LaBauve - Young - Payne Home
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark
112 Brackenridge, Edna
 

LaBauve - Young - Payne Home

Built in 1888, of cypress and Texas heart pine, using square nails, wooden pegs. Restored 1956, by the L. A. Paynes. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1967.
 

Courtesy of Texas Historical Commission and The Portal to Texas History

Not shown in the picture, is the double porch--the same on the west as on the east side. With the exception of the wrought iron posts, the exterior is as it looked when it was built.--Louise LaBauve, Jackson County Survey Committee Chairman.
 

This modest house is located on land originally granted to Jobe Williams by the State of Coahuila and Mexico on Oct. 22, 1830. Odelon Joseph LaBauve purchased the town lots on April 4, 1888, just a few years after the exodus from Texana and the ranches near by, to Edna, "New Town."

Odelon Joseph LaBauve was the son of Victor Jean and Elena Gonsoulin LaBauve, descendants of the Acadian LaBauves that came to Louisiana from Nova Scotia and Francois and Marie Louisa de la Gautrais Gonsoulin who came to Louisiana directly from France after having land granted to them by their relatives, the rulers of France . Francois Gonsoulin being a Chevalier in the Royal Army of France. (Just this past year the family received nearly a million dollars from oil royalty on this land that was granted to them prior to 1803). Victor Jean and his brother, Dominique, were the two Frenchmen who founded and lived in the little settlement of Francitas (meaning "Little France" in Spanish). These two brothers had large families and contributed much to the settlement of the lower part of the county.

Victor Jean LaBauve established the LaBauve Cemetery near Francitas, and until now the people of that area bury their loved ones there. He and two of his older sons died before the founding of Edna, the remainder of the family lived at the ranch of several thousand acres.

The LaBauve ladies were true ladies, versed in the social graces of France and Louisiana. When Edna was getting started, Odelon Joseph LaBauve felt that his mother and sisters should have some of the ways of life that they had been accustomed to; so he built this house for them in Edna. The sisters married, with the exception of one, Miss Ella LaBauve, who was a beautiful girl, very proud of her ancestors, and very haughty to a great degree. Her sweet lady mother used to say to her "My dear, you pick and pick and finally pick a crooked stick." She didn't, because she never married any one, being the same beautiful haughty spinster as she had been as a girl. Due to the fact that they never had to do housework and the life and their circumstances had altered greatly after the death of their husband and father, they sold the house and went to live with their relatives. I suspect so that they would not have the responsibility of a house and such. The house was sold to the Simon Young family about 1903. Even though the LaBauve ladies did not like to work, they were loved and respected by all who knew them. They who married, married into the pioneer families of Jackson and Matagorda Counties.
 

Mrs. Winifred Young
By Mrs. L. A. Payne
English teacher of the Edna High School

Mrs. Winifred Young, widow of Simon A. Young, and the mother of seven children purchased the property in February 1903. The Young family maintained residence until the death of Miss Theresa Young in September 1952. Miss Theresa taught piano in the home for many years.

Mrs. Winifred Young had the body of a deceased son interred in the back yard. At her death, the son's body was moved to the family plot in a Ganado Cemetery. It is a popular "story" that the backyard is still a cemetery.

The house was built in a spirit of dignified simplicity, its only decoration being the Victoria use of balustrades across the double front porches. The livable house of seven rooms and bath has three spacious porches to protect the windows and doors during the hurricane season and to keep the house cool in summer. The large windows and entrances were placed to take advantage of any prevailing breeze. Constructed of cypress and Texas heart pine with square nails, the structure withstood the destructive winds of Hurricane Carla in 1961 with absolutely no damage even though five large cedars and two pecan trees were felled by the terrific winds. The cedars measured from 28 to 32 inches in diameter.

In the yard, four cedars, large and ancient, are silent reminders of the past. Large pecan trees and sycamore offer shade on a summer's day.

When the L. A. Payne family purchased the property in 1956, the house had been vacant for four years, and a drought had taken its toll of the grass, shrubbery and flowers. Only a small cluster of elephant ears had survived, and they are still evident.

True Texans, the Payne family eagerly accepted the challenge of restoring the house and grounds because it was exactly what they had always wanted as a home for their three children. L. A. Payne's ancestors--Pelham Payne and Benjamin K. Newman--moving from Alabama, settled in Jasper County, Texas, before the Civil War. Grace Eugenia Brow Payne is a descendant of the Tom Ellison and R. A. Brown families of Caldwell County, Texas, and the George King Perkins and Thomas Bethel Allen families of Hays County, Texas. These families came to Texas during the Republic and early statehood.

The restoration revealed the details of marbleized woodwork in the music room, a stenciled flower on a closet door, and the original maroon of the woodwork, as well as the solid construction and the excellent grade of the lumber. The exterior walls have always been white, and the cypress shutters, which are put together with wooden pegs, have always been green. Only the pine porches have been replaced.

The Paynes have used antiques, Victorian and traditional furnishings in the decor. Even though they are not "collectors," they have a number of items of interest. The oldest treasure is a woodcut, circa 1576, of Hans Sachs, a museum piece from Germany. One of the light fixtures is a leaded glass brass lamp with both gas and electricity. Electricity was not always dependable. Most of their antiques are family pieces. Although they are not unique, they are priceless to the L. A. Paynes because they belonged to their ancestors--pioneer Texans.
 

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