In 1870, Judicial District Judge Othello Jerome Flagg, a Union soldier formally affiliated with the Freedmen’s Bureau, purchased five arpents of land adjacent to the area called the courthouse site. In 1872, Civil Engineer Thomas Sharpe surveyed and with Flagg developed the Village of Flaggville. The Flaggville Colored School, which continued until the end of the nineteenth century, was the last remnant of the town’s name.
In 1872, former Louisiana Governor Georg Michael Hahn retired to his sugar plantation in St. Charles Parish and established the Village of Hahnville less than three miles upriver of the courthouse area. The village included a street layout and upgraded levee. Hahn built a concert hall, started a parish newspaper, and built stores of every variety. The Village of Hahnville soon became a bustling country town. The following are some of the businesses: Kraemer Furniture Manufacturing, Gordon’s Saddle and Harness Maker, Peperkorn’s Boat Building, Attorney-At-Law F. B. Earhart, Hunzleman’s Grocery, Schneider’s Cisterns, Fox the Village Blacksmith, Moffit Groceries and Dry Goods, Boot and Shoemaker Joseph Stein, Henry Aichel Tin Gutters, Manade Cigar Manufacturing, Jacob Banzhaf Hahnville Golden Star Store, Chapsky’s “Red” Store, Almstedt Cabinet and Furniture Making, and Antz Creole Store.
Records in years thereafter indicate that Fortier Plantation (now Home Place), the courthouse area (the parish seat), the United States Post Office, and the Village of Flaggville were apparently “annexed” into the Village of Hahnville.
Perhaps the influential Governor Hahn, reportedly “in control of the Parish,” was able to cement his name and legacy in Louisiana history by giving the parish seat his name.
This text is copyright © material by Marilyn Richoux, Joan Becnel and Suzanne Friloux, from St. Charles Parish, Louisiana: A Pictorial History, 2010.
