Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, September 30, 1997

Some memorable dates in St. Landry Parish

by Jim Bradshaw

1768
April 4 - The governor issues a circular letter requiring the commandants at Attakapas, Opelousas, des Allemands, Cabannoce (St. James), and Pointe Coupée to prevent any newly arrived Acadians from settling at their respective posts.

1769
Autumn - Spanish Gov. Alejandro O'Reilly orders Capt. Don Eduardo Nugent and Lt. Don Juan Kelly to lead an expedition to the Attakapas, Opélousas, Natchitoches, and El Rapido districts.

1770
In order to encourage settlement of the newly acquired colony, Gov. O'Reilly issues a land ordinance under which settlers can acquire liberal grants of land, particularly in the frontier areas of the Opelousas, Attakapas, and Natchitoches districts.

1782
The Attakapas and Opelousas districts are inundated as the Atchafalaya River runs out of its banks, "leaving the ridges and knobs above water as the (only) refuge of deer and cattle."

1804
Opelousas is made the seat of the "County of Opelousas."

1805
April 10 - The County of Opelousas is renamed St. Landry for the church at Opelousas.

1806
Louisiana Memorial United Methodist Church is founded in Opelousas. This is the first Protestant church in Opelousas, the first Methodist Church in Louisiana, and the oldest Methodist church west of the Mississippi River.

1811
July 16 - The St. Landry Parish Police Jury meets for the first time. Minutes, written in English and French, show the first order of business was to order the immediate construction of a jail, to be built adjoining the "old prison. The old prison, where debtors are confined, was ordered repaired.

1819
April 29 - Father Hercule Brassac is appointed first pastor at the new St. Charles church parish in Grand Coteau.

1821

Opelousas is formally incorporated by legislative act. It includes all land within one- half mile of the courthouse.

October - Five pupils begin classes at what would become the Academy of the Sacred Heart at Grand Coteau.

1825
A nonsectarian Protestant church is built in Opelousas, to be used by all denominations.

1826
A legislative act authorizes the Opelousas Steamboat Co. to "establish, keep and maintain a steamboat and ferry from Bayou Plaquemine ... to the junction of Bayous Crocodile and Boeuf."

1828
The third St. Landry Church is built in Opelousas.

1835
March 31 - Washington is chartered as a town.

1837
Archbishop Antoine Blanc of New Orleans lays the cornerstone for St. Charles College at Grand Coteau and turns the church parish there over to Jesuit care.

1853
One of the first volunteer fire departments in the state is incorporated at Opelousas.

August - A terrible yellow fever epidemic strikes St. Landry Parish. Washington was decimated and every resident who could get away fled from the town. Twenty died in Opelousas.

1854
January - The water in Bayou Courtableau is so low that no steamboat can get within 40 miles of Washington. Warehouses at Washington and Port Barre are so full they can receive no more goods. It is the first year in memory of the oldest residents that the annual water rise had been so late.

April - The New Orleans, Red River and Texas Telegraph Line reaches Opelousas.

Oct. 7 - Opelousas authorities establish a quarantine against persons coming from Washington, New Orleans, and other places where yellow fever had broken out.

Dec. 9 - Opelousas citizens vote 55-34 to continue to license the sale of liquor by the drink.

1855
The school known today as Opelousas Catholic School opens as a school for boys. It was first called St. Mary's Academy.

1856

The Marianites of the Holy Cross open the Academy of the Immaculate Conception as a school for girls in Opelousas.

1862
May - Opelousas becomes the capital of Confederate Louisiana as the state government is forced to flee Baton Rouge. It remained the capital until January 1863, when it was moved to Shreveport because Union troops threatened Opelousas.

1863
Opelousas is occupied by Union troops during the Civil War.

1866
The Sisters of the Holy Family open St. Joseph's Convent for the Colored at Opelousas.

Dec. 14 - Mary Wilson, a postulant at the Academy of the Sacred Heart of Grand Coteau, is miraculously cured of an illness that had brought her near death. She and the Catholic Church attribute it to the intercession of John Berchmans, who was canonized in 1888.

1868
September - Between 25 and 50 blacks are victims of a riot at Opelousas, cited as one of the worst examples of Reconstruction violence in south Louisiana.

1880
Oct. 15 - The first passenger trains reach Opelousas.

1882
Flood waters spiff into the Melville area.

1891
Sunset is chartered as a community.

1894
Sept. 12 - The first train arrives at what would be Eunice.

1895
June 4 - Eunice is incorporated. One of the first actions of the town council is the election of Thomas Higginbotham as marshal. His pay includes $1 for each arrest, 25 cents for each stray dog caught, and a dime for feeding them.

1902
Aug. 5 - Another fire destroys a large part of Washington.

1904
Sunset is incorporated as a village.

1908
The present St. Landry church is begun in Opelousas.

1909
Nov. 13 - Ville Platte outpolls Eunice, 798 to 747, to become county seat of the newly created Evangeline Parish. Eunice later decides that if it can't be Evangeline county seat, it will stay in St. Landry Parish. (Thus the odd shape of St. Landry).

1911
June 28 - The town of Melville is officially incorporated.

1912
May 8 - The levee breaks at Bayou des Glaises, sending flood waters into Palmetto, Big Cane, and Waxia.

May 18 - The Odenburg Crevasse sends flood waters rolling through Melville, Morrow, Pott Barre, Palmetto, Waxia, Big Cane.

1913
Eunice sets a speed limit of 8 mph for any vehicle on its streets, be it powered by "steam, gasoline, oil, water power, or horse."

1916
The town of Palmetto is incorporated.

1917
Oct. 11 - A fire destroys 21 buildings at Melville, essentially the entire business district.

1927
May 17 - The Atchafalaya River levee breaks at Melville, sending flood waters through south Louisiana.