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Submitted: 12/6/10 • Approved: 12/10/10 • Last Updated: 7/29/12 • R422483-G0-S3
St. Peter’s History
New Gascony was settled by Antoine Barraque, a veteran of Napoleon’s Army, who emigrated from the lower Pyrenees in France about 1817. After living briefly in Arkansas Post, he moved up river and established a landing named for his home land. Floods forced the settlement inland. Colonel Creed Taylor, a convert to Catholicism in 1836, built the original church, deeded the two acres land and 80 adjoining acres to Andrew Byrne, Bishop of Little Rock in June 1850. The Bishop executed a 100 year lease on the farm land to provide income for the upkeep of the cemetery.
Along the western fence line, can be seen the memorials to the twenty nine Italian families recruited to emigrate to New Gascony in 1905 to farm the land. Following the flood of 1927 and a period of depressed farm prices most of these hard working families living around St. Peter’s Cemetery moved away.
Contributed on 12/6/10 by richard110
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Record #: 422483