BERGERON
The surname BERGERON has a wide distribution and a complex history in southern Louisiana. Governor Antoine de la Monthe Cadillac sent Louis ????? de St. Denis, Bienville's Canadian-born lieutenant, to establish a settlement on the Red River. Fort St. Jean Baptiste was completed in 1777. It was later named after the Natchitoches Indians. The area was a vast wilderness and dotted with Indian villages. The possibility of an Indian attack was feared along the Red River area. The Bergeron story begins here.
George Guillaume Bergeron was a soldier at Fort Natchitoches. Guillaume, called St. Ange, was a native of Joannai in St. Ange Parish, St. Sulpre. He was the son of Nicholas Bergereau of the same place and of Jeanne Vigere of Saintacer Parish, St. Brie.
Guillaume married on May 15, 1740, Agnes Renaudiere from the Illinois Post at Kascatia. Agnes was the daughter of Philippe Renaudiere and Perine Pivert. The couple migrated to Pointe Coupee before the birth of their first child in 1744 and by the late 1740's, Guillaume had become an established planter on False River.
From this marriage, seven children were born of which were five sons;
- George
- Pierre
- Louis
- Joseph
- Etienne
Possibly discouraged by the lack of opportunity in the parish during the 1810-1820 period, several of Guillaume's grandsons and great-grandsons began to move in the Opelousas and Attakapas areas. Grandson Joseph Jr. settled near Opelousas, and around the civil war era, his descandants were congregated around Church Pointe, southwest of Opelousas, and near Arnaudville.