Johnson Named Queen of Catahoula Soybean Festival - 1958

Monroe News Star - 10/10/1958

Monstrous Bear Killed in Catahoula Parish, 1894

The following article appeared in the July 21, 1894 edition of the Logansport Chronicle in Logansport, Indiana:

Transcription:

Even in Death the Monstrous Bear Hung to His Victim.

The largest bear killed in this country for many years became the trophy of a party of hunters on Ouachita river, a few miles above Trinity, La.  On Sicily Island there have been signs of a bear for several months past, and all efforts to capture him have failed.  Finally a party was organized to hunt for bruin.

Twenty men and a pack of trained dogs started, and the island was carefully explored, but without success.  They then went down on the Bone river and the Little river and could find no trace of him.  A search along the Black river resulted in disappointment, and the party started up the Ouachita, all of these streams uniting here.  The trail of the bear was soon found, and the leading dog could be heard barking in a way indicating that the tracks were fresh ones.

Logansport Chronicle - 7/21/1894

In a few minutes they had the animal treed in a large cypress.  He crouched in the forks of the tree and snarled at the dogs and the hunters. One of the men who had never been on a bear hunt before went closer to the tree and fired, with a result that he had not anticipated.  In a moment the animal fell from the tree and in another moment he had the hunter in his close embrace.

Then followed an exciting dance.  The other hunters were afraid to shoot for fear they would kill their companion, and it looked for a time as if the man would inevitably be crushed to death, but one of the men with a large hunter's knife succeeded in cutting the bruin's throat and killing him almost instantly.  

Even in death he hung to his victim and it took the united efforts of two of the hunters to release their comrade, who was so exhausted that it was feared he could not recover.  However, he is now getting along well, although one arm and one rib are broken.  The bear weighed 600 pounds, and the hunters are very proud of their success in killing him.

*Note:  I have never heard of the Bone River that is mentioned in this article.  Was this a misprint by the newspaper or was there once a Bone River in Catahoula Parish back in the 1890s?

Harrisonburg Students Tapped for Mu Sigma, 1936

Monroe Morning World - 4/12/1936

Excavation of Prehistoric Indian Mounds in Catahoula and Avoyelles Parishes - 1939

Monroe News Star - 1/29/1939

The following article appeared in the January 29, 1939 issue of the Monroe News Star:

Transcription:

Old Home Sites Being Probed In Catahoula And Avoyelles By Scientists

A group of WPA workers, digging for prehistoric relics in the famed Indian mounds of central-eastern Louisiana, have traced the history of mankind in the Mississippi valley back almost 1,200 years.

Directed by Professor J. A. Ford of Louisiana State University, these workers assigned to the WPA archaeological survey have thousands of archaeological artifacts to show for almost a year of labor; bits of broken pottery, projectile points or arrowheads, beads, skeletons and hundreds of photographs and observations.

"The Indians who habitated the Mississippi valley when white men first came here around 1700," explained Professor Ford, "were living in what we now identify as the Natchez period.  The people before that were never seen by white men, therefore their history can be obtained only through the study of relics of their civilization."

"Archaeologists have estimated that the Natchez period extended from 1500 to 1700 A. D., and the Marksville period, from about 800 to 1000 A. D."

"We have found pottery and other relics which we have established as belonging to the early Marksville period."

The WPA workers are now excavating at sites in Catahoula and Avoyelles parishes.  In Catahoula parish they have found an Indian burial mound and garbage pit from the early Marksville period from which they have uncovered 118 fairly well preserved skeletons.

From their study of the artifacts, the archaeologists have established these facts: that the people of the Marksville period were slender and small of stature, apparently showing a Mediterranean strain; that they were farmers; that their houses were made of wood, built into slight excavations and covered with dirt; that they buried their dead.

They may have been warlike, or at least lived in fear of attack, because the searchers have found traces of fortifications around what presumably were Indian villages.

By the time of the Coles Creek period, however, the attitude and characteristics of the people had changed.  For instance, in mounds which contained relics definitely identified with the Coles Creek period, the WPA workers found no traces of fortifications.  Instead of burial mounds, they found what appeared to be crematoriums.  There also was a distinct difference in style and art.

From a mound in Avoyelles parish, the WPA workers uncovered traces of what appeared to be a ceremonial square.  It was surrounded by the remains of six rectangular pyramids.  Scientists can only guess that atop these pyramids were thatched temples, adorned by three wooden birds.

"The first white men told of finding similar pyramids," explained Professor Ford. "With these new discoveries we can guess that the custom dated back into the Coles Creek period for several hundred years.  It is also significant that bits of pottery identified with this period were decorated with the picture of a bird."

Interesting discoveries in Avoyelles parish were the remains of two villages, about a mile apart, which obviously belonged to two prehistoric periods.

The first belonged to the Marksville period.  It was built on what once were the shores of a lake, probably cut by the changing course of the Mississippi river.  The village must have faced a high bluff with fortifications on three sides.  A mile away the WPA workmen found traces of another village, which belonged to both periods.

"There was the transition from one period to another," explained Ford.  "Some of the artifacts we found belonged to the Marksville, others to the Cole Creek period. In this mound we found the ceremonial square, the crematorium and the pottery and beads."

The excavating and laboratory work on the archaeological survey project is exceedingly exacting.  When a mound is located it is carefully surveyed in five-foot squares.  The stakes which mark these squares are numbered.  The excavators literally peel off five foot slices of earth.

As each discovery is made, no matter how minute, it is carefully located on a contour map, photographed and surveyed.  Strata of the earth is carefully studied.  As articles are removed from the mound they are given a symbol by the archaeologist supervising the work and sent to the laboratory in New Orleans.

There they are analyzed, classified and card indexed.  Bits of pottery from the same classification are pieced together.  The contour maps sent from the field are transferred onto larger maps.  Draftsmen make blue prints and charts by the dozens.

Bit by bit the story of prehistoric man unfolded.

"We have located hundreds of mounds in Louisiana," said Professor Ford. "We hope to excavate the sites in Catahoula and Avoyelles parishes before the spring floods.  Then we will go into north Louisiana.  We hope to outline a fairly comprehensive history of the Mississippi valley, of which we now know very little."

The jobless men and women who have been given work on the archaeological survey come from varied trades and professions.  They are clerks, statisticians, draftsmen, artists, photographers.  Mostly they are laborers, recruited from WPA projects in the vicinity of the mounds.  They have been painstakingly schooled and after several months' work, have become very proficient.

They are finding it interesting work.  But one man, who was assigned to an excavation crew working on a mound near Catahoula lake, asked for a transfer.

He wrote the WPA employment office in Alexandria:

"It ain't right to bother all them dead folks.  That place is ha'nted."

Monroe News Star - 1/29/1939

Earlier posts on the Indians of Catahoula Parish can be found at the links below:

Giants in Catahoula Parish?

Jonesville - Community Life in the Early Years

Land of Beautiful Water

National Register of Historic Places - Ferry Plantation

Lovelace Plantation - Where the French Overcame the Natchez Indians in Louisiana

Tracing a Bygone Race in Catahoula Parish

Giants in Catahoula Parish?

The following article was published in the June 22, 1933 edition of the Reno Evening Gazette in Reno, Nevada:

Transcription:

Reno Evening Gazette - 6/22/1933

"There were giants in the earth in those days," four thousand years or so ago in Palestine, according to the biblical account, and now comes the United States with skeletons of Indians to prove that Palestine had no monopoly in the giant business.  The sons of Anak may have been tall, but in Catahoula parish, Louisiana, two members of a Smithsonian Institute exploring party have uncovered from fifteen to twenty skeletons at Larto lake, all of which are said to be more than seven feet tall, which would be hard for Anakites to beat.

That this region was one of importance in the history of tribal migrations in America has long been maintained by investigators. At Natchez on the Mississippi side of the great river is the locale that is asserted by some students of anthropology to be the original home of the Aztecs, who, they believe, went from the lower Mississippi valley either by water or by land to Mexico and conquered, according to this theory, the original inhabitants of Mexican, gradually seizing the towns and fertile lands.

The most interesting feature of the discovery at Larto lake, however, is that very tall men actually did live in the southern part of the Mississippi region.  No legends of giants have survived among the Indians who remain in the territory, although among the Negroes there great stories are narrated about witches and demons and "ha'nts," by which they mean ghosts and devils.  It is such discoveries as this by the Smithsonian party that reveal how little is really known about the early history of North America before the white man came.

Larto Lake in southern Catahoula Parish - DOTD map

Larto Lake

Earlier posts on the Indians of Catahoula Parish can be found at the links below:


Jonesville - Community Life in the Early Years

Land of Beautiful Water

National Register of Historic Places - Ferry Plantation

Lovelace Plantation - Where the French Overcame the Natchez Indians in Louisiana

Tracing a Bygone Race in Catahoula Parish

Treasure Pot Origin Told, 1936

Monroe News Star - 4/21/1936

Enterprise News from December 1959

Catahoula News - 12/10/1959

Sicily Island Graduation - 1962

Monroe News Star - 5/22/1962

From the 1962 El Tigre yearbook:

Graduation program from 1962:

Attempted Double Assassination at Sicily Island, 1906

In an earlier post about the history and renovation of the Pine Hill Plantation House, I transcribed a newspaper article which appeared in the November 28, 1982 edition of the News-Star World.

The article mentioned a tragedy that was believed to have happened at the Pine Hill residence involving a 'Mr. Stewart'...

Mr. Stewart had come to Catahoula with the gas industry.  In the short period he was there, he gained the respect of area residents.  One ill-fated night, he escorted a young Sicily Island woman to the Pine Hill dance.  Unknown to the young couple was the fact that a local youth was in love with the girl.  He waited outside the house for them to leave the dance.  As they walked onto the front steps, Mr. Stewart was mortally wounded. The murderer mounted his horse and vanished into the night, according to one popular version of the story.  The young girl was totally innocent, that was the irony of the entire matter.

Could this 'Mr. Stewart' be the Charles Lee Stewart killed in Sicily Island in March of 1906?

New Orleans News - 3/13/1906

If this is the same 'Mr. Stewart', it appears that the murder occurred at the Tom Hardin residence and not at Pine Hill Plantation.

Thomas Leo "Tom" Hardin was the son of Dr. John Calvin Hardin whose home was located just a few miles down the road from the Pine Hill Plantation.

Hardin House

Is the Hardin house pictured above where the shooting actually occurred?

Dr. Hardin was still alive in 1906 when the shooting occurred but where he was living is in question. The article says the shooting occurred in the home of Tom Hardin.

The 1900 U.S. census shows Dr. Hardin and his wife and two of their children living at the home pictured above.  Tom had married Florence Meyers in 1898 and by 1900 one of their six children had been born.  He and his family lived about five houses down the road from his parents.

U.S. Census - 1900

At some point after the 1900 census, Dr. Hardin, his wife and two of their children moved to Harrisonburg.  The 1910 U.S. census shows Dr. Hardin and family living in Ward 7/Harrisonburg on Water Street.

U.S. Census - 1910

I have been unable to find a 1910 census record for Tom Hardin.

It is possible that Dr. Hardin and family were living in Harrisonburg in 1906 and Tom and family were living in his father's house pictured above.  Or perhaps the article was incorrect and should have stated that the shooting occurred in the home of Dr. Hardin.

From the November 3, 1906 edition of the Donaldsonville Chief we learn the fate of the young man who was arrested for the attempted double assassination:

Donaldsonville Chief - 11/3/1906

If anyone has information on where this shooting actually occurred please leave a comment below or email me at Rootsfromthebayou@gmail.com.

A note to my friend, Dawn, who currently lives in the Hardin house:  Maybe you should pay more attention to those unexplained noises you hear!


A special 'thank you' goes out to David Newland for sharing these newspaper articles with me.

Flooding of the Mighty Mississippi, Part Two - The 1880s

Mississippi River at Natchez - 2014

Catahoula Parish experienced flooding at least two times during the 1880s.  In its efforts to reach the Gulf of Mexico, the mighty Mississippi River carried its overflow from the north into the Lower Mississippi River Valley in 1882 and in 1884.

The Flood of 1882

In one of the early reports of flooding, the Daily Globe of St. Paul, MN posted the following on February 15, 1882:

Daily Globe - 2/15/1882

The Evening Critic of Washington, D.C. reported the following on March 1, 1882:

Evening Critic - 3/1/1882

Salt Lake Herald - 3/30/1882

Vermont Phoenix - 3/10/1882

"There is also some trouble, and prospect of more, in Louisiana.  The river does not yet seem to have reached its height there, but the levees are overflowed in some places, and the backing up of water in the Red river and its tributaries is causing the overflow of a good deal of land in the western part of the state." - Vermont Phoenix of Brattleboro, VT on March 10, 1882

The Salt Lake Herald of Salt Lake City, UT reported on March 30, 1882, "The hills of Catahoula parish are crowded with people and cattle."

The Indianapolis State Sentinnel of Indianapolis, IN posted the following report from The Times-Democrat's Troy, LA on April 5, 1882:

Indianapolis St Sentinnel - 4/5/1882

"The water here is three feet, ten inches above the 1874 flood. The boat rescuing cattle is supposed to have gone down in the storm of Monday on Catahoula Lake with 100 head.  The hills in Catahoula Parish are crowded with people and cattle.  The people dwell in pine pole huts.  The water continues rising at the rate of three-quarter inches per day, and in many places has reached the eaves of the houses, compelling the people to move out.  

At Lindell Place, on Black River, the high wind on Monday partly unroofed a gin house in which were twelve families, and nearly overtunred the building, greatly alarming the occupants. A man named McAdam asked to be taken from his house with his family and forty hogs, the wind threatening its destrucktion, but refused to leave without the stock. The waves raised by the winds shook the houses to the foundation.

The Times-Democrat steamer left the Black River and steamed down lanes, over fields and through quarters of several plantations, exciting the wonderment of the people who crowded the lofts of gin houses.  The boat ran two miles and a half inland, the waves of the boat splashing through rooms of deserted houses."  

On February 23, 1987, John McPhee described the 1882 flood in the New Yorker Magazine:

"In 1882 came the most destructive flood of the nineteenth century.  After breaking the levees in two hundred and eighty-four crevasses, the water spread out as much as seventy miles.  In the fertile lands on the two sides of Old River [Louisiana], plantations were deeply submerged, and livestock survived in flatboats." 

The Flood of 1884

The River Press of Ft. Benton, MT reported on March 5, 1884:

"For hundreds of miles above and below the country [Shreveport area] is reported under water, and great damage has been done."

River Press - 3/5/1884

 S. B. Walters reports on conditions at Troyville, "The country is submerged.  People and stock need relief." - Albuquerque Morning Journal of Albuquerque, NM on March 26, 1884

Albuquerque Morning Journal - 3/26/1884

From the National Tribune in Washington, D.C. on May 22, 1884:

Appeals for relief continue to pour in upon the Secretary of War and upon General J. Lloyd King from residents of the flooded districts of North Louisiana.  Almost the entire congressional district represented by General King, an area larger than the entire state of New Jersey, is under water, and the condition of affairs there is most distressing.  

A letter from Mrs. H. E. Bowman, postmistress at Wild Wood, Catahoula parish, says that the nearest dry land is thirty miles distant.

National Tribune Washington DC - 5/22/1884

*This post is part two in a series of posts in which an attempt will be made to document the history of flooding in Catahoula Parish caused by the overflow of the Mighty Mississippi River.  Occurrences will be presented using maps, newspaper articles, photographs and reports from the State Library of Louisiana and other collections from the sources linked below each post. 

Introduction
Part One


Sources:
chroniclingamerica.loc.gov
New Yorker Magazine

Pine Hill Plantation House - History and Renovation

The above photograph and the following article written by staff writer, Max Hill appeared in the November 28, 1982 edition of the News-Star World.

Transcription:

It's been a persistent legend in Catahoula Parish for 75 years.

Pine Hill Plantation house - long abandoned and all but forgotten but said to be filled with spirits too restless to accept death.

As far back as 75 years ago, Pine Hill was referred to by local children as the "Haunted House."  Even then, it was abandoned and in a state of disrepair.  

No one lived there as a reminder it had once been the center of a social life with ties to New Orleans and Natchez culture.

No one was there to tell of the days when guests to elegant balls and dinners filled its rooms.
There was only mute evidence that a prestigious family had once called it home, or once filled it with the trappings of Southern aristocracy.

The once-elegant structure was suffering from neglect and the ravages of time.  A tree fell through the dining room windows around the turn of the century, forming a ladder by which vandals and sightseers could enter and pilfer any remaining possessions.

Will Peck, the man who knows more about Pine Hill than any other person in the area - on the basis of family ties and a life-long interest in the house - has taken up residence there.

Peck says he has always heard stories of mysterious phenomena at the house, but reports few unexplainable occurrences have taken place during the five years he has been living there.

Today, there is new life in the house with restoration work in progress.  But still an aura envelops the house, keeping alive the mystery which may have been a key factor in its preservation.

If there had not been rumors of ghosts, the structure may well have been destroyed by scavengers or arsonists.

Lucky for historians that the house still stands, because in addition to the myths surrounding it, Pine Hill played an historic role based on fact.

Norris Springs - 2011

The house is located near one of the most historic spots in Catahoula Parish and northeastern Louisiana--Norris Springs. The natural springs have been mentioned in almost every history of the state as a water source for Indians and local residents.

For unknown centuries, the springs were the center of life for indigenous Indians.  As white men entered the area in the mid-1700s, they were quick to realize the importance of the springs.

Peck says the road which runs directly beside the springs and Pine Hill was an extension of the El Camino Real during periods of high water.

Norris Springs - 2011

The El Camino Real was the main Spanish road that ran from the Mississippi River to Santa Fe, NM. A variety of wayfarers must have stopped to refresh themselves with the icy water as they marched westward.

One of those early adventurers who decided to settle in the area was John Bowie.  He was the original inhabitant of Pine Hill plantation, named it and began the first house there.

Bowie was the uncle of Jim Bowie -- inventor of the Bowie knife -- who met death at the hands of Santa Anna's troops in 1836 at the Alamo Mission in San Antonio.

The younger Bowie was a resident of Catahoula Parish and a frequent visitor to Pine Hill Plantation.

John Bowie sold the plantation in 1822 to Zachariah Kirkland, who completed the current structure in 1825.  The house was built on a portion of an original Spanish land grant.

Pine Hill house is built in a style known primarily in the West Indies, the most important of a number of reasons the house is noteworthy in Louisiana architectural circles.

It was constructed high on a hill which overlooked the entire farm.  Main floor rooms are elevated over two brick basements.  There are five rooms and an enclosed porch upstairs.

The unusual basements were utilized mainly for storage in the days when a plantation had to be completely self-sufficient.  Still intact are bars over the windows to prevent animals from entering the food supply rooms.

Peck says the West Indies architecture was unusual in this part of the state; however, he adds, there was a rational explanation for its utilization at Pine Hill.

"These people were closely akin to the Spanish in New Orleans.  Governor Gayosa was responsible for many of the land grants here and on Sicily Island," he says.

Kirkland lived at Pine Hill until his death a decade later.  His widow, Harriet Perry Kirkland, lived there until her death past the age of 90.

Following the death of Mrs. Kirkland's first husband, she married a "Dr. Norris," who bequeathed his name to the house, springs and community.

Mrs. Norris was well known throughout the state as one of the wealthiest women of her day.  She was also acquainted and related to many prominent people throughout the state.

The house was refined with imported millwork and conveniences during the time Dr. and Mrs. Norris lived there.  A brick-paved circular driveway, complete with carriage landing, was constructed.  The original brick walk has been unearthed during recent renovations.

There also was a continuous stream of interesting people visiting there during Dr. Norris' lifetime. Stephen F. Austin stopped on his way to Texas long enough to borrow money to finance the remainder of the journey.  He left his desk with the family as collateral, Peck says.

Mrs. Norris was considered the matriarch of many Catahoula Parish families.  She was a staunch supporter of the Confederacy during the Civil War and on occasion hid Rebel troops in her brick storerooms.

Confederate agents, scouting out the countryside following the fall of Louisiana, camped on her property, Peck said.

"She was really taking a chance in allowing this.  If the Federals had found out, she could have been ruined," Peck says.

During Reconstruction, the house was used as a relay station in a most unusual spy network.
Federal officials, anxious to arrest pro-Southern sympathizers, made several fruitless trips to Catahoula Parish.

"They never could figure out why the prominent men always eluded capture," Peck says.

According to local legend, a woman in Monroe who owned a river boat alerted the Southerners to impending danger.  She would travel by boat to Boeuf Prairie in Franklin Parish and send a relay messenger to Mrs. Norris at Pine Hill.

"This Belle Watling-type character saved many Catahoula men from Yankee jails," Peck says, referring to the classy madam in "Gone With The Wind."

Social events for which Mrs. Norris had been famous continued at the house until the early 1900s. Dances were held in the upstairs rooms for the young people of Sicily Island.

And then, around the turn of the century, a young man who had only recently moved to the area was murdered at the house.

Peck said that a "Mr. Stewart" had come to Catahoula with the gas industry.  In the short period he was there, he gained the respect of area residents.

One ill-fated night, he escorted a young Sicily Island woman to the Pine Hill dance.  Unknown to the young couple was the fact that a local youth was in love with the girl.

He waited outside the house for them to leave the dance.  As they walked onto the front steps, Mr. Stewart was mortally wounded.

The murderer mounted his horse and vanished into the night, according to one popular version of the story.

"The young girl was totally innocent, that was the irony of the entire matter." Peck says.

After Mrs. Norris' death, Pine Hill remained an empty shell for a number of years.  From time to time, tenants would live there, but never for any great length of time.

But work is currently underway to restore the front veranda and to repair other deteriorating features.
Peck intends to open the house to the public for seven months during the New Orleans World Fair in 1984.  He plans to make available the upstairs to overnight guests who wish to take a trip into the past.

Whether there are ghosts at Pine Hill remains a mystery.  Peck will not comment on any unusual happenings during his time at the house.

"Ghosts?  All I can say is Grandmother Norris has to be here.  Without her, the house would never have survived," he says.

Pine Hill Plantation House - 2011

Newspaper article and photograph are courtesy of Karen Barron Egloff.