East Feliciana Parish
LAGenWeb
About the time when the Yarboroughs and Phelps and the other colonists
migrated from Elbert County, Georgia, at the close of the late century, into the
Fifth Ward to make their clearings and found their homes along the margin of the
Comite river and Pretty Creek, another band of colonists were waking cane brakes
and primeval forests of the Seventh Ward which borders the Fifth on the north.
These last had commenced their migration from South Carolina soon after the
treaty of 1795 with Spain, and meandered through the Yazoo purchase, feeling
their way, via Natchez, Gallatin, Liberty, Cole's Creek or Bayou Pierre, down
south to the line of demarkation. After Mr. Jefferson's proclamation of October,
1808, which asserted a constructive claim to the purchase of Spain's province of
West Florida the policy of eucouraging immigration from "The States" was revoked
by the Spanish government, and the wilds, south of the line of demarkation, were
hermetically sealed to immigrants of the Anglo-Saxon stripe. Among the earliest
comers into the Seventh Ward were David Pipes, Sr., Ben Graves, Jno. C. and
Thos. Flynn, and Thos. East, from Edgefield District, S. C, who founded his home
on the place familiarly known in after years as the residence of Dr. Isaac
Caulfield, and to this list ought of right to be added the names of the ancestor
of the Harrell family, for it is a well attested tradition that Hezekiah Harrell
was sent as early as 1802 by his father, fat old Levi Harrell, of Charleston
District, S. C, to explore these southern wilds for a home large enough for his
"old folks," the little ones, the slaves and the herds. In discharge of his
mission, Hezekiah, having obtained a liberal Spanish grant, commenced a "hatchet
clearing," in 1802, on the banks of Pretty Creek, just at the foot of "Mount
DeLee." While cutting the canes, Hezekiah would prudently at night, retire up in
the forks of the trees, from which secure but uncomfortable roost he would
calmly observe the gambols, wrestlings and fights of bears, panthers and wolves,
which was as good as a play. His pilgrimage closed by a return to the old folks
at home, and his report was so satisfactory that active preparations for a
general exodus of the Harrells, from Charleston District, commenced and took up
the line of travel by flat boats down the head waters of the Tennessee river,
braving the hidden rocks, eddies, cataracts and whirlpools of the Muscle Shoals.
The patriarch of this exodus, Mr. Levi Harrell, died upon his journey in 1803,
and the duty devolved upon Hezekiah to lead the children, slaves and herds, via
Natchez, down to his hatchet clearing at the foot of "Mount DeLee" on Pretty
Creek.
Finding Jno. C and Thos. Flynn in possession, he passed on higher
up along the margin of Pretty Creek, where he founded the family home (under the
guarantees of the Spanish crown), thirty acres of which was cultivated this its
eighty-sixth year, by his grandson, Mr. W. C. Kent, who, with two hands and two
plows, made 25 bales of cotton, several hundred barrels of corn, and several
hundred gallons of syrup.
The colonizing of the Seventh Ward, thus far
chronicled, was fostered and encouraged by the policy of Spain, but in 1803 that
liberal policy was revoked, and that class of settlers which came after 1803
below the line of demarkation, came at their own risk and held their clearings
by the strong hand against the prowling wild beasts and prying Spanish soldiers,
Alguazils and tax gatherers.
Of this latter class of unbidden guests,
earliest and most conspicuous was old Major Sam Norwood, who came in 1806 with
his sons, namely: Elias, Noel, John, Ezekial and Abel T. and his daughter
Elizabeth, afterwards Mrs. George Keller, his slaves, his chattels and herds; a
big boned, heavy muscled, true hearted race of men who migrated from Darlington
District, South Carolina, in 1804, by the flat boat route, down the head waters
of the Tennessee, through the perils of the Muscle Shoals and the Mississippi
river, to Natchez, whence they journeyed by land to the wilds of the Seventh
Ward, just below the line of demarkation, and founded their ancestral seats
along the margin of the Comite river and Richland Creek. In the same line of
immigration with the Norwoods came out of Darlington and Union Districts, S C.,
the Scotts, Winfers, Robbins, McKneelys and McCants into the Third Ward, and
also old Mr. Henry Dunn, who founded a home for his children and numerous slaves
in the Seventh Ward, a mile or two east of the Norwoods. These three families of
Harrell, Norwood and Dunn prospered and multiplied exceedingly, and had large
influence in shaping the civilization of their community through several
peaceful years, which calm was rudely broken by the American revolt in 1810
against the Spanish authority. After 1806 the tide of immigration ceased to flow
into the Seventh Ward until 1814, in which eventful year John Rowley, a solitary
immigrant from Beaufort District, S. C., commenced to build a log cabin about a
stone's throw from the present residence of Mr. Frank Wood, as an humble
residence for his wife and twin babies, the door of which was still unfinished
when news came by Gen. Coffee's couriers "That the British had landed!" and that
Gen. Jackson in New Orleans was badly in need of men, arms and horses.
Hitherto my narrative depicts the pioneers developing and expanding the arts of
peaceful civilization, building homes, clearing, fencing, planting orchards and
farms during a period of peace, the calm influences of which were only disturbed
in 1810 by the brief and bloodless revolt which expelled the Spanish authority.
Now, in 1814, the first call is made upon them to defend the homes they have
built. Gen. Coffee, whose headquarters were established at Baton Rouge late in
the summer of 1814, had sent his worn out cavalry horses into the East Feliciana
pastures to rest and recruit. An order to him from Gen. Jackson, dated New
Orleans, Dec. 17th, summoned him to come with all the men, horses and arms he
could raise, and "not to sleep until he got there," caused the sending of
couriers with the startling news that "The British had landed, and Gen. Jackson,
in New Orleans, was badly in need of men, arms and horses." The news thrilled
all hearts in the scattered hamlets of East Feliciana like the sound of the
midnight tocsin stirred the emotional Parisians. It looked like the land had
been sown with the fabled Dragon's teeth to see an armed and mounted man spring
out of every canebrake. Gen. Coffee's recruited cavalry horses were started in a
gallop back to Baton Rouge, each with a bold East Feliciana rider on his back,
with his sire's old rifle, which had sent messages of death to the British on
the Revolutionary battlefields. Even the 12-year-old boys caught up the shaggy,
pot-gutted ponies in their canebrake hiding places, saddled up and spurred on to
Baton Rouge. Old John Rowley nailed up a blanket as a substitute for the
unfinished door of his log cabin, and committing Esther and the twins to the
care of God, galoped off with his rifle for Baton Rouge.
On the night of
December 23rd, when Gen Coffee sent an answer to his chief's peremptory order of
the 17th from his camp, fifteen miles above New Orleans, saying: "I am here with
fifteen hundred armed and mounted men," all East Feliciana, from the boy of
twelve to the grey beard of seventy slept under the folds of brave Coffee's
banner that night. When Coffee on the 27th and 28th was retiring sullenly,
disputing every inch of the way from the shore of Lake Borgne to the famous
field of Chalmette, the sharp crack of the East Feliciana rifle revived the
echoes of Guilford Court House, Camden, and King's mountain, in the swamps of
Lake Borgne. It is painful to narrate that, as Coffee retired before Packenbam's
veteran legions, many a saddle was emptied of its bold East Feliciana rider. But
it is sadder still to record the manner of the death of Thos. East, who came
early into the Seventh Ward from Edgefield District, S. C, and founded a home on
the place afterwards owned by Dr. Isaac Caulfield.
This Thos. East was
the grand father of Dr. A. L. East, of the Plains, and taking service under
Coffee, left his wife and infant child, in the care of his young cousin, William
East, and fought unscratched through the skirmishes and battles around New
Orleans. Afier his discharge, in company with many of his comrades, he commenced
his voyage home on a keel boat, to be corddled up to the Bluffs of East
Feliciana. On the voyage he fell ill with measles, which terminated fatally,
just as the boat tied up at the foot of the Bluffs, afterwards renowned as Port
Hudson, where his remains repose on battle fields where the cracks of his old
Revolutionary rifle was unheard, and where many of his old comrades in arms
encountered death, defeat and starvation. The son he left in his cradle lived to
propagate in many communities the Baptist faith, on which he was a devoted
believer. His pretty young widow married John L. Delee, of Lincoln County, North
Carolina, who after serving in the Creek, Seminole and Chalmette campaign came
into the Seventh ward with an honorable discharge and there reared a large
family which has been conspicious in Seventh ward society.
In further
illustration of the ability of our people to defend their homes, although it is
a little outside the scope and design of my work, I will presume to revert to
two episodes which arroused their fears for the security of the homes they
founded in the primeval forests and cane breaks. In May, 1846, news came that
the Western frontier of the Republic was invaded by a Mexcan army under Gen.
Ampudia and that Gen. Zachary Taylor had but a handful of troops to encounter
him. A company of 125 East Felicianians under Capt. H. B. Chase and another
company of the same number under Capt. Geo. C. Comstock reported in New Orleans,
many months, in advance of the preparations made by the Government for arms and
transportation. The 250 men were one-third of the white adults of the parish and
it is no vain boast to say that the other two-thirds would have offered their
services had not the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca De La Palma rendered it
unnecessary.
Again, in Nov. 1860, Breckinridge beat the Douglas and Bell
and Everet tickets by a large majority but when in less than two months
afterwards the question of secession came squarely up, it was negatived by a
large vote, when, however the convention of Louisiana adopted an ordinance of
secession, and there was no way out but to tight out. East Feliciana threw three
full companies into the Fourth Regiment; one into the 16th; another into the
29th and a company into Scott's cavalry; in addition to which, two bodies of
scouts, under Col. Edwin A Scott and Capt. John C. McKowen, were kept organized
for Home Protection.
From a military record uniformly honorable and
remarkable for patriotism, I turn to the more peaceful developments of the
Christian religion, which commenced in the Seventh ward soon after the expulsion
of the Spanish authority. The earliest religious foundation of the ward was a
small Presbyterian House of Worship, named Friendship Church, situated about a
hundred yards from Mrs. Currie's residence on Pretty creek. It had a small
congregation, organized by the Rev. James Smiley and their pastor, in 1831, was
the Rev. John Patterson, a young Scottisch Divine. This congregation was soon
absorbed by their co-religionists of Comite church, which is still the house of
worship of a large and powerful Presbyterian body of which the late David Pipes,
Sr., and William Silliman were honored and revered members. However predominant
the early Presbyterians may have been, they have since been confronted by the
active and zealous Methodist and Baptist propagandists, if the younger
denominations have not actually invaded the territories of the older, they have
at least held it in check and barred, in a large measure, its expansion.
The Seventh Ward, though without a foot of ground requiring artificial
drainage, and though it embraces within its bodies as much good, fertile and
fairly productive land as any of the other wards, has perhaps a larger area of
utilized and abandoned places than any of those I have sketched. Sterility is
not the cause of its unusually large bodies of waste and idle lands. Its surface
was in the beginning of its civilization largely divested of its original
forests and cane brakes by numerous slaves brought from South Carolina by its
early and wealthy settlers. Before these slaves forests disappeared and fields
were brought under cultivation on a large scale. When the forests were gone and
the fields began to show bald spots, the tenants of the negro quarters had
multiplied under a kind and paternal treatment at an amazing rate of increase.
Most of the slave increase was transported, before freedom, to open and
cultivate the alluvial lands west of the Mississippi, where they have since
remained, and the abandoned surfaces of the ward deprived of their natural labor
supply still to a large extent remain uncultivated. The vast surface of
abandoned land, say 25,000 acres, is not worn out but a little tired from the
slovenly farming of big slave plantations. This land can be bought at an average
price of $5.00 per acre, perhaps lets and the second growth of pines, which
clothe all the abandoned acres, will fence them. When fenced, at small
additional outlay for fertilizers they can be made to produce a bale of cotton
to the acre. Indeed it may be truthfully added that there are small spots, all
over the ward, which by its natural strength will bring a bale to the acre.
Before closing my picture of the Seventh Ward it is but simple justice to
add that, notwithstanding so many appearances of decay its climate and soil are
as good as any; its moral and social march has been as healthy as any; its lofty
ranges of highlands present as many temptations to the judicious home seekers,
as can be found elsewhere in East Feliciana.
Yours, etc.,
H. Skipwith.
Extracted 09 Aug 2019 by Norma Hass from East Feliciana, Louisiana by Henry Skipwith, published in 1892.
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