(Transcribed by Leora White, February 2007)

This work is being presented to the Southwest Louisiana Historical Institute by the author in the fond hope that it might serve to stimulate further research in the history of Southwest Louisiana.

THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
OF SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA

1865-1900

A Dissertation
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the
Louisiana State University and
Agricultural and Mechanical College
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
In
The Department of History

By

Donald J. Millet, Sr.
A. B., 1935, Louisiana State University
M. A., 1941, Louisiana State University
January, 1964

PREFACE

In this study, southwest Louisiana may be defined as that general area from the Mississippi escarpment, which divides the prairie from the Mississippi alluvial plain in the east to the Sabine River in the west, and from approximately the 31^st parallel of latitude in the north to the Gulf of Mexico. It thus comprises the present-day parishes of Acadia, Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, Evangeline, Jefferson Davis, Lafayette, Saint Landry, and Vermilion. This area, largely prairie land, and referred to by early settlers and travelers as the "cow country" because of the vast herds of cattle found grazing there, contains approximately 8,936 square miles or 5,459,040 acres of land area, which is 18.4 percent of the area of Louisiana. These parishes vary somewhat in certain characteristics; therefore they do not constitute a homogeneous region. As will be seen in this study, however, after 1880 they developed regional characteristics.

In regional delineation, the writer has followed nineteenth century geographers’ practice of using the term "prairie" to include all of southwest Louisiana except in cases where the true prairie is designated.

Several studies, mostly individual parishes and towns of southwest Louisiana, have been made. Except for the work edited and published in 1891 by William Henry Perrin titled Southwest Louisiana: Biographical and Historical no other study has been made to treat the area as a region. Even Perrin’s work, however, gives more attention to parish development than regional development.

Settlers who began to move into southwest Louisiana in the latter half of the eighteenth century and most of the nineteenth century avoided the true prairie area because they looked upon it useful only for grazing. The result of this consensus explains why the region was settled in the eastern and western extremities, leaving the intervening prairies almost devoid of inhabitants save along the streams that penetrated the prairies. It was left to the Midwesterners who in the middle 1880’s began to move into the prairies to demonstrate to the natives the value of the prairies as an ideal area for the growing of rice. Thereafter, prairie land sold at a premium.

The eastern extremity developed earlier than the western. The rich black and brown alluvial soil in eastern Saint Landry, Lafayette, and portions of Vermilion dictated the growing of sugar cane and cotton as staple agricultural products. Economic development, therefore, hinged on these two products. The poorly drained forested and prairie soils in the western area that after 1840 came to be called "Imperial Calcasieu" precluded any extensive agricultural activity. Instead, a rather large sawmill industry developed there after the Civil War. The eastern section had its commercial activities oriented with the market of New Orleans, while the trade in the western section was with Galveston. The extension of the railroad through southwest Louisiana in 1880 changed this trading pattern by uniting both sections. There after, southwest Louisiana developed as a region. Its greatest economic advances were made after 1880.

The lumbering activities of Calcasieu modestly developing after the Civil War were greatly boosted after 1880. The almost non-existent rice industry similarly developed after that date. Sugar and cotton production greatly affected by the Civil War and its aftermath did not full recover until the 1890’s. Even then, cotton production was faced with low market prices that persisted to the end of the century. Sugar production recovered very slowly in the 1870’s, and 1880’s, but the 1890’s saw favorable tariffs, advanced technology, and central refineries that brought prosperity to the growers.

Other developments that contributed to the economic development of southwest Louisiana after 1880 were: scientific breeding of cattle stimulated largely by Midwesterners; the birth of the rice industry revolutionized in the last dozen or more years of the century; the introduction of banks, both State and Federal, after 1889; and the growing interest in sheep, hog, and poultry raising.

In the preparation of this manuscript the writer is indebted to scores of persons who rendered him genuine service. Traveling the length and breadth of southwest Louisiana, he found the people always generous with their time in discussing the various phases of the early economy of the area. It was possible only to document a relatively small number of those persons who made contributions to his understanding of the developments within the various parishes. He would, however, like to acknowledge the professional help given him by Professors Burl Noggle and Edwin A. Davis of the Department of History, without whose aid this work would have been made immeasurably more difficult. The author’s former colleague, Dr. Louis M. O’Quinn, now associated with the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at Mississippi State University, gave advice on preparing the chapter on Money, Banking, and General Business. Dr. Lauren C. Post of San Diego State College was more than generous in making available reprints of his articles on southwest Louisiana. His colleague, Professor Dorothy F. Roberts of the McNeese State College English Department, edited the entire manuscript and made suggestions for the organization of material.

The author is also deeply indebted to the clerks of court of all the parishes embraced in this study and the Clerk of Court of Saint Mary Parish. Letters to them were at all times answered promptly. The library staff of Louisiana State University, Tulane University, University of Southwestern Louisiana, and McNeese State College who went far beyond the call of duty to be helpful. Particularly is an expression of gratitude due to Mrs. Ruth C. Murray of the Government Documents Department of the Library of Louisiana State University; to Miss Pearl Mary Segura, Librarian, Louisiana Room, Dupré Library, University of Southwestern University; and to Mrs. Mary Ory, Reference Librarian, Frazar Memorial Library, McNeese State College.

Held deeply in the author’s debt are a number of distinguished citizens of southwest Louisiana, notably Harry G. Chalkley, E. R. Kaufman, Edward Sweeney, and Miss Maude Reid, all of Lake Charles, and Congressman T. Ashton Thompson of the Seventh Congressional District of Louisiana who made available documents from the Library of Congress that were unobtainable elsewhere.

Finally, to his wife, he extends his deepest gratitude. For without her understanding and unfailing encouragement the task would have been harder, and the finished product less worthy.

No one mentioned in these acknowledgments is responsible for the conclusions reached, the nature of organization, or the conception of the work. He alone bears the responsibility for the text.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF MAPS

ABSTRACT

CHAPTER:

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

VITA

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE

I. Population Statistics from the United States Census, 1860-1900

MAP

I. Boundaries of Southwest Louisiana

Soil Series Groups of Louisiana

ABSTRACT

This study is an inquiry into the economic development of southwest Louisiana from the termination of the Civil War to the end of the century. The area embraced by the study includes the present-day parishes of Acadia, Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, Evangeline, Jefferson Davis, Lafayette, Saint Landry, and Vermilion which cover approximately 18.4 per cent of the land area of the State.

Long designated as the prairies of Louisiana from the time of the earliest settlers, the region was thought valuable only as a grazing area for livestock - principally cattle. Settlement, therefore, proceeded slowly partly for this reason and partly because of the difficulty of access. The eastern alluvial fringe developed earlier and at a more rapid pace than did the sparsely populated western section along the Calcasieu River. The intervening area, the true prairies, was generally avoided by settlers because agricultural pursuits were thought to be impractical, if not impossible here. Settlements, however, were made along streams penetrating into the prairies where the Acadians and Creoles developed a typical French-Spanish landownership pattern.

Although the region possessed the natural advantages of a mild climate, adequate rainfall for most purposes, and a variety of soils making possible a diversified agriculture consisting of such staples as sugar cane, cotton, and at a later time rice, the Civil War and Reconstruction delayed continued development. The lumber industry of Calcasieu was the only significant industry prior to 1880.

In 1880, however, the railroad was extended through the region, giving it access to markets hitherto not within its trading orbit. Stimulus was given to the sawmill industry of Calcasieu; new prairies once thought undesirable for agriculture. They brought with them advanced techniques in animal husbandry, horticulture, and most important for the region, machinery used in the wheat fields of the Midwest. Adapted to rice technology, these machines along with the solution of irrigation problems revolutionized the industry by the end of the century. The railroad also stimulated the development of towns in southwest Louisiana.

By 1890 the cotton and sugar industry had recovered. Although the prices of cotton remained low through the decade, such ameliorative developments as cottonseed mills eased somewhat the farmer’s burden. Sugar producers were aided by favorable tariffs and advanced techniques in the growing, processing, and marketing of the product. Banks provided ready credit for those who needed it.

Economic development in southwest Louisiana owes much to several inspired men. Principally among these are Jabez B. Watkins, entrepreneur in the age of enterprise; Seaman A. Knapp, educator who taught the farmers the value of experimentation and demonstration; and Sylvester L. Cary, land agent for the Southern Railroad Company, who induced thousands of Midwesterners to seek their fortunes in the prairies of Louisiana.

Relative lack of documentary material has made research into the economic development of southwest Louisiana a difficult task. Few diaries, letters, journals, account books, scrapbooks, and memoirs have been preserved. The occurrence of several disastrous courthouse fires in Saint Landry and Vermilion in the 1880’s and Calcasieu in 1910 greatly added to the writer’s difficulty. The Watkins papers were unintentionally destroyed in the 1930’s. Heavy reliance, therefore, was made perforce on other sources. Principally among these were contemporary newspapers, which, fortunately, have been preserved in relatively complete files; government documents, both State and Federal; and several books and scrapbooks written and kept in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Other materials relied upon were booklets, pamphlets, periodicals, and several private collections of letters and account books.

Prepared by Department of Public Works, Baton Rouge, LA, n.d.

CHAPTER I

PHYSICAL SETTING

I. GEOGRAPHY

Geographer William Darby, one of the first to make a systemic study of the physical features of Louisiana in the early part of the nineteenth century, believed that "few spots on the globe of an equal extent, exhibit more diversity of surface, or a greater variety of soil and vegetable production, than does Opelousas," for "every forest tree found in southern Louisiana, except a few species," exists in this area. "Here are beheld all the changes of soil, from the deep fertile loam of Bayou Boeuf, to the sterile pine woods" in the upper part what is now Calcasieu, Beauregard, and Allen parishes; "from the broken hills of Bayou Crocodile, Calcasieu, and Sabine, to the Marsh Prairies of the gulph / sic / of Mexico; and from the deep and almost impervious woods along the Atchafalaya, to the widely extended plains that open their vast area, upon the banks of the Mermentau and Calcasieu rivers." (1)

Lying within the physiographic region known as the West Coastal Plain, southwest Louisiana comprises parts of three physiographic belts paralleling the margin of the Gulf of Mexico in eastern Texas and Louisiana with a fourth belt transverse to them, the western margin of the Mississippi Valley. (2) The characteristic features of these belts that distinguish them are the degree of dissection by streams and the regional slope of the surface. (3) The general slope of the region is gulfward with the shore line trending east west. (4) Recognized as terraces, the origin of these belts has been a subject of controversy. Some authors consider them of marine origin while others believe that they were formed by stream deposition. (5)

The oldest and most dissected of the three physiographic belts is the upland-plains section comprising all of Beauregard, approximately the northern two-thirds of Allen, and the northwestern one-fourth of Evangeline parishes. (6) Here the plains between the principal streams are gently rolling with a relief of not more than twenty feet where erosion has not been pronounced. Slope of the surface is a few degrees east of south. (7) A second belt within the upland plains is not more than six to twenty miles in width and ranges north-south through southern Beauregard and northern Calcasieu and continues northeastward. It includes most of the upland area east of the Calcasieu River in Allen and Evangeline parishes. (8) The slope of these plains is gulfward and ranges from about one and one-half to two feet per mile making for a flat and relatively poor drainage pattern. Here swamps are prevalent. Areas of this belt of plains are called "flatwoods." (9) The upland-plains area was heavily forested with a pine growth before the sawmills stripped the land. Pimple mounds and bagols are surface characteristics of the upland plains. Ranging from about thirty to fifty feet in diameter and about a foot to five feet in height, pimple mounds are circular mounds of earth, probably erosional in origin, aligned parallel to the drainage pattern. (10) Bagols on the other hand are found in low, swampy areas shaped either round or elliptical, and are usually not more than one-fourth mile in greatest width. Since pine trees do not grow in these areas, the pine oaks and bay trees which do were left standing after the surrounding pine forests were cut, leaving "small island of woods in a sea of grassland and stumps." (11) Streams of the upland-plains are all transverse to the east west trend of the plains and have relatively shallow gradients. The floods plains of the streams support a dense, jungle-like thicket of tangled vines and palmetto with growths of cypress and gum trees. (12)

The second of the physiographic belts of southwest Louisiana is the prairie. Comprising abut half of the region, the prairie area is not entirely treeless since dense woods are found on the flood plains of streams that cut across the prairie. Between the streams where the land is not under cultivation is a thick growth of grass. (13) Extending almost without a break from the Sabine River on the west to the Bayou Teche-Bayou Cocodrie drainage systems on the east, the prairie area forms a triangle with the apex in northern Evangeline Parish and the base parallel to the gulf shore line. The width west-east is about 130 miles, while the north-south dimension is about seventy miles. (14) Where untouched by erosion, the relief of the prairie ranges from ten to twenty feet and slopes gently gulfward at the rate of one and one-half to two feet per mile. The greatest altitude is in Evangeline Parish where it is about one hundred feet above sea level. (15)

The eastern edge of the prairie, which extends from the northern-most point of Evangeline Parish to the south-eastern boundary of Iberia Parish, is an eastward facing escarpment having an elevation of eighty feet at its lowest in the area of Franklin. (16)

The principal streams of the prairie are the only visible relief. Natural levees formed by ancient streams which crossed and re-crossed the prairie are better drained than the back-swamp areas. These levees are the principal locations of railroad, roads, buildings, and cultivation areas. (17) Streams that cross the prairie - such as the Mermentau River and Bayou Nezpique - are generally shallow, since they do not cut through the clay that forms the land surface. Their dry-weather flow, therefore, is very small - a factor in their role as sources of irrigation water. (18)

The third of the physiographic belts characterizing southwest Louisiana is the coastal marshland. If it were not for the cheniers, which are old beach ridges in the marsh, there would be no observable relief west of the Vermilion River. (19) In few places does the land rise more then five feet above sea level. (20) Of the 2,771 square miles comprising the total area of Cameron and Vermilion parishes, it has been estimated that 2,321 square miles are marshlands. (21) Along the northern borders of the marsh the land is quite firm, having silt and hard clay at its base. However, in the central and southern parts, the high organic content of the mud makes the surface quite boggy and incapable of bearing the weight of these who attempt to cross it on foot. (22)

The cheniers are the most conspicuous features of the coastal marshland. They are beach ridges, composed mostly of sand and shells thrown up by the waves during a storm and comprise about seventy square miles in the area. The cheniers are the principal area of habitation. They arise as much as twenty-five feet above the level of the sea and extend for many miles paralleling the coast line. Seldom more than a hundred feet wide, they are steep on the gulfward side caused by their wave origin. (23)

An abundance of lakes is a characteristic feature of the marshland. Where some owe their origin to peat "burnouts" such as that of Lake Arthur, most of them are estuaries formed by wave erosion along the margin of watercourses. The best example of this is Grand Lake, White Lake, and Vermilion Bay. (24) Merging with the coastal marshland along an indefinable line trending southeast from Franklin in Saint Mary Parish is the Mississippi flood plain has been identified as the deltaic plain. That part of the deltaic plain lying west of the Atchafalaya River is composed of poorly drained swamp lands with a heavy growth of forests. (25) These characteristics differentiate the area west of the escarpment.

A significant topographical feature of southwest Louisiana that led to early land ownership patterns and agricultural development of the region is the frontlands and backlands. (26) (The cultural aspect of these land features will be discussed later.) The front lands are natural levees made by the overflow of rivers to which they are adjacent. They are higher near the streams and slope gently towards the swamp or backlands. The building-up process of these levees which occurs with the annual floods deposits coarser material near the channel while the finer material is carried to backlands. (27) Because these lands are higher, better drained, and more accessible, they were chosen by the early inhabitants for settlement. Thereby began the unique pattern of land ownership found in the areas of French and Spanish land grants in colonial Louisiana.

Maximum elevation of the region (not counting the hills of Evangeline Parish) is found near the city of Opelousas, on the escarpment. Here the elevation is about seventy feet above sea level. (28) The slope is southwestward toward the mouth of the Mermentau, where the elevation is only five feet above the level of the sea. The drainage pattern of the Mermentau and it tributaries is, therefore, in a southwesterly direction. (29)

Many of the geographical features of the region were given names - French always - by the Acadians who settled there:

Guided by a compass, Samuel H. Lockett, professor of engineering at Louisiana State University, crossed the prairies on horseback in the early 1870’s. He described the region this way:

II. WATERCOURSES

The waterways of a region must always be considered when estimating the area’s value for human habitation and cultivation. A map of southwest Louisiana will show that the region is well supplied with waterways for navigation and irrigation. This was especially significant for the period of the study. Navigable streams, with their affluents, penetrate the region in every direction, supplying it with water communication. These streams all find their way to the Gulf of Mexico by five independent mouths. The Sabine River, which forms the western boundary of the region under study, was of a little importance in the economic development of the area. Only one tributary stream - Anacoco Bayou - is within southwest Louisiana, and it receives its flow from out side the region. (32) About thirty miles eastward is the Calcasieu River with its principal tributaries: Bundick, Whiskey Chitto, Six Mile, and Ten Mile creeks. (33) Originating in the parish of Natchitoches, the Calcasieu River meanders through Rapides Parish from whence it pursues a southwesterly course through Calcasieu Parish and Lake Charles and empties into Calcasieu Lake which in turn overflows into the Gulf of Mexico. (34) In the period of this study the Calcasieu River was navigable for light-drafted vessels to Lake Charles, but sand bars and other obstructions were constant hazards. (35) The Mermentau River formed from the united streams of the Nezpique, Cane, Plaquemine Brulé bayous and other smaller streams, flows into Grand Lake before discharging into the Gulf of Mexico. The stream was navigable for about seventy miles from its mouth. Thereafter, only small vessels could ascend the river and its tributaries. (36) Bayou Vermilion originates in Saint Landry Parish and empties into Vermilion Bay. William Darby, in 1816, considered the stream of river dimensions when it widened out south of Carencro. (37) (Natives made little distinction between river and bayou when describing the stream.) After the Civil War, an extensive trade developed on this body of water from Vermilion (Lafayette) for about seventy miles downstream through Vermilion Parish to the Bay. (38)

The Teche River, according to Darby, "claims more notice from the political economist and geographer, than either its length or quantity of water would seem to justify…." (39) Although not strictly within the area under observation, the Teche River played a role in the development of southwest Louisiana as a means of transportation to the area. This is also true of the Atchafalaya which forms the eastern boundary of Saint Landry. Serving as a distributary of the Red and Mississippi rivers, the Atchafalaya drains a portion of the eastern part of southwest Louisiana through the navigable bayous Boeuf, Cocodrie, Courtableau, Fordoche, Teche, and other tributary streams as it passes on into Berwick’s Bay. (40) It was one of the main arteries of water transportation to the prairies during most of its early history preceding the advent of the railroads in 1880’s.

III. TEMPERATURE AND PRECIPITATION

Quantitatively, the climate of the prairies is meso-thermal. The maximum mean temperature for August, the warmest month of the year, is 82 degrees F., which almost equals the mean for July. The coldest month is January which has an average temperature of 53 degrees F. The mean annual temperature of seven representative stations in southwest Louisiana is 68 degrees F. (41)

Precipitation comes normally during all months of the year with a year-round average of fifty-six inches for the same seven representative stations mentioned above. The wettest month is July with approximately 6.30 inches, while October is the driest with about 3.50 inches. (42) Because of the high rate of evaporation, even daily rains may not be excessive. Favorable also is the pattern of drainage which takes care of unusual rainy weather. (43)

Generally, cold spells have long been most feared by the inhabitants of the prairies. Although of short duration, they cause much loss of livestock on the open ranges where cattle have no means of protection against the chilly blasts of winter. During these spells cattle parish by the thousands. (44) Orange groves and shrubbery were badly damaged during several freezes in the period under study. (45) Between cold spells, the warm winds from the Gulf blow inland, causing rain. Lauren C. Post, a native and geographer who has written extensively on southwest Louisiana, remarks: "The winter is thus a succession of changes between north winds and warm south winds, the one bringing clear cool days, and the other, warm, mild conditions with considerable precipitation." (46) Intermediate between these extremes is clear weather with little wind, during which daily sunshine causes the temperature to rise resulting in balmy days in the late winter and early spring. It is during this time that the prairie farmer begins to cultivate his lands. (47)

Spring is a season of full activity when such crops as corn and cotton are laid out with sugar cane coming somewhat later, usually in the month of June. (48) Summertime finds the prairies drenched with rain. The high relative humidity brings discomfort to the inhabitants, moderated somewhat by Gulf breezes which bring some comfort. (49) In the early fall cotton picking precedes the gathering of corn; the cutting of cane follows in the middle of October. A cool October increases the sucrose content of the sugar cane. (50) Late summer and early fall is the hurricane season, which, at times, has caused extensive damage to the prairies. (51)

Timothy Flint, who during the 1820’s crossed the prairie region, contrasted the Mississippi and Atchafalaya river bottoms with the prairies:

Samuel Lockett thought that the prairie region was "the most pleasing part of the State." (53)

Wooded areas are found mostly along the banks of the many streams winding their ways to the Gulf. (54) The belt of trees extends variously from a half mile to a mile along the banks of the streams, and partly on the natural levees. The demarcation line between wooded areas and grasslands is sharp. (55) From a distance this line creates the illusion of a shoreline bordering the sea. Grassy areas between the wooded areas along the streams are called "coves" and early became the centers for settlement.

The woodlands produce a fine variety of timber. Cypress forests abounded along such bayous and rivers as the Calcasieu, Mermentau, Vermilion, Plaquemine Brule, and Queue de Tortue. To the north and northwest, in the pine hills and pine flats, the pine forests projected as spurs. (56) Most of the woods of southwest Louisiana, however, are mixed, with hardwoods predominating: hickories, oaks, magnolias, and gum. (57) The hardwoods are deciduous, shedding their leaves during the winter months.

West of the Red River valley, spreading westward to the Sabine, is the great pine region forming part of the pine forest which extends into eastern Texas. Increasing in width southward, its length from north to south (where it verges upon the lower maritime prairies of the Calcasieu) is not less than one hundred miles. It includes all of the parish of Vernon, the lower part of Calcasieu, and portions of the parishes of Allen, Saint Landry, Natchitoches, and Rapides, covering an estimated area of 4,500 square miles. (58) Lake Charles, on the southern border of this pine forest, as will be seen later in this study, became the principal center of lumber milling in the three decades following the Civil War. (59)

The heavy impervious soils of the prairies combined with the occasional droughty condition prevented forest growth. Instead, a vigorous stand of tall grass, including big and little bluestem, pine hill bluestem, switch grass, Indian grass, eastern gama, Paspalum (called gazon by the natives) and a host of associated herbs, once grew in profusion. The heavy clayey subsoil that prevented tree growth provides a solid bottom to retain water during the rice season. (60) William H. Perrin, who visited the area in the 1880’s, was surprised to find that "there was no attempt made to put any of this hay on the market." Instead, he found the "grass lying and rotting on the ground." (61) Sylvester L. Cary, in one of his articles written to induce Midwesterners to migrate to southwest Louisiana, mentioned that some twenty varieties of native grasses were exhibited at the Southern Exposition in Atlanta in 1895. (62) He had great hopes that hay shipping would become an industry in the prairies. (63) Lauren C. Post believes that white clover was introduced in the 1880’s, and that some time after the Civil War, cattlemen who came through the area on horseback in Bermuda grass from the banks of the Mississippi River. (64) Johnson and coco grass, both exotic, were probably brought by trains going through southwest Louisiana, since it is thought that the seed was distributed away from the railroad tracks where it first grew. (65)

From contemporary writings mentioning the abundance of wildlife in southwest Louisiana, it can be assumed that the area was hunter’s paradise in its earlier history. Certain species still abound. The Meridional, an Abbeville newspaper, reported in 1886 that "deer and bear as well as turkeys and prairie chickens have been well nigh exterminated. But there are plenty of partridges, squirrels and hares. In winter geese and ducks by the million flock to the marshes. Great numbers of woodcock resort to this region in winter, and remain throughout the winter season; from twenty to forty brace may be bagged per day by a good gunner." Also mentioned were the "Wilson snipe and three or four other varieties of plovers and curlews and sandpipers" found in abundance. (66) Daniel Dennett, writer on Louisiana economic subjects in the 1870’s added wild hogs, otters, and muskrats to the list of fauna. (67)

The many streams and lakes in southwest Louisiana contain a variety of fish. Among them are the freshwater drum, called gaspergou by the natives; the sunfish, better known as the perch; the catfish; the buffalo; the bowfin, referred to locally as the Choupique; the trout; the crappie, or sacalait to the natives; white and yellow bass; and the gar. As to sea foods, one contemporary newspaper mentioned fish and oysters as being abundant along the seacoast and in the bays and saltwater bayous along with mullet, redfish, sheepshead, turtles, and crabs. (68)

The 5,459,040 acres of land in the southwest Louisiana area defined in this study include soils differing in physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics which determined their suitability for agricultural use. Soil scientists have categorized these differences into six General Soil Areas for the State. These areas are the Coastal Plain, the Loessial Hills and Mississippi Terraces, the Flatwoods, the Coastal Prairies, the Recent Alluvial, and the Coastal Marsh soils. The soil areas, in turn, are subdivided into sixteen groups of associated soil series (see accompanying map.) (69)

All six soils of the General Soil Areas and eight of the sixteen groups of associated soil series are to found in the region. Three of the General Soil Areas predominate. These are the Flatwoods, the Coastal Prairies, and the Coastal March. Almost all of Beauregard and Allen parishes are found within the Flatwoods area along with contiguous portions of Evangeline, Calcasieu, and Jefferson Davis. Soils of this area are medium to strongly acid and low in organic matter and mineral plant nutrients. Drainage is usually poor owing to the presence of silt pans or clay pans and relatively high water tables. A dense growth of longleaf pine forests characterized the area before it was denuded by the timber man’s ax beginning after the Civil War. Grazing of cattle and sheep has been carried on here since the earliest settlement.

Within the Coastal Prairies are almost all of Jefferson Davis and Acadia parishes, the lower two-thirds of Calcasieu, and small adjacent portions of Evangeline, Lafayette, and Vermilion. This soil area, found exclusively in southwest Louisiana, was, as will be seen later in this study, a marked characteristic of the region. The plains are broad and level to undulating, and were originally covered with tall prairie grasses that supported an immense cattle industry in the antebellum and postbellum periods. As elevations range from only three to forty feet, the underlying sediments are of clay and back swamp deposits from ancient channels and distributaries. Because of the differences in coloration and degrees of acidity and alkalinity, scientists have divided the area into four groups of associated soils. In addition to grazing, the Coastal Prairies developed into one of the largest rice-producing areas in the United States.

Almost all of Cameron and Vermilion parishes are within the Coastal Marsh Area. In this area are two associated groups of soil varying from dark clays which are slightly acid to alkaline, to brown fine sands or sandy loams containing shells and organic matter. These soil groups are found on the beach ridges or cheniers in the western part of the marsh area. Trapping, hunting, fishing and recreation have long engaged the interests of the inhabitants. The beach ridges or cheniers have for many years grown rice, sugar cane, and varieties of grasses which have been used to graze cattle since the Civil War.

The Mississippi Terrace and Loessial Hills and the Recent Alluvium areas are much smaller in southwest Louisiana than those already described, but they played a distinctive role in the period under study. Soils of the former area (omitting Loessial Hills not found in the region) exist principally in western Saint Landry, almost all of Lafayette, and the approximate eastern half of Evangeline. The four groups of associated soils vary from brown to grayish and yellowish-brown to gray soils, generally low in organic matter and plant nutrients, and are medium to strong acid. Grazing and forestry have long been the major uses to which this land area has been employed, but cotton, sweet potatoes, and sugar cane have also been grown.

The Recent Alluvium in southwest Louisiana embraces about three-fourths of Saint Landry and a very small portion of eastern Lafayette. The associated soil, containing moderate amounts of organic matter and well supplied with mineral plant nutrients, were developed from Mississippi River alluvium. The land has for many years yielded bountiful crops of sugar cane, corn, and rice.

A small portion in the upper part of Beauregard Parish is within the Coastal Plain Area. The groups of associated soils made up of grayish-brown sandy loams, are nearly level to gently sloping. Luxuriant longleaf pine forests at one time covered the soils of this area. This part of Beauregard Parish was long used to graze cattle and sheep.

From the end of the Civil War to 1900, southwest Louisiana possessed many advantages appealing to settlers. The diversity of surficial characteristics, watercourses, soils natural resources, with the added advantage of equable yearly climate and adequate rainfall made possible the development of agriculture, livestock raising, and industrial growth.

CHAPTER II

THE INHABITANTS

Sparse population, few and poor roads, primitive means of transportation and communication, isolation, and mostly a self-sufficient household economy, characterized life in southwest Louisiana in the year 1865. The Civil War had wrought havoc in the once populous and wealthy eastern fringe of the area including the parishes of Saint Landry, Lafayette, and Vermilion. In an official report to Governor Henry Watkins Allen in 1865 recounting the effects of the war in southwest Louisiana, it was claimed that General Nathaniel P. Banks had found the region a garden and left it a desert. (1) The burned-out remains of plows, harrows, cultivators, hoes, shovels, and the tools of artisans, along with wagons and other rolling stock could be seen on plantations visited by Federal troops. Machinery from destroyed corn, cotton, and sugar mills was thrown in neighboring bayous. (2) Thousands of bales of cotton, large quantities of sugar and molasses, and droves of horses, mules, and cattle were shipped to New Orleans, along with large numbers of frightened Negroes. (3) Money, never plentiful, was further reduced by the war, making necessary a barter system of exchange.

Before the war, most of the white people engaged in farming pursuits and owned small tracts of land. Census figures for 1860 showed a population of 42,359 in the four parishes then comprising southwest Louisiana with concentration in Saint Landry and Lafayette and scattered centers mainly along the Calcasieu River. (4) An occasional house could be seen on the almost uninhabited prairies where large herds of cattle and droves of horses grazed on the open range. Little is known of settlements made in the first half of the eighteenth century; but, from William Perrin’s account in his book Southwest Louisiana…., by the end of this century and the beginning of the nineteenth, the population included "French, Creoles, Acadians, Spaniards, Swiss, etc.," and "representatives from half the States of the Union." At first they came from the south Atlantic seaboard and Tennessee and Kentucky, and then, beginning in the 1880’s, "from Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, and other States of the Northwest." (5) The total population in 1900 was 154,024 - an increase of 263 per cent in forty years. (6)

Table I

POPULATION STATISTICS FROM THE UNITED STATES CENSUS, 1860-1900

CREATING CIVIL DIVISIONS

The vast province of French Louisiana in 1721, according to historian Alceé Fortier, was divided into nine districts or quarters. (7) Southwest Louisiana was included in the undefined district of New Orleans. (8) From this time to the beginning of Spanish occupation, few trappers, traders, and ranchmen were found scattered in the area that came to be known as the "Attakapas district," named after the Attakapas Indians, a tribe which once held possession of the area. (9) Within a decade following Spain’s occupation, grants were made in the district to the exiled Acadians, who took their families in the wilderness and founded homes. (10) Having no faith in colonizing companies, and believing that the new colony depended upon the development of agriculture and the raising of cattle on the prairies, the Spanish authority created two posts in southwest Louisiana: one in Opelousas, and the other on the present site of the town of Saint Martinville. The Poste des Opelousas was located near Bayou Courtableau, while Poste des Attakapas was on the Teche. (11) All civil and military authority in the two posts was vested in officials sent out from the governing center in New Orleans.

In 1769, Alejandro Don O’Reilly sent by the Spanish government to take charge of the province acquired from France, divided Louisiana into eleven districts, each under the supervision of commandants; (12) the two posts were included in the undefined area called the district of Opelousas. The districts, according to John Kyser who made a study of the origin of Louisiana parishes, are not to be confused with the same time. (13) Saint Martin was the ecclesiastical parish of the Attakapas region; Saint Landry was its counterpart in Opelousas. (14)

In 1803, the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory retroceded by Spain to France; in 1804, the American authority created two territories: the Territory of Orleans, embracing approximately the present area of Louisiana excluding the Florida parishes, and the District of Louisiana. (15) The legislature of the Territory of Orleans proceeded to divide the area into twelve counties - one of which was the County of Attakapas comprising the ecclesiastical parish of Saint Martin, and commonly called the parish of Attakapas; and the other, the County of Opelousas comprising the ecclesiastical parish of Saint Landry and called the parish of Opelousas. (16)

Domestic disturbances prompted Governor Claiborne to visit the area in 1805. While there he considered defenses against a possible Spanish attack from that quarter. (17)

Again, in 1807, the territorial legislature subdivided the region. Instead of the twelve counties created in 1805, there were now to be nineteen parishes. The ecclesiastical parish of Saint Landry and the County of Opelousas were hence forth to be known as the civil parish of Saint Landry, and the ecclesiastical parish of Saint Martin was now to be known as Attakapas parish. (18)

Several years later, in 1811, Attakapas Parish was subdivided into two parishes: Saint Martin and Saint Mary. (19) Saint Landry and Attakapas "were essentially the vast prairies of southwest Louisiana….including what were once the magnificent longleaf forests of modern Calcasieu, Beauregard and parts of Allen and Vernon parishes." (20) This area, for the most part, was uninhabited and little known except for the coastal section. (21) It was not until 1817 that the boundary between the areas of the Opelousas and Attakapas "countries" began to be settled. (22)

A little over a decade after Saint Martin and Saint Mary were created from Attakapas parishes, the former parish had Lafayette Parish carved from it. (23) "Imperial Saint Landry" lost her empire status when, it 1840, Calcasieu Parish was created. (24) Now larger than the mother parish, Calcasieu was in time dubbed "Imperial Calcasieu" until it lost that status in 1912, when the parishes of Allen, Beauregard, and Jefferson Davis were created from its area.

Lafayette Parish in its original extent lasted for only twenty-three years. Out of this area Vermilion Parish was created in 1844. (25) No more divisions were made in the parishes of southwest Louisiana until 1870. It was in this year, however, that the southern portion of Calcasieu Parish and the western portion of Vermilion Parish were combined to form the parish of Cameron. (26) A large portion of the new parish contained the sea marsh - a geographical characteristic of the area. The last parish to be created in southwest Louisiana within the compass of this study was Acadia, which was carved out of the southwestern portion of Saint Landry in 1886. (27)

THE ABORIGENSES (sic) (Aborigines?)

Apart from the names they gave to rivers, bayous, towns, land areas, and a parish, the Indians made no lasting contribution to the development of southwest Louisiana. This fact is amply confirmed by such writers as John Sibley. (28) John R. Swanton, (29) Lauren C. Post, (30) and the present authority on Louisiana Indians, Fred Kniffen. (31) Volume III of American State Papers, Public Lands (32) gives clues to their dwelling places in its scattered references to land transactions between the whites and the Indians. The unpublished Brand Book for the District of Opelousas and Attakapas, 1760-1888, in the Dupré Library, University of Southwestern Louisiana, which contains brands under Indian names, indicate that some of the Indians were cattle herders.

The first written account of the southwest Louisiana Indians were made by the French. Fragmentary references by French writers tell something of their number, culture, distribution, and nature. Contacts with the whites, according to Kniffen, brought "an acceleration of cultural changes to a rate without precedent during two thousand years." (33) The Indians of the area belonged to the Attakapas linguistic stock, "separated politically in four sovereign bands oriented to the four streams, and a fifth, the Opelousas, centered near the modern town that was named for them." (34) Culturally, the Attakapas had much more in common with the lowly tribes of the Texas coast than with the more advanced people to the north and east. (35)

The Attakapas and Opelousas were modest agriculturists. They grew crops of corn, beans, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, squashes, and tobacco; but they were more interested in food gathering, fishing, and hunting. (36) Occasionally, these people were hired at low wages to do menial tasks about the house and fields of a white settler, but in time they were replaced by Negroes and whites. (37) Frederick Law Olmsted observed Indian labor in the late 1850’s when he journeyed through the region:

Although the Attakapas seemed to be well fed, their standards fell far below those maintained by other Louisiana tribes. (39) Kniffen describes them as living in an "ethnological sink," for they "built no mounds and had no temples. They did not practice head deformation. They made little or no pottery. Clothing and housing appear to have met only minimum needs. Habitat and cultural deficiencies in supplying material requirements were in part satisfied through trading a surplus of dried and smoked fish, moss, feathers, and sharks’ teeth and other marine curios." (40) From the north, the Attakapas received through the middlemen Opelousas "flint, pottery, skins, and bow wood, and the latter the Osage orange bois d’ arc. Even the unaccomplished people to the west provided pottery in trade for fish." (41)

According to Swanton, in the year 1698, the total population of the Attakapas and their allies in southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas did not exceed 3,500. Of this number, 1,750 lived in Louisiana. In 1805 this total had been reduced to 175, and by 1908 to nine. (42)

The Coushatta, or more properly, Koasati, not related to the Louisiana tribes, were another group of Indians who migrated to Louisiana in the vicinity of Elton in about 1800. (43) They are dwellers of the inland woods, and as such gives the student little notion of how the southwest Louisiana marsh and prairie Indians labored and lived. (44) They, too, have played a very minor role in the economic development of the area.

THE FRENCH

The French settlers and their descendents have far out-numbered any of the other ethnic groups that made their homes in southwest Louisiana. One writer distinguished three separate categories: Acadian, Creole, and Cadet. The Acadians, the exiles from Nova Scotia along with their children born elsewhere, began to make their appearance in the region sometimes after 1765, while the Creoles were the offspring of Europeans born in the colonies. The Acadians were often referred to as Creoles. Then, there were the Cadets of aristocratic lineage who were refugees from the French Revolution and from the uprising in the West Indies in the late years of the eighteenth century. (45)

The process of settling the prairies was very slow. Already mentioned were the trappers, traders, and ranchmen who infiltrated the region a decade or two before the coming of the Acadians. (46) After 1765, the Acadians began to make their appearance in fairly large numbers. Few people in the annuals of American history experienced such tragedy and suffering as did these people. By the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, France lost her Canadian province of Acadia to the British, who renamed it, Nova Scotia. Fearing disloyalty from her new colonists in the event of renewed hostilities with France, the British harassed and persecuted these simple people and forbade them to leave the colony. (47) Finally, with the coming of the French and Indian War, the English demanded of their French subjects that they take the oath of allegiance to the British king. They refused. (48) In reprisal the Acadians were stripped of their worldly possessions, separated from their families, loaded aboard ships and dispersed along the Atlantic coastal colonies. From thence many found their way to Louisiana, a French possession recently ceded to Spain in 1762. (49) V. L. Hair, who made a study of the town of Crowley in Acadia Parish, has found documents that purport to show that some settlements were made in the area a few years earlier. (50) Francois-Xavier Martin, first historian to write a general history of Louisiana, gave 409 as the number of Acadians in Attakapas in 1769. It might be assumed that gradual penetration continued after that date. (51) Martin told of a later influx of the exiles between 1785 and 1788 and estimated the number after the three-year period at 3,500, distributed in Attakapas and Opelousas, as well as in the other areas of Louisiana. (52)

Natural increase was high. Lauren Post believes that the Acadians were the most fecund of the French groups and were of the greatest importance in the peopling of the prairies. (53) It is his belief, too, that "their natural increase from the fairly well unified group can scarcely be overestimated in its importance in the establishment of a homogenous culture of the Prairies." (54)

Appraising the character of the Acadians, J. D. B. DeBow, editor of the well-known DeBow’s Review, said: "They are honest in their dealings, friendly and hospitable to strangers; they preserve a social intercourse among their neighbors of their contracts. They are, however, oppressive to their slaves, and this forms the only bad trait in their general character." (55) Sergeant S. Prentiss, famous Mississippi orator and statesman who visited the prairie region before the Civil War, had a somewhat different opinion of the Acadians. They were "the poorest, most ignorant, set of being you ever saw," said Prentiss. "They raise only a little corn and a few sweet potatoes merely sufficient to support life; yet they seem perfectly contented and happy, and have balls every day."(56)

Daniel Dennett, who had a firsthand acquaintance with the Acadians, wrote in the 1870’s that, although lands had been allocated to these people by the Spanish authority, "many of them (were) mere squatters on the prairies between the Vermilion river and the Sabine. Their houses, often half formed and half built of mud, are located sometimes on the open prairie, sometime in the skirts of a belt of timber, and often without even a yard or garden enclosed. A neighboring marais will be surrounded by a rude ‘pieux’ fence, and a small crop of rice raised. Their horses and cattle run at all times on the common prairie." (57) Dennett noted, too, that "with thousands of cows roaming on the prairies, you seldom see butter or milk in their houses. With the means around them of living well, they fare no better than the people who live on poor lands. Their educational advantages are poor, but they all learn to ride and use a shotgun expertly as soon as they learn to walk." (58) Olmsted, who accepted lodging and hospitality with Acadian families during his trip through southwest Louisiana, found their fields well cultivated and showing "the best corn we had seen east of the Brazos." Negro laborers - both men and women - worked for fifty cents a day. (59) He found the house interiors almost devoid of furniture, some with rooms of board floors, while others on bare earth. "The mud-walls had no other relief than the mantel, on which stood a Connecticut clock, two small mirrors, three or four cheap cups and saucers, and a paste brooch in the form of a cross, pinned upon paper, as in a jeweler’s shop." From the deer skin covered chairs "sprang an atrocious number of fresh fleas." (60)

Olmsted observed that the exterior of the house had low walls made of timber and mud with a high roof "sloping from a short ridge in all directions." The chimney was made of sticks and mud. The house was "divided into one long living-room, having a kitchen at one end and a bed room at the other." (61) This type of house, Olmsted concluded, "has grown to be common along our road." (62)

Within five miles from Opelousas, the Yankee visitor found "plantations on an extensive scale, upon better soil," where large groups of Negroes were hoeing cotton. (63) This was not typical of the region, however. These lands were owned by the more intelligent upper class Acadians. The lower class, Olmsted observed, "lived much from hand to mouth, and are often in extreme destitution." (64) Most of this class lived on rivers, as "those who resided on the prairies were seldom so much reduced." The land along the rivers where the back swamp is adjacent was of little value and produced a meager subsistence. (65) The upper class usually eschewed these areas and moved to the more productive soils.

Where the people lived in close proximity and in fairly large number, community cha