The beautiful Evangeline Oak in St. Martinville is immortalized in the epic poem 'Evangeline' by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, but the poet's story doesn't match up with Louisiana's legend about his heroine.
PROVIDED PHOTO
If Huey P. Long had taken time to read Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1847 poem before hitting the campaign trail, would he have scrapped his 1928 "Evangeline" speech?
Maybe he did read it, but it didn't matter. Why? Because the true version of Longfellow's "Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie" didn't exactly match the narrative Long was trying to convey.
"Here beneath this oak, Evangeline waited for her lover, who never came," the 34-year-old Long recited in his legendary stump speech for the governor's office. "It is a spot made immortal by Longfellow's poem, but Evangeline is not the only one who has waited here in disappointment … Evangeline wept bitter tears in her disappointment, but they lasted only through a single lifetime. Your tears in this country, around this oak, have lasted for generations. Give me the chance at last to dry the tears of those who still weep her."
Spoiler alert
Spoiler alert: In Longfellow's poem, Evangeline didn't spend her life crying beneath a live oak tree waiting for her long-lost fiancé to show up in a boat along the Bayou Teche. She actually hit the road to search for him.
George Rodrigue's 1980 painting depicts Huey P. Long delivering his legendary 'Evangeline' speech beneath the Evangeline Oak in St. Martinville during his 1928 campaign for governor. 'Just like Evangeline cried for her Gabriel, Louisiana cries for roads and schools and bridges,' he said. But Evangeline didn't cry beneath the oak in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem.
FILE PHOTO
This piqued Phyllis Hall's curiosity about the two versions of this story.
"I read Huey Long's speech, and it made me think about the poem," the Catahoula community reader said. "So, I read the poem, and it's totally different from the story told in St. Martinville. So, where does this revised version of the story come from?"
Hall clarifies that she knows the story is fiction, but, she adds, a chunk of southwest Louisiana's tourism revolves around "Evangeline." Laci Laperouse, director of the St. Martin Parish Tourism Commission, even points out that tourists from throughout the world continuously make a point to visit St. Martinville's Evangeline Oak.
Longfellow's story
Longfellow's tale of Evangeline Bellefontaine and her betrothed, Gabriel Lajeunesse, begins with the 1755 British expulsion of some 10,000 French-speaking Acadians from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
Alexander Alaux's 1929 painting, 'Evangeline,' adheres to the Louisiana legend by showing Evangeline and Gabriel standing beneath a live oak along the banks of the Bayou Teche. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem doesn't match up with the legend.
PROVIDED PHOTO FROM THE LOUISIANA STATE MUSEUM
The British ruled these Canadian territories, where the French and Indian War was raging, and they required an unqualified oath of allegiance to the British Crown from its citizens.
The Acadians refused, maintaining what they perceived to be French neutrality. So, the British shipped them to the American colonies.
Some refugees ended up in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Georgia, with the bulk migrating to what is now southwest Louisiana.
Longfellow's tale takes place on the backdrop of this history, where Evangeline is separated from Gabriel on their wedding day, when British soldiers break up the ceremony and corral everyone for the north-to-south trek from Nova Scotia to Louisiana.
A bust of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is displayed in Evangeline Oak Park in St. Martinville. Longfellow wrote the poem, 'Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie,' which doesn't match up with the legend of the Evangeline Oak.
STAFF FILE PHOTO BY LESLIE WESTBROOK
Evangeline immediately loses track of Gabriel and doesn't see him again until years later while working as a nurse in the religious order Sisters of Mercy in Philadelphia. Gabriel dies in her arms, and she dies shortly thereafter.
A legend begins
This is where Longfellow's story ends and Louisiana legend begins.
"Legend is a good word for it," St. Martinville writer Jude Theriot said. "The original poem spawned a lot of retellings. That's the way legends work — they get passed on and retold, and then things are added and things are subtracted along the way. It's like a game of telephone that becomes something different at the end."
Theriot has researched and written historical articles for the St. Martin Parish Tourism Commission's blog at . He started examining the Evangeline legend in 2018 when the St. Martinville City Council and Garden Club initiated a "Save Our Tree" project.
A statue of Evangeline is on display outside St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church in St. Martinville. The statue is sometimes referred to as the 'tomb of Evangeline,' when actually it's a monument commissioned and donated to the city by actress Dolores del Rio, who played the character in the 1926 silent film, 'Evangeline.'
STAFF FILE PHOTO BY LESLIE WESTBROOK
The project included the installment of an iron fence surrounding the tree where, it's said, Evangeline mourned along the Bayou Teche.
"Longfellow's poem briefly mentions the 'town of St. Martin,' on the banks of the Teche," Theriot said. "So, there is a passing reference to it, but the oak, itself, is not mentioned. There is talk of oaks in the poem, but again, nothing specific."
Local authors' tales
So came the retellings, beginning with Edgard author Sidonie de la Houssaye's 1880 novel, "Pouponne and Balthazar," which — yes — follows two Acadian lovers during the British exile. The story is set in St. Martinville, and it's said to have been based on "Evangeline."
On a side note, this author's lovers are reunited.
Still, the oak didn't come into play until the 1907 publishing of St. Martinville Judge Felix Voorhies' book, "Acadian Reminiscences: The True Story of Evangeline," telling the story of Emmeline Labiche and Louis Arceneaux, who also were separated during the exile.
On the patio outside the main wing of her home, Dolores del Rio pours tea. The Hollywood actress played the title character in the 1926 silent film, 'Evangeline,' and later donated a statue of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's character to St. Martinville. The statue now stands on the grounds of St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church.
FILE PHOTO BY ALEX KAHLE
Voorhies claimed the characters were real-life people, and though they reunite beneath the Evangeline Oak, their ending isn't happy. Why? While Emmeline faithfully waited, Louis met and married another.
"Voorhies told this story as though it were a historical account," Theriot said. "But it was actually a blend of history and legend, and I think he even gave a specific reference like, 'My grandmother told me the story that she heard from … .' So, he used the guise of history in another retelling of the legend, and then he tied not only Evangeline specifically to St. Martinville but specifically to a particular oak tree, which was near the church on the bank of the bayou."
The 'tomb of Evangeline'
The oak named for Evangeline stands on the banks of the Bayou Teche only steps away from St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church, where stands a statue of a young woman in 18th-century garb.
"So, Evangeline was assumed to be an actual woman," Theriot said. "And it only further confused things when a kind of a tomb was created with the statue of Evangeline next to the church. No one is buried there."
St. Martinville street light banners include the Evangeline Oak and the phrase 'Home of Evangeline.'
STAFF FILE PHOTO BY LESLIE WESTBROOK
The statue actually was commissioned and donated to the church by Hollywood actress Dolores del Rio, who played the title character in the 1926 silent film, "Evangeline." A plaque on the monument states as much.
Meanwhile, a Louisiana state historical marker next to the Evangeline Oak perpetuates the myth that the tree is the site of the reunion between "Emmeline Labiche and Louis Arceneaux, the counterparts of Evangeline and Gabriel."
These days, the Evangeline Oak has company. Laperouse explains that a second tree, formerly referred to as the "Daughter Oak," has been officially named the Belle Marie Oak, daughter of the Evangeline Oak.
But it was from beneath the Evangeline Oak that Long delivered his political narrative based on legend.
"Sometimes fantasy is more powerful than reality, especially in politics," Theriot said. "So what Huey Long perceptively sensed, I think, is the energy of that spirit that he wanted to harness."