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சார் புக்குள்நியுசி மகன்
الماء
மன அஞ்சலிப்ரீரம் இதன்யர் .
مطلبـ مـ
சக்ரமேோம்
.
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கபடம் நிறைந்தரானதிருவரைஸ்ப்பே ட்டி த ஞ்சம் புங்கற் சியை பக்கத்தில்
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
https://archive.org/details/standardhistoryo00righ_0
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CRMilliken
STANDARD HISTORY
OF
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA
GIVING A DESCRIPTION OF THE NATURAL ADVANTAGES, NATURAL HISTORY IN REGARD TO THE FLORA AND BIRDS, SETTLEMENT, INDIANS, CREOLES, MUNICIPAL AND MILITARY HISTORY, MERCANTILE AND COMMERCIAL INTERESTS, BANKING, TRANSPORTATION, STRUGGLES AGAINST HIGH WATER, THE PRESS, EDUCATIONAL, LITERATURE AND ART, THE CHURCHES, OLD BURYING GROUNDS, BENCH AND BAR, MEDICAL, PUBLIC AND CHARIT- ABLE INSTITUTIONS, THE CARNIVAL, AMUSEMENTS, CLUBS, SOCIETIES, ASSOCIATIONS, ETC
EDITED BY
HENRY RIGHTOR
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO
1900
COPYRIGHT, 1900 BY THE LEWIS PUBLISHING CO. 'CHICAGO 7
1142796
PREFACE.
I T is the aim of the present volume to supply a work which shall deal with the history of New Orleans not alone in its broadest sense of civic development, but as well in respect of those some- what more intimate and, in a sense, personal details which, though not properly a part of the history of the municipality, possess an ever-widening bearing upon that history and entitle them to the per- petuity of print. If there be deficiencies in the volume, they are to be attributed to this very ambition, for the minutiae referred to is endless, and it is inevitable that the proper estimate should not always have been placed upon the multiplicity of detail confronting the writ- ers. The book will, nevertheless, contribute its mite, and if it enrich the history-literature of the State only to the extent of providing an accurate and reliable volume with sources of information accessible by means of a carefully prepared index, the labor expended upon it shall not have been lost. It is hoped that what the value may lack in uniformity and symmetry, by reason of the number of writers engaged upon it, with the resultant diversity of views, may be compensated by the earnestness which has inspired the composition of the various chapters. Original records have been consulted wherever accessible and every writer has given a personal attention to the revision of proof-sheets. The chapters upon sugar and rice have been added because these industries have been of exceptional importance in the city's commercial history.
The writers and the editor are indebted, for invaluable assistance and advice in directing to sources of information, to Mr. William Beer, Librarian of the Howard and of the Fisk Frce and Public Libraries.
THE EDITOR.
iii
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. Page
COLONIAL TIMES
7
CHAPTER II.
THE INDIANS OF LOUISIANA 39
CHAPTER III.
ADVANTAGES OF NEW ORLEANS.
CHAPTER IV.
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.
78
CHAPTER V.
MILITARY
129
CHAPTER VI.
FIGHT AGAINST HIGH WATER.
171
CHAPTER VII.
THE CREOLES
184
CHAPTER VIII.
THE MEDICAL HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS
203
CHAPTER IX.
HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NEW ORLEANS
226
CHAPTER X.
OLD BURIAL PLACES
256
CHAPTER XI.
THE PRESS
267
CHAPTER XII.
TRANSPORTATION
286
CHAPTER XIII.
SECRET ORDERS
315-
vi
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIV. Page 325
THE NATURE OF BIRD LIFE AT NEW ORLEANS.
CHAPTER XV.
LITERATURE AND ART
361
FLORA OF LOUISIANA.
CHAPTER XVI.
389
CHAPTER XVII.
THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW ORLEANS. 394
CHAPTER XVIII.
PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND CHARITIES.
417
CHAPTER XIX.
THE AMUSEMENTS OF NEW ORLEANS.
463
CHAPTER XX.
THE CHURCHES
480
CHAPTER XXI.
MANUFACTURES
511
CHAPTER XXII.
COMMERCIAL AND MERCANTILE INTERESTS. 538
CHAPTER XXIII.
BANKING AND FINANCE.
578
CHAPTER XXIV.
CLUBS AND KINDRED ORGANIZATIONS.
606
CHAPTER XXV.
THE CARNIVAL
629
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE SUGAR INDUSTRY .
646
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
CHAPTER I.
COLONIAL TIMES.
THE FRENCH AND SPANISH DOMINATIONS. BY ALCEE FORTIER, D. LIT., PRO- FESSOR OF ROMANCE LANGUAGES IN TULANE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA,
PRESIDENT OF THE LOUISIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
I .- EXPLORATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS.
LA SALLE, IBERVILLE, AND BIENVILLE.
T HE history of Louisiana begins in reality with the expedition of Robert Cavelier de La Salle down the Mississippi River in 1682. That heroic man was born at Rouen in Normandy, and formed the project of explor- ing to its mouth the great river discovered by Hernando de Soto in 1541, and rediscovered in 1673 by Father Marquette and Louis Joliet. La Salle went to Canada, saw Governor Frontenac, obtained his approval of his plans, and re- turned to France, where he secured privileges from King Louis XIV. He arrived at Quebec in 1678, and immediately made preparations for his under- taking. Henri de Tonty, the chivalric Italian, was La Salle's most trusted companion and the principal historian of the expedition.
Before 1682, La Salle had been unsuccessful in his efforts to reach the Mississippi, but had displayed wonderful constancy and courage. On February 6, 1682, he entered the mighty stream from the Illinois River, and on April 9, he reached the Gulf by three passes into which the river divided itself. La Salle erected on the shore a cross, and a column on which were inscribed the name and the coat of arms of the King. He named the country Louisiana, in honor of the French monarch, and took possession of the vast territory watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries, in the name of Louis XIV.
8
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
La Salle returned to Canada, and from there went to France, where he was well received by the King, who gave him the means to undertake the coloni- zation of Louisiana. He started from La Rochelle, on July 4, 1684, with a small fleet of four vessels, commanded by Beaujeu and containing 250 persons, besides the officers and the crew. After having stopped for a time at San Domingo the fleet, reduced to three vessels, arrived at a large river emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. It was thought to be the Mississippi, and Beaujeu returned to France leaving to La Salle the brig La Belle. The explorer built a fort, which he called St. Louis, on the bay of St. Bernard or Matagorda, and his brig having been wrecked in a storm, he resolved to return by land to Canada, in order to obtain help for his colony. He was accompanied by his brother, his nephew, and a few companions, among whom was Joutel, who has related the expedition. In 1687 the heroic La Salle was murdered by some of his own men, and the colony established in Texas was destroyed by the Indians.
After the failure of La Salle's expedition, France was not, for several years, in a condition to make another attempt to colonize Louisiana. By the Revolu- tion of 1688 James II. was expelled from England, and Louis XIV. undertook to replace on his throne the Stuart monarch. There was a war which lasted for nearly ten years, and which ended in 1697, by the treaty of Ryswick. Then arose a favorable opportunity for plans of colonization, and the man who knew how to take advantage of the occasion was Iberville, a Canadian sailor who had greatly distinguished himself in the wars against the English. He offered to form a settlement in Louisiana, and the plan was favorably received by the King and his minister, Pontchartrain. Iberville started from Brest on October 24, 1698, with two frigates and two freight ships, and at San Domingo was joined by the Marquis de Chateaumorant in command of a war vessel. On January 25 the fleet anchored before the island of St. Rosa, but the Spanish governor of Pensacola did not allow the French to enter the harbor. They set sail again and cast anchor before the Chandeleur Islands. Iberville landed on Ship Island, built some huts there and went with his brother Bienville to explore the coast of what is now Biloxi and Ocean Springs. He found the country beautiful and was well received by the Indians, and built, a little later, a fort on the eastern shore of the Bay of Biloxi.
Before building his fort, however, Iberville had started, on February 27, with his brother Bienville, to look for the mouth of the Mississippi, and had succeeded in discovering the hidden river on March 2, 1699. The two brothers
9
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
went up the Mississippi, as far as the country of the Houmas, near the mouth of Red River, and had no doubt about their being on La Salle's river, when they found, among the Bayougoulas, a letter from Tonty, who had gone down the Mississippi in search of La Salle, at the time of the last expedition of the great explorer. At the place where is now the town of Baton Rouge, Iberville saw a tall may-pole on which the Indians had hung offerings of fish and game, and he called the place Baton Rouge. Near by was a small river or bayou named Manchac, and Iberville entered it and reached again his fleet at Ship Island, after having passed through two lakes and a bay, which he called, respectively, Maurepas, Pontchartrain, and St. Louis. Bienville returned by way of the Mississippi.
Iberville sailed for France in May, 1699, after having sown the seed from which Louisiana was to grow. He gave the command of the colony to Sauvole, a brave and capable young French officer, who has left an interesting account of the difficulties attending the establishment of the colony. The coast on the Mississippi Sound is beautiful, with its white sand and magnificent trees: oaks, magnolias, and pines, but the land is not fertile. The colonists, besides, for several years, paid little attention to tilling the ground and counted for sub- sistence on the provisions sent from France.
Iberville did not abandon his infant colony, but returned to it in the begin- ning of 1700. He again went up the Mississippi with Bienville, and with Tonty, who had come from Canada to meet the French. Iberville went as far as the Natchez country and ordered a fort which he called Rosalie to be built there. He built also a fort fifty-four miles from the mouth of the river and called it Maurepas. He gave the command of it to Bienville, who stayed there until the death of Sauvole in August, 1701, when he became governor of Louis- ana at the early age of twenty-two.
Iberville returned once more to Louisiana at the end of 1701, and remained until March, 1702. He had the seat of the colony transferred to fort St. Louis de la Mobile. Iberville, the father of Louisiana, died in 1706 at Havana, whither he had gone to prepare an expedition against the English in the Caro- linas. His death was a great blow to the colony, which was left with very little support from France. Bienville was obliged several times to scatter some of his men among the Indians, who treated them kindly. Penicaut, the carpenter, has given a charming description of his stay among the Natchitoches. He tells us how he tried to teach French to two Indian maidens, and how one of his
STANDARD IIISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
companions, a violinist, taught the young people to dance the stately minuet of the court of Versailles.
In spite of Bienville's efforts to make the colony prosper, he was superseded in 1708, and a new governor, de Muys, was sent to Louisiana. The latter died on the way, and the new commissary general, Diron d'Artaguette, sent such a favorable report to the French government about Bienville that the young governor was kept at the head of the colony, which he had governed ad interim, after the death of de Muys.
France had been brought to great distress by the war of the Spanish suc- cession undertaken by Louis XIV. to place his grandson, the Duke of Anjou, on the throne of Spain, which had been bequeathed to the latter by Charles II. Marlborough and Prince Eugene had defeated the armies of the French in several great battles, and the country was saved from a shameful peace only by the battle of Denain, won by Villars in 1712. It was no easy matter to maintain colonies when the kingdom was in danger, therefore, in 1712, Louis XIV. was glad to transfer Louisiana to a wealthy banker named Crozat, for a period of fifteen years. The colony, at that time, contained a population of about 380 persons, scattered, says Gayarre, over an immense territory and protected by five forts : at Mobile, at Biloxi, on the Mississippi, at Ship Island, and Dauphine or Massacre Island, near Mobile.
In 1710 Lamothe Cadillac had been named governor. He was the founder of Detroit and had given proof of ability and courage, but in his new position he failed completely. He seemed to have lacked .tact in his dealings with the Indians, and the first Natchez war broke out in 1716. The Natchez were an intelligent race and had strange customs. They adored the sun and kept a fire burning perpetually in their temple. Their chief was called the Great Sun, and the succession was in the female line. In 1716 the Natchez rose against the French, and Bienville, who was second in command in the colony, was sent against them. As he had only a few men with him, he resorted to a stratagem which we could hardly approve at present and made the Indian chiefs fall into a snare. He put two of them to death and made terms with the others. He also built Fort Rosalie, of which the site had been chosen by Iberville.
In 1716 Lamothe Cadillac was recalled, and de l'Epinay named governor. In 1717, however, Crozat gave up his charter. He believed that he would have a prosperous trade with the Spaniards in Mexico, but had failed in this and had been restricted to an unprofitable trade with the Indians. The council of
II
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
marine decided to maintain the colony and declared: "That it is too con- siderable an enterprise to be confided to a single individual; that it does not suit the King to take charge of it himself, inasmuch as His Majesty cannot enter into all the details of commerce, which are inseparable from it; therefore, the best to be done is to choose a company strong enough to support this enterprise."
Louisiana was transferred, with a population of about 700 souls, to the Company of the West or of the Indies. The latter was to have almost absolute control over the colony for twenty-five years, enjoying a monopoly of trade, naming the governor and other officers, except the members of the Superior Council. The company obligated itself to send to Louisiana six thousand whites and three thousand blacks. 'The famous John Law, director general of the bank of France, was the president of the company.
At the end of Crozat's regime, Saint-Denis had laid the foundation of the town of Natchitoches and had gone to Mexico, where he had had a number of romantic adventures, and had married a beautiful Mexican girl.
. II .- THE BEGINNINGS OF NEW ORLEANS.
THE WESTERN COMPANY AND THE NATCHEZ WAR. ..
As soon as the organization of the Western Company was completed three ships were sent to Louisiana. They carried soldiers and sixty-nine colonists, and as Gayarré says, "caused the hope of better days to revive in the colony." Bien- ville was appointed governor for the second time, and in 1718 rendered to Louisiana the greatest service possible by laying the foundation of the present city of New Orleans.
The following extract from Father Charlevoix's Historical Journal is in- teresting, as it is probably the first letter written from New Orleans that has come down to us. It is addressed to the Duchess of Lesdiguières, and is taken from the "Historical Collections" of B. F. French.
" NEW ORLEANS, January 10, 1722.
" I am at length arrived in this famous city, which they have called la Nouvelle-Orleans. Those who have given it this name, thought that Orléans was of the feminine gender; but what signifies that ? Custom has established it, and that is above the rules of grammar.
" This city is the first, which one of the greatest rivers in the world has seen raised on its banks. If the eight hundred fine houses and the five parishes, which the newspapers gave it some two years ago, are reduced at present to a
12
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
hundred barracks, placed in no very great order; to a great storehouse, built of wood ; to two or three houses, which would be no ornament to a village of France; and to the half of a sorry storehouse, which they agreed to lend to the lord of the place, and which he had no sooner taken possession of, but they turned him out to dwell under a tent ; what pleasure, on the other side, to see insensibly in- creasing this future capital of a fine and vast country, and to be able to say, not with a sigh, like the hero of Virgil, speaking of his dear native place consumed by the flames, and the fields where the city of Troy had been, but full of a well- grounded hope, this wild and desert place, which the reeds and trees do yet al- most wholly cover, will be one day, and perhaps that day is not far off, an opulent city, and the metropolis of a great and rich colony.
" You will ask me, madam, on what I found this hope ? I found it on the situation of this city, at thirty-three leagues from the sea, and on the side of a navigable river, that one may come up to this place in twenty-four hours; on the fruitfulness of the soil; on the mildness and goodness of its climate, in 30° north latitude; on the industry of its inhabitants; on the neighborhood of Mexico, to which we may go in fifteen days by sea; on that of the Havana, which is still nearer ; and of the English colonies. Need there anything more to render a city flourishing ? Rome and Paris had not such considerable be- ginnings, were not built under such happy auspices, and their founders did not find on the Seine and the Tiber the advantages which we have found on the Mississippi, in comparison of which those two rivers are but little brooks."
Although New Orleans, in 1722, was composed only of "a hundred barracks," and about 200 inhabitants, Bienville wisely foresaw its great future and tried, as early as 1719, to have the seat of government transferred to the town on the Mississippi. The Superior Council, however, did not share the views of the governor, and decided to transfer the seat of government from Mobile, near Dauphine Island, to Biloxi, which, having been burned by accident, was aban- doned for New Biloxi, on the other side of the Bay.
In 1722 the news reached Louisiana of the failure of Law's bank, due to an exaggerated emission of paper money based on no tangible security. The colonists feared that Law's failure would interfere with the affairs of the Western Company and induce it to neglect Louisiana. Such was not the case, for there soon arrived in the colony three commissioners charged with the ad- ministration of the affairs of the company. The commissioners, in 1723, allowed Bienville to make New Orleans the capital of Louisiana. On January 25, 1723, Pauger, the engineer, made an important report concerning the mouth of the river, saying that "he found that ships drawing fourteen, fifteen feet of water, and even more, could pass there easily."
13
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
Owing to the failure of Law's bank the financial affairs of the colony were in a wretched condition. The paper money was almost worthless and was or- dered to be exchanged for cards, which were soon as worthless. Another result of Law's failure was the establishment on the Mississippi River, at a short dis- tance from New Orleans, of about four hundred Germans, who had been sent to the Arkansas country, but had been compelled to go to New Orleans. From these settlers came the name of German Coast.
On February 16, 1724, Bienville was ordered to return to France to ren- der an account of his conduct. From the foundation of the colony there had existed serious dissensions between the superior officers in command, and Bien- ville's enemies were once more successful, as they had been in 1708, in their intrigues against him. During his second administration Bienville had taken Pensacola in 1719 (returned to Spain in 1723), had undertaken a war against the Natchez and had defeated them, had issued the Black Code, and had entered into negotiations by which the Ursuline nuns were to come to Louisiana to in- struct the girls in the colony.
I take the liberty to quote here from my "Louisiana Studies" the following extracts referring to education in colonial times in Louisiana : " The hundred huts mentioned by Father Charlevoix soon became spacious man- sions, which, although rough looking and unwieldy, contained in their poorly furnished rooms and wide halls elegant gentlemen and ladies and charming children. The parents had been educated in France. Where were the little ones to be instructed ? The wealthy inhabitants sent their sons to the colleges of the mother country, but could girls be separated from their mothers, and what was to be done with the sons of the poor? A worthy Capuchin monk, Father Cecil, opened a school for boys near his church, and was the first teacher in Louisiana. As for the teachers for girls, Bienville thought of the soeurs grises of his native Canada; but having failed in that direction, he consulted Father Beaubois, superior of the few Jesuits at that time in Louisiana, and was advised by him to procure the services of the Ursuline nuns. A treaty was signed on September 13, 1726, between the nuns and the company of the Indies, and Bien- ville, although he was no longer governor when the Ursulines arrived in Louisi- ana, is entitled to the honor of being the founder of the first girls' school and of the first hospital in the colony." The hospital was also to be under the charge of the Ursulines.
The nuns, twelve in number, left Lorient, on February 22, 1727, and
1
14
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
reached New Orleans on August 7, 1727. Their superior was Mother Tranche pain, and among the sisters was the talented Madeleine Hachard, to whom we owe a charming description of the journey of the nuns, and of New Orleans in 1727.
Governor Périer, Bienville's successor, went to meet the nuns on their arrival, and they were given as a residence Bienville's house, where they stayed until 1734. They moved then to their convent on Conde street, later Chartres street, now the palace of the archbishop of New Orleans.
The plan of the new town had been made by chief engineer de la Tour, about whom Dumont says in his Memoir (B. F. French, "Historical Memoirs") :
" The Sieur de la Tour was no sooner arrived at the place, then consisting only of some unimportant houses, scattered here and there, formed by voyageurs who had come down from Illinois, than he cleared a pretty long and wide strip along the river, to put in execution the plan he had projected. Then, with the help of some piqucurs, he traced on the ground the streets and quarters which were to form the new town, and notified all who wished building sites to present their petitions to the council. To each settler who appeared they gave a plot ten fathoms front by twenty deep, and as each square was fifty fathoms front, it gave twelve plots in each, the two middle ones being ten front by twenty-five decp. It was ordained that those who obtained these plots should be bound to enclose them with palisades, and leave all around a strip at least three feet wide, at the foot of which a ditch was to be dug, to serve as a drain for the river water in time of inundation. The Sieur de la Tour deemed these canals, communicat- ing from square to square, not only absolutely necessary, but even, to preserve the city from inundation, raised in front, near a slight elevation, running to the river, a dike or levée of earth, at the foot of which he dug a similar drain."
Governor Périer arrived in New Orleans in 1725. During his administra- tion a great war with the Indians took place. The Chickasaws had never been very friendly to the French, and the Natchez seemed restless. Bienville had asked for more troops, and Périer repeated the request when he became governor, but without success. The Indians were led to attack the French by the greed and injustice of the commandant at Fort Rosalie, Chepart. This vile man ordered the Natchez to abandon one of their finest villages, the White Apple, in order that he might establish a plantation there. The Indian chief succeeded in obtaining, or rather in buying, a delay from him, but the Natchez, henceforth,
15
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
thought that their safety lay in destroying the French at Fort Rosalie. On November 28, 1729, the savages surprised the fort, massacred 200 men and took prisoners a number of women, children, and negro slaves.
On hearing of this disaster Perier made active preparations to attack the Natchez. Lesueur induced the Choctaws to ally themselves with the French, and Périer sent Major Loubois with the main body of troops to co-operate with Lesueur. The savage auxiliaries of the latter, however, refused to wait for Loubois's detachment, and attacking the Natchez by surprise, killed a number of them and recovered 51 French women and children, two men, and one hun- dred and six slaves. The Choctaws then dispersed.
The Natchez intrenched themselves strongly and resisted for some time successfully the attacks of Loubois. Finally they offered to surrender their prisoners, more than two hundred in number, provided the siege were aban- doned. These terms were accepted, but the Indians, not trusting the French, managed to escape, leaving their prisoners behind. Some of the Natchez sought refuge among the Chickasaws, while the greater part, led by the Great Sun, retired upon a mound on the Black River.
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