USA > Louisiana > Louisiana; comprising sketches of counties, towns, events, institutions, and persons, Volume II > Part 43
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foreigners received the protection of the state, while at the same time they were compelled to carry out the contracts made with ship owners or employers for bringing them over. Most of the redemptioners were worthy people, whose greatest misfortune was poverty, and under the protection of the state many of them became useful citizens.
Red Fish, a village and station in the eastern part of Avoyelles parish, is situated on the Texas & Pacific R. R .. 3 miles west of the Atchafalaya river. It has a money order postoffice and tele- graph station, and is one of the shipping points for the rich cotton country in which it is located. The population in 1900 was 54.
Redland, a post-hamlet of Bossier parish, is, situated about 4 miles south of the state boundary and 5 miles northeast of Bolinger, the nearest railroad town.
Redlich, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Acadia parish, is situated on Bayou Cannes, 5 miles southeast of Berg, the nearest railroad station, and about 20 miles northwest of Crowley, the parish seat.
Redoak (R. R. name Pirmont), a village in the southeastern part of Red River parish, is a station on the line of the Louisiana Railway & Navigation company, about 6 miles southeast of Coushatta, the parish seat. It is one of the supply and shipping towns for this section of the Red river valley, has a money order postoffice. tele- graph and express office, etc. Large quantities of cotton are shipped from this town each year.
Red River Parish .- This comparatively modern parish was estab- lished in 1871, during the reconstruction period, while Henry Clay Warmoth was governor, and was named from the Red river. An attempt was made immediately after the war to form a new parish out of Bienville. Caddo, De Soto and Natchitoches parishes, but it was not until 1871 that a legislature met that was willing to give the authority to organize. The earliest history of Red River is. that of the older parishes of which it so long formed a part. All during the period of early French exploration and French and Spanish occupancy of Louisiana. the largest settlement on the upper river was at Natchitoches (q. v) and the river was the main highway to the northwest. After Louisiana was ceded to the United States, the supplies for Fort Towson in the Indian terri- tory were sent up the Red river from New Orleans, and as soon as Shreveport was established, there was considerable traffic from there to Natchitoches. The country became well known and set- tlers began to locate along the banks of the river, in what is now known as Red River parish. As early as 1840 W. D. Lofton and W. A. Martin were living in this district. Up to 1835 Natchitoches was the head of navigation on the Red river, as the "Great Raft," a collection of trees and debris which had been collecting for years, impeded the progress of boats. After the organization of the parish the first police jury met in May, 1871, and organized in a store building at Coushatta Chute. M. H. Twitchell was elected presi- dent, and he, with P. E. Roach, George A. King, F. S. Edgerton,
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E. D. de Weese and Prior Porter, formed the board. D. 1I. Hayes was clerk; Homer H. Twitchell, recorder; J. T. Yates, sheriff ; Julius Lisso, treasurer, and F. S. Stokes, tax collector. Coushatta, situated on the eastern bank of the Red river, was chosen as the seat of justice. The parish court was opened here on May 29, 1871, by A. O. P. Pickens, and the first session of the district court began at Coushatta on Sept. 4, 1871. The circuit court of appeals was opened in May, 1880, by Judges Moncure and George. The last record of the parish court was closed on March 31, 1880, and signed by Judge A. Ben Broughton. The first paper of the parish was the Coushatta Times, established early in 1871, by William H. Scanland, and published by him until December of that year, when H. A. Perryman became owner. The second paper was the Coushatta Citizen, issued Dec. 9, 1871. The common school system is still in its infancy in this parish, as the old Spring- ville academy and the private schools at Coushatta have offered such excellent opportunities for education that the free schools have been utilized almost entirely by the colored children. Red River parish has an area of 401 square miles, one-third of which is Red river bottom land, and the other two-thirds are rolling wooded uplands, which form the divide between the Black Lake bayou on the east and the Red river on the west. The soil, both alluvial and upland, is of unsurpassed fertility, and fresh land produces from 1,500 to 2,500 pounds of seed cotton to the acre. There is a large quantity of valuable timber, such as oak, pine, gum, cypress, elm, beech, maple, cottonwood, etc. The principal water courses are the Red river, Grand and Black Lake bayous and their minor tributaries. In common with all the Red river parishes, cotton is the great export product ; sugar-cane, alfalfa, oats, hay, potatoes and peas all yield good returns, and fruits of every description grow abundantly. Stock is raised on a large scale on the uplands, and cattle, hogs and sheep are exported in large numbers. Cheap transportation is afforded by boats on the Red river; the line of the Louisiana Railway & Navigation company traverses the parish along the eastern bank of the river. and the Texas & Pacific along the western bank. There are few large towns in the parish, as it is not thickly populated. Coushatta, the parish seat, on the east bank of the river, being the largest. Other towns and villages are East Point, Lake End. Alpha, Liberty. Pirmont, Carroll and West- dale. The following statistics concerning the parish are taken from the U. S. census for 1900: Number of farms, 1,702; acreage. 131,059 ; acres under cultivation. 60.055 ; value of land and improve- ments exclusive of buildings, $996,840; value of farm buildings. $256.110; value of live stock, $255.077 ; total value of all products not fed to live stock. $727.671 : number of manufactures. 29; capital invested, $65,795; wages paid. $6.223: cost of materials used. $16,183; total value of products, $42.339. The population for 1900 was 4.077 whites, 7.471 colored. a total of 11.584, an increase of 230 over the year 1890. The estimated population for 1908 was 12,000.
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Red River Raft .- Prior to 1835 Natchitoches was the head of navigation on the Red river, as the great raft extended for nearly 180 miles up the river from Coushatta bayou. It consisted of logs and other debris, which became lodged and fastened together, and as this collection had been going on for years, the raft was nearly a solid mass. In 1830-31 the U. S. war department found the transportation of supplies from Natchitoches to Fort Towson in the Indian territory very expensive, and the complaints made by the department, together with the treaty promises to the Choctaws and Chickasaws, led to an act of Congress in 1831, appropriating money for the removal of the rait and improvement of navigation of the river. Capt. Henry M. Shreve was engaged to take charge of the work at $5,000 a year. He had been a barge- man between Louisville and New Orleans, until he took com- mand of the second steamboat on the Mississippi river. Two powerful snag boats, 2 transports. + barges and 200 enlisted men were furnished by the government. The headquarters of the raft removers was at Shreveport, and in the fall of 1831 work was com- menced about 140 miles by water below that place. Within 3 years the channel was cleared to Shreveport, but the river had built so fast between 1832 and 1835 that over 30 miles of raft had formed above the town. The work of removing it, or making new channels where the raft was too solid to be removed, was pushed forward, and by 1840 the river was cleared, leaving it navigable for over 1,000 miles. This work was hardly completed before the river began building anew, and within 2 years 8 miles of raft were formed between Hurricane and Carolina bluffs. Con- gress made an appropriation of $100,000 for its removal, and in 1842 Gen. T. T. Williamson took the contract to clear the stream. He accomplished his task, and as the contract required him to keep the channel navigable for 5 years, he placed a boom across the stream above Carolina bluffs. A steamboat captain cut the boom and the river again began its raft building. Another appropria- tion of $100,000 was made by Congress in 1850, and Capt. Fuller, a U. S. civil engineer, took charge of the work. He did not clear the stream, but cut channels at the head and foot of the raft, so that the river flowed around it by the bayous and lakes. After this failure the raft was left for years, and by 1872 there were 12 miles of solid obstruction. Still another appropriation was made and the work of removing the raft was placed in the hands of Maj. Howells, a U. S. civil engineer, with Lieut. C. A. Woodrull the engineer in charge of the work. Within a year, by the use of powerful explosives, the channel was cleared. The islands had become so large by this time that there were willow trees from 10 to 12 inches in diameter growing on them. In 1882 the work was continued, and in 1890 Capt. Lydon removed a raft at Young's Point, supposed to be at least 300 years old. A channel 600 feet wide and 5 miles long was cut, so that a good channel is now secured all the way to Shreveport.
Reeves, a post-village and station in the central part of Calcasieu
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parish, is on the Colorado Southern R. R., about 20 miles north- east of Lake Charles, the parish seat.
Reisor, a post-village in the southern part of Caddo parish, is situated at the junction of two divisions of the Texas & Pacific R. R., about 10 miles southwest of Shreveport, the parish seat. It has telegraph and express service, is the shipping depot and trading center for a large area in the southwestern part of the parish, and in 1900 reported a population of 32.
Relief, a postoffice in the northwestern part of Claiborne parish, is situated near the Indian bayou, about 4 miles southwest of Haynesville, the nearest railroad town, and 13 miles northwest of Homer, the parish seat. It had a population of 50 in 1900.
Remy, a post-village and station in the eastern part of St. James parish, is situated on the east bank of the Mississippi river and the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., about 6 miles east of Con- vent, the parish seat, in a rich truck farming and tobacco district. · Rena is a post-hamlet of Calcasieu parish.
Reserve, one of the largest and most important towns in the parish of St. John the Baptist, is situated on the east bank of the Mississippi river, almost directly opposite Edgard, the parish seat. It is a landing for the steamers of several lines, and railroad trans- portation is furnished by the Louisiana Railway & Navigation com- pany and the Yazoo & Mississippi railroads. Reserve is in one of the most productive sections of the state, has a bank, a sugar refinery, cotton-gins, rice mill, newspaper, money order postoffice, express and telegraph accommodations, telephone facilities, good schools, and is the trading center and shipping point for the -adjacent plantations. The population in 1900 was 475.
Rester, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Union parish. is situated on the Corney bayou, 3 miles north of Grays, the nearest railroad station, and 12 miles northwest of Farmerville, ithe parish seat.
Returning Boards .- In 1872, according to the law then in force, election returns were to be canvassed by a board composed of the governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, and two citizens appointed by these three officials. In 1868 Henry C. Warmoth was elected governor, Oscar J. Dunn, lieutenant-governor, and George E. Bovee, secretary of state. John Lynch and Thomas C. Anderson were the citizens appointed to complete the organization of the board. In Aug., 1871, Warmoth removed Sec. Bovee for alleged malfeasance in office, and appointed F. J. Herron in his place. Lieut .- Gov. Dunn died in Nov., 1871, and P. B. S. Pinch- back was elected by the state senate to fill the vacancy. In March. 1872, Judge Dibble. of the 8th district court, decided that Herron's commission had expired and that Bovee was entitled to the office- a decision subsequently affirmed by the supreme court of the state. -but Warmoth removed Judge Dibble and appointed Judge El- . more, who refused to execute the writ in favor of Bovee, and the governor then appointed Jack Wharton. The election of 1872 was held on Nov. 4. Pinchback and Anderson were disqualified
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from serving on the board because they were candidates for office. On the 13th Warmoth and Wharton, in the presence of Lynch, appointed F. W. Hatch and Durant Daponte in their places, whereupon Lynch and Herron appointed Gen. James Longstreet and Jacob Hawkins to the vacant places, thus forming another board, Bovee afterward taking the place of Herron. On the 16th W. P. Kellogg, the Republican candidate for governor. obtained from Judge E. H. Durell, of the U. S. circuit court, a temporary injunction, restraining the Warmoth board from canvassing any returns except in the presence of the Lynch board. John McEnery, the Democratic candidate for governor, was enjoined from claim- ing the office by virtue of any evidence furnished by the Warmoth board, and the New Orleans Republican, the official organ of the state, was enjoined from publishing any statement relative to the result of the election. until further orders of the court.
Four days after this order was issued Gov. Warmoth approved the election law passed by the last legislature, which abolished all returning boards under the old law. and appointed a new board. composed of P. S. Wiltz, Gabriel de Feriet, Thomas Isabel, J. A. Taylor, and J. E. Austin, at the same time issuing a call for the legislature to meet in extra session on Dec. 9. The new board declared the entire McEnery ticket elected, and on Dec. 4 the governor promulgated the result in a proclamation, giving a full list of the officers elected. The governor appeared to be victorious, but late on the night of the 5th Judge Durell, "out of court, at his house, without application by any party," issued an order to the U. S. marshal to take possession of the Mechanics' Institute, in the city of New Orleans, the buildings in which the extra session of the legislature would assemble, and "hold the same subject to further order of this court, and meanwhile to prevent all unlawful assemblage therein under guise or pretext of authority claimed by virtue of pretended canvass and returns made by said pretended return of officers, in contempt and violation of said restraining order, etc." Concerning this order of Judge Durell, an investi- gating committee of the U. S. senate said: "It is impossible to conceive of a more irregular, illegal, and in every way inexcusable act on the part of the judge. Conceding the power of the court to make such an order. the judge out of court had no more authority to make it than the marshal. It had not even the form of judicial process. It was not sealed, nor was it signed by the clerks, and had no more legal effect than an order issued by any private citizen."
It should be borne in mind that the temporary injunction of Nov. 16 was made returnable against a board composed of Gov. Warmoth, Wharton, Hatch and Daponte; that after that injunction was granted the governor approved an act of the legislature and appointed the De Feriet board under its provisions, and that this was the board cited in the celebrated "midnight" order of Judge Durell for "contempt and violation of said restraining order." It is certainly difficult to see how this board could have been guilty
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of contempt, when the restraining order was issued before it was called into existence. Concerning this the senate committee already referred to said: "The De Feriet board, therefore, had color of official existence. Their canvass was completed and the result promulgated under color of state law, and it is clear that this gave the Federal court no more right to seize the state-house than to seize the Capitol."
On Dec. 3. two days before the remarkable order was issued by the judge, Marshal S. B. Packard received the following telegram from George H. Williams, U. S. attorney-general: "You are to enforce the decreees and mandates of the United States courts, no matter by whom resisted, and Gen. Emory will furnish you with necessary troops for that purpose." Acting upon the instruc- tions contained in this telegram, when Packard received the "pre- tended order," as the senate committee termed it, he called for a detachment of Federal troops to act as a posse comitatus, seized the Mechanics' Institute at 2 a. m. of Dec. 6, and held possession until the Kellogg-Pinchback regime was fully established. The Lynch returning board-Lynch, Longstreet, Hawkins and Bovee -made a pretense on Dec. 6 of canvassing the returns, and certi- fied the election of Kellogg, governor ; Antoine, lieutenant-governor ; Deslondes, secretary of state; Clinton, auditor: Field, attorney- general ; Brown, superintendent of education ; and a list of persons declared by them to have been elected members of the general assembly. "There is nothing," says the report of the senate con- mittee, "in all the comedy of blunders and frauds under considera- tion more indefensible than the pretended canvass of this board. * No person can examine the testimony ever so cursorily without seeing that this pretended canvass had no semblance of integrity."
The legislature created by this "pretended canvass" met at the Mechanics' Institute on Dec. 9, and one of its first acts was to institute impeachment proceedings against the governor. (See Warmoth's Administration.) On the 11th Kellogg, the governor- elect, according to the Lynch board, telegraphed to Atty .- Gen. Williams as follows: "If president in some way indicate recog- nition of Gov. Pinchback and legislature, would settle everything. Our friends here acting discreetly."
The next day Pinchback received this telegram from Williams: "Let. it be understood that you are recognized by the president as the lawful executive of Louisiana, and that body assembled at Mechanics' Institute is the lawful legislature of the state, and it is suggested that you make proclamation to that effect, and also that all necessary assistance will be given you and the legislature herein recognized to protect the state from disorder and violence."
fn the meantime a mass-meeting was held in New Orleans on the 10th, resolutions were adopted in denunciation of the Lynch board, and the president of the meeting was authorized to appoint . a committee of 100 citizens to go to Washington and lay the matter before the president, and also to ask him to "remove from the
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state capitol the Federal troops, in order that the duly elected representatives of the people may have free access thereto, to assemble, organize and exercise their legitimate duties; or, in the event of the unwillingness of the authorities so to do, that they be requested to establish a military government in our midst, deeming the latter as infinitely preferable to the present irrespon- sible, illegal and usurping rule, which is supplemented and sus- tained by the bayonet."
On the 12th McEnery, the governor-elect according to the returns made by the De Feriet board, sent a telegraphic communication to the president asking him to withhold recognition of either legis- lature until the committee of 100 could reach Washington and pre- sent their side of the matter. The next day he received the follow- ing reply from Atty .- Gen. Williams: "Your visit with a hundred citizens will be unavailing so far as the president is concerned. His decision is made and will not be changed, and the sooner it is acquiesced in the sooner good order and peace will be restored." Gen. Emory was directed by the adjutant-general of the United States to "use all necessary force to preserve the peace," and to "recognize the authority of Gov. Pinchback."
To quote again from the report of the senate committee: "But for the interference of Judge Durell in the matter of this state elec- tion, a matter wholly beyond his jurisdiction, the MeEnery govern- ment would today be the de facto government of the state. Judge Durell interposed the army of the United States between the people of Louisiana and the only government which has the sem- blance of regularity, and the result of this has been to establish the Kellogg government, so far as that state has now any govern- ment. For the United States to interfere in a state election, and by the employment of troops set up a governor and a legislature without a shadow of right, and then to refuse to redress the wrong, upon the ground that to grant relief would be interfering with the rights of a state, is a proposition difficult to utter with a grave countenance. * * It is the opinion of your committee that but for the unjustifiable interference of Judge Durell, whose orders were executed by the United States troops, the canvass made by the De Feriet board and promulgated by the governor, declaring McEnery to have been elected governor, etc., and also declaring who had been elected to the legislature, would have been acquiesced in by the people, and that government would have entered quietly upon the exercise of the sovereign power of the state. * Your committee are therefore led to the conclusion that, if the election held in Nov., 1872, be not absolutely void for frauds com- mitted therein, MeEnery and his associates in state offices and the persons justified as members of the legislature by the De Feriet board, ought to be recognized as the legal government of the state. Considering all the facts established before your committee, there seems no escape from the alternative that MeEnery must be recog- nized by Congress, or Congress must provide for a reelection."
A bill for a reelection was introduced in Congress, but it failed
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to pass and Louisiana was left "in a melancholy condition, sub- stantially a state of anarchy."
In 1874 the returning board consisted of ex-Gov. J. Madison Wells, Thomas C. Anderson, L. M. Kenner, G. Casanave (colored). and Oscar Arroyo, the last named being the only Democrat on the board. The election was held on Nov. 2, but the board did not declare the result until Dec. 24. Mr. Arroyo resigned on the 23rd. because the partisan and unjust rulings were such flagrant viola- tions of law that his self-respect would not permit him to retain his membership. Only one state officer (treasurer) was elected this year. The Democratic and Conservative party claimed the election of their candidate, John C. Moncure, by a majority of 4,187; 4 out of the 6 Congressmen, and 71 out of 108 members of the legislature. But the board reported Dubuclet, the Republican candidate for treasurer. elected by a majority of 958 votes, 3 of the Republican candidates for Congress, and 54 Republican mem- bers of the legislature. When the returns were made public, Gov. McEnery (who had been counted out in 1872), published a pro- test, declaring the action of the board as a "more crowning infamy than the action of the Lynch board, surpassing the midnight order of Durell, and would not be submitted to by any free people."
Federal troops again came to the assistance of the board and prevented the Conservatives from organizing the legislature. A special committee of Congress, consisting of Charles Foster, Will- iam Walter Phelps and Clarkson N. Potter, visited New Orleans. and on Jan. 14, 1875, made a report on the situation in Louisiana. but were unable to agree upon any recommendation. In their report the committee said the general conviction of the people was that the Kellogg government was a usurpation; that they were willing to submit "to any fair determination of the question of the late election, or anything by which they can secure a firm and good government. In their distress they have got be- yond any mere question of political party." A second Congres- sional committee, composed of George F. Hoar, William A. Wheeler, William P. Frye and Samuel S. Marshall, arrived in New Orleans on Jan. 22. 1875, and this committee succeeded in Feb- ruary in bringing about the "Wheeler Adjustment." which was as follows: The members of the Conservative party claiming to have been elected members of the house of representatives, and that their certificates of election were illegally withheld by the return- ing board, agreed to submit their claims to seats to the award and arbitrament of the Congressional committee, and likewise the per- sons that claimed to have been elected senators for the 8th and 22nd senatorial districts. The persons that held certificates of election from the returning board agreed that. upon the coming in of the award of the arbitrators, if it was ratified by the committee on elections and qualifications of the body claiming to be the house of representatives. they would attend the sittings of the house for the purpose of adopting the report. and if said report were adopted and the members embraced in it were seated, then
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