The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1873-03-29
An Octogenarian Secs His First
Locomotive.
From the Ouaehita Tdlegraph:j


[From the Ouaehita Td1egraph.I
Sixty years have elapsed since Faith
er Abraham Pipes of jackson parish
migrated to the 0uachita Valley. in
january, 1915, he together with DaIi'I
Colvin and Mr.. Sims, all having FAM
lilies, landed at Monroe. They came
by river On a keelboat, no steamboats,
having. ever disturbed the smooth wa
ters Of the Ouachita at that day. Mon
roe was then known as the Post of
Ouachita, and could evenithen boast Of
three stares, one kept by the father OF
Gen. Pargoud, another BY Linde1Aan
and the third by some one,else. Tren-
ton was not thought Of until at least
twenty-five years afterwards. Our
friend Maj. Bry, now something more
than youth, was then two years OF
age, a baby babbling French. His
father, Judge Bry, was hewing out
his fortune on his place just below
town, and Father Pipes says was SO
thoroughly democratic as to go bare
footed whenever he felt inclined. In
that year, Q812) Louisiana became !.
State Of the Union, Claiborne was
elected Governor, war was declared
with Great Britain, and the first steam
boat, which Father Pipes saw, landed
at New Orleans. The round tap to
New Orleans and back to Monroe re-
quired six weeks. The trade at Mon
roe consisted in the exchange Of coffe,
powder, lead, ETC., for deer and bear
hides, skins of beaver and otter, bear
oil, and cotton cloth. The latter article
was eagerly bought by the merchants,
Of the country ladies, at one dollar
yard. just think Of that, young
misses, when you are spending your
grandmothers' earnings!s
Father Pipes settled three miles
from the site OF the present village OF
Townsville, and has ever since lived
within twenty miles of the place he
first settled. He enlisted in the war
of 1912, and is now drawing his PEN
sion regularly, which with his earnings
as a book agent gives him a toferably
fair living. He is eighty -four years
Of age, canvasses on horseback q con-
siderable territory and bids fair to live
several years yet. He is o superan-
nuated minister in the Methodist
church, but frequently goes into the
pulpit and breaches the word OF his
Lord and Master, never without cleso
attention and certain effect.
This pious and venerable pioneer
came to Monroe last week on q curious
mission He has seen this country
changed from a Wilderness to a country
Of plantations, towns, churches, school
houses and highways. He has seen
almost two generations grow up and
pass away. Many and various and
wonderful, indeed, were the changes
he had personally seen transpire. Tho
old keel boats had gone, and he had
on the tleetestpackets sped by the same
hills and breaks he had crept by on his
keel-boat fifty years before, grateful
even that he was moving SO rapidly.
But there was one vehicle of the
many mighty things wrought out by
inventive genius Father Pipes had
never laid his old eyes on, and he
came to Monroe, not being far distant,
to see that curiosity before he was
called to sleep with hi4fathers. Tho
object Of his search and curiosity was
a locomotive and cars.
1t afforded the writer more real
satisfaction than comes very often i'll
the busy hours of bustling life to ac-
company Father Pipes to the depot
and become his cicer0ne. To describe
what are the feelings of man of.years
who first stands in view of a l0cOmO-
tive with steam up, itself an object
that only itself can describe, is a task
not to be attempted. Father Pipes,
a man of no mean colloquial powers,
stood mute in wonder and admiration
OF the beautiful mechanism and life
like engine of power before him.
"Well! wellw he calculated as he
gazed at the engine and long train Of
cars standing on the track, and then
overpowered with thought, he lapsed
into a dead silence. But the vigor Of
his limbs seemed partly to return, and
he stood intently scanning the ma
chinery, almost forgetting he had q
cane, until we proposed to see the
engine house and shop. Here he OBJ
tanned close view of an idle locomo-
tive, and for some minutes stood 81
lently surveying its parts. At last
the engineer of the train blew his
whistle, and soon the iron horse,
wheeling and frying, slowly began to
move. The-old gentleman regarded
this, the climax of the scene, with
even greater admiration than he had
the motionless train, and as it rolled
away down the track, rattling, rumb-
ling, he followed it with his eyes until
the end of the rear car and the ascend
ing smoke and steam were all that
could be seen. We together turned
away, and Father Pipes, mounting
his faithful bay pony, rode into town
and back to the home of his friend
The writer went to his Office wonder
ing what would be the changes Of the
next sixty years, and what ut the end
of sixty years there could possibly be
that would possess the novelty and
interest to man of eighty-four that
the locomotive had for Father Pipes.