Bayou Sara- A Middle and an End….

The Middle

In 1842, the Legislature of the State of Louisiana granted an act of incorporation to Bayou Sara. This act effectively established the town as the gateway to West Feliciana. Indicated in the language of the act is the following: “…laid off and divided into squares, lots and streets, as embraced and designated in the figurative map or plan of the town of Bayou Sara, and that all the white inhabitants of said town are hereby declared to be a body corporate.” The charter further established the structure for the government of the community and the manner in which it was elected: “On the first Monday each year between the hours of 10 o-clock and 4 P.M. qualified voters shall elect a mayor and five councilmen.” Of course, only white men could vote. Neither women nor free people of color could vote. For reasons I’ve yet to discover, why the charter for the town was repealed by an act of the state legislature on May 1, 1847, only to grant a new charter on March 14, 1850. There is some indication that the intervening period was a particularly raucous one for the town.

The population of Bayou Sara grew comparatively rapidly to 530 by 1850 and diversely- Irishmen, Germans, Russians, Swedes, Spanish, Cubans, Jews, slaves, and 32 free people of color. Not listed were Frenchmen but surely there were at least a few. Among the free people of color was Ellen Wooten. Born a slave, she was owned by a Spanish trading partnership of brothers and bore at least one child with one of the brothers. Upon their death, she became free, inherited their property, and ultimately owned a tavern, boarding house, and hotel. At her death she had acquired a plantation and owned 15 slaves.

Evidence that the commerce of Bayou Sara was not constrained to river traffic is provided by the establishment of the West Feliciana Railroad terminal mentioned in the earlier brief and a ferry service across the river from the port to Pointe Coupee more or less on the opposite bank. In 1830, an individual by the name of Stephen Vanwinkle was granted the privilege of operating a ferry for 10 years. The ferry became operational in 1833 and was designed to accommodate two four-wheeled carriages, six horses, and a cabin for at least 12 passengers. It is unclear whether the ferry used steam power or horsepower, either of which was possible. The cost for transporting a four-wheeled carriage and two horses was the astounding sum of $2.00. A single passenger paid $0.25 for the trip.

A particularly devastating event impacted the medical professionals of the community on October 31, 1837. As a result of the Federal Indian Removal Act of 1830, Creek and Seminole Indians were funneled through New Orleans to be shipped via steamship to reservations on the Great Plains. This process became known as the Trail of Tears. In this incident, doctors from Bayou Sara were summoned to aid the victims of a collision between the steamship, Monmouth, carrying the Indians and a southbound steamboat, Warren, that was towing another ship. The accident occurred near Profit Island sixteen miles south of Bayou Sara. As many as 300 Muscogee people of the Creek Indian tribe died as a result of the accident that was attributed to the Monmouth violating the navigation rules of the river. The Muscogee victims of the collision were buried in a mass grave near Port Allen. I’ve reached out to the Muscogee Nation to determine if the burial location is marked and await their response. Inset- Opothle Yahola: Muscogee Chief circa 1800s.

As recorded in its history, Bayou Sara was particularly vulnerable to fire, flooding, and communicable diseases. Detailed consideration of the impacts of all such incidents on the community and its residents is not possible within the scope of this brief. Hopefully, the overview that follows will give you a sense of the challenges faced and met by the residents of Bayou Sara in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Directly impacting the community from time to time were the diseases of cholera and yellow fever brought by the many transient visitors to the town. Reports of outbreaks of cholera in 1827 and yellow fever in 1844 were published in area newspapers. Numbers of deaths resulting from these outbreaks could not be found. Access to medical doctors did not appear to be particularly unfavorable. In 1850, 14 doctors were listed as living in the West Feliciana’s. Based on a Bayou Sara population of 523 at the time, that would have represented a ratio of one doctor for every 37 residents. Today, that ratio is closer to one doctor for every 400 citizens. Of course, the medical knowledge of those doctors, their understanding of treatment protocols, and the available medications would pale by current standards.

Considering the abundance of wooden structures, the use of oil lamps, and the lack of a viable fire department, fire was a constant threat to the community. A fire of undermined consequences was recorded in 1843. The year 1855 marked the occurrence of a devastating fire of unidentified origin that led to the destruction of most of the town’s structures. Based on a dispatch from New Orleans the June 21, 1855, edition of the New York Daily Times reported “The town of Bayou Sara has been nearly destroyed by fire. Loss, half a million dollars.” Whereas such a disaster might have spelled the end of the town, its citizens rallied and rebuilt the town. That fact seems to indicate not only the resilience of its citizens but their commitment to and satisfaction with their lives in Bayou Sara. A fire in 1875 was attributed to arson. Yet another fire, said to have started at the Picard and Weil’s stables, destroyed an entire square of buildings in 1880. Other fires of varying severity occurred in 1886, 1888, and 1894. Seven or eight large stores and a number of other buildings were reported to have been destroyed in the fire of 1894. The earlier brief included the following data but are repeated here since they relate specifically the issue of the firefighting capabilities of the community. A Sanborn map of Bayou Sara in 1888 had the following notations: “ No Steam & No Hand Carts”; “Independent Hose Carts- None”; “Water Facilities- Not Good”; and “Note: No Fire Dept.”. The lack of adequate firefighting capabilities this late in the life of the community and its experience with fires suggest an ineffective town government.

Within the active years of existence of the Bayou Sara, there were a number of documented Mississippi River floods that impacted the community to varying degrees in the following years: 1809, 1825, 1844, 1851, 1874, 1882, 1891, 1912, and 1927. Of those, the floods of 1844, 1851, 1912, and 1927 were considered to be particularly devastating. Photo is of a town street following the flood of 1927. Recall that Bayou Sara was located on the river batture; that is, effectively the flood plain of the river. That made the community particularly vulnerable to Mississippi River floods. A ring levee of undermined size was constructed in the late 1820’s along the bayou and the river but proved to be somewhat ineffective due to inadequate height and stability.

One of the first floods reported to have significantly impacted the town was the flood of 1844. With the exception of a comparatively small area, the town was effectively inundated. As the flood waters receded, health-related issues emerged. Evidence of recognition of a major vulnerability and community leadership, the height of the levee was reported to have been raised two feet in 1851. It is unclear to what extent the cross-section of the levee was altered. Clearly, a larger cross-section would have improved the resistance of the levee to crevasse failure. The year 1890 brought another disastrous flood to the community, inundating it with flood waters of 2’-7’. Across the river in Pointe Coupee Parish, a levee failure some 300-ft. in width was reported. This was the flood that also caused the failure of the Morganza levee, thought to be the finest on the river. Its failure resulted in flooding an area of over 3,000 square miles and the displacement of 50,000 inhabitants.

Regarding the issue of stability, in 1892 a crevasse formed in the bayou section of the ring levee thus allowing flood waters to inundate the town with four to eleven feet of water. Fortunately, the failure was anticipated, giving individuals and families the chance to move themselves and their animals to the nearby bluffs. The severity of this flood motivated the citizens of Bayou Sara to undertake a major effort to rebuild the ring levee to a standard that would prevent future overflows and failures. Unfortunately, that was not to be the case. A break in the levee resulted in flooding of the town in 1897. Again in 1912, a 187-ft wide crevasse (other reports said 300-ft. wide) formed in the levee allowing flooding of the town to a reported incredible height of 25-ft.

Before documenting the ultimate demise of Bayou Sara resulting from the Mississippi River Flood of 1927, considered to be the greatest flood in modern history on the Lower Mississippi River, yet another story of the challenges faced by the citizens of Bayou Sara needs to be told. In August of 1862, Commander William David Porter of the Union gunboat USS Essex negotiated with the mayor of Bayou Sara to peacefully conscript a quantity of coal and other stores from the port. Subsequent to the negotiations, the Union steam-ram Sumter remained anchored off the port to protect the conscripted coal and stores. Following the grounding of the Sumter, its crew abandoned the boat but their actions onshore were not reported in the sources I reviewed. Somehow getting word of the plight of the Sumter and her crew, Porter returned to Bayou Sara in the Essex and found the Sumter to be totally destroyed and the coal stores largely either removed or burned. As forces from the Essex moved into the community, they came under musket fire that was returned by the guns of the Essex. In an attempt to either avoid or minimize such future attacks, Union forces burned down all houses/structures along the levee. That did not stop the attacks of Confederate guerillas on the Essex and her crew. The actions of the guerillas unfortunately resulted in an even more devastating shelling of the community by the Essex, the outcome of which “laid the town in ruins” and left only a few frame buildings and brick walls. At the conclusion of the Civil War, many of the remaining inhabitants of Bayou Sara moved their residences to St. Francisville but continued to pursue their commercial interests in the port. Because of its strategic and favorable location on the river and its established business interests, Bayou Sara survived the devastating effects of the Civil War and began to rebuild its infrastructure and economy.

In the midst of the chaos and bloodshed of the Civil War, the community of Bayou Sara and Union forces ceased hostilities to bury Lieutenant John E. Hart, the commander of the Union gunboat, Albatross. Hart was ill with fever and for some unexplained reason committed suicide in his gunboat cabin. Efforts to locate a metal coffin to return Hart’s body home for burial failed. Given that Hart was a Mason, the ship’s surgeon sought out Masonic members in the area including Bayou Sara. Locating several Masons, an agreement was reached to effectively pause hostilities to allow for the burial of Hart in the cemetery of the St. Francisville’s Grace Episcopal Church with Confederate and Union Masonic members standing side by side.

The End

Whereas the population of the town had more than doubled from 530 in 1850 to 1100 in 1885, it decreased to 630 in 1910 and then to 234 in 1920. These data suggest that the cumulative effects of fires, floods, and the Civil War had taken a significant a toll on the economy and the living conditions in the community. Despite that, it took the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927 to effectively destroy the town once and for all. After the 1927 flood, less than 100 residents remained until 1937 at which time another flood effectively initiated the slow process of returning the area to its original state, that of a swamy flood plain.

The fact that the community no longer exists does not diminish the role the community and its residents played in the early development of Louisiana despite incredible challenges from fires and floods. I hope this brief has highlighted and honored the contributions of Bayou Sara and its citizens to our State and Nation.

Sources

Anne Butler and Helen Williams. BAYOU SARA Used to Be, University of Louisiana Lafayette Press, 2017.

D. H. Pardue. Bayou Sara-The Town and Stream, Louisiana Genealogical Register, Louisiana Genealogical and Historical Society, March 1996.

Stanley Clisby Arthur. The Story of the West Florida Rebellion, The St. Francisville Democrat, 1935.

____________________. The Lost River Town- History and Archeology of Bayou Sara, Coastal Environments, 2019.