New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1860-07-18
From onr Special Travelling Correspondent. ...-.
MANSFIELD, De Sero PARNn,1

five miles via stage road-fifty-ffye long and weary
miles this dry season, for the road is rough and
I dusty in the extreme. 1t is a ridge road and
running thus along the high lands which are com.
parativey sparsely populated, the traveller sees
few of the improvements of wealthy and popu-
lous parish for these are mostly located in the bot
| tom lands, where may be found many fine and ex.
tenslye cotton estates that add many thousands of
bales to the yearly aggregate of the crop returns
of Louisiana.
/ The heavier planters OF the parish are Messrs.
Henry Marshall, John Marshall, Boykin Wither-
spoon, Charles Edwards, I. NJ. Gatln, E. T. Rob-
| inson, Jesse Goodwin, DR.. G. A. Frerson, Major
j. j. Greening, Mrs. Maria Childers, DIR. B. f.
Chapman, Henry Morse Geo. G. Burns R. 7. john
son. John Jordan Fl. Phillips, NJ. Hale, T. P. Hale,
Wm Hale, John Ross, Samuel Ivey, Jesse Ivey, B.
| Dixon, ii. Turner, John and Isaac Murrell A. NJ
Chapman, u. W. Nlunday, Samuel Clark, Mrs. Ro-
chele, W. I. Fortson, Major Logan, Charles s.
Pegues, Thomas Gilmer, George r. Hayden, w.
Pitts, D. Eastman, Col. H. Sloan, John W. Reeves,
James Hollingsworth. VIM. Grossly, Major Tomp-
kles, Il. L. Tompkies, George Eldridge, DIR. Firman
Mrs. Means, Jeptha MeCraw, B. W. Pearson, JAS
Nolan, Y. W. Graves, and perhaps others, but all
of the above can make two hundred bales and some
of them quadrupie those pretty figures
De Soto parish lies between Red river and the
Texas line, and borders on the parishes of Natchi
toches, Sabine and Caddo. BY the Red river and
Mississippi route its lowest point of the parish on
the former river is something over five hundred
miles from New Orleans. 1t is rapidly increasing
in wealth and population. which it has chiefly
drawn and is still drawing from the States of
Georgia and Alabama AS indicative Of this pros
porous increase, the parish will be assessed for the
present year at upwards OF million dollars more
than for the previous, and the vote will reach
nearly eleven hundred, or near two hundred more
than heretofore. The population of the parish is
about thirteen thousand, of whom near eight
thousand are slaves. Its area comprises two
hundred and forty-six thousand acres in round
numbers. of which some thirty-six or seven
thousand are in cotton, and some twenty-eight
thousand are in corn. Its valuable lands are about
all in private hands, and are held-for the bottom
lands, at from fifteen to twenty dollars per acre
the uplands at from five to ten dollars. Among |
the larger land holders may be mentioned the |
names of I. FL. Patterson and Thomas Hunter, who /
have from eighteen to twenty thousand acres each |
The soil is light, frable and easily titled and the
labor of keeping the crop out of the grass is |
small compared with what it is in the alluval lands
of the State. The climate and atmosphere par
take in large degree of the dry, pure and health
full peculiarities which characterize those of the
uplands of Texas, which the parish adjoins.
In refinement, education and social attributes I
the people excel, and the educational spirit is, par
consequence, strongly abroad among them. In I
the parish are located veral institutes of learn
ing of high standing in the country-liberally en-
dowed largely patronized and wisely admins I
tered The Mansfield Female College, in this
town, occupies very handsome, spacious and |
costly brick building, is attended by from a hun
dred and thirty to hundred and fifty pupils, who
are accomplished in all the abilities and graces Of
a thorough education by an able faculty, at the
head of which stands Rev. II. c. Thweatt, as
President Of the College This institution is under
the patronage Of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
At the pleasant village Of Keachie, twenty miles
from Mansfield, is the g Keaehie Female College,
under patronage of the Baptist Church; Rev.
]. H. Tucker is at the head of its very competent
faculty, and an average Of hundred pupils are
enrolled for its sessions. At the village of Pleas
ant Hill, twenty miles from Mansfield, in another
direction, the foundations of the "a Pierce and
Payne College, for males, are just being laid,
lnder the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. A fund of nearly hundred thousand
iollars already contributed, ensures the fruition
If this enterprise. At Mansfield there is an in
dependent institution, also for males which IL
conducted. Public schools, too, are
hickly scattered through the parish.
Mansfield, the parish seat, is located nearly in
The geographical center of the parish, about seven
.een miles from Red river in the east. and near
he same distance from the Sabine. ON The west.
It is essentially an inland town, and is ten miles
rom the nearest navigabe yater-whieb is lake
II Bayou Pierre, on which are four landing nIaces
1t which goods may be debarked that come bv the
way of Red river, from which thew are boated !
even miles through Grand Bayou, and thus into !,
Bayou Pierre to the Mansfield and general land !
ngs, seyerally known as sluithport, Marseies, a
Newport and Augusta at neither of which are set
dement's of any note, though near Smithport there
a Catholic chapel, the only one in this Anglo
american parish. The situation of Mansfield is
Ileasantly rural and retired. on elevated ground :
nd it is vel. built town of some twelve hundred )
Inhabitants. 1t is scattering town, with large .
ardens or small fields pertaining to most of the 7
esidences, which make it all the pleasanter. The r
rhine feature Of the town is the female college, +
Thich is very handsome building, and stands a
pom an elevation that secures it a commanding .
nv ~ :