In 1857 Domonique Joseph La Bauve and his brother, Victor Eugene La Bauve, sons of Isidore La Bauve and Jeanne Marie Granger, agreed to move their families from Louisiana to Texas. That winter they made an inspection trip to the state; landing at Indianola before beginning their tour of Calhoun, Jackson, Fort Bend and Brazoria counties as well as visiting Houston. They embarked on their return trip home with their ponies on a boat at Galveston .

As the brothers agreed that the first to move to Texas would be Domonique Joseph La Bauve, he began in August 1858 to move his family.

He and this third wife, Marcellite Hebert, and eight of their ten children, began their journey by leaving their home at St. Martinville, St. Martin Parish, Louisiana , for New Iberia , Louisiana where they took passage on the steam boat, S. M. Darby, for Morgan City , Louisiana . There they began their twenty-four [day] voyage to Indianola, Calhoun County , Texas , aboard the steam ship Orizaba .

Arriving at Indianola, all the family except one son, Gilbert, booked passage on Peter Omelio's sail boat for Texana, then the county seat of Jackson County . Gilbert and a Negro slave by the name of Shelby were charged with the care and delivery of the family buggy to Texana. Traveling slowly all day, they stopped for the night near Port Lavaca Bay . Tragedy struck the next morning as they resumed their jaunt. Before getting out of Port Lavaca they struck a hole in the middle of the street which broke the buggy shafts and necessitated their leaving the buggy in Port Lavaca for repair. Their thirty-five mile trip to Texana was then resumed by riding bare back on their mules.

The family lived for a while at the old Tavern, a five room log house near the plaza in the center of Texana. Later they moved to a rented, three-room log cabin on West Carancahua . Construction of a new home was started at East Carancahua on several hundred acres of land purchased from the brother, Victor Eugene LaBauve, who had by then moved his family to Texas . Dreams of a new home in Texas were not to be realized, as before completion of construction of the home both Domonique Joseph La Bauve and his wife, Marcellite Hebert, died. After his death the land where he had started their home reverted to his brother. The children continued living on the rented farm with the negro slaves who were overseen by Victor Eugene LaBauve, their uncle.

Gilbert La Bauve, their son, entered the Confederate Army. After his return home, he and his younger brothers, Thilismar and Aristide, constructed a log cabin for the family on land deeded to the younger children by Anthony Balaine Fleury, the father-in-law of Mary Adonia. The boys continued working the land until it eventually became too much of an undertaking. Gilbert then returned to Louisiana where he became a school teacher, married and raised his family. Thilismar and Aristide left for Indianola where they obtained jobs, and the two youngest girls went to live with married sisters.