Lean times, good prospects

Leaving Franklin aboard the steamboat Warren Belle, Dennett stopped first at New Iberia, where he lodged at Mrs. Hilliard's "a popular house" that "the public are well pleased with." He found New Iberia "a little but dull for a town that is usually so lively," noting, however, "but it is the dull season."

After breakfasting at Mrs. Hilliard's, he and a companion rode overland to Abbeville, finding the "people friendly everywhere" along their route, and remarking that "the roads in Vermilion Parish are delightful … the best in Attakapas."

The prairies they traveled through were "as beautiful as a picture" and "the rich green foliage of the bayou Vermilion forests … [present] special sights to the traveler, particularly if he has a good horse and buggy [and] a fine breeze."

The travelers stopped that night at Mrs. Cade's, "twelve miles from Abbeville, one mile from Royville [Youngsville], and ten miles from Vermilionville, where they found "delightful refreshments and a good night's rest."

This was probably the home of Robert Cade, who bought land in the area in the early 1850s. Dennett described it as "one of the most beautiful residences in Attakapas … large and commodious and … [comparing favorably with] the first class planters' houses on bayou Teche."

"The view from the upper gallery is perfectly enchanting," the newspaperman wrote. The "semicircular view in front, to the right, and to the left, extend[s] twelve or fourteen miles. … Miller's Island, Isle Pecan, Cote Gelee Hills, the Teche woods above St. Martinville, are in sight; and islands of timber dot the beautiful prairie in all directions, and the thrifty, new village, Royville, is close by, its church steeple rising above the other white buildings."

After doing some business In Abbeville, Dennett traveled next to the Beau Bassin area between Lafayette and Carencro, where he found people busy sowing cotton and corn crops. Then he went to Opelousas, which, was—it being the dull season—"quiet as a May morning," though there was much talk there of candidates for the legislature.

"They seem determined to send good and honest men," he reported. That was something not always easily accomplished in those Reconstruction days. Nonetheless, he said, "They are going to do in St. Landry what they will do in most others, rely upon their own good sense and energy to carry them through."

He found that "crop prospects in this parish are good" and that the people of St. Landry, like those he met elsewhere "look with hope to the future."

 

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You can contact Jim Bradshaw at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O., Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.