Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, November 25, 1997

"Steamboats chugged up Bayou Teche to New Iberia"

by Jim Bradshaw

Duplessis and his partner, Martin Duralde Jr., had pushed a measure through the state legislature in February 1818, authorizing them to "establish, keep, and maintain a steam boat and ferry" that would operate between Bayou Portage and Plaquemine. The 103-ton steamer had been built in New Orleans just after that, and, by May 1819, was being used to ferry cattle across the Atchafalaya Basin.

The success of the Louisianais prompted others to get into the act, and, early in 1819, Gov. Jacques Villiere signed a bill incorporating the Attakapas Steam Boat Co., which immediately began to sell stock at St. Martinville, Franklin, and Opelousas. Among the first stockholders were William L. Brent, John Duhamel, Alexander Porter Jr., Thomas B. Brashear, Willis J. Powell, Octave Delahoussaye, John Muggah, J. Merial, Jacob Clements, LePelletier Delahoussaye, William Armstrong, and William Greig. They immediately authorized construction of the 295-ton steamer Teche, which was completed at New Orleans in 1820.

As soon as she was finished, the Teche began a regular run carrying freight between New Iberia and New Orleans via the Gulf of Mexico. But the Teche was too big for her time and cost too much to operate. The Attakapas Steam Boat Co. went under in 1825.

In the meantime, Duplessis had invested in a bigger cattle boat, the 217-ton Volcano, and continued to transport livestock across the Atchafalaya Basin. He was soon joined in the Teche trade by Capt. Robert W. Curry's Louisville, a 48-ton steamer running from the Mississippi River to Franklin by way of Bayou Plaquemine and the Atchafalaya Basin.

Curry was the first to successfully navigate Bayou Plaquemine at the height of the Mississippi River's flood stage, something thought impossible because of the tremendous current in the bayou's narrow channel. He capitalized quickly upon his feat, but his little boat was soon being challenged by Mississippi River steamers entering into the Teche trade in late winter and early spring, when water was highest on Bayou Plaquemine and Acadiana sugar production was at its peak.

By the middle 1830's, the community had established itself not only as the center of an agricultural region, but also a transportation center for much of southwest Louisiana.

According to an account by Frederic Henry Duperier, "New Iberia, being the real terminus of deepwater navigation on the Teche, began to assert its commercial importance in the forties. The interruption of navigation through Plaquemine during the low stage of water in the Mississippi created a demand for a class of gulf steamers of large carrying capacity. These steamers, not being able to ply above New Iberia, landed their large cargoes, destined for all points south and west on the Vermilion and Calcasieu, at New Iberia. It was then that she became the radiating point for the trade of a large territory, extending some 60 miles in all directions. About the same period, and continuing until the completion of the New Orleans, Opelousas, and Great Western Railroad from Morgan City to its western terminus, New Iberia became the distributing point for mail and passenger traffic overland into Texas. New Iberia also controlled a large cattle trade from Texas and adjacent territory. It was at this juncture that she assumed commercial supremacy over St. Martinville and Franklin."

In another article, Duperier remembered: "The first commercial impetus given to New Iberia was the introduction in the waters of the Teche, in 1840, by Capt. Gillet, a Yankee sea captain, of the steam propellor, Tomachichi. The arrival of this vessel was an eventful day, and the result of this venture brought the following year the John Morrisett, a steamer of much larger proportions, to take the place of the Tomachichi. The success of Capt. Gillet aroused the ambition and induced Capt. Cheney Johnson of Franklin to build, in quick succession, three side-wheel sea-going vessels of large carrying capacity, and adapted to the trade-- the Belle of Attakapas, the Agricole Fuselier, and the Mamie Burt. The business management which characterized the enterprise contributed largely to its success. In addition to the cargoes brought by this line of steamers to New Iberia for distribution, it was the terminus of navigation for such sailing craft as came from the gulf and Atlantic ports.

"New Iberia was made the entrepot for the lumber trade of Pensacola and Mobile," Duperier continued. "Strange to say, at that time, not a single saw mill was to be found on the banks of the Teche or lower Atchafalaya, the nearest and only saw mill in operating being that of Capt. Curry, on Bayou Portage, leading to Lake Fausse Pointe. The first saw mill erected on the lower Atchafalaya was owned by Joseph Gall. Schooners coming from the Atlantic ports would bring lime, cement, fire bricks, potatoes, onions, codfish, staves, etc. The return cargoes of these vessels to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, Savannah and Mobile, consisted of sugar, molasses, hides, horns, bones, all of which were consigned to merchants in those cities, or bought by the agents representing firms doing business at the different seaports."

Duperier also reminisced about the early days in a long obituary written upon the death of William E. Weeks in 1895. He noted in that rambling article that during Weeks' youth, there was "considerable traffic between the Atlantic ports of the East and the Valley of the Teche. Among the articles brought over for sale and barter were potatoes, onions, lime, codfish, soap candles and the noted 'Connecticut Yankee' clocks. These wares were exchanged for hides, horns, bones, tallow, molasses (sic), etc. Large invoices of cotton and woolen goods, shoe leather and numerous other wares, the product of Yankee thrift and energy, were brought to the commercial firms of Edgar and Shute & Taylor, afterwards Taylor & DeValcourt -- both firms then doing an extensive business at New Iberia."

Steamboats on the Teche in 1845 included The Belle of Attakapas, with Capt. C. Johnson; Judge McClean, with Capt. M. W. Hinkle; and the Waverly, with Capt. J. V. Singer. In 1846, Capt. W. S. Carey was operating the Frankland on the Teche. In 1847, the Franklin Planter's Banner advertised the Saranak, with Capt. G. Ratier, St. Mary, with Capt. D. Muggah; Belle Isle, with Capt. Joseph Labarthe; St. Helena, with Capt. A. McGowen; Kentucky, with Capt. R. C. Strother, and Billow, with Capt. Pritchard.

Some of the steamboats used in the early 1850s were the Delia, captained by Ed Castillio; The Ross with Capt. William Greig; and the Ceres with Capt. Laborth. These boats ran from New Orleans by way of Plaquemine Bayou to St. Martinville. The trip took 24 hours.

In 1851, the federal government appropriated $17,000 to remove obstructions such as wrecked boats and stumps from Bayou Teche. A naval lieutenant was sent out by the government to inspect the work, and there was plenty of it to be done. James Cathcart, who traveled the Teche in 1819, reported: "The river up from Nova Iberia or Newtown, is full of snags and trees which have fallen from both banks nearly across the river and impedes the passage, nay hang by a few fibres of their roots, which renders it both dangerous and intricate, but when the Steam boat commences to navigate this stream ... those impediments must be removed before she can come up to the Town where there is 10 feet water (sic), and not less than 9 feet all the way up (to St. Martinville)."

Between 1825 and 1860, at least 19 vessels had been snagged and sunk along the Teche and in the Atchafalaya Basin. Some of the snags could probably have been avoided. More than one steamer pilot whiled away his off hours with a pack of cards and a jug of whiskey, then climbed back aboard to steer the steamboat.

Two canals were dug in the late 1850s--the Attakapas Canal, which led from Petite Anse prairie to Vermilion Bay, and the Grande Côte Canal, from Ile Piquante Prairie to Grande Côte Bay.

Louis Paul Bryant, in a reminiscence of the 1860s and 1870s recalled that decade as "an era of luxurious steamboats plying the Teche." He recalled particularly the Minnie Avery. "It was owned by the firm of Price, Hine and Tupper, who maintained a commission house in New Orleans, and who had the mail contract from Morgan City to New Iberia by boat and thence by stagecoach from New Iberia as far west as San Antonio, Texas," Bryant wrote.

Another of the fancy boats, Bryant recalled, was the Ingomar.

"There were also packets, or round boats, plying between New Orleans and New Iberia that were veritable floating palaces and the last word in luxury for the times," he said. "One of these boats, known as the Ingomar, I recall, particularly, as it was one of the largest and most luxuriously fitted boats that ever navigated the Teche. It contained even spacious quarters for dancing.

"I always connect the Ingomar with its captain, P. E. Burke ... a veritable Chesterfield, handsome, always immaculately dressed and exceedingly popular with the fair sex. ...The trip on the Ingomar from New Iberia to Morgan City was regarded in the nature of a social event. With the advent of the railroad in 1879, Captain Burke became identified with it as a general agent, and so remained up to the time of his death in the early eighties."

The Pharr steamship line operated at least two steamers, the Mary Lewis and the Rene Macready, serving New Iberia during the middle 1870s. The Mary Lewis was christened in honor of Commodore John N. Pharr's recently deceased daughter. This stern-wheel packet boat was constructed at Louisville during the spring of 1875. The vessel, which drew four feet of water, was 125 feet long and 26 feet wide, and was capable of transporting over 200 hogsheads of sugar. In addition, the Mary Lewis boasted 23 staterooms "each with two berths furnished with excellent spring mattresses, including six capacious (sic) rooms for ladies and two in the nursery." The newly built steamer left Louisville on June 14, 1875, and arrived at New Iberia nine days later.

According to the Louisiana Sugar Bowl newspaper, the Mary Lewis' original officers were Capt. N. R Millard, who personally supervised the steamer's construction; P. J. Bonney, the first engineer; William Kyle, the chief mate; R. H. Allen, chief clerk; and Anthony Renoudet, assistant clerk. Allen, "the oldest clerk on the bayou," was subsequently replaced by Capt. Patrick E. Burke, a former parish recorder, mayor of New Iberia, and commander of the Ingomar. In February 1876, the Mary Lewis was extensively repaired, painted and refitted in preparation for the opening of the Bayou des Allemands - Grand Isle route, which the commodore hoped would allow the Pharr line to monopolize the ferry trade to the emerging seacoast resort. But the Grand Isle route proved unprofitable and the Mary Lewis was recalled to New Iberia to resume her regular run between New Iberia and St. Martinville.

Like the Mary Lewis, the Rene Macready was constructed in Louisville. Its engines had been used in the steamer Rob Roy and were hauled by steamboat from New Iberia up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to a shipyard in Louisville. After arriving at New Iberia on Oct. 19,1875, the recently completed steamer was inspected by J. V. Gilmore, editor of the Louisiana Sugar Bowl, who subsequently reported that the vessel was "not overloaded with 'gingerbread work," and, as it combined "comfort and simplicities," the new side wheel packet boat would "soon become the favorite of (Pharr's) excellent line." The Rene Macready ran between Morgan City and New Iberia. It was commanded by Capt. Thomas E. Morse, with the assistance of R. H. Allen, first clerk, and Homer Dupuy, second clerk.

According to a study of steamboat days by historian Carl Brasseaux, "From 1877 to 1879, Pharr's position as leader of the local waterborne freight carriers was challenged though never seriously threatened by Capt. Abe Smith. Smith's Teche and Atchafalaya - Line enjoyed the unflagging support of the Louisiana Sugar Bowl, New Iberia's weekly newspaper which consistently attacked the evils of the Morgan Pharr line 'monopoly.' The paper's opposition to the 'monopoly' was especially intense during the spring of 1879, when the Pharr line attempted to snuff out its competition by slashing its freight rates by seventy-five percent. Pharr's price war, however, was futile, for not only did Smith's line survive for another year, but the completion of the railroad to New Iberia in 1879 deprived Capt. Pharr of his mail contract and the bulk of his freight as well. As a consequence, Pharr was forced to retire one of his boats and drastically reduce the number of his employees."

Another steamer that made regular trips to New Iberia was the Peerless. Another, the Iberia, was noted for running behind time because it carried so much freight.

In the middle 1880s, two boats belonging to the same owner, Capt. L. T. Belt, were damaged at the same spot at the foot of Camellia Street in New Iberia. The Key West hit a cypress stump covered by high water, ripping open the hull and sinking the boat. The other boat, the John M. Chambers, came with a large steam pump and succeeded in bringing up the Key West so that it could be repaired. Two weeks later, when the Chambers was returning to New Iberia from St. Martinville, it caught fire at the bend in Bayou Teche and sank at the same cypress stump that had snagged its sister ship.

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).