Lordy, Lordy, I found some Gordys!
- Karen Derrick-Davis
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
Today, was a perfect example of an adventure with ancestors!
In previous research, I'd found my dad's Gordy line in St. Mary Parish, so we added a stop to our Louisiana itinerary and I hoped for the best.
I had two St Mary Parish destinations in mind: 1) the town of Franklin where a Gordy Hotel was once located in the 1830s and 2) the long-abandoned South Bend Cemetery out of town where, according to Findagrave.com, many Gordys are buried.
From an essay shared by a distant relative on Ancestry.com, I learned that Dad's third great-grandfather, Peter W. Gordy, emigrated from Maryland to St. Mary Parish in the 1810s. He and two brothers, Michael and Benjamin, were some of the first non-native settlers on Bayou Sale and partnered to establish a sugarcane plantation, utilizing enslaved Africans for labor. I had few clues about the actual location of the plantation.
Previous searching of old newspapers online had revealed a Gordy Hotel owned by John C Gordy, the son of William Gordy (a brother of Peter's who had stayed in Maryland, rather than go to Louisiana). William's two sons decided to follow their uncles to the deep south.
Franklin, Louisiana
We rolled into Franklin, Louisiana with only a vague idea of the location of the Franklin (Gordy) Hotel on Main Street. The 1853 sale notice described a "large garden in a fine state of cultivation" with fruit trees in the yard backing up to Bayou Teche, a primary Louisiana waterway running right alongside the town.
We easily found a parking space large enough to park our truck and trailer on the quaint Main Street. Gather on Main Vintage Market looked like a good place to start, so I headed inside. I asked "Jill" (names changed to protect the innocent), behind the counter, if she knew of the Gordy Hotel from the 1800's. Eager to assist, she started dialing and had "Tommy" on the phone within a couple of minutes. Lucky for me, Tommy was just across the street doing some business at Stiel Insurance office, so Jill pointed me in the right direction and I headed over. Upon entering, a young woman ushered me to a spacious back room and Tommy offered me a seat at a table of folks shooting the breeze and planning Mardi Gras -- the season is here!
Before long, Tommy brought up an antique photo on his phone that had the corner of the Gordy Hotel in view.
Sadly, both the courthouse and the hotel have since been demolished. The location of the hotel is now Wilson Street -- a short little road that intersects Main Street and ends a short block later at Bayou Teche. No one at the table was aware of the Gordy plantation land or knew any Gordys, but they were very friendly and wished me well.
We walked down Main Street to Wilson Street and I stood where the hotel might have been and placed my hand on an imaginary door handle.
Finding the actual hotel would have been amazing -- but at least I now have a photo of the corner of it! The Teche waterfront in Franklin is lovely. I will never tire of walking amongst silverly Spanish moss swaying beautifully from the cypress tree limbs.
We made our way back to the truck and drove out Main Street, passing beautiful pre-Civil War mansions set back along the boulevard.
South Bend Cemetery & Beyond
We followed the road from Franklin several miles toward the Gulf and eventually arrived at the GPS coordinates provided by findagrave.com for South Bend Cemetery. We parked on a gravel road next to the grove of trees surrounded by sugarcane fields. I walked the perimeter and, as expected, saw no sign of any gravestones when I could see more than a few feet into the mass of overgrowth.
Evidently, the three Gordy brothers, their wives and several children are buried here. Just as we were about to back out and continue on our way to New Orleans, a guy in a truck pulled up to ask if we needed any help. We said we were good and just looking for the old cemetery. My husband asked him if he knew anything about the cemetery or the area. Yes! He, "Danny," was born and raised just down the road and still lived nearby. He was a treasure trove of info! He knew about "Petey Gordy's canal" -- in fact, it was right next to his house. I had read that Peter Gordy built a canal from the plantation to the Gulf to transport products and supplies, but I thought there was virtually no chance I would find it! He also said that the town of Gordy -- which I had no idea existed -- would show up if I zoomed in on Google Maps...it did.
We changed our plans and kept going down the road in search of Petey Gordy's Canal and the town of Gordy -- the location of the Gordy brothers' plantation. The canal is only a slight dip in the landscape and the area of the planation is still covered by sugarcane, though also by oil and gas drilling. It was again meaningful and unsettling to visit land where my ancestors enslaved others.
Danny mentioned a campground at Burns Point Park, a bit beyond Gordy, with sites right on the Gulf. As we pulled into the simple and mostly empty park, the sun was starting its evening descent. When the day began, I had no idea it would end with a gulf coast sunset just a couple miles from ancestral land. What an ADVENTURE!
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