History of the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry in Southern Louisiana Interim Report
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OCS Study MMS 2004-050 History of the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry in Southern Louisiana Interim Report Volume II: Bayou Lafourche – An Oral History of the Development of the Oil and Gas Industry U.S. Department of the Interior Minerals Management Service Gulf of Mexico OCS Region OCS Study MMS 2004-050 History of the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry in Southern Louisiana Interim Report Volume II: Bayou Lafourche – An Oral History of the Development of the Oil and Gas Industry Author Tom McGuire Prepared under MMS Contract 1435-01-02-CA-85169 by Center for Energy Studies Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, Louisiana Published by U.S. Department of the Interior Minerals Management Service New Orleans Gulf of Mexico OCS Region July 2004 DISCLAIMER This report was prepared under contract between the Minerals Management Service (MMS) and Louisiana State University’s Center for Energy Studies. This report has not been technically reviewed by MMS. Approval does not signify that the contents necessarily reflect the view and policies of the Service, nor does mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation for use. It is, however, exempt from review and compliance with MMS editorial standards. REPORT AVAILABILITY Extra copies of the report may be obtained from the Public Information Office (Mail Stop 5034) at the following address: U.S. Department of the Interior Minerals Management Service Gulf of Mexico OCS Region Public Information Office (MS 5034) 1201 Elmwood Park Boulevard New Orleans, Louisiana 70123-2394 Telephone Number: 1-800-200-GULF 1-504-736-2519 CITATION Suggested citation: McGuire, T. 2004. History of the offshore oil and gas industry in southern Louisiana: Interim report; Volume II: Bayou Lafourche – An oral history of the development of the oil and gas industry. U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Minerals Management Service, Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, New Orleans, LA. OCS Study MMS 2004-050. 148 pp. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1. Introduction: The Early Years along Bayou Lafourche.......................................................1 1.1. Chester Cheramie (March 4, 2002; Golden Meadow, LA) ..........................................1 1.2. Loulan Pitre (September 24, 2001; Cut Off, LA) .........................................................6 1.3. Steven Charpentier (September 12, 2002; Galliano, LA)...........................................11 2. Oil Comes to Golden Meadow and Leeville......................................................................15 2.1. Pershing and Ophelia Lefort (March 5, 2002; Larose. LA)........................................15 2.2. Pep and Bertha Williams (September 21, 2001; Galliano, LA) .................................23 2.3. Dick Guidry (October 4, 2001; Galliano, LA)............................................................30 2.4. Mac Rome (September 22, 2001; Golden Meadow, LA)...........................................35 3. After the War ....................................................................................................................37 3.1. Loulan Pitre (September 24, 2001; Cut Off, LA) .......................................................37 3.2. Martial Babin (July 18, 2001; Galliano, LA)..............................................................42 3.3. Hurby Plaisance (July 23, 2001; Golden Meadow, LA).............................................49 3.4. Abraham Griffin (July 23, 2001; Golden Meadow, LA)............................................57 3.5. Dick Guidry (October 4, 2001; Galliano, LA)............................................................61 3.6. Mac Rome (September 22, 2001; Golden Meadow, LA)...........................................65 4. The Boat Companies..........................................................................................................73 4.1. Weber Callais (June 4, 2002; Golden Meadow, LA)..................................................73 4.2. Chester Cheramie (March 4, 2002; Golden Meadow, LA) ........................................84 4.3. Roy Champagne (September 20, 2001; Galliano, LA)...............................................88 4.4. Dick Guidry (October 4, 2001; Galliano, LA)............................................................93 5. An Industry and Region in Transition ...............................................................................99 5.1. Ronald Callais (June 6, 2002; Golden Meadow, LA).................................................99 5.2. Ted Falgout (March 14, 2002; Galliano, LA)...........................................................111 5.3. Butch Renois and Emmett H.D. Renois Jr. (July 17, 2001; Galliano, LA) ..............119 5.4. Pershing and Ophelia Lefort (March 5, 2002; Larose, LA)......................................127 5.5. Mac Rome (September 22, 2001; Golden Meadow, LA).........................................128 6. Legacies ………..............................................................................................................131 6.1. Windell Curole (June 5, 2002; Galliano, LA)...........................................................131 6.2. Ronald Callais (June 6, 2002; Golden Meadow, LA)...............................................138 6.3. Pep and Bertha Williams (September 21, 2001; Galliano, LA) ...............................142 7. References …. ..................................................................................................................147 v 1. Introduction: The Early Years along Bayou Lafourche 1.1. Chester Cheramie (March 4, 2002; Golden Meadow, LA) Born in Golden Meadow in 1923, Chester Cheramie was one of seven siblings in a trapping and fishing family. He graduated from high school, spent three and a half years in the Navy, then returned to Golden Meadow and worked as a roustabout for several years. His father-in-law gave him a barroom, which Chester operated for fifteen years before going to work for Cheramie Brothers’ boat company. He then worked in the office, doing mainly personnel, purchasing, and promotional work, for Nolte Theriot’s boat company. After 26 years at that job, he retired at age 74. One of his sons has a Ph.D. and directs the CODOFIL program (Council for the Development of French in Louisiana) out of Lafayette. CODOFIL was created by the Louisiana State Legislature in 1968 at the behest of several Lafayette-based cultural activists, and has worked to preserve and revive Cajun traditions and reintroduce French teaching in the public schools of south Louisiana. Chester and many other residents of south Lafourche carry painful memories of their school days where they were punished for speaking French. The state’s Board of Education banned the use of that language in public classrooms in 1916, and the Constitution of 1921 ratified the prohibition. I met Chester at the Fête de cochon in Cut Off in March, 2002. This boucherie (hog slaughtering) is held annually, reproducing a pattern whereby, prior to refrigeration, families would periodically butcher a pig and prepare the meat and internal organs for consumption by extended families and neighbors. At this fête, an Americorps student from up the bayou had the honor of dispatching the pig. The occasion is hosted and prepared by a group of men from south Lafourche, each allowed to invite their families and two guests. When I returned to the fête in March of 2003, Chester Cheramie had passed away. His widow was given a plaque commemorating Chester’s activities with the group. My name is Chester Cheramie from Golden Meadow, Louisiana. I was born in 1923, and finished school in Golden Meadow High School. After school I joined the navy and spent three and half years in the Navy. I returned to my home in 1945. First job I had was working in the oil field, roughnecking, and did that for about two years there I went into the barroom business that my father-in-law gave me and I stayed there about fifteen years. From there I went to work for the Cheramie Brothers in the boat business and my job was mostly work in the office but my daddy all during his life was a fisherman and was born and raised in the bayou down in Golden Meadow. As a kid for a living I went trapping in the marsh and we would leave in October and we would return back home the end of March, so we would lose about three and half months of school and tryin’ to catch up in those days was kind of hard. My mom and dad didn’t know how to read and write. I learned the best of my knowledge from friends. When we spent not only wintertime in the swamp trapping but we also went fishing and trawling and everything we had to do to survive in those days, that was back in the Depression. We were a family of seven kids and every kid had to work to hustle that nickel and dime. We did that, we had to peel shrimp, open oysters, everything we had to do, and after the war – I went into the service and came back and things got a little better and I got married back in 1944, about a year before going to the service. In the three and half years I did spend in the service I traveled world-wide and those were the best years of my life. 1 So you’ve been working…participating in this boucherie for a long time? Around 27 years we’ve been having this thing. And it first started…there was 15 of us. Fifteen guys got together and just chipped in a couple of bucks then. We’d have one pig and kill it and do everything. We would just bring our families. And then it got to growing. It went from fifteen to twenty. From twenty it went up another five. As of right now we’ve got 50 members.