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The History of Lake Charles |
(transcribed by Leora White, May 2006)
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE
GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY
By Stewart Alfred Ferguson
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS
March, 1931
Stewart Alfred Ferguson, the eldest of four sons of a Methodist minister, was born at Carthage, Missouri on January 27, 1900. Here he remained until 1911 when he moved with his parents to the state of South Dakota.
Completing the grade schools at Gregory, South Dakota, he entered high school in Mt. Vernon, South Dakota and remained two years before entering the Dakota Wesleyan University at Mitchell, South Dakota. He graduated from the Academy in 1918.
He enlisted in the United States Army in 1918 and was released the same year.
After a hectic career in college education from 1918 to 1924, he received his A. B. degree from Dakota Wesleyan University. His major subject was English, and his minor subjects were History and Economics.
A desire to go south culminated in his being employed as Assistant Principal and Athletic Coach in the Dry Creek, Louisiana High School. The following year, he obtained a position as Coach and Instructor in the Lake Charles, Louisiana High School. Remaining here three years, he obtained a position as Coach and Instructor in History in the Bolton High School in Alexandria, Louisiana.
In 1929, he was called back to his alma mater, Dakota Wesleyan University, as Director of Athletics where he has remained until the present time.
His graduate work has been done in Tulane University, Louisiana State University, and the University of Illinois.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to make acknowledgement to the following people who so kindly assisted me in my search for material: Mrs. Laura Dees, City Librarian of Lake Charles, Mrs. Gardner, Librarian of the Lake Charles High School, Mrs. N. J. Bryan, and Miss Elizabeth Mandell, and to the many other people with whom I held interesting conversations regarding the early history of Lake Charles.
I wish to express appreciation to Professor James Van Kirk of Dakota Wesleyan University who first interested me in the field of History and who provided me with such a fine background for my graduate work.
I am sincerely grateful to the History Department of Louisiana State University for the most pleasurable and instructive hours that I have spent in the field of study.
To those who may have to wade through this thesis preliminary to its acceptance, I express sympathy and thanks for their patience. To Dr. W. H. Stephenson, who has and must assume the chief labor, I am indebted to a great degree. His kindness has already been responsible for my completion of the work.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter One Shadow History
Chapter Two Nebular History
Chapter Three Charleston Develops Into the Town of Lake Charles
Chapter Four An Epoch of Wood
Chapter Five Emergence of Civic Pride
Chapter Six An Era of Northern Immigration
Chapter Seven The City of Lake Charles Emerges
Chapter Eight Lake Charles Attempts Many Things
Chapter Nine A Depressing Year
Chapter Ten Prosperity Returns
Chapter Eleven The Panic of 1907 Reaches Lake Charles
Chapter Twelve Changes in Parish and City Governments
Chapter Thirteen A Real Estate Boom
Chapter Fourteen Lake Charles Develops New Industries and New Trade
Chapter Fifteen The War Years
Chapter Sixteen A Building Era
Chapter Seventeen Lake Charles Closes a Ten-Year Period of Progress
Chapter Eighteen Lake Charles Obtains A Ship Channel to the Sea
Chapter Nineteen Lake Charles Reaches a High Peak in Building Activity
Chapter Twenty Promises for a Brilliant Future
LIST OF TABLES
Register of Land Deeds Issued from 1880 to 1890
Consolidated Bank Statements from 1899 to1912
Bonded Debt of Lake Charles in 1919
Crop Planting in Acreage in Calcasieu Parish
Value of Yearly Building Permits from 1911 to 1921
Increase in Crop Production in Prairie Lands Tract
New Buildings Erected in 1919-20
Growth of Masonic Lodge from 1859 to 1921
Comparative Population Table
Industrial Index of Lake Charles in 1922
Corporations Filing Charters in 1923
Corporations Chartered in 1926
THE HISTORY OF LAKE CHARLES, LOUISIANA
CHAPTER ONE
SHADOW HISTORY
Many legends are in existence, which concern the early life of Lake Charles and the Calcasieu country. Like all legends, they are undoubtedly colored by imagination. Historical facts have, perhaps, been distorted and twisted to make a better tale. Never-the-less, I feel that this misty realm of almost- forgotten lore deserves a place in the thesis by serving as an atmospheric background for the presentation of the true and accurate history.
So, I have felt my way backward along the pathway of facts and penetrated this shadow history, sifting and sorting in the most logical and historical manner of which I am capable these many narratives for what I believe is a true reflection of these early events. In places the shadows were so dense and the facts so few that I have been forced to eliminate some of the most romantic aspects of this history. Shadows that were illuminated only by the sheen of charm and romance, which, I believe, is more noticeable in Lake Charles than in any other city of Louisiana of which I have knowledge, I have rejected as belonging solely to the field of fiction. Shadows that were out lined by rays of facts, reaching back and reducing fantastic and phantom characteristics to human forms and life-like accomplishments I have included. This has been my procedure in the presentation of this chapter of shadow history.
Long after the North American continent had thrust itself from the bosom of the oceans, Louisiana still remained a part of the ocean bed. Whales and sea monsters disported themselves above the present site of Lake Charles. Evidence of this fact was displayed in the windows of the American Press office in Lake Charles two years ago. The exhibit consisted of the skull of a whale unearthed about two miles north of the city and a part of the jaw-bone of a sea monster, which, as far as I have been able to learn, has not yet been properly classified.
The Mississippi River then began its endless task of creating Louisiana, switching its course, according to some of our geologists, from the Sabine River on the west to its present course in the eastern part of the state. This comparatively newly created soil of Louisiana dates only from the close of the Paleozoic Period. The soil belongs to the Quaternary classification. (1) The constant depositing of sediment was undoubtedly helped either by a lowering of the oceans or by a rising of the ocean bed. Sections of the lower part of Louisiana thrust themselves above the water, inclosing large lakes, which often imprisoned whales as, may be inferred from the number of whalebones found along the edges of the lakes below Lake Charles. These lakes bordered by narrow fringes of soil prevented tree growth and explains the very clearly defined tree line, which reaches to, about the north limit of the city. Above this tree line, the pine woods extend to the north limits of the state, and below it, the flat prairies extend to the shore of the Gulf. Lack of soil fertility around Lake Charles may be explained also by the above theory - that the enclosed lakes covered the area about the city until a comparatively recent date. The bank of rich, black soil twenty miles south of Lake Charles, surrounding the present site of Cameron, was probably the restraining wall between the lake and the Gulf of Mexico.
Long ages passed. Then, for some unknown reason a mighty torrent of water swept through the southwestern part of Louisiana, cutting a very deep channel, one of the deepest in the United States, and creating the Calcasieu River. Ordinary drainage could never have created the depth of this river in view of its short length and its slight fall. The lakes, thereupon, began draining through this channel, and the imperial parish of Calcasieu was born.
An interesting account of the change from sea to land is given in a manuscript written by William Littell Bradley several years ago. "One hundred years ago Cameron lay at the bottom of the sea, while eastward and westward stretched a region of blind bayous and floating bogs. There were no forests in Calcasieu then, for all the country lying between the Bloody River and the Stream of Dispute was a rolling prairie, which extended from the great marsh far into the domains of the North. But the Eternal One commanded his servants that they should plant a forest in this fair land. And the fowls of the air did bring seeds of the Cyprus tree and cast them into the low lands along the rivers, and they brought also pine seeds and scattered them over the face of the prairie, beginning at the north border and working southward. Then came the squirrels and helped the birds, the oaks sprang up along the banks of all superfluous branches. Ages rolled on, and the sea with its border of marshes fled before the advance of the forests."
As the swamps drained and the bayous assumed definite form, there came in from the northeastern part of Texas a band of roving Indians, known as the Attakapas and belonging to the Attakapan family. They soon became known as "Man-Eaters" from their fierce and war-like natures. (2) For many years they roamed through southwest Louisiana, making their headquarters for the most part along Vermillion Bayou. They speedily drove away the remnants of other Indian tribes who had settled in southern Louisiana, among whom were the Cherokee, Choctaw, and the Coushatta. These tribes withdrew sullenly and only awaited an opportunity to avenge themselves upon the Attakapas. The time came at last, and the tribes burst upon the Attakapas with a vengeance seldom recorded in history, resulting in the almost complete annihilation of the Attakapas. This was perhaps the greatest Indian battle fought in the southern states, and it raged over and near the present site of St. Martinville. In 1885, there were only four members of the "Man-Eaters" in Louisiana and five in Texas, and the tribe is now extinct.
(3) There are numerous evidences of Indian occupation around Lake Charles. There is a sandy bank along the Calcasieu River about five miles south of the city where pots, arrowheads, and beads have been found, which indicate that it might have been a permanent camp of the Indians at one time. Twelve miles north of Lake Charles was a settlement of Indians who left so many evidences of their occupation that the site is now known as Indian Village. The Indian history of Calcasieu Parish came to an end shortly before the arrival of the white settlers. Most of them continued westward or sought places which they knew would be less accessible or less attractive to the white settlers than the beautiful Calcasieu country. The few Indians who remained intermarried with the French and Spanish adventurers and created a class of people who now comprise quite a number of settlements in the Parish. The people have become known as "Red Bones." They are peculiar in many respects, and preserve their identity by their clannish attitude.
The first white settler who came to the Calcasieu County was Martin Canacersae Le Bleu, a man of very romantic and adventuresome nature. Leaving Bordeaux, France, in 1775, he came to Virginia where he lived for five years. Finding the times there too troublesome on account of the Revolutionary War, he married Miss De la Marion, whose parents had migrated from the same section of France that he had, and started westward in a two-wheeled bullock cart. Long months passed before he crossed the Calcasieu River at a point about six miles northeast of the present site of Lake Charles. His wife urged him to end his journey at this place, for it was the most beautiful spot they had encountered on their long journey. The drooping Cyprus trees and the stately, moss-hung oaks seemed to her to be the paradise they had been seeking. But Martin Le Bleu was not yet satisfied. He again turned westward and shortly came to the shore of Lake Charles. Finding it impossible to ford the enlarged river which widens into the lake at this point, he listened at last to his wife and turned back, settling about six miles east of the lake along what is now called English Bayou. (4) There is some dispute about the year in which he arrived. Some authorities place the date as early as 1770, but the most probable one and the one which was given me by his closest descendent is 1781. (5) He erected a small log cabin, which still stands. In this cabin, four children were born to Martin Le Bleu and his wife: Caroline, Martin, Mace, and Arsone, each of whom became important in the affairs of the early settlement.
Shortly after the arrival of the Le Bleus, another migrant appeared, Lewis Reon. He settled on the west bank of Lake Charles, but his future history was left unrecorded. (6) The next settler to arrive was Charles Sallier, a native of Spain. He achieved distinction by being the first white man to build a home within the present city limits of Lake Charles, erecting a small, log cabin, twenty feet square, on the site of the present Barbe home on Shell Beach. Feeling the need of a helpmate, he courted Caroline Le Blue, the daughter of Martin Le Bleu and the first white child born in southwest Louisiana. After a brief courtship, they were married, creating the first permanent family in Lake Charles. Their marriage occurred during the year 1802. (7) It is fitting that the city and the lake bear the name of this founder and first settler at the present time.
There were probably other settlers who came to the Calcasieu country in the interval between Martin Le Bleu’s arrival and that of Charles Sallier. The "Testimony of Gregorio Mora" reveals the fact that he was appointed "to collect tithes of all residents who lived or had stocks west of the River Culeashue", for the term, 1794-1795. (8) But many of these settlers either moved away shortly after coming or their families became extinct. Only the Le Bleus and the Salliers and their connections left permanent records. These two families were very prolific, and they intermarried freely. Caroling Le Bleu, the wife of Charles Sallier, became the maternal ancestor of a large group of Salliers, Le Bleu, and Heberts. Other families who trace their origin back to the same source are the Barbes, Rosteets, and the Moss clans. The present population of Lake Charles is permeated with the descendants of the Sallier family, so much so that if it were possible for Charles Sallier to return now, he could truly say that he founded a town of his own flesh and blood.
The settlers who came to the Calcasieu country between 1780 and l819 obtained their lands in various ways. The first migrants usually purchased the lands for very small considerations from a few of the Indians who still remained in the country. These purchases were later confirmed by the Spanish government. (9) Quite a number settled on what was designated and which is still commonly known as the Rio Hondo lands, the original title being based on a Spanish grant to the settler in return for some stipulated service to be or having been rendered, or some other consideration. (10) Rio Hondo means "Dark River" in Spanish, and the name must have been applied because of the dark and heavy foliage overhanging the river. The land west of the Calcasieu River seems to have been given to settlers for no consideration other than occupancy. About two hundred and fifty settlers filed claims of this type prior to the Treaty of 1819 between the United States and Spain. (11) One such claim reads: "One George Fogleman filed his notice, claiming by virtue of settlement and occupancy prior to February 22, 1819, a tract of land lying within the late neutral strip of territory, situated on the west side of the Quelqueshue River on the Spanish Trace, about two miles above Charles’ Lake."
(12) After the Treaty of 1819, the United States recognized and respected the land grants made by the Spanish, but did so only after the claimant produced absolute proof. (13) In this treaty and in a later Congressional Act of 1823, the Arayo Hondo was located in Louisiana, east of the Sabine River. The Calcasieu River was known now as Bayou Quelqueshue.
(14) It seems strange that the imprint of Spanish occupancy is not more deeply marked in the Calcasieu locality. Very few Spanish names remain to remind us that the Spanish once held sway. Their obliteration is one of those changes which come so naturally and so easily that no reason can be ascribed. The change was soon made in the name "Rio Hondo" which became Quelque Shoue, from which again, the euphonious name of Calcasieu was evolved. A phonic record of the latter change may be heard in the pronunciation "Culcashu" yet given the river by many old inhabitants. (15) Dr. William A. Read of Louisiana State University has traced the name back and discovered that it was derived from Attakapa "Katkosh" (eagle) and "yok" (to dry). "Crying Eagle" was the war title of an Attakapa Chief. (16) One comes across many curious spellings of the name - Calcasuit, Culqueshoe, Culkeshoe, Kelkechute, Quelqueshue, etc. Darby writes it Calcasu in 1816 and Calcasiu in 1817; Ludlow writes it Quelqueshoe in 1818; and La Tourrette writes Calcasieu in 1846.(17)
When one looks among the early names of the early settlers for Spanish names, there are also few to be found. The names of those who came prior to 1824 follow: Le Bleus, Charles Sallier, Reese Perkins, Jacob Ryan -- all of whom settled on the east bank of the Calcasieu River. West of the river were, among others, Joseph Cornow, Hiram Ours, Dempsey Ile, Hardy Coward and John, his brother, William, and Archibald Smith, Elias Blunt, David Choate, Philip Deviers, Joshua Johnson, John Gilchrist, George Ower, Isaac Foster, Joseph Clar, Mitchell Neal, John Henderson, and a man named Self.(18) These people all came before 1824 to obtain the Rio Hondo claims.
History records only in part the story of these early settlers. The preponderance of English names signifies that the English Settlers were those who recorded their claims to lands. Many others did not think it necessary or had good reasons for not recording their claims, at least in their own names. Among these were a number of French refugees who had fled from France for political reasons. It is said that some of them were aristocratic in their lineage. The Acadians, who had been driven out of Nova Scotia in the latter part of the eighteenth century, left little trace of their coming in historical records, but the large number of their descendants who now live in Lake Charles and the Calcasieu country is sufficient evidence that many settled there.
There are many legends woven around and connected with the early history of the Le Bleu and Sallier families. Some of these are told with such accuracy and minuteness of detail that we can scarcely help but place some credence in the stories. The most romantic of these concern Jean Lafitte. I believe that the story of his exploits around Lake Charles, which is generally accepted as being true by the inhabitants, will prove to be interesting and add a touch of the romantic which is so distinctly the personality of early Lake Charles.
It has been proved beyond a doubt that this great pirate made Lake Charles his headquarters for a number of years. There is not a river nor a lake in that vicinity that has its enticing story of mysterious visits made by the sea rover. The unsettled condition of the country during the early part of the nineteenth century made these visits possible.
His vessels sailed swiftly up the deep rivers or silent bayous into the sparsely settled districts where, hid from the eye of the law, they discharged their cargoes of contraband goods and stolen slaves. Or, perchance, these swift sea wolves were laden with fabulous stores of jewels and Spanish gold, which, upon the first stormy night, were to be buried upon some lonely lake shore or in the depths of the forest. If Creole legends are true, a captive was slain and buried with each box of treasure that this spirit might guard the spot from vandals.
Several years passed after the arrival of the Le Bleus and the Salliers with few happenings of unusual interest. Then, one day, Charles Sallier thrilled with excitement and wonder as a strange clipper-schooner carrying an enormous spread of canvas dropped anchor in the lake. His wonder increased as he noticed the heavy complement of men and several brass cannon on the deck.
As he watched, a boat was quickly lowered and a half-dozen armed men entered it. A landing was made on Shell Bank, and two men quickly made their way to the Sallier home. The most distinguished looking of the two was tall and dark. He greeted Sallier very courteously and desired to make arrangements for a daily supply of fresh meat and vegetable. His request was granted, and in return for the favor, he brought ashore wines, brandies, and tobacco. The gracious hospitality of the commander was spread about through the little settlement, and for many nights, the settlers were entertained on board the schooner that lay at anchor off Shell Bank. This was the coming of Lafitte to Lake Charles.
Lafitte was at this time about thirty years of age, very handsome, and a bold and fearless sailor. To the settlers, he became a friend and served them as faithfully as he did the great Napoleon later.
The years passed with Lafitte returning at irregular intervals and remaining for weeks at a time should the United States war vessel be patrolling the coast. His men went into camp on the lake shore when they were not engaged. Lafitte visited the settlers, explored the county, or made long, overland trips, penetrating as far east as the Mississippi River.
At rare intervals, the vessels of the United States government would obtain trace of Lafitte. On one such occasion, he was chased to the mouth of the Calcasieu, but he slipped away from them under cover of darkness and put out to sea. Another night Lafitte slipped past a government boat stationed at the mouth of the Calcasieu River under cover of fog and reached Lake Charles in safety. Again the sea-rover was returning from an expedition with a vast amount of treasure on board. He was intercepted by a United States man-of-war, but escaped for the time being to Lake Charles. Lafitte learned from sentinels posted down the river that the commander was making preparations to send a strong force up the river to bring him to bay. His plans were formed at once. While a party of his most trusted men were engaged in unloading the treasure and burying it by night, a large force was set to work building fortifications on Shell Bank. A number of cannon were planted behind the embankment, and when preparations were at last completed, a shot from the newly- finished fort sank the schooner as she lay anchor in the lake. However, the work was in vain, for the commander of the gunboat suddenly set sail and was heard of no more in this locality.
The old fortifications erected during the emergency are still to be seen on the bank of the lake near the Barbe home. It has been known for many years a "Dead Man’s Lake." It appears to be a hill about a hundred feet long, twenty or thirty feet high, and about the same in width. It is separated from the lake by a rampart composed mostly of small shells. Some say that the sunken vessel can still be seen at low water, but there is no definite proof existent that is the old Lafitte vessel. It was whispered by a very old Negro, who died some years ago, that several small boxes of gold were left aboard, but were afterward recovered and buried down the river near Clooney’s shipyard.
The movements of Lafitte and his men were often as mysterious and unaccountable as they were sudden and unexpected. One night with no warning, camp was broken and the pirate and his crew sailed away in the darkness. So sudden and hasty was the departure that a young Negro cook named Catalon, who was sleeping apart from the others, was left behind. Some months later when Lafitte’s vessel returned, Catalon was bought from the commander for two quarters of beef.
Shortly after this incident, Lafitte offered his services to the United States government and took a gallant part in the Battle of New Orleans. The fact that a portion of his life is clouded in mystery cannot but emphasize the belief that a part of this mysterious period was spent in the Calcasieu country.
Among the stories regarding Lafitte is one, which states that after receiving pardon from the United States government, he sailed directly to the Island of Elba and, secretly taking Napoleon on board, landed him safely on the coast of France. History fails to reveal the name of the commander of the vessel taking Napoleon to France, so there may be some truth in this story. This statement is corroborated by persons living in Lake Charles who claim to have heard it from their grandparents.
Another story states that after Napoleon had been defeated at Waterloo and had realized that his power was forever broken in Europe, he conceived the idea of escaping to America. Accordingly, with a vast amount of gold and jewels, Napoleon embarked a second time with Lafitte and set sail for America, but he was apprehended and placed under arrest before he had time to pass the line of vessels which guarded the coast. This story is in common circulation in Calcasieu Parish. It further states that Lafitte escaped and sailed for America, bringing the wealth of Napoleon to Louisiana where he buried it along the Calcasieu River. While this may seem to be an idle tale, still it is by no means improbable, for Napoleon did try to escape to America.
There is probably no place in America that has so many stories of buried treasure as Southwest Louisiana. The deep streams, the silent bayous with their great Cyprus trees and Spanish moss, the shell reefs, and the lakes surrounded by impenetrable sea marshes, were safe hiding places for any treasure. Tradition tells us of strange vaults which resembled tombs and which were marked with iron crosses. The existence of these vaults was known to a few, and they were thought by others to be in the resting places of the early settlers. One story tells of a schooner anchored one morning opposite one of the tombs, which supposedly contained treasure; some weeks later the tomb was found broken open. No bones were found, but several Spanish coins of solid gold lay scattered on the ground. Mention is still made regarding a chart, which is supposed to still be in existence. This chart located the spot on the shore of Big Lake where Spanish doubloons were buried, but was valueless because the encroaching water of the lake destroyed the landmarks, and though searched for faithfully, the gold still lies undisturbed under the waters of the lake.
Contraband Bayou, so called because Lafitte’s crew unloaded on its banks his cargoes of contraband goods, is said to hold in its silent depths chests of pure gold. It leads off from the Calcasieu River just below the city of Lake Charles and reenters it a few miles farther on, thus making a wonderful place in which to elude pursuers. It was impossible to trap any vessels in it without guarding both entrances upon the Calcasieu River. Tradition states that Lafitte’s slain captives, who were left to guard his treasure, are still to be seen when the shades of night have fallen and the mists hang low. The negroes living in the coves of the bayou hasten home when belated to avoid the marshes that skirt the bayou, not willing that night should catch them in the timber where stand the trees curiously marked with Roman Letters. The even a casual observer these trees are worthy of notice.
Living not far from Contraband Bayou for a great many years was a very old Negro, Gaston Duhon. He had the appearance of a Moor and the manners of a very cultivated man. His reputation for being a quite remarkable man existed through out the settlement. Many believed him to have been one of Lafitte’s slaves; he possessed a grace of speech and manner that did not belong to the black race as we know it. At the time of his death, he was over a hundred years of age, and although bent double with the weight of years, his mind was clear to the very last. If he fancied a person, he would talk in a very interesting manner of Lafitte, but he never acknowledged that he was the pirate’s slave. However, it was believed that he know too much of the sea rover’s life not to have been associated with him.
No mention of the adventures of Lafitte is complete without the story of the schooner which is said to have sunk in the marches south of Lake Charles. Its hold is said to contain chests of gold coin and jewels gathered on the Spanish Main by Lafitte in his younger days.
Thus, the deep, silent Calcasieu and its tributaries hold the secrets of Lafitte. People in the Calcasieu country say that is the water of the river could speak, they would reveal the resting place of Lafitte. It is said that there had been no true account given of the death and burial of the pirate, and many believe that the great sea man was buried on the eastern shore of Lake Charles and that his spirit still guards the treasure of Napoleon.
(19) A number of interesting stories are told about Mace Le Bleu, the younger son of Martin Le Bleu. He was supposed to have acted as Lafitte’s agent in the disposal of stolen goods. Most of the goods were said to gave been taken to Opelousas. His sister, Caroline, the wife of Charles Sallier, was reputed to have received a number of valuable slaves from the pirate because of his attempt to atone for his discourtesy in swearing in her presence at one time. These slaves have descendants who still live in Lake Charles.
While some of the stories are probably untrue, still these early settlers lived in an adventuresome manner, and could we learn the true story of their lives, we would undoubtedly find adventures as thrilling as the above. As far as we can learn, they lived as true backwoodsmen, raising only enough crop to feed themselves. They had no commerce with the outside world and were content to live care-free lives. Mention is made here and there of herds of cattle, which came into Opelousas from the Calcasieu country, but no definite information can be obtained regarding the raising of cattle on any large scale until 1830.
After the acquisition of this territory by the United States, it was loosely jointed to St. Landry Parish with the parish seat being located at Opelousas. Here, all the people of the Calcasieu country were forced to go to transact their official business. The heads if families usually made one trip each year to the parish seat to lay in a supply of provisions for the coming year. These trips were usually made in ox carts. People outside the Calcasieu region paid little attention to affairs there and had very little information concerning them. In fact, Judge Xavier Martin in 1827 wrote a brief description of the country in which he stated it to be a barren waste.
(20) Due to the inattention paid this country, it was natural that one man be recognized as the chief arbiter of disputes, which were certain to arise. This man was Reese Perkins, and the years of his importance in the settlement lay roughly between 1810 and 1830. He was made the first justice of peace, and his courts were administered with more backwoods justice than with the fine legal points. He sent Elias Blunt to the penitentiary for five years for harboring a runaway slave belonging to John Henderson. One morning the Negro was seen leaving Blunt’s house, where his wife lived, and upon this meager evidence Blunt was arrested and tried before Perkins. The defendant attempted to plead with Perkins for a mitigation of the punishment, as he was a poor man and had a large family. Suddenly, Perkins thundered out, "Shut your mouth, or I’ll make it ten years." Perkins started his son with Blunt to the penitentiary and gave him a note to Mr. Bell at Opelousas in order to assist the boy in landing the prisoner at the penitentiary. He met Bell on the outskirts of town and handed him his father’s letter. When Bell read the letter, he inquired of the boy the whereabouts of the prisoner. "Here he is." said the young man, pointing to Blunt. "Young man," said Bell, "You had better take that man back and turn him loose. Your father had no right to sentence him to the penitentiary, and if some of the Opelousas lawyers get hold of the story, they will give you trouble. So, the best thing you can do is to get the prisoner back home as soon as possible and release him." The boy took him at his word and went back. The prisoner was released, and the matter was hushed up.
(21) Hardy Coward became prominent in this community shortly after Reese Perkins. He was the next justice of the peace, and is noted for having married more people than any other man in the early settlement. It is reputed that he refused to accept money for his services. He was, perhaps, the best liked man in the settlement.
(22) Jacob Ryan, a native of Georgia, immigrated first to Vermillion Parish, but removed to Lake Charles in 1817. He selected one hundred and sixty acres on the east shore of the lake where part of the city now stands.
(23) He is often spoken of as being the father of the town. Building a sawmill at the foot of what is now Division Street, he established quite an enterprise before his death. His son carried on his father’s business. Tradition states that when Jacob Ryan was surveying his land, his chain caught on a bitter root weed where Muller’s store now stands, causing the inaccuracy which now exists along Ryan Street.
(24) Now came a period in the life of the community of which we have no record. From the time of Louisiana Act No.111 of l831 which provided, "That hereafter the votes of the additional precinct shall be taken at the house of Reese Perkins on the Calcasieu River in lieu of Stephen Henderson’s."
(25) There is nothing of record which occurred until 1840. We can only infer that a few more settlers came to the community and that the times were very quite and peaceful. Frontier conditions help to account for our lack of information concerning these years. It is certain that progress was made and that a community spirit developed, for in 1840, a demand was made for the creation of a separate parish. Other portions of St. Landry which had a larger population and more fertile territory made their request for a parish government much later on.
This completes the period of shadow history, much of which is indefinite, and much of which seems to be unconnected and unrelated. However, I have spent these pages attempting to create a background and an atmosphere for the development of the city. When this period of shadow history ended in 1840, there were two families living within the city limits of what is now Lake Charles: those of Charles Sallier and Jacob Ryan. The other inhabitants to be were tilling small farms and herding small droves of cattle up and down the Calcasieu River.
CHAPTER TWO
NEBULAR HISTORY
The first portion of old St. Landry Parish to bread away and establish a parish government of its own was the Calcasieu country. A great deal of dissatisficaction [sic] had prevailed among the people because it was necessary to make the long and hard journey to Opelousas to transact official business. The General Assembly readily granted their request. The Act created the new parish, approved March 24, 1840, follows:
"AN ACT TO CREATE A NEW PARISH, TO BE CALLED THE PARISH OF CALCASIEU"
"SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the State of Louisiana, in General Assembly convened, that from and after the passage of this act, all that territory in the parish of St. Landry, within the following boundaries, to wit: Commencing at the mouth of the River Mermentau, thence up said bayou to the mouth of the Bayou Nez Pique, thence up said bayou to the mouth of Cedar Creek, thence due north to he dividing line between the parishes of St. Landry and Rapides, thence along said line to the Sabine River, thence down the said river to the mouth, thence along the sea coast to the place of beginning, shall form and constitute a new parish, to be called the parish of Calcasieu."
The Act contains eighteen other sections, constituting the parish and providing for its legal machinery. It was signed by William Debuys, Speaker of the House of Representatives; Felix Garcia, Lieutenant Governor and President of the Senate; and A. B. Roman, Governor.
Thus, Calcasieu Parish was created, the largest in the state of Louisiana, embracing a total area of nearly 2,000,000 acres, making it larger than either the state of Rode Island or Delaware, and larger than the kingdom of Belgium. Up to 1912 when it was divided into four parishes, it was known as Imperial Calcasieu. Its lack of development, however, is revealed by a speech delivered by Judge G. A. Fournet at the laying of the corner stone of the new court house on the 28th of October, l890. "Without having recourse to statistics, I will simply state that within the life and recollection of the youngest among you, the population of Calcasieu was the smallest in the state of Louisiana. Although the largest in territory, it was the last opened to settlement. Its immense prairies, traveled by no roadway, save here and there the tracks of the huntsman and the stock-gatherer, had not yet been started by the shriek of the locomotive or the roar of the railroad train. The tasseled corn, the rippling wave of the sugar cane, and the loaded crests of the mellow rice field where unknown from the Mermentau to the Sabine swamp. Our wealth and timber, the finest and best in the world; pine, unequalled in usefulness and cypress, unrivaled in durability, inviting the wants of making and courting the industry of man covered our virgin forests with giants of their kind, from the 30th parallel to the limits of Rapides and Vernon. Age, winds, and storms alone tumbled their giant frames, while the steel destined to fell them laid as yet entombed in the bowels of the earth, undiscovered and unforced." (26)
The first seat of justice and the court house, the nucleus of the future city of Lake Charles, was located about six miles east of the present city of Lake Charles on an airline and about twenty-five miles by way of the Calcasieu River. (27) It was called Marion, and it was but a very small hamlet with a cluster of log cabins around the small, frame courthouse. This post was a resting place for drovers passing with their herds of cattle from Texas to the New Orleans market. It was located here because the river was easy to ford at this point. The place is now known as Old Town, and but for the name, one would never suspect its having been a town at all, or have been the parish seat. In his Southwest Louisiana, Perrin uses a few metaphors to describe it passing glory: "The finger of time has written ‘Ichabod’ above her gates, and like ancient Rome the spider weaves its web in her palaces, the owl sings his watch-song in her towers." (28)
That there was no great wealth in the parish at this time may be seen in an act of 1841 by which "it was provided that there be two assessors of the Parish of Calcasieu, each of whom was to receive a salary of $160 a year; one half to be paid by the state and one half by the parish." (29)
Marion never assumed an importance grater than that of a stopping place for transients. The fact of its being the parish seat did not contribute any to its growth other than that of the two or three officials who carried on the parish government. One or two saw-mills were set up, but as they were set up, and as time went by, it was soon discovered that mills would be more profitable on the lakefront of Lake Charles, the lake provided a good place to catch and anchor the rafts of logs, as they came down the river, and it also wasn’t long before there came to be a greater population on the lake front than in the town of Marion. There was some adverse sentiment, however, to moving the parish seat. An agreement was finally reached whereby Jacob Ryan and Samuel A. Kirby offered to donate a court house site in addition to moving the court house should the citizens of Marion agree to the removal of the parish seat.
So, in the early part of 1852, the courthouse was placed on a flat-boat by Kirby and Ryan and rowed down to its present site. The name given to the new parish seat was Charleston, which was later changed to that of Lake Charles.
Thus, the city of Lake Charles was founded. The nucleus, definitely forming after several years of shifting locality, centered on the east shore of the Lake Charles, probably the most beautiful location for a city in the state of Louisiana. The effort of Jacob Ryan in locating the town on the banks of Lake Charles has been commemorated in the name of the chief street of the city. It is entirely fitting that we remember him as the father of Lake Charles.
CHAPTER THREE
CHARLESTOWN DEVELOPS INTO THE TOWN OF LAKE CHARLES
A little cluster of homes gradually grew up around the courthouse and the tiny saw-mill which Jacob Ryan built at the foot of what is now Division Street. (30) This saw-mill furnished all the lumber that built early Lake Charles. A few of the old settlers moved into town, two or three stores were built, and now and then a schooner was enticed to stopping at the little community nestling on the east side of the Lake Charles. Thus, a municipality took form in the midst of the back wood settlements.
It is quite difficult to picture in our minds the primitive beginning of Lake Charles. Several bits of description and a few incidents related by the early settlers of the fifties, however, may help us to visualize more clearly the tiny village.
Jacob Ryan and Samuel Kirby owned farms which covered the greater part of all that is now included within the city limits of Lake Charles. Ryan for many years grew potatoes on the strip of land between Kauffman’s Corner and the Court House. The site of the high school was covered by a large pond on which swam thousands of game birds. Choice lots on the main street of the sold for $50 each. The children swam on a pond located on the present site of the post office. The remainder of the city was covered by a dense pine grove. One Sunday morning services in the Baptist Church were disturbed by a large, brown bear, which came up the lake bank, ambled across the courthouse lawn, and trotted up to the church door. Deer were very plentiful, and it was not at all unusual to see one trot across the lane which served as the main street. One morning a deer was cornered in the yard of a man whose house adjoined the courthouse yard. The only professional man in the community was Samuel Kirby who could sometimes be persuaded to drop his farm work to unravel some legal problems, which were bothering citizens at the courthouse. There was little need for his services, however, according to the parish record books of that period. The first record book contained all the transactions for the period 1840 to 1862. During that time, only four deeds were recorded. (31) The first school conducted by Thomas Rigmaiden, a young employee of Jacob Ryan, comprised the Ryan children who learned their A. B. C.’s from him in the evening after his work in the Ryan saw-mill was finished. From the foregoing, one can see that there was little to distinguish the village from the backcountry.
In the autumn of 1855, there came to Charlestown one of her most important citizens, Captain Daniel Goos. At the time of his arrival, there were only four other families in the settlement: The Ryan, Hodges, Pithon, and Bilbo families, all of whom have important streets in Lake Charles named for them. Captain Goos established his home in what is now the northern section of Lake Charles, and which was named for him. His land embraced the present precinct of Goosport.
Captain Goos soon established a mill on the spot where its immense successor, the Calcasieu Long Leaf Lumber Company’s mill now stands. The Goos mill had a very important part in building the town. His old, upright saw sliced the logs into strips with the bark adhering to both sides, which the carpenters could remove at their leisure. This kind of lumber brought $18 in gold per thousand feet, and, as the only chance to reach the outside world was by water, it was but natural that the old pioneer should extend his activities to schooner building. So, ways were established, and employment was furnished for quite a large number of carpenters. The Goos fleet of schooners, tugboats, and steamboats soon became a large one, and the names Lehman, Emma Thornton, Winnebago, Cassie, became familiar to all on the waters around Lake Charles.
Captain Goos was very patriotic, and on the second Fourth of July after coming to Charlestown, he determined to provide a real celebration. The place selected for the affair was on the lakeshore where the J. A. Bel sawmill now stands. In addition to his family, the captain loaded two heavy anvils and a quantity of gunpowder into his wagon, that the flag might be properly saluted. The salutation caused the unpatriotic horses to go home the nearest way, leaving the family to follow on foot.
Captain Goos later became very important in the community during the Civil War, and he was one of the most energetic factors in the building of the town up to his death in l898. With his coming, the industrial life of the little community began. (32)
In 1855, the first newspaper was published in the Calcasieu country. I was unable to locate any files of the Calcasieu Press, but learned that it had been issues only when news of an extraordinary nature seemed to warrant its publication. The editor called it a weekly, but up to the time of its discontinuance at the close of the Civil War, it had rarely been published more than once a month. The paper was edited by Judge B. A. Martel and John A. Spence, and it was undoubtedly an avocation for the leisure moments of both of the men. It had little value as a record of the early life of the community. (33)
Another newspaper made a brief appearance in 1858, the Calcasieu Gazette. It was edited by William Hutchins as a protest to the dilatory policy of the Calcasieu Press. It seemed to have the desired effect; for the numbers of the Press came so regularly that, the Gazette discontinued its publication early in 1859 after a total life of six months. (34)
Two property transactions were recorded in 1857, which indicates that more interest was being taken in the village. Forty acres of land, which lay, between Hodges Street and Louisiana Avenue and between Lawrence and Pujo Streets were sold by Elizabeth Ann Lee to a certain Ewell for $297, or about $7 an acre. This land was estimated to be worth over $500,000 as far back as 1914. (35) The other property purchased that year was by the Catholics who paid Serius M. Pithon $375 for the front half of the front half of the block facing Ryan Street between Gordon’s Drug Store and Khoury’s Fruit Stand. (36) This property was later sold by the Catholics and is now one of the busiest section of Ryan Street.
The increasing production of the Ryan and Goos sawmills caused quite a trade to spring up between Charlestown and Galveston about 1858. It was carried on in schooners whose white sails soon dotted the lake, making a "beautiful sight" in the words of the pioneers. The schooners carried lumber away, and on their return trip brought goods to be retailed by the merchants. The freight charges on these return loads was so low that the merchants of Charlestown soon gained in advantage over all the communities within a radius of the city. People from the backwoods who had been accustomed making the long trip to Opelousas to lay in their yearly supply of goods now turned their footsteps to Charlestown. Thus, during the later fifties Charlestown changed from a frontier hamlet to an enterprising village with a population varying between three and five hundred people.
The population of the backcountry like that of the village increased as a result of the activity of the sawmills. The banks of the Calcasieu soon became dotted here and there by small clearings to which the men of the backcountry brought logs to be floated down the river to the mill on Lake Charles. Settlements sprang up along the tributaries of the Calcasieu. One of the earliest of these was at Dry Creek, which was surrounded by some of the finest pine timber in the state of Louisiana. A man by the name of Hanchey brought his family and possessions from the state of Georgia to the banks of the Bundick and Dry Creeks. Finding it profitable to cut the heavy forest of pine timber and float it down to the mill in Lake Charles, he notified numerous relatives and friends in Georgia. These came and brought others with them, so within a very short period of time, Dry Creek became a locality inhabited almost exclusively by former Georgians. Group immigration was, in fact, the outstanding feature of settlement in Calcasieu Parish. One community was populated exclusively by settlers from Nebraska, another from Iowa, and another from Mississippi. This fact proves clearly that these early migrants found the country equal to their expectations and satisfying even in regard to financial betterment.
By 1857, Charlestown was ready for incorporation. The village had now cast away its backwoods atmosphere. Steps were taken to provide unencumbered streets, one of the merchants placed a boardwalk in front of his place of business, and some very rudimentary regulations were adopted relating to the conduct of its citizens. Jacob Ryan increased the output of his sawmill to six thousand feet of lumber a day, and Captain Goos erected his mill which became the pride of the settlement. The village seemed to be on the threshold of great prosperity.
Then came the fateful election of 1860. The people of the Calcasieu country did not realize the seriousness of the issue, but their attitude toward the question troubling the nation was unmistakable as may be seen in the vote in the presidential election of 1860. In Calcasieu Parish, Breckenridge received 396 votes, Bell 24, and Douglas none. (37)
When the call to arms came a shot time later, the parish responded unanimously in defense of the South. Few sections displayed such an active and widespread enthusiasm as did the Calcasieu country. Company after company was organized which had as its nucleus men from this section. A roster of companies organized in Calcasieu Parish during the war included the Calcasieu Rangers under Captain W. E. Ivey, Louisiana Cavalry; Calcasieu Volunteers, Company A, Kings Specials, Louisiana Cavalry; Calcasieu Tigers, Company B, King’s Specials, Louisiana Infantry; Calcasieu Guards, Company D, King’s Specials, Louisiana Infantry; Calcasieu Invincibles, Company C, King’s Specials, Louisiana Infantry. (38)
A camp was established in the northern part of Charlestown, and the volunteers were put through a severe course of training before being called into active service. On two occasions, the villagers attempted to compel patriotism on the part of all inhabitants, which showed that the war fever held Charlestown in its grasp. At last, the troops moved away and the villagers were forced to display their patriotism in the more practical way of providing lumber and supplies for the Confederate armies.
Many of the men had left for the war without providing for their families. These people were partly provided for by Captain Goos who added a corn mill to his lumber mill. Every Saturday the labor of the mill was employed in manufacturing meal and grits. A fat beef was slaughtered also. This food was put in a wagon and distributed far and wide wherever the pinch of hunger was felt. (39)
Soon after the Federal blockade became effective, Captain Goos converted his fleet of schooners into blockade-runners. They made many trips during the war and enabled Southwest Louisiana to pass this period with much less inconvenience than most of the other sections of the state. The schooners took out lumber and brought and brought back flour, coffee, clothing, and drugs. It became a custom with the young ladies of Charlestown to make a flag for each schooner as it started on its dangerous trip, and Mrs. Locke often pointed with pride to the fact that no ship flying one of her flags was never captured. Two Federal gunboats, the Granite City and the Wave, ventured into the Calcasieu River where they were suddenly attacked and captured by Green’s brigade after a sharp battle. The two boats, containing a considerable number of sick and wounded men of both sides, were brought to Lake Charles. Some townsmen objected to the landing of the Federal sick, and Dr. Ver Meulen, the physician of the gunboats, was firm in his refusal to have his sick separated. Captain Goos solved the problem in characteristic fashion. He ordered every man, "Yank or Rebel," taken to Goosport, where a long, cool room was thoroughly cleansed and whitewashed, cots placed in rows, clean bedding supplied, and all were made comfortable. Here they remained for long months; the conquered and the conquerors side by side. When the men were able to be moved, it was Captain Goos’ money which furnished them with transportation. (40)
With the return of the soldiers from the war, the business of the little village once more began increasing. Captain Goos built another sawmill on the south side of the lake, which was a little larger than the one that he had in Goosport. It had a capacity of eight thousand feet of timber a day. John Hager and Auselme Sallier were put in charge of this mill. Contract was then made with Jacob Ryan to furnish the timber. This he did in addition to running his own mill. To the end of his life, Ryan was fond of telling how his schooner, The Ann Ryan, was captured by the Federals on July 4, 1863. The bluecoats anchored her in the Gulf just off Galveston and used her as a target until she sank. (41) Business, however, soon became so prosperous for the sawmills that Ryan was unable to provide enough logs for Captain Goos, besides those required for his own mill. A new man was therefore placed in charge of this work, A. J. Perkins, who brought order out of confusion, perfected the machinery of the lumber market, and incidentally laid the foundation of his own fortune.
The seven mills in operation in Calcasieu Parish at the opening of the Civil War had now increased to more than double that number, and however busy they seemed to be, there was apparently no thought of any future shortage of timber. Timber was so plentiful that little legality was observed in cutting it; each man cut where he could find the finest with no thought as to the ownership of the land. The government, of course, owned practically all of the timberland, and the feeling aroused by the recent war increased non-observance of governmental restrictions. Proof of this may be been by the fact that little or no public land was purchased. Before the war Congress had passed the Graduation Act by which government lands were placed upon the market at $1.25 an acre, the price to be diminished twenty-five cents every five years, and withdrawn after it had been offered at a quarter of an acre. Several times agents were sent out to guard the interests of the government, and at one time, a revenue cutter was anchored in Lake Charles for some time, but all to no avail.
An attempt was now made to survey the town and lay it out properly, but the engineers, after attempting the impossible task, with due regard to the rights of the property owners, gave it up as a bad job.
Some dissatisfaction was expressed in the little village over the name of Charlestown. The same body of citizens who gathered solemnly together in 1857 and agreed to call the settlement Charlestown now assembled a second time in 1867 and decided to rename the village Lake Charles.
A request was made of the General Assembly for a change in the name of the town, it was granted, and the new city of Lake Charles was started in history under its present name.
Following is the act of incorporation:
SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the state of Louisiana, in General Assembly convened, that the inhabitants of the town of Lake Charles in the parish of Calcasieu, and the same are hereby made a body corporate and politic by the name of the Town Council of Lake Charles, and as such can sue and be sued, implead and be impleaded, shall possess the right to establish a common seal, and the same to annul, alter, or change at pleasure.
SECTION II. Be it further enacted, etc., that the limits of said town of Lake Charles shall be laid out in the following manner, to-wit: Beginning north on the east bank of Lake Charles, ten acres above the residence of Joseph L. Bilbo, thence southward along the bank of said lake to and including the lands of Michael Pithon; thence eastward on a line parallel with the line of the lands of W. Hutchins, and so as to include residence of J. V. Moss, to the line which intersects the lands of J. V. Fourchey and W. Hutchins; thence on a parallel line which said intersection line of J. V. Fourchey and W. Hutchins as far north as to intersect an east and west line from the place of beginning and comprising all property therein situated.
SECTION III. Be it further enacted, etc., that the municipality of said town of Lake Charles shall consist of a mayor and five aldermen, three of whom, together with the mayor shall constitute a quorum to transact business, No person shall be eligible to the office of mayor or alderman who does not reside within the limits of said corporation and is above the age of twenty-one years; and the said mayor and aldermen shall be chosen by the qualified voters here in after provided for in this act; said mayor and aldermen to be elected on the first Monday in June each and every year.
The remaining sections define the duties of the different officers of the town, etc. The act is signed by ---
Duncan S. Cage,
Approved March 16, 1867. Albert Voorhies,Speaker, House of Representatives
J. H. Hardy, J. Madison Wells,
Secretary of State. Governor of the state of Louisiana
CHAPTER FOUR
AN EPOCH OF WOOD
Almost simultaneously with the incorporation of Lake Charles in 1867, the community began to grow by leaps and bounds. Before the close of the year 1970, the population had increased to about eight hundred, and some of the most optimistic declared that the town have a population of over a thousand within ten years.
The population figures given above may be exaggerated, for there were only 461 votes polled in Calcasieu Parish at the first general state election in April, 1868. It is true that election figures during the reconstruction period in the South are unreliable as an index to population. However, the figures for Calcasieu Parish are more dependable then those of other parishes, with possibly one or two exceptions. During the reconstruction period, there was no fraud, violence, intimidation, or other disturbances in the parish. (42) The fact that the polls were rejected in the disputed election of l876 merely emphasized the supposition that most of the eligible voter were and had been exercising their voting prerogatives. My belief is that the above population figure included both the people within the corporate limits of the town and those who lived around the mills on the south and west banks of the lake. Goosport, was, of course, included within the population figure for Lake Charles.
The reason for this new and sudden growth was a revival of interest in the lumber business. Many sections of the South needed lumber to rebuild structures which had been destroyed or which had gone to pieces during the war. The North also required a great amount to provide for its increasing development of industries. The price jumped to a higher figure than it had ever been before. This prosperity brought more and more lumbermen to Lake Charles, for its location was almost ideal for this purpose. The first influx of Northerners and Westerners came at this time.
The Ryan and Goos mills increased their capacity of output, and several new mills were started. One of these was established by W. B. Norris in l866 at what is now called Norris’ Point, where the Calcasieu River runs by the northwest corner of Lake Charles. His first mill was quite small, but the demand for lumber became so great in 1872 that he replaced the small one with a large, double mill, running two circulars. It burned in 1873, but it was immediately replaced. The new mill continued without interruption, save for repairs, until January, 1888, when it burned. It was then replaced by a larger one. Norris was the first man on the Calcasieu River to put in a planer and the first on to use a band saw. (43)
A.J. Perkins, who had been buying timber for Captain Goos, now decided to enter the saw-mill business and established a partnership with a man named Miller. Their mill was erected on the west bank of the lake in 1870 and soon became an important factor in the lumber business. (44) They purchased their logs from the C. and V. Railroad, which divided its logs between Perkins and Miller and the firm of Lock, Moore, and Company. This company gave the two mills over five hundred logs daily.
Several other smaller mills were erected, some of which consolidated their interests in a new enterprise, the Calcasieu Lumber Company. This company bought one hundred and fifty acres of good, pine timber, purchased the Goos mill, and helped to found the fortunes of a number of moneyed men who now live in Lake Charles. (45) It was the greatest factor in the development of the lumber industry of Lake Charles until the organization of the Bradley-Ramsey Company in 1887.
Thus developed the town of Lake Charles because of the wonderful timber resources. The activities of the citizens during this period were confined almost solely to the production of lumber. Man after man became wealthy within a very short time an account of the great profits to be made in the business. To give an example, which might be duplicated in several instances, I will relate the story of the present Krause and Managan Lumber Company.
Rudolph Krause, a native of Germany, arrived in Lake Charles when a young man with a total capital of ten cents. He at once obtained a position with one of the lumber companies, saved a little money, which he promptly invested in one of the lumber organizations and in buying up some of the finest timberland. As the years passed by, his small investment in the lumber company increased in value to the point where he was able to demand some voice in the management of its affairs. In the meantime, he had made several private investments, which brought him in additional capital. Working in the same company with Krause was Managan who had come to the Calcasieu country from Pennsylvania. He also arrived in the city with little capital. In fact, he and his wife were forced to do their own washing down on the lakefront, and it is said that Managan often went to the office with his hands still sooty from his efforts to keep the fire going under Mrs. Managan’s black washing kettle. These two young men worked for some time before their salaries were increased to more than sixty dollars a month, but through wise investments, they were soon able to get control of the company for which they were working. They then organized it as the Krause-Managan Lumber Company, which became one of the most prosperous in the state of Louisiana. Today, each of these men is more than millionaires. Every cent of their fortunes was made in Lake Charles, and every cent was made in the lumber business. While these men came a little later than the period under review, I have mentioned their careers because of a desire to show how profitable the lumber was in this early period.
These were days of intense activity in Lake Charles. The sawmills were operated Sundays and holidays, stops being made only to repair machinery. Schooners plied the lake constantly, and shiploads of timber departed daily. More and more wharves were built to accommodate the schooners, and captains complained that they were forced to anchor out in the lake sometimes for days before they could obtain wharf space.
Lake Charles now began to suffer troubles, which had up to this time been unknown in the village. These difficulties were due mostly to the new and sometimes disreputable sawmill hands which drifted into town in search of work. Saloons began to appear in increasing numbers on "Battle Row," which is now Railroad Avenue, and several houses of ill- repute were established convenient to the mills. Disorder was the general rule during off-hours of many of the mill-hands.
In this period from 1865 to 1867, the foundation of Lake Charles’ prosperity was laid. It was a period characterized only by the increasing hum of the saw-mills. In 1876, there were twelve saw-mills within earshot of the town in addition to many logging companies, all of which furnished the town with quite a large pay-roll. (46)
During this period, the French Company first undertook to exploit the deposit of sulphur, which had been discovered as early as 1858 west of Lake Charles. The company spent about $1,500.000 with no real results, and the undertaking was shortly afterward abandoned.
The first steps were taken in 1873 toward the construction of an intercoastal canal, which was to extend along the southern part of the state to New Orleans. Use was to be made of the many lake and bayous in this section of the country, but after a thorough survey was made and the cost estimated, the project was given up until some time in the future when the government would be able to extend the needed help.
While there was quite a number of children in the settlement, there was no determined effort to establish schools for them until late in the history of Lake Charles. Thomas Rigmaiden, as has been stated before, taught the children of Jacob Ryan. His work was followed up by J. W. Bryan, who gave instruction privately to several families from 1865 to 1869. He then opened the Lake Charles Academy. Children were charged eight dollars a month, and adults nine dollars, board included. The advertisement announcing the opening of the school was printed both in the French and English languages. (47) This academy was not successful in employment, for shortly after this, he entered a new field for business. The school situation through out the state of Louisiana was in a very poor condition during this period. In 1860 an annual allowance of $6.50 per child was required for the support of free public schools. However, the war put a stop to this expenditure, and from l861 to 1865 very little if anything was done for the education of children in the state. In 1866 new educational interest was aroused, and R. M. Lusher was made State Superintendent of Public Instruction. His fine work was started but when Congress of 1868 threw many things into confusion, the work was stopped and little of value was done for the next few years. T. W. Connor was then made State Superintendent, but his term of office from 1868 to 1877 had no tangible results. Instruction was carried on in the families with either the father or mother playing the part of instructor for the most part. It was as true in Lake Charles as it has been in all other communities that education was lost sight of during the years when the town was getting on its feet in a financial sense. Education was considered to be a luxury to be postponed until a time when the lever[sic] for making money had subsided.
Communications with the outside world was maintained for the most part by the schooners which came in to take the products of the saw-mills away. A stagecoach line was established a short time before 1869, which ran from Niblett’s Bluff to New Iberia. It made an overnight stop in Lake Charles where Powell’s mill now stands. The government used it for the transportation of the mails. However, the service must have been satisfactory to none of the people, judging from an item in the local newspaper, which stated that no mail had been received for seven weeks, nor was there any likelihood that any would be received for seven more, as the government had discontinued its service to Lake Charles. Mail was to be brought in from that time on by a schooner. The mail for Lake Charles was sent to F. W. Moeling in Galveston, who then sent it to Lake Charles on the first schooner going out to that port. (48)
The town had been without a newspaper for some time due to the discontinuance of the Calcasieu Press, when Judge J. D. Reed and Louis Leveque founded the Lake Charles Echo and put out their first issue on February 16, 1868. Like earlier papers, it was published irregularly, and when it was purchased in 1871 by J. W. Bryan, only two volumes had been issued during its three years of existence. The new editor, however, set to work with a great deal of energy and gave the town its first real newspaper. He published it until 1890 when he sold it to a stock company, headed by W. F. Schwing. From 1871 forward, the records of Lake Charles were more accessible.
In 1872, a new courthouse was erected to take the place of the small frame building, which had served since 1852. The citizens pointed with a great deal of pride to the fact that it had been erected without levying a special tax. (49)
The first brick building was erected in 1875 at the corner of Broad Street and Bilbo Street. It was pointed out as one of the outstanding accomplishments of the town for several years after that.
The epoch of wood ended in the latter part of 1875, not because there was any cessation in the lumber business, but rather because the people of Lake Charles began to take more interest in their town as a town, and turned their attention to matters of civic interest.
CHAPTER FIVE
EMERGENCE OF CIVIC PRIDE
Perhaps no city the size of Lake Charles has ever had more clearly defined periods of development. In the period of lumber development, the people were concerned solely with the growth and development of her saw-mills. In the period from 1876 to 1881, one thought seemed to dominate the actions and words of her citizens - civic betterment. The idea seemed to spring spontaneously into existence, and the efforts of the majority of the citizens seemed to concentrate simultaneously on civic ideals.
Early in the year 1876, there appeared an editorial in the Lake Charles Echo, which apparently began the movement. The words of the editor, Captain J. W. Bryan, became motivating agencies in the minds of all the people; they resolved to appreciate the climate and country and make for themselves a home and a city of which they could be proud and which they could take time to enjoy:
"The climate of Lake Charles is incomparably fine. Tracing the latitudinal line on the map will reveal that Lake Charles is in the same range with the greatest pleasure and health resorts of the world; places made historical in the world’s great theatres of pleasure by the pens of romance, poetry, and song. Climate is a great refiner of sensibilities, temperament, and disposition. When the sun lends its gladsome rays to endow the earth with a mantle of golden beauty, when the soft, mild air wafts its soothing influences of the land, when the elements are kindly, the sky serene, the earth blossoming with the beneficence of Nature’s placid emotions - then does the heart of man also glow with kindly sentiment, and he loves his fellow as himself."
"The months of October, November, December, April, May, and June are all that could be asked for in paradise. In December of last year, the warm, soft air of Orient seemed to linger over our prairies, continuing their early, springtime cares to the sweet, blooming flowers, wafting a carol of the mocking bird and the thrill of the thrush from tree top to tree top, and effectually effacing all remembrance of the cheerless existence, the acute suffering of the old days in the old home in the far away North." (50)
People before this time had accepted the climate with little thought, but the flowery words of the editor appealed to their somewhat uncultured minds with such force that impression were made which deepened into actions during the few years. Appreciation of the wonderful possibilities offered by the climate was the foundation upon which was created the beautiful streets and parks, which now exist in the city.
Beauty in nature, whether created artificially or natural, is generally a refiner of personalities. Its influence was seen in the new thought given to culture and refinement in the social relation of the people. The signal that such a change was taking place was seen in the private theatrical which opened the social season of the new period on January 20th, 1876. It was given in Goosport by the Methodist Episcopal Sunday School. Thirty-four dollars was the result financially for the work of the church. The program was given by Misses Goos, Helm, and Ryan; and Messrs. Reynolds, Poe, Murray, Kirkman, Gray, McNulty, Perkins, Waters, and Goos. The oration of John H. Poe was the feature of the evening. (51) A short time later, the public responded to a May Day picnic most eagerly, over two hundred and fifty people being present. (52) Two days later a class for "vocal practice" was started. (53) The wholesale use of intoxicating liquors which had been so prevalent for the past five years next claimed the attention of the citizens, and they organized a society called the United Friends of Temperance on October 4th, 1877.(54) Apparently nothing of value was accomplished, for the only records concern the election of officers. Their hall, however, shortly became a gathering place for various public functions. An amalgamation of Ladies’ Aid Societies took place about 1880, for an item in the Echo stated that the Ladies’ Aid Association of Lake Charles cleared $85.40 in a very successful entertainment. (55) By 1881, the people had emerged from their former isolation, and they were groping about, laying the foundation for what became the most completely organized city in Louisiana in regard to social and welfare organizations.
As the desire for public entertainments increased, the holidays began to be celebrated. Early in 1878, the people started planning the biggest Mardi Gras week that had as yet taken place in Lake Charles. On Tuesday of Mardi Gras week, the stores were all closed from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Public conveyances were rented at half price, and a large procession occurred in which none but maskers took part. First in the march came the Chief Marshal and his aids, followed by the Queen and the Ladies of the Royal Household in a palace car with a mounted escort. Next came the King, Prince, and Royal Heir in a chariot with mounted maskers at the side. The King’s Musicians followed in carriages, and many other maskers brought up the rear. That night two big masquerade balls completed the biggest celebration up to that time in Lake Charles. (56) The following years was similar celebrations at Mardi Gras time. In 1879, a monster Christmas celebration took place with three public trees placed in the Temperance Hall alone. (57) Shortly before this occurred the first public concert in Lake Charles. It was given by the Methodist Episcopal Sunday School and was advertised as a "concert and jug-breaking entertainment." (58)
Large and elaborate weddings which became almost public functions were held in increasing numbers. One of the biggest social events in the history of the city took place on December 20th, 1879, when Della M. Goos, the daughter of Captain Daniel Goos, became the wife of J. Albert Bel. There was music, dancing, and social conversation for the two hundred guests. It was nearly daylight when the steamer, Pearl Rivers, carried the last guest away. (59) Captain Goos furnished much entertainment of this nature, for eight daughters of his were married with elaborate weddings.
Education received some justified attention in this period of enlightenment. A public school was started in the Masonic Hall under the supervision of Captain O. M. March who was assigned as instructor. He was assisted by Mrs. L. Landry. A total of ninety-six scholars registered. (60) The parish schools were organized the next year, and there was a sincere hope expressed in the Echo stating "that the schools would succeed." (61) A private school was also organized the same year by Mrs. E. Dade and Miss Maggie Kearney. It was stated that the students displayed a high degree of proficiency in rhetorical exercises. (62) These schools did not, however, supply the desire for education fully, for a notice appeared in the Echo, stating "that Lake Charles stands sorely in need of a good and permanent institution where we can send our girls to school. The little girls about town are growing up so fast in both numbers and size. A well-recommended lady principal could make herself rich and useful by the establishment of a first-class female school." (63) S. O. Shattuck, who probably changed his occupation more than any other man in the history of Lake Charles, now saw the trend toward education just as he had seen that toward self-development in1876 when he sold educational books on foreign countries. After a successful year in the parish schools, he became instructor of deciphering in the Lake Charles Institute in 1879. (64) His occupations serve as a weathervane in discovering the tendencies of the people at various periods. He came to Lake Charles as a stage driver and is at present one of the representatives of Calcasieu Parish in the General Assembly.
Another school, which like the Lake Charles Institute had but a brief existence, was the Spencerian School of Writing, which held its classes in the Court House. (65) Although these early schools varied in fortune, it must be concluded that the splendid system, which now exists in Lake Charles, was firmly established in the period from 1876 to 1881.
Fruit trees were planted in large numbers in 1876, and the first determined effort to raise oranges took place. (66) By 1879, the growth of fruit had increased to the point where pride was taken in its development in the columns of the Echo. (67)
Buggies now replaced the old ox carts, which had previously been the chief means of transportation. The leading buggy dealer of the village, John H. Poe, reported a very flourishing business in 1879. (68) Ryan Street, then as now, the parade ground of new-wheeled vehicles, took on a more aristocratic appearance according to the words of the old-timers.
It is uncertain whether pride in the red, shining fire carts and resplendent uniforms of the firemen or need for fire protection was the most important factor in the development of the Lake Charles Fire Department. It may be asserted, however, that the city took pride in it, and influential men even desired places on the fire department teams. It was considered to be an honor to belong to a Hose or a Hook and Ladder Company. During the latter part of May, 1878, a big fire completely destroyed the planing mill of Locke and Company. (69) At once the town council met and ordered an old Hand Fire Engine which was brought in on a schooner with quite a good deal of pride. This was used until 1882 when a Silshee Steam Fire Engine was purchased. This new engine necessitated the organization of two new fire companies; the Pelican Hook and Ladder Company and the Phoenix Hook and Ladder Company. Social functions were important in the history of each company organized. Some of the affairs were elaborate. One of the best was a "soiree dansante" given by Fire Company Number One on October 21, 1879 in Temperance Hall. (70) Shortly after this a new company was organized by aspirants for honors who had not attained the importance, which their position in the community deserved, and a hose cart was ordered from New York City. It was stated that a large crowd gathered about as the cart was being unloaded. This may have been due to the prominence of the members of the hose cart company more than the sight of the hose cart. The officers of this new company, all leading men in the village, were: H. C. Gill, President; J. P. Geary, Vice-President; and Captain J. W. Bryan, Treasurer. (71)
The evolution of transportation in Lake Charles has been an interesting study. During this period from 1876to 1881, the old ox carts gave way to smart carriages for travel, and the stagecoach was superseded by the railroad. Schooners still continued to hold heir own until about 1885 when the railroads began taking away part of their commerce. However, in 1876 schooner building was one of the most important industries in Lake Charles. Mr. Sweeney had acquired a great reputation as a builder of schooners and was said to have built the two fastest on the coast. (72) As the schooner age reached its peak and began to decline, the stagecoach assumed a more important place in the community. Chief of these was the United States Stage Route, which carried the mail, and ran eastward to New Iberia. The fare was $12.50, which is to be contrasted with the bus rate of $3.50 at present. The coach left Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings at six o’clock and arrived on the following days at eight o’clock in the evening, taking a long day to make the trip, which is now made in about four hours.(73) There seemed to be a great deal of dissatisfaction with the service. The following item appeared in the Echo on January 17, l880: "Last Monday night, the eastern mail stage on its way to Lake Charles was thrown off the bridge over East Lacassine Bayou near Henry Welsh’s place. A passenger with his valise, in addition to the mailbag, was thrown into the water and suffered a great deal from the cold. We hope that the railroad may be finished some day." The comment of the people on the new railroad, which was steadily creeping toward Lake Charles, showed how greatly it satisfied a long-wanted need. The Echo stated on March26, 1880 that "Everyone feels like shouting! At ten o’clock this morning, the gap in the railroad between Lake Charles and Orange was closed. Lake Charles is now connected with Houston and all parts of the world. It is almost too wonderful to be true." The first passenger train was run as an excursion to Orange, Texas, on the same day, and the profits were taken by the Lake Charles Fire Department. On April 2, 1880, the Louisiana Western Railroad brought to Lake Charles from Lacassine the first lot of country produce ever received by rail. It was sent by Doctor Welsh to Jacob Ryan and included seventy-three bags of rice, thirty hides, four barrels of sugar, and a box of eggs. (74) The first daily schedule of trains, running straight through from Vermillionville to Houston, was begun on August 7, 1880. The trip from New Orleans to Houston was now made in twenty-four hours. (75) On August 31st, the first through train from New Orleans to Houston was run. This event was celebrated by a big edition of the New Orleans Times. (76) Freight increased until over eight hundred cars passed through Lake Charles in the fifteen days ending on October 21, 1880. (77) Lake Charles felt very elated over gaining railroad transportation, and the advent of the train terminated a great deal of the frontier atmosphere, which had formerly characterized the town. Some idea of how strange railroads must have seemed to the people is revealed by an editorial appearing in the Echo for April 25, 1880, in which the fear was expressed "that the boys of Lake Charles are going to be too inquisitive about the railroad, and that some of them would be killed as a boy at Vermillionville was killed the other day."
An interest in the appearance of the city began to attract attention. The Echo congratulated the city on acquiring a sign painter. In the same issue, the attention of the people was called to the need for a new laundry, for the colored women were pounding the clothes to pieces in trying to wash them. (78) The editor openly complimented Willie Haskell, who was then seventeen years old, for his work in repairing the Haskell home, making it one of the most beautiful spots in the town. He also suggested that others follow the example and stated that the city in general needed cleaning up. (79)
Two new churches were erected in this period: the Catholic and the Baptist Churches.
The town was also progressing in an industrial way. In 1877, George and Jacob Ryan erected a shingle mill, in connection with which was operated a rice mill. (80) Two years later five or six new stores appeared on Ryan Street, a number of fences around town were rebuilt, and the city was thought to be starting on an even more prosperous career. (81) This was, of course, due to the building of the railroad. A new sawmill was erected in 1880 by Locke and Company. It was the first circular sawmill run by steam on the river. (82) Another new industry, which appeared in 1880, was the manufacturing of ice by William Meyer. He stated his intention of making several hundred pounds each day throughout the summer. A great deal of ice cream was also promised to the people, and he opened an ice cream salon on Pujo Street. (83) However, it soon developed that the ice factory was defective, and it was announced that if the trouble was not soon located, the machinery would be sent back to the factory. (84) Nothing more was heard of this ice factory, so it apparently went out of business. The sawmill men now began to consider dredging the sand bars out of the Calcasieu River and appointed a committee of investigation. The committee is important to us in that it shows to us the leaders in the town at that time. It consisted of A.J. Perkins, J. W. Bryan, C. P. Hampton, George H. Wells, D. J. Goos, A. H. Moss, M. D. Hutchins, and William L. Hutchins.(85) Prices of food stuffs were quite high in town, showing that the people were still bringing in quite a good deal of their food. Turkeys were 60 cents apiece, chickens 30 cents, one hundred oranges sold for $1.25, and butter ranged from 20 to 30 cents a pound. (86) At the close of this period, prosperity seemed just around the corner, and everyone had high hopes that Lake Charles would soon acquire a large increase in population, although it had not reached a thousand by the decade. The parish, however, had increased from 10,076 in 1875, to 12,361 in 1880. (87)
While there were numerous scares of yellow fever, there was very little sickness in Lake Charles, Allen Gilley reports that on his tour of inspection in 1878 no cases of illness. (88) There was also more marriages than had previously taken place in any period.
L. Kaufman, who came to Lake Charles in1879, gives a vivid description of the appearance of the town in that year. It had started to show some progress, but still retained a backwoods atmosphere. All of the stores sold any thing that a customer might desire. There was no attempt to run a general merchandise store until Kaufman established himself in one. The town had approximately six hundred people. The First National Bank was the only bank in town, and its transactions were confined almost solely to the owners of the lumber mills. Shortly after his arrival, the bank was moved to a corner building, which stood in about the same place that the Kress Store now stands. The present site of the First National Bank was occupied by a livery stable. Just north of the bank was a large corn field. On the corner opposite where Mathieu’s Drug Store now stands and bordered on three sides by the cornfield was a tiny shack which served as a shoe shop. Back from Ryan Street about a hundred feet stood an old, wooden building, which was the town’s best hotel. The present site of the Kaufman Building was the busiest part of town. There were two or three stores located there, one of which had a boardwalk extending across the front of the store. The Court House, which stood nearly in its present location, was a medium sized frame building. The houses lay grouped quite close to Ryan Street or were placed almost in the shadow of the sawmills which lay in what is now the north part of Lake Charles. The settlement was primitive, but Kaufman thought he saw signs of promise and remained. He has become one of the richest men in the city.
CHAPTER SIX
AN ERA OF NORTHERN IMMIGRATION
The period from 1880 to 1890 was characterized by the large number of Northerners who flocked into Calcasieu Parish. It was during this period that large numbers of settlers came from Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa to found the towns of Welsh, Jennings, Vinton, and Crowley. Lake Charles received a large number of the people, which is responsible for the distinctly northern atmosphere in the city.
Mention was made in the Echo on October 8, 1881, that large numbers of people were passing through Lake Charles due to their inability to find houses to rent. This condition remained true during most of the eighties. The same editor proclaimed through the columns of his paper that there was a crying need for a new hotel. He stated that the only hotels in the town at that time were: The Haskell House operated by Captain Green Hall, and the Richard House of which Jules Richard was the proprietor. These hotels contained only twenty-seven rooms in all and were not enough to take care of the transient trade. (89) This led the editor to remark that, "whoever could estimate the future population of Lake Charles must be a master of lightening calculations." Quite a number of the transients were people who came south to escape the cold weather of the north. The Beach Hotel in Cameron rapidly became a popular winter resort. However, many of those who came for the winter remained in the country. Group immigration was a prevalent practice. A party of one hundred and fifty Northerners came through Lake Charles in 1884 bound for the new town of Jennings. (90) Many came on special excursions, which were promoted by J. B. Watkins, the land magnate of Lake Charles. In 1885 Mr. J. B. Watkins was host to thirty newspaper owners and special feature writers from all the large cities in the east and central states. It is said that he entertained these people very lavishly. (91) Consequently, when complimentary articles began to appear in the newspapers regarding this new "Garden of Eden," people of an adventuresome nature packed up their belongings and came to the new country. The newspaper columns tell continually of new houses being built or older ones rebuilt to take care of the increasing population. By 1888, the business district had been lengthened to a distance of three blocks. The residential section, however, continued to be centered about Ryan Street, with the poorer dwellings about the mills; and, it did not extend much beyond Bilbo Street, one block east of Ryan. (92) Two new hotels sprang up during the latter part of the period: The Walker House and the United States Hotel. Not much was heard regarding the shortage of accommodation after the erection of these hotels, so they must have been larger than the older ones.
There is little question but that Lake Charles grew more rapidly during this period than any other city in Louisiana. And, most of the new growth was due to the work of J. B. Watkins. While on a visit to the Calcasieu country some time before, Watkins had decided that the wealth of undeveloped resources and the desirableness of the country was a place in which to live offered a more fertile field of speculation than did New York City. Being influential in the in the field of finance, he was able to quickly organize a land company known as the North American Land and Timber Company. Most of its stock was purchased by citizens of England who, remembering America’s past history, decided to invest money in this colorful scheme. The company sold stock to the amount of $2,500,000. This was used by Watkins in purchasing land in Calcasieu Parish, which had been herding grounds of large numbers of horses and cattle. This grazing land was able to purchase for from 12½ cents an acre to $1.25 an acre. His hope and ambition was to make the land suitable for farming, and after attracting large numbers of settlers by an attractive price, he anticipated selling the remainder at a good profit. He hoped to bring in large numbers of settlers from the northern part of France, relying upon the thriftiness of the people to make this colonization scheme a success. (93) He began an extensive campaign of advertising, founding a paper in New York City for that purpose.
This paper, the American, was very florid in its description of the new country. A few excerpts from the paper may prove interesting. "Peaches will yield $1000 worth of fruit per acre three years after planting the budded trees, if well cultivated and cared for. Oranges will do still better when they come into full bearing. Peaches have produced at he rate of $2500 when the trees were seven years old. There is no telling what an acre of large fig trees well cared for will produce, but it will be enormous. Fortunes can be made as soon as we have communication north by rail, raising dewberries, blackberries, and strawberries. We will soon eclipse the famed Southern California region in fruit." What was said about fruit was said to almost a like degree about farming and stock raising. There was copious argument to induce readers to believe that a new paradise had been found in Calcasieu Parish.
Once every month forty thousand copies of the American were distributed in addition to tons of pamphlets, circulars, and other advertising. These were sent out to the middle, western, and northern states, and also to Canada and Europe. It is said that Watkins spent fully $200,000 in advertising Calcasieu Parish, making Lake Charles the best advertised city in the United States. To his work more than to any other cause, the immigration of farmers and merchants during this period was due. In 1886, he expanded over $2000 in one-cent postage stamps for the distribution of advertising matter. George H. Wells recalls an amusing incident in this connection. During the early part of 1886, Watkins sent a boy to the Lake Charles post office for $1000 worth of one-cent stamps. The postmistress politely but firmly assured the boy that he must have misunderstood his employer. The boy returned to Watkins who sent him back to the post office with his original request. "Oh," said the postmistress. "You mean that Mr. Watkins wants one thousand one cent postage stamps. They will cost you $10." The boy returned to Watkins who then went to the post office and assured the post mistress that he wanted $1000 worth of one cent postage stamps, but it is hardly necessary to add that so many were not available. They were secured from New Orleans.
In 1885, Watkins founded a bank, which was housed in a building at the corner of Hodges and Broad Streets. (95) Such a course was necessary because the local bank could not handle large-scale transactions. This was considered to be the finest bank building the state outside of the city on New Orleans, although service was discontinued in 1901.
By 1887, everything was ready for the sale of lands by the Watkins Syndicate. Watkins engaged the services of two of the best-educated men in Lake Charles at that time: Prof. Knapp and Prof. Thompson. These men subdivided the land held by the syndicate around Lake Charles into five and ten acre farms, all of which were within two or three miles of town. In all, they laid out about five hundred of these farms. They were offered to the public with a cash payment of only $200, the remainder to be paid in installments. (96) In September, the American was moved to Lake Charles. (97) Its circulation was increased, and it became familiar to thousands of readers in the northern, eastern, and western states.
The colonization project of Watkins never reached the successful conclusion that he believed that it would. However, his work in developing Lake Charles had not been appreciated, I believe, as much as it should have been. When he came to Lake Charles, it was a small village which depended entirely upon the sawmills for its existence. When he left, the city had outgrown its infant state and had quite a large and varied number of industries which made it possible for Lake Charles to grow consistently despite the decreasing production of the sawmills. Rice production, raising of fruits and vegetables, and general farming were all started and brought to a point of successful development due to the work of this man. He brought prosperity to southwest Louisiana between the years 1885 and 1900. He was probably the outstanding man in the long history of Lake Charles. He was very shrewd and took advantage of opportunities, which many others would have overlooked, and, consequently, many speak of him as a sort of grafter. However, he never failed to treat the community of his operation with more consideration and with a greater helpfulness than any other man in its history. It is said that he mortgaged the possessions of the North American Land and Timber Company for more than their actual market value, and was thus able to raise the money to construct the Kansas City, Watkins, and Gulf Railroad. But, this is a criticism, which might be directed toward any of us were we placed in his situation. His mentality became impaired toward the close of his life or he would have become even a greater factor in the development of the city.
This period saw a great growth in values in Calcasieu Parish. The assessment values alone increased 662 ½%. (98) The recording of deeds of land is some indication of growth. There was a very noticeable increase in number as the eighties progressed as may be seen by the following table:
Books of Deeds Number of Deeds Time Required to fill Book G 600 From 1880 to 1882 H 492 From 1882 to 1883 I 651 From January 1883 to April 1885 J 428 From April to December 1885 (226 days) K 523 189 days L 431 206 days (Closed January 1887) M 462 197 days N 462 171 days O 521 107 days (Closed May 1888) P 556 123 days (Closed October 1888) Q 531 167 days (Closed March 21, 1889) R 550 166 days (Closed September 3, 1889) S 589 134 days (Closed January 16, 1890)
These records clearly indicate that a great many new settlers were coming and taking up land with a consequent increase of property values.
The population of Lake Charles increased more than 400% during the Eighties. At the beginning of the decade, there were fewer than eight hundred people in the town; at its close, over three thousand.
There were, of course, a number of new stores and business enterprises started. One of the most important was the establishment of a large mercantile store by A. Rigmaiden and Company. (100) In the summer of 1881, the ice machine of William Meyer was reported to be working again, and the people were again promised plenty of ice cream. (101) The Echo knew not bounds in its enthusiasm for the future growth of Lake Charles. It stated that, "Lake Charles would soon be a place of thousands of people." (102) A new feed store was also opened this year. In 1882, Jacob Ryan and Captain F. Hanson rebuilt their shingle and rice mills. (103) At the same time Julius Frank opened a new merchandise store. M. J. Rosteet put a new bridge in front of his store. A new steam mill with a capacity of twenty thousand feet of lumber a day built in 1882 by Sam and Marion Fairchild. (104) Several new grocery stores were erected. Clothing stores for the first time did a fine business. An item in one of the newspapers stated that, "M. Marx of Klotz and Marx had bought the daisiest stock of goods that ever left the Crescent City for a country town." (105) A rice-harvesting machine appeared in 1886. A hoop and stave factory was established in 1887. (106) Mr. D’Armand built a handsome new building in 1887 on the site of the present Gordon Store Building. (107) The same year the mill of the newly organized Bradley-Ramsey Company was built. It was supposed to be as near perfect as was possible to make it at that time. It had a capacity of from sixty to seventy-five thousand feet of lumber a day and ran a planer and dry house in connection with the mill. (108) The other lumber mills had increased in size to such a great extent that those in Calcasieu Parish were producing more lumber than the entire state of Louisiana and produced ten years before this. (109) Lake Charles was distinctly on a boom at the close of 1890, and much of the prosperity was due to hopes which had been inspired as a result of the increasing acreage in rice.
There were a number of fires during this period, which were very destructive in spite of the increasing pride which Lake Charles took in her fire department. However, the people were warned constantly of the fire hazards by the editor of the Echo who stated several times that one of the greatest needs of the town was a pump on the court house lawn, so that water might be furnished in case of a fire and so that the visitors to Lake Charles would not be compelled to go to private houses when they wished to obtain drinking water. Six thousand feet of piping was ordered in 1886 for the purpose of protecting the business district against fire. A tank was built which would hold between sixty and eighty thousand gallons of water. This was to be filled by means of an artesian well, but the well was never found. (110) Then the fire companies were reorganized in 1888 as an efficiency measure. The companies at this time were: the Young America Fire Company, the Pelican-Babcock Hook and Ladder Company, the Phoenix Hook and Ladder Company, and the Steam Fire Company, apparently enough companies for one village. However, in spite of all this, the ice factory, the rice mill, the property of Prof. A. Thompson, the hoop and stave factory, and a couple residences burned on November 9, 1888. The companies, containing the picked brains and personalities of the community were barely to save the Drew Mill. (111) Water seemed to be the only element lacking to put out the fire.
Many efforts were made during this period to provide the children with more and better schools. Five were opened in the parish under the supervision of five competent principals. (112) Miss Lizzie Hennington opened a school in 1881 for those interested especially in piano and vocal music. (113) Another private school for girls was opened in that year by Mrs. J. B. Demere. The graded schools were apparently receiving no attention in 1881, for a man stated that he would contribute $500 for the erection of a graded school for boys. The editor of the Echo asserted that the conditions in the graded schools of Lake Charles at that time were a reproach to the community. (114) Immigrants inquired about high school facilities, and some attention was given to that problem. The following year a more determined effort was made to get better schools. The editor of the Echo was unceasing in his efforts to attract attention to this problem. He stated that there were three thousand and six hundred children in the parish to be educated. Toward this problem, the state contributed only $3000. He stated that there should be ninety schools with forty pupils in each, and each of these pupils should be given three months schooling a year. S.O. Shattuck wished to have a special tax levied. (115) St. Charles Academy opened in 1882, and the urgent measures which had been demanded were quieted for a time.
The academy fulfilled the long expressed desire of the people for a real educational institution. It was under the supervision of the Sisters Marianites of the Holy Cross. The courses taught were literature, art, and music in addition to the common branches of study. The school was first housed in a small five-room building, which lay on the north side of Pujo Street between Ryan Street and the lakefront. Then a larger building was constructed at the corner of Ryan and Kirby streets in 1886. (116) Miss J. Leveque graduated in 1885, the first to receive a diploma from the school. The institution played an important part in the educational system of Lake Charles.
In 1884, John McNeese was made Parish Superintendent of schools which position he held for a number of years. (117) He did more for the schools of Calcasieu Parish than any other school man in the history of the parish.
The period of private educational institutions, which had swept over the country had its reflection in Lake Charles. The Glendale Institute under the supervision of Miss Ella R. Usher was started in 1884. She employed one assistant and taught English and French. (118) The next year a high school was started in the Commercial Building by Rev. J. T. Doves. It was very popular at that time and obtained enough students to fill it to capacity before it even opened. (119) In 1888, another school was opened for girls and boys by Mrs. Della K. Bryan and Miss Rosa Allen. A tuition charge of $2 a month was made; quite a number of students enrolled. (120) In 1889, Prof. O. S. Dolby established another school on Ryan Street between Iris and Division Streets. (121)
As may be seen, public interest in schools seemed to have increased greatly during this period, judging from the number of schools started. Still the people were not satisfied. They desired public schools, which would be large and complete enough to take of their educational needs without resorting to the private schools then in existence. Their sentiment took form in the introduction of the public school system as a system the following year.
The railroads gradually absorbed the schooner trade. In 1881, a notice appeared in the Echo stating that there had been a distinct falling off in marine arrivals, not-with-standing the fact that a mail steamer was put on in that year and made regular trips through Calcasieu Pass. (122) There was no slackening in the building of ships; the excellence of Lake Charles ships had drawn business from far away places. J. J. Clooney made large contracts with Mexican ship owners, which kept his force very busy. (123) The railroads stimulated added business by running excursions, one of the most important of which was made to Orange, Texas, on March 19, 1881. Four hundred and fifty people from Lake Charles took advantage of the rate of $1 for the trip, which was said to have been very hilarious one. It was the first that many of the people had ever ridden on a train. (124) The next year was one of the last big ones enjoyed by the schooners, a bit of passing flourish in face of the inevitable advance of the railroad. Special mention was made in the paper that fifteen schooners were anchored in the lake, which had not been so unusual a sight a few years previous. (125) From this time on, the day of the schooner was done, and one of the most picturesque sights of Lake Charles passed away.
New and interesting diversions were provided for the people. The Echo stated in 1881 that Fricke’s New Opera House was "booming to the front" and would prove to be quite an acquisition to the town. It also stated that Mr. Fricke was putting up some new folding seats with a spring to hold one’s hat. Professor Paul Sullivan was engaged to finish the stage curtains and the scenery. (126) The same paper stated that "Sullivan made quite a sensation driving up Ryan Street in a new and elegant coupe." The coupe was brought in to carry passengers from the Haskell House to the depot. (127) A short time after this Captain Green Hall bought a new hack to carry his quests from the Lake House to the depot. (128) A new express wagon was purchased by Captain Tom Reynolds, which caused the editor to remark, that "Lake Charles was becoming more like a city every day." (129) These new hacks were rented to the general public from 7a.m. to 6p.m. for twenty-five cents a ride. Another opera house was constructed and more hacks were purchased, and before 1890, people were apparently very much satisfied with their opportunities for diversion.
Private entertainment was also provided for more and more people by a large number of organizations. The Masonic Lodge, which had grown rapidly since its organization, gave one of the biggest dinners ever given in Lake Charles on December 27, 1881. Two hundred and fifty guests were invited which necessitated putting the tables in Fricke’s Opera House. The dinner was followed by a grand ball. The two bands, which had been organized during the year, furnished music for the occasion. (130) Paul Sullivan, the sign painter, seems to have been the chief man behind these musical organizations. The Magnolia Dramatic Club was also organized during the year. Its leaders were Thad Mayo, T. R. Reynolds, and Dr. J.C. Monday. (131) It played a part in the life of Lake Charles then, comparable to the Little Theatre of today. Other societies now came thick and fast. The Lake Charles Literary Society was organized in l882; the chief function of which seemed to be debating. Women suffrage was debated, and the society reported that it had firmly taken its stand for that movement. (132) A string band was the next organization to make it appearance under the leadership of Professor F. Hartig. (133) The editor of the Echo stated that Lake Charles had two brass bands; that almost every home had either an organ or French harp; and that with the monkey and organ grinder who had come to town, along with an occasional blind man, there was plenty of music for everyone. (134) The American Legion of Honor was organized under the leadership of Thad Mayo. (135) Then came a romantic period in the history of the town. In 1884, the Lake Charles Brass Band started serenading in various parts of town during the summer months. The citizens considered it to be a real treat. (136) The favored ones of these serenaded still remember when the band played for them. In 1886, another organization was formed called the Knights of Honor. (137) All of these organizations were founded mainly for the purpose of providing entertainment for the members, weddings, balls, and parties given for members by the various fire departments provided Lake Charles with quite a full social calendar.
There were two weddings in this period, which were of such importance as to be almost public affairs: the marriages of L. Kaufman and W. H. Haskell. The brass bands were called out on both occasions, and each of the couples received a serenade. A little later came the weddings of Managan-East and A. M. Mayo-Knapp, which were big occasions for all the people in the city.
The awakened interest in life was extended into the religious field. A Young Men’s Christian Association was organized and held a number of important meetings. (138) A Presbyterian Church was built and several others were remodeled. The Baptist Church gave a literary excursion on the steamer, Hazel, in 1888, which was attended by over two hundred and fifty people. It was reported that all enjoyed the scenery, the talks and readings and the wonderful lunch prepared by the Ladies’ Aid. (139) The Women’s Christian Temperance Union organized during this period and was very active for a time.
The first Forth of July celebration occurred in 1889. A big street parade with all the fire companies taking part, the brass bands, and the floats were features of the day. The main addresses of the day were given by S. O. Shattuck, George Wells, A. P. Pujo, and W. B. Ripley. A big ball was held at night in the Williams’ Opera House; Miss Ellen Tournet was queen. (140)
Apparently, affairs were progressing in a very idealistic manner in so far as development of a community consciousness and pride were concerned. However, things did not run smoothly during the entire period. In 1884, it was reported that health, crops, and business were not so good up in the country. (141) In 1886 there seemed to be an epidemic of chills and fever, and there was always the constant fear of an epidemic of yellow fever. There were several fires, which were disastrous to business. Mention was made several times during the period of the extreme cold, which seemed to prevail, and in 1882, the Mermentau froze, the first time in its history. (142) In 1886 the worst cold spell in the history of Lake Charles occurred, one which is distinctly remembered yet by old settlers. The Lake Charles Commercial for January 16, 1886, stated that "The loss and suffering among the cattle in this parish and Cameron occasioned by the unprecedented cold spell will be quite serious. They have been frozen to death by the hundreds in the prairies. One large stock owner alone is reported to have lost as many as four hundred during the past few days. It is not yet known to what extent the orange trees have been affected in this section by the extraordinary cold weather, but those who have some experience in the matter, said that although a few isolated trees my survive, this will be the last of the oranges for some time to come." The Lake Charles Echo stated that "Mr. Eraste Hebert, living north of English Bayou, tells us that stream, which is some sixty yards wide, was frozen over last Sunday - something never known." "Owing to the extreme cold weather on the night of the 18th, the attendance at the ball, given by the Babcock Hook and Ladder was not as good as it would have been otherwise." stated the same issue of the Echo. Another paragraph stated, "Since that time the ground has been frozen, the bayous around have all been in fine condition for skating, and our northern friends, who had brought along their steel skates, more as souvenirs of the past, rather than with any hope of finding a field for their use here, have been gliding over the glossy bosoms of our streams to the astonishment and delight of the average native-born Louisianans." "The temperature," said the Commercial, "fell to twenty-six degrees below the freezing mark. (143) In the same year, a terrible storm broke over the southern part of the parish and wiped out the settlements at Sabine Pass and Johnson’s Bayou. Over two hundred persons were drowned in the great tidal wave, which swept over the country as a result of the terrific winds from the south. (144) Law and order were much disturbed by a wave of crime which submerged the good work done by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and other like organizations during the last five years. It can be explained only by the fact that a new group of rough sawmill hands had come into the city as a result of increasing activity in the mills. The Echo stated in 1884 that there were more robberies and fights than had ever been heard of before. The paper frankly said that it did not know the me