Pere Charles Menard, the “Apostle of Bayou Lafourche,” conducted the first Mass of record offered in le Terrebonne (Montegut) in June 1842. Services were infrequent because of the distance from St. Joseph in Thibodaux and many times weddings and baptisms were held in groups. Missionaries rarely traveled more than eight miles below Houma. A mission building was finished on January 8, 1844 in le Terrebonne on the Widow Dugas property. Pere Menard recorded in his 1845 journal, the purchase of a new horse in order to serve the far-flung missions. The frequencies of services improved after 1845, and were held at the le Terrebonne on property near what later became Dugas Cemetery, and in upper Little Caillou at the home of Alexis Duplantis and Jean
