North Carolina is a well-known retirement destination, offering everything from mountains to a beautiful coast and everything in between.
While there have been some famous people to settle here after becoming famous, there are also some great legends and tall tales about others. One unsolved case is that of Jean Lafitte — a pirate, privateer, and one of the heroes of the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812.
Jean and his brother Pierre worked the Gulf Coast 200 years ago. Frenchmen, they possessed “aristocratic manners and sartorial tastes,” even though they came from a poor background, of which much remains a mystery.
Jean was said to cut a Hollywood version of the pirate with his long hair and earrings and he was a survivor, switching allegiances when needed. At times he fought against Americans, British, and Spanish.
Jean operated off the coast of New Orleans in Barataria Bay, which was a nest of pirates, smugglers, and other rogues. Things were so bad the governor put a bounty on his head … when he got the news, Lafitte offered triple the reward for the governor.
Most people know of Lafitte for his role in helping General Andrew Jackson defeat the British in 1815, technically after the war had ended. It was a significant victory and added to the legacies of both Jackson and Lafitte. [Note: Kristi and I ate a restaurant in New Orleans named after Lafitte and while it was quite good, the rest room looked as though it hadn’t been cleaned since its namesake’s time in town.]
Lafitte disappeared in the 1820s and there has been speculation on how he might have met his end: during a failed pirate attack, of a fever in Mexico, or other theories.
But then there is one legend out there that he actually made his way to Lincolnton, a small town outside Charlotte. Dr. Ashley Oliphant of Pfeiffer University and her mother have a new book out about it, Jean Lafitte Revealed.
A man named Lorendzo Ferrier moved to Lincolnton and led a secluded life while there. One of his friends, Wallace Reinhardt was convinced the Frenchman was Lafitte, while others have theorized he was one of Lafitte’s many captains.
Ferrier arrived in town with a woman, Louisa, who died in 1858 at the age of 40 and is buried under a table monument Ferrier had built at St. Luke’s Episcopal Churchyard. Lorendzo is buried under the same monument with a birth year engraved of 1780.The couple had a son, but he disappeared around the time of Ferrier’s death in 1875, but is said to have returned 20 years later.
When word came that Union forces were nearing Lincolnton, Ferrier got Reinhardt to help him move his treasure chests from his home to the Lincoln County Courthouse to keep them safe. When the task was done, Ferrier gave Reinhardt a double handful of gold coins and a gold watch for helping. Other chests had jewels and gold and Ferrier never mentioned how he acquired them.
Ferrier is said to have let the local children visit and he’d tell stories about his days as a pirate. One day, he met the man many believed to have been Napoleon’s right-hand man, Peter Ney, who supposedly escaped a firing squad and made it to North Carolina. The two men had an angry confrontation. [Note: I wrote about Ney in an earlier blog post here.
Before he died, Ferrier gave money and land to several of his friends, but there is no record of the transactions at the courthouse.
Sources:
Thomas Lark, Lincoln Herald
Gladys Childs, The State
What happened to the chests that Ferrier left at the courthouse ?
I wasn’t able to find out anything else on that one.