Himel

Nearly 30 years after my Grannie welcomed her last granddaughter into the world (that would be me), I landed a dream job working for the New Orleans newspaper. That job required me to move from my Uptown New Orleans apartment to one in the small River Parishes community of LaPlace, where I would cover sports.

A spot on what is collectively called "The German-Acadian Coast" in St. John the Baptist Parish, the area is largely populated by the descendants of Acadians who were displaced from Acadia by the English and Germans who were lured to America by John Law -- plus a few who just got on ships on their own.

So, when I moved, I became surrounded by people named Himel and Hymel. And, because of my Grannie, I knew they were all family.

The Himel family tree was the one my grandmother tried to climb the most. Her name was Evelyn Himel Cross. She was the daughter of Lena Himel, the daughter of Oscar Joseph Himel.

Note the "Hi" beginning of the name.

For the longest time, my grandmother, the amateur genealogist, doubted whether or not the Himels and the Hymels were related. Then, from somewhere, she discovered a theory that they most certainly were.

This she believed for most of her life: They were brothers who came over from Germany. One got off the boat and was sent to one line, the other was sent to another. Neither record-taker had great penmanship (or spelling skills for that matter), so one became Himel and one became Hymel.

Um, no.

Well, she was probably right about the spelling. There's Himel and Hymel. Some pronounce it HE-MEL, others HI-MEL, but it all can be traced from Emmelle, Himmel and Immel.

According to the web site Houseofnames.com, the surname "Himmel" originated in the former duchy of Swabia, which was located in Southwestern Germany. The name means "heaven" or "sky," which may refer to the first Himmel, who may have just been a tall guy. There's also an old German drinking song, "In Heaven There Is No Beer," or "Im Himmel gibt's kein Bier." 

There's a Burcardus zem Himmel, who was recorded in 1297. I don't go back that far.

My first Himmel ancestor is recorded as Hans Immel, born in Ellrichshausen, Germany, in 1635. He was my 7th great-grandfather. He had at least one son, Johann Peter Immel. Johann had several children, one of which was David.

David is the one who made his way to Louisiana and started a whole bunch of Himels/Hymels in Louisiana. In 1719, John Law, who was from Scotland and the Treasurer of the King's coffers in France, came up with a grand idea to populate Louisiana to fend off the Indians and the Spanish -- free transportation!

Some 10,000 Swiss, German, Belgian and Austrian families made their way to French ports, ready to go. But the ships weren't. So they crowded them onto "Pest Ships," which were filled with immigrants, pests and diseases with no food and horrible conditions. Roughly half died.

The ships landed in Biloxi, Miss., where the French were barely surviving themselves. They sent some of the immigrants to the Arkansas River, where they fell quickly to the Indians. The rest were sent off to New Orleans. They demanded passage home. Instead, they were given land grants along the German Coast on the Mississippi River above New Orleans.

From the book, German Coast Families, by A.J. Robichaux, Jr., church records from Stebbach (in the Palatinate) Evangelical Lutheran Church read as follows:

  Marriage record of Johann Peter Immel, legitimate surviving son of Hans Immel, former citizen residing in Ellrichshausen, subject of the royal city of Rodenberg, was married with Susanna, surviving widow of the deceased Jacob Nagle, citizen of this place. (Stebbach, Baden, Germany, Evangelical Church, FHL microfilm #1189147, p. 2). 
   Baptisms of their children: 1.Bernhard Immel, born Oct. 6, 1707, Bapt. Oct. 9, 1707 2. Georg Immel, born Oct. 4, 1708, bapt. Oct. 5, 1708 3. David Immel, born Jan 8, 1712, bapt. Jan 10, 1712 4. Susanna Immel, born Dec. 24, 1713, bapt. Dec. 26, 1713. Died March 23, 1717
     On January 8th, to Peter Immel and Susanna, his wife, was born into this world a little boy and was baptised on the 10th of same month and was named David. Sponsors were David Wicg, citizen here and Veronica, wife of Berenhardt Wicg, citizen here.

 David was born in 1712; Johann died in 1720 in Germany.

The Charente was one of four pest ships to sail at that time. There are some accounts saying that the ship was swept by an illness which killed more than half of its passengers. Quarantined, the ship had to turn back. Another account says the ship was not sea-worthy. Either way, its passengers were put on another ship, the Portefaix, captained by John D'Arensbourg. This ship landed at what is now Biloxi in June.

Either way, he was made of pretty strong stuff to have survived the voyage. And we know he did.

Robichaux speculated that David Himel was one of the orphans living with one of the following families: Grabert, Darensbourg, Klomp or Kuhn on the German Coast.

Some genealogists have concluded that David is the child listed with Jean Michel Emmele (yet another version of "Himel") and his wife on the January 4, 1720 to January 24, 1721 list of private passengers and German families embarked on the ship, CHARENTE, commanded by M. Mirambault, bound for Louisiana.

There is no variation of the name, however, in the Louisiana census of German immigrants of 1724. There is a Bernard Wich (see above Berenhardt Wich) and his wife, unnamed. There is a Grabert with an orphaned child, a Simon Kuhn, who was from the same village as the Immels, who lists an orphaned boy of about 12 years old (but speculation is he was Jean Lebranche).

Also on the census was Andreas Schantz (also Chanse, Chantz), who listed two children with his wife, Catherine Wolf (or Catherine Haus). He had a daughter named Marianne (or Marie Anne). She married David Immel in about 1739 in Destrehan, Louisiana (or, the marriage was recorded by the priest there).

They had 13 children: Andre, b. 1740; Jean Nicholas b. 1743; Jean b. 1745; George Michel b. 1747; Antoine b. 1750; Sebastien b. 1752; Pierre b. 1768; Madeleine Marie b. 1761; Charles b. 1763; Francois b. 1764 and little David, also born about the 4th of April 1764.

Francois had eight kids, Sebastian had five. Francois, the overachiever, had 15.

(And now you know why there are so many darned Himels and Hymels in the River Parishes. What we don't really know is why they spell it two different ways. It's just one of those things.

I descend from the last of those 15 kids, little David, who blended the whole thing by going and marrying a little French girl named Marie Agnes Bourgeois. She was the daughter of Dominique Bourgeois and Genevieve Reine Uval.

David and Marie Agnes had nine more little Himel children. All girls:  Marie Henriette, Celeste, Genevieve, Alexsis, Rosalie, Marie Adelaine, Marie Magdeleine  and one boy, Francois. (One child died at birth).

Francois married Francoise Badeaux (do you wonder if they got confused? Do you think they had nicknames? Frankie and Francie maybe?) They had 14 children. (Obviously, whatever they called each other, they called it a lot): Lezin b. June 9 1813; Drauzin b. 12 Dec. 1817; Clairville b. Oct. 7 1819; (Triplets) Francois Ovide, Batiste Francois and one who was allegedly dropped at the birth and did not survive b. Dec. 9 1821; Francoise Azilie b. 1824; Francois Evarist b. 1826; Pierre Poirtville b. 1827; (Twins) Jeanne Marie and Octave b. 1834; Marie Melasie b. 1837; Lovincy; and Pierre Santville, b. 1829.

Ovide Himel (bad old Xerox copy from a book)

I descend from one of the triplets, Francois Ovide, who married Josephine Marie Pauline Rousseau then Eugenie Boudreaux, who was the niece of his first wife. Ovide and Josephine were married April 21, 1846 by Justice of the Peace Amedee Tete.

 Francois Ovide, aka Oville or F.O. Himel Married in a civil ceremony 21 April 1846 by JP Amedee Tete. A "sugar planter," F.O. worked as an overseer on several River Parishes plantations, including St. Amelie and Riverside. Eventually, he bought what became Himelaya Plantation, located  in Labadieville (the site of the current day Supreme).

F.O. and Josephine had 7 children: Marie Eliska b. 1847; Oscar b. 1850; Nelson P. b. 1851; Numa b. 1855; Hector b. 1858; Ernest b. 1861; Mary b. 1865.

F.O. and Eugenie had six children: Lezin (Lynn) (who would become a popular dentist in Napoleonville, La.); Henry L. Himel, b. 1874 (who would become a well-known Judge and who lived in the late 1800s on Poche Plantation); Clifford (who was a popular physician in Luling, La.); Edward b. 1878; Leo and Aline.

Numa would become a physician, serving many of the river plantations. He attended grade school in Virginia and received his medical training at New Orleans University, a medical college which was the precursor to Tulane University. His practice stretched from St. James Parish to approximately St. Joseph Plantation, which he served by horse and buggy. Families would put out a while flag when he was needed. Lynn would become a popular dentist in Napoleonville, La. Henry would become a well-known Judge. Clifford was a popular physician in Luling. Only Oscar followed the family business of sugar planting. He was my great great grandfather.

 Leo and Aline  met a tragic end  on June 28, 1892. While riding a raft on the Mississippi River, they got caught in an Eddy. The raft was swamped and they died. A slave sitting nearby on the bank of the river managed to save Clifford and Lynn.

      Excerpt from "Caught in an Eddy" by Emily Chenet Guidry, Les Voyageurs, Vol. XIII, No. 2, June 1992: "On a summer afternoon in June 1892, Leo, Lynn (Lezin) and Clifford Himel, and their sister, Aline Himel, together with Oscar Dufresne and Angele and Amelie Lambert, sisters, got into a skiff at Jamestown, in the parish of St. James, for the purpose of crossing the river and viewing the cribwork of the New Hope Crevasse on the East Bank of the river. The party was a gay one, and while some of the young men pulled heartily at the oars, they cried merrily to others in the boat to look at the curious eddies in the river. Suddenly, when they had reached the middle of the river, the skiff struck something. ... In a moment, the skiff gave a great lurch and began to spin around at a speed which made the young people dizzy. They had been drawn into one of those relentless funnel-shaped eddies of the river. ...The young people were thrown in a mass together at the stern of the boat as the force of the eddy sent the skiff on its beam end. Finally, the boat, with a last mad revolution, sank into the whirling eddy. The young people were left floundering around in the river. Their cries attracted the attention of a Negro man on shore, and he immediately put out in a skiff in a rescue attempt. In his hurry to reach the drowning young people, he broke an oar.  Undaunted, he continued to paddle along with one oar. The Lambert girls, handicapped by the weight of their skirts, were the first to succumb.  Angele and Amelie Lambert made a last desperate effort to keep above water, but finally sank into the dark and mysterious depths of the river. Leo Himel, forgetting his own danger, made a heroic effort to save his sister Aline. The effort cost him his life. The water-soaked garments of his sister drew him under, but he would not relinquish his hold, and the brother and sister went down in each other's arms. The overturned skiff arose from the depths of the river, and as it surfaced it was grabbed by Lynn and Clifford Himel, who clung to it until rescued by the Negro who, with his one oar, had continued to paddle toward them. In the meanwhile, Oscar Dufresne, an expert swimmer, managed to reach the shore in safety. Leo Himel, age 23 and Aline Himel, age 13, were the brother and sister of Hon. Hector Himel, former St. James Parish Police Jury President, and Dr. Numa Himel, also a St. James Parish resident. Amelie and Angelle Lambert, ages 12 and 14 years, were the daughters of Mr. C. Lambert, a leading architect and builder of St. James Parish. Ironically, Mr. Lambert had rendered great assistance in the closing of New Hope Crevasse, the crevasse which the young people had set out to see. 
    Based on an article in the N.O. Times-Democrat of June 30, 1892

Clifford attended the University School in Knoxville, Tenn., Tulane and the medical department of the University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn., from which he graduated with an M.D. in 1900.  Shortly after, he moved to St. James Parish, La., and began his practice of medicine. About six months later, he moved to Labadieville, where he remained for about nine years. In January of 1910, he returned to St. James, where he was the physician for St. James Lumber Co.

Ovide was the second owner of Himelaya Plantation, which was a small sugar plantation.  When he died, he left it to his brother, Clairville. Clarville later deeded the land to his nephew, Oscar.

Oscar Himel

The following was written by my grandmother, Evelyn Himel Cross, about her grandfather, Oscar. (Please keep in mind that she was born in 1906 and she had been a frequent visitor to what was the plantation. These are stories from another time, rewritten here for historical purposes -- LL)

     Oscar Joseph Himel had gone to school in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and had a love for Kentucky horses. He kept some on Himelaya Plantation. When the Civil War began, Oscar was 16 years old. Too young to enlist, Oscar volunteered to use his horses and be a messenger for the Confederates. He would deliver messages to the front lines, cutting his way through the back roads of the river plantations. Eventually, he was captured and imprisoned in Thibodaux, suffering a wound in his side. Upon his release, his uncle, Clairville Himel, brought him one of his horses, $50, and the deed to Himelaya Plantation.
     Ovide Himel was the second owner of Himelaya Plantation. He left it to his brother, Clairville, who later left it to his nephew, Oscar, upon Oscar's release from Federal captivity during the Civil War.  Oscar kept the plantation until 1904, when it was sold. It is now the site of Supreme Sugars (the refinery has since been torn down. There is only a tiny community called Supreme remaining -- LL). Oscar's daughter, Lena, was born on Himelaya, in Assumption Parish, about 12 miles from Thibodaux. She grew up there and left tales of the plantation days. She could remember back to 1882 (she was 2 years old). 
     Her father, Oscar, drove the cattle into the sugar house because of the high water. Their home was built above ground.  Dr. T.B. Pugh of Napoleonville was the Plantation doctor. The governess was Miss Marie and Miss Corrine Logan.  Lena was a boarder at Mt. Carmel Convent in Thibodaux from the age of 12 until the age of 17.  She learned French and English. (The trip was an all day affair by carriage drawn by two horses).  Trips from Himelaya to Thibodaux were made on the Little Boat the Louisiana that made trips from Donaldsonville to Lockport, mostly for passengers and light freight, two or three times per week.
    Lena told stories of the slaves who lived on Himelaya Plantation. Old Aunt Emily, former slave on Himelaya. "How are you today, Aunt Emily?''  ''Oh, I's fine, I thank you m'am. I's kicking but not high. I flutterin' but can't fly.''   Aunt Emily's second son was named Two Times. He grew to manhood on the plantation. He was a good man. Never had any other name. She named one of her daughters, Padelia, after Lena's mother, Cordelia.  Old  Old Francois. Yard man and carriage driver. Had driven Oscar J. Himel and Dorothy Cordelia Bernard on their wedding day.  Kay was the dining room girl. All the slaves on the plantation received sugar rations.
    Oscar owned the sugar plantation and had an open kettle sugar house from the Civil War days until 1906. He sold the plantation, 750 acres except the Baptist church property, which he gave to the slaves, and a small plot to the blacksmith, Parce Johnson, the head man in field work, the wit and brains of his gang on the plantation.  He said, "I sho wish I was one of the boss's hounds." Oscar Himel loved his dogs and horses. Old Caroline Carter Cook. Kay (same Kay as above?) lived in "our" yard in a cabin with her children, Robert and Mary Carter. Mary was a house girl. Robert was a field man. His wife was Becky. Stella Carter. Wash woman. Her grandmother, old Aunt Cindie, lived to be 100 years old. She had been a slave in the Billiu family.  Aunt Jennie Johnson, old black mammie, big and fat. Good-natured and hated poor white trash like poison. Would tell Lena, "Listen, honey chile, don't you play with that poor white trash." Lena would ask her how can you tell poor white trash. Jennie would say, "Baby, just look at their hair and you can tell cause it's all split at the ends."  She would sleep with a bible open on her bosom to keep the devil out. She could not read or write.                 Aunt Jennie came to visit Lena's sister, Cora, in New Orleans. Lena was a young lady and one day, she took Jennie to Canal Street. She had a big black umbrella with a crook in the handle she insisted on taking along.  She told of her visit..."We was walking along the street and more boys would look and push my baby (Lena) but I held on to my umbrella and if one of them had dared to say one word to her, I would have branded him with my umbrella."
      They also went to D.H. Holmes (now Dillard's Department Store --  L.L.) They got into the elevator. She called the elevator an iron cage. The boy opened the door and she was about to brand him with the umbrella. 
    Old Dan Tucker. Gardner and caretaker in Sugar House after grinding season. Polite (uneducated), but polished manners. 
    Old Aunt Becky. Would sit on the kitchen gallery and pat her foot all day long. She said she nursed so many children she couldn't stop her feet. Her song. "In the way real land. Ask my Lord to let me have the ground. Ask my Lord to turn me round, turn me round, have the ground. Ask my Lord to turn me round."    
 Little Jane was serving at the table and she did something her madam had told her not to do. After dinner the madam said, "Now Jane, aren't you ashamed of yourself?" Jane answered, "No m'am, cause I don't get shame easy." 
  Old Katherine Pugh. Lived on Mount Lawrence Plantation. The Pughs had given her a cabin to use until she died. She was very proud of "her white folks" and held herself superior to the plantation darkies. She named her son, Ivery, after Mr. Ivy Kittridge, of of her white friends. Coonie. Bill and Jennie Johnson's son. A "half-wit" who guarded the big gate entrance to Himelaya when the family carriage would drive up. He was there to open the gate and, with his hand extended, he would say, "Give me a nic. Give me a nic."  In 1941, Coonie was the only one of the colored folk still living on Himelaya, Oscar's Place, as they called it. 
    Charlie Carter and Joe Carter. Sons of Robert and Becky pulled the rope for the ceiling fan over the dining room table. The slaves in the quarters had no marriage ceremony. They would call living together as man and wife, "took up."  Lena's father, to try to encourage the younger couples to marry, gave them a church and the understanding was that they would come and tell him when they planned to marry.  He gave them a pig for the wedding supper. 
 In his later years, Oscar began to lose his faculties. He was declared insane and was sent to DePaul's Hospital in New Orleans  by his daughter, Liska. But he died cursing his daughter, Lena.

Among my Grannie's treasures I now have is a little doll's chair, which was made by the slaves at Himelaya Plantation out of willow reeds.

Oscar married Dorothy Cordelia Bernard, a descendant of the Webres, Schexnayders, Rodriques, Deslattes, Tregres and a Boudreaux. That's another page.

Sidney Himel

They had five children: Sydney, b. 1878, who never married. He went down to the islands to work a sugar plantation and was murdered in Haiti (Grannie always wondered if it was at the hands of a jealous husband); Lena Josephine, b. 1880 (married Edward Wallace Cross); Cora Philomena, b. 1876 (married Henry Aycock); Eliska, b. 1871 (married Louis Dill) and Walter (married Ada Braud).

Lena Josephine was my great-grandmother. She married Edward Wallace Cross, whose family owned Orange Grove Plantation and Abby Plantation in Thibodaux. Their first child was a stillborn son.  Lena's mother, Dorothy Cordelia Bernard Himel, was there for the birth and died suddenly during the visit. In 1906, my grandmother, Evelyn, was born.

The one who started this quest, Evelyn Himel Cross French. 

Lena and Edward were married nine years before he died of Bright's Disease. It was then that she decided to go into nursing. She attended Hotel Dieu, graduating in 1916.  She was the president of the State Nurses Association from 1917-18.  She helped Dr. Joseph Danna to recruit nurses to go to Italy with the Red Cross during World War I.  She volunteered, but was refused because of her 11-year-old daughter. She arranged the send-off for the units on the steps of Hotel Dieu. She was the night supervisor at Hotel Dieu, Registrar of Nurses in New Orleans and was a school nurse at Touro.  She later practiced as a private duty nurse in New Orleans, Lafourche, Assumption and Terrebonne. In ill-health, she moved to Baton Rouge to live with Evelyn, her husband and Martin French and their daughter Lettie Lee (my mother). She died of an aneurism of the heart.

The Hymel name is also associated with one of the greatest natural disasters ever to strike the River Parishes, the Hymelia Crevasse, which flooded thousands of acres in 1912. This was not "our" Himelaya Plantation, which was located in Labadieville.

Although nothing remains today of Himelaya Planation (ours anyway), there are many desendants of little David in and around the River Parishes. There actually were a few Himelaya Plantations up and down the river. There was an Hymel's Restaurant, which was quite popular and several other businesses with the name. We're all related, no matter how we pronounce it.

There is a pretty famous opera singer named Bryan Hymel, who is a Loyola Universtiy alum like me.

Here is an interesting blog (it hasn't been updated in some time, though) by an Hymel distant cousin with some cool historical anecdotes (and some politics).

Though this line I connect with folks named Rousseau, Webre, Delattes, Rodrigue, Scheckschneider (which became the Frenchified Schexnaydre, Tregre, Lenclos and others.

Stay tuned....