Tensas parish is the youngest daugh- dis Place, owned, I believe, now by Dr. Scales' and Nichol's Plantater of "Old Concordia," being the last Duncan. parish stricken off that extensive do- tion was settled in 1806 or 1808. It was main, which formerly reached from the at a period later than the above-menmouth of Red River to the Arkansas line. tioned dates that the country back from It has a river the Mississippi and Lake St. Joseph was It was divided in 1843. border of between fifty and sixty miles. settled, though there were not lacking It is bounded north by Madison parish, pioneers who penetrated the swamp to west by Franklin parish and Catahoula, test its value. east by the Mississippi River, south by the Mississippi River and Concordia parish. It embraces a territory of six hundred and twenty-five square miles, or about four hundred and six thousand

acres.

SETTLEMENT. As with other places on the great river, nothing very accurate can be obtained in reference to the first settlements. As might be supposed, in very early times individuals passing down the river were attracted by favorable locations which presented themselves, and made temporary settlements, and these, no doubt, were in some instances cotemporaneous with the settlements made on the other side of the Mississippi. These temporary settlements being abandoned were occupied by persons of more energy, whose occupation was the cultivation of the soil. It was at a house known as the "Stone Chimney," nearly opposite the site on which Grand Gulf has since been built, that Aaron Burr took up his residence for a short time in 1807, where he was maturing his plans for ambition or personal The aggrandizement in the South. nearest post-office was Port Gibson, in Mississippi, and the messenger who was employed to convey his correspondence and receive his letters, identified him as the man. His stay was short, but memorable. No doubt the first permanent settler was Job Routh, the father of John Routh, Esq., who made his settlement in 1800, or perhaps before that time. The following are some of the early settlers, and the date of their settlement:

Job Routh, Lake St. Joseph, 1800; John Routh, Esq., Lake St. Joseph, 1808; James Miller, Mississippi River, 1808; Ebenezer Miller, Mississippi River, 1808; James Bray, 1800; Jacob Bieller, 1808; Burrel Vick, do., 1808; Mrs. Sarah Hays, in 1804, who is still a resident of the parish at the advanced age of 80 years; Job Bass, 1805; Arthur Andrews was representative of the parish from 1815 to 1825, and resident of this part of it, at what is now called the Mar

In 1813, two men, tanners, came from Greenville, Mi., for the purpose of killing alligators and cat-fish for oil, which they needed to carry on their business, at a time when commerce was suspended, and when the southern country was threatened with war. They bivouacked at what is now called Lake They Shackleford, which derived its name from one of these adventurers. were so much pleased that they made preparation to reside there, and cultivate the ground, but the high water of 1815 discouraged them, and drove them back The river settleagain to the hills. ments, as we have said, were early made and constantly increasing in value. The deep forests in the rear were considered by many only as reservoirs which were necessary to hold the floods of the Mississippi, and not intended for cultivation. Up to the year 1836 there were not known but very few settlers on the Tensas River, from its mouth to its source. During the administration of Judge George S. Guion, who was parish judge from 1828 to 1836, there were but two or three settlements back from the Mississippi; two of these were on Walnut Bayou, and one or two on the Tensas River, and were ferrymen on the route of travel to Alexandria, La., and Texas.

It was between the years of 1836 and 1845 that the principal emigration set in to this parish, invited by the defences made on the Mississippi for protection, and the exemption of the country from overflow for so many years. It was in 1843 that the great land sales took place at Munroe, for back concessions on the Mississippi, and for the lands in the interior of the parish. The lands had been previously settled, and needed only the The conproof of pre-emption to give the happy settler a title to his home. trast which a few years presented in the settlement and growth of the Parish was great. Formerly the roads leading up Then and and down the river were the only ones, with no back settlements. now there are roads traversing the parish in every direction, and leading to

Settlement-Biography-Rivers and Lakes.

433

neighborhoods which abound with life brooked the difficulties which presented and industry. It was in the year 1828 themselves to a poor man in a new counthat the road from the Mississippi to try, and gained competence and even Sicily Island was established by the wealth. The town of Waterproof was police, usually called the Rodney Road. laid out in 1846, and sold the next year. Before that time it was merely a by- Mr. Miller shaped his course to suit the path, and afterward, until there were exigencies of the times and the pressing settlements on the route, that had its demands of the people. care, unless in the fall or summer, it was not a very pleasant road to travel, though the shortest through the swamp.

MOUNDS.--There are numerous mounds in this parish; so numerous that I think it has a pre-eminence in this respect, and was a favorite resort of the tribe of Indians who formerly inhabited this country, and whom Robert Patterson, formerly editor of the Concordia Intelligencer, styled the Mound Builders, a name very applicable. All attempts to fathom their history is, of course, of no avail. There they stand-the monuments of an age or ages gone by, leaving no record of the past save their beautiful appearance, in contrast with the dead level of the surrounding country, and the bones which are frequently disinterred by the spade or plow. They are always on streams or lakes, and stand in clusters, one larger than the rest. They are usually cultivated with the balance of the plantation, or used, when convenient, for orchards. Their height is from twelve to twenty feet above the ordinary level. I know of one used as a convivial spot on a fourth of July occasion. When the party had assembled, there was a piece of paper found nailed to a tree, with these words-"Three feet beneath this ground lie human bones. Will the inhabitants of a Christian country dance over the graves of the aborigines of our country!" It had no effect on their mirth; with a few remarks on the person who wrote it, the dance went

on.

BIOGRAPHY.-Perhaps it may not be amiss to mention, under this head, one who has certainly contributed very much to the prosperity of the portion of the parish where he resided, who gave an impulse to business, encouragement to the new settlers, and was the founder of Waterproof, now a thriving village on the Mississippi, 21 miles from Natchez, numbering 200 in population-James Miller, (deceased.) He came to this country, with his brothers Ebenezer and Robert Miller, in 1808, when the banks of the Mississippi were lined with cane;

VOL. XIV.

2

John Routh, Esq., has been for several years at the head of the Police Court in this parish; was the chief man in urging taxation to build levees, so important to rescue the parish from the disastrous effects of the overflow, which, by his influence and energy, he carried out. He is now a member of the legislature from this parish, where he was greatly instrumental in carrying out a system of taxation for levee purposes, in the two upper parishes and Catahoula, which were most concerned, and thereby making the cause a general one, as these parishes are dependent on each other for protection. Mr. Routh pays taxes on more than 30,000 acres of land in this parish, and makes near or quite 4,000 bales of cotton annually.

Dr. Thos. Newell is known as having been the means of bringing to the use of the cotton region an excellent press, now called the "Newell Press," and of some machinery connected with a mill, used on Lake St. Joseph. He was formerly a practitioner of medicine, but having for several years relinquished the practice, except as a neighborly act, he has devoted himself to planting, in which he exhibits neatness and a due attention to the cultivation of the soil.

RIVERS AND LAKES.-Lake St. Joseph lies in the northern part of the parish, is twenty-five miles long, and was named by Mr. Job Routh in honor of Joseph Vidal, commandant of the Concordia district, from whom he received a requetté

of land.

Lake Bruin lies a few miles back of the town of St. Joseph, and was named after Judge Bruin of Mississippi, who possibly owned land on its banks. It was formerly called Lake Peter, after Peter Walker, the father of our present governor, who was himself a land surveyor in this parish. Chactá Lake, Lake Easely, Tensas Lake, a part of the Tensas River, the river running through it, Saddletree Lake, and Bullus Lake.

RIVERS.-Tensas River is near 300 miles long. It runs through the northern and western part of the parish. It rises

It is

in Lake Providence, and runs in a devious three feet higher than the slough. I way, like the Mississippi, which it resem- have heard of no minerals of any sort bles. At one point it is not more than in this parish. For water, cisterns seven or eight miles from that river. It are preferred. Wells are used where drains the parish-every bayou in the these cannot be attained. The water is parish communicating with it, and with healthy, slightly therapentical. Upon others which lead to it. It receives its analysis a small quantity of iron has waters from the Mississippi at one point at been found in it, and some magnesia. New Carthage. Its banks are rough and The land recedes as you go back from irregular, like the Mississippi. It is na- the Mississippi at about three inches in a vigable to Roundaway Bayou, Madison mile. I gather this from an estimate parish, whence steamboats ply regularly taken by engineers who surveyed the during business season. The difference route from Providence to Munroe. It is between high water and low water is seventy-five or seventy-six feet at Waabout thirty feet. The first steamboat terproof above the level of the sea. I which ascended the river was in '40 or may as well mention another fact in this '42. Most of the boats which ascend connection-that the river opposite the it act the part of pioneers. The accumu- parish, near Hard Times, is deeper than lation of drift is such as needs a yearly it is any where else on the river. removal. The greater part of the coun- 200 feet deep. The growth of the forest try which flanks the Tensas is newly is the same every where on the low-lands settled, or at least within the last ten on the Mississippi. Gum, oak of every years. This accounts for the number of variety, cotton wood, hackberry, pecan, trees still standing between the banks, which grows large and yields abundant not in the channel, which, if removed, fruit, locust, dogwood, cypress, mulberry, would produce a depression in high willow, elm, haw, swamp piney, persimwater of some considerable extent. mon, and occasionally is found a small pine. I have found some while hunting in the woods for trees to adorn a yard. A good deal of attention is paid in this parish to stock, though the overflow of 1850 was very injurious in this particular, $68,000 worth of various kinds having perished in that eventful year. Mules are generally used for farming purposes; oxen for hauling. The range renders them almost without expense, except when on the road. Many planters raise their own meat. The range is good for cattle, and mast for hogs.

BAYOUS.-Bayou Mason lies on the western part of the parish, and runs into the Tensas. It separates the parish from Franklin, and is navigable for steamboats to near the Arkansas line. There are also Derosset Bayou, Shackleford Bayou, Mill Bayou, Mound Bayou, Saddletree Bayou, Big Chacta, Little Chacta, Clark's Bayou, Van Buren Bayou, Little Tensas, Water Hole Bayou, Roaring Bayou, Cross Bayou, Dickard Bayou, Green's Bayou, Black Bayou, and Hunter's Bayou.

Besides these there are innumerable small bayous everywhere which drain the land. They do not serve the use of ditches, for the land lying level every where, to make the yield commensurate with the fertility of the soil, ditches are positively necessary. The appearance of the land is everywhere the same, but the color of the soil is different in different localities, owing to the time which it has been in cultivation. The soil has a hard surface, and from the constant necessity imposed on it, in the course of time it loses its rich loamy appearance, and assumes a brownish color. Though there is very little of this worn-out land, where so much rich virgin land can be attained, yet on the front in some places it has very much the appearance of age and poverty. The land lies rolling, that is, a ridge and a slough, the ridges about

There are numbers of wild animals in the parish. In many places there are large tracts uninhabited, where the thick cane-brakes and dense undergrowth afford layers for the wild beast, and refuge when pursued-deer, bear, panther, wild-cat, catamount, wolf, raccoon, opossum. A great many deer and bear have been and are still killed. The bear fights with spirit, and but few bear hunts terminate without injury to some one or more valuable dogs. They are great depredators. I understand that Mr. James Gordon, on Lake St. Joseph, generally plants twenty-five acres of corn yearly for the bear. Whether you plant it or not, but few escape their nightly visitations, and they soon lay waste, if not checked, the fairest prospects. They are very destructive to

Productions-Shipping Ports-Religion, Education, &c.

hogs, always selecting the fattest of the drove. They are frequently killed while going into the cornfield, by persons who take stands for them at their usual place of getting over, or when they return from the field. An overseer on Lake St. Joseph informed me that he shot one just after he had reached the ground in getting into the field; and in his efforts to get out of the field, he made a complete gap in the rail fence, and scattered the things about as if they were but playthings.

The productions of this parish are the same as in all the southern country, corn and cotton. The corn crop in last year (1851) was far below the usual average, on account of an unprecedented drought, and an insect which infested the roots, while very young, called the chinck bug. It has puzzled many how to circumvent the little creatures, and to make corn notwithstanding. This year the insects were not so bad, and pleasant rains produced an abundant harvest, sometimes to the extent of fifty bushels to the acre. There were in 1851, 16,381 acres cultivated in corn. The culture of cotton is persevered in, and attended with great success. There were raised, in 1851, 46,223 bales of cotton, and there were 45,823 acres planted in cotton. The largest crop known to have been made was raised on Mrs. Ogden's place in 1839, which was nineteen bales to the hand. The overseer was grieved that he could not make twenty. It is useless to detail the manner in which corn and cotton are cultivated, but merely to say, that the most approved instruments are used in the cultivation, and cultivated in a way which experience has sanctioned to be the best, and carried on with a spirit and energy which neither slackens nor slumbers. There is but one new place opened this year, that of Mr. Daniel's, on Van Buren Bayou. "Lands are estimated at from 10 to 30 dollars per acre.

Planters living back are, of necessity, compelled to keep their roads in good condition. There has been of late years great improvements in this respect. Some haul the cotton to the Mississippi, others wait a rise in the back streams to take it out this way. If the numerous bayous which intersect the parish were properly cleansed, no country could exceed it in internal navigation. Nature has placed them as drains, and man's labor could make them highly auxiliary to the end for which his labor has been appropriated.

435

The improvements consist generally of very neat residences, and gin-houses and out-buildings of a very substantial character. There is an air of neatness and comfort in the dwellings which is very attractive. Hospitality is proverbialthough the untiring ambition to make money prevents much sociable intercourse.

It

The principal shipping points in the parish are Ashwood, Hard Times, St. Joseph, and Waterproof. St. Joseph is the parish site, and has a court-house and jail, a tavern and two stores. contains the residence of the marshal of the southern district of Louisiana, as well as several very able members of the bar. The population cannot contain more than fifty. St. Joseph, on a court day, or on some court days, presents a scene of animating interest-lawyers of high standing from a distance, the important interests at stake, citizens crowding into the little town, and all partaking of the bounties of life at the same table, as if they were all of one family, and needed only the name of brotherhood to make them so.

RELIGION AND EDUCATION.-Religious services are performed every Sabbath in various parts of the parish by the Methodists and Presbyterians. There are one hundred and twenty white members of the Methodist Church, and one hundred and three colored. What the number of the Presbyterians is I have not been informed. I do not believe that there is as yet any organized society. There are four Methodist preachers residing in the parish, and one Presbyteri an. There are three Methodist churches

the one at Waterproof is a beautiful edifice, and will cost $4,000. There are schools in nearly every neighborhood, supported partially by the school-fund. The salaries of teachers are from five hundred to a thousand dollars. There are 232 persons between the ages of six and sixteen; also lawyers, and doctors, and planters, of great intelligence, but I know of no one whose profession is purely literary.

With a brief statement of the progress of population from the settlement of this country to this time, and a brief history of the parish judges who have conducted the business of the people through the trying emergencies which characterized its settlement, I will conclude.

In 1810, the parish of Concordia, which embraced all the country lying from the

mouth of Red River to the Arkansas There were no regular packet-boats in line, contained 2,895 souls. In 1815, those days, passing and repassing; and if the whole state did not exceed 90,000 the parish judge sometimes took an ocsouls-but few Americans arrived be- casional steamboat, ten chances to one fore the purchase of Louisiana. After he would have to float back on a flat1815 was the greatest influx of population. Concordia is now divided into four parishes, and constitutes a very important fragment of the cotton region. Tensas parish contains 902 free persons, and 8,673 negroes. There was paid in three years quite a large sum for levee purposes.

boat. But the dignity of the office was not compromised, for their duties were important, and their discomforts were in keeping with the state of the country. Judge Ogden was the father of three distinguished lawyers of that name, now residents of this state-two of whom live in New-Orleans, and one in the parish of Rapides.

The first parish judge who acted under the territorial government, was a gentle- He was followed by Judge George S. man by the name of Ross. He was Guion, who administered the office from succeeded by Dr. David Lattimore, who 1828 to 1836, and was highly esteemed still lives in Concordia at the extreme and respected for the mildness of his old age of about ninety years. He was manners, and his clear characteristics as followed by Edward Broughton, Esq., judge. Parts of the country, however, who, not being a lawyer, and leaving were in a state of rudeness, morally as the administration of affairs to his clerk, well as physically, and some of the newcaused great confusion and irregularity ly settled neighborhoods were wild and in the office. There were many amus- lawless, and not disposed to look upon the ing stories related of the judge; among parish judge with favor or treat him others, there was one-which, of course, with much courtesy. Indeed, the office must have been apocryphal, as intend- was in such bad odor among some of ing to disparage the office, being con- the frontier people, owing either to persidered by some as having all the honors sonal prejudice against those who had and emoluments concentrated in it-to preceded him, or some more substantial this effect, that having settled a small cause, that for the purpose of protecting estate of five hundred dollars belonging himself from personal violence whilst to a Kentuckian, who had died in Con- among them, he was compelled to cordia, he wrote to the friends of the wear a brace of pistols openly belted deceased in Kentucky to remit one hun- around him. This state of things did dred dollars, to pay the balance due him not last long, and before he resigned, a for fees. He was followed by John Per- complete change was manifest. Judge kins, Esq., the venerable and respected Guion is now a resident of the parish of citizen and model planter, now and for Lafourche Interior, a planter, and holds a many years residing at Somerset, in the distinguished place in the affections of parish of Madison. Judge P. has a son, his fellow-citizens. He was elected a John Perkins, Jr., who wears the judicial member of the convention in 1845, assistermine with distinguished honor, and ed in framing that constitution, and was who has presided in this district. The elected to the same office in 1852 as next was Robert Ogden, Esq., who ad- member of the convention, when it beministered the office little more than came expedient to change the economy two years, from 1826 to 1828. He was which prevailed in 1845, and to engraft a very worthy man, and possessed of some new features which were agreeaconsiderable learning, but being ad- ble to the age in which we live. The vanced in years, and of feeble constitu- next was Judge Keeton, who was killed tion, he was not able to undergo the by the falling of a house during the great fatigue, and surmount the difficulties at- tornado of 1840. Judge Dunlap suctendant upon the discharge of the duties ceeded him, and he was followed by of parish judge of the extensive district George C. McWhorter, at present State of Concordia. In order to make inven- Treasurer. tories and sales of succession property in remote parts of the parish, it was frequently necessary to undertake journeys of more than a hundred miles, subject to many inconveniences and annoyances.

In Tensas Parish, Judge Montgomery was judge after the organization, who, having served a year or two, was follow ed by Judge Bradstreet, who held the reins till the office was abolished in 1845.