The Flood of 1927

From Sicily Island:  A Partial History, compiled by Mickie Smith:

The fall of 1926 brought rainy weather, and continued into 1927.  In six months, the area received a full year's average rainfall.  Naturally, the rivers and bayous spilled over their banks, covering the low area with back water.  Then the levees broke in several places, and the flood waters began pouring in!  

Louisiana Flood of 1927

Sicily Island lived up to it's name, for it was an island surrounded by water.  The water came up in the railroad ditches, and the drainage ditches out of town had water in them, but the land stayed dry of the flood waters.  The area became a reversed oasis for the people living in the flood prone areas.  Instead of seeking water, they were seeking dry land.  

Crossing the Bayous and Rivers

From Sicily Island:  A Partial History, compiled by Mickie Smith:

Ferries were a necessity for travelers crossing the bayous and rivers.  In ward one and two there were several ferries, most of which were public ones, owned by the Police Jury and then leased to operators.  The 'buyers' or operators of the ferries were required to give bond of $1,000.00, which was later lowered to $300.00.  The ferries were at one time auctioned on October twentieth, then later changed to December the first, with the 'buyer' beginning operation on January the first.  The 'buyer' had to "well and faithfully perform his duties as such ferryman and also that he will keep good boats with substantial railings".

In 1875, these were the rates for crossing the Bayou Louis ferry:

5 cents - each mule, horse or an animal of the cow kind
3 cents - each hog, sheep or goat
5 cents - each foot man
10 cents - each wagon, cart or carriage; not more than 2 animals attached, with load and persons

Transportation, Early to Mid-1800s

from Sicily Island:  A Partial History, compiled by Mickie Smith:

Keelboat

Since there were no roads, and the only inland travel was by the Indian trails, the early settlers settled close to the waterways in order to have transportation.  

 

Though keelboats, rafts and flatboats had come into Bayou Louis, the first steamboat to venture from the Ouachita River into this bayou and up to the head of Lake Louis, was the "Independence" in 1820-21.  Due to the Catahoula Shoals or rapids, most of the boats could only run on the river during the winter and spring months while the water was high. 

Bears, Panthers, Wolves, Gators, White Perch....Sicily Island in the early 1850s

Dr. A. R. Kilpatrick writing in De Bow's Review, vol. 12 about Sicily Island in the early 1850s :

Bears were very numerous and the meat formed an important article of the settlers diet.  The oil was used for cooking, and to grease leather, machinery; also used medicinally, and to dress the hair of the beaux and belles.  The skins were used for many domestic purposes, and also as articles of commerce.  In G. W. Lovelace's mercantile books, is seen this bill of articles, shipped on a keel or flatboat, in 1813; Bear skins, 243; Deer skins, 450; Beaver skins, 28.

The bear, when very fat, weigh from 500 to 700 pounds.  It has been repeatedly asserted by old hunters, that no person has ever found a she bear with cubs in her womb.  But Henry and Stephen Holstein, on Sicily Island, state positively that they have seen the young frequently about the size of a large flat bean, but perfectly formed.  They were instructed by the Indians how to search for them.  When the cubs are first born, they are not as large as a grown rat, and are devoid of hair or fur, like a young rat.  

Several citizens of Sicily Island went, in the month of Nov. 1851, on a bear hunt, up in the swamps of Franklin Parish, taking about thirty hounds and curs, an ox-team and wagon, two negroes, plenty of tents, bedding corn and other necessaries, and were out more than two weeks, killing ten bear and five deer.  They would have killed more, but unluckily their best dog was killed, and the others so much crippled that they were compelled to quit.  The region of country where they hunted was so low, flat and wet, that they could not haul their meat away; so they constructed a scaffold ten feet high, salted the meat away upon it, covered it with a tent, and so left it, hoping at some time to get it away.