Judge Rost.
This old church was located on what was formerly the Rost Plantation, then the Pan-American Petroleum Corporation refinery. It was used as a colored school and church. Source: St. Charles Parish Resources and Facilities Publication, 1948.
Tintype of John Goosberry, foreman at the Rost Home Colony at Destrehan Plantation.
One of the 21 Black recruits from Canada, 25-year-old Goosberry, a sailor of St. Catharines, Ontario, was mustered into Company E on July 16, 1863, just two days before the fateful assault on Fort Wagner. He was mustered out of service on August 20, 1865, at the disbanding of the regiment.
Goosberry appears in this photograph wearing his uniform as a company musician.
From the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment photographs, Massachusetts Historical Society.
Judge Rost painting.
Judge Pierre Adolphe Rost, b. 1797 in France, d. 1868, married Louise Odile Destrehan. He was a plantation owner, state senator and associate Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court (1853).
Joaquin Crespo, having “behaved as a man of good moral character, attached to the constitution of the United States, and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the same…” is sworn in as a citizen of the United States. The document was signed in 1896 by Crespo; Judge Rost, owner of Rost Plantation; and Clerk of Court John B. Martin. (Photo courtesy of Billy and Sidney Crespo)
Originally constructed for Robert de Logny. Located in Destrehan on La. 48 (River Road). Constructed in 1789–90 for Robert de Logny. Inherited by Jean Noel d’Estrehan in 1800. Bought from heirs of Pierre A. Rost in 1914 by Mexican Petroleum Company. Donated in 1972 to River Road Historical Society by American Oil Company. (Note: Purchased by Jean-Nöel Destrehan from deLogny estate. Site of Rost Home Colony following Civil War. Named by River Road Historical Society for Louisiana Statesman Jean-Nöel Destrehan.) (Erected by St. Charles Parish Police Jury and St. Charles Bicentennial Committee in cooperation with Louisiana Tourist Division of the Department of Commerce.)
Life on the plantation.
The Rost Plantation House in 1893 with Judge Emile Rost, son of Judge Pierre Rost, standing on the right and Mr. Destours on left. Photo taken by Mrs. George Don Luce in 1893. (Photo courtesy of Destrehan Plantation)
Judge Pierre Adolphe Rost, b. 1797 in France, d. 1868, married Louise Odile Destrehan. He was a plantation owner, state senator in Louisiana
Life on the planation sketch.
Source for photo: Publication published in the early 1900s by the St. Charles Development Company, Waterloo, Iowa; currently part of the Suzanne Friloux collection
The Destrehan Plantation house was used as an office building for refinery administrators of the Mexican Petroleum Company.
Destrehan Plantation House in the early 1900s.
The former slave quarters of Destrehan Plantation became freed Negroes’ homes after the Civil War.
The Hermitage Plantation was owned by Judge Pierre Adolphe Rost and was located at the center of the present Bonnet Carré Spillway. Judge Rost was married to Louise Odile Destrehan and also owned the former Destrehan Plantation. He was considered one of the most significant and wealthy plantation owners along the German Coast. The Hermitage was seized by the federal government after the Civil War and later returned to Judge Rost. George Frederick Kugler served as overseer for Judge Rost and later acquired Hermitage Plantation. The property was subsequently sold to the United States government to be used as the site for the spillway project. Lumber from demolition of the Hermitage Plantation was used to build houses on Apple Street in Norco. Another African American cemetery known as the Kugler Cemetery is located at this site. Legend lends an interesting story that George Kugler planted many of the oak trees along the River Road.
Jean-Nöel Destrehan. 1754-1823. (Photo courtesy of Destrehan Plantation)
Jean-Noël d’Estréhan de Beaupre (1754-1823). (Source: Louisiana Portraits, courtesy of Marguerite Larue de la Houssaye)