Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, August 26, 1997

Acadia born in ashes of St. Landry courthouse

Legislature was asked first to name new parish after Nicholls

by Jim Bradshaw

The need to build a new courthouse touched off two fights. In old St. Landry Parish, the people of the town of Washington began a campaign to build the new courthouse community-- but of a separate new parish.

Some 15 years earlier, an attempt had been made to carve another parish from St. Landry. A bill for the creation of a St. Joseph Parish out of southern St. Landry was introduced Jan.20, 1871, by State Rep. A. L. Durio of St. Landry. The new St. Joseph Parish would begin on a line about three miles south of Opelousas and include places (most of them no longer on the map) such as Gros Chevreuil, Bellevue, Petit Bois, Prairie des Femmes, Grand Coteau and Plaquemine Brûlée, as well as "sparse and detached communities westward to the Mermentaw (sic) and Nez-Pique (sic) Rivers."  At the time the total population of St Landry was 24,646: 13,135 white and 11,511 black.

That plan was voted down and the question of dividing St. Landry didn't come back up until the courthouse fire. But a week after the courthouse burned, on March 29 the town of Washington sent a delegation headed by State Sen. M. D. Kavanaugh to Rayne "to get the sentiment of the people on dividing the parish."

Said the Rayne Signal on April 3 1886: "The general sentiment of the people of this section is that a division of the parish would result in great good to all interests. We have no doubt of it. The slight increase in taxes which might result from such a course would be more than offset by the increase in value of real estate. The sums of money spent by our people at the parish seat during their numerous trips throughout the year amount to quite a tax. ...

"Any man of common sense can understand that all the interests of Opelousas are opposed to a division of the parish," the Signal continued. "If they now seem anxious to assist us it must be because they fear a combination between us and the people of Washington. Why do they fear such a combinations? Why is it that these gentlemen so suddenly manifest an interest in our behalf? It is because we are nearer the accomplishment of our purpose than we ever have been or are ever likely to be again!"

The Opelousas Courier of the same day offered the view from the other side of the coin. Washington, it said, had sent a delegation to Rayne with a proposition: If Rayne would support Washington in its bid for the courthouse, Washington would help Rayne to form a new parish. The Courier predicted that Opelousas would keep the courthouse, but that a new parish would be formed.

A mass meeting of the Rayne citizenry was held on April 3, and the speakers, including businessmen form Opelousas and the popular St. Landry Parish Sheriff C. C. Duson (whose brother was in the real estate business in Rayne and whose brother-in-law was on the Rayne Town Council), were almost solidly in support of division of the parish. Reported the Signal on April 10: "Messrs. C. W. Duroy, Gilbert Dupre, and F. F. Perrodin of Opelousas ... the latter speaking this time in English (promised) for themselves and the town of Opelousas an earnest support of our demands."

On May 19, 1886, St. Landry Rep. J. C. Lyons of Plaquemine Brûlée introduced a bill in the Louisiana House of Representatives to create the parish of Nicholls. It was referred to the committee on parochial affairs and came back to the full House with the title changed to read: "An act to create the parish of Acadia."

The name change had to do with the politics of the time. Samuel D. McEnery was Louisiana governor. His opponent in the upcoming election was former Gov. Francis T. Nicholls. Gov. McEnery and Sheriff Duson, were allies, and Duson used his influence to see to it that his friend's opponent didn't get a parish named for him just at election time. Father Joseph Anthonioz, first pastor of the Catholic church at Rayne, is generally credited with suggesting the name Acadia.

The name change did not solve all of the problems. The people of Opelousas had another problem with the bill. They said that the proposed boundaries would rob St. Landry Parish of 7,500 Democrats and would make the parish Republican. But the momentum was now on the side of those who wanted to create a new parish. Rep. Lyons' bill passed the House on June 11, the Senate on June 28 and was signed by Gov. McEnery on June. 30. The bill called for an election on Oct. 6, 1886, for the people of St. Landry to vote up or down on the creation of the new parish.

On July 12, 1886, two weeks after the enabling legislation was signed, Sheriff Duson and his brother, W. W. Duson. were among a group of businessmen who incorporated the Southwestern Louisiana Land Co., "established for the purpose of developing the agricultural resources of Southwestern Louisiana; the promotion of immigration there to and the purchase and sale of lands as real estate so as to provide homestead or farms to persons immigrating thereto..." Stockholders besides the Dusons were District Judge G. W. Hudspeth; Joseph Bloch, an Opelousas merchant; Alphonse Levy, an Opelousas banker and merchant; Julius Meyers, partner in Levy's mercantile firm; and Henry L. Garland, a prominent St. Landry attorney. Levy was made president of the land company. C. C. Duson was made vice president.

The people of Rayne campaigned hard during the months before the Oct. 6 election, holding rallies at Church Point, Pointe-aux-Loups, Rayne, Prudhomme City, Mermentau, and elsewhere, and eventually gaining the support of the Opelousas Courier, which said, "the lines of the new parish have been remodeled so as to remove ... apprehended dangers. ...We feel that our citizens should ratify the protocol by voting for the new parish. To do otherwise would seem like bad faith on our part."

At Pointe-aux-Loups, reported the Rayne Signal, the meeting had been "presided over by that patriarch ... and landmark of Democracy, Mr. Antoine B. Cart. who with gray hair streaming in the wind, held the beautiful banner of Democracy in his hand, so proudly won by his people In their constant efforts to forward the cause of Democracy."

About a month before the election, on Sept. 1, 1886, W. W. Duson bought the Rayne Signal and hired Herman Bodemuller, who had been publisher of the St. Landry Democrat in Opelousas, to put out the newspaper for him. If the Rayne newspaper had been in support of the parish division before, it was doubly so now. Said the paper: "We hear a good deal of talk about the dear old mother. But to be a good mother, she should be generous enough to set her daughter up in the world and give her a good sendoff. Such that daughter expects and hopes for. To the promises of true men, to the honor of gentlemen, to the reason of thinking men and to all parties the majority of southwestern St. Landry appeals for a division of the parish. Let it not be postponed for it will create a dissension which will not be halted."

A week after the Rayne Signal changed hands, a second newspaper, the Acadia Sentinel, began publication in Rayne. It was owned by George K. Bradford, Duson's competitor in the real estate business. He also favored creation of the new parish.

Voting precincts and election commissioners for the Oct. 6 election were published in the Rayne Signal of Sept. 25. Six of the precincts were located within the boundaries of the proposed new parish: at Church Point, Plaquemine Brûlée, Rayne, Point-eaux-Loups, Mermentau, and Prudhomme City. Two borderline precincts were at Faquetaïque and Mallet.

When the counting was done, there were 2,516 votes for creation of the new parish, 1,521 against. Acadia, the 59th Louisiana parish, was created by a majority of 995 votes. The Opelousas vote was 507 for, 110 against. Washington voted 227 for creation, 29 against. Church Point voters didn't like the idea. Only 28 voters there wanted the new parish, 228 were against it. In Rayne the vote was 658 votes for, 1 vote against. (We don't know who the Scrooge was.)

The vote was promulgated and Gov. McEnery proclaimed the parish officially created on Oct. 11, 1886.

St. Landry lost about one-fourth of its population. The population of the new Acadia Parish was between 10,000 and 12,000. The St. Landry Parish population in the 1880 census had been 40,004.

The 1890 census counted 40,250 people in St. Landry Parish and 13,231 in Acadia Parish.

This article is copyrighted © by the Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser and is used with permission.  This web site was originated through a grant awarded to Carencro High School (Joel Hilbun/Bobbi Marino, Grant Administrators) by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education from the Louisiana Quality Education Support Fund - 8(g).