Towns & Communities: Negreet, Sabine Parish Source: Sabine Index, Many, La., Apr 21, 1999 Submitted by: Carl Dilbeck carlrad@earthlink.net ********************************************************** ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** ************ Five miles west out of Many, Louisiana on Hwy. 6 and another shady five miles south on the ambling LA 476; across a narrow bridge and past numerous pastures and efflorescent yards, is the Negreet Community. It only takes the better part of two minutes, driving past Negreet High School, the Post Office and Lovelady's store, to travel through the community. Present-day Negreet doesn't consist of very much materially, but in historical value, it is priceless. Down to the Indian face painted onto the side of the school, with its feather-laden headdress, Negreet is still an audible echo of its past. The origin of "Negreet" There has been some controversy over where the name "Negreet" originated. One of the claims is that the community was named after an Indian chief, since artifacts found in the area give proof that a tribe of Indians at one time lived on the land. A more credible explanation, however, is that Negreet is derived from the Spanish word "negrito", translated "black", and was labeled as such due to the abundance of black haw trees which grew along the banks of the bayou on which Negreet was originally located. This theory is supported by early maps, which labeled the Negreet area as Black Haw Creek, while later maps, with obvious Spanish influence, use Bayou Negreet. This name-changing influence was due to a Spanish settlement in the area. Violence slows Negreet's start Reportedly, in 1789 Christopher Anthony passed through the terrain and was impressed by its forests of hardwood and pines as well as the abundance of fresh water. However, the land soon became included in what was then known as the Neutral Strip, a lawless area between Texas and Louisiana brought about by the uncertainty of Louisiana's western border (which the Spanish and the United States disagreed upon). Due to its lack of security, Anthony held off from any permanent building, because the Neutral Strip was hardly a place for settlers and families trying to live a quiet life, with bandits and marauders raiding and pillaging towns outside of the Neutral Strip and using the Strip's chaotic nature as a protection from the law. In 1812, once the boundary had been agreed upon by the US and Mexico and Louisiana was officially taken in as the 18th state in the Union, the United States ordered the construction of Fort Jesup for the purpose of enforcing law within the Neutral Strip. The soldiers of Fort Jesup began cleaning up the no man's land, burning the hiding places and headquarters of the scoundrels who inhabited them. The fort was so effective that by 1822 Anthony decided it was safe to begin building Negreet into the permanent community that it is today, and he was soon married to Milberry Cook, the daughter of the man who chartered Negreet's first church, Elder Cook. Over time, Anthony's opulence expanded, with his succession notice (a document much like a modem-day will) showing him to be the owner of thousands of acres of land. In 1843, Sabine Parish was formed from a section of Natchitoches Parish, and Negreet was taken in as a member community of that parish. Negreet before and after the Civl War In the times before the Civil War, many of the early settlers of Negreet were very prosperous, with large farms and plantations providing them with a bountifill income. However, the Civil War left Louisiana in shambles, looted by political and financial carpetbaggers, and many of the Negreet residents were forced to move to Southern Louisiana, where the oil fields sent out promising offers of jobs and a better life. Education in Negreet Before being consolidated into one school, eight one-room schools served the Negreet community in educating the residents' children. In 1921, a number of these one-room school buildings were aggregated into one two-story building, Negreet High School, under the direction of G. S. Manning, the school's first principal. The school was established initially by five of the eight preceding schools, including Liberty, Pilgrims Rest, Self Community, Spring Grove, and 0ak Hill. In 1922, the new high school was joined by Hooker Bend, followed by Union Hill in 1928. No longer serving the needs of the growing scholastic public, the old two-story building was demolished in 1937 and replaced by a one-story, 12 classroom building with a library, a laboratory, a home economics department and an administrative office. The teachers' cottage across the road was also rebuilt. Some eight years later, in 1945, the school system was joined by the students of Alliance, the last of the eight one-room schools. The '60s brought with them an unexpected source of revenue: oil. This newfound wealth benefited the entire community of Negreet, including the church and the school. The school, now having the funds necessary to build a more modern facility, did just that in 1966. This new school was brick and had a voluminous gymnasium that could be used for school functions. The class-size in that year was approximately 460 students from kindergarten to 12th grade. Over the years, the Negreet school has been quite accomplished in sports activities, with both the boys' and girls' teams at times winning championships on the state level, as well as making it into the district and state playoffs regularly. Attesting to the schools' academic achievement as well as its athletic performance, an article that appeared in The Sabine Index on Sept. 6, 1979, says that an outstanding example of Negreet's scholastic achievement was the fact that in the '79 graduating class, 17 of the 36 seniors were honor graduates. The article went on to speak of the community's willingness to work with the school, thereby improving their children's education. Today, Negreet High School is still the center of education for the children and young-adults of the Negreet community, with 20 seniors graduating at the end of the 1996 school year. Also, the school is up for major renovations, as the voters of the. Negreet School District last year approved a $4 million bond issue for improvement. The modern-day community Many things have changed in Negreet over time, including a new post office which was built in 1982, but one thing that has been around, and is well-known in Negreet, is Lovelady's Grocery, which has been operating in Negreet for about 30 years. Sadly, though, the owners of Lovelady's have seen the need to close the store, which went out of operation recently. One of the hallmarks of Negreet, it is sure to be missed by long-time residents and newer residents alike. The past still lives in Negreet, though, with many residents having lived in the community most or all of their lives, watching the history of the town as it is made and passing it on to other, newer, residents. Negreet has become home to many out-of-towners from all over the country, some seeing the small community as a good place to retire. Others are attracted to its natural resources, others to its quiet atmosphere. Regardless of their reasons, many people have found their happy homes in Negreet, Louisiana.