Antoine Montz  (P-342063)

(A soldier in the Army of Gálvez)

Antoine, a son of Joseph Mantz and Anna Maria Laub, was born 23 January 1749, at Landersheim, Bas-Rhin, Alsace, France.  He was baptized the same day.  His baptismal name, according to Archives from the Departementales du Bas-Rhin, France, was Antonius Mantz.  His father, Joseph, a miller by profession, died within a year of Antoine's birth.  

The 1750s saw many Alsatian families arrive at Louisiana, settling along the Mississippi River above New Orleans at an area known as Côte des Allemands, the German Coast.  Many were German Lutherans, recent converts to Catholicism. They prospered and adjusted well to the Louisiana River Parish resettlement such that that the request was made for the resettlement of related families.

Antoine’s family remained near Rochefort, France, until travel allowed them to avoid the English blockades.  The family finally left France in the fall of 1759, on a ship with at least twenty-two passengers aboard.  Antoine, aged ten years, along with his brother Joseph, Jr., sister Eve Bridget, maternal half-brother Christophe Achtziger, Jr., and stepfather Christophe Achtziger/Quatrevingt made the crossing to the wilderness of the German Coast of Louisiana, then a French Territory.  Christophe Achtziger Sr., a native of Bavaria, Germany, had married Antoine’s mother Anna Maria Laub, widow of Joseph Mantz.  Sevile Bichof/Pichof, and her father Joseph, were on the same crossing ship from Rochefort, France.  On the German Coast, the three Mantz siblings lived with their stepfather at his farm, where they worked the land.

Antoine married Sevile Bichof/Pichof, 24 November 1772, at Saint John the Baptist Parish, Coast of the Germans, Province of Louisiana.  Antoine’s marriage was the first recorded in the Laplace, Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church Registers. Antoine and Sevile lived on their family farm at Laplace, Louisiana, a farm that included two adjourning tracts of land which Antoine had purchased in 1770 and 1772. He became the start of the Montz families of the Louisiana German Coast. 

As hostilities between Britain and Spain increased, Spain prepared for war.  In a letter dated 29 May 1778, Antoine’s name appears at that time as an individual willing to provide 25 quarts of rice in husks for the war effort.  Antoine served as a Fusilier in the Company of Volunteer Militia of the German Coast, Second Company, under the direct command of Captain Robin Delongy, 2 June 1778.  As such, he would have participated with the militia in the diverse Gálvez Army at least in the battles of Fort Bute at Manchac, Louisiana Territory, 6 September 1779, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana Territory, 21 September 1779.

Antoine and Sevile had eight known children.  Five of them, four sons and a daughter, survived to have families of their own, with a total of twenty-eight children between them.  Antoine did not live to see any of his grandchildren. He died about the age of 39 years, 23 December 1788, according to Louisiana Catholic Church records.  He was buried the following day at Saint John the Baptist Parish Catholic Church cemetery at Edgard, Louisiana.  No grave marker has been found, however; information from the church funeral register has him listed as Antoine Mans, married to Sevile Pichof. 

In 1809, the Montz farm was purchased from Antoine’s widow and children by three of the heirs, Christophe, Antoine, and Andre Montz.  Sevile remained on the farm until her death, 5 February 1810.  In both France and early Louisiana, the family surname spelling has varied, but by the early 1800s, Montz became the accepted spelling.

After the Louisiana Purchase during the time of the War of 1812, Antoine’s sons also did their part in the defense of the area.  When the British invasion of Louisiana was eminent at the end of 1814, the Montz brothers, along with many other men of the area, served in the Louisiana Militia forces under General Andrew Jackson.  They defended New Orleans and Louisiana from the invading British forces under General Pakenham.