Valcour Aime’s Petit Versailles
On Palm Sunday, 9 April 1865, the immaculately-dressed Virginian, Robert E. Lee, and the begrimed Ohioan, Ulysses S. Grant, met in an unassuming farmhouse in central Virginia to put a final end to four long years of war. On that same Sunday, nine hundred miles away at a sugar plantation along the mighty Mississippi, two enslaved people, Théodule Dickerson and Hélène Louis, were married by a Catholic priest – validating their decade-long union and legitimating their three children. It is hard to imagine that either couple – the erstwhile adversaries brought together in surrender or the former slaves brought together in matrimony – could conceive of what the other felt. It was a new beginning, as countrymen and as free people.
Inset of Adrien Persac’s 1858 Map of the Mississippi River, showing Valcour Aime’s plantation
In April 1920, fifty-five years later to the month, Byron B. Brumfield, a newspaperman and member of the Louisiana Historical Society, called upon that Civil War-era bride, then an old woman of ninety-two years. He interviewed her because she was the last living person with recollections of Valcour Aime’s plantation in its antebellum splendor. He only quoted her twice, once in French as saying “Valcour Aime, bon homme. Il est en paradis!” and as he later translated, “All gone, all gone, but poor Hélène, who waits to meet them in paradise.”
Valcour Aime, the “Louis XIV of Louisiana”
According to the interview she gave to the Picayune reporter, Hélène worked in the nursery on Valcour Aime’s plantation before the Civil War. One of her young charges was the future historian and author, Alcée Fortier, who captured much of the Creole folklore of the River parishes. The Valcour Aime estate, legendary for its opulent landscaping and horticultural delights, consisted of the grande maison which he remodeled in the 1830s and the jardin anglo-chinois or French landscape garden, which he began in 1842. Hélène would have experienced Petit Versailles as one of the more than two hundred people who enslaved there by Valcour Aime between 1840 and 1860. Hélène Louis [the maiden name she used] was born in Louisiana about 1828 and her husband, Théodule Dickerson, was born in Louisiana in approximately 1819-1820.
Just at the end of the Civil War, Hélène and her partner of at least a decade, Théodule Dickerson, validated their union in the Church and legitimized their three children – Georgette, ten years old; Charles, six years old; and Odile, three years old. Between 1865 and 1875, they had four more children – Théodule (born 25 December 1864), Joseph, Juliette, and Marie-Hélène (born February 1876).
1870 Census – Ward 6, Saint James Parish
1880 Census – Ward 6, Saint James Parish
Théodule and Hélène’s oldest child, Georgette Dickerson, married Honoré Smith on 15 February 1873. Their second daughter, Odile Dickerson, married George Murray on 10 February 1881. Théodule Dickerson, Jr. was married in approximately 1886 to Columbia Nash.
Sadly, Hélène suffered the deaths of three of her adult children within seven months. Joseph Dickerson died on 13 August 1885 at seventeen years of age. Georgette Dickerson Smith died tragically on 19 August 1885 after being hit by lightening. Juliette Dickerson died nearly seven months later on 13 March 1886 at roughly seventeen years of age. Théodule Dickerson, Sr. was buried on 9 September 1887, at sixty-eight years old, having likely died the day before. In the 1900 Census, Hélène, widowed and aged seventy-one years, is enumerated in the home of her second-eldest son, Théodule.
By at least 1915, Théodule Dickerson, Jr. moved his family to New Orleans like so many rural families in search of better opportunities. While in St. James Parish, Théodule worked a rented farm; upon moving to the city he began working as a driver. The aged matriarch of the family, Hélène, then in her eighties, also left her familiar home not far from the ruins of Petit Versailles and moved to New Orleans. It was in the modest home at 1605 Dumaine Street that she shared with her son Théodule and his family, that Hélène, at ninety-one years of age was interviewed and photographed for The Times-Picayune, in its story on Petit Versailles, which appeared on April 25, 1920. Six months later, Hélène Louis Dickerson, the aged Créole survivor of the antebellum period, exited this world on 28 October 1920.
Hélène Louis Dickerson (ca. 1828-1920), former slave and mother of seven children
Descendants of Théodule Dickerson and Hélène Louis:
Georgette Dickerson (Mrs. Honoré) Smith seems to have had four children before her early death: George Smith; Georgina Smith; Cecile Smith; and Albert Smith.
Odile Dickerson (Mrs. George) Murray had eight children: Alice Murray, Charles Murray, Hélène (Ellen) Murray Garrison, Harry Murray, Odile Murray, Amelia Murray, Beatrice Murray (Mrs. Achille) Saul, Alfred Murray, and Rosa Murray.
Théodule Dickerson, Jr. had six daughters with his wife, Columbia Nash: Rosalie Dickerson (Mrs. Paul) Pleasant; Olivia Dickerson (Mr. Joseph) Brown; Viola Dickerson; Columbia Dickerson (Mrs. Frank) Woodest (previously Mrs. Thomas Jefferson); Violet Dickerson (Mrs. Aaron) Jessie; and Velma Dickerson.
The youngest of Hélène’s children, Hélène (Ellen) Dickerson, married William Anderson on 8 October 1894. They had one child, Wilbert Anderson, who was born on 8 September 1895.
Sources: The Times-Picayune, 25 April 1920, pages 1, 11; 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910 Federal Censuses; Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records.
Jari C. Honora
Thank you for writing this article. I am a descendant of Hélène and Théodule. My grandmother was the daughter of Olivia and Joseph Brown.
I am glad that you enjoyed my article. As you know, we are related through your great-great-grandmother, Columbia Nash Dickerson. I am descended from Columbia’s sister, Emily Nash Ambrose, who was my great-great-grandmother. – Columbia and Emily were both born in Louisiana, but their older siblings and their parents (Columbus Nash and Sophie Moore) migrated to Saint James Parish from Georgia after the Civil War.
I am a descendant of Valcour Aime, I would like to meet you!
Wonderful article, Jari!
There’s more to Helene’s story Jari – email me DecoDeeDee@gmail.com
Awesome Article.
According to federal census in 1870, several St. James residents moved to NOLA.
DeeDee, I would love to learn more about HELENE as well.
Thank you, Jari Honora for bringing this story to light again. What a fantastically strong woman was Hélène. You have resurrected her, and she stands with equal bearing and dignity as her former owner, peering from the past, looking right through us.
Thanks for the continous coverage of the Creoles. Family names Armant’s my GGGrandfather was an Armant
Hello Doris,
I am one of the writers of CreoleGen and I wrote this piece on Helene Dickerson. What are some of the names of your Armant ancestors? I have done a good bit of research on the Armants of color.
Jari, Incredible article! Thank you for this feature on Helen. You do extraordinary research.
I taught at what was then St. James Jr. High in Vacherie in 1981. The school is next to the ruins of the Valcour Aime plantation. My students told me about the ruins in the woods, which I explored. There were old bridges over the once flowing “rivière”. The “mountain” within which was still nestled the bricked ice cellar was also there. I think part of the fencing surrounding the site was still intact. The whole site was cloaked in the shadows of very tall trees, and thick underbrush made accessing the site difficult. A neighbor to the site showed me a small cannonball he found, which he said dated to the civil war bombardment of the plantation.