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Note: "I Dug Up Houma-Terrebonne" by Helen Wurzlow
v. 3, p. 16
copyright 1985
"Isadore sailed to the new world from Bordeau, France, but the family tree is rooted in Scotland. There's a Scotch clan today named Duthy" said Mrs. Marcel Duthu, widow of Isidore's grandson. Isadore arrived in the bayouland village somewhere around 1851.
Isadore was a big landowner in what was then the suburbs of Houma (Terrebonne Parish, LA).
He built his home where a funeral home stands today on Main, across the street from Dennis Cenac, said his great-granddaughter, Mrs. Marvin Baldwin, the former Bertha Mey.
"The Duthu's owned land from Gabasse to Liberty on Main, and from Main all the way back to Point," she related. "It was called the Duthu Addition. This area still bears that name on the maps today".
Isadore came to Houma with his brother, Pierre, who later returned to France, said Addine (Mrs. Marcel Duthu). Isadore was a butcher. He traveled up and down the bayous selling his meat. He married Pauline Bergeron,............ Isidore and Pauline were the proud parents of four sons - Adam, Jean Baptiste, Ellis (sic. Jean Baptiste Ellis), James and Luke.
Isadore later abandoned the butcher business and opened a barrel-making shop with his sons right next to their home, she said. They later converted it into a cistern-making shop, probably the first in Houma. Cisterns and barrels are made on the same principle, she explained.
The Duthus were cistern-makers in Houma for three generations - a century. It was Isadore's son, Jean Baptiste, who followed in his father's footsteps in the art of cistern-making, said Addine.
Jean Baptiste took as his wife, Amanda Louise Daigle, daughter of Marcel Daigle and Ada Darce.
Born unto them were seven children - three sons and four daughters. They were Jean Baptiste, Marcel, Edward, Elvire (Mrs Sidney Aitkens), Ada (Mrs. Harry Mey), Gladys (Mrs. Wallace Picou), and Irene (Mrs. Dan Johnson), who still lives in New Orleans.
It was Marcel who carried on his grandfathers craft until his demise in 1947.
"Marcel and his brother, Eddie, worked with their father until Eddie left to become a railroad man", Addine related, Eddie now resides in Bay St. Louis.
The historic Duthu cistern shop did not remain on Main Street all it's life. In 1917, Jean Baptiste and Amanda moved to 716 Wood.
"The old Duthu home on Main, built of solid cypress, was part of the Main Street scene until around five years age." Bertha related. "It belonged to Elvire and Sidney Aitkens, heirs at the time. When her mother had Mey's flower shop on Main, she rented from Mrs. Aitkens."
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Marcel carried on his craft of cistern-making in the old Wood Street shop until the year 1940. In that year he moved the shop to Jerry Ann. His next move was to Grand Caillou road at what is now the intersection of Tunnel Boulevard, and from there to Bobby Lou in 1947.
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In 1917, Marcel, the third generation cistern-maker, married pretty Rose Addine Belanger, a member of Houma's founding family, who made history in her own right. She was the first woman to work in the parish courthouse............
Marcel and Addine became the proud parents of six - Robert (Bobby) of Houma; Marcel, Jr. of Poquoson, VA.; Mrs Marilyn D. Null of Houma; Lucy (Mrs. John Sadler of Metairie, LA), James Carroll of Houma and Rose Addine (Mrs. David Paul Bourgeois of Thibodaux)
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Note: This article is accompanied by a nice photo of Jean Baptiste Duthu and Amanda Daigle; also Marcel and Addine Duthu.
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