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As the turn of the twentieth century approached, Pierre had already made plans for a momentous change in his and Victorine’s day-to-day lives. In a number of purchases from January through the end of the year 1899, Pierre had amassed property opposite the town of Houma on the north side of Bayou Terrebonne. Most of Pierre’s purchases were from former Houma mayor Felix Daspit’s family and heirs. The Daspit house he acquired on September 5, 1904, was a comfortable bousillageentre -poteaux (mud-moss walls between timbers) structure. On the south side of Houma’s “water main street” were located its business district and its older residential areas extending southward off the town’s major thoroughfare. He and Victorine and four of their children still living at home did not move from Dulac immediately after the purchases. The household of Pierre, Victorine, Jean Pierre, Jr., William, Dennis, and Adenise was listed as residing in Dulac when the 1900 census was taken. Sometime in 1905 the Cenacs relocated to Houma to live on Park Avenue. The batture land, between the bayou and the public road—Park—measured one arpent (192 feet) wide, minus 12 feet. That land is adjacent to the current location of the Terrebonne Waterlife Museum. The Cenac home site across the public road (chemin publique) measured one arpent wide by one arpent deep, bounded by Park and extending northward. Pierre’s homesite was adjacent to the property of L.F. Suthon upstream and to that of Mrs. J.P. Viguerie downstream. The Cenacs had lived in Dulac nearly 40 years, so the move from the rural setting to a Houma that had expanded considerably since Pierre lived there as a young man had to be prompted by important considerations. One enticement was the fact that many of the Cenac children were already residing in Houma and working there soon after 1900. Another was that Pierre already owned businesses (livery stable, bakery, moss and broom factories among them) in Houma. In 1899, he saw the opportunity to purchase further properties in the town: on May 23 on Barrow Street from Denis Bourgeois, on July 8 on Barrow Street from Francois Gouaux, and on September 6 three lots on Gouaux Avenue, also from Francois Gouaux. Perhaps the fact that the City of Houma incorporated the expanding area across Bayou Terrebonne in 1898 gave impetus CHAPTER 20 Houma’s Golden Age 191 Chapter 20 Photo taken January 1891 to Pierre, who obviously enjoyed having elbow room between him and his neighbors. Open land was more expansive north of the bayou, and homes were not so closely situated as were those in the older section of town near Main Street. Age may also have been a factor in Pierre’s decision to move closer to larger numbers of people and conveniences. He was 61 in 1899, at a time when the average life expectancy was in the forties. Although seemingly still mobile and robust in health—as well as ambitious in business—he no doubt was making arrangements for his and Victorine’s declining years. The purchase of land in Houma did not immediately sunder Pierre’s involvement in the Dulac properties in which he had invested so many years. In the Houma Courier edition of August 27, 1900, a report of Terrebonne Parish Police Jury proceedings included “The petition of Pierre Cenac requesting pay for the road to be traced along left descending bank of Bayou Grand Caillou, through his property, was received and read.” The police jury at that meeting approved instructions to the Road Committee “to lay out a public road along the left descending bank of Bayou Grand Caillou from Pierre Cenac’s upper line to Belamour Canal, and report same at the next regular meeting.” The road became the precursor to Highway 57 that loops from Dulac to Little Caillou. Pierre was not the only Cenac making plans for a move during 1899. That year, Theophile sold properties he owned in Morgan City, probably preparatory to moving to Houma. The first years of the 1900s brought significant strides toward modernization in Houma. However, after January 1, 1900, rang in a new century, the town fell victim to several tragedies. In 1901 an anthrax epidemic took its toll on animals of all kinds. In 1902, the third widespread Houma fire destroyed both sides of Main Street between Goode and Roussell streets. In 1905, a statewide yellow fever epidemic left many families bereft. But local...

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