St. Landry-Up From Slavery Then Came the Fire!!

Note: This isn't another Mississippi Burning ! Out of Lake Peigneur Ellis had come of age and wanted so desperately to have a wife and family of his own. He had lived most of his life on Lake Peigneur and his family had now moved into the Abbeville area. Lake Peigneur was a beautiful place. He missed the area because of the lake being as beautiful it was. Sometimes after a hard day’s work they would go down to the area in a corner of the lake that they called the swimming hole. He and his brothers, Willie, Robert and Lewis, Jr. would swim and lie down for hours on the bank to relax. Their father Lewis, Sr., who was called “Luke” by everyone who knew him, would go fishing with them early every Saturday morning. On Lake Peigneur, they had lived nearly what they had thought was almost a blissful life. They caught plenty of fish and raised enough vegetables to live on from year to year. The Lake was beautiful, but Rip Van Winkle’s home which was nearby was a place to behold. Pa said that the owner was Joseph Jefferson, a renowned actor from up north. The actor’s home was situated on Lake Peigneur (then called Simonet) a short distance from the salt mines. At that time Mr. Jefferson only resided there about two months out of a year during the winter months; he liked hunting and fishing. Pa said he wasn’t living there during the building of the great house, but he had the opportunity to go there at times for extra work. Hedges of viburnum encircle the place; orange trees were seen everywhere; and on top of the hill was the residence. The home was a three story building surrounded by wide galleries. Pa said that you could see the fancy people there at the parties in their fancy clothing. The women called southern belles were dancing with their partners in wide dresses to sweet music. The front lawn was full of beautiful roses and the air was full of their fragrance. Pa said that’s what made him get rose bushes for ma Alice. The furniture that he saw while the doors were open from a distance was even fancier than what he had seen in some of the homes in New Orleans. Pa said he could only see parts of the Jefferson home while working there, but it was the most elegant home he had ever seen. Mr. Jefferson must have been a grandfather too because you could see the small chairs and other toys for children in the home. Ellis recalled that sometime after he had married Easter and returned to Abbeville area that he had heard that the actor had died at his home in Palm Beach, Florida at the age of 76. The blacks in his Pa Luke’s area didn’t have the riches of Joseph Jefferson, but they were happy because they made their own fun. There were times when Mr. Gatson and his family, along with the Montgomerys would join them for picnics. The boys played with potatoes for balls and stick horses. The girls played with homemade dolls. The women would send word to each other and plan the times that the picnics by the lake would be held and other families, who lived just a little farther away such as the Baptistes, the Browns, the Holmes, the Kings, the Wises, the Washingtons and the Staffords, would all join in. They would also have small barn raisings and have dances. Everybody would help one another, especially in hard times. They had hard times but the children especially didn’t always know it. Where did the tradition of neighbors helping each other go? There was no regular preacher then, but they would have a preacher from Abbeville who would come on a late Sunday evening at least once a month and hold services. As a few years of her marriage passed, Alice began holding prayer meetings with everyone on the Sundays that the preacher didn’t come. Most Sundays everyone close around would show up and bring lunch with them and make it a small outing. Sometimes the other women would request that she hold it in their homes. Sundays were always reserved for church and relaxation no matter what the problems were. His mother, Alice, always felt that God must be given his due. In addition to rice, cotton, sugarcane, and other important vegetable crops which were the mainstay crops, they also produced a watermelon patch annually. The patch produced watermelons that were very large and sweet to the taste because the land was so rich and fertile. In harvest time, his family would have to work all day on Saturdays too, but they were happy despite the hard work. Acadia parish which was part of the old St. Landry parish (one of the original 19) was growing in economy; everything seemed to be booming. After the Civil war, Rayne, Louisiana was part of that boom. Rayne wasn't built in a day. It goes back to the 1800's when the railroad came to town. It was first called Pouppeville, but changed the name to honor the engineer who laid the tracks--Rayne. The Louisiana Railroad employee was named B. W. L. Rayne. In 1883, the town of Rayne was incorporated with J. D. Bernard serving as the first mayor. Councilmen were B. H. Harmon, A. S. Chappuis, L. R. Deputy, M. Arenas, and J. F. Morris., E. C. Fremaux was the first town clerk., J. O. Bull the first town marshall. It had become a nice sized little town with the Cotton gins and the blacks had an area in the unincorporated parts of the town. Another part of the Lavine family had become its residents and were doing pretty well there. Many families who had lived in the outlying areas had come into the town looking for work. Ellis, who was visiting from Abbeville with his people, had come to Rayne not only to visit but to find a wife. His family who had moved from Lake Peigneur about twelve years prior was now living in the Abbeville area. There had been no one in his hometown that he had thought to marry and therefore he was looking for a love of his own. Upon his second visit one Saturday evening, he spotted a pretty young thing. He asked his cousin, “James, what’s her name and where does she live?” Mary Easter McClelland was her name. She walked proudly with her head up in the air. “Mary,” James said “isn’t just any kind of girl.” Ellis’s cousin told him that Mr. Jerry McClelland would knock your block off if you would fool with her. She was his baby girl. Ellis replied, “It may take me a while, but I’ll get her to talk to me and I will marry her, too.” James just laughed in disbelief.