USA > Louisiana > Orleans Parish > New Orleans > Standard history of New Orleans, Louisiana, giving a description of the natural advantages, natural history settlement, Indians, Creoles, municipal and military history, mercantile and commercial interests, banking, transportation, etc. > Part 18
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The manner in which the work was done ren lers it difficult to arrive at the cost of these dikes previous to the war. In 1860 the State engineer estimated the cost of the levees then standing in Louisiana at $12,500,000. This estimate was based upon the value at ruling prices of the number of cubic yards of earth entering into their construction. According to another report the cost of all the levees in the river States from the beginning of levee building up to 1862 was $43,759,000, those of Louisiana alone costing $25,000,000. In 1871 a levee company was formed in Louisiana, charged with the entire work of levee con- struction, a tax of 2 mills on the dollar being voted for the purpose of raising the necessary funds. The tax was increased to 4 mills and then dropped again to 3. The company was under obligation to build at least 3,000,000 cubic yards
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STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
of levees per year, at 50 and 60 cents per eubic yard, which would have made the expense of levees $1,650,000 per year. In 1876 the chief engineer of the State reported that the work done by the company for the preceding three years would not replace the wear and tear of the levees, and that they were losing ground every year. A tabulated statement of the work done npon the levees from 1866 to June 9, 1887, with the cost of the same, shows that under the ad- ministration of the company, lasting from 1871 to May 11, 1877, only 7,256,- 469 cubie yards of levee were made, 3,586,060 of which were constructed before October 1, 1872. Since 1877 the work has been done by the State board of en- gineers, under the direction of the governor, and the boards of levee commis- sioners of the several districts. With the improved methods now in use the cost has steadily decreased from 73 2-5 cents per cubic yard in 1867, to 19 1-3 cents in 1886.
The levee fund is provided by a one mill tax imposed by the State, and by the sale of the swamp lands voted to the State by the Federal Government. The distriets are also empowered to tax themselves 5 mills for levee purposes, and have done so for several years. In the Tensas district, created by act of the Leg- islature, bonds may be issued for the purpose of levee building, and a tax laid on lands and crops-so much for each bale of cotton and bushel of corn raised in the seetion subject to overflow and protected by the levees. In addition to the money provided by the State and the levee districts, some of the parishes have taxed themselves for levee purposes. The railroads subjeet to inundation have also contributed to a levee fund, particularly the Louisville, New Orleans & Texas Pacific, which subscribed liberally to the building of the great Bonnet Carré dike. Between the years 1866 and 1877 it is estimated that there have been expended on levees in Louisiana :
By State and levee districts $13,745,148.57
By Federal Government 1,342,807.00
By parishes, railroads and planters 800,280.17
Total .$15,888,235.74
Amount estimated as previously spent. $25,600,000.00
Total cost of levees in Louisiana $41,488,235.74
Adding to this the amounts expended in the states of Mississippi and Ar- kansas during the same period we have a total of $25,704,482.44 as the cost of
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STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
levees from Memphis down for twenty-one years and a half. The $43,750,000.00 previously expended swells the sum to a grand total of $69,454,482.44, the cost of levees from the earliest times down to April, 1887.
Notwithstanding all this labor and expense the Lower Mississippi Valley has suffered severely from the effects of high water. The constant changing of the river bed offers one of the greatest difficulties in the way of the maintenance of the levees in an efficient state. Chief Engineer Richardson estimated that 75 per cent. of the cost of levee work in Louisiana was due to these changes, and the consequent caving of the banks. In addition to this source of damage, the boring of crawfish, and the tunneling of rats must be taken into account, as well as the disintegration caused by heavy and long-continued rains.
Besides the floods of 1812, 1813 and 1816 already alluded to, there have been during the present century something like a dozen years in which the water has broken through all restraining bonds, and caused more or less damage to the adjacent plantations. The most notable of these are the floods of 1874 and 1882. In the first named year heavy rains prevailed in March throughout the lowland below Cairo, filling the swamps and swamp rivers, and producing a rapid rise in the Mississippi. In April these rains became excessive, extend- ing eastward over the valleys of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. Be- tween Commerce, Mo., and the Louisiana line there were 136.5 miles of crevasses and breaks. In the White River there was a destructive overflow, and in the Yazoo, the greatest freshet on record, due to rain-water alone. In the Ouachita also the flood broke all previous records ; a crevasse in Carroll Parish flooded the bottom lands of the Tensas; the Atchafalaya basin was in extreme flood, and the Teche district deeply inundated from Saint Martinsville down. A erevasse at Bonnet Carré raised Lake Pontchartrain suddenly about two feet. Great suffering prevailed in lower Louisiana, and large sums of money were con- tributed in New York, Boston, and other Northern cities and States for the re- lief of the starving population. Boston alone contributed $230,000 to this fund.
The flood of 1882 was even more disastrous. The river was unusually high during the early winter, but no serious apprehensions were entertained of a general overflow. With the beginning of the year, however, the rains set in and continued without cessation during January, particularly in the valleys of the Tennessee and Ohio, and about Vieksburg. The rivers in East Tennessee were out of banks by the middle of January. In Mississippi, and Alabama also, serious floods were reported, while the Atehafalaya overflowed its banks
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STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
to such an extent as to stop the work on the New Orleans Pacific R. R. Still the rains fell daily, and the river rose. A thorough inspection was made of the levees and mueh work was done on them, but the rain greatly impaired its ef- fectiveness. On the 28th of January two breaks occurred, one in Madison Par- ish, and one below the eity in Plaquemines Parish; on the 30th there was an- other at Lockport on the La Fourche. February 2d Red River rose, flooding the bottom lands below Shreveport, and on the 9th the levees in the Yazoo valley broke. After that every day brought a new crevasse, and by the middle of the month all the bottom lands of Mississippi, Arkansas, and much of Northern Louisiana were under water. On the first of March there were fifteen crevasses in Louisiana on the Mississippi, Atchafalaya, and La Fourche. Great destitu- tion prevailed, and appeals to the Government were made from Illinois, Mis- souri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The number of suf- ferers by the flood was then estimated at 43,000. On March 8th the Pointe Coupée levee gave way, changing the seene of destruction to central Louisiana. The water poured down the Atehafalaya, overflowing the Attakapas distriet, and ruining the finest sugar plantations of the state.
The water from the Mississippi began to run off during the last two weeks of March, but in lower Louisiana the flood continued to swell through the greater portion of April, and even when the rise ceased it subsided so slowly that it was late in June before many of the plantations were quite free from water. The flood may therefore be considered as having lasted fully five months. Over a hundred breaks or crevasses were caused by it, and 22,000 square miles of territory, with a population of 400,000, were overflowed. Re- lief bureaus were established by the Government during the early days of the disaster, and several hundred thousand dollars worth of rations were distrib- uted. In Louisiana this aid was supplemented by a relief commission which sent a fleet to the upper portion of the State to remove the people to safe ground, and to furnish forage for the stock, which was perishing by thousands. This fleet rescued many people from death by starvation or drowning.
According to the reports prepared by the police juries at the request of the governor, for the purpose of estimating the loss entailed upon Louisiana by the flood, it was shown that 28 out of 56 parishes were involved in it, the damage to erops of all kinds amounting to $11,408,000; that to stoek, fences, houses and household goods, levees and railroads, to $3,596,000; making a grand total of $15,004,000 loss in Louisiana alone. In Mississippi the loss was figured at
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STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
$6,701,000; in Arkansas, at $4,033,000; in Tennessee and other States, at $1,- 300,000 ; the amount for all being the pretty sum of $27,038,000.
The lessons of 1882 so forcibly demonstrated the necessity for good levees that since that time the work has been carried on with a vigor and persistency which has resulted in giving a nearly complete system of levees to Mississippi and Louisiana. In 1884 the flood caused but one important crevasse, which, however, was a very serious one. It occurred at the Davis plantation 22 miles above New Orleans, and was caused by the imperfect refilling of a rice flume cut in the old levee-a fertile cause of trouble now practically abolished-through which the water rushed, cutting out in a short space of time a gap of 1,000 feet. Through this immense opening the tide flowed in a converging stream that forced its way inland to the distance of several miles, spreading destruction in its path. The tracks of the Texas Pacific, and of the Morgan lines of railway, were soon submerged, and all traffic stopped. The two companies united in the effort to close the crevasse, but the force of the powerful current, and the masses of driftwood and debris which it hurled like a battering ram against the work, so blocked and impeded it as to compel its abandonment. The gap widened, the water spreading itself in a vast sheet of devastation over the coun- try, invading adjoining parishes, pouring into the town of Gretna, driving fam- ilies from their homes, and carrying destruction and misery wherever it ap- peared. The richest sugar district in the State was submerged, the flood ex- tending almost to the Gulf, and entailing a loss of over $5,000,000.
From 1866 to 1887 the cost of high water is computed to have been :
To the building and maintenance of levees $25,704,482.94 To crevasses and loss from floods. 71,827,600.00
Total cost of high water in twenty-one years $97,532,082.94
The Mississippi River Commission, created by act of Congress in 1879, and charged with the duty of suggesting a plan for the improvement of the river, and of supervising the work, has recognized the importance of levees as a factor in river improvement. From the early days of levees in Louisiana it has been observed that the river in the section where these were maintained was al- ways deep and unobstructed by bars. The Commission, in its first report, in- sisted forcibly upon this point,, and it has since lent liberal aid in the work of levec building. As a result of the greater care bestowed upon them the levees
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STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
have been able to withstand the force of the floods of the past fourteen or fifteen years, and so to protect from serious loss the property along the river. In 1893 the water reached a higher reading on the gauge than had ever before been re- corded, but it was kept well within control, and the few slight breaks were re- paired quickly and with comparatively little loss. The fight against high water may therefore be considered as won-though in this as in other contests against natural forces eternal vigilance is the price of security.
The following table, abridged from one included in a report of the Missis- sippi River Commission, gives the probabilities as calculated from the floods occurring within periods of from eighteen to twenty-five years, of high water at various points along the river where gauges are established :
Once in every ten years there may be expected :
Feet.
At Cairo, a flood of .
51.5
At Memphis, a flood of.
34.5
At Helena, a flood of. 46.5
Mouth of White River, flood of
47.5
At Vicksburg, flood of. 49.0
At Natchez, flood of . 48.0
At Red River Landing, flood of. 47.0
At Carrollton, flood of 15.6
The wharves are wooden structures, built against the levee, which is pro- tected by a bulkhead of plank. They are, in fact, stagings of plank, supported by piles twelve feet square, and fifty feet in length, which are driven down into the bed of the river by huge pile-drivers as far as possible, and cut off to the proper level. Caps of twelve foot timber are laid upon these, parallel with the bank, and bound together by stringers of 6x12 timber. On these, again parallel with the bank, are laid and firmly secured the planks which form the staging.
Since 1891 the wharves have been leased to a company known as the "Lou- isiana Improvement Company," which, in consideration of the revenues col- lected at rates fixed by the ordinance granting the lease, bound itself to expend during the first two years of its contract $465,000 in wharf improvements, to construct and keep in repair wharves, bulkheads and landings between Toledano and Piety streets, a distance of four miles, and to light the whole front by elec- tricity, the lights to be placed not less than 250 feet apart. They are also re- quired to maintain a depth of twenty-five feet of water at the extremes of their line, where sea-going vessels lie, and of twelve feet at the central portions which are used by river-craft. This lease expires in May, 1901.
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STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
The following information in regard to the wharves is derived from Mr. Gervais Lombard, engineer of the Orleans Levee Board :
"In 1893, in fact until May, 1897, when the water in the Mississippi river broke all previous records at New Orleans, reaching a stage of 19.5 feet on the Canal street gauge, the wharves and the levees immediately behind them were required to be kept up to a grade of 18.5 feet according to Canal street gauge, the zero of which is 2.5 feet below Mean Gulf Level. The Louisiana Improve- ment Company, who are the lessees of the wharves and landings, are bound by their contract with the city of New Orleans to maintain the wharves and ap- proaches to the same at said grade of 18.5 feet. When the water rose above this grade and completely covered the wharves in 1897, it was kept out of the city by a temporary levee or embankment constructed of sand bags. The int- mense shipping and commercial interests suffered great inconvenience for nearly a month, or until the water subsided.
" The Orleans Levee Board and the Port Commissioners adopted a new grade of 20.5 fect for the levees and wharves, and the wharf lessees, though not bound by contract to conform to this new grade, have raised the greater portion of the levee and a small portion of the wharves to 20.5 feet, and as any new work is done, or any repairs become necessary, the new grade is conformed to.
" In the latter part of 1897 the Orleans Levee Board, considering that some- thing must be done about the banks of the river in the lower Third district, which were caving and sliding into the river, because of the encroachment of the channel and the consequent stecpening of the bank, employed an engineer of considerable repute to devise some feasible plan for staying the encroachment. An elaborate system of continuous wharves was recommended, it having been observed that the wharf system had improved the commercial front of the city. Years before, the Third district had been considerably used as a landing place for the commerce of the city, but owing to the rapid and continued caving of the banks, and the consequent destruction of all wharves and improvements made upon them, the district was abandoned as a place of landing, and in obedience to the unwritten but universal law which governs such matters in all great cities, the improvements were moved farther up the stream. The wharves were at first built in the form of piers, projecting out into the river at right angles to the shore, but great trouble was experienced in maintaining them, owing to the fact that the resistance offered to the rapid current by the projecting ends created eddies which attacked and undermined the bank, causing the whole thing to
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STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
eave in. Later the plan of making the wharves continuous, and parallel to the bank, was adopted. By this method the wharves do not extend so far out into the stream, and so, offering less resistance to the current, are found to be more stable. Another, and perhaps the principal, reason for the diminished caving of the wharves may be found in the fact that the river has ceased to encroach upon the eastern banks where they are constructed, and is actually beginning to reccde, acording to the habit of the great Father of Waters,-which is to first cat away the banks on one side for a generation or two, then to replace them with interest during another one or two generations, while devouring large slices from the other side.
" The elaborate system of wharves recommended for the Third district has been duly constructed, thus extending the wharf system some 12 miles down stream, making a continuous stretch of wharves from the upper end of the Stuy- vesant docks, at Peniston street, to a point 100 feet below Egania street, a dis- tanee of 61 miles. The sucecss of the Third district wharf system, which was construeted in an unusually substantial manner, is still in the balance, some signs of failure having become apparent after the flood season of 1898, althoughi the United States government had gone to great expense to assist in proteeting the banks by means of mattresses of woven willow brush, loaded with rock, and sunk along the shore linc."
The width of the river in front of New Orleans varies from 1,500 to 3,000 feet, and the length of the harbor in actual use for steamers and shipping is about seven miles on either shore. In 1880 there were on the left bank, where the greater part of the active commeree is carried on, 66 wharves capable of ae- commodating large steamers two abreast, or sail vessels four abreast, and a wharf for river and coasting steamers and barges of nearly 13 miles front. This central wharf or levee forms a large plaza several squares wide, and extending from Julia street to St. Louis, and is what is usually meant when "the levee" is spoken of. It consists of three divisions, the Grain levee, at the head of Poydras street, the Cotton levee, at the head of Canal street, and the Sugar levee, at the head of Conti street. In former years, before the establishment of eommereial exchanges, much of the buying and selling was transaeted on this great levce, which, during the busy season, presented a seene of bustling activity. It is often remarked that the wharves are no longer crowded as they once were with cotton bales, barrels and hogsheads of sugar and molasses, and with other pro- duee of fields and factories. This, however, does not indicate that the cotton
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STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
and produce no longer come to New Orleans, or come in reduced quantity. On the contrary, they are brought in vastly increased quantities, but the methods of handling have been so improved that the wharves never appear crowded. Formerly, for instance, cotton was brought down the river by steamboats, of which there were great numbers, and which, during the height of the season, would arrive piled to the hurricane deck with tiers of bales. These were all un- loaded upon the wharves, and reloaded upon drays or "floats," which transferred them to the presses. When ready for shipment they were all again loaded upon floats and hauled back to the wharves where the ocean steamers lay waiting for their cargo. Now the greater portion of the produce is brought in by rail, and each railroad has a port or terminal dock facilities, with great elevators and all the modern machinery for handling freight in the cheapest and most expeditious manner.
Reference has been made to the "making" of the bank on one side of the river. The ground thus added is called "batture," and the city front has been ex- tended considerably between the old Place d' Armes,-now Jackson Square, -- and the foot of Felicity street, since the settlement of the city, amounting, at its greatest width, near the foot of Delord street, to nearly 1,500 feet. The cus- tom now is to follow up the batture by an annual extension of the wharves, the earth being filled in behind them to the level of the levee.
Several law suits have grown out of disputes between the proprietor to whose land the batture has been added, and the corporation, as to the ownership of the alluvion, or newly-made ground. The most notable of these suits is that brought by John Gravier for possession of the batture in front of his property in the Faubourg Ste. Marie. This batture had long remained open to the pub- lic, and persons wishing for sand and earth wherewith to fill up their own low lots, had been accustomed to obtain it from Mr. Gravier's alluvion without even the ceremony of asking leave. When, therefore, Mr. Gravier fenced in a portion of this ground, and went even to the length of selling other portions, the public felt itself aggrieved, and the proprietor was compelled to have recourse to law in order to establish his title. He engaged Mr. Edward Livingston, the cele- brated constitutional lawyer, who had recently become a resident of New Or- leans, to defend his claim, which Mr. Livingston thought so good that he himself purchased a portion of the disputed ground, and proceeded to improve it. This excited the community to such an extent that, notwithstanding the decision of the court in favor of Gravier, they determined to drive off the intruder by force
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STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW O ORLEANS.
of arms. Rallying by thousands to the beat of a drum they marched to the dis- puted territory, and were only dispersed by the appeals and entreaties of Gov- ernor Claiborne, who promised to have the whole matter referred to the United States government. This was done, with the result of bringing on a long and acrimonious dispute in which Jefferson took an active part both as President and as attorney for the government after his retirement from office. The case was finally decided in favor of Gravier and Livingston, but neither of them de- rived much benefit from the property in dispute, as other heirs of Bertrand Gra- vier, from whom John claimed to have inherited his title, put in a claim, and the litigants were forced to compromise both with these new claimants and with the corporation.
CHAPTER VII.
THE CREOLES.
BY HENRY RIGHTOR.
A N intelligent understanding of the meaning of the word Creole, as used in Louisiana, must hark back, through bewildering etymological mutations, to the original and genuine sense, thie etymon, of the word as used in the Spanish colonies years before the complex society of the earliest settlements at New Orleans and vicinity decreed the necessity for a differentiating nomencla- ture, describing the different kinds of peoples, and gave rise to its employment. Etymologists are agreed that the word, in its remotest philological analysis, comes from the Latin creare, to create (Spanish criollo) implying, in a sense, creations of the mother country in a new clime, Creoles; yet, whatever be the genesis of the word, it will come home to one who laboriously studies the writ- ings referring to the subject (I will not say authorities, for, in all sincerity, there are none) that, while etymologically the word has a very distinct and, to the impartial philologist, unequivocal meaning, to the great body even of well informed writers as well as to the mass of mankind, the word means nothing. Nor is this to be wondered at when we consider how few words possess narrow and explicit meanings, even the word man, describing originally the ideal type, intellectually and physically symmetrical, having come to be the common symbol for athletes and cripples, philosophers and pickpockets.
The general misunderstanding of the word, prevailing even among scholars, is exemplified in the definition given in the Century Dictionary, wherein the following appears: "In Louisiana: (a) originally a native descended from French ancestors, who had settled there; later, any native of French or Spanish descent by either parent ; a person belonging to the French-speaking portion of the white race. (b) A native-born negro, as distinguished from a negro brought from Africa."
To the first part of this definition, namely, that the original signification in Louisiana of the word "Creole" was that of a native descended from French
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