WORLD WARS AND PROHIBITION 1900 - 1950 Generations V to VI Written by: William Richard Stringfield Submitted by: Darnell Marie Brunner Beck Copyrighted material from Mr Stringfiled's book "Le Pays des Fluers Oranges" ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** The "Turn of the Century" had Plaquemines becoming a somewhat industrious community from several scattered settlements. Both ship channelsdown the major passes had jetties and towns accompanying them. Packet boats serviced the lower river with stops among the comunities below where the railroads serviced, twice weekly each, leaving only three days when no boat was passing. Oysters were a thriving industry, with steaming or canning plants being located in Olga, Ostrica, and Myrtle Grove. The marketplace in New Orleans still took a large amount of fresh oysters, for the restaurants, many earning world renown for their fresh seafood. Any land worth farming had a vegetable plot or orchard, depending on the area. The section from Nairn to Fort Jackson was still heavily grown with orange varieties, and was called in the PLAQUEMINES PROTECTOR as the "Pays des fluers d'oranges" or the land of the Orange Blossoms(see map end of chapter)*. This was in the Springtime. The land of Boothville and Venice was also heavily planted in Citrus, with few farmers having less than a dozen trees. Fishing and trapping were still a major source of money income, but not anyone was well suited for this hardier lifestyle. New Orleans beckoned several of the younger families, as Plaquemines Parish held about the same population from 1890 to 1920, even to 1930(see map of late 1800's)*. The area grew rapidly in the 1930's and 1940's with the discovery of mineral wealth in the ground. Sulfur was found in minable quantities in the middle 1930's as were the major oil fields. No longer was the area just a farming/fishing community which held a small tourist lure, now it was one of the booming oilfield comunities. Modern conveniences do not arrive overnight, despite the newly found wealth. Public services began as levees, with individuals originally responsible for the river levee, and few having organized drainage or rear protection for much of the 1800's. Hurricane protection in the form of levees was not really pushed until about 1910, and due to a severe hurricane in 1915, strongly advocated. Several comunities began to boast of their increased harvests due to additional lands which didn't flood included in their available acreage. Areas protected in 1920 included the Buras through Venice comunities, and the Pointe a la Hache Through Ostrica comunities. Nairn and Home Place through Happy Jack were also protected, as well as the East Bank above Promised Land. Monies to build the levees came from various sources. Originally a lot of marsh land was sold, which the levee boards acquired by donation from the State. Certain sections were then bought back due to a change in the law. Then property taxes were sought. The Buras Levee District had enough of a tax base to have little trouble in getting its early projects accomplished. The Grand Prairie District, being a larger area with a much smaller population, had more difficulty in accomplishing its goals. When the Flood Scares hit the more populated areas upriver in the 1920's, its best protected area was the victim of a Spillway. Ironically, the Grand Prairie Levee District gained a sudden source of revenue, once it was technically no longer needed, with the lower communities on the East Bank obliterated, save the Jetty towns and the lower community. The Oil found in the Baptiste Collette and Main Pass Delta lands which were owned by this body could have financed the levee projects that had been planned to protect the area from Fort St. Philip, possibly lower Pointe a la Hache. This money came in the late 1930's and afterward, once the population it was to guard had left. At the same time, the Buras levee District found similar revenue sources in the West Bay and Venice Dome oil Fields. Roadways in 1900 were surprisingly good. One could travel in dry weather to Pointe a la Hache, and further to Grand Prairie on a roadway, and by riding the levee, reach Ostrica, where a lock with no bridge exited. On the West Bank, one could reach Empire, cross the railroad bridge, and continue to Buras. Several places in 1900 had one riding the levee auto trip were desired, anywhere below Triumph on the West Bank, along with several sections upriver. The Highway route on the West Bank which the State sponsored became a reality in the late 1920's and 1930's, although few people had homes along them for quite some time, and only a couple of lanes connected it with the older riverbank route. The East Bank kept its riverbank route for much of its length(State Highway 39). Sections of the West Bank route were changed as the period continued, bypassing a community or "congested" area where levee riding was the best route before. Paved highways did not become a reality until the middle 1930's, and then only for two to three mile segments in a community. By 1955, the highway from Gretna to Venice had changed its number from Highway 31 to Highway 23. The upgrade came the same year as the completion of the total paved highway, all ninety or so miles. By 1961 or so, the River Road in Buras and Triumph, and the road along Red Pass to Tidewater were concrete, with the River Road in Boothville and Venice being asphalte for much its length. At the same time on the East Bank, much of the roadway was paved to Bohemia, where the "Spillway" began, created about 1924-27. Few had automobiles before 1930, so the best way to reach New Orleans was still by train, until rail service was converted into a Bus Route in the early 1930's. Packet boats ran their route until about 1940 along the areas not serviced by rail freight, or later bus service, which continued to the Jump, in lower Venice. One Packed boat serviced the lower east Bank and Pass communities as late as 1958. Medical services existed only in the form of General Practitioners, with each community having its own, and several on staff at The Quarantine. Pointe a la Hache had a pharmacy in the 1870's and 1880's. The sudden increase in activity caused by the oil and sulfur companies had a small hospital open in Buras, run by the doctor, as well as another in the Port Sulphur community, founded in the older Homeplace community. Dentists were not that common, although a few were known to have visited these communities, with an occasional practitioner becoming common for one community or another after about 1955. Major epidemics such as smallpox and yellow fever persisted after 1900(a vaccine for smallpox was available to many in this area as early as 1850, possibly before). Two epidemics after about 1915 are of note: one was typhoid, about 1916, followed by the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918. Typhoid claimed only a few lives, but shortly followed a major hurricane. Many were weakened, and not quite fully healthy when the Flu came later. Often a death date in late 1918 or early 1919 will be from Flu(October through May). Education made quite a few gains in this time period. In 1900, there some twenty-three or more schoolhouses. All were one-room type schools, with one teacher teaching to sixth or eighth grade level, depending on the students. Several children were already going to New Orleans for High School or other higher education. Most of the schools had between thirty and fifty pupils. Centralizing schools was the major task so that a high school could e started. Buras community had a large school first, with an eighth grade guaranteed, by merging its two or three one-rooms before 1915. By 1925, it given a high school, and the centralizing process was on, with a central school for Boothville and Venice, going to eighth grade, and a high school in le Chasse before 1930, and another eighth grade in Homeplace and on the West Bank, with high schools in those communities by 1940. centralizing the black schools did not come as quickly, although three black school districts were already created before 1950. Unfortunately, the schools were a major factor in the loss of the French from the culture. They taught only English until high schools were available, then seldom taught French, but another foreign language if available until 1960. Other conveniences which hit these communities during this time period were the telephone, the radio, the television even, as New Orleans had a station as early as 1948. Radio began here about 1923 or 1924 with WWL. A popular show in the 1930's, The Dawnbusters, had a bandleader named Pinky VIDAC0VICH, who was born and raised in Sunrise, near Buras. Telephone was more quiet in its approach, although many small businesses had telephones as 1930. Home use was later in many cases. The area had several dance halls even through Prohibition. These were where the dances were held on weekends instead of the old family "Fais-dos-dos" at whoever had a reason to celebrate, and also someone who had room to sleep everybody. You slept by friends often, but only if the best dance that weekend was a little distant. Much of the early jazz was still being formed in these areas and several of the Local bands had a good following. Another of the conveniences which emerged during the 1915-30 years was indoor gas: butane or propane in bottles until after 1945 for many, and natural gas for most of the communities by 1960. "Coal oil" (kerosene) lamps were not forgotten. The electrical power, begun sometime in the 1920's over most of Plaquemines Parish, often had a power failure during rough weather. A light was needed. Water was an unpredictable necessity. Cisterns were dependant on rainfall, and drinking water was kept in cisterns. A dry spell, and all water had to be river drawn. If the river was high, a siphon was used to up a ditch. Then a barrel was filled and moved to where the water was needed. If the water was for washing clothes, etc., alum was added to clear all sediments. Juices were preferred to preparing river water to drink was a kept commodity in a few homes, but not kept long in others. The Company housing of our new industries began their own water/sewer system on limited basses as they were being built in the 1930's. A few neighboring families tied into these systems. Public water was begun in the 1950's, and most of the area from Happy Jack to Venice was serviced by 1960. Three other water districts were created to service the upper West Bank, Upper East and Pointe a la Hache communities(Phoenix, Davant, Pointe a la Hache, and Bohemia). Siphons were popular to irrigate the groves and rice fields during the high river months. It pulled nutrient rich river water into the land kept the water table fresh for quite a distance from the river in some areas. As quickly as they became available in New Orleans, most items were known of in this area, but not everyone easily accepted these new inventions and ideas. The later years of this period, 1930-50 saw the urbanization of Plaquemines as well as the World War II effect. Plaquemines had three major oil field areas only about two to five miles off Venice or Southwest Pass. Two sulfur mines were operating, both in similar range from the river channels. A submarine base was placed at Burrwood in 1940, and the Naval Station at Port Eads was increased. Patrols of the Boothville and Venice Community were nightly for many years during the war. Dirigibles were anchored in the area of the coastline to check on all boat activity through the marshes. Camps, as the oil companies called their company housing sprang up in several communities, but their residents were usually Okies or Texans for many years: Tidewater(Tidewater Community); Venice(Chevron); Triumph(Gulf); Buras(Philips); and Pointe a la Hache(Richardson-Bass). Another was for Mecom in Homeplace, below the Port Sulphur town site. These Camps were from five to forty homes on one or two lanes, sometimes three or four. The Port Sulphur Townsite had some seven or eight blocks, with hundred homes. Its Protestant churches were adjacent to the tOWn8itC a company hospital, a theater, the public school(Port Sulphur High ~ and community center, along with a small business district of 50.8 ten businesses. By 1960, the Company hospital closed down, as the Plaquemines Parish General had opened on the opposite side of the Sulphur Townsite in 1959. Oranges were still the primary agricultural product. The last killing freeze was before 1900, so everyone had replanted by 1920, ~ expanded their plantings as needed. Over one million boxes of Lo Sweets alone were marketed in 1947. Other orange products vhich were satsumas, navels(introduced in the 1920's), grapefruit, kumquats, lemons, mandarins, and tangerines. Some groves were strictly in one variety, while others were half of one, and several others in varying numbers. Some people still preferred truck vegetables, with one or two families preferring Easter lily bulbs. The vegetables preferred were okra, eggplant, squash, tomatoes, bell peppers in summer; and cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and assorted greens in the cooler season. Other vegetables were planted in smaller quantities, with a few families "experimenting" occasionally, and winding up with a sudden hit crop for a few years. Rice remained popular with several families in the Sunrise area and Pointe Michel area, now called Diamond and West Pointe a la Hache. Sugar suffered a blight, and poor prices just before World War I, so many of the plantations lost most of their former black laborers by 1915. New laborers were found in Italian imigrants, and truck farming soon took over several plantations. Sugar was reintroduced in the 1920's, but the plantations involved never maintained a major operation again. Protestant churches emerged with the oil companies and their workers. Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, and the Pentacostals all had at least one congregation by 1950. Jehovah Witnesses were also in force, as were at least two or three other Christian sects. The Roman Catholic Churches were established at Boothville(St. Anthony - Venice after 1970); Buras (Our Lady of Good Harbor); Empire(St. Anne); Homeplace(St. Patrick); Potash(St. Joseph); Happy Jack; Diamond(St. Jude Mission); Pointe a la Hache(St. Thomas); Jesuit Bend (St. Cecile); and Belle Chasse(Our Lady of Perpetual Help). The families, being more mobile, often do not appear in the same comunity for two consecutive censuses. Some are found in New Orleans from a rather early date, more than to have marriages and christenings recorded. Others appear even elsewhere. Small business which were of note will also be listed