Madison County Louisiana Archives History .....History Of Madison Parish 1928
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HISTORY OF MADISON PARISH, LOUISIANA

By W. M. MURPHY 
Of the Louisiana Bar, Tallulah, Louisiana.

    During the historic period five National flags have floated over the
territory lying within the bounds of Madison Parish, but we cannot even
conjecture how many aboriginal tribes or people may have sojourned here in the
distant past or held its soil by their prowess in battle, nor do we know what
kind of banners or insignia of sovereignty they hoisted to evidence 'their claim
of possession.

    But we know that both the Ouachita and Tensas tribes of Indians were found
on or near these grounds by the first white settlers, and that long ago, before
the records of written history begin, other tribes, or nations ruled its land,
peoples who. must have been both numerous and industrious, since they could
build with such primitive tools and implements as they are supposed to have
used, the remarkable "Indian Mounds" which stand as mute witnesses of the past
experience of unknown men in forgotten ages.

    The daring Spanish explorer, Fernando DeSoto, who came out upon the east
bank of the Mississippi some hundreds of miles north, probably near the present
site of Memphis, was undoubtedly the first white man to look upon the wooded
shores of this parish as he floated southward on that stream, to meet his death
a little further down its current.

    Of the flags that have waved over the soil of Madison Parish, first appeared
the French fleur de lys, white emblem of the Bourbons, then the Spanish banner
and next, the French tri-color of Revolution and First Empire; the Tri-color was
followed by the Stars and Stripes, which was replaced for a time by the Stars
and Bars of the Southern Confederacy; and again came the Stars and Stripes as
the emblem of a reunited people.

    Geographically, the history of the parish begins properly with that of La
Louisiane, that vast indefinite area claimed by France as a French colony
extending from the region of the Alleghanies westward to the Rocky Mountains,
and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Country of the Illinois, the outposts of
Canada, or New France.

    This territory was divided in 1721, under Governor Bienville, into nine
Districts, one of which was called New Orleans, and embraced the region now
included in Madison Parish.

    Spain made no changes except to place bold Commanders in charge of vast
areas and this section probably fell under the jurisdiction of the Commander at
Monroe. Under the cession from France in 1803, the Congress of the United States
created the Territory of Orleans and its northern boundary was this present
state line of Louisiana. In 1812 this first Constitutional Territory recovered
for us the ancient name of the Colony, and placed this region under full
self-government.

    But many legislative acts affecting its boundaries were to be passed before
Madison should be named and bounded as it is today.

    By an .act of the Territorial Council of Orleans in 1805, its area was
placed within the "County of Ouachita."

    By the same legislative body the southern part of it was taken from Ouachita
and added to "Concordia County" in 1809.

    In 1811 all that country lying south of a point opposite  Vicksburg,
Mississippi, was given to Concordia and all north of a point opposite Vicksburg,
running up the Mississippi to the Arkansas line was made into a new parish and
named Warren.

    The State Legislature in 1814 annihilated Warren Parish, giving its southern
end to Concordia Parish and its northern end to Ouachita Parish; the law-making
body then abandoned the name of "county," and substituted the designation of
"parish," for such political subdivisions.

    In 1832 a strip eighteen miles wide, now nearly all belonging to Madison,
was added to Carroll, a newly created parish to the north.

    But six years later, in 1838, a new parish was carved out: it began at
Shipp's Bayou on the Mississippi, and extended north to the Carroll line. Its
western boundary was Big Creek, embracing parts of the present parishes of
Richland and Franklin. This large new parish was named for a former President of
the United States; and so the Parish of Madison came into existence.

    In 1839, a little slice was taken from its north end and given to Carroll
and all of the part lying west of Bayou Macon was also taken from it.

    In 1846, a slice three miles wide was cut from the southern part of Carroll
and attached to Madison.

    Neither patient seemed to thrive under this last operation, for no more than
one year elapsed before the wound had to be reopened and in 1847 the Legislature
clipped a little segment from the northern extremity of Madison and grafted it
back upon Carroll.

    Fourteen years passed without, further interference with its boundaries; but
in 1861 all of its land lying south of Bayou Vidal was taken from Madison and
given to Tensas, leaving to Madison the contour and area which it retains at the
present time. Its dimensions are, roughly, twenty-five miles north and south by
thirty across from east to west, thus embracing about four hundred thousand
acres of land. Much of that area, it may be recorded, is still covered by virgin
forests of hardwood timber, chiefly oak, red gum, ash, elm and cypress.

    The first parish seat was established at Richmond, on the bank of Roundaway
Bayou some two miles south of the present town of Tallulah. Richmond was an
active little city until a great hostile army marched its destructive way
through the length of the parish. Its battalions passed over Richmond's streets,
applied the torch to its buildings and left no house standing to mark the site
of Madison's first capitol.

    Patriotic officials and citizens had in advance of the coming of Grant's
army removed from the court house the public records and temporarily concealed
them in the. back country to the west, thus saving from destruction the evidence
of land titles, lawsuits, marriages and other public documents and books.

    Later, these records were stored in a dwelling which still stands on the
east bank of the bayou in the present town of Tallulah where they remained until
the parish seat was removed in 1868, to the town of Delta.

    So that this residence, now owned by the Lane family, was practically the
seat of government for the parish for a period of about five years. This
building and the residence which stands on Crescent plantation are now the only
buildings in the parish that were in existence prior to the Civil War. Governor
O'Reilly continued its observance under the Spanish domination and it survived
in principle with modifications the period of statehood of Louisiana until
slavery was abolished.

    A brief mention of some of its provisions may be of interest; a striking
note of the religious domination and the restraint imposed in favor of the
Catholic creed, the only religion which it recognized or tolerated, runs through
all of the Black Code, and though ostensibly enacted for the control of the
blacks, its framers were careful at the same time, to cast the mantle of
protection about the Church, its very first clause therefore declared that all
Jews should be expelled from the colony.

    Negroes placed under the supervision of non-Catholics were to be onfiscated.

    Negroes found working on Sundays or holidays were to be confiscated.

    All negroes were to be buried in consecrated ground.

    Negroes were not to carry any kind of weapons or big sticks.

    When a slave was executed for crime, the State was to compensate the master
for the market value of the slave.

    Negroes were not to gather in crowds, even at weddings, which latter
provision no doubt seemed to the darkies a very cruel one!

    While no great battles have been fought on the soil of Madison Parish, there
was a serious skirmish near Millikens Bend between the Confederate forces
composed of a detachment of Morrison's cavalry and a body of Federal troops in
the War between the States.

    Toiling armies have tramped over its surface and delved in its black loam.
Grant and Sherman landed their legions at Millikens Bend; and, bent on the
capture of Vicksburg, sought to transport their forces by water below that city
in order to reach the east bank of the Mississippi and surround that be-leagured
stronghold. The guns from the cliffs of Vicksburg however, threatened to make
the attempt so costly that other expedients had to be tried.

    General Sherman sought to turn the waters of the Mississippi into the
channel of Walnut Bayou so that his transports might pass along that stream and
through other bayous which lead into the river further south. To that end he
tapped the river at a place called Duckport, after a plantation there of that
name, with a canal running westward; but the Mississippi refused to be thus
diverted from its accustomed course and failed to furnish sufficient depth of
water for the desired effect. With some water running into this canal, a number
of war boats were being floated into it, when the river began falling, soon
leaving the vessels stranded in the mud. Abandoned, their hulks fell away by
decay in the course of time. This canal has since become filled up by overflow
deposits and is almost obliterated. In a few places its outlines can still be seen.

    The traces of another and greater undertaking of that kind remain to furrow
the soil of the parish as a reminder of the Civil War. This is Grant's canal dug
near the present town of Delta, opposite the city of Vicksburg.

    When General Grant assumed command of the forces operating against Vicksburg
he tried to solve the problem of getting his army, guns and supplies below that
city by changing the course of the Mississippi and floating them down through
the new channel. To that end he excavated an immense canal across the base of
that point of land which projected from the west toward Vicksburg. At that
period the tip of the peninsula was separated from this latter city only by the
channel of the river which was comparatively narrow there. Consequently vessels
passing down the Mississippi were directly under the Confederate guns.

    Though Grant's Canal was made both wide and deep for its entire length of
several miles, the big river again refusing to aid the gods of war, failed to
supply enough water to float the war vessels and the second attempt likewise
came to naught. Grant was a resourceful as well as a determined warrior,
however, and while apparently diverting the foe with his efforts to change the
course of the Mississippi River, he slipped his fleet of transports past the
forts of Vicksburg in the night time with few casualties.

    The lines of this canal can be plainly seen and often passing strangers stop
to view it. At the time of its' building, it was considered to be a mighty
undertaking and attracted more than nation wide interest. Madison Parish thus
holds within its bounds one of the most impressive relics of the great War
between the States.

    What Grant and Sherman failed to accomplish with all their vast resources
the river did of its own might thirteen years later, when in 1876 it cut for
itself an opening through this point of land shifting its channel several miles
to the west, and leaving a big section of Madison Parish soil at the very front
door of Vicksburg. This land which, though lying east of the river is still in
Madison Parish, causes sore trial to the law officers of the parish by reason of
the. favored retreat its willowed wilderness offers to bootleggers, distillers
and other undesirables.

    While it may not be claimed that the parish has produced statesmen of
national reputation, yet a family resident there furnished an able United States
Senator in the person of James M. Downes. A Representative in Congress from this
District, Genera] Frank Morey, though he was of northern birth and came south
with the Federal army, made his home in the parish for a number of years. After
his term in Congress, he several times sought re-election, but this part of the
State had then turned its back on the Republican party with which he was allied.

    In addition Madison has had her full share of other types of interesting
characters, a few of whom should be mentioned.

    It is said that Bayou Macon, the stream which forms the western limits of
the parish, derives its name from the leader of a robber band, which operated in
and at times made its home in the wooded fastnesses of the parish and preyed
upon the stream of immigrants journeying west from the other side of the
Mississippi River in the second quarter of the last century.

    Many of these homeseekers were well to do planters and; brought with them
their slaves, livestock, moneys and other property, thus affording attractive
prey for Macon whose habit it was suddenly to appear from canebrake or thicket
at the head of his robber crew, fall upon the unwary traveler and take liberal
toll.

    Tradition has it that another important stream flowing through the parish
takes its name from a bandit leader of that period, Robber Joe, whose real name
and antecedents have not been transmitted by authentic history. He was said to
have been a tall, long-haired swarthy villain with a following of cutthroats who
took tribute from the traveler and were the moving spirits of many a dark
exploit. The name, "Joe's Bayou," in the western part of the parish, attests his
renown.

    Another picturesque character of a somewhat different sort, was Captain Joe
Lee, whose activities in this parish during the Civil war were outstanding.
Captain Lee had been a member of the celebrated Quantrell band of guerrillas who
operated in Missouri and Kansas and some of whom had come further south as the
war progressed. He and others of the band reached this vicinity. He commanded a
troop of independent guerrillas, having headquarters in the parishes lying west
of Madison; and his activities were largely directed to raiding the camps and
straggling troops of the Federal forces then occupying Madison Parish. His
little following were daring and well mounted and clad themselves in Federal
uniform. This disguise enabled them to approach and surprise the enemy,
capturing horses, arms and prisoners and shooting the foe who offered
resistance; but it made them liable, to court martial and execution in case of
capture. They did not intend to be taken, however, and as far as is known none
of them ever were.

    It is current tradition that in a night raid upon the Federal camp at
Millikens Bend with intent to abduct General Grant, Captain Lee almost succeeded
in his undertaking.

    By living witnesses who knew Lee, he is described as a handsome man above
six feet in height, in the early bloom of manhood, with fine military bearing.
At the close of the war he went to New Mexico where he became a well to do
ranchman. Whether or not he is now living, it is certain that he was alive not
many years ago.

    There lived for a time in the parish another man of more than passing
interest whose history is linked with the locality; General Elias S. Dennis, a
commander of Grant's army, who was quartered in the Vicksburg area and came to
Madison at the close of hostilities.

    Before the war General Dennis was United States Marshal for the State of
Kansas. This was a difficult position to fill in those days of violence and
bloodshed arising from political bitterness over the slavery question. Indeed,
from its riots that state had gained the appellation of "Bloody Kansas."

    The General had married the mother of one Slade, a typical western
character, or at least made famous as such from the picture of him which Mark
Twain drew in his book, "Roughing It."

    Dennis was a tall slight man with pleasant delicate features and long hair
worn in curls flowing over his shoulders. He took up his home in the parish
following the war where a kind widow so much admired him that she willed to him
her plantation; but at her death the will was proved to be defective and from it
the General took nothing. He married a prominent lady of the parish who had also
been widowed and lived in Madison for many years, being elected to the office of
Parish Judge and afterwards to that of Sheriff. In his old age he returned to
his native state of Illinois, and settled down to live with a son on a small
farm. There he died some thirty years ago.

    Another personage who drifted into the parish with the Civil War was a
certain Captain Hawkes. No one seemed to know where he came from nor anything of
his history as he never spoke of his past. He was a lawyer by profession but
enjoyed only a very small practice. He was usually penniless, his clothes were
threadbare or torn; he was a testy little man, quick to take offense and to
resent affronts, real or imaginary. Rumor had it that he was of some
aristocratic English family, which rumor seemed to find support in the fact that
he kept and cherished a book of the British Peerage.

    The Captain it was thought, had never been married. He lived here and there
with various families in the parish, occasionally appearing at the parish seat
mounted on a small pony which he owned.

    Numerous race riots occurred in the State following the Civil War and Capt.
Hawkes' hobby was rioting. Whenever a riot occurred, there Captain Hawkes was
sure to be found in the forefront of action. He was also fond of duels and was
an authority on the code duello; if not able to participate as a principal he
would at least make an effort in any affair of honor to act as a second.

    He served in the Legislature from the parish from 1888 to 1892, at a time
when the Louisiana Lottery was said to be using money lavishly to control
legislation in its behalf. He was opposed to the lottery cause, and though
impecunious, he was considered incorruptible. Later he went to live in New
Orleans where some twenty-five years ago he was run over by a wagon and killed.

    In 1865 the name of a Madison parish man came to be heralded throughout the
United States owing to tragedy that arose in events of the civil war. The
Confederate Government maintained at Andersonville Georgia a prison for captured
Union soldiers. Food, clothing and medicine became scarce, and at times it was
not possible to furnish the prisoners with the comforts or even the necessities
of life, and they became mutinous to an extent that some of them were fired on
by the guards and killed.

    After the Union forces took Andersonville and its garrison it was charged in
the north that the prisoners had been starved, cruelly treated and shot down
without just cause. A wave of indignation swept over that part of the nation and
a hue and cry went up for vengeance and for the punishment of all officials and
others supposed to have been responsible for conditions at the prison, where
some 50,000 Union soldiers had been confined and about 13,000 of them had died.

    A well known Encyclopedia gives the following under the title,
"Andersonville Ga.":

    "After the war, the superintendent of the prison, Henry Wirz, was tried by
court martial, and on the 10th of November, 1865, was hanged, and the
revelations of the sufferings of the prisoners was one of the factors that
shaped public opinion regarding the south in the northern States after the close
of the Civil War."

    So, upon this authority, a citizen of Madison Parish by his conduct was
thought to have been partly responsible for the fateful policy enforced by the
north upon the south during the reconstruction era, for that Henry Wirz was Dr.
Henry Wirz who had enlisted for the war from the little town of Millikens Bend
in this parish and whose neighbors there knew him as a competent physician and
an inoffensive man.

    Another of Madison's citizens, Major George C. Waddill, then a Confederate
officer, had detailed Dr. Wirz for duty at the Andersonville prison.

    The records in the court house show that Worth, the celebrated Parisian
costumer, at one time owned a large tract of Madison Parish land which was
transferred to him by the father of Miss Cora Urquhart, who afterwards became
Mrs. James Brown Potter and distinguished herself on the stage of this country
and in Europe.

    Tradition tells us that Mr. Urquhart deeded this land to Worth in
liquidation of a large sum due to that eminent couturier for apparel furnished
to Miss Urquhart. That lady, it may be said in passing, is believed to have been
born in the parish, on the Araby plantation, then owned by her father.

    Whenever their country called, Madison's sons have shouldered their guns and
gone to war. She sent her full quota of fighting men to aid the cause of the
Confederacy; the Madison Infantry, composed of the flower of the young manhood
of the parish, and the Madison Tips, a body so-called because they were
recruited from Irishmen working on the levees, many of whom came from County
Tipperary. The Tips were famous fighters; when no enemy could be found they
fought each other; they relished their fights and accepted the gage of ;battle
wherever offered.

    The present generation of young men in like manner flocked to the standard
of their country in the World War and fought in France. Some returned with
decorations and official honors, some with gassed and wounded bodies—others of
them gave their lives.

    The United States Government Experiment Station at Tallulah in Madison
Parish, is in some respects the only one' of its kind and in fact is believed to
be the largest of its kind in the country. Working under the Entomological
Bureau of the 'Department of Agriculture, its most important efforts are
directed against the cotton boll weevil. It studies the habits and means of
lessening the ravages of the pest and of its destruction. Among the methods
under trial is the application of poisons by aeroplane dusting. A number of
planes and a well appointed flying field are part of the station's equipment. In
its laboratories and in the field work, a force of some one hundred and
twenty-five workers are employed during the cotton season. Information about
cotton pests and the condition and growth of the plant is gathered from all over
the south, and the data and advice contained in the bulletins issued from there
are the last word upon the subject and are looked for and followed by the cotton
interests of the whole country.

    Now, that the poultry products of the country have attained such enormous
proportions, exceeding in value annually by some two hundred million dollars,
either. the cattle product or that 0f wheat, it may be pointed out, as a further
fact of some interest in the agricultural world that the hens of Madison parish
are making records for themselves in egg productions. In a twelve months egg
laying contest conducted by the State Agricultural Department with fowls entered
from all over .the State, the hens entered by Dr. R. L. Roberts of Tallulah,
have led all other contestants; one of his White Leghorns having laid 28 eggs in
one month and one hundred and sixty seven eggs in seven months.

    Samuel H. James, a native son of Madison Parish, was a pioneer in Pecan
growing. Near Mounds, in the parish, he had planted 125 acres of nuts about the
year 1880, which is thought to have been the earliest attempt to cultivate
improved varieties of pecans on a large commercial scale in Louisiana or
elsewhere. His orchard and its products came to be known all over the country
and its success has given great impetus to improved pecan culture.

    Though the parish has not produced any literary figures of outstanding
merit, it has furnished several writers whose work is very commendable.

    Mr. James, above mentioned in connection with pecan growing, wrote a book
called "A Woman of New Orleans," in which his characters were drawn from life.
Apparently he made too vivid a picture of them, for upon their solicitation, the
book was suppressed.

    Afterwards, in 1890, he put out another book which he called "A Prince of
Goodfellows." In the introduction of this book he pointed out that in "A Woman
of New Orleans" the characters "were taken from real life, a fact that caused no
little trouble." He proceeded to deny that the characters in the new book were
real persons, admitting however, that some of them were based with
modifications, upon certain persons in the parish. The older resident is able to
recognize a number of them, for the whole of the action is laid in Madison,
where people and customs are depicted during the period from the great yellow
fever visitation of 1878, through the disastrous overflow of 1882.

    The book is written in excellent style and deserves very favorable
criticism. A passage referring to the yellow fever pestilence of 1878 is quoted
to demonstrate Mr. James' descriptive style:

    It is the last of November now, and no frost yet. Men and women have been
praying for it for weeks, just as those dying of thirst in the desert pray for
flowing waters. But their prayers have been in vain, and frost has delayed its
coming for more than a month after its usual time of appearance; as if it, too,
were desirous of adding to the ruin that was upon us. One heavy frost would put
an end to all the suffering and stop the fever; but the frost will never come,
it seems, and men and women go on dying like so many flies—life has become so
cheap.

    The pages of that book may serve to recall to living residents memories of
that dread pestilence which carried away so many of their kindred and friends.

    Mr. James was a classmate of Woodrow Wilson at the University of Virginia
.of which he was a graduate, attended the University of Heidelberg and graduated
in law at Tulane University. He practised law for a time, edited his home-town
paper, and wrote books; but he found his real metier in developing the Pecan. He
died in this parish in the year 1924.

    Miss Mississippi Morris, another local writer, published, among her other
productions, a novel, "Toward the Gulf," a book which attracted attention by its
graceful style as well as because of its atavistic motif. Miss Morris lived on
the Bending Willows plantation on Willow Bayou until her marriage with Mr. R. T.
Buckner of New Orleans.

    Mrs. Jeanette Coltharp, a native of the parish, wrote a novel, "Burrill
Coleman Colored," a well written narrative of some tragic happenings in the
community. She is a niece of former United States Senator Downes of this State.
Some years ago she went to Shreveport, where she now resides.

    Mr. James' realistic story of the epidemic of 1878 suggests further thought
on that subject. Spasmodic cases of yellow fever no. doubt occurred in the
parish in the earlier days of its history, but it has suffered under four major
visitations of that dread disease. In each of the years 1866, 1874, 1878 and
1905, an epidemic levied a tragic toll of lives. That of 1905 was practically
confined to the town of Tallulah and its vicinity. Here it was of a virulent
type; out of a total of seventy cases among the whites there were eighteen
deaths; among the negroes there were five deaths out of a hundred cases.

    Before the end of the summer the town became so generally infected that the
health authorities ordered its evacuation, and residents not ill with the fever
were taken away on relief trains which stopped outside the town to take them
aboard, all normal train service through the place having been long since
suspended.

    Conditions became so serious as to attract the sympathy of the whole country
toward the stricken community, and a number of physicians and nurses from
elsewhere volunteered their aid in the treatment and care of the sick. Among the
number were Dr. Chas. Chassaignac of New Orleans who organized the war on the
pestilence, and Dr. C. C. Bass of the same city, both of whom nobly sacrificed
their practice and their private affairs in .order to devote themselves to the
suffering community.

    Dr. Lomax Anderson of Port Gibson Mississippi, contributed not alone his
services, but his life, for here he contracted the fever and died from it.

    Here, for the first time in this country, a raging epidemic of yellow fever
was completely stamped out during the mosquito season of the year, and a clean
bill of health was given to the town in the early autumn. This remarkable
achievement was due to the scientific application of the knowledge that the
mosquito is the only carrier of the germ of the disease. A similar battle with
the fever in New Orleans during the same year, markes the end of yellow fever in
that city and in Louisiana. These triumphs of medical science and of modern
sanitation relieved the state from all fear of yellow fever and it is one of the
enemies of man, that have been completely put under his foot.

    There were numerous Tallulah heroes and heroines in that trying time whose
unselfish devotion to duty will always be remembered by their fellow citizens.
Doctor Geo. H. Ogbourne, Doctor George W. Gaines and the many men in private
life, who treated the sick, nursed the dying and buried the dead, whether friend
or stranger, with no thought of reward except a sense of duty well done. And
these are not forgotten.

    The Mississippi River has washed over alluvial Louisiana as far back as
records go. We have already mentioned the report of its damages, made by
Governor Claiborne in the year 1806, in which he deplores the loss in north
Louisiana from overflows.

    The first great inundation which occurred after levee building became
general in the State was that of the year 1882, which covered all of the
alluvial lands in the northern part of the State and much of those, lying
further south, which calamitous event is often spoken of now by the older
residents.

    But the record breaking flood and the crowning disaster to the parish and to
the State, was that of 1927, when the Cabin Teele levee gave way May 3, mingling
its waters with that coming down from the Arkansas, to cover the alluvial area
lying in its path to a greater depth and to remain longer than in any previous
inundation. But that calamity will probably be the last sacrifice we will be
compelled to make, for it enlisted the sympathy of the' whole country and
brought home to the national government the duty of scientific study of the
flood problem, and of protection against its recurrence. As in the case of
yellow fever, the remedy will be found and then like its dismal prototype, the
danger of floods will be only a memory that will be forgotten under scientific
flood control.

    Serious though the damage is from the 1927 inundations, compensation will
doubtless come out of it. The nation seems to have realized that only the
National Government can control the great river, and that it is the duty of the
Federal Government to take charge of the hitherto insoluble problem.

    When that policy shall become operative and the floods no longer threaten,
then will dawn a day of prosperity for Madison and the other alluvial parishes
which will be reflected throughout the whole State.

    We have seen that the modest little town of Millikens Bend whose site has
long ago been eaten away by the shifting Mississippi, is connected with four
events of historic interest:

    Grant's invading army landed there and established its headquarters in his
campaign against Vicksburg.

    There a battle of the Civil War was fought.

    The town was the home of Henry Wirz, who was executed in 1865 for doing what
he conceived to be his duty in the Civil War, and whose name was heralded
throughout the nation.

    It was the site of the initial crevasse in the levee system of the State in
the great 1927 flood disaster.

    Fame enough, it would seem, is thus afforded to that erstwhile unpretensious
village.

    The period from 1830 to 1860 saw the greatest influx of immigration into the
parish, mainly from the southeastern States, attracted by its fertile black
lands. The newcomers cleared away the heavy forests and planted the new ground
in the favored crop, then, as now—cotton.

    They cleared all the lands fronting the water courses (which are the highest
and most desirable lands for cultivation in alluvial regions) to form a
continuous line of plantations along those streams. Wealth, population and land
values continued to increase until they reached their highest peak about the
year 1861, the zenith of Madison's prosperity.

    Then came the destructive Civil War, followed by the demoralizing
Reconstruction period with its era of political misrule. Few buildings were left
standing; there was no labor to cultivate the fields; plantations lay abandoned.
A large part of the acreage, especially along the western bayous, still lie
fallow after the lapse of nearly seven decades.

    Nevertheless, great progress has been made in recent years. Drainage canals
have been dug, good roads constructed, fins school houses erected, herds of
improved live-stock have been accumulated and progressive farming methods have
been adopted. A new era of permanent prosperity has come, to be checked by the
flood of 1927, but retarded only for the moment. For many disasters here in the
past have been overcome by the courage and enterprise of the people, and,
drawing inspiration from a record of splendid achievement since the coming of
the first settlers, they face the future with confidence hope and unconquerable
spirit.

    This sketch should not be closed without a reference to the part played by
Madison Parish in the long contest during our Territorial and early Statehood
period over' the Municipal designation of the subordinate units of the state. We
may, indeed, call this the battle between the word "county" and the word "parish."

    Under French and Spanish rule, a parish was a locality attached to or served
by a local church or by a priest, the term being used in an ecclesiastic sense,
as in some countries at the present time. It is from this circumstance that the
local political subdivisions of Louisiana came to be called parishes, while
similar divisions in other States are designated as counties. The pecularity is
not, however, without an interesting legislative and political history; for,
under the Territorial administration of Governor Claiborne and his
associates—"Americans", as the Creole then called them, there was an actual
division into counties; and only after Louisiana became a State in the American
Union was the designation of county dropped and that of parish substituted.

    It might be supposed that if the "American" influence had been strong enough
under territorial rule to cause the establishment of the county the same
influence would be yet stronger to maintain that status after Louisiana became a
State. Such, however, was not the case.

    Claiborne was governor of the Territory from 1803 until its admission into
the Union. He filled the position under appointment of the President of the
United States. The law making powers were vested in the Governor "and thirteen
of the most fit and discreet persons of the Territory," who were appointed
annually by the President. From this condition it may be readily inferred that
the American influence was potent in political affairs. Nevertheless, during the
whole period of the Territorial government, and afterwards, there was constant
friction in political matters between the "American" and "Creole" elements,
owing to differences in political traditions, as well as religious beliefs and
customs.

    The Governor and the legislative body being appointed by the President, the
"Americans" naturally were favored in the selection of officials, and for a time
they controlled all departments of the government, though it must be said that
the Creoles were in some respects responsible for this condition of affairs.
There was a disposition on their part to hold aloof and to decline to serve in
official positions. This mistaken view of their duty was the result of an honest
conviction on their part, that, though largely in the majority as citizens and
residents, they were unjustly deprived of that participation in self government
enjoyed by the other sections of the United States and in disregard of their
construction of the terms of the cession to the United States under the Treaty
of Paris. The first acts of Congress providing a form of government for this
Territory was the cause of this contention and the earnest contest of the native
inhabitants did in the end bring about changes in the form of government that
mollified the natives and brought them finally into- political recognition.

   Judging from the record of legislation on the subject, it would seem that the
choice of the name "county" or "parish" in districting the Territory (and
subsequently in districting the State) developed into a warmly contested issue.
Claiborne and his associates were accustomed to the "county" and used that term
in legislative and governmental matters, while the Creoles, who were for the
most part adherents of the Catholic Church and its customs, knew their local
church with its priest as the center of the ecclesiastical "parish". Their homes
were in certain named parishes, the limits of which, to be sure might not be
well defined geographically, and might not be specifically, or at all,
designated by legislative act. The citizen nevertheless knew his parish and
objected to seeing it obliterated and called a county or made a part of a county
and so designated.

    Apparently the struggle over this question was waged at every session of the
Council. Sometimes the advocates of "county" won, sometimes those of the
"parish". At other sessions both names were used as if by compromise, in order
that each faction might have a taste of victory.

    These suggestions seem to be borne out by an examination of the early
legislation. In 1805, Governor Claiborne and the Council divided the Territory
into twelve counties. In 1807, when the people had acquired more voice' in
legislation, through an elective House of Representatives acting with the
Council, those, bodies jointly designated nineteen "parishes, for court going
purposes." But while parishes might exist for the purpose of forming court-going
districts, the county still existed as a poetical unit, and we find Chapter XXII
of the Acts of 1809 defining the limits of "Concordia County." In Chapter X,
page 34 of the Acts of 1811, it is provided that this same Concordia County be
divided into two "parishes", to be known as Concordia and Warren parishes. But
the counties were not yet eliminated. In the Constitution of 1812, there is
mention of several, including that of Orleans; though reference is also made to
the parishes of St. Bernard, St. Mary, St. Martin and Plaquemine.

    Since Louisiana soon afterwards became a State and was governed by a
legislature elected by its own people, a large proportion of whom were not
"Americans," the word county appeared no more in its legislative annals.

    By an Act of the State Legislature, approved February 28, 1814, the
boundaries of the various parishes are fixed.  One of them, Warren, (formerly
embracing part of the territory of the present Madison parish), was abolished, a
portion of it being annexed to Ouachita and the rest of it to Concorida parish.
The contest was ended.

    Parish boundaries have since been altered, but the "parish" itself remains
to distinguish the local governmental district of Louisiana from that of the
other forty-seven States.


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