SUGARTOWN, CALCASIEU PARISH, LA
Contributed by Margaret Rentrop Moore

Source: Southwest Louisiana Biographical & Historical by William
Henry Perrin; published 1891 page 160


**********************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm
************************************************
 
    

   Sugartown, or the seventh ward, is about twenty-five miles square, bounded
south by Barnes Creek and north by  Vernon parish. It is heavily timbered with
long leaf pine, except on the creek bottoms, which are covered with a heavy
growth of oak, beech, hickory, maple, magnolia and other hard wood, suitable for
the manufacture of furniture, wagons, farm implements, etc. Numerous creeks of
pure, clear water, abounding in trout, cat, buffalo and  other fresh water fish,
run through this section and empty into the Calcasieu River, which runs south
through the parish into the gulf. On these creeks lumbering business is carried
on. The timber is cut, hauled to the banks and  dumped into the water, and run
into the river, thence to the mills at Lake Charles, where it is sawed into
lumber and shipped to all parts of the country. The soil is a sandy loam, very
easy to cultivate, and on the creek bottoms very fertile. The pine lands are not
so rich in vegetable mould, but are susceptible of a high state of cultivation
by a very little fertilizing.  The crops are corn, cotton, rice, tobacco, sugar
cane, sorghum, peas, oats, Irish and sweet potatoes, all kinds of garden
vegetables in perfection, and frults of nearly every variety. The country is
very level, and the finest kind of grass grows all through the pine woods, on
which cattle get very fat during the summer, and the winters are so short and
mild that they go through with very little feed.  Sheep are more profitable to
keep, from very little at the fact that they get their living the year round in
the woods with very little attention. Hogs get fat nearly every fall in the
bottoms on the beech and oak mast. Lands for farming purposes can be bought at
from $1.25 to $5 per acre.