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    Slow Travels-Louisiana
    Slow Travels-Louisiana
    Slow Travels-Louisiana
    Ebook299 pages3 hours

    Slow Travels-Louisiana

    By Lyn Wilkerson

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    About this ebook

    This version of Slow Travels-Louisiana takes the driver on an historical journey through Louisiana. U.S. 61 follows the Great River Road from Miss. to New Orleans, U.S. 80 retraces the Vicksburg, Shreveport, & Pacific Railroad from Vicksburg to the Texas Line, U.S. 84 explores the old Texas Road from Natchez to Logansport, and U.S. 90 retraces the Old Spanish Trail through Southern Louisiana.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLyn Wilkerson
    Release dateAug 22, 2010
    ISBN9781452397290
    Slow Travels-Louisiana
    Author

    Lyn Wilkerson

    Caddo Publications USA was created in 2000 to encourage the exploration of America’s history by the typical automotive traveler. The intent of Caddo Publications USA is to provide support to both national and local historical organizations as historical guides are developed in various digital and traditional print formats. Using the American Guide series of the 1930’s and 40’s as our inspiration, we began to develop historical travel guides for the U.S. in the 1990’s.

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      Slow Travels-Louisiana - Lyn Wilkerson

      Routes Contained in This Guide

      U.S. Highway 61

      The Great River Road

      U.S. Highway 80

      Dixie Overland Highway

      U.S. Highway 84

      El Camino Real East/West Corridor

      U.S. Highway 90

      Old Spanish Trail

      U.S. Highway 61

      U.S. Highway 61 follows the route of the El Camino Real, a road developed by the Spanish to connect settlements along the Mississippi River. The terrain consists mainly of low hills and flat plantation land. Upon crossing the state line, the highway enters Feliciana country. This region was settled in the late eighteenth century. It is generally conceded to be one of the richest districts in the South. The country differs from most of southern Louisiana in that its early settlers were largely of Anglo-Saxon descent, rather than Latin. Between 1763 and 1770, veterans of the French and Indian War were given land grants in West Florida and settled here. After the American Revolution began, hundreds of English patriots migrated to this Spanish section.

      Mississippi State Line

      Junction with Old Laurel Hill Road (2.5 miles south of Mississippi Line on U.S. 61)

      Side Trip to Laurel Hill (Old Laurel Hill Road South)

      Laurel Hill (0.6 mile south on Old Laurel Hill Road)

      Points of Interest:

      St. John’s Church (0.1 mile north of Laurel Hill)

      This chapel was erected in 1873.

      Laurel Hill Plantation (1 mile east of Laurel Hill on Harris Corner Road)

      This is the home of the Argue family. The house was constructed between 1820 and 1830 on a Spanish grant of 216 acres.

      McCausland Cemetery (3.5 miles east on Harris Corner Road, 0.5 mile north on LA 967)

      A monument was erected here by the Federal Government in honor of General Robert McCausland (1771-1851). General McCausland lived for many years on his West Feliciana plantation.

      Wakefield (5 miles south of Old Laurel Road (North end) on U.S. 61)

      The community of Wakefield is named for the plantation established here by Lewis Stirling in 1833. Stirling died in 1858, followed by his widow, Sarah Turnbull, in 1875. Four heirs were left with equal shares in the estate, with an astounding provision that the house was to be divided into three parts. Mrs. John Lobdell retained the portion that occupies the original site. The upper portion of the home was removed and remodeled into residences. One, at Woodhill Farm, still stands.

      Point of Interest:

      Woodhill Farm (0.8 mile north on U.S. 61)

      This was formerly part of the Wakefield Plantation. The Woodhill House was built in 1878 from materials taken from the upper portion of the Wakefield home. To the rear is the Doctor’s Spring, where John James Audubon and Dr. John B. Hereford spent many hours studying birds.

      Side Trip to Island Plantation (Island Road West)

      Island Plantation (1.2 miles west on Island Road, left on rural road for 1.5 miles)

      This island house was destroyed by fire. The plantation takes its name from an island that used to exist in Bayou Sara.

      Site of Oak Grove (1 miles south of Wakefield on U.S. 61)

      Oak Grove was established by Dr. John Hereford of Virginia in 1828. The old house burned in 1930.

      Rosale Plantation (0.6 mile south of Oak Grove on U.S. 61)

      This estate was once also known as Eqypt Plantation and China Lodge. It was established by Alexander Stirling, father of Lewis, under a Spanish grant in the late eighteenth century. The place was bought by David Barrow for his son-in-law Robert Hilliard Barrow. The original house burned in 1885.

      Cottage Plantation (1.1 miles south of Rosale Plantation on U.S. 61)

      This was the site of The Cottage, which was destroyed by fire. It was owned by the descendants of Judge Thomas Butler, who bought the plantation in 1811. The Spanish document by which the land was granted, signed by the Baron de Carondelet, is dated 1795. General Andrew Jackson and his staff stopped here on their way north from the Battle of New Orleans in 1815.

      Catalpa (0.2 mile south of Cottage Lane on U.S. 61)

      The white cottage located here was built in the 1890’s on the site of the former house.

      Afton Villa (0.9 mile south of Catalpa Lane on U.S. 61)

      The entrance to Afton Villa was located here. The Victorian-Gothic house burned down in 1963. It is said that, during the War between the States, passing Union troops thought the entrance was the gateway to a cemetery and did not enter. The 40-room mansion was built by David Barrow in 1849 for his second wife. It was built around a cottage which his father constructed when he came to West Feliciana in 1820. The family cemetery, containing the tomb of David Barrow, can be seen in the garden.

      Bains (0.6 mile south of Afton Villa Road on U.S. 61)

      Louisiana Highway 66 is also known as the Tunica Trace, traveling west through the Tunica Hills to the Mississippi River. This was previously known as Pinkneyville Road and was designated as Louisiana Highway 124.

      Points of Interest:

      Clover Hill (1.1 mile east on Marydale Road)

      The present house was built in the 1870’s on land granted in 1798 by the Spanish Government to Don Bernardo McDermott. Tales are told of merry gatherings at Clover Hill in the days before the American Civil War. One of them concerns a barrel of whiskey which always stood on the gallery of the house that preceded the present structure and was often the center of riotous entertainment. On one occasion, a tardy guest arrived on the scene just in time to prevent the interment of an earlier arrival, who had lapsed into unconsciousness and had been duly declared dead by sorrowing but muddled companions. A yawning grave had been dug by frightened slaves who realized the situation but could do nothing about it. The Clover Hill house stands near the edge of a deep bluff. The plantation was owned by the Lawrason family after 1883.

      Waverly (0.1 mile north on U.S. 61)

      Waverly was built in 1821 by Dr. Henry Baines, an Englishman, who married the daughter of Patrick McDermott. McDermott was a miller, brought to Feliciana by Carondelet, who hoped to make a fortune by raising wheat. According to legend, Flying Charlie McDermott experimented with flying machines in the 1830’s, and on one occasion tried to launch his craft from an oak tree on the grounds. Audubon taught dancing here in the 1820’s.

      Side Trip to Angola (Louisiana Highway 66 West)

      Bayou Sara (1.5 miles west on LA 66)

      Now crossed by a bridge, this body of water was formerly forded at great risk by large droves of cattle and caravans of covered wagons.

      Highland Plantation (4.5 miles west on LA 66)

      This home was established by Olivia Ruffin Barrow in 1798.

      Greenwood Plantation (4.5 miles west on LA 66, 3.3 miles west on Highland Road)

      This residence was built on lands originally granted by the Spanish Government to Oliver Pollock (1737-1823), a merchant, who, with the assistance of Governor Galvez of Louisiana, financed the colonies to the amount of $300,000 during the American Revolution. An Irishman himself, Pollock met General Alexander O’Reilly, an Irishman ennobled by the Spanish king, in Havana, and, on the arrival of both in Louisiana, offered O’Reilly a cargo of flour from a ship then in port—on the general’s own terms. For this generous act (the payment was $15 a barrel when the commodity was so scarce the price had risen to $30), O’Reilly gave Pollock free trading privileges in the colony, and commended him to the succeeding governors, Unzaga and Galvez. Pollock so reduced his own finances by his loans to the American colonies that he was eventually thrown into prison, and released only after Galvez went his surety for more than $130,000. The merchant left on Thomas Patterson for hostage while he recouped his fortune to pay his debts, a matter of three years’ time. Eventually, the United States repaid his entire original loans. In the meantime, however, he sold the plantation to the Barrow family. The plantation house was built about 1830 by William Ruffin Barrow.

      Rosebank Plantation (7.5 miles west on LA 66)

      Rosebank was established about 1790 by an Irishman, whom the Spanish called Don Juan O'Connor. O'Conner served as magistrate for the district during the latter years of the Spanish control of West Feliciana.

      Junction with Louisiana Highway 968 (7.9 miles west on LA 66)

      Ellerslie Plantation (7.9 miles west on LA 66, 0.8 mile west on LA 968, 0.3 mile south on Highland Road)

      This house was built in 1835 by Judge W.C. Wade. Audubon once stayed here as a tutor for the Percy children.

      Live Oak Plantation (8.6 miles west on LA 66)

      This residence was built between 1808 and 1816.

      Weyanoke (9.5 miles west on LA 66)

      This section was established as Percy Forest in 1802 by Captain Robert Percy. A Beech Woods house located ½ mile southwest is said to be the one in which Lucy Bakewell Audubon, wife of John Audubon, conducted a neighborhood school in the early 1820’s. It was at Beech Woods that Audubon found the subject for The Wild Turkey. A later resident of the house was Major John Towles, who built on to the house in 1856. The story is told that the plantation mammy placed a silver spoon in the mouth of day-old Daniel Turnbull Towles, the first child born in the remodeled home, and boosted him through the skylight on the new roof, to ensure that he’d allus have high notions.

      Junction with Cap Eddies Road (11.1 mile west on LA 66)

      St. Mary’s Church, located just to the east of this intersection, was built in 1857.

      Retreat Plantation (11.5 miles west on LA 66)

      This structure was built in the early 1850's by Captain Clive Mulford, who named it Soldier's Retreat.

      Junction with County Road 969 (12.5 miles west on LA 66)

      Beyond this point, LA 66 enters the Tunica Hills, once known as the Indian Mountains. This sparsely populated section was once the haunt of the Houma Indians. The Houma, according to tradition, were driven out about 1706 by the more warlike Tunica. The Tunica were numerous and a source of much trouble to the early settlers. They fell victim, however, no to the white man's bullets, but to his liquor.

      Angola (20 miles west on LA 66)

      The Louisiana State Penitentiary lies to the north and east of this location. It was moved here from Baton Rouge in 1890. The land was formerly that of the Angola Plantation, and the penitentiary is still known by this name. Long and narrow Lake Angola, or Lake of the Cross, is where Sieur d'Iberville erected a wooden cross in 1699. Nearby, on the bluffs above the river, was a Houma village. Father Du Ru, the Jesuit missionary with d'Iberville, made a model of a church there in 1700, which he instructed the savages to build in his absence. This chapel, the first Catholic church in the lower Mississippi Valley, was 50 feet long.

      In the extreme northern portion of this tract are East Lake and Alston’s Bayou, the latter named for an eighteenth-century planter, William Alston.

      Side Trip to Locust Grove (Bains Road East)

      Belmont (2.3 miles east on Bains Road)

      Belmont was constructed toward the end of the 1700’s on a Spanish land grant. This plantation was first called Blackwater but the name was changed shortly after the American Civil War in order to commemorate the Battle of Belmont in southeastern Missouri in which several members of the family took part.

      Locust Grove (2.8 miles east on Bains Road)

      This big house was looted and partially destroyed during the American Civil War and now only the foundation is left. The center of interest on the grounds is the shaded little cemetery which contains the grave of Sarah Knox Taylor, the beautiful first wife of Jefferson Davis. Tradition has it that Sarah Knox Taylor failed to obtain permission of her father, Zachary Taylor, then President of the United States, to marry Jefferson Davis because he was a soldier. In spite of this, the couple eloped. During their honeymoon, both contracted malaria, and while Davis recovered from the attack, his bride of a few weeks died.

      In the center of the cemetery is the grave of General Eleazer Weelock Ripley, hero of the Battle of Lundy’s Lane (1814).

      Greenwood (1.1 miles south of Bains on U.S. 61)

      This plantation was included in a Spanish grant made in 1778 to Dr. Samuel Flower. It later passed to his descendants, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Butler. The trees of the big grove, the Lejeune Oaks, were planted by Madame Lejeune, who brought the acorns from the West Indies. The Lejeunes were refugees from the Santo Domingo Revolution.

      Illinois Central Railroad Trackbed (0.6 mile south of Greenwood Road on U.S. 61 at Myrtle Lane)

      These were formerly the tracks of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad (Woodville Branch). It was one of the oldest railroads in the United States. This line was incorporated in 1831 as the West Feliciana Railroad, and completed from Bayou Sara (south of St. Francisville) to Woodville, Mississippi in 1841. A provision in the charter forbid the operation of trains on Sundays.

      Point of Interest:

      The Myrtles

      This was the home of famed General David Bradford, leader of the Whiskey Rebellion. The Myrtles was built in 1796 on a Spanish Land Grant. The architecture, elaborate plaster work and lacy ironwork make this twenty room mansion one of Louisiana's most unusual plantation homes.

      St. Francisville (1.6 miles south of Airport Road on U.S. 61 at LA 10)

      St. Francisville is called the town two miles long and two yards wide. This is due to the fact the town is built on the crest of a ridge, with slopes on both sides leading to wooded gullies. A part of the ground on which St. Francisville was built was granted by the King of Spain to Capuchin friars. The friars built a monastery in 1785, which was later destroyed by fire. The land became a burial place for the Catholics from the vicinity.

      Points of Interest:

      Grace Church 1858 (Center of town, Ferdinand Street)

      The congregation here was founded in 1826. The building was heavily damaged during the War between the States by fire from Union gunboats. It is said that the young lieutenant who directed the bombardment was a staunch Episcopalian, and that he was horrified when he learned that he had shelled his own church.

      Audubon Hall 1819 (Royal Street)

      This is probably the oldest building in St. Francisville.

      Side Trip to Jackson (Louisiana Highway 10 East)

      Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site (0.6 mile east on LA 10)

      The land which comprises Rosedown was originally owned by John Mills, one of the founders of St. Francisville, but the house was built in 1835 by Daniel Turnbull.

      Jackson (12 miles east on LA 10)

      In the days of the earliest settlers, this community was called Bear Corners. Later, John Horton laid out the village and called it Buncombe after his home county in North Carolina. This name was retained until after the Battle of New Orleans, when General Jackson encamped with his victorious troops on the banks of nearby Thompson’s Creek, and Buncombe was promptly discarded for Jackson. In 1816, a courthouse was built and Jackson became the seat of Feliciana Parish. Later, when the parish was divided, it was named the seat of East Feliciana.

      Points of Interest:

      Henry Johnson House (South of town)

      This was once the public high school. Built in 1840, this structure at one time had an observatory on the roof which became a favorite meeting place for Centenary College students who gathered there to sing to the accompaniments played on the guitar by a daughter of the house.

      Old Centenary College (College Street and Pine Street)

      The remains of this institution were turned into an apartment house. The rest was carried away and used in the construction of Ye Old Centenary Inn in the center of town. The original college was called the College of Louisiana when it was established in 1825 as a State-subsidized institution. Later, in 1845, the Methodist Conference came into possession of the school and the name was changed to Centenary. Under this new regime, Centenary became one of the largest and finest institutions in the State and numbered among its students many leading citizens, including Jefferson Davis and Judah P. Benjamin. Jackson remained a college town for more than 60 years, but in 1908 the college moved to Shreveport.

      East Louisiana State Hospital (East of town)

      This institution for mental diseases was founded in 1847.

      Side Trip to Bayou Sara (Louisiana Highway 10 West)

      Bayou Sara (2 miles west on LA 10)

      Bayou Sara was formerly the twin town of St. Francisville, but it was unincorporated in 1926. It was founded in 1790 by John H. Mills and Christopher Stewart, who established a trading post on the river. With the advent of the railroad, trade diminished and the town gradually declined. According to legend, the monument located here was ordered for a grave in St. Francisville. After arriving by boat, it was found to be too heavy to transport up the hill, so the remains were brought down to it. Another legend holds that it was ordered during a yellow fever epidemic by some pessimistic person, who found later that his fear of an early death had been exaggerated.

      Before the settlement of Bayou Sara, there had been little attempt to colonize the surrounding territory of what is now known as West Feliciana Parish. The concession of the Company of the Indies, embracing all lands bordering on the Mississippi River in this region, was under the supervision of M. de Sainte Reine. There was a Fort St. Reine, which existed for a brief period in the early 1700's, but was abandoned in 1736. In 1765, Lieutenant Rose, a British surveyor, was sent to chart the course of the Mississippi. On his map, he designates the site of Bayou Sara as fort Ste. Reine, abandoned. About this period, settlers began to acquire land grants in the more habitable portions of the region. When the Spanish wrestled control from the British in 1779, the district of Feliciana had already achieved a reputation of beauty and fertility.

      Junction with Louisiana Highway 965 North (2 miles south of St. Francisville on U.S. 61)

      Side Trip to Audubon Memorial State Park (Louisiana Highway 965 North)

      Audubon Memorial State Park (3 miles north on LA 965)

      This park consists of lands which formerly made up the Oakley Plantation. John James Audubon worked in the plantation house in 1821. The plantation was established under a grant dated 1770. Its owner, Ruffin Gray, however, died before he had an opportunity to occupy his new home. His widow moved to Oakley with her infant daughter, and in 1803 married James Pirrie. Pirrie built the present house between 1808 and 1810. Oakley descended from Mrs. Eliza Pirrie to her grandchildren. Mrs. Pirrie engaged Mr. Audubon to teach art to her daughter Eliza. During the four months of teaching, Audubon painted 32 of his birds. He was so captivated by West Feliciana that he sent to Cincinnati for his family, who joined him in New Orleans. In January of 1823, Mrs. Audubon came to the parish and established a private school at Beech Woods, a plantation of the Percy family.

      Fairview Plantation (5.3 miles south of LA 965 North on U.S. 61)

      Located to the east of the highway, Fairview was erected in 1845 by Jesse Davis of Maryland. During the War between the States, Fairview served for a time as Union General Ulysses S. Grant's headquarters. The home stands on a hilltop commanding a sweeping view of the valley of Thompson’s Creek.

      Thompson's Creek (6.3 miles south of St. Francisville on U.S. 61)

      This creek was named for a ferryman, who, during the British occupation of West Florida, operated

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