12/29/2025
Reposting at the 125th Anniversary of Reserve getting its name.
THE NAMING OF RESERVE—STORY VS FACT
Here is the story we grew up hearing. In the mid-1840s, young Leon Godchaux was a peddler, calling on plantation owners between New Orleans and Donaldsonville. Calling on Souvenir Plantation, owned by the Boudousquie family, he was rudely kicked off the property. He shouted back at the owner to “Reserve” this land for him, as he would one day return and purchase it. After becoming a wealthy store owner in New Orleans, he returned and bought the plantation in 1860. He soon renamed the plantation to Reserve, resulting in the town also receiving the same name. There are variations on this story, including one that Godchaux bought the town. However, they are all more fiction than fact.
Now for the facts. There is no proof that Leon was booted off Souvenir Plantation. The story comes from a fictional book by Elma Godchaux, Leon's granddaughter.. However, he did buy Souvenir in 1880. The problem is that Souvenir was located just north of Donaldsonville.
The plantation that was the site of the former Godchaux Sugar Refinery, and now the Port of South Louisiana was owned by Antoine Boudousquie. Before 1850 Boudousquie had named his plantation “Reserve”. This reference can be found in Champomier's Sugar Cane Statements for Louisiana and maps such as Persac's map or Norman's Chart of the Miss. River. We do not know what prompted him to choose this name.
Godchaux bought Reserve Plantation from Boudousquie's widow on June 1, 1869. The record is at the St. John the Baptist parish courthouse. So, the plantation was named “Reserve” at least 19 years before Godchaux took ownership, and Leon decided to keep the name the same.
The town surrounding Reserve Plantation was known in the 1800s as “Bonnet Carre”. This shows up in the 1870 federal census as the name of the Post Office. However, when the railroad arrived in 1883, the train station was located behind the St. Peter's church cemetery and the train stop on railroad maps was listed as “St. Peter”. It was common practice that the town adopted the name on the map and the town was called St. Peter, although the Post Office was still Bonnet Carre. Bonnet Carre encompassed other plantations, besides Reserve, such as Cornland, Belle Pointe, Star, Terre Haute, and Voisin.
Godchaux was not happy that picking up freight and supplies for his refinery from the train station meant taking horse drawn wagons on a dirt, often muddy, road through the middle of the cemetery. He convinced the railroad to move the station to his Reserve Plantation, not a far distance. With the move, the railroad depot changed names from St. Peter to Reserve, and railroad maps listed the stop as Reserve. We are not sure when this happened, but the government still named the Post Office as Bonnet Carre.
So, when did Reserve officially get its name? Well, the Post Office apparently changed from Bonnet Carre to Reserve in December, 1900. This can be noted in the local newspaper, Le Meschacebe (French for Mississippi). Refer to the attached photos, as the location noted in the heading. Also, Leon Godchaux did not live to see the change, as he died in 1899.
These are the facts. The date that Godchaux had supposedly purchased Reserve in 1860 was used as the basis for the Reserve Centennial in 1960. This mistake was already known at the time and published by historians Michael Maurin and Edith Vicknair. Their articles and letters in L'Observateur were used to assist writing this article, but all facts were independently researched.
Interesting note: The Boudousquies, like most residents at the time, spoke French. They named their plantation “Reserve”, which is a French word. However, it has the same spelling and meaning in English. So, if someone asks you why your town has a funny name, just tell them it's French, “La Reserve”.
Greg Beadle 2024
