Louisiana; comprising sketches of counties, towns, events, institutions, and persons, Volume I, Part 62

Author: Fortier, Alcee, 1856-1914, ed. 1n
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Atlanta, Southern Historical Association
Number of Pages: 1294


USA > Louisiana > Louisiana; comprising sketches of counties, towns, events, institutions, and persons, Volume I > Part 62


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Red river and its tributary streams water the entire western part of the parish; Little river the eastern portion, the Big Iatt and other small streams the central and southern portions. The forma- tion of Graut is alluvial Red river bottoms, rolling prairie and long leaf pine hills. Originally all these hills were covered with a heavy growth of pine, oak, gum, cottonwood, willow, elm, etc., and though thousands of feet of lumber have been cut, great areas of pine still remain to yield their wealth to the lumberman. Since 1900 many families from the north and east, and a colony of thrifty Germans and Italians have bought land in the parish and started truck farms, the products of which are shipped to Alexandria, Shreveport, New Orleans and northern cities. Cotton still remains the principal crop, though many of the great plantations have been cut up into farms where corn, hay, oats and peas are raised. Fruits adapted to this region do remarkably well, but are not cultivated to any extent as a commercial enterprise. The central prairie and rolling uplands furnish excellent pasturage, and for the past 25 years stock raising has been an important industry. Small de- posits of gold and silver have been found in the parish. There are beds of green sand, marl, quarries of marble and limestone, de- posits of kaolin, iron and gypsum, all of which will be a source of wealth when opened. Shipping and transportation facilities are excellent, furnished by boats on the Red river, the Louisiana Rail- way & Navigation company, whose line traverses the western part of the parish, the Louisiana & Arkansas R. R., which runs north and south through the center of the parish, and the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern R. R., in the eastern and northern parts of the parish. A direct outlet is thus furnished for the products of the parish to St. Louis and New Orleans. The following sta- tistics are taken from the U. S. census for 1900: number of farms, 1,397 ; acreage, 123,336; acres improved, 41,867 ; value of land and improvements exclusive of farm buildings, $560.570; value of farm buildings, $235,010; value of live stock, $262,128; total value of all products not fed to live stock, $559.644; number of manufactories, 32; capital invested. $890,926; wages paid, $192,289: cost of ma- terials used, $467,202: total value of products, $853,607. The popu- lation for 1900 was 9,237 whites, 3,665 colored. a total of 12,902. an increase over the year 1890 of 4,632. The estimated population for 1908 was over 16,000.


Grappes Bluff, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Natchi- toches parish, is situated on the Red river and the line of the Lou- isiana Railway & Navigation company, about 12 miles northwest ' of Natchitoches. the parish seat. It is one of the oldest settle- ments in the parish, having been settled early in the 18th century, when it was one of the important river towns. Today it has a


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population of less than 50 inhabitants. It has an express office. tele- . graph station and telephone facilities, and is the shipping and sup- ply point for a large section of the river valley.


Grasses .- (See l'orage Crops. )


Gray, a post-hamlet of Terrebonne parish, is situated near the northern boundary on Bayou du Chien, about 2 miles east of Re- becca, the nearest railroad station, and 8 miles northwest of Houma, the parish seat. In 1900 it had a population of 40.


Gray, Henry, soldier, entered the service of his state at the out- break of the Civil war. During the first months of his service he had no opportunity of distinction, the sphere of his action being confined to his own state. Louisiana. In May, 1862, he was com- missioned colonel of the 28th La. and took an active part in de- fending the state against the Federal troops in 1863. He took part in the battle at Camp Bisland, and Gen. Richard Taylor, in his report of the battle commented as follows: "Col. Gray and his regiment, officers and men, deserve most favorable mention." In one of the numerous battles on the Teche, Col. Gray received a bad wound but recovered in time to command a brigade during the Red River campaign, and so gallant was his conduct that the commission of brigadier-general was conferred on him, dated from the battle of Mansfield, April 8, 1864. After the close of the war he resided in Louisiana until his death, Dec. 13, 1892.


Grayson, a village and station in the central part of Caldwell parish, is about 4 miles south of Columbia, the parish seat, on the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern R. R. It has a money order postoffice, express office, telegraph station and is the shipping point for a large lumber distriet.


Green, Thomas, soldier, was born in Amelia county, Va., June 8, 1814. His father, Nathan Green, was a distinguished jurist in Tennessee and the president of Lebanon law college. When 21 years of age Thomas left his home in Tennessee and went west. He joined the revolutionary army in Texas and took part in his first fight at San Jacinto in April, 1836. When the army was disbanded a year later. he settled in LaGrange, became a surveyor, and from 1839 to 1840 was in various skirmishes against the Indians. In 1842 he took part in the invasion of Mexico. Four years later, when the Mexican war begun, he was in command of a company that assisted in the relief of Gen. Taylor on the Rio Grande, after which he took part in the battle of Monterey and served under Maj. Hays until the close of the war. With the exception of brief in- tervals he was clerk of the supreme court of Texas from 1841 to 1861. When the Civil war broke out he entered the service of the Confederacy as colonel of three regiments raised in Arizona and New Mexico. He won distinction in the battles of Val Verde, Glorieta, Los Cruces and the recapture of Galveston in 1863. He was transferred to Louisiana, where he served first as brigadier, but was soon raised to the rank of major-general. He took part in the battles of Bisland, Bayou Bourbeau, Berwick, Bayou Boeuf, Fort Butler, Bayou Lafourche, Fordoche, and other actions along


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the Teche. He was active in the Red River campaign and was wounded in the action of Blair's Landing on April 12, 1864, by a discharge of grape shot from a gunboat, and died two days later.


Greene, a post-hamlet in the southeastern part of Jackson parish, is near the eastern boundary about 8 miles southeast of Womack, the nearest railroad station.


Greensburg, the seat of government of St. Helena parish, is lo- cated in the eastern part of the parish on a short line of railroad called the Greensburg & Southwestern, which road connects with the Illinois Central at Kentwood. When the parish of St. Helena was organized in 1813 a committee was appointed by the police jury to locate the parish seat. The site of Greensburg was selected, and the first public buildings were a frame courthouse and a log jail. A new courthouse was erected in 1855. In 1877 the Nor- villa collegiate institute was opened, and it wielded a good influence toward the establishment of the present public school system. Several religious denominations are represented by churches, so that the moral and intellectual tone of Greensburg is maintained on a high plane. Before the advent of the railroad the town had tri-weekly mails from Clinton and daily mails from Tangipahoa. The town now has a money order postoffice, a bank, two large saw mills, a newspaper, several good general stores, etc. The popula- tion in 1900 was 315, and the estimated population in 1908 was 400.


Greenwood, an incorporated town in the southwestern part of Caddo parish, is about 4 miles east of the Texas boundary, at the junction of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas and the Texas & Pacific railroads, and 12 miles southwest of Shreveport, the parish seat. It is located in the western timber district, has saw mills, etc., is , a good business town, with a money order postoffice, express offices, telegraph station and telephone facilities, and in 1900 had a popula- tion of 300.


Gretna, the parish seat of Jefferson parish, was laid out by the St. Mary Market & Ferry company in 1839, and was made the seat of justice in 1884. It is today practically a suburb of New Orleans, with an estimated population of 4,000. It has important manufactures in cotton seed oil, cooperage, brick. moss, lumber, etc., and a number of first-class mercantile establishments. Be- ing located in the extreme northern part of the parish on the Mis- sissippi river, the Southern Pacific, the Texas and Pacific, and the New Orleans, Fort Jackson & Grande Isle railroads, it is an im- portant shipping point. The Catholic is the leading church. though several of the Protestant denominations are represented, and the public school system will compare favorably with other towns of its size in the state.


Griffin, a post-village in the southeastern part of Madison parish, is on the Mississippi river, about 10 miles below the city of Vicks- burg, Miss., and some 15 miles southeast of Tallulah, the parish seat. Although the population in 1900 was only 35, it is an im- portant trading and shipping point for that section of the parish.


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South Vicksburg, just across the river, is the nearest railroad station.


. Grigsby, a post-hamlet in the eastern part of Bienville parish, is situated on a confluent of the Dugdemona river, about 6 miles west of Ansley, the nearest railroad station, and 12 miles southeast of Arcadia, the parish seat.


Grijalva, Juan de, explorer and adventurer, was a native of Cuel- lar, Spain. In 1518 he made a voyage of discovery, landing first at the island of Cozumel (to which he gave the name of Santa Cruz) in the Bay of Yucatan. He then discovered and explored the coast of Mexico, giving to the region the name of New Spain, and carried back with him evidences of the mineral wealth of that country. Although he never touched the coast of the present State of Louisiana, an account of his discoveries reached Jamaica and in- fluenced Gov. de Garay to send out the expedition under Pineda. (See Garay, Francisco de,).


Grosse Tete, a village in the northeastern part of Iberville parish, is situated on the bayou of the same name and at the junction of the Southern Pacific and the Texas & Pacific railways, about 12 miles northwest of Plaquemine, the parish seat. It was first settled in the early 30's, when the American pioneers began to extend the settlements back from the Mississippi river. The first Masonic lodge in Iberville parishi was established here in 1851. It has a money order postoffice. express and telegraph offices, and is con- nected by telephone with the surrounding towns.


Grove, a post-village in the central part of Webster parish, is about 4 miles southeast of Hortman, the nearest railroad station, and 10 miles north of Minden, the parish seat.


Grymes, John Randolph, lawyer and legislator, was born in Orange county, Va., in 1786. He studied law in his native state, where he was admitted to the bar, and in 1808 removed to the Territory of Orleans. He was appointed district attorney and in that capacity was connected with the famous batture case. Sparks says he established the city's title to the batture, and that when it was divided into lots and sold at auction the money was paid to Grymes, who retained $100,000 as his fee. This caused some adverse comment upon his character. but not enough to blight his good name as a citizen or injure his standing as a lawyer. When the British attempted the capture of New Orleans in 1814-15, Mr. Grymes acted as aide to Gen. Jackson, writing many of his orders and proclamations, and was sent by Jackson to Gen. Morgan with the order to place men behind the levee. The order was not carried out, and Morgan was forced to abandon his position. He was after ward Jackson's council in the United States bank case, and was opposed to Daniel Webster in the case of Myra Clark Gaines against the city of New Orleans. On Feb. 3, 1835, Mr. Grymes, then a member of the lower branch of the Louisiana legislature, made an attack on Alcée La Branche, the speaker of the house, and during his term in the legislature he fought two duels, in one of which he was severely wounded. In the campaign of 1840 he


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was one of the leading Democratic stump-speakers in Louisiana, his reputation as an orator extending beyond the limits of the state. In 1845 he was a delegate to the constitutional convention, and afterward attorney-general and U. S. district attorney. Ile died in New Orleans, Dec. 4, 1854.


Gueydan, an incorporated town in the northwestern part of Vermilion parish, is a station on the Southern Pacific R. R., about 25 miles west of Abbeville, the parish seat. It is located in the great rice district, has rice mills, a bank, a money order postoffice, express office. telegraph station and telephone facilities, and in 1900 had a population of 376. It is the shipping and supply point for all the western and northwestern part of the parish.


Guichard, Magloire, a resident of New Orleans and a descendant of an old French family, was prominent in the affairs of Louisiana about the time the province was purchased by the United States and for several years following. He was a delegate to the first con- stitutional convention in 1811, and was speaker of the house of representatives in the state legislature in 1814-15 when the doors of the assembly halls were closed by order of Gen. Jackson. On that occasion Mr. Guichard met Bernard de Marigny, to whom he said: "We are accused of treason, for the doors of the legislature are closed by order of Gen. Jackson." Marigny, writing about the event afterward, said: "Qu'il fallait avoir le diable an corps pour faire de Magloire Guichard un conspirateur?" (Those who knew this good and respectable Magloire Guichard, a man already aged, will they not say it was madness to make of him a conspirator?) It was indeed madness, for Mr. Guichard retained the respect and esteem of his fellow-townsmen as long as he lived.


Gulf Biologic Station .- The following account of this institution is abridged from the last biennial report of the state superintendent of public education: The Gulf Biologie Station was created by act 192 of 1898 of the general assembly of the state of Louisiana. It is designed to provide opportunity for the investigation of the biologic problems of the state, and to offer its facilities to students and teachers of the biologic sciences. The director of the station is B. H. Guilbeau, and the laboratory is located at the mouth of Cal- casieu pass, near the Gulf of Mexico, Cameron parish, La. The U. S. jetties, which extend into the gulf for more than a mile and a half, the extensive marshes, mud flats, sandy beach, wharfs, the open gulf and the river with its large natural oyster reefs. offer excellent opportunities for the study of life. The station labora- tory is large enough to accommodate 80 students and investigators working at one time. It is well equipped with tables, dark room, aquaria, water and all needful apparatus. The station owns a large schooner, 2 gasoline launches and a number of row boats, and possesses the necessary seines, trawles, dredges and nets for collecting. Teachers who desire to provide themselves with speci- mens of marine plants and animals are given every opportunity to do so. The laboratory supplies dissecting materials, glassware, re- agents and laboratory outlines, but students are requested to pro-


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vide themselves with dissecting instruments and a hand lens, and are required to furnish their own text books, drawing materials, etc. The station owns a number of compound microscopes, and the state university has agreed to furnish as many more as are needed. Here the teacher is afforded the best of opportunities to become fa- miliar at first hand with the plants and animals of the seacoast. Though the courses offered only extend over 4 weeks, a good deal of ground is covered, and students are well grounded in the first principles of the science of biology. The course in nature study enables teachers having that work in the public schools to be- come thoroughly acquainted with methods and to acquire new facts. Facilities are offered to those who desire to carry on investi- gations of a special character at the station during the summer, Field excursions are made daily, and weekly trips are planned to points of interest in the vicinity of the pass, Calcasieu lake and the Mermenton river. There is no rail connection with Cameron, where the station is located, but the steamer Rex, which carries the U. S. mail from Lake Charles to Cameron, makes the trip to Cameron every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.


Gurley, a village in the western part of East Feliciana parish, is on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., about 8 miles west of Clinton, the parish seat. It has a money order postoffice, express office, telegraph station and telephone facilities, and some retail trade.


Gurley, Henry H., lawyer and jurist, was born at Lebanon, Conn., in 1787. He pursued classical studies. attended Williams- town college, studied law after graduating, was admitted to the bar, and began to practice at Baton Rouge, La. He became U. S. district judge for Louisiana, and was elected a representative from the state to the 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st Congresses. He died at Baton Rouge, La., in 1832.


Gypsum .- Technically, gypsum is regarded as a mineral deposit, in some places constituting rock masses. In mineralogy it is classi- fied as a monoclinic mineral, ranging from transparent to opaque, its colors being white, gray, flesh-colored, yellow, blue. and when impure sometimes reddish-brown or even black. When ground it is used under the name of land plaster, and calcined it becomes the plaster-of-paris of commerce. The finer kinds, as alabaster, - are used for statuary and ornamental purposes. In Louisiana it is found in immense beds below the sulphur deposits, but these beds have never been worked, and in other parts of the state gyp- sum is associated with limestone.


H'


Haasville, a village in the southwest corner of Avoyelles parish, is a station on the Southern Pacific R. R., about 5 miles southwest of Cheneyville. It has a money order postoffice, express office, telegraph station, and in 1900 reported a population of 70.


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Hachard, Madeleine, was a young postulant in the Ursuline con- vent at Rouen, France, when the proposal came in 1726 to send some of the nuns to Louisiana. (See Ursulines.) She obtained the consent of her parents to accompany the mission, and upon arriv- ing at Hennebon her novitiate was shortened and she took the veil, signing herself after that as "Hachard de St. Stanislaus." Marie Tranchepain de St. Augustin, who had been chosen as mother superior of the Louisiana mission, selected the young sister as her secretary and the two remained fast friends until the death of the mother superior in 1733. Sister Hachard has been described as a "brilliant, well educated woman, whose letters to her father were witty, instructive and charming." She wrote an ac- count of the long and tedious voyage, including the trip up the river in a pirogue from the Balize to New Orleans in company with Mother Tranchepain and four others. Sister Hachard returned to France in 1762.


Hackberry, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Cameron parish, is about 2 miles west of Calcasieu lake and 12 miles north of Cameron, the parish seat. Sulphur is the nearest railroad sta- tion. In 1900 Hackberry had a population of 61.


Hackley, a village in the northern part of Washington parish near the Mississippi boundary, is a station on the Kentwood & Eastern R. R., about 9 miles northeast of Franklinton, the parish seat. It has a money order postoffice, and is located in the great truck farm and berry district that supplies the northern markets with early vegetables and small fruits.


Hadnot, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Grant parish, is about 3 miles north of Meade, the nearest railroad station, and 10 miles southeast of Colfax, the parish seat.


Hahn, Michael, who was elected governor of Louisiana under the protection of the Federal army in 1864, was born in Bavaria on Nov. 24, 1830, but came to America with his parents while still in his infancy. For a time the family lived in New York city, but later removed to New Orleans, where Michael received his educa- tion in the public schools. He then took up the study of law, and in 1854 was graduated in the law department of the University of Louisiana. In 1856 he supported Stephen A. Douglas for the Democratic nomination for the presidency, and in 1860-61 was a member of the committee that made a canvass of the state against secession. After the capture of New Orleans in the spring of 1862 he took the oath of allegiance to the United States, and in the fall of that year was elected to Congress from the 2nd district. He took the oath of office as a Congressman on Feb. 17, 1863, but as the term for which he was elected expired on March 4, he served but a few days. He then returned to New Orleans, bought the paper known as the "True Delta." in which he advocated the emancipation of slaves and the policies of President Lincoln. On Feb. 22, 1864, he was elected governor. The following winter he was elected to the U. S. senate and resigned the governor's office on March 4, 1865. Shortly after Andrew Johnson succeeded to the


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presidency, Mr. Hahn resigned his seat in the senate because he was at variance with the president's views on the question of re- construction. About this time the University of Louisiana honored him with the degree of LL.D. In 1867 he started a paper called "The Republican" in New Orleans, and edited it for about four years, when he retired to his plantation in St. Charles parish, where he founded the village of Hahnville. From 1872 to 1876 he served in the Louisiana legislature ; was then register of voters; for a time was superintendent of the U. S. mint; then judge of the 26th district, and in 1884 was elected to Congress. He died in Wash- ington, D. C., March 15, 1886.


Hahn's Administration .- Gov. Hahn was inaugurated on March 4, 1864, with imposing ceremonies, the object doubtless being to impress the people with the power of the Federal government, whose armed forces were to support the new administration. Soon after his induction into office, Gov. Hahn received from President Lincoln the following letter: "Until further orders, you are hereby invested with the powers exercised hitherto by the military governor of Louisiana." On the 11th Gen. Banks, with the concur- rence of the governor, issued his General Order No. 35, calling an election on the 28th for delegates to a convention to revise the state constitution and setting forth the following qualifications for voters: "Every free white man, 21 years of age, who has been a resident of the state 12 months, and 6 months in the parish in which he offers to vote, who is a citizen of the United States, and who shali have taken the oath prescribed by the president in his procla- mation of the 8th December, 1863, shall have the right to vote in the election of delegates."


The election was largely in the nature of a farce, and no return of the votes was published. A committee of the lower house of Congress afterward reported: "From all that is known of the bal- loting it appears that the parish of Ascension, within the Federal lines, and neighboring to New Orleans, and which in 1860 had a white population of 3,940. elected her delegates by 61 votes; that Plaquemines, with a white population in 1860 of 2,529, cast 246; and in the parish of Madison, Montague was elected by a vote of 28. Elections were held only in the parishes included within the Federal lines, and these lines were the Teche on the one side and the Amite on the other, comprehending the parish or city of Or- leans, and the neighboring parishes on the Mississippi. To a ques- tion propounded to Gen. Banks as to what portion of the state voted, his reply was: 'All as far up as Pointe Coupée, and there were some men from the Red river who voted at Vidalia,' and in his statement he annonnees that: 'The city of New Orleans is really the State of Louisiana.'"


The constitution was ratified by the people on Sept. 5, by a vote of 6,836 to 1,566 (See Constitutions), and at the same time mem- bers of Congress and the state legislature were elected. This legis- lature met in New Orleans on Oct. 3. with Lieut .- Gov. Wells pre- siding over the senate and Simeon Belden as speaker of the house.


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In his message Gov. Halin announced the occasion as "deeply lieart- cheering," and welcomed "the representatives of the popular will." After referring to a condition of "rebellion, bloodshed and anarchy, where all should have been loyalty, peace and contentment," he declared that "while this state was thus momentarily placed by the bad men who had conspired against the national authority, in armed hostility to the Union, no patriot ever conceded, or could with truth and propriety admit, that its people had ever sanctioned the atrocious doctrine of secession ; and although for a time, under the rebel control, as under Federal military occupation, the in- alienable rights of the state were in abeyance, they were neither lost nor surrendered." The banks of the state were in a condition of hopeless insolvency, and the governor insisted that, as they had arrayed themselves as enemies to the national government, they were entitled to neither sympathy nor protection. He recommended that assistance be given to the families of those who were serving in the Federal army, and that some means be provided for the edu- cation of colored children. Fortier says that Gov. Hahn "lived long enough to respect the former Confederates whom he called 'bad men,' and to win, in his turn, their respect at the end of his career."




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