
Neighbors overheard her tirade, and for once many thought of what happened to her one-time-husband. The word reached friends of Mr. Duree who advised him to vindicate his reputation. The man made light of it, and refused to go further with it.
It came to the attention of Coroner Wilkinson who returned to the lakeside and found some hair of a deep auburn color, which matched Mr. Ronson's hair, and a rib of a human body. The discovery was 500 feet from a place called Le Petit Cimetiere or the Small Grave Yard named for a neighborhood graveyard.
When Duree caught wind of the coroner's investigation he took his common law wife and closed his house and business down.
Oscar de Niesemi a friend of Ronson appeared before Recorder Genois, and accused Duree and his new wife of murder. She was apprehended, but Mr. Duree had disappeared.
By the end of February, 1852, Madame Duree was brought before Recorder Seuzeneau on the charge of aiding Charles Duree, who had yet to be apprehended.
According to Oscar de Neiscemi who filed the first affidavit, in September 1851 he was sent by Mr. Mangin to speak with Duree regarding the settlement of the partnership for the hat store. Mr. Duree said there was no act of partnership drawn between them, and that Ronson had disappeared with all of the cash approximately seven to nine months before.
Mr. de Neiscemi knew that Ronson had only disappeared 2 weeks before, and wondered why Duree claimed the man had disappeared months before.
On January 11, 1852 Mr. de Neiscemi was at the Cafe Fourneau at the corner of Exchange Alley and St. Louis street when he saw Duree go to the counter to drink with several of his friends. Duree invited him to drink, and they took to conversing afterward. Duree told him Ronson was dead. He asked Duree how he could be certain of this, and if he had received news of the man’s death. All Duree said was that he knew he was dead, and would never come back.
This is when de Neiscemi started to suspect that Duree had caused the disappearance of his partner. He recognized a straw Panama hat found on the lakeshore as the one Ronson wore the day he disappeared.
He said that Madame Duree before the death of Mr. Ronson, worked as a hat trimmer for the firm, and he wasn't sure whether she actually lived with either of the men. The inference was that she was only Ronson’s mistress and not his legal wife.
Another witness named Madame Constance swore she had seen Charles Duree and Madame Duree with another man dressed in black, and wearing a white straw hat going towards Bayou Cochon. Her house was situated on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain.
She saw all three of them at the little graveyard, and then soon after heard the loud cry of a woman. She thought the woman had been attacked but the group never returned by her house. Three or four fishermen who boarded in her house heard the cry, and went the next day to examine the area of the graveyard but found nothing. In October she was taking a walk in the direction of the spot from where she heard the cry and found human bones. This is when the coroner was notified.
By March it was found the Charles Duree had fled to Louisville.
Letters were intercepted by the authorities that he was heading towards New York, and it was ascertained that he sailed to Havana on February 24, 1852 on the steamer Georgia.
In March 1852 a true bill was found against Charles Duree and his wife for the murder of Ronson.
In June, 1852 she went to trial in the First District Court on the charge of aiding Charles Duree to murder his partner. By then it was ascertained that Duree had left to Cuba, and then headed to Nicaragua. The jury found her not guilty.
During the inquiries Mrs. Duree refused to give any information including Mr. Ronson's first name.
The only record of the identity of the murderers was the marriage record of Charles Duree to Virginie Delaitre on October 14, 1852 in New Orleans.
Both of them dropped from sight, and it’s not known if Mrs. Duree went off to Nicaragua to join her husband, as he had once instructed her to do in one of his letters.
Mr. Ronson never got justice, and it’s assumed he was buried in a pauper’s grave.