USA > Louisiana > Louisiana; comprising sketches of counties, towns, events, institutions, and persons, Volume II > Part 65
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Thomasville, one of the new lumbering towns that has grown up along the line of the New Orleans Great Northern R. R., is in the northeastern part of St. Tammany parish, about 15 miles north- east of Covington, the parish seat. It has a telegraph station, express office, sawmills, a good retail trade, and is the shipping depot for a considerable lumbering country. The population in 1900 was 40.
Thornwell, a post-hamlet and station in the southeastern part of . Calcasieu parish, is on the Southern Pacific R. R., 8 miles west of Lake Arthur, and about 25 miles southeast of Lake Charles, the parish seat. It is located in the rice district of southwestern Loni- siana and lias a rice mill, telegraph station and express office.
Tickfaw, is a money order post-station of Tangipahoa parish. is on the Illinois Central R. R., 8 miles north of Hammond. It has a telegraph station and express office and is the trading center for a good fruit and truck farming country. Its population in 1900 was 73.
Tide, a post-hamlet in the northern part of Grant parish, is the terminus of a branch of the Louisiana Railway company, about 5 miles from where that line crosses the Louisiana & Arkansas R. R., and 15 miles north of Colfax, the parish seat.
Tiger, a post-hamlet in the southeastern part of Caddo parish, is about 4 miles west of Bayou Lachute, which is the nearest railroad station.
Tilden, a postoffice in the eastern part of Avoyelles parish, situ- ated on Bayou de Glaize, about 3 miles north of Wayside, the nearest railroad station.
Tillou, a post-station in the northern part of Morehouse parish. is about 6 miles northwest of Jones, the nearest railroad town, and about 17 miles north of Bastrop. the parish seat.
Timon, a post-village and station in the northwestern part of Natchitoches parish, is on the Texas & Pacific R. R., 15 miles north- west of Natchitoches. the parish seat. It has a telegraph station and express office, and in 1900 had a population of 100.
Timothey, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Webster parish. is situated on the Bodcau bayon, 4 miles west of Spring- hill, the nearest railroad town and about 30 miles northwest of Minden, the parish seat.
Tinus, a postoffice of St. Helena parish, is located about 4 miles northeast of Darlington, which is the nearest railroad station, and 7 miles northwest of Greensburg. the parish seat.
Tioga, one of the largest villages in the northern part of Rapides parish, is located in the midst of a rich agricultural district, about
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5 miles north of Alexandria, the parish seat. It is a railroad center of some importance, as the Louisiana Railway & Navigation com- pany, the Louisiana Southern, and the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern all pass through the place, and it is also the western terminus of a short line of railroad called the Tioga & South- eastern, the eastern terminus of which is at Kees. Tioga has a money order postoffice, a large retail trade, two express offices, some manufacturing concerns, is an important shipping point, and in 1900 reported a population of 250.
Tobacco .- The tobacco plant is a native of the Western Hemi- sphere and its use among civilized peoples was unknown until after the discovery of America by Columbus. Its introduction into Europe is generally attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh in the latter part of the 16th century. It was early cultivated by the colonists of Virginia and Maryland, and was introduced into Louisiana about the time of the settlement of New Orleans. In 1752 the French government offered to purchase all the tobacco grown in Louisiana, at a price equal to 7 cents a pound in the currency of the present day. The cultivation of tobacco received a great stimulus in 1793-4, on account of the damage done by insects to the indigo plant. which up to that time had been one of the staple crops. In 1802 there were 200 hogsheads of tobacco exported from New Orleans. and its cultivation had been extended up the Mississippi river as far north as the present parish of Concordia.
In all of the upland region of northern and western Louisiana the soil and climate are well adapted to the growth of yellow leaf tobacco, suitable for smoking tobacco and plug wrappers, while the alluvial lands are eminently suited to the production of Perique, for which St. James parish is especially famous. This tobacco owes its reputation chiefly to the peculiar manner in which it is cured and prepared for the market, being practically cured under pressure in its own juice-a method introduced by the Acadians in 1824. The U. S. Census Report for 1900 says: "The Perique tobacco of Louisiana, while very strong, is quite acceptable to pipe and cigarette smokers, when mixed in small proportions with other tobaccos. On account of the long and laborious method of curing, the cultivation has never extended beyond two or three parishes in southern Louisiana, nor has it been placed upon a successful commercial basis, except among the Acadians. The greatest yield of this tobacco in any one year has not exceeded 100,000 pounds, and until recently the average yield was about 50,000 pounds."
The progress lately made in the cultivation of the plant in the upland sections of the state has led to the introduction of some of the finest grades of cigar leaf and smoking tobacco. Through the medium of practical demonstrations, conducted by tobacco ex- perts in the employ of the state and national governments, the growers are receiving instruction in the best methods of tobacco culture, and the acreage of the crop is annually increasing. \ re- port of the state board of agriculture and immigration says: "In
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north Louisiana as much as 1,600 pounds per acre of yellow leaf have been produced. In south Louisiana, with cigar types of to- bacco, the yield has reached over 2,000 pounds. Two crops a year can be obtained from the same planting. This is accomplished by leaving a sucker in the axil of the crown leaf in topping the plant. When the leaves of the first erop are gathered the old stalk is re- moved and the young sucker soon takes its place, and with a favor- able season makes nearly as large and fine a crop as the first one."
The U. S. census of 1900 shows reports from 76 tobacco farms in Louisiana, with 2.451 acres of improved land, the value of the crop being $42,420. or about $17 an acre. Three years before this census was taken the north Louisiana experiment station sold its crop to an eastern manufacturer for 45 cents a pound, and the sta- tion at Baton Rouge sold its entire crop for 15 cents a pound in the station barn. Samples of Louisiana tobacco sent to manufacturers in different parts of the country have received favorable notice, and the chances are that the future production of tobacco in the state will far exceed that of the past. The Perique tobacco grown and prepared in St. James parish is said to be the best in the world.
Togo, a postoffice of Tensas parish, is on the Mississippi river, about 20 miles above St. Joseph, the parish seat, and 10 miles east of Somerset, which is the most convenient railroad station.
Tonti, Henri de, soldier and explorer, was the son of Lorenzo Tonti, an Italian banker, who originated tontines, or loans upon life annuities, a principle applied in later years to a form of life insurance. In 1678 Henri de Tonti came to America with La Salle. shared the fortunes of that daring explorer in the voyage down the Mississippi, and was one of those who signed the document claim- ing all the region drained by the Mississippi in the name of France. La Salle sailed from France in July, 1684, for the purpose of estab- lishing a colony at or near the mouth of the Mississippi. At that time Tonti was in command of Fort St. Louis, at Starved Rock on the Illinois river. and did not learn of La Salle's movements until the winter of 1685. He immediately fitted out, at his own ex- pense, an expedition of 30 Frenchmen and 5 Indians, left Fort St. Louis on Feb. 16, 1686, and went down the river to meet La Salle, but failed to find him for the reason that he had missed the mouth of the river and sailed on westward to Matagorda bay. There was therefore nothing left but to return to Fort St. Louis. In 1693 Tonti sent to France a "Memoir" of the discovery of the Mississippi, in which he says, regarding this return voyage: "When we were at Arkansas ten of the Frenchmen who accompanied me asked for a settlement on the river Arkansas, on a seignory that M. de la Salle had given me on our first voyage. I granted the request to some of them. They remained there to build a house surrounded by stakes. The rest accompanied me to Illinois, in order to get what they wanted. I arrived there on St. John's day." Later in his memoir he says: "On the 7th of April, 1688, one named Contoure brought me two Akansas, who danced the calumet. They informed me of the death of M. de la Salle, with all the circumstances which
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they had heard from the lips of M. Cavelier, who had fortunately discovered the house I had built on the Arkansas, where the said Coutoure stayed with three other Frenchmen." Subsequently Tonti was engaged under Denonville in the war with the Iroquois In- dians, and in 1689 went in search of La Salle's colony in Texas. In the latter part of March he arrived at the nation of the Cado -. daquis on the Red river, where his men refused to proceed further. Consequently he failed to find the remnants of this colony, but his expedition contributed much to the knowledge of the country. Early in 1700 he went down the Mississippi in a pirogue, accom- panied by some Canadian traders, to ascertain whether any settle- ment had been made, and from that time until his death was asso- ciated with Iberville and Bienville. In his early life, while serving in Sicily, he lost a hand, for which he substituted one made of cop- per. During the long period he spent among the Illinois Indians he greatly endeared himself to them by his wise and humane ad- ministration of affairs, and was known by them as "The Man of the Copper Hand." He was La Salle's most trusted lieutenant. and it is quite probable that his "house surrounded by stakes" was the first attempt to found a settlement in the Louisiana Purchase. Claiborne says of Tonti: "No character in the romantic history of French exploration in North America is so uniformly perfect and admirable as Henri de Tonti. His coolness and constancy, dis- cretion, courage, fertility of resource and devotion to duty never failed. His influence over the fierce tribes of the northwest, which he retained in his remote and isolated post, even when the govern- ment at Quebec had lost its control over them, exhibits an extraordinary faculty for command, aided by great moral and per- sonal qualities." He died at Mobile in Sept., 1704.
Tooleys, a post-village in the southeastern part of Catahoula parish, is on the Black river. about 14 miles west of Bougere, the nearest railroad town, and some 25 miles south of Harrisonburg, the parish seat.
Topsy, a post station in the central part of Calcasieu parish, is about 4 miles northeast of Old Town, the nearest railroad station, and 10 miles northeast of Lake Charles, the parish seat.
Toro, a post-hamlet of Sabine parish, is located on a bayon of the same name in the southwest corner of the parish, and is a station on the Louisiana Central R. R., about 20 miles south of Many, the parish seat. It is one of the new settlements that have sprung up in that section of the state as a result of the development of the lumbering industry.
Torras is a money order-post station in the extreme northern part of Pointe Coupee parish, is situated on the west bank of the Mississippi river and the Texas & Pacific R. R., 25 miles northwest of New Roads, the parish seat. It has a telegraph station and ex- press office, is a landing on the river and the shipping point for , the northern part of the parish. Its population in 1900 was 48.
Toups, a village of Lafourche parish, is the first station north of Lockport on the branch of the Southern Pacific R. R. that connects
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with the main line at Raceland Junction. It has a money order postoffice, an express office, a good retail trade, and in 1900 had a population of 86.
Touro, Judah, merchant and philanthropist, was born on June 16, 1775, at Newport, R. I., where his father, Isaac Touro, became min- ister of the synagogue in 1762. After receiving his education and spending some years in Boston, Judah Touro came to New Orleans in 1802. He embarked in business as a merchant and by his thrift and industry rapidly acquired wealth. Although physically dis- qualified for military service, he carried ammunition to the bat- teries at Chalmette on Jan. 8, 1815, and was severely wounded. He was distinguished for two traits of character-eccentricity and charity. After becoming a resident of New Orleans he never left the city limits except on the occasion of the battle above mentioned, and he would never ride in a carriage because one of his brothers had been thrown from a carriage in Boston and killed. He accumu- lated a fortune estimated at $1,000,000, nearly one-half of which he gave away in furthering charitable enterprises. While he remained steadfast in the Jewish faith, his charity was not confined to Jewish institutions. For the Hebrews he built a synagogue, and alms- house and an infirmary in New Orleans, and gave $40.000 to the cemetery at Newport during his lifetime. He built a church for a Christian minister for whom he had formed a strong liking; gave $20,000 to the Bunker Hill monument : $5,000 to the sufferers for the great fire at Mobile; and erected a building for the Touro Free Library at New Orleans. He died at New Orleans on Jan. 18, 1854. Every Hebrew congregation in the country was remembered in his will, and a legacy was left to aid in the restoration of the Holy Land to the scattered tribes of Israel.
Touro Library .- (See Libraries.)
Townsend, Mary Ashley (Van Voorhis), poet, was born at Lyons, Wayne county, N. Y., in 1836. When she was quite young her family removed to New Orleans, where she grew up and received her education. While in school she began to write stories and verses, which appeared in the southern press under the name of "Xariffa." These were followed by a series of humorous articles entitled "Quillotypes," which received praise from the local critics. This encouraged the young authoress to greater efforts, and in 1859 she published a novel, "The Brother Cierks: A Tale of New Orleans." She is best known, however, from her poetical works. which appeared in the following order: "A Georgia Volunteer," "Xariffa's Poems." "The Captain's Story," "Down the Bayou, and Other Poems," "Distaff and Spindle." John Saxe pronounced her poem, "Creed," one of the finest in the English language. She also received high praise from the Critic. She read original poems on several occasions, such as the opening of the Exposition in 1884: at the unveiling of Johnston's monument, etc. She became greatly interested in Mexico and Mexican life and spent considerable time there; was a member of the Liceo Hidalgo, the leading literary society in the City of Mexico, and as a result of her observations
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while there wrote a book on that country. Her husband, Gideon T. Townsend, was a banker and prominent business man of New Orleans. Mrs. Townsend died in 1901.
Transfer of Louisiana .- Three times, since La Salle, in April, 1682, first claimed Louisiana in the name of Louis XIV, has the territory been transferred from the dominion of one power to that of another. For 80 years after La Salle the province remained in the undisputed possession of France. It was ceded by that king- dom to Spain by the treaty of Fontainebleau (1762), but the trans- fer was not effected until some five years later, and then only by force of arms. (See Revolution of 1768.)
On Oct. I, 1800, Louisiana was ceded back to France. Again the transfer was delayed for some time, though this time it was a blood- less one. On Oct. 15, 1802, the king of Spain issued orders for the delivery of the colony to France, and named Gov. Salcedo and Marquis de Casa Calvo as the Spanish commissioners to carry the orders into effect. Pierre Clément de Laussat, the French colonial prefect, arrived in New Orleans on March 24, 1803, and on June 6 was appointed commissioner to receive possession of the colony and deliver it to the United States commissioners as soon as rati- fications of the treaty of April 30, 1803, between France and the United States were exchanged. On the last day of October Presi- dent Jefferson approved a bill giving him authority to take posses- sion of Louisiana. Soon after that M. Landais left Washington with the commission to Laussat empowering him to carry out his instructions of the previous June. Landais arrived in New Orleans on Nov. 23, and preparations were at once commenced for the trans- fer of the colony to France, as that government must have actual possession before the territory could be delivered to the United States in accordance with the treaty of purchase above mentioned. On Wednesday, Nov. 30, 1803, the Spanish regiment of Louisiana was drawn up in front of the city hall, with a company of Mexican dragoons on the right and the city militia on the left, while the in- habitants of New Orleans were assembled to witness the proceed- ings that were to change their nationality. Promptly at 12 o'clock, noon, the Spanish commissioners proceeded to the city hall, where they were soon joined by Laussat. Three chairs were placed for the commissioners, Gov. Salcedo occupying the one on the middle. Laussat produced a copy of the royal decree of Oct. 15, 1802, and at the same time presented his power from Napoleon to receive the colony. When these documents were read and pronounced satis- factory, Gov. Salcedo left his chair and handed the keys of the city to Laussat. Marquis de Casa Calvo announced that such of the inhabitants of Louisiana as desired to become citizens or subjects of France were absolved from all allegiance to Spain. A record of the proceedings was then made, after which the commissioners repaired to the balcony. Their appearance was the signal for the lowering of the Spanish colors from the tall staff in the center of the public square. As the flag came down it was saluted by artil-
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lery, and the tri-color of France was saluted in like manner as it went up. France was again in possession.
Laussat issued a proclamation informing the inhabitants that the French domination was only momentary, as he had already received instructions to deliver the colony to the commissioners of the United States whenever they were ready to receive it. Immediately after the passage of the act authorizing the president to take pos- session, William C. C. Claiborne, governor of the Mississippi Terri- tory, and Gen. James Wilkinson were appointed commissioners to receive the province. In anticipation of forcible opposition from Spain they took with them "such regular troops as had been assem- bled at Fort Adams from the nearest posts and some militia of the Mississippi Territory." In addition to this, 500 mounted militia from Tennessee were ordered to Natchez, "to be ready for any emergency." On Dec. 18 Gen. Wilkinson established his camp on the left bank of the Mississippi about half a league from the city of New Orleans, whence he sent a messenger to Laussat to notify him that the American commissioners were ready to take posses- sion. On the 20th. upon the invitation of Laussat, Wilkinson en- tered the city with his troops, and at noon the American commis- sioners were received by Laussat in the sala capitular of the cabildo. In the square in front of the cabildo the French and American sol- diers were drawn up in line and a large concourse of citizens assem- bled to witness the ceremonies. The treaty of April 30, 1803, and the powers of the commissioners were read and approved, the keys of the city were turned over to the Americans, and Laussat said : "In conformity with the treaty, I put the United States in posses- sion of Louisiana and its dependencies. The citizens and inhabi- tants who wish to remain here and obey the laws are from this moment exonerated from the oath of fidelity to the French Repub- lic." 'The proces verbal was then signed by the commissioners and countersigned by the American and French secretaries, Wadsworth and Daugerot. This proces verbal set forth that "the present de- livery of the country is made to them (the American commission- ers) and that in conformity with the object of the said treaty the sovereignty and property of the colony or province of Louisiana may pass to the United States under the same clauses and condi- tions as it had been ceded by Spain to France in virtue of the treaty concluded at St. Ildefonso, Oct. 1, 1800."
After signing the proces verbal Claiborne addressed the assembly in the hall. accepting the province on behalf of the government he represented. The commissioners then appeared on the balcony ; the French flag was lowered from the tall staff where it had been hoisted twenty days before, and at the same time the Stars and Stripes were raised to its place. As the two flags met halfway they halted for a moment, the signal gun was fired, the land bat- teries opened and were responded to by the guns on the vessels lying in the river. Martin says: "A group of citizens of the United States, who stood on a corner of the square, waved their hats in token of respect for their country's flag, and a few of them greeted
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it with their voices. No emotion was manifested by any other part of the crowd." There can be no question, however. that deep emo- tion was felt by the people there assembled, even though it was not manifested. They realized that the act of three plenipotentiaries beyond the sea had placed them, without their being consulted, under the sovereignty of another nation, and who can measure the joys and griefs that filled their hearts as they witnessed the cere- mony that made them citizens of the American Republic. After the flag was raised Claiborne issued a proclamation declaring the government of the United States established in Louisiana ; promis- ing the people that they should be admitted into the Union as soon as possible ; that in the meantime they should be protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, their property and their religion : and enjoining them to be true in their allegiance to the United States. The 100th anniversary of this transfer was observed with appropriate ceremonies in New Orleans. (See Centennial Celebra- tion, 1903.)
Although the proceedings at New Orleans were intended to trans- fer the whole province of Louisiana to the United States, it was deemed advisable to observe the formalities of transfer in the northern part of the ceded territory. Accordingly, the French min- ister at Washington conferred on Maj. Amos Stoddard the neces- sary power to receive on behalf of France upper Louisiana from a representative of Spain, which transfer was formally made on March 9, 1804, and on the following day Stoddard turned it over to a duly authorized representative of the United States. The fate of Louisiana was settled.
Transportation .- (See Railroads and Navigable Streams.)
Transylvania, a village of East Carroll parish, is situated in the southeastern part and is a station on the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern R. R., 9 miles south of Lake Providence, the parish seat. It is the shipping and supply town for a large area of cotton land, has a money order postoffice, telegraph and express offices, and in 1900 had a population of 40.
Treaties .- On April 9, 1682, La Salle claimed for France all the country drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries, and gave to the region the name of Louisiana. From that time until the entire territory passed into the hands of the United States, Louisiana was the subject of, or was affected by, important diplomatic treaties. which sometimes changed the ownership and at others exerted an influence upon the welfare and commerce of the inhabitants through negotiations bearing upon the navigation of the Mississippi river. The first of these treaties was the
Treaty of Ryswick, which was made on Sept. 20, 1697. and closed the War of the Augsburg League. While this treaty did not di- rectly affect Louisiana, "the country granted to the Hudson's Bay company by Charles II was definitely and unreservedly made over to France," thus securing to that country her Canadian possessions. which were used as a base from which to prosecute the exploration and settlement of her territory farther to the west and south. The
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"Peace of Ryswick" lasted but five years, but during that time France was fairly active in her efforts to found settlements in Louisiana, one of which was the colony established on Biloxi bay by Iberville in 1699. In 1698 France, England and Holland entered into a treaty, or agreement, by which these powers ( without con- sulting Spain) undertook the partition of the Spanish monarchy, "in the interests of the European Balance of Power." Charles II, the last of the Spanish-Hapsburg kings, died in Nov., 1700, leav- ing no heir to the throne. A short time before his death, however, he made a will. bequeathing his royal power and prerogatives to Philip of Anjou, a grandson of Louis XIV. on condition that he renounce all claims to the French crown. This caused consider- able indignation in England, which indignation was increased when James II, formerly king of England, died in exile at St. Ger- main, France, in Sept., 1701, and Louis acknowledged James' son. "the pretender," as king of England. William of Orange, king of England, formed an alliance with Austria, Holland and most of the German states and brought on the War of the Spanish Succession, which was begun in 1702, and was brought to an end on April 11, 1713, by the
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