History of Acadia Parish 
from Southwest Louisiana Biographical and Historical 
by William Henry Perrin. Pub 1891.  
Submitted for the LA GenWeb Archives by Mike Miller, Nov 1999.


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                                     CHAPTER IX.

"A TALE OF ACADIA"--INTRODUCTORY--A GLANCE AT ACADIA PARISH--PRAIRIE ON FIRE--RESOURCES--A
WESTERN EDITOR'S IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA--EARLY SETTLEMENT--A GERMAN
COLONY--JOSEPH FABACHER--AN ODE TO THE GERMAN EMIGRANT--INTRODUCTION OF RICE CULTURE--MAKING
HAY--ORGANIZATION OF THE PARISH--ACT OF THE LEGISLATURE INCORPORATING IT--PARISH
OFFICIALS--COURT HOUSES AND JAILS--THE TOWN OF CROWLEY--LAYING OUT OF SAME--OTHER
TOWNS--SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES--THE ACADIA COLLEGE--GENERAL SUMMARY, ETC.

"0, Country! rich in everything, in all that makes a people great;
We hail thee, queen of 'Cadian soil, and fling our challenge to the State,
We hail thee, queen, whose beauty won our fathers in their golden years;
A shout for greater days begun, a sigh for sleeping pioneers."

THE past, with all its momentous changes, has ever been regarded as important and deserving of
record.  Long before letters were invented, legendary tales and traditions were employed to
perpetuate important events and transmit the same to succeeding generations.  Hieroglyphics
were afterward used for the same purpose. But all these forms of memorial have long since given
place to the pen and types among civilized nations.  The introduction of modern alphabets made
writing less difficult, and the invention of the art of printing afforded facilities for
publishing books before unknown.  The thirst for knowledge produced by the press and the
Reformation, and the growing taste for history created by the latter, brought out a host of
historians, rendered their works voluminous and scattered them broadcast over the world.  Many
of them read in the light of civilization have all the fascinations of a romance, which but
increases in interest as time rolls on.

The papyrus roll of ancient Egypt, containing mysterious records, and the ponderous folios of
Confucius, that antedate tradition itself, were not more valuable to the sages and philosophers
of old than the printed page of the nineteenth century is to the scholarly and enlightened
individual of the present day.  And of all historical records there are none more interesting
and valuable than local annals.  Interesting because prepared by those who enact them, and
valuable because the future and actual historian without them could not write a true history of
the country.

This chapter of our work is devoted to the parish of Acadia-the youngest parish in the State.
Indeed, Acadia is a very young lady, still in short dresses, and scarcely of a sufficiently
mature age to be entrusted from home without a body guard.  Although her growth has been so
rapid, and she has developed so wonderfully, no one would suspect that her fifth birthday is
yet half a year distant--rather a youthful age for a young lady to set up housekeeping for
herself.  This gloriously salubrious climate brings out the best there is in us without the
least delay.

ACADIA PARISH.--The parish of Acadia was created in 1886, from the south west part of St.
Landry parish, and has an area of six hundred and thirty-four square miles.  It is diversified
with prairie and woodland, and is bounded on the north by the parish of St. Landry; on the east
by the parish of Lafayette; on the south by the parish of Vermilion, from which it is separated
by the bayou of Queue Tortue, and on the west by the Bayou Nez Pique and Mermentau River,
separating it from the parish of Calcasieu.  The surface is generally level, but the fall is
sufficient to afford good drainage into the creeks and rivers, of which there are quite a
number.  The streams are generally deep, with high banks, which are covered with fine timber.
The water supply is ample for all purposes, the creeks affording an abundant supply for stock,
and wells sunk to a depth of twenty to thirty feet afford an unfailing quantity for all
domestic purposes.

The prairies are almost monotonously level.  In summer they are covered with tall, luxuriant
grass from two to four feet high, which, when waving in the wind, resemble ocean billows in a
storm.  They are often overtopped with fragrant blossoms, presenting a scene of picturesque
beauty that must be seen to be appreciated.  One beautiful afternoon of a balmy Indian summer
day last fall, the writer, in coming over the Southern Pacific Railroad, from the west, saw in
this parish, a prairie on fire.  The line of fire extended for miles, and, as the dark cloud of
smoke rolled upward, like a mourning pall, almost veiling the face of the sun, it recalled the
sublime lines of Milton:

     "The sun, 
in dim eclipse, disastrous twilight shed 
O'er half the nations."

The writer heaved a sigh that he possessed not the pencil of an artist to paint the scene as he
saw it.

A WESTERN EDITOR'S OPINION.--Last fall, a company of Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska editors
visited Southwest Louisiana and remained several days, making the acquaintance of leading
people throughout this portion of the State, and seeing for themselves its wonderful resources
and capabilities.  When they returned home they wrote their impressions of the country for
their respective papers.  Selecting one, which is a fair type of the others, we make the
following extracts :

The New South was to the writer of this a New World. He had met some of the Southern people, as
all Northern people have, and thought that he was acquainted with them, with their country and
with their resources.  With a limited ten days' experience he is willing to acknowledge that he
knows but little now, and that he never dreamed before he saw them, of the possibilities and
the undeveloped resources of the South.  It is true that the view was superficial; it is true
that only a very small portion of the country was traversed, and that the advantages were
limited.  But in the time that was spent there many ideas, preconceived and long established,
were overthrown.  The people of & South were not as we expected to find them.  The country. was
not what our geography had taught us; the States were not as history pictures them.  In short,
we were disappointed in the South.  That it was an agreeable disappointment we are more than
willing to acknowledge.  That there is in the heart of the writer a better, a kindlier, a more
brotherly feeling toward the country and the people who inhabit it than there was before, we
say without reservation.

In the first place our idea was that the immense appropriations made each year for the
"improvement of the Mississippi," went into the hands of lobbyists and was a part of the
general "divy" made by the congressmen when they put up their annual schemes.  When we saw the
great levees, the banks that hold the powerful waters of the whole of the central part of the
continent, and when we learned, when we saw, that the millions of acres of land, as rich and
productive as the sun shines upon, would but for these levees be swamps and a wilderness, then
we went right over to the enemy and became an ardent advocate of the theory of General Rice,
and a supporter of the schemes for the "improvement of the Mississippi."  And when we saw the
great fields, lands as rich as the Delta of the Nile can furnish, lying uncultivated and
barren, selling, if they sell at all, for prices as low as western land sells, when we learned
that such lands when cultivated yielded the owners from $50 to $1000 an acre, we could but
pause in astonishment and ask why they were not utilized.  The Southerner has not yet learned
the lesson that his Northern brother learned in his cradle.  The Southern man does not yet earn
his bread by the sweat of his brow, but he still depends upon the sweat of some other man's
brow.  This is not said in disparagement of the Southern man, but such lessons, hard and
bitter, are not learned in the lifetime of a man.  There are two things that can redeem the
South:  The first is that it have instilled into its veins the energetic, restless blood of the
North; the next that it change its own plans, its own life, and do that which the North has
always done.  The first is perhaps the better of the two, but a combination is the best of all.
There is scarcely a foot of land in the whole South country but can be made productive.  The
swamps that discourage the Southern man may be made to yield fortunes.  The uplands have
already proved their worth.  Cane, cotton, corn, anything, can be raised there. And the crops
do not fail.  Why, could the farmer of Kansas have the soil and the climate that the planter of
Louisiana has, he would make a fortune every year, and be elected to Congress in the fall.  It
is not the desire of the journal to make any man leave Kansas, but whenever a man here has made
up his mind to go we advise him to write to Captain F. M. Welch, at New Iberia, Louisiana, and
he will find that down in that country there is as good a chance to make a home and some money
as he will find in any part of the country.  And by the way, one thing learned while there was
that those lands, unoccupied but excellent, can be had for from $8 to $15 an acre.

Climate, soil, natural advantages of every kind, all unite in making parts of Louisiana the
poor man's paradise. Here one man can tboroughly cultivate twenty or twenty-five acres of
ground and force from a friendly soil more good hard dollars annually than in any other
locality this writer has ever visited.  Whether the small farmer turns his attention to either
cane or rice the result is the same, and, under the latter-day and rapidly developing system of
central plants for the treatment of either, his outlay is but trifling as compared with that of
the Northern and Western farmer.  If he raises cane the planting recurs but once in three
years, the two remaining seasons being given over to volunteer crops, which almost, if not
quite, equal the first trial.  There is practically no end to the time in which he may save his
crop, for should frost visit his fields it but augments the yield of sap and makes the working
the easier.  During the hoeing or working season he must be diligent if he would prosper, for
vegetation which blights and hinders and retards the growth of the cane is more rank and
devastating than anything we know of in this part of the country.  After the cane is cut and
laid in "windrows" he can then at his leisure haul it to one of the many mills whose
smokestacks dot every eminence and have it converted into the finest sugar known to commerce.
In the meantime there are no climatic rigors known which make living a burden and the raising
of stock a hazardous enterprise.  This is in fall and winter and early spring, the reader must
remember. What the summers would develop in the way of disease, insects or lasting and pitiless
heat remains to be seen, though the inhabitants say the thermometer never goes higher than
eighty-five or ninety.

In the Teche country, about one hundred and twenty-five miles southwest of New Orleans, they
have what in their pretty ignorance the inhabitants call "prairies and hills," but it makes a
Kansas man smile in the palm of his hand to hear those little patches of grass called
"prairies."  What would they call our bewildering distances, stretching further than eye can
reach, unbroken by tree or shrub, and all waving in succulent blue-stem?  Then their hills rise
sheer from the plains to a height of sometimes thirty feet.  A great country for "prairies and
hills."

The ladies never become weary of admiring the beautiful flowers which grow in almost every
dooryard.  Roses more perfect than any ever seen in this country were blooming out of doors,
apparently forgetful that the month was December rather than May.  Nearly every morning some
kind friend or casual acquaintance made during the journey furnished flowers by the arm load,
purifying the air in the car and filling it with delightful perfume.

Within the space of a newspaper article it is altogether impossible to dwell at any length upon
the many interesting features of this Louisiana Eden.  Of the ancient town of St. Martin's, the
Spanish Lake, St. John's, the floating island, the great salt mines, etc., only mere mention
can be made.  Each contributed no slight measurement to the pleasure of the Kansas tourists,
and concerning which volumes might be written with profit to the reader.

New Iberia and the thrifty towns of the Teche country are the forerunners of what the New South
is to be.  The tendency of immigration for years has been westward.  But comparatively few
people have heretofore thought of going south, notwithstanding the fact that many of the
Southern States offer more alluring inducements to agriculturists.  Heretofore, however, but
little effort has been put forth by the Southern people to change the tide of immigration in
their direction, Hence the thousands of foreigners, as well as our own people, have climbed
over each other in their mad scramble to settle upon the bleak, barren, and often unproductive
prairies of the northwestern territories, where droughts have annually blighted their crops and
the rigors of winter have resulted in loss of live stock, while gaunt hunger is too frequently
found sitting beside the hearth of the settler's dug-out.

Why should intelligent, reasonable people hasten to occupy a country where irrigation must be
depended upon almost entirely for a necessary water supply, and where the winters are so severe
that even the moderately well-to-do farmer finds it exceedingly difficult to get through from
one season to another without serious losses, when Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama,
Tennessee, and other Southern States have millions of acres of as productive soil as can be
found out of doors, and that can be had almost for the mere asking?  The reason is apparently
plain.  While the West and Northwest have been in the "booming" business for years, the South
has been pegging along at her usual slow pace, putting forth little or no effort to arouse the
public to a proper appreciation of her many natural advantages.

But a change is gradually taking place.  The tide of immigration is surely setting in toward
the Sunny South, and the next few years, perhaps, will witness another northern invasion of
that region--an invasion by men, women and children, bearing with them peace and good will
instead of malice; agricultural implements instead of implements of warfare--capital,
enterprise and ingenuity will go with them-and the old waste places, the long-neglected and
deserted plantations and the dismal cypress swamps, will be made to bud and blossom with
ripening crops.

Then will that new era of peace, plenty and contentment that all good people have so long
wished for, hoped for, prayed for, dawn upon Dixie's land, and the Mason and Dixon line be
blotted out forever.  So be it.

EARLY SETTLEMENT.--The early settlement of the parishes of St. Landry, Lafayette and Calcasieu
includes the early settlement, principally, of Acadia, as it was not made into an independent
parish until so very recently.  It is therefore useless to go into the full details of the
settlement of the parish, but will refer the reader to the surrounding parishes for the early
settlement of this, the youngest in the State.

Pertinent to the settlement of the parish, however, the following will be found of interest:
Mr. Joseph Farbacher, of New Orleans, conceived the idea some years ago, about 1870-71, of
colonizing this portion of the country with German immigrants.  Mr. Farbacher had amassed a
fortune before the war operating a distillery.  Some years after the war, when the agitation of
building a railroad (the Louisiana Western) through this section commenced, Mr. Farbacher, with
the keen foresight characteristic of his people, saw immense fortunes for energetic husbandmen
in the undeveloped resources of this rich domain, whenever brought into cultivation and
subjected to the uses of man.  Under this belief he came here and entered a vast amount of
land, with the intention of putting a colony of German farmers on it.  He built a large
saw-mill upon his lands, and spent a great deal of money, with the expectation of getting the
projected railroad through them.  Finally, when the road was built, it missed his lands some
distance, which very materially upset his plans.  Once when he was out here he witnessed some
of the Acadian farmers planting rice in the mud, and upon making inquiries in regard to raising
rice he determined to turn his attention to rice culture, and carry out his original intention
of planting a German colony here.  With this end in view he set to work, and in a short time
had some dozen or more German families, direct from the "Faderland," located upon his
possessions in what is now Acadia parish. Appropriate to them are the following lines:

Say! why seek yea distant land?   0, sprecht! wartfin zogt ihr von dannen?
  The nectar vale has wine and corn;  Das neckarthal hat Wein und Korn;
Dark pines in your Black Forest stand,  Der Schwarzwald steht voll finstrer Tannen,
  In Spessert sounds the Alpine horn.  Im Spessart klingt dŠs Alplers Horn.

How, when in distant woods forlorn,   Wie wird es in den fremden Waldern,
  Ye for your native hills will pine,  Euch nuch der Heimathberge Grun,
For Deutschland's golden fields of corn,  Nach Deutschland's gelben Weizenfeldern,
  And verdant hills of clustering vine.  Nach seinen Rebenhugeln ziehn.

How will the image of the past,   Wie wird das Bild der alten Tage,
 Through all your dreams in brightness roll, Durch eure Traume glanzend wehn!
And like some pious legends cast   Gleich einer stillen, frommen Sage
 A vail of sadness o'er your soul.   Wird es euch vor der Seele Stelin.

"The boatmen beckons-go in peace!   "DerBootsmann winkt-Zieht hin in Frieden!
 May God preserve you, man and wife   Gott schiitz' euch, Mann und Weib Lind Gries,
Your fields of rice and maize increase,  Sei Freude eurer Brust beschieden,
 And with his blessings crown Your life!"   Und euren Feldern Reis und Mais!"

Tearing themselves away from their friends, they crossed "the rolling deep" for a home in "the
land of the free," as thousands and thousands of their countrymen had done before them. They
are now among the prosperous farmers of Acadia parish, and rank among the leading rice growers
of Southwestern Louisiana.

LNTRODUCTION OF RICE CULTURE.--To Mr. Farbacher, therefore, is due the credit of introducing
rice culture into this section of the State, and carrying it through to success.  He himself
cultivated the first large field of rice ever grown in Southwestern Louisiana.  He brought here
the first machine for threshing rice.  It was of the primitive class, drawn from place to place
by oxen, and the power, when it was in operation, was furnished by oxen.  From this small,
insignificant beginning has grown the present successful industry rice culture.  The writer
called on Mr. Farbacher in New Orleans, and from his own mouth learned the above facts, which
he has here transcribed as a matter of interest in the history of the parish.

A recent writer says of this section as a rice-growing country: Southwest Louisiana is a
natural rice country by climate and peculiar nature of soil, with hard clay subsoil, almost
impervious to water, solid enough for the best machinery (rainfall enough for the crop if
gathered as it can be, and in most cases without machinery).  Attention is called to the
practicability of a system of canals for drainage and irrigation, beginning at the headwaters
and running south through our prairies, furnishing channels for drainage arid water for
irrigation.  The possible yield of rice is over thirty barrels or one hundred and twenty
bushels per acre, at an average value of $3 per barrel.  An average yield is ten barrels, value
$30, raised at a cost of $1 per barrel, leaving $20, or five cent. upon $400 per acre.  With a
fair system of irrigation and thorough cultivation there will be an average profit of $40 to
$50 per acre, or 5 per cent. upon $800 to $1000 per acre.  In 1888 the State averaged fifteen
barrels per acre.

To show the value of machinery to this crop, six acres can be harvested at even less expense
than one acre by hand.  Four years ago, without machinery, about two hundred and fifty car
loads were shipped to New Orleans between Lake Charles and Lafayette.  Last year (machinery
used in harvesting) there were shipped nearly one thousand cars from the same points, and a
conservative estimate for the present season is that more than two thousand cars will be moved
between these points.

HAY MAKING --But rice is not the only crop worthy of attention in Southwest Louisiana.  It is
certainly about as valuable as any that can be grown here, but there are others that may be
made profitable with a little exertion and slight expense.  For instance, hay farming is
becoming a valuable industry.  Few crops can be handled more easily.  A writer upon this
subject thus gives his experience in cutting hay from the prairies:  "Previous to the year 1885
it appears there was no attempt made to put any of this hay on the market.  In looking over
these prairies, in the spring of that year, for a new home for myself and family, I was
surprised to find such a bulk of grass lying and rotting on the ground.  Thinking there must be
some value in it (the following summer) I decided, with the help of my two sons, to cut some of
it for hay and put it on the market.  Having procured some necessary implements we cut and
stacked about eighty tons.  At first sight things did not look very encouraging.  Hay not known
on the market, no baling press within perhaps hundreds of miles, no rate fixed on railway, and
other drawbacks.. Fortunately another man came along looking up a home, and seeing what we were
doing decided to come back and bring a bailing press with him.  This enabled us to put this,
our first hay, ready for shipment.

After this a rate was applied for to New Orleans on the Southern Pacific road, but none came
until the first car was loaded and billed to that city, when a telegram arrived, giving a rate
of $40 per car.  This rate was reduced on subsequent shipments to $30.  And be it said to the
credit of the railway officials, this rate is now reduced to $25.

The returns for this first car load was anxiously looked for, not only by ourselves, but by a
great many of the people in and around Jennings, who did not look upon this project or new
enterprise with much favor.  At length the returns came, giving the price made in New Orleans.
$11.50 per ton.  Now for the cost.  Baling, $2 50; freight, $4; weighing, inspecting and
commission, $1 50; total, $8; leaving $3 50 for our labor to cut, stack and deliver on car.
Taking all things into consideration, this may be called a fair beginning. Other car loads the
same season gave about the same results.

As it has often been said that nothing succeeds like success, we determined to try again the
following season, having induced some neighbors to join in with us.  We put in some of the best
machinery to cut, gather and stack our hay; also a baling press.  We cut and stacked upward Of
200 tons. Other parties began cutting and stacking, making within a radius of four miles some
600 tons for shipment. Another baling press was brought in, making three altogether.

This hay, where put up with care and judgment, has found a ready sale at $7.50 to $10.  Now,
let us see the results. Cutting and stacking, $1.25 ; baling, $2; delivering on board cars, 75
cents.; total, $4; leaving a net profit of $4 per ton.  Putting this hay at the low average of
one and three quarter tons per acre, this will give a net profit of $7 per acre.  This is
keeping well within the mark, as the greater part of these prairies will, without doubt cut two
tons and upward per acre.  As this hay becomes better known, it will no doubt command a much
higher price.  There is no fear of these grasses dying out either from mowing or grazing, as
there are upward of thirty different species that propagate themselves, either from seeds,
joints or roots, some of the best varieties from each source.  These prairies being perfectly
smooth and level, no obstructions whatever, reduces the wear and tear of machinery to the
lowest minimum point.

The season for haying is so prolonged, extending from June to November, giving ample time to
secure it.  The weather (speaking from the two last seasons) is all that can be desired. The
fall and winter months are dry and cool for baling and shipping, and will give profitable
employment for many hands.

We have said so much in this volume of the climate, resources and capabilities of Southwestern
Louisiana that it seems almost superfluous to say anything further.  We have endeavored to
demonstrate that this is a wonderful country, a productive and healthy country and a pleasant
country in which to live.  In this parish and the adjoining one of Calcasieu are many people
who came here from the North and Northwest for various reasons-mostly for the rich lands and
mild climate, and are doing well.  They are well satisfied with the change they have made, and
few of them, perhaps, could be hired for a reasonable sum to return to the land of the snow and
the blizzard.  One more brief extract, and we will pass to the other points of interest. We
quote as follows:

"This country, partly prairie, partly heavily timbered, lies directly on the line of the
Southern Pacific Railroad, in a climate of the most even temperature; therefore, it is one of
the healthiest; and, as it is conceded that three-fourths of all diseases originate from taking
cold, we are happily free from those diseases and ailments peculiar to the variable climate of
most of the Northern States.  There are no diseases peculiar to this country. Malaria is in a
very light form along rivers, but the prairies are free from it, owing to the gulf breezes and
excellent water.  Water, generally soft, is found in quantities throughout this entire section,
in wells twelve to twenty feet in depth.  These lands are high above overflow-sixty or more
feet above the gulf, and forty feet above the river Mermenteau.  This is the best country for
roads we ever lived in.  The land, thickly set with best native grasses, is easily broken up,
easy to cultivate, as tools polish or scour readily ; soil, a clay loam with clay subsoil.  The
prairies are too high to overflow and too flat to wash.

"Stock-raising is now a leading industry, and all stock came through the past winter with a
loss not exceeding one per cent.  Twelve thousand sheep, sixteen thousand horses and eighty
thousand cattle were wintered in Calcasieu parish alone.  They are never fed or cared for, and
are better than the scrub stock of the North, and winter better than Northwestern stock, which
is housed and fed for six months.  We have had fresh beef off this prairie every week during
the winter.  Fruit raising will be one of the leading industries in two vears' time.  Peaches
bear at two years, and have been known to bear almost consecutively for forty years, varieties
maturing from May to November.  The stump of a peach tree, eight years old, three feet in
circumference, was taken from this parish to the American Exposition, New Orleans.  Quinces,
figs, pears, nectarines, olives, plums and pomegranates do equally as well.  California raises
the same fruits on high-priced lands, with expensive irrigation, and ships them past our doors
and to our markets, with the freights largely against then.  There is a settlement of five
thousand Iowa people, who have taken part of ,Calcasieu prairie forty miles square, all of
which was United States and State lands; and there are government lands, besides Spanish
grants, along the streams, on sale, at from $3 to $7 per acre.  We think there are fifty
thousand acres of State lands for sale and subject to homestead claims in Calcasieu and St.
Landry counties (or parishes, as called here), with United States and State land offices
located at New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

"The climate is justly called perpetual spring.  We will give in brief the advantages:  We have
even and sufficient distribution of rain (about fifty inches) during the entire year.  We are
entirely surrounded with heavy timber, except south to the gulf; have very light northers; the
most delicate fruits amply protected; soil easily worked and broken; seaboard markets; cheap
lumber; wood at nominal price, and little needed; lumber five to twenty dollars per thousand;
plenty of water for stock and easily obtained everywhere in wells and running streams.  The
country is well adapted. to a division into small farms, thereby making the locations for
churches and schools as easily accessible as may be desired.  Each scholar is entitled to two
dollars monthly from public fund.  Mosquitoes, flies and reptiles are not more numerous and
troublesome than North.  Mr. Cary, is first of the settlement; came March 31, 1883.  The rest
came scattering over the entire season.  Nearly all have been improved in health; many invalids
came; kidney and lung diseases have been benefited; almost. all diseases arising from frequent
colds are relieved at once; catarrh never originated here, and most cases from the North have
been benefited or cured.  The death rate, six to one thousand, is the lowest in the States. We
were well received by the natives, who are better off than the same number of farmers North,
being quite generally out of debt, and have land or stock.  Any man who works with judgment
gets rich.  Northern men become more ambitious here, and work with safety and comfort the year
round. July 4, 1883, thermometer 88 here; St. Paul 90; in Decorah, Iowa, l04; Beardstown,
Illinois, 107.  Ninety-two is extreme heat here; twenty degrees above, extreme cold.  Invalids
should come, and old folks also.  It is a land of easy conditions.  Five hundred dollars will
make a family more comfortable than two thousand dollars in Dakota or in the 'Golden
Northwest.'  It is an estimate of a good stock man here that a four-year-old steer costs one
dollar and sells for twenty dollars.  Horace Greeley said:  'It costs less to raise a steer in
Texas than a hen in Massachusetts.'  We are out of the storm belt; have few storms, less
lightning and no cyclones.  The winds leave the pole and here at the same time and meet in
Kansas and Iowa, have a fierce battle, and each returns and rests up for a new fight.  The
principal crops now are sweet and Irish potatoes, corn and rice.  Rice is raised at about the
same expense as wheat in the North; can be sown and harvested with same machinery, and the
average value of the crop is more than double.  Average yield twelve and one-half barrels per
acre ; one hundred and sixty-two pounds per barrel, valued at three dollars per barrel, rough.
Expense of raising, ten dollars per acre.  Health heads a long list of good things here."

ORGANIZATION OF THE PARISH.--An act to create the parish of Acadia, etc.:

SECTION I.  Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Louisiana, that a new parish
in the State of Louisiana be and the same is hereby created out of the southwestern portion of
the parish of St. Landry, to be called and known as the parish of Acadia; that the said parish
of Acadia shall be composed of all that territory of the said parish of St. Landry, comprised
within the following boundaries, to-wit:  All that portion of territory lying and being south
and west of a line beginning on the west boundary of St. Landry parish, at its intersection
with the township line between townships 6 and 7 south; thence in an easterly direction on
township lines between townships 6 and 7 to the northeast corner of section 3 in township 7
south, range 2 east; thence in a southerly direction on section lines about three miles to the
corner common to sections 14, 15, 22, 23; thence in an easterly direction about four miles to a
point in section 29, in township 7 south, range 3 east, where the section lines, if run, would
make the corner common to sections 16, 17, 20, 21 ; thence in a southerly direction across
Section 29 and following section lines about six miles to the corner common to sections 16, 17,
20, 21 in township 18 south, range 3 east, thence in an easterly direction between sections 16
and 20 one mile ; thence two miles in a westerly direction on section lines between sections 21
and 22 and between sections 27 and 28 ; thence one mile in an easterly direction to the corner
common to sections 26, 27, 34, 35; thence about two miles in a southerly direction to the
division line between the parishes of Lafayette and St. Landry; thence following the division
line as now established between the parishes of St. Landry and Lafayette and St. Landry and
Vermilion to the existing boundary between -the parishes of St. Landry and Calcasieu; thence on
existing west boundary of St. Landry parish to the starting point aforesaid.

SEC. 2.  Be it further enacted, etc., That the seat of the parish of Acadia shall be and remain
at a point to be determined upon by an election to be held for that and other purposes after
this act shall have become a law; that the parish of Acadia shall form a part of the Thirteenth
judicial District; that the judge of said district shall hold regular terms of his court for
said parish of Acadia; shall, until otherwise provided, form a part of the Twelfth Senatorial
and the Sixth Congressional Districts of the State, etc., and so on through thirteen sections,
which are not material.

   H'. W. OGDEN,
Approved:     Speaker House of -Representatives.
 January 30, 1886.  CHARLES KNOBLOCH,
A copy.     Lieut. Gov. and President of Senate.
 OSCAR ARROYO,  S. D. MCENERY,
 Secretary of State.  Governor of the State of Louisiana.

Under the above act the parish was organized, the requisite machinery was set in motion and it
was started on its journey as an independent municipality.  It is still moving on, gathering
force and vitality as it goes, and will overtake some of its older sisters yet unless they wake
up and stir themselves.

PARISH 0FFICERS.--The following are the civil officers of Acadia parish at the last report of
the Secretary of State.  There may have been some change since, as the report is issued
biennially:

Raymond T. Clark, clerk of the district court; Eldridge W. Lyon, sheriff; George E. Brooks,
coroner; David B. Lyons, tax assessor; Louis R. Deputy, inspector of weights and measures; Leon
V. Fremaux, surveyor; H. W. Anding, treasurer.

Justices of the Peace for the first ward: E. 0. Burner and Joseph Falion; second ward, Westley
F. Stokes; third ward, Henry D. McBride, fourth ward, Sam. Cart; fifth ward, Andrew Henry;
sixth ward, S. W. Young; seventh ward, Alex. C. Larmand ; eighth ward, J. W. Spears.

The Constables are: A. N. Lyon and M. Arceneaux, first ward; Milton F. Laughlin, second ward ;
E. J. Daigle, third ward; Samuel Cart, fourth ward; John Dahon, fifth ward; S. M. Hundley,
sixth ward; Louis Morris, seventh ward; Gerrasin Meche, eighth ward.

The Police Jurors are as follows: For first ward, Benson J. Harmon; second ward, Paul E.
Fremaux; third ward. Melors J. Doucet; fourth ward, Homer Barouse; fifth ward, Bennett E.
Clark, president.

Notaries Public are: Charies A. Beroddin, R. H. Bull, P. J. Chappus, Samuel Cart, John Wesley
Young, W. W. Duson, John 0. Levayne, H. D. McBride, William Clarin, Joseph Hops.

Terms of court are held-jury terms-in April and November; civil terms to begin January 16 and
end January 21 of each year.

Post-offices are Cartville, Church Point, Crowley, Evangeline, Farbacher, Mermenteau,
Millersville, Plaquemine Brul‚e, Prud'homme and Rayne.

The court house of Acadia parish is a handsome, two-story brick structure, recently built,
containing offices, court rooms, etc.  It cost twelve thousand dollars, and is an ornament to
the parish and a monument to the people and their enterprise.  The parish jail cost four
thousand dollars, and is a commodious and substantial building.

PARISH SEAT.--Crowley is a new town, which has sprung into existence since the formation of the
parish.  It is already well known throughout the State, and in many other places that are not
in the State, and, perhaps, never will be.  Its business men and are public spirited and are
united on all questions of public importance.  The town was incorporated in 1888, under the
laws of the State, and within the last year or two has made five thousand feet of plank
sidewalk.  The Methodist church, completed in 1889, is a fine building, and cost about two
thousand five hundred dollars.  Ground was donated for a school house, and a good, substantial
building has been erected on it.  An excellent graded school is taught for the usual term each
year.

The situation of Crowley on the Southern Pacific Railroad gives it advantageous communication
With the Outside world, and the distance it is from Lafayette (about twenty-five miles) and
Lake Charles (about fifty miles) must necessarily make it a heavy shipping point.  It being
also about the centre of the parish greatly adds to its "business interests.  A great many
Northern and Western people have settled in and around Crowley and their push and enterprise
are being seen and felt in the entire community.

Acadia College is situated at Crowley, the parish seat of Acadia parish.  In addition to its
natural beauty, healthfulness and accessibility from all parts of the country, which make it so
desirable as a location for a college, it has all the quiet and retirement of the country,
while the whole atmosphere of the place favors honest, thorough educational work.

The college has six excellent buildings, sufficient for the accommodation of a large number of
students.  The main building is two-story, 50 x 120 feet, with two wings, one of which is
two-story, 24x36 feet, and the other 24 x 48 feet.  This building is pleasantly located and
divided into convenient, well ventilated and lighted rooms, amply supplied with good furniture.
The upper story of this building will be used exclusively for the accommodation of the matron,
lady teachers, and the girls of the boarding department.  A large two-story building of twenty
rooms, now under process of erection, will be occupied exclusively by the male boarders.
These, with the other buildings mentioned, will furnish excellent accommodations for the
various departments of the college and for a large number of boarders.

BOARDING IN COLLEGE.--Parents and tutors can not very easily overestimate the importance of
boarding their children and wards in the college. Here they are not exposed to inclement
weather, they lose no time on account of rainy days, they entertain no company, are under the
constant care of judicious teachers and are subjected to regulations that are conducive to good
health, diligent study and regular and systematic habits.  Upon entering the school they become
members of the president's family, and, under his supervision, the care of their domestic life
is placed in the hands of those whose duty it is to look after their manners and habits, to
secure from them faithfulness in the performance of duty and to maintain an oversight over all
their interests.  We seek to provide for our boarders a bright, happy, Christian home, where
"teachers and pupils may sit at the same table, worship at the same altar and mingle in the
same social circle," and where everything is made to contribute to the faithful performance of
every school duty.  While a close and disagreeable system of espionage will not be enforced,
assiduous care will be exercised over the manners, habits and language of the pupils.  Young
ladies will 'not be permitted to receive private visits from young gentlemen; but such society
and agreeable entertainment will be afforded them as a proper regard for the circumstances and
aims of school life and the best interests of the pupils may demand.  A generous table,
supplied with wholesome, well prepared food, will be kept at all times.  The rooms are
furnished with all that may be necessary for the comfort and proper care of the student.  In
sickness students will be assigned to a room reserved for the ,sick, where they can receive the
constant and faithful care of the matron, and where they will be free from disturbances and
intrusions.  Meals will be served ,them. there, but will not be sent to private bedrooms.

As our patronage is drawn from the best families of the land, the associations of our pupils
are of a most pleasant and desirable Character.  In addition to the special lessons in
Etiquette, every effort will be made on the part of the Faculty, by precept and example, to
mould the character of our pupils into a high type of social manhood or womanhood.  Such
discipline will be used with our g1rh. as tends to develop the true womanliness which makes a
young lady an ornament to society and a blessing to the household.

A most excellent system adopted is that of uniforms.  It promotes economy and prevents
extravagance and rivalry in dress.  Hence all the students are required to wear the college
uniform on public occasions.  The military uniform for boys consists of navy blue coat and cap
and gray pants with blue stripe.  In a wreath on the front of the cap are letters "A. C."
These suits are furnished at actual cost.  All male students must provide themselves with this
uniform, unless excused b the president for good cause.

The uniform for girls must conform to the following requirements:

1.  For winter--Dress of navy blue cashmere, with trimmings of light blue surah silk. For the
neck, plain linen collar~ A heavy black wrap or cloak for cold weather.  Cap, dark navy blue.
Style of dress:  Directory coat, with vest, collar and cuffs of light blue silk.  Front of
skirt accordion or knife pleated.

2.  For Spring--Dress of white cross-barred muslin, trimmed with the same material, full skirt
and blouse waist and sailor collar.

CO-EDUCATION--The co-education of the sexes is a question of interest, and of recent years has
provoked wide discussion. It is still a question that is not settled to the satisfaction of
all.  Acadia College, in its last catalogue, thus presents its views on the subject:

"Co-education is no longer an experiment.  Its superiority over the old monastic system of
separating the sexes is an established fact.  He who said "It is not good for man to be alone,'
has associated the sexes together in families and in communities.  The effort to contravene
God's appointment in the organization of our schools must fail of success, and leading
educators have come to realize this fact and are fast adjusting themselves to the situation.
Less than twenty-five years ago there were only THREE co-education colleges in the world; now
there are over two hundred, while the very large majority of the public schools are
co-educational.  President Robinson, of Brown University, one of the oldest and best colleges
in the United States, after a careful consideration of the reasons for and against
co-education, concludes that the arguments urged. against it are mere prejudices against
co-education, and advises the trustees of the university as follows:  'In view of both sides of
the question, therefore, I would recommend that some kind of provision be made for the
education of young women by Brown University,' etc.  Dr. J. B. Gambrell of Mississippi,
speaking of the proposition before the trustees of Vanderbilt University to admit girls to the
course of study, says, 'Why not?  God has placed the boys and girls together in the same
families, and we respectfully submit that the Creator has made no mistake.'  The president of
the Northern Indiana Normal School, whose matriculations number over two thousand students a
year, says,  'A true education is accomplished more fully by co-education of the sexes.'
President Holbrook, of national reputation as a teacher and author, says:  'A true education of
both sexes is accomplished more vigorously, harmoniously and certainly by their mutual stimulus
and sympathy during the course of study.'  He gives the result of ten years' test trial in
these words:  'The result fully justifies the experiment.  It is in every way a success.' Dr.
R. C. Burleson, the venerable president of Baylor-Waco University says:  'I am confident in ten
years more there can not be found a well-informed man in Texas who will oppose co-education.'
These opinions from our best and most experienced educators could be extended almost
indefinitely, but we have not space for more.  No reputable educator who has tested it will
question the superiority of co-education."

The American, of Lake Charles, January 15, 1890, says this of the Acadia College:

Here, then, is an institution of learning which first saw the dawn of light September 21,
enrolling a fair number of pupils, and ere the first term had closed it had increased twofold.
Knowing, as we do, of the features which so predominate in the college, viz: culture,
refinement, mental and moral training, success can not but attend its efforts. And there is
every reason to believe that the coming term, December 31, will open under the most favorable
auspices.  Christmas, robed in her gaudy plumage, carrying her tina lina heavenward, has
brought to our people this year joy more substantial and happiness more complete than ever
before.

Education, having asserted its rights, and in commemoration of its victory, seeing a fitness in
the locality and surroundings of Crowley, has established a seat of learning from which the
highest type of culture and exalted standard of requirements will radiate over this favored
domain of Louisiana. We want the sons and daughters of this fair land to drink deep of the
Pyerian spring now open to them, and join us in oppressing ignorance which arises on every
side.  Glorious as is our Republic, there is yet one dangerous element, viz: the ignorance of
so large a number of its masses.  Under a free government, among an ignorant population there
will always be abuses. If we wait until a garrison has been placed against every possible abuse
we shall wait until eternity engulfs us within its bosom.

What that was which attracted the sagacious eye of him who looked into the future with a wise
and discerning glance, and what was his object, may be fully demonstrated now by one who will
visit this place.  The verdict of students, visitors and professors bears evidence of the
sagacity of the founder of' this seat of learning, viz: President W. M. Reese, Ph. D.  Patrons
and friends who have visited this college and had occasion to be present at recitations in the
several departments are loud in their praise of the progress of the pupils, and the complete
corps of teachers composing its faculty.  We realize that there is now a responsibility placed
upon us more sacred in character than ever before.  Why can not our children, under the
auspices of institutions like this, so improve the present that in some distant day it may be
said that they have attained that noble elevation of mind.  Happy are we who can look forward
with hope and inward assurance, can see glimpses of the green fields opening beyond for them.
Geology, which has been sobered into wisdom by the present age and experience, whose noblest
and truest professor was Moses, is still reveling amid her flora and deciphering by the Rosetta
Stone of Revelation the hieroglyphic symbols of God, proud amid the ruins of her temple, at the
same time bids us throw aside the veil of ignorance and dive into her profound truths.
Geography has thrown open her vast domain of earth and ocean.  So, to investigate carefully
God's material universe, which he has proffered to man as a perpetual study, the mind must be
developed. Let us, then, rally to the maintenance of this institution of learning, and under
the presidency of Dr. Reese, one of our brainiest, most active and practical of Southern
educators, Acadia College will be second to none in the South.

As a conclusion to this sketch of Acadia College, the following from the pen of the present
president, Prof. T. C. Cherry, is here given :. The first term of Acadia College opened
September 24, 1891, with Dr. W. M. Reese president, and with an attendance of only forty
pupils.  In January, i8go, Dr. Reese resigned the presidency of the college, and Prof. T. C.
Cherry was unanimously elected by the board to fill the vacancy.  At the time Doctor Reese
resigned his position the school was greatly in debt and it seemed upon the verge of
destruction.  Through the timely assistance of several liberal, enterprising men, it was given
another footing, and since that time has made marvelous strides.  toward a grand success. It
sustains ten departments and has a present patronage of 165 pupils.  New and magnificent
buildings are to be erected by the opening of the fall session of 1891.  The school is now
figuring as one of the prominent educational institutions in Southwestern Louisiana, and bids
fair at no distant day to take the lead as a school of extraordinary merit.  It is beautifully
located in a healthful and fertile district.  It is coeducational and nonsectarian.  Its
courses are very thorough and practical.

Rayne, situated on the Southern Pacific Railroad, is perhaps a larger town than Crowley; it is
an older one, having been founded long before the parish was created. It has schools, churches,
a number of hotels, stores and business houses, etc., and is a shipping point for a large scope
of rich country.  It also has a sprightly newspaper--The Acadia Sentinel--published by Mr.
Oscar L. Alpha, which is an 'evidence of its thrift and prosperity. There are several other
small villages in the parish.

There are so many erronous [sic] impressions prevailing among Northern people as to the status
of the negro in the South, that we feel disposed to give an instance or two, hoping they may
find their way North, which will serve to show that the negroes are not hunted, shot down and
scalped, as once was the custom among the American pioneers and the Indians, but on the
contrary, the relations between the races are quite amicable.  The instances referred to are
those of negroes owning and working the lands upon which they once labored as slaves, and
supporting their former masters and mistresses free-"without money and without price," having
built them small houses in which to pass in ease their few remaining years.  The writer was
informed by a Catholic priest in this section that several such instances could be given within
the compass of his acquaintance, where the old people were supported, if not in luxury, in
comfort by their former slaves.  There is no shotgun policy in that.  It is free and voluntary
on the part of the negroes.  But there are those in the North who would hardly believe - these
things if they saw them.  They are like the sinners of old, who had "Moses and the prophets,
and, as they heeded not them, would not be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."--Perrin.

Southwest Louisiana Biographical and Historical, Biographical Section, pp. 223-242.  Edited by
William Henry Perrin.  Published in 1891, by The Gulf Publishing Company.

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