Fergus Faucheux’s Boat

Glen Faucheux (left), Sylvia Faucheux and Neal Cazenave

Standing on the bank of the Mississippi at Gramercy, Louisiana, one can only imagine how difficult it would be to row a small, flat-bottomed skiff across the river. At about a mile and a half wide at this point, the current is swift and treacherous. Start rowing and you could wind up miles downstream.

Yet Fergus Faucheux rowed across that river every workday for nearly 45 years – from his home in Wallace to his job as foreman at the sugar refinery now owned by the Imperial Sugar Company. That was decades ago, well before the bridge connecting Wallace and Gramercy was built, in an era when driving 20 miles downriver to cross at New Orleans was out of the question. And that’s presuming you even had a car.

Today, Fergus Faucheux’s grandchildren work at the same Imperial Sugar refinery and recall not only their grandfather’s determination, but also how he profoundly instilled the highest sense of work ethic in his large family.

Sylvia Faucheux joined two of her cousins, Neal Cazenave and Glen Faucheux, to remember their remarkable grandfather. They stood on the spot where he would drag his boat out of the water on the Gramercy side and walk to work, often with a friend.

“The thing that sticks out in my mind is that as children, we would go to the river and meet him as he came home from work,” Sylvia said. “I remember my mother telling me that he would store his oars but when he wasn’t looking, the children would play with them as stilts.”

“He had to be a very dedicated man to row across the river, and I believe he instilled that in us,” Glen added.

Some foggy mornings, Faucheux might miscalculate the current and end up downriver from the sugar refinery, causing him and his passenger to have to carry the boat back up to the plant.

Neal said his grandfather was already retired by the time he was a youngster. Nevertheless, Neal cut grass and did chores around the house for the elder Faucheux, and the two of them became very close. “That’s one man I really looked up to,” Neal said.

No one can recall what eventually happened to the skiff. Sylvia knows, however, that the boat was hand-built by a friend in the community, Mr. Zeringue.

Out of Fergus Faucheux’s nine children, six worked at the refinery and at least 15 of his grandchildren and one great-grandchild have worked at the plant.

Today, Sylvia is a technical clerk, Neal works as a process operator and Glen is a process superintendent at Imperial Sugar’s refinery.

As they look across the Mississippi, Sylvia reflects with love and admiration for their grandfather: “He just taught us so much. He taught us about life. He was a very wise man.”