Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, October 28, 1997

Jennings up on treeless Calcasieu prairie

City was named for early surveyor for Southern Pacific

by Jim Bradshaw

Even its name came from the railroad, from Jennings McComb, a pioneer surveyor for the Southern Pacific and other railroad companies. His first name was given to the station because McComb, Miss., had been given his last name when he'd done survey work there for the Illinois Central Railroad.

When Jennings was first developed, there were only two or three buildings other than the section house and depot built by the railroad. A section house was the supply point for a crew that maintained a section of track. The Frozin Roy home, about a mile north of the depot, was probably built long before the Civil War. A. D. McFarlain, the first homesteader, built a modest home on property adjoining the railroad and also built a small store and inn. He would become the community's first rice grower, first merchant, first postmaster, first brickmaker, and first building contractor.

A black family, that of Hannibal Moultrie, lived in a cabin about a mile southwest of the railroad near the present fairgrounds.

The first homes built by northern settlers were those of J. G. McMartin, S. L. Cary, E. D. Noble, and J. M. Hulbert. Most of the early homes were built in the style of Midwestern farm houses, two-story frame structures with Victorian accents on some.

Practically all of the early settlers in Jennings came down by railroad, since S. L. Cary had an official position with the Southern Pacific as land agent. He could sell them a family railroad ticket on a train with a freight car for their livestock and goods. More importantly, he could get them to settle in Jennings.

But others took a less expensive way. An old account tells of the Wilings family that traveled by steamboat from Cairo, Illinois, to the juncture of the Mississippi and Red rivers, and then traveled from there to Jennings in a covered wagon pulled by oxen.

Establishment of the early business district centered around the depot and Main Street. McFarlain soon moved his country store to a larger two-story building. Other early businesses were a livory stable, lumber yard, and blacksmith shop. A photo gallery, laundry and other general stores soon followed. The first drug store was built in 1886 by Jennings' first resident doctor, G. W. Remage. This drug store had the first refrigerator in Jennings, installed in a part of the store where groceries were sold. Ice was shipped in for a "soda water fountain." It was shipped 100 pounds at a time, sewed up in burlap and packed in sawdust. An ice factory was built in Jennings in 1897.

The first newspaper, The Jennings Reporter, was started in 1889 with William Cary (no relation to S. L. Cary) as editor and publisher. His printing office was on the second poor of a building on South Main Street. The Reporter was a six-page publication with only the center pages printed locally. The rest was "plate matter" of general news and advertising that was purchased already printed from a bigger publisher.

William Cary moved to Oberlin after a few years and, about 1894 or 1895, P. M. Kokanour, who had been living in Lake Arthur, moved to Jennings and opened the weekly Jennings Times. In 1900, he sold out to The Times Publishing Co. and moved away. The company began publishing the Daily Times, with S. E. Schmink as managing editor.

About 1896, N. L. Miller moved from Lakeside to Jennings and began publishing The Southern Record. It began as a weekly but also went daily sometime after the turn of the century. This paper and the Times were eventually merged into the Times-Record, which continued publication until 1925. It was then purchased by J. M. McLeese and was published as The Jennings Semi-Weekly News. This paper was sold in the early 1930s to Franklin Hildebrand and became the Jennings Daily News.

Travelers who arrived in Jennings in 1884 were probably surprised to hear the strains of a church choir coming from the waiting room of the Southern Pacific depot. The early settlers met there for the Sunday school which later formed the nucleus for the many churches of the city.

The first school in Jennings, located on Academy Avenue, was a private school opened in 1885 with 17 students. S. L. Cary was the teacher in the one-room school, which served all grades. The first public school building went up in 1888, and, at the time, was the only public school between New Iberia and Houston.

In a Fourth of July address delivered in 1891, Cary said of Jennings:

"There were but a few buildings in sight and they were of a very primitive kind (when he first arrived), generally along the Mermentau and Nezpique rivers, and but one farm having as many as 25 acres of land improved. Jennings was not platted and scarcely a tree or improvement for miles around.

"Over 400 acres are platted now in Jennings," Cary continued. "12 stores; 5 hotels; 2 liveries; 1 school house of graceful proportion to seat 250 scholars; three churches rear their lofty spires heavenward; a new depot, coupon ticket office, with a freight and passenger business of $4,000 monthly; two large warehouses or track capable of handling $5,000 worth of rice daily; and a firm that handles $100,000 worth of agricultural machinery."

In 1908, a modern, $40,000 brick high school went up, and a new high school was built in 1921. The old high school then became Central School, which served elementary grades until 1986. St. Henry's Academy on North Cutting Avenue was erected by the Catholic Church in 1906.

On April 28, 1886, the First Congregational Church, the first church of any denomination in the village, was organized by the Rev. J. A. Jones, who had come from Iowa. His was the first Congregational Church chartered south of the Mason-Dixon line. Although in April, 1931, it changed denomination affiliation to Presbyterian, it still exists as the oldest congregation. The original Congregational Church was a small frame building that stood where the Presbyterian church now stands.

For some time before 1892, Catholics of Jennings were served by Father E. J. Fallon of Lake Charles. In January 1892, Archbishop Francis Janssens of New Orleans decided to set up Our Lady Help of Christians Parish in Jennings. Father Cornelius Van de Ven who later became Bishop of Alexandria, was named the first resident pastor.

The first church at Jennings was built south of the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks, but when the Sisters Marianites of the Holy Cross arrived to open a school, the convent was built north of the tracks. The first church was abandoned, and the convent auditorium served as the parish church until 1916.

The second pastor was Father Joseph Peeters, who came to Jennings in December 1892 and who would stay there for 24 years. At first, he was also responsible for an extensive area that included Lake Arthur, Mermentau, Welsh, Elton, Gueydan, and Lacassine.

On Feb. 29, 1916, Archbishop James Blenk laid the cornerstone for the new church of Our Lady Help of Christians at Jennings.

John H. Roberts was mayor of Jennings when it was incorporated in May 1888. The original boundaries of the town were Academy Avenue on the north, Cutting Avenue on the east, and the Southern Pacific tracks on the south and west. All of the land within those boundaries was owned by A. D. McFarlain. Soon after incorporation, he added another subdivision to his original plot. It hugged the Southern Pacific tracks on the north and east to Wood Street, went west to Lake Arthur Avenue, north to West Division Street, and then east again to the tracks. S. L. Cary owned land adjoining McFarlain's on the south.

The city hall, completed in 1903 and razed in 1972, featured an Opera House on the second floor. It was on the corner of Market Street and Broadwav. The town became the parish seat of Jefferson Davis Parish on Oct. 22, 1912. The first courthouse was completed in 1916 and was razed in 1967, when a new one was built to replace it.

By 1891, William Henry Perrin was able to report that "Jennings is the most important town in Calcasieu Parish, outside of Lake Charles. It is situated on the Southern Pacific Railroad, near the line between Calcasieu and Acadia parishes, and is a new town comparatively. In 1880 it was rated at only twenty-five inhabitants. Now it has some four or five hundred. Jennings stands in the midst of a fine shipping section, where rice is the principal crop, and the Reporterestimates that not less than four hundred car loads of that product alone was shipped from that point last year. Many Northwestern people live around the town of Jennings--in fact, the community is principally settled by those enterprising and pushing people, who have come here to enjoy the healthful climate and rich lands. The place has a church or two, several stores, a post-office, a newspaper, the Jennings Reporter, edited and published by Messrs. Cary & Son, now entered upon its third volume; a new and elegant school house, in which is taught for the usual term a graded school. To sum it up, it is a live, wide-awake and enterprising business town."

The town sported two hotels at about the turn of the century. The 40-room McFarlain Hotel was built in 1895 at the corner of Railroad Avenue and Broadway Street. In 1903, T. C. Mahaffey built the 100 room Mahaffey Hotel at the intersection of Market and Plaquemine streets.

On Nov. 4, 1901, the Jennings downtown district was swept by fire. It started in the J. F. Dudley restaurant on the west side of the 200 block of Main Street. Discovered at 3:30 in the morning, the fire was fanned by brisk north winds and wiped out everything between Plaquemine Street and the railroad track. It then jumped the railroad track and burned buildings in the southeast part of town.

In 1907, members of the Civil League planted 376 trees in Jennings. Many of these were oaks that still line the city's streets.

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