St. Mary Parish
LAGenWeb
"Swinging from its great arms, the
trumpet-flower and the grape-vine Hung their ladder of ropes aloft like the
ladder of Jacob, On whose pendulous stairs the angels ascending and descending,
Were the swift humming birds, that flitted from blossom to blossom. Such was the
vision Evangeline saw as she slumbered beneath it." – Longfellow.
THE
parish of St. Mary is small in extent, but its lands are of the richest. Perhaps
some of the finest sugar lands and plantations in Louisiana are in this parish.
It is said there is not an acre of poor land in the parish, and, better still,
the lands never wear out; although cultivated constantly for a century or more
without manure of any kind, they still produce most excellent crops. It is about
fifty miles across the parish by the main public highway, from south east to
northwest, and perhaps twenty-five miles in the widest place. The boundaries are
northwest by the parish of Iberia, northeast by Grand and Palourde Lakes, on the
southeast by the parish of Terrebonne, from which it is separated by the
Atchafalaya Bayou, and on the southwest by the Atchafalaya and Cote Blanche
Bayous. It has something over 20,000 inhabitants.
TOPOGRAPHY, ETC. – The
parish of St. Mary is rather low, level lands, with considerable swamp, or,
perhaps, what had as well be called sea marsh. Indeed, the highest point, except
Belle Isle and Cote Blanche Island, is not more than fifteen feet above the
level of the Gulf of Mexico, and the daily tides from the gulf of from one to
two feet in all the lakes and bayous. The land around Berwick Bay has an
elevation, in the highest point, reaching 'to about ten feet, and from the bay
to Pattersonville, and three or four miles up the Teche, the elevation is but
little above that around the bay and on the Boeuf. At Franklin the west bank of
the Teche is about thirteen feet above tide water; the east bank is a little
lower. The two islands, Cote Blanche and Belle Isle, at their highest points are
more than one hundred and sixty feet above the level of the gulf. Most of the
sea marsh is. under water during gulf storms when the wind blows toward the
land.
The geological features of St. Mary are that it is principally an
alluvium soil, rich as mother earth can very well be made, and so deep that the
work of man has not yet penetrated its depth. Should the farming land ever fail
in productiveness, a good, thick covering of swamp mulch will restore it to its
former richness. And the supply of this excellent fertilizer is just simply
inexhaustible.
As low as is the general level of St. Mary but little of
the parish, and rarely any of the farming lands, have ever overflowed. Some of
the lands have never been overflowed within the memory of the "oldest
inhabitant." This may be said of the west bank of the Teche from a point five or
six miles below Centreville to its source in St. Landry parish. The lands in the
lower part of the parish, and on the east side of the Teche, were overflowed,
according to history, in 1788, 1828 and 1867. When the levees on the Mississippi
River stand firm, St. Mary need have no fear of overflow.
Of the
agricultural products of the parish, Mr. Daniel Dennett, who has done such
excellent work, and who has written so much for Southwest Louisiana, gives
interesting statistics. For years Mr. Dennett studied this country, collected
data of its resources and wealth, and published the same for its benefit. The
country owes much to him and his arduous labors. And as this writer is indebted
to him for many valuable and important facts, he incorporates in this volume an
In Memoriam published in the New Orleans Picayune, and written by Mr. T. D.
Richardson:
DANIEL DENNETT. – Died January 5, 1891, in Brookhaven,
Mississippi, aged seventy-three years. He was born in Saco, Maine, of poor
parentage, with a name "rather to be chosen than great riches." Up to manhood he
went through the usual rugged routine of farm life, there offset by the
advantages of their good common schools. His natural endowments must have been
much above the ordinary, as shown in the various positions of his checkered
life. There was too much of the brain material in him to be buried up in a New
England rocky farm, and he felt it so. His first step was from one extreme to
the other, and we find him in the Teche country of Louisiana, in the famous
sugar region of Bayou Sal‚. Here he began life in the almost universal toddling
paths of genius and greatness as a school teacher, and soon had a good record in
his vocation. To this he added the role of lecturer on temperance and kindred
subjects, the outcroppings, no doubt, of his early Presbyterian training. And
here, too, he found that "pearl of great price," in the daughter of Joshua
Garrett, and a happy life followed him and his Mary till he was left to finish
his journey alone in 1880, away down near the foot of the hill. Of their six
children, a son and two daughters survive him. Mr. Dennett's strong proclivity
was for farm a in all its phases, and to be the editor of an agricultural
journal was in harmony with his nature. In 1842 he bought the St. Mary parish
newspaper of Robt. Wilson, and the Planters' Banner was born, which in its way
was a power Louisiana, and took the highest rank as an agricultural paper.
He ransacked every nook and corner for items of interest, often too regards
of personal expense. If sometimes he was a little too reckless in his on-slaught
on what he thought injurious to the best interest of the community in morals and
money, he always charged it to the head, never to the heart. In politics he was
a Whig, strong, but conservative as he saw it, and firm after the winner of the
Whigs in those days. We have often heard it said that if his life-work in
Louisiana had been done in some other State, it would have placed him the senate
or executive chair. Here then agriculture and journalism had a "hard row to
hoe," when half the wealth of the State took little or no interest English
literature. When "dust to dust" was said over the "grand old party" common
consent placed him among the pall bearers. During our four years night of gloom
no native born was truer to our cause than Daniel Dennett, ever ready for any
post of danger they gave him. Peace came nine years after the war closed, and
all through the period of reconstruction his sturdy blows will be remembered.
But the fields of journalism, like those of the old plantations, did respond to
the tiller's toil, and the old Planter's Banner had to go down. Then Mr. Dennett
was for some time in Texas, but said he always felt like an exile from home.
Returning to Louisiana he became associated with the Picayune, and finally its
agricultural editor. And here, in the files of that old, time-honored journal,
may now be seen his mature life work. At his beautiful home, near Brookhaven,
Miss., his time was divided between editorials, field, fruits and flowers, and
here closed his long and useful life. It is all spread out now before world.
Well done, good and faithful, will be the common verdict, and in fancy we hear
the echo around the great white throne.
RESOURCES OF THE PARISH.-To quote
from Mr. Dennett's statistical record of agricultural products : "Cotton is
cultivated in St. Mary, but is not considered profitable. Sugar cane is the
proper crop of the parish. Much of the land is adapted to rice. The marsh, by
local levees and draining machines, make rich lands, which are excellent rice
lands. This soil consists principally of a vegetable deposit of a depth. Swamp
lands, or any of the reclaimable wet lands, are fine for rice, corn, sweet and
Irish potatoes; pumpkins, peas, beans, indigo, arrow root, ginger, castor oil
beans, tobacco, hay, cabbage and turnips do well in this soil and climate,
though a part of this list of articles has never been cultivated except to a
very limited extent. Sea Island cotton does well on the islands along the coast.
Garden vegetables grow the year round. Nearly all kinds of vegetables grow the
same here as in the North and West. Of cane, the yield per acre, on an average,
is about a hogshead of sugar and fifty or sixty gallons of molasses; in an extra
good crop year double that amount. Cane is cultivated nearly the same as corn,
and is laid by before July. Sugar making begins in the latter part of October or
early in November."
NUMBER OF ACRES IN CULTIVATION IN 1891:
In
cane 30,000 In rice 3,500 In corn 18,000 In oats 200 In pasture 5,000 [Total]
56,700
Total acreage of parish 576,000 Swamp, wood and sea marsh 519,300
PRODUCTS RAISED IN 1889:
Molasses 18,0OO barrels Sugar 32,500,000
pounds or 100,000 barrels
Rice 33,500 barrels Corn 144,000 barrels
Male Female Total White children, ages 16 to 18 1,252 1,258 2,510 Colored
children, ages 16 to 18 2,551 2,560 5,111 [Total] 3,803 3,818 Total children for
1890 ......... 7,621
The crop of 1890 will be about as follows: Sugar
70,000,000 pounds Molasses 35,000 barrels Corn 144,000 barrels
In the
good old times before the war there were about thirteen thousand slaves owned in
St. Mary parish, valued at six million dollars. Some fifteen steamers then were
engaged in the bayous, lakes and bays contiguous, during the busy season of the
year, and as many as one hundred and twenty-five vessels have left Franklin in a
single year for northern and southern ports, freighted with sugar and molasses
and live-oak. Of course, this is all changed now.
The "fortunes of war"
liberated the slave and elevated him to the dignity (?) of statesmanship, and
the railroad, in a measure, has superseded the steamboat and the schooner.
Rice is grown considerably in St. Mary, but not to, the extent that cane is.
The time is coming, however, when rice will be more extensively cultivated
perhaps than cane, because it can be more easily done. Rice, in this parish,
grows pretty well without flooding, but on the flooded lands the crop is nearly
double that of lands not flooded. Further west the growing of rice is fast
coming the leading crop. In Calcasieu, Acadia, Lafayette and Cameron parishes,
it is grown to a large extent. The method of ploughing, sowing, harvesting and
threshing in rice culture is almost precisely as in wheat, with the the
machinery. Rice culture differs from wheat in the flooding of the fields with
water during the growing season – a very simple process. The chief vantages of
rice farming over wheat are: 1. The long period during which preparations and
sowing may be continued. 2. The greater value of the product.
Preparations can be carried on from October till June, and sowing from March
till July. Harvesting continues from August till November.
In the season
of 1889 the average yield of rice in some of the western pares was twelve
barrels per acre, worth $36; in 1890 the average yield is considerably greater,
in many cases averaging twenty barrels per acre, worth $70. A few fields have
reached thirty barrels per acre. Many farmers have acquired large wealth in a
few years in rice farming.
FRUIT CULTURE. – The cultivation of fruits,
the finer fruits particularly, like nges, figs, etc., is becoming a more and
more extensive industry every year.
Mr. Dennett says: "The yield of
oranges per acre is enormous. It is possible to make any estimate that is
reliable, as we have not the acres or yield any one orchard; but below New
Orleans single orchards sometimes yield from $10,000 to $30,000, at a dollar a
hundred oranges." A full grown, healthy orange tree, fifteen or twenty years
old, in a good season, will produce thousand oranges. It takes from three to
four hundred oranges to fill a flour barrel. So the largest orange trees produce
from forty to fifty bushels of fruit of favorable season.
The latitudes
in which the temperature is the most exempt from extremes heat and cold are the
most favorable for the development of the fruits. This why Southern Italy is so
noted for perfection in fruits and vegetables. It is there that the orange and
citron display such great growth. The day is certainly far distant when
Southwest Louisiana will be known as the Italy of the United States.
Below we give an extract from the Missouri Farmer, on fruits of Southern Italy
and there no reason why Louisiana should not do as well.
There are two
methods of propagating the orange and citron. The first of these is technically.
called by the Italians "teste" – that is, "from the head." This consists in
planting out the young branches of the orange or citron, care having been taken,
before severing them from the tree, to make them put forth their roots in a kind
of vase of earth, which is bound around them at the junction where they are to
be separated. But experience has proved that trees thus propagated are never
strong and long-lived, like those produced from the seed of a tree which has not
been propagated by cutting. The best mode of propagating, therefore, is to take
the young plant produced from the seed of a wild orange or citron tree.
An orange tree is always wild, and produces in its natural state only sour
fruit, until a scion of a cultivated tree – one bearing sweet fruit, which
happens to be a tree originally wild, only after years of cultivation – has been
grafted upon it.
The process of grafting orange trees is a science of
itself, of which it is necessary to have a practical knowledge. In Sorrento,
even old and experienced cultivators do not attempt it themselves, but always
have recourse to a class of men whose avocation it is to go from plantation to
plantation to perform the process of grafting upon the trees; and to do it
successfully, one must first learn it practically from an experienced grafter.
When a considerable number of young trees are to be planted permanently, the
general method is to plant two orange trees and two citron trees at regular
distances, forming a square, and in the center of this square to place an olive
tree, or a nut tree, or any other fruit-bearing tree whose presence will not
interfere with the culture of the acid fruits. The Italians call this planting
'colquartro.'
The Sorrentines have a sort of basket which is used as a
measure for the fruit. This is called the 'colletta,' which will hold about one
hundred oranges, or citrons. This is used in gathering the fruit. When the fruit
of one tree fills the basket, that tree is considered full grown, usually at its
sixth year. From that time the yield continually increases, until the tree gives
ten basketfuls that is to say, one thousand oranges – when it is considered at
the height of its fruit-bearing capacity. This usually occurs at about the
twenty-fifth year of its age.
All kinds of fruits grow in St. Mary
parish. Pears of a superior quality are grown, particularly on the Bayou Teche..
Olives do well, but little or no attention has ever been paid to them. Bananas,
lemons and pineapples may be raised with a very little protection. Plums seem
almost indigenous to this section. Nearly a dozen different kinds of plums are
grown here. The 'Mespilus,' Japan plum, is one of the finest, and one of the
most beautiful. This tree is a beautiful evergreen. It blossoms in the fall, the
fruit grows during the winter and gets ripe in March. The fruit is excellent.
Strawberries, blackberries and dewberries grow wild in the greatest
profusion. Strawberries, when properly cultivated, are extremely prolific and
continue bearing six or eight weeks. The dewberries are very large and abundant
and grow wild. They are very much like the blackberry, both in taste and
appearance. It is not meant that all the fruits enumerated are to be found here
n plentiful profusion, but experience has proven that they may be produced in
abundance with proper cultivation and care. "Fruit culture here is yet in its
infancy, but when the same attention and skill are given to it as in other
portions if the country, then will it become a paradise in all except the
forbidden fruit."*
TOBACCO. – This crop grows well in St. Mary, but it
requires so much care to produce it, that it is not considered a profitable
crop. Great fortunes, however, have been made in tobacco in Tennessee, North
Carolina, Virginia and Kentucky, and the article can be produced here with much
less work than in these States. Besides there is always a ready cash market for
what is produced. The tobacco grown in Louisiana is said to be superior to any
grown in the United States. There is a great foreign demand for it, and it is
especially noted for the superior, excellent snuff it makes. While Louis
Phillippe was King of France, he is said to have sent agents to Louisiana to buy
tobacco for his court, choosing it in preference to any other. An old gentleman
of this state informed the writer that he had seen tobacco raised in Virginia,
Tennessee and Georgia, and had raised it largely in Louisiana. He said that the
tobacco raised in Louisiana was superior in quality to that of any other State,
and that the first crop was e4ual in quantity to that of any other State, while
the second crop in the same year was fully equal to the first in both quality
and quantity. This makes tobacco twice as productive here as in the other
tobacco raising States.
There is but little raised here now, but enough
to show what can be done. Before the war there were some large tobacco
plantations, but since then the farmers have only tried to raise enough for home
consumption. The famous perique tobacco, the kind used by Louis Phillippe, King
of France, can only be produced in Louisiana.
CLIMATE AND HEALTH. – The
following statement of climate and rainfall of this section was carefully made
by one who had made a study of the matter:
That portion of Louisiana
between the Atchafalaya river on the east, the Sabine on the west, the gulf of
Mexico on the south, and north to the pine hills, is known as Southwestern
Louisiana. This region possesses the most marvellous combination of beautiful
prairies, valuable woodlands, navigable rivers and charming lakes, with one of
the healthiest and most genial climates, upon the globe, and a soil superlative
in every element of production.
The climate is soft and mellow, ranging
from 40 to 70 degrees in winter and from 80 to 96 in summer, rarely reaching the
latter point. The rapid evaporation from the gulf cools the atmosphere to about
80 degrees. At this temperature it is driven over the land by the atmospheric
currents, becoming slightly elevated by the higher temperature of the earth. It
is thus always cool and delightful in the shade, even in the warmest weather.
Northern men can work on the farm all summer as safely as in Iowa. The rainfall
is about 60 inches, distributed quite evenly through the year. It is as pure as
crystal, requiring no filtering. In summer it falls in showers of short
duration, seldom interfering with continuous field labor. Farm work is not
interrupted by the winter, except occasionally by excessive moisture, and that
for a short time. If the same care were exercised in Louisiana to keep the
system in order as in the Northern States, the average health of the family
would be much better here than there. There is very little malaria in the
prairie region of Southwestern Louisiana, and that is easily managed by ordinary
care. The rolling pine timber lands are very favorable for health. The climate
operates most beneficially in cases of rheumatism, neuralgia, catarrh, weak
lungs, nervous prostration, etc. There is scarcely any danger from yellow fever.
Before there was any effective quarantine established in Louisiana there were a
few cases of yellow fever – none since in the rural districts. The last case was
thirteen years since.
The Bayou Cypremort is lined with beautiful
forests, of which the stately magnolia predominates. Many of them are over fifty
feet high. Their foliage and magnificent white blossoms are excelled by few
forest trees to be found anywhere in the world. The magnolia well merits the
title that has been given it of the "queen of the forest." But mingled with the
magnolia along Cypremort are oak, ash, black walnut, hickory, sweet gum, pecan,
elm, etc., with a rank growth of underbrush and grape vines . There is nothing
very beautiful and enchanting in the bayou as a stream, it being filled with
weeds, rushes and willows, a seeming haunt for snakes and other water reptiles.
It is its forests that constitute its beauty.
COTE BLANCHE ISLAND. – This
island rises out of the marsh to an elevation of one hundred and eighty feet
above the level of the Gulf of Mexico. It is some ten miles from Franklin as the
crow flies, but twenty-five miles by way of the wagon road. It is a beautiful
place and has a fine climate – a climate in which people never get sick, but
live always. The pure sea breeze from the gulf cools the air in summer and
tempers the wintry winds, making a pleasant resort the year round. It is
susceptible of being made one of the most beautiful and attractive resorts on
the gulf coast.
Since the memorable days of 1849, when the discovery of
gold on the Pacific slope set all the world agog, the pioneers, the men who
skirt the outer confines of civilization on this continent, have entirely
changed in their characteristics. They are now, in the last decade of the
nineteenth century, perhaps the most cosmopolitan people in the world. But the
old Californians were the best practically educated people of any of the
pioneers, for they were suddenly gathered together in large numbers,
representing every civilized people of the globe – many of the half civilized,
and even some of the totally barbarous. This heterogenous gathering of such
varieties of people resulted in the world's wonder of a public school. It
rapidly educated men as they never had been educated before. It was not perfect
in its moral symmetry, but it was wholly powerful in its rough strength, vigor
and swiftness. It taught not of books, but of mental and physical laws – the
only f9untair, of real knowledge, of commerce, of cunning craft – it was iron to
the nerves and a sleepless energy to the resolution. This was its field of
labor, its free university. Here, every people, every national prejudice, all
the marked characteristics of men, met its opposite when there was no law to
restrain or govern either, except that public sentiment that was crystallized
into a resistless force in this witch's caldron. This wonderful alembic, where
were fused normal and abnormal humanities, thoughts, false educations,
prejudices and pagan follies, into a molten stream that glowed and scorched
ignorance along its way as the volcanic eruption does the debris in its pathway.
It was the untrammeled school of attrition of every mind with mind the rough
diamond that gleams and dazzles with beauty only when rubbed with diamond dust.
The best school in the world for a thorough, practical education. Universal
education-we mean real education and not "learned ignorance," as Locke has aptly
termed it-is a leveler of the human mind. It's like the struggle for life, when
only "the fittest survive" and the unfit perish. But its tendency is to lift up
the average, to better mankind, to evolve the truth and mercilessly gibbet
ingrained ignorance and superstitious follies.
The school life of the
pioneers of Southwest Louisiana was spent in a totally different one from that
just named. Their surroundings differed radically from that of the California
"forty-niners." They did not come to Louisiana in great rushing crowds, but in
meagre squads. They had abandoned home, some of them driven away at the point of
English bayonets, and plunged into these vast solitudes to live, where the
luxuries of life were among the lost arts. These sturdy, lone mariners of the
desert were men of action and nerve. They whetted their instincts for existence
against the wild game, the ferocious beasts, and the murderous savages.
SETTLEMENT OF THE PARISH. – The early settlers of Southwest Louisiana, as
already stated, were very different from the western pioneers of 1849, when the
gold fever raged so intensely on the Pacific coast. They were descendants of the
best families of France and Spain, some of them with the blood of kings coursing
through their veins. One of the first settlers in St. Mary parish was Louis le
Pelletier de la Houssaye, a descendant of Claude de la Houssaye, the Prime
Minister of Louis XV of France. The de la Houssaye family is one of the oldest
and noblest families in Louisiana, and boasts of descent from royalty. There is
a dissimilarity in spelling the name in this section. Some members of the family
spell it de la Houssaye, while others spell it Delahoussaye, but both run back
to the same source. Louis le Pelletier de la Houssaye wag sent here by Louis
XVI, successor to the fifteenth Louis, as an official, and lived here in St.
Mary parish. He has many descendants still living in the parish. He had a
brother, A. de la Houssaye, who came to Louisiana at the same time with himself.
Other early settlers in this parish were the Sigures, DeVals, Coners,
Darbys, DeClouets, Dubuelet, Verret, Grevenberg, Peocot, Olivier, Bienvenue,
etc. They were of the most respectable French families, and were among the very
early settlers. Also the Laestrapes, Gerbeans, Charpentiers, Demarests,
Pellerins, Dubuclets, Dejean, Duclozel, Bryants, and Arensbourg.
Among
the early settlers were a few Spaniards. Of these were the Navarros, Moros, and
others. They also have descendants still in the parish. just after the close of
the Revolutionary war a number of immigrants of American or English blood came,
among whom were J. Y. Sanders, from South Carolina, who was a cousin to the
father of Senator Wade Hampton.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS. –
Among these early settlers of St. Mary parish, the most unbounded confidence
prevailed. No such thing as giving a note for money due from one to another was
thought of or known among them. The following instance will illustrate this
phase of their character: A Frenchman named Pellerin used to loan money, but
would never take a note for it. With him a man's word was good as his bond. An
early settler here, Col. Baker, who held some position over the Indians, once
went to Mons. Pellerin, to borrow two thousand dollars, and upon asking the
question if he could have it, "Yes, yes," answered Pellerin, in his quick, jerky
way of speaking, and called to his son, a youth, in the next room, to bring him
the box from under the bed. When the box was brought the two thousand dollars
was counted out in gold by the old man, who pushed it over to Baker, remarking,
"There is your money." Col. Baker hesitated, and asked for pen and ink, (scarce
articles in those days), "Well," said the Frenchman, "I guess I could find pen
and ink if necessary, but what do you want them for?" "Why," said Col. Baker,
"for fear something might happen – you or I might die, then it would be best for
you to have a note for this money to show that I got it from you." "A note, a
note!" exclaimed Pellerin, "If a man's word is not good his bond is not good.
When you go home tell your wife you got two thousand dollars from me, payable
the first of January, and I tell my wife you got it, that is enough evidence."
"A note, a note," he again exclaimed, and swept the gold back into his strong
box and would not let Baker have it. This occurred back in the twenties.
Such dealings probably worked well in the primitive days of this country, among
the primitive inhabitants, but would scarcely hold good in these degenerate
times even in Louisiana.
Another incident occurred about this time still
further illustrating the simplicity and confidence of the early inhabitants. A
man named Elliot, a brawny old Scotchman, was operating a distillery in the
parish. He wanted some money, and went to an old Creole lad~ and borrowed from
her $2000. When the 1st of January came around he went back to pay her. He
counted out the $2000 in a pile and then counted out $200 in a smaller pile,
which he told her was "interest." "Interest," said she, "what is interest?"
'Why, since I had your money that big pile has made the little pile, and that is
called interest and it is all yours." As soon as Elliott left the old lady
mounted her horse and went straight to the country school house, where an
ancient Hibernian-
"Teddy O'Rourke kept, a bit of a school-"
was
teaching her sons, among a few others of her neighbors, and called him out –
Schoolmaster, " said she, "teach my boys interest, nothing but interest," and
away she went back home leaving the schoolmaster in much bewilderment as to what
she really meant. He heeded her advice, however, and her sons became honorable
citizens and among the finest commercial men in the parish.
FORMATION OF
PARISH. – As will be seen in the introductory chapter of this work, in a sketch
written by Col. Voorhies, of St. Martin, descriptive of the Attakapas District,
St. Mary is one of the two parishes into which that district was divided soon
after 1800. Following is the act of division accompanied by an act to form the
parish of St. Mary:
An Act entitled an Act to divide the country of
Attakapas into two parishes. Approved April 17, 1811 :
SECTION I. Be it
enacted by the Legislative Council and House of Representatives of the Territory
of Orleans, in General Assembly convened, That the county of Attakapas shall be
divided into two parishes, to be called the parish of St. Martin and the parish
of St. Mary. SEC. 2. The parish of St. Mary shall contain all that part of said
county north of a line running east from the upper line of the plantation of
Francis Boutt‚, on the Bayou Teche, to the Great Lake, and west from. the said
Francis Boutt‚ to the mouth of the bayou of the Petite Anse, on the bay; and the
parish of St. Mary shall contain all the remainder of the said county, that is
to say, all that is south or below the said line.
An Act to explain an
act entitled "An Act to divide the county of Attakapas into two parishes:"
SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
State of Louisiana, in General Assembly convened, That a straight line be run
from the westwardly corner of the upper line of the plantation of Francis
Boutt‚, where he now lives, to the head of the canal leading to the Petite Anse
island; thence down the canal to the Petite Anse bayou, and down the same by the
bay, commonly called the Vermilion Bay; thence southeastwardly with the bay and
the line of the State to the entrance into the Bayou Teche, thence up the bay of
the same to include all the settlements on the bayou that intersect with the bay
on the east side of what is commonly called Berwick's Bay, and not included in
either of the parishes of Lafourche ; thence up the middle of the Grand Lake to
the place where a line running east from the aforesaid Francis Boutt‚'s
plantation shall strike the said lake, shall belong to the parish of St. Mary.
Approved March 20, 1813.
The early parish records are very meagre, and
some of them missing entirely, so we must draw on our seven-league boots and
step down to the police jury records of 1866. At the meeting of the Police
jurors, held on May 27th of the above years, the following members were present:
Frank Thompson, first ward; John A. Smith, second ward; Samuel L. Randall, third
ward; Wm. H. Cook, fourth ward; One member seemed to have been absent, as the
four named above presented their certificates of election under the act,
reducing the number of wards to five. After taking the required oath they
organized, and Mr. S. L. Randall was elected president for one year.
The
first business transacted by the board was the adoption of a resolution to
cooperate with the governor in rendering assistance to the sufferers from a
recent overflow. At the July term, Mr. John Tarleton presented his certificate
of election to represent the fifth ward in the board. At August meeting the
parish was redivided into school districts, and a School Board consisting of 11.
C. Smith, Dr. C. M. Smith and P. Pecot were appointed a board to examine school
teachers.
An election was held on the 9th of May, 1870, and the following
jurors were elected: Etriene Meynard, first ward; Dolze Bodine, second ward; T.
J. Foster, third ward ; Henry J. Saunders, fourth ward; J. P. Walters, fifth
ward. This board recorded its last minutes October 2, 1871, from which date
there is a skip in the records to the 6th of April, 1876, covering the period of
Negro – carpetbag rule. After a long series of abuses, the people, the
intelligent masses, arose in their might, just as they did in the November
election, 1890, and just as they always do, when patience ceases to be a virtue,
hurled the plunderers from power, who had so long trodden under foot all
decency, and through ignorance, or malice prepense and aforethought," had ruined
the financial standing and bankrupted the parish treasury. From 1876, until the
adoption of the Constitution Of 1879, requiring the appointment of Police
jurors, enough good men were elected or were made members of the board to very
much better the condition of things. At the time the "RUMP" board was dethroned.
It was found that the parish was $13,000 in debt, the treasury empty, and parish
warrants selling at from twenty-five to thirty cents on the dollar. The
gentlemen appointed under the new regime from the respective wards were: T. J.
Foster, J. Y. Sanders, Phillippe Patout, Louis Grevenberg and T. Bellissim. They
held their first meeting January, 7, 1880, and at the end of three years they
had paid off the parish indebtedness, all the outstanding warrants, running the
county on a purely cash basis, and their vouchers were worth 100 cents on the
dollar. A statement was made by the board, February 1, 1891, of the financial
condition of the parish, showing a balance in the treasury of $8564, and that
much of the last year's tax is still unmolested. During the prosperous decade of
1880-1890, many needed improvements were made. The present board are as follows,
viz:
Milliard M. Bosworth, first ward; (the second ward has been made
vacant by the death of its representative) ; Thos. J. Fastin, third ward (and
President of the Board); Thos. E. Kennedy, fourth ward; Frank B. Williams, fifth
ward; George G. Zeno, sixth ward; Stephen B. Roane, seventh ward; Thos. J. Hein,
is secretary of the board, a place he has filled for more than twenty years, a
sure sign that he is the right man in the right place.
The legislative
representatives are Hons. Placide P. Sigure, and Joseph A. Loret. Sheriff of the
parish-Alexander G. Frere; Clerk – Francis P. Perret; Assessor – Henry S.
Palfrey; Surveyor – Alfred A. Fusilier; Coroner – Dr. Chas. M. Smith.
THE
EARLY COURTS. – The first court records show Henry Johnson to be the first
Parish Judge. The first court seems to have been held in a frame house belonging
to Meathen Nimmo, on the 27th of August, 1811. Johnson was succeeded by Hon.
Seth Lewis as judge, whose first court was held in June, 1813. Upon retiring
from the parish judgeship, Johnson became judge of the Attakapas District.
An incident that occurred at the term of court, July 41 1814, will have a
rather peculiar sound to its after three-quarters of a century, viz: "John
Harmon was confined in the stocks one hour for contempt of court."
Among
the practising attorneys in the St. Mary courts in those days were J. Bronson,
Isaac Baker, Richard Humphrey, Joshua Baker (afterward judge), W. W. Bowen and
R. N. Ogden, and John Wilkinson was judge of the parish court. In 1826, J. A.
Overton was judge; in 1828, H. A. Bullard was judge; 1829-30, Joshua Baker was
judge.
District and parish courts were held from the formation of the
parish in 1811 until the adoption of the new constitution in 1879, when the
district court was abolished and the circuit court instituted in its stead.
Later judges of the parish were: Hon. F. S.~ Goode, who was judge for eight
years, Judge Fontelieu, judge Fred. C Gates, B. F. Winchester, etc. Among the
present members of the bar are Don Caffrey, M. J. Foster, P. H. Mentz, W. J.
Suthon, W. N. K. Wilson, J. S. Martel, Henrv Mayce and Placide P. Sigure.
MILITARY HISTORY. – How many soldiers were in the war of 1812 from St. Mary
is not known, but there was one company from the parish participated in the
battle of New Orleans under General Jackson. In the Mexican war, a ,company was
organized under Captain Stuart. So far there are but four Mexican war veterans
known to be living in the parish; one of these is Mr. Benj. F. Harris. He served
under Captain G. S. Rousseau. Mr. Harris was also in the civil war, in Captain
Cornay's St. Mary Cannoneers. He is now sixty-nine years old and still quite
active. For sketch of the civil war, see chapters on St. Martin and St. Landry
parishes.
TOWN OF FRANKLIN. – Franklin was laid out as a town about 1800.
It was founded by a man named Guinea Lewis, from the good old Quaker State of
Pennsylvania, which accounts for its bearing the name of Franklin, the great
philosopher of that State in its infancy. The first house built where Franklin
now stands was put up by a Mr. Trowbridge, and has long since crumbled into
dust. Mrs. Trowbridge, his widow, is still living, and is about the oldest
resident of the town. Franklin became the capital in 1811, upon the organization
of the parish. Its growth has been slow but steady, and it now has a population
of about two thousand souls, and about the same number of bodies. The town has
two public schools, one white and one colored, a Catholic school and a select
school besides. The public schools continue about five months during each year.
There are two Methodist churches, one white and one colored, and two Baptist
churches, all of which have good, large memberships. It has a large number of
business houses, large and strong financially, live, wide-awake business men,
three hotels and two livery stables, and all classes of business that go to make
up a prosperous town. The St. Mary-Herald is the official journal of the parish.
It is a four-page paper, seven columns to a page, and full of enterprise.
Franklin was formerly a port of entry for the Teche district, and did a
large trading and shipping business with the cities of the North. This has been
materially lessened by the railroad enterprise of this fast age, which has
changed the route of travel to New Orleans and Galveston. Franklin was a large
market up to 1848 for cattle.
The following are the present officials of
the town: Nilson McKessal, mayor; Michael B. Gordy, marshal; E. M. Walker,
treasurer, and Frank Harris, constable. Councilmen – Arthur A. de la Houssaye,
Henderson Morris, Edward Kreshnel, Matthew Bell and James K. Fouray.
The
parish has had several court houses, temporary and permanent. In 1858, a
two-story brick court house was built, with ten rooms, offices fire-proof. A
substantial brick jail was built, in 1854, by Franklin Harris. The brick court
house was burned a few years before the building of the present one, which is a
two-story brick, with large Corinthian columns in front.
There are a
number of manufacturing enterprises in and around Franklin, such as saw-mills,
sugar mills and refineries, sash, door and blind factories, shingle mills, etc.
MORGAN CITY. – This place was formerly called Brashear City, and is situated
on Berwick Bay, and in the extreme eastern part of the parish. It has from two
to three thousand inhabitants, mostly foreigners and negroes, and fishing and
oyster gathering is the principal business. The site of the town was originally
a sugar plantation, owned by Mr. Brashear, for whom the town was originally
named. It was incorporated in i86o as Brashear City, and Thomas Brashear became
the first mayor. The first business house was built by Mr. Brashear on his
plantation.
When Morgan's Louisiana. railroad line was built the town was
incorporated as Morgan City, which name it still retains. The first mayor of the
new town was Charles Smith. In 1870 the Teche Collection District was changed
from Franklin to Morgan City and R. W. Mullin was the first collector. He held
the position six years, and was succeeded by E. W. Hubbard for four years, then
came James H.. jolly for eight years. He was succeeded by W. T. Carrington for
four years, until the incoming of the Harrison administration, when Mr. Jolly
was reappointed and now holds the office.
The town has some fifteen
business houses, four hotels and two newspapers. The Morgan City Review is a
weekly Democratic paper, edited by H. M. Mayo, a prominent young Democrat of the
town. The other is a monthly journal, owned by Mr. W. B. Gray, who is an old
newspaperman. He has a very complete and valuable job office in connection with
his paper.
Morgan City is the oyster depot for Southwest Louisiana, and
large quantities are shipped from this place annually, both to the home and
foreign trade. The catching, packing and shipping of fish is also an important
interest. Mr. J. H. Lehman is the great fish king of the town, in fact he is a
whale.
Berwick, on the opposite side of the bay from Morgan City, is a
small village of some six hundred inhabitants. It is an important lumbering
town. A large amount of excellent lumber and an innumerable quantity of shingles
are shipped annually to all parts of the country.
Other villages in the
parish are Baldwin, Patterson, Glencoe, Acklen, Ricohoc, Grand Woods, etc. Most
of these are small places, consisting of but a post-office, store, etc.
Patterson is quite a village, with five or six hundred inhabitants, and Baldwin
is the junction of a branch railroad over to Cypremort. The other villages are
places of little consequence. – Perrin
Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller from Southwest Louisiana Biographical and Historical, published in 1891, edited by William Henry Perrin, pages 207-222.
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