Towns & Cities: Sikes, 1976, Winn Parish, LA Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** From: July 21, 1976 Winn Parish Enterprise News-American Sikes: 1907-1945 >From Trees To Tomatoes (Excerpted from a research paper by Jewell Q. Dillard submitted to Dr. Yvonne Phillips of then Northwestern State College in Natchitoches, in 1958. BOOM DAYS, 1907-1930 The population of Sikes from 1907 until 1910 was less than one hundred and the town consisted of no more than one or two stores, a post office, a railroad station, and a new established church. The Sikes Baptist Church was established in 1909 and the Rev. J. T. Parker was its first pastor. >From 1910 to 1925, the fifty mile stretch of Tremont and Gulf railroad between Winnfield and Tremont was very busy. The population of Sikes increased tremendously and the town became a real business center, with two or three sawmills, two gins, and shipped more cotton than the rest of Winn Parish. Sikes also had a flourishing bank, an up-to-date drug store, and two doctors. Sikes was also the center of the biggest stave market in Louisiana. The writer was told that the price of pipe staves ranged from ten cents to one dollar each and that there were sometimes as many as eight wagon loads at one time on the yard waiting to be bought and unloaded. During the years 1910-1925 Sikes was truly a boom town with economy based on exploration of virgin pine timber. The town consisted of, along with those things already mentioned, several stores, a hospital, and motor company. There were two steam type cotton gins owned by B. W. May and two brothers, Dan and Walt Smith. In the 1930s they built a modern gin. A large two-storied hotel was operated by M. A. Gentry from 1918 until 1924. In 1924 most of the town burned and the hotel burned, too. Dick Crain operated a theater at Sikes during 1923 and 1924. This venture did not prove to be a great success. In 1920 the Bank of Sikes was built. The project was financed by selling stock to people. The first bank president was Johnnie Prince. B. Q. May became the second and last president. During the bank crash the Bank of Sikes was forced to close. When the new bank building was completed in 1920, Dr. G. E. Stovall built a modern drug store in connection with the bank building. After the band and the drug store closed in 1930, the building was bought by E. C. Willis. It was rented to the Post Office Department. The part of the bank building that was the drug store was at one time a barber shop. In 1924 Dr. G. E. Stovall built a 12 room hospital and took a partner, Dr. John Adams, tow work with him in the hospital. The hospital was a two-storied building and the second floor was used as a Masonic Hall. Today there is no longer a hospital or a Masonic Hall in Sikes. Even the building no longer exists. The Ford Motor Company had an agency in Sikes in 1924, operated by the Crain brothers. The company closed down after three or four years. Andrew J. Crain owned and operated a sawmill at Sikes shortly after the coming of the Tremont and Gulf Railroad. This was perhaps the first sawmill to be built at Sikes although it was impossible to get the exact date as to when it was built. In 1913, Edenborn put up a sawmill one mile south of Sikes to cut up the timber that had been blown down by a hurricane. This mill operated there eight years and was moved to Joyce. During the pre and post World War I flush days along the Tremont and Gulf Railroad, three brothers, O. B. Thompson, Barlow Thompson, and Atmore Thompson owned and operated one of the sawmills at Sikes. Shortly after World War I, Banks Lumber Company put up a sawmill three miles north of Sikes and operated three or four years. Due to indebtedness Andrew J. Crain, Rubin D. Crain, and Johnnie Prince took the mill over then operated it for several years thereafter. Bill Barrette owned and operated a sawmill at Sikes from 1924 to 1925. By 1924 the sawmills that had moved into the Sikes area had cut all the virgin timber in the immediate area that did not belong to the larger lumber companies, such as the Tremont Lumber Company, and they began to move out. Large numbers of people who worked at the sawmills moved with them or moved back to the farms from whence they came. This left many of the places of business without the trade that had caused them to build at Sikes. At the same time the people of Sikes area were suffering from the decline in the supply of virgin timber, a fire in 1924 burned a major portion of the town. Seven businesses and the hotel were burned. Very little was saved during the fire. The places that burned were a store owned by Webb Sikes, a store owned by the Pepper brothers, a stored owned by Dennis Stovall and Don Slay, a store owned by Oliver Gates and John Brister, a hotel operated by G. A. Gentry, a drug store owned by Dr. Parker and George Erskins, and the dwelling of George Adams. Only one of the businesses, a drug store owned by Webb Sikes, was rebuilt after the fire. This drug store operated a few more years and then closed and has not since been reopened. Recovery from the fire was aided in 1928 when Tremont Lumber Company built a logging camp about one mile north of Sikes. This caused the population of the town to increase considerably. Although there are no written records to prove this statement, it can easily be seen by the fact that the enrollment in the school was between 550 and 600 pupils. After the railroad was constructed, the Crain School, as the Sikes School was then known, was moved to the present location of Sikes High School. DEPRESSION DAYS, 1930-1939 In 1929 when the stock market crashed, the sawmills operating at Sikes closed because there was no market for their products. The sawmill closure left many of the people in the area without employment. At the same time, many people lost their savings when the Bank of Sikes closed its doors. In 1930, when the great depression was being felt most, a CCC camp was built by the United States Government about two miles north of Sikes. The capacity of the camp was about two hundred men. The CCC Camp at Sikes was disbanded in 1932 leaving many of the citizens without employment. Many of the people who were trying to farm did not have enough money to carry on their farming operations while others who did not farm had no income at all. During this time the WPA and Relief Work program gave the people work so they could have a small income. The PWA and Relief Work program would try to give each person as much as two or three days of work each week. While the depression was at is worst Tremont and Gulf began to try to find some use for its cut-over land and also provide business for their railroad. They tried several types of farming ideas in the areas surrounding Sikes. At Sikes they chose a tomato growing project. While the depression was at its worst almost every farmer in the area went into the tomato growing business. The tomato boom provided jobs not only for the farmers who grew the tomatoes but also jobs for the people who graded, packed, and shipped the tomatoes. During the peak of the tomato season as many as three carloads per day would be picked, graded, packed, and shipped to tomato canning plants in other states. As the severity of the depression began to increase and more people began to get jobs in other industries the tomato boom began to decline. By 1943 no tomatoes were grown to be shipped at Sikes. As the timber demand began to increase the timber industry at Sikes again became the prominent source of employment. From 1934 to 1940 the timber industry, i. e. lumber, ties, piling and in the later 1930s pulpwood, became the dominant means of the livelihood. WORLD WAR II AND AFTER During World War II, the timber industry in the form of lumber, ties, piling and pulpwood still provided the major source of income for the people living at Sikes. Nathan Roberts operated a sawmill from about 1940 to 1942. He then moved out of Sikes to what is known as Lakeside three miles north of Sikes. He operated there for sometime and then sold out to Lakeside Lumber Company which operated until 1952. There were many sawmills that operated in the Sikes area during and after World War II but there were no records available concerning these mills. Most of these mills operated for only a short time and then closed. When the defense work began over the country in 1941, many of the people left Sikes to find work and high wages as they began work on defense jobs of various kinds. Many of these people have not returned since the war. In 1945, the Sikes Community was incorporated and became known as the Village of Sikes. A mayor and three alderman were elected and the first meeting of the town council was held April 7, 1947. The first mayor was W. S. Emmons. Aldermen included H. P. Parker, S. J. Smith, and H. C. Thompson.