The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1921-03-05
HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
BY Mrs. J. A. E.-Paper recently
Read Before the Bay St. Louis
Home Missionary Society.

Home Missionary Society.
New Orleans, with its unique indi-
viduality, has history which teens
with rare romance. La Sale left
Quebec for the purpose of exploring
the Mississippi its entire length. He
reached it's mouth April 9th, 1882,
and claimed for France all of the
land watered by the Mississippi and
it's tributaries, and named it Louis
lana in honor of Louis XIV, King of
France France proceeded to estab-
lish settlements in her new territory,
and Iberville, who was fitted out by
the government, steered across the
Gulf, and entered the river by its
mouth. He established chain of
fortified settlements, including those
of Mobile and Biloxi, and left them
in charge of his younger brother,
Bienville Bienville believing that
Frances domination of the territory
lay in her control of the Mississippi
river, decided to colonize there; a
spot was chosen on the east bank of
the river, which was known to the In
dians as the home of the Houmas,
hence good trading post. In 171S
De La Tour was sent with SO men
to lay off a settlement, which was
named La Nouvelle Orleans, in honor
of the Regent, the Due De Orleans
the old city-or "Vieux Carre" in
cluded that parallelogram that ex-
tends from Canal Street to Esplan-,
ade Avenue and from the river to
Rampant Street In the middle front
a portion of the land was set aside
for a parade ground-this is now
Jackson Square, and just back of
this another portion was set aside
for ecclesiastic purposes, and rude
church at once constructed-the pro-
genitor of the present famous ST.
Louis Cathedral After awhile the
men became restless and Bienville
appealed to his government for
wives for his settlers, as permanent
colonization depended on home life.
So the girls were sent over by the
ship load, and tradition has it, that
the stones that came over as ballast
on the ships, were used to pave the
muddy streets of the new city. The
seat of government was transferred
to New Orleans in 1922 and it be-
came the capital city of the French
government in the New World. The
upper line of the city was a small
Bayou emptying in the river. This is
Canal street today. The principal
streets were Royal and Chartres, and
the main business houses and resi-
dences of important colonists were
on these streets.
In 1853 the population was con-
siderably augmented by the arrival
of French refugees from settlements
on the upper Ohio, which had been
recently seiged by the British.
In November, 1852 France trans
ferred Louisiana to Spain without
consulting the people who were most
deeply interested. There was great
indignation when the new Spanish
government, Don Antonio de Ulloa
arrived. For sometime there was no
open outbreak, but in 1768 conspi-
racy long and carefully planned, in
which some of the leading citizens of
New Orleans were engaged, revealed
itself in open hostilities. The spiked
the guns at the Tchoupitoulas gate,
at the upper side of the city, and en-
tered the town. Ulloa and his
troops fled and sailed for Havana.
Another Spanish governor soon ar
rived with 5000 picked troops, SO
pieces of artillery and "a vessels.
The city fell into the hands of the
Spanish and so remained until Octo
Der 1st, 1900, when Louisiana was
transferred from Spain to France.
However, it was soon sold by France
to the United States.
In 1870 a great fire entirely des-
troyed the city, and six years later
another fire destroyed PIP buildings,
only two stores remained standing in
the entire city. These fires caused
the then governor, Baron Carondelet,
to offer premiums on roofs covered
with tile, and thus brought into use
the tile roof which is one of the
picturesque features of the old
French quarter.
In 1894 Etienore de- Bare, whose
plantation was in the upper reaches
of the city today, succeeded in pro-
ducing sugar from cane juice, and
this began a long period of prospec-
ting for Louisiana. There has been
an enormous change; not only from
the Indian paths and the little French
village, that was planted in the will
derness, at the river end of the trail;
but from the time when the river
boats were crowded with aristocratfc
Southerners coming down with their
families on periodic pilgrimages, to
put up at the Old St. Louis or the st.
Charles Hotel, to attend the operas
and balls, and forget for awhile the
ennui of plantation lifes
New Orleans today is the metropo-
lis of the South. Its population be-
ing about 100000; its area is 1876
square miles; has "a city parks and
play grounds consisting of 906 acres;
80 miles of modern dock facilities;
$50 miles Of paved streets; it is the
second port in the United States; has
the largest sugar refinery in the
world; is the largest oyster market
in the world; has the largest floating
steel dock in the world; it is the lar
gest cotton, sugar, rice and banana
market in the Union, and has dem
ocratic spirit for which it is re-
nowned.
From an article accompanied
by photograph, which appeared in
last Sundays Commercial Appeal,
memphis, Tenn.,) and which is re-