Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, September 30, 1997

Opelousas one of state's oldest cities

by Jim Bradshaw

Like a number of old towns on the Louisiana frontier, Opelousas owes its origin to a military post. In 1719, Capt. Renauld d'Hauterive sent Ensign Nicholas Chauvin de la Frênière and two others to establish a military presence in the area. The relatively large garrison that would be maintained at this post from the beginning shows the importance that the French governors of Louisiana attached to it. Opelousas soon became a stopping point for travelers going overland between Natchitoches (established in 1714) and New Orleans (established in 1718).

Despite the fact that neither the French nor the Spanish governments made a concerted effort to colonize the Opelousas District, the population grew. By 1769, about 100 families were in Opelousas, most of them living near the fort-like structure that housed the military garrison. When the fort was finally dismantled, the soldiers were given the choice of returning to their homelands or remaining in Opelousas. Many of them stayed becoming the first families of the settlement. These soldiers came from far-flung parts of the Spanish empire: Swiss cantons (Sandoz), Italian city-states (Donatto, Bello, Gradenigo), as well as the Iberian peninsula and the Spanish colonies (Ortego, Manuel, Hidalgo).

In 1796, Michel Prudhomme, who was one of the first to settle at Opelousas, promised to donate land for a church at the Opelousas Post. He promised also to give the necessary cypress lumber to build the church, the priest's house, a jail, and fences around the property and the cemetery.

Apparently, there had been not so much as a chapel at the Opelousas fort. An old record tells us: "At the fort there was ... no place where (the visiting priest) could offer the holy sacrifice but a room open to all, even to the poultry, so that a hen once flew on the altar, just as he was finishing Mass." With the land donation by Prudhomme, St. Landry Church was built at Opelousas, replacing the one at Washington as the principal church in the region..

In 1803, following the Louisiana Purchase, Opelousas was made the seat of the "County of Opelousas."

When Methodist minister Elisha Bowman arrived in Opelousas in 1806, he must have thought that he had his work cut out for him. "The people are rich in cattle," he wrote. "They have from one to two or three thousand head of cattle to a farmer; (but) notwithstanding their large stocks, you might with ease carry on your back all that you could find in many of their houses.

"About eighty miles from here, I am informed, there is a considerable settlement of American people; but I cannot go to see them at this time, as the swamps are swimming for miles; but as soon as the waters fall I intend to visit them. I have great difficulties in this country, as there are no laws suppressing vice of any kind, so the Sabbath is spent in frolicking and gambling."

In 1814, Austrian writer Charles Sealsfield said that Opelousas "consists of about 12 frame and log built dwellings, among which was one of somewhat better structure and larger size. It was the residence of the squire."

In 1821, Opelousas was formally incorporated by legislative act and included all land within a half-mile of the courthouse. Sealsfield wrote about Opelousas again in 1827: "Opelousas counts now 100 houses, has a courthouse, a newspaper printery, four stores, and important commerce in beef cattle, hides, cotton, tobacco, etc. In Opelousas on every first Monday in September, state lands of Louisiana are sold."

The first newspaper in Opelousas, The Opelousas Gazette, was begun in September, 1827, and was published until 1852. The editors were George W. Addison and Joel Sandoz. André Meynier founded The Opelousas Courier that same year. It continued publication until 1910. The St. Landry Democrat began publication in 1876. James N. Jackson was its first editor and publisher.

One of the first volunteer fire departments in the state was organized in Opelousas and was incorporated by the legislature in 1853.

One of the first schools established in Opelousas was Franklin College, opened around 1840, at what is now the site of LouAna Foods on Railroad Avenue. The college continued to operate until about the time of the Civil War. The school known today as Opelousas Catholic School opened as a school for boys about 1855. It was first called St. Mary's Academy for Boys.

According to Father Donald Hebert's account of church history in Opelousas, the academy was immediately successful. "The classes were taught at the Rectory until a special building could be erected. This was opened the following year .... The dormitory could accommodate thirty boarders and was taxed to its utmost capacity. Besides as many as forty day scholars were in attendance."

The Marianites of the Holy Cross opened the Academy of the Immaculate Conception (AIC) as a school for girls in 1856. Ten years later, in 1866, the Sisters of the Holy Family opened St. Joseph's Convent for the Colored. In 1920, when Holy Ghost Church was established for the African Americans of Opelousas, Father James Hyland established Holy Ghost School there. It operated until 1970, when it was combined with AIC to form Opelousas Catholic.

Public schools at Opelousas came after the Civil War. St. Landry High School was opened in November, 1893. Opelousas High School was established later. So also was Opelousas Training School for black children. It later became known as St. Landry Parish Training School, and then J.S. Clark High School. J.S. Clark and Opelousas High were combined in 1969.

Opelousas was the capital of Confederate Louisiana from May 1862 to January 1863, when it was moved to Shreveport. Gov. Thomas 0. Moore moved to Opelousas and lived in the home of Charles Homère Mouton, who had been Louisiana's lieutenant governor in 1856. Legislative sessions were held in the LaCombe Hotel, which stood opposite the courthouse square.

The city also served for a while during the war as Gen. Richard Taylor's command post for the Confederate District of Western Louisiana, and a training camp, Camp Overton, was established there. On March 4, 1862, the Medical Department of the Confederacy was established at the Ray Homestead on West Bellevue Street. Dr. George Hill was chief surgeon.

The city was occupied by Federal troops in 1863, and then briefly became a command post for Union Gen. Nathaniel Banks. According to Union reports, "while at Opelousas, the 41st Massachusetts Volunteers ... collected and sent to New Orleans upwards of six thousand bales of cotton, large quantities of sugar and molasses, and other products of the country: hides, vehicles, silver plate, jewelry, etc., and at least ten thousand contraband men, women and children -- to work the abandoned and confiscated plantations in the Lafourche country that were taken over by the federal government."

The city had largely recovered from the ravages of war by the turn of the century, helped in large part by the coming of the railroad. The first railroad to connect Opelousas to the rest of the United States was Morgan's Louisiana and Texas Railroad, later a part of the Southern Pacific system. The roadbed had been begun about 1850, but was not completed for some 30 years, partially because of the interruption of the Civil War. The first passenger trains arrived at Opelousas on Oct. 15, 1880. Freight trains followed on Nov. 18.

At last, Opelousas was connected to the outside world, and expected to profit from that connection. The Opelousas Courier of Aug. 14, 1880, commented: "In three or four weeks the railroad will be finished to Opelousas. Then we will have daily and rapid transit with commercial circles, and with our sister States; businessmen will be visiting the large and fertile domain of St. Landry with the view of securing her trade, or for the purpose of locating permanently with us."

Before the rail line was completed, several new buildings went up in Opelousas and some of the old ones were whitewashed. Opelousas merchants went to New Orleans to get a better line of merchandise. An opera house, a lumber yard, a broom factory, an ice house, and two cotton seed oil mills were established. Western Union bought the small local telegraph office and improved service to the city.

But some of that golden expectation turned to dross once the trains actually arrived. By December 1880, the newspapers were referring to the Morgan line as "that sordid monopoly," and complaining, for example, that Morgan's line charged $1.50 to ship a barrel of pecans to New Orleans, while the steamboats charged only 50 cents.