Towns & Communities:  Florien, Sabine Parish
Source:  Sabine Index, Many, La., Apr 21, 1999
Submitted by: Carl Dilbeck
              carlrad@earthlink.net

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  Florien settlement was settled long before it was incorporated
legally into a governed municipality. Its past is a patchwork of
settlers, an absentee landlord and the Kansas City Southern railroad,
all these aspects of which added greatly to the history of Florien.

     Town begins as a settlement

  The land that is now Florien, like all of Sabine Parish, was at one
time a part of the chaotic Neutral Strip or "No Man's Land" that was
the result of a battle between the French and the Spanish for control
of the area. Once the Strip had been put under enforced law and
cleaned-up of the bandits, the U. S. Government put the land in the
area up for sale for 12.5 cents per acre.

  Few children of the settlers had much education, and the necessity
of schools was quickly realized. In response, schools were built,
including Toro, Christie, Antioch, Ebenezer and Gandy in the early
1860's. About a decade or so later the community built two churches,
Antioch Baptist and Ebenezer Baptist.

  Florien really began to grow into a town around 1896, the year the
Kansas City Southern railroad was built through the town. Some
references record the town to have been established in that year,
which has at least some validity since this is when it was actually
named.

  Florien Giaque, the man whom the town was named for, was a prominent
attorney from Cincinnati, Ohio, and was at one time the largest single
land owner in the parish. Giaque purchased the title to a number of
claims in the area of Lanana Grant No. 1 (as that tract of land is
now known). A number of residents had homes on Giaque's land that
they had no titles to.

  According to the July 3, 1975 issue of The Sabine Index, Giaque sold
the residents the lots at "very reasonable prices and furnished them
with proper titles." The article also praised Giaque for his
benevolent involvement in Florien's construction, citing his
generosity in giving away land for schools and churches to be
built on.

     KCS moves into town

  Some scoffed at Giaque's interest in the land, which he bought some
15 years before the railroad moved into town, and these objectors
wrote the land off as worthless. However, when the KCS railroad was
built in 1896, Giaque sold 32,700 acres of the land to promoters. The
sale paid off big, according to Salter's essay on Florien's history.

  Soon after the land was acquired by KCS, the tracks began to be
laid. Teams of mules were used for grading the right of way where
the tracks were to go down, and locals were paid $1 a day to do the
job. When the railroad was complete, businesses started popping up
all along the railway, and Florien began to grow.

  The first mercantile to be established in Florien was opened in
1897, under the ownership of A. C. Leach.

     Florien modernizes and incorporates

  For years Florien had received its mail three times a week from
the post office in Natchitoches, but now, with Florien growing as it
was, the town found it necessary to start its own postal service. The
Florien Post Office was opened in 1908 with Willie Hall serving as
the postmaster.

  As the United States began to enter into the era of
telecommunications, Florien did its best to keep up, with Southern
Bell installing telephone lines in 1954.

  A tragic event sparked the town to incorporate in 1959. The
beautiful home of Dan Lucius caught on fire, destroying it. This
event upset many people, since all they could do was stand by and
watch as the home was incinerated. Seeing the need for community
fire protection, the town decided to incorporate, at that time for
the sole purpose of having a legal fire department.

  The Florien government consists of four offices, mayor, marshal,
aldermen and clerk. The clerk is appointed by the mayor and aldermen,
and the other positions are elected into their four year terms.

  The new government's first act was the purchasing of a fire truck,
which was funded by a tabacco tax. The cost for the truck and
equipment totaled some $4,000 in 1959.

  Progress continued, and early in the 1960s, a water system was
constructed, after initial rejection of the plan 18 months prior
to the resolution being passed. In an effort to have a natural gas
system provided, businessman A. J. Hodges met with Mayor W. R. Turner
to discuss the possibility of bringing a plywood plant into the town,
which would provided necessary funding. In 1965 the Vancouver Plywood
company moved into Florien.

     Florien in modern times

  More recently, in November of 1985 Florien dedicated a new Post
Office, which was about two-and-a-half times as large as the old
office. Also, in 1988, a machine which can "smell" the ashes of a
burnt building and identify the substance used to start the fire was
donated by the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation and the Louisiana
Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company to the Florien Fire Department.

  In 1991 Florien collected $104,000 from policing the highway and
giving out speeding tickets, 78 percent of Florien's revenue. Today,
the figure is one-third that.

  What makes up for the revenue not being picked up from the highway?
Well, for one thing, the voluntary annexation of Boise Cascade's huge
plywood mill, which is the largest employer in Sabine Parish. This
addition to Florien's tax revenue has doubled the property taxes and
tripled sales tax collection.

     Grants fund beautification, other projects

  In addition to the annexation of Boise are the exceptional number
of grants that have been brought into Florien. With two housing grants,
two rural development grants, one urban forestry grant, three law
enforcement grants and one sewer grant, Florien has seen almost
$1.5 million dollars of funding in the past three years.

  Many accomplishments have been made in Florien in modem times. Of
the projects undertaken, the most impressive (and ambitious) is the
beautification of the town. This project includes funds totaling
$5,000 paid from the state each year for the town to mow the grass
along the highway, but that's just the beginning.

  A grant for $500,000 have been used to level and reconstruct a
section of town that was in sore straites. According to Mayor Rodney
Jordan, every one of the houses in that part of town were not fit to
be lived in, and yet they were occupied, mostly by elderly persons.
Zoning laws have been put into affect and are "aggressively enforced,"
says Jordan, to keep the area in its present, enhanced condition.

  Florien is also in the process of renovating and reconstructing a
grocery store building built in 1928 into a civic center, with repairs
including a new roof with 40-year shingles.

  Of all the projects and improvements that Florien has experienced
over the last few years, the accomplishment Jordan said he was most
proud of was cleaning up the strips of land that run along-side the
railroad tracks. Jordan referred to this land as the railroad's
junkyard, with old equipment and scrap materials rusting and rotting
all over the land. The cleaning up of that garbage, which is now lined
with crepe myrtles and well-kept Saint Augustine grass, was an
enormous achievement, and one that Jordan is quite pleased with.

  The railroad hasn't been the only area cleared of junk and trash,
however. About 45 condemned houses and shacks have been demolished
in an effort to remove the eye-sores that can be found all over
Florien. Its a slow process, but one with a worthy goal.

  Most of the grants Florien has received have been personally
written by Jordan with support from his staff and City Hall. The
latest grant, however, for $750,000 that is to be used to install
a sewer system that reaches the two-thirds of Florien that currently
does not have connections to a central system, was written by Hannam
and Fontana, a grant consultant agency. Presently the environmental
clearance necessary from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
is in the workings, and Jordan hopes that the new system will be in
place by next summer. He said that, with the extending of the sewer
system, the water and sewer rates will decrease.

     A "Tree-Chair" found in the overgrowth

  In the effort to clean up some of the overgrown areas of the town,
Jordan was searching for an abandoned well and, to his surprise and
delight, made an interesting discovery.

  Cade and Anna Johnson, a couple who even through the 1950's still
traveled in a mule-pulled wagon, lived in Florien. Cade had a metal
chair in front of his home that was set up against a large-tree, and
he would sit and watch the cars go by in the evenings. Eventually,
the Johnsons passed away and their house was demolished, but the
chair had been partially swallowed by the mighty tree.

  What Jordan found in his search for the well was that the tree had
continued to grow, and "swallowed up" the chair, its bark covering
some of the chair and holding it, attached, to the tree. Realizing
the uniqueness of the situation, the area was made into a small park
with a white fence built behind the treechair.

     Florien continues to make history

  A lot of hard work has gone into restoring Florien, and although
there is still much to be done (including a park overlooking most
of Florien that is currently awaiting $40,000 from yet another
grant). The people of Florien have been shown that it is possible
to make the town into everything that a southern town could be.
History has shown Florien to be a town ready for advancement, and
despite some setbacks, and that ideology is still prevalent in the
690 residents of Florien today.
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