Stop #11 (Avoyelles) Avoyelles Parish Courthouse where Solomon Northup was freed

 (pg. 33) AVOYELLES PARISH COURTHOUSE - It was here that the principals met to free Solomon Northup, and it was here that Henry B. Northup of Glen Falls, New York, and the freed slave left to return home after the session in the Avoyelles Parish Courthouse.

Stop #10 (Avoyelles) Historic Marksville, parish seat of Avoyelles

(pg. 32) MARKSVILLE, LOUISIANA - Marksville was the parish seat of Avoyelles where Solomon at last secured his freedom. It was here that Solomon's New York friend, Henry B. Northup, arrived on a Red River boat. The lawyer employed by Henry B. Northup was John P. Watdill, a lawyer of considerable prominence in the state. Waddill was a state senator in 1848 and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1852. It was Samuel Bass, a carpenter living near Marksville with a free woman of color, who sent Solomon's letter to his wife, Anne, in New York, describing his whereabouts after an absence of twelve years. Bass' role in freeing Northup cannot be overlooked; he risked possible death from irate planters who were extremely sensitive regarding "the peculiar institution" during this last decade before the Civil War. Bass died two months after Northup's release from slavery, and the same lawyer, Waddill, left a note in his diary is a brief note regarding the Northup case in which he obviously considered nothing more than a routine case.
Ralph Cushman was the presiding judge, a man doomed to die within the next months of a yellow fever epidemic which swept the river towns, including Marksville.
It was from Marksville that the sheriff set out to locale Platt, the slave, whose identity was not established as Solomon Northup. The following day necessary proceedings took place in the Avoyelles Parish Courthouse, Marksville, which freed the kidnapped slave.
The names Waddill (a street) and Cushman (a cemetery) survive in Marksville.
It was a slave, identity unknown, who was kept at the Avoyelles Sheriff's office to help locate slave. It was he who was responsible for providing information leading to the Epps Place and Platt.

Stop #9 (Avoyelles) Lone Pine, home of Alanson Pearce

(pg. 31) Retrace your path from Lone Pine back down Goudeau Road towards Evergreen. Turn left, and this will return you to Evergreen Main Street. Turn left again and proceed back towards Bunkie. You will turn right to Marksville on Highway #115, turning at a four-way crossing: the Avoyelles Center, a school is on your left. Turn right.
The road leads through the long Town of Hessmer. You will come to Highway 1 at Marksville and a stop light. Go across Highway 1 and follow this street. Main Street, to the Avoyelles Parish Courthouse where Northup was freed in January, 1853. The offices of the Clerk of Court contain Northup papers which you will find in the basement of the Courthouse.

Stop #8 (Avoyelles) Historic Evergreen

(pg. 29) EVERGREEN, LOUISIANA - Once in Evergreen, you will drive alongside Little Bayou Rouge. On your right, as you near the bridge over Bayou Rouge, is the Church of the Little Flower. Continue on the highway-Main Street past the Evergreen Elementary School. Turn right at the corner of the school grounds. Drive about one block, turning left. At the end of this section, to the left, in the middle of a psture, lies the grave of Roger Marshall, the planter who lived across the Bayou Boeuf from the Epps Place. The small family cemetery is at the highest point in a small hill, enclosed by a fence. Continue your drive along the street until you come to Bayou Rouge Baptist Church where Peter Tanner and his wife are buried (across the street in front of the church, straight towards the back of the old cemetery). When you leave the church, turn right, and after a brief distance, turn left on Goudeau Road. Continue until you find Northup Marker #9 on your right. This is Lone Pine Plantation house, home  of Dr. and Mrs. John Lemoine.
The Village of Evergreen grew along the Bayou Rouge in the early years of the 19th century. Within Evergreen, named for the greenery on its rolling hills, is Bayou Rouge Baptist Church which was founded in 1841 with Peter Tanner as one of its founders. Peter Tanner, brother of Mrs. William Ford, hired Northup from his owner, the itinerant carpenter, Tibeats, to work under Tanner's carpenter named Myers. Tanner was one of the most extensive planters on Bayou Boeuf and had sugar interest in Cuba as well. Tanner moved from Bayou Boeuf to the Evergreen area sometime around 1850. He was an ardent Baptist and is famous for the passage in Northup where Tanner was pictured reading to his slaves from the Bible to prove they were meant to be slaves.

Stop #7 and 7.5 (Avoyelles) The Burns House and Hillcrest, rented plantation of Epps, 1843-44

(pg. 27) The Stephen Samuel Pearce Family - S.S. Pearce have been the initials of four generations of planters who established a reputation for raising sugar cane and manufacturing sugar in the Evergreen area. Stephen Samuel (his father was Stephen Pearce) was born at Cheneyville on October 18, 1833, two days after his father died. Educated at Centenary College, Jackson, La., he and his wife, Mary Ellen Bennett, were married when the bride was 15. She was the daughter of Ezra Bennett of nearby Bennettsville and brother Maunsel Bennett, another prominent citizen of Evergreen. S.S. Pearce served in the Louisiana Legislature, 1880-1882. During the Civil War he moved his family to Texas, and from there hauled salt for the Confederacy from the Jefferson Island site. He was presented a portrait of Robert E. Lee by the Confederate Cabinet for this effort. He was, however, a conscientious objector to war, a Baptist minister, who testified before the military committee at Shreveport in the regard. He and Mary Ellen had eight living children, and they lost nearly as many in this period of heavy infant mortality. One child was severely burned at a campfire as they fled to Texas, and at least two other infants died during their stay there.

(pg. 28) OAKWOLD, another old plantation house, is on the left of Highway 29 just before the railroad crossing. William Pearce, Jr., a Georgia migrant to the state, built the house beginning in 1833. It was first occupied by the family Christmas, 1835. Descendants of the original owner, the Wrights, have lived in Oakwold for decades, as do the present descendants, the Porter Wright family.
Oakwold has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The first year of Epps' residence on Bayou Boeuf, 1845, the caterpillars almost totally destroyed the cotton crop throughout that region. There was little work to be done so that the slaves were necessarily idle most of the time. However, there came a rumor to Bayou Boeuf that wages were high and laborers in demand on sugar plantations in St. Mary's Parish along Bayou de Salle. Epps, Henry Toler, Alanson Pearce, and Addison Roberts were the white men who took a drove of slaves to St. Mary's Parish that winter of 1845 to cut cane. Alanson Pierce (Pearce) was the only son of William Pearce of Oakwold Plantation, which is still standing on Bayou Rouge, home of the Porter Wrights.
Northup was hired to repair the sugar house of Judge Turner and then put to cutting cane. Northup's "Sunday money" and contributions for his violin playing produced seventeen dollars with which Northup tried to secure passage up the famous Teche.

Stop #6 (Avoyelles) P.L. Shaw House

(pg. 26) Continue to your right along the bayou to the Harper House, originally the home of P.L. SHAW and built around 1852. It is about one mile from the site of the Epps' House.

This story and a half house is of identical construction to the Epps house. The setting of ancient crepe myrtle trees, gardenias, palmetto palms and ferns on the Bayou Boeuf is highly reminiscent of the Epps house as it was originally constructed.

Chickens, ducks, hogs, cows, barns, and corn cribs are usually in immediate proximity to the main house. Cypress cisterns held rain water drained from shingled roofs.

Stop #5 (Avoyelles) Edwin Epps plantation site (home removed)

(pg. 25) Edwin Epps Plantation - The land immediately before you after you cross the bridge is the EPPS PLANTATION. This is the place where the Avoyelles Sheriff with Henry B. Northup came to locate Platt, the kidnapped Solomon Northup.
Edwin Epps' House on which Solomon worked in 1852 stood at the point now marked by the tree that stood in the Epps' front yard. The house itself was moved to Bunkie in 1976 for restoration as a museum.

Stop #3 (Avoyelles) Home of Mary McCoy as bride in 1854

(pg. 23) Mary McCoy's House: This home (now the property of Mr. & Mrs. H.K. Bubenzer, Jr.) was owned by Mary McCoy who was described by Northup as "the beauty and glory of Bayou Boeuf." Mary Dunwoody McCoy was married three times, her full name being Mary Dunwoody McCoy Rhodes Burgess Cooper. Given to her as a wedding gift in 1854, she lived here until her death in 1913.
At the McCoy house, turn and drive back towards the Bayou Boeuf on Highway 71. Just before getting to the bridge, turn right on Shirley Road. On your right: Ashland Plantation, beautiful ante bellum home of the Allums Family.

(pg. 24) After crossing the railroad, to the left, now marked only by a surviving tree from the big grove that once shaded the house of Silas Talbert, was the site of the famous slave feast recounted in Solomon Northup's book. The fine old house burned sometime in the early years of the twentieth century.
Continue along Shirley Road to a right turn on Highway 71. Turn right at first stop light. Continue down Lexington Street its entire length to its juncture with Hwy. 29. Turn right and continue south. Just outside town, on the right, is the antebellum home of the Ward Nash family. Magnificent old oak trees stand on the lawn. It was built 1833-1835 by Lovatt Burges on his 702 acre plantation.

Stop #4.5 (Avoyelles) Fogleman Cemetery

(pg. 25) The old bayou road follows the Boeuf, and you now reach Highway 1176. Turn right, cross the Bayou Boeuf and continue straight along this road, crossing Highway 29 and continuing towards the site of the famous Epps Plantation. Among the old planatations located along Highway 1176 was the old Irion Plantation, home of Judge Alfred Briggs Irion, a social center of the Beouf society.
After you cross a railroad, immediately to your right is the abandoned site of the Fogleman Cemetery where Edwin Epps, died 1866, and his wife, 1867, and a number of other persons are buried. There were no markers that survived.

Courtesy of historyhunts

 Courtesy of historyhunts

Turn to the right on Harpers' Lane which may be easily identified by the white frame Haasville Baptist Church on the left of Harpers' Lane just off the highway.

Drive past the church, turn right across the bridge spanning the Boeuf. Solomon Northup undoubtedly did considerable fishing along these very banks.

Stop #4. (Avoyelles) Small Port of Holmesville on Bayou Boeuf

 (pg. 24, cont'd) HOLMESVILLE, PORT ON BAYOU BOEUF - Note Marker #4 just before reaching the bridge over Bayou Boeuf. Turn left and continue along the bayou. The Marchive home, on the left, is an ante bellum structure that may have been a boarding house at the Port of Holmesville, according to local tradition.
Holmesville was a bustling port in the time of Northup's enslavement to Epps. Lumber, cotton, and raw sugar were shipped from Holmesville, and it was the scene of shooting matches and other sports. Dr. Windes, the doctor to whom Epps once sent Northup, lived near Holmesville on Watermelon Bayou.
Holmesville was the last major port going south where the Boeuf flows into Courtableu Bayou some fifty miles below. The historic inland port of Washington was the center of commerce which connected the inland plantations on the Boeuf and elsewhere with New Orleans markets.

Stop #2. (Avoyelles) Bayou Boeuf: Boundary between Rapides and Avoyelles Parishes

(pg. 22) BAYOU BOEUF - Bayou Boeuf was so name for the cattle that came to water at its banks. "Boeuf" means "ox" in French, a small wild cattle drinking from its waters. The name applies to the thousands of acres of fertile delta soil on both sides of the hundred or so miles of the meandering stream. The land was cultivated in cotton and sugar cane by many planters and thousands of slaves who labored along its banks.
In the time of Northup, gum and cypress trees grew along the bayou banks, inhabited by coons and possums. Northup writes of the size and quality of the fish he trapped in Bayou Boeuf and of the importance of these to the diet of the slaves.
The long chain of plantations along both sides of the bayou formed a community whose unity was based on a plantation culture and dependence on the Bayou Boeuf for transportation and communications. The plantation culture of the area was not one of the white-columned mansion and manifestations of great wealth of the Southern myth, but a land of dedicated farmers with impressive contributions to agriculture.
Routes to New Orleans were either down the Boeuf to the Inland Port of Washington, or upstream to Smith's Landing to "Catch the Cars" for Alexandria - then down Red River to Old River to the Mississippi and south to New Orleans.

Stop #1. (Avoyelles) Edwin Epps House Museum at Bunkie, La.

(pg. 21) Epps House - Opening Day on July 4, 1963 of the Epps House Museum, Bunkie, La.

(No Stop Number) Indians on Indian Creek

Indians on Indian Creek

Indian Creek, in its whole length, flows through a magnificent forest. There dwells on its shore a tribe of Indians, a remnant of the Chickasaws or Chickopees, if I remember rightly. (The name Chickasaw derives thus). They live in simple huts, ten or twelve feet square, constructed of pine poles and covered with bark. They subside principally on the flesh of the deer, the coon, and the opossom, all of which are plentiful in these woods. Sometimes they exchange venison for a little corn and whiskey with the planters on the bayous. Their usual dress is buckskin breeches and calico hunting shirts of fantastic colors, buttoned from belt to chin. They wear brass rings on their wrists, and in their ears and noses. The dress of the squaw is very similar. They are fond of dogs and horses - owning many of the latter, of a small, tough breed - and are skillful riders. Their bridles, girths and saddles were made of raw skins of animals, their stirrups of a certain kind of wood. Mounted astride their ponies, men and women, I have seen then dash out into the woods at the utmost of their speed, following narrow winding paths, and dodging trees in a manner that eclipsed the most miraculous feats of civilized equestrianism. Circling away in various directions, the forest echoing and re-echoing with their whoops, they would presently return at the same dashing, headlong speed with which they started. Their village was on Indian Creek, known as Indian Castle, but their range extended to the Sabine River. Occasionally a tribe from Texas would come over on a visit, and then there was a carnival in the "Great Pine Woods." Chief of the tribe was John Cascalla; second in rank was John Baltese, his "son-in-law..."

Stop #8. (Rapides) Bennettville - bend of bayou store of Ezra Bennett, New York school teacher who migrated to area in 1820's, neighbor to Ford on adjacent plantation.

(pg. 17) WALNUT GROVE - Drive past Walnut Grove about a mile, and on your right is the site of Peter Tanner's plantation which adjoined his brother's. There is a white frame house of Peter Tanner's descendants on the right and a day lily farm of Tanner descendants.
Continue along the old bayou road as it curves past Edgefield Church No. 2 and on to another bridge over Bayou Boeuf. Cross the bayou, drive to Highway 71; turn right to Bennett's Store.

(pg. 18) While Bennett's Store as been known by this name for a century, the store originally was the property of Joseph B. Robert and this part of Bayou Boeuf was called Eldred's Bend. The 200 acres of land in the tract stretching away from the bayou from the site of the store belonged to Randall Eldred, pioneer planter from South Carolina. He was in a later wave than those who came in 1813 but married to a niece of William Prince Ford's first wife, Martha Tanner Ford, who owned land adjacent to the Eldred property. Ford's plantation was actually a small one.
Turn around at Bennett's Store and return south, driving on Highway 71 over another bridge over Bayou Boeuf. This marks the boundary line between Rapides and Avoyelles Parishes. Continue to the Epps House Museum on Highway 71, to your left, just past Johnson's Chevrolet.

Stop #7. (Rapides) Historic Cheneyville, locale of William Prince Ford, Mary McCoy, and Ralph Smith, Smith buried here; house remaining of Mary McCoy's slave.

(pg 14 cont'd) Here on the bayou, at this point, you are in the midst of Old Cheneyville, founded in 1813. Here the keelboats and barges floated downstream to the Inland Port of Washington, or were pulled, usually by oxen, along the bayou upstream with supplies sent from New Orleans via Washington. Cheneyville was originally settled by a man named William Fendon Cheney from South Carolina in 1811; two years later friends and probably relatives from the same South Carolina area came into the site from Woodville, Miss. where they had originally marked out their plantations. These were followed by wave after wave of migrants from the same location in South Carolina.

(pg. 15) Crossing the bridge, turning left along the bayou, you come to the Trinity Episcopal Church constructed in 1860. To the left 30 years is the grave of Mary Dunwoody McCoy Burgess(nic.) Rhodes Cooper. Mary McCoy married three times, not an unusual circumstance in the period due to the mortality rate. All three of Mary's husbands died. She had three children, two of whom survived until adulthood.

Ralph Smith's grave will be found to the rear of the church.

As you walk or ride along the bayou road bordering the cemetery, you will see four columns which are what remains of the Campbellite Church erected here in the 1840's. A schism developed in Beulah Baptist, and William Prince Ford was "churched" from his Baptist Church because he officiated at the induction of officers for the Campbellite Church. Thomas Campbell himself visited this church from his home in Kentucky.

Stop #6. (Rapides) William Prince Ford Home.

(pg. 12) You will return to Highway 112 and head towards Lecompte. As you continue about 9 miles to Lecompte, you will pass Dentley Springs, site of Dentley Plantation belonging to Thomas Jefferson Wells, owner of the race horse, Lecompte, for which the town was named. Lecompte became famous in a race at Metairie Race Track in 1854 when he beat his half-brother, Lexington, internationally famous horse, for the crown.

An awesome blog entry at Lend Me Your Ear contains additional information about Thomas Jefferson Wells and his racehorse, Lecompte.

(pg. 13) At Lecompte, continue along the Bayou Boeuf, veering right in town along Water Street, continuing along the bayou road with the bayou on your right. At the end of the long block on Water Street, you will see to your left an ante bellum building that was once a ware house for the Red River (Ralph Smith) Railroad. Opposite the building was the bayou landing, called over the decades, White's Landing and Smith's Landing. The Holy Comforter Episcopal Church is off to your right on a street joining Water Street. Continue to your right down the highway which is the old bayou road leading to Meeker, La., an old plantation community. You will pass Chaseland Plantation (about 1/2 mile), and at the Meeker crossroads, you will see to your left the buildings of the old Meeker Sugar Refinery (1.2 miles). Plantations of Compton and Meeker extended to your left. Continue and you pass ancient oaks which once were part of an immense oak grove to WELLSWOOD Plantation, one of the fine places of the Boeuf (about 1 mile).
You will reach Highway La.#13 and U.S. #167, the Ville Platte Highway. Turn right. Continue past a bridge over Bayou Boeuf and watch a Northup marker for a turn left down a country road toward Loyd Hall, a three-story show place built around 1857.

(pg. 14) Drive past Loyd Hall along the bayou road. Old plantations stretched out from the bayou on both sides. You go under the trestle and turn right, south, on Highway 71. In Cheneyville, turn right at the first stop light. On your left of the street you are on is the modern Beulah Baptist Church (1816) among whose member were William Prince Ford and Peter Tanner. Drive to the bridge and cross Bayou Boeuf.

Stop #5. (Rapides) Site of Ford's sawmill on Indian Creek.

(pg. 11) Continue driving down Martin Springs Road until you reach the State Fish Hatcherie Road .5 mile from the Martin house site. Turn right. Follow the road which curves past Beechwood Fish Hatcherie, crosses a small creek. Turn right at Northup pointer, you will arrive at Stop #5: Ford's sawmill on the property of Louisiana Wildlife Fisheries.

FORD'S SAWMILL was located on Indian Creek which is on the property of Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries which operates the Woodworth Fish Hatcherie at this site. The mill is approached by entering the gate on the right and taking a trail to the left leading directly through the wooded area to the site of the old mill. Some of the timbers from Ford's old water mill still lie in Indian Creek. The mill was at a point just below the present dam of Indian Creek Recreation Area. Across the fence from the public property is the private property of William Smith.

In 1840, Ford owned forty acres of virgin timberland in partnership with a man named William Ramsey. Together they constructed the mill, run by water. Ford's wife had inherited a plantation on Bayou Boeuf, farther south along Bayou Boeuf.

(pg. 12) Turn at #5 marker and return 3 miles on the Fish Hatchery Road, continuing past the Martin Springs Road sign until you reach Highway 112, the road between Forest Hill and Lecompte. Turn right and about 3 1/2 miles to Forest Hill and turn left at pointer.

Ford's homesite has been confirmed as the Walter Guillory nursery, about 1/4 miles east of Forest Hill on the Blue Lake Road. Oak trees, the size of which belies their age, were probably planted about the time that Ford homesteaded 80 acres here in 1836. Ford's house site was at the site of the Guillory residence at the crest of the hill. Hurricane Creek is nearby. The brick kiln with adobe brick remaining on a hillside represents the remains of what must have been another project of Ford. He was pastor of Spring Hill Baptist Church and headmaster of Spring Creek Academy which opened in 1837. The place was on the Texas Road which ran along a ridge in sight of the house site.

Stop #4. (Rapides) Martin's Springs in the "Great Pine Woods," home of W.C.C.C. Martin

(pg. 9) Turn right on Martin Springs Road which leads across a lake, driving over a small bridge, and resuming the drive through the forests. Your entrance into Alexander Forest Wildlife Management Area is marked by a sign on your right. You will pass two small roads leading off to the right, but continue straight ahead to Marker #4.
Marker #4 designates the site of the William "3 C's" Martin home of pre-Civil War period where Ford stopped with his slaves.

(pg. 10) The trail probably enters the site of the Martin homestead ("the Big House") from the rear, while the original trail leads to the front of the house site.

It was certainly a beautiful place with cold, clear water from Martin's Springs, which were probably not far behind the house at the foot of the small hill on which the house stood. The hill is partly encircled by the very pretty little creek running off from the springs.
Martin Springs Road, on which you are riding, runs to the rear of the old William C.C.C. Martin homesite. The original path through the woods, taken by Ford and the three slaves, entered from the front of this site.
To the right of Martin Spring's Road, the old Martin Cemetery lies to the left. Behind the modern cemetery, down the path still visible through the woods, about fifty feet distant lies the old cemetery. In it, is the broken tombstone over the grave of Wm. C.C.C. Martin, his wife, and other family members. Martin was one of the most prominent of the Rapides Parish planters and president of the parish police jury.

Avoyelles Parish: Crossroads of Louisiana Where All Cultures Meet

by: Sue Eakin


Upon doing yet another Google search today on my hunt to find as much information as I can about Bayou Boeuf, I discovered this Google E-Book: http://books.google.com/books/about/Avoyelles_Parish.html?id=0D8-UBjZ6Y8C

Here are some excerpts about the trail that goes through Avoyelles Parish (pgs. 86-87):

I would love to download this e-book for around $30, however, I have to hold off. For now I will enjoy these excerpts as well as the other free exerpts available on Google Reader.

Stop #3. (Rapides) Smith's Bridge/Indian Creek Reservoir

(pg. 7) You are crossing Bayou Beouf at Smith's Bridge, probably the exact place where Northup crossed with William Prince Ford and the three slaves.

Smith's Landing Historical Marker (courtesy of historyhunts)

The Old Depot (courtesy of historyhunts)

After crossing the bridge, continue straight along the country road. A small branch of Bayou Clear is on your right. Measure 0.6 from the bridge to Toby Lane. Turn on left on this gravel road and continue as it eventually curves to the right.

The route you take necessarily runs parallel to the original trail but is always in sight and less than a mile away. The path leads through the woods to Martin's Springs where Ford and his slaves stopped for a rest at the home of the owner of Sugar Bend Plantation. Martin, like a lot of other planters along the bayou at this section, preferred what was considered the healthier site for his home in the woods while he worked the richer delta lands on the opposite side of the Boeuf.
Stay on Toby Lane for 0.8 mile to the point where the lane runs into a road leading in both directions. Turn left. This is a sharp turn: LEFT. After 0.3 mile, you will see on your right Indian Creek Reservoir Lake. This road leads around the lake, which you will glimpse from time to time, as you travel 2.2 miles from Toby Lane to Martin Springs Road.

(pg. 8) En route to Martin's Springs where the owner of Sugar Bend Plantation chose to make his "Big House," is the magnificence of Indian Creek Reservoir Lake. The lake is part of the Indian Creek Recreational Area. The "Great Pine Woods," where Northup observed an Idian tribe alongside the creek by that name, is property of Alexander State Forest, Kisatchie National Forest, Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries, and the headquarters of the Louisiana Forestry Commission. It is hoped to establish a forestry museum here.

In regard to the Native Americans that Northup noted, I discovered that US Gen Web Archives contains information regarding those Native Americans: 

"The Choctaw settled in a strip running from the Red River in the area of the

Appalaches Village (Zimmerman), south-southeast to Pine Prairie.  The Yowani 
Choctaw were well established in central Louisiana as early as the mid-1750's, 
coming from the permanent village on Bayou Chicot into the vicinity of Clifton.  
There were Choctaw settlements at Boyce, Flatwoods, Clifton Crossing, Hineston, 
Seiper Creek, and Woodworth."

http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/rapides/cemeteries/clifton.txt

Stop #2. (Rapides) Lamourie Locks/St. John Baptist Church

(pg. 5) The Lamourie Locks were constructed by act of the Louisiana Legislature in 1857 at the insistence of the planters served by the Boeuf system of transportation and by Ralph Smith Smith.

The locks operated with an immense gate pulled up and down by heavy chains or ropes according to the water level of the bayou desired. The Bayou Lamourie in which the locks are located flows into Bayou Beouf a mile or so distant, and the locks regulated the amount of water released into the Boeuf. Navigation in Bayou Boeuf was hazardous from the standpoint of dependability for marketing crops and maintaining a water level sufficiently high enough to float bales of cotton posed a great problem. The old locks were damaged during the Civil War, according to a surviving letter of Ralph Smith Smith.

The following modern photos of the Lamourie Locks were taken  by History Hunts  blog owner. Thank you for allowing me to use them in this blog.

(pg. 6) 

St. John the Baptist Church

This church was founded in 1869 and is now on the National Register of Historic Places, one of the few places involving black history on the National Register.

Ford and his party crossed the railroad and walked down a turning road through fields of Carnal and Flint, the turning row leading the Bayou Boeuf and, beyond it, to the "Great Pine Woods."

As you cross the railroad (the very path where Smith's railroad lay; the line was bought by the Texas and Pacific in late 19th Century), you will see on your left the historic St. John Baptist Church.

Continue past the church 1.1 miles until you arrive at a brick structure on your left: Lamourie Baptist Church. Turn sharply to your left and continue across a small bridge over Bayou Beouf.

Continue on the narrow country road ahead which veers to the left through fields. About 1/2 to 3/4 miles from the bridge is a sign on your right: Ashton Plantation (private).

Continue along the country road which again veers to the left, making a curve along Bayou Boeuf. The Boeuf is at your right as you drive the short distance to cross the bayou at Smith's Bridge. Smith's Bridge over Bayou Boeuf is 2.2 miles from Lamourie Baptist Church where you turned. You are crossing Bayou Boeuf at Smith's Bridge, probably the exact place where Northup crossed with William Prince Ford and the three slaves.

After crossing the bridge continue straight along the country road. A small branch of Bayou Clear is on your right. Measure .6 from the bridge to Toby Lane. Turn left on this gravel road and continue as it eventually curves to the right.

The route you take necessarily runs parallel to the original trail but is always in sight and less than a mile away. The path leads through the woods to Martin's Springs where Ford and his slaves stopped for a rest at the home of the owner of Sugar Bend Plantation. Martin, like a lot of other planters along the bayou at this section, preferred what was considered the healthier site for his home in the woods while he worked for the richer delta lands on the opposite side of the Boeuf.

Stay on Toby Lane for .8 mile to the point where the lane runs into a road leading in both directions. Turn left. This is a sharp turn: LEFT. After .3 mile, you will see on your right Indian Creek Reservoir Lake. This road leads around the lake, which you will glimpse from time to time, as you travel 2.2 miles from Toby Lane to Martin Springs Road.

Stop #1. (Rapides) Louisiana State University at Alexandria

(pg. 4) THE TRAIL OF NORTHUP THROUGH CENTRAL LOUISIANA begins at LSU-Alexandria. Leave the campus and drive [left blank] miles south down Highway 71. You will arrive at a crossroads with a bridge over Bayou Lamourie, and a railroad track at your right. The locks in the bayou are to your left, and to see them well, you will need to park your car and walk across the highway to see these massive brick locks. bayou Lamourie flows into Bayou Beouf a few miles to the west.

Lamourie, which has the strange name of "La Mourir," was a crossroads antebellum community with the terminal of the Red River Railroad, or the Ralph Smith Railroad, located here in 1837. By 1841, when Northup came to this point, the railroad owners had sold sufficient stock to secure funds for extending the road another six miles into Smith's Landing (later named Lecompte). It had only begun when William Prince Ford brought his slaves "on the cars" to Lamourie and disembarked to walk across the plantations toward his home and the sawmill where he planned to use the new slaves.

Lamourie was probably the site of a primitive boarding house, a general store, and a shingle mill owned by A. Levin which produced shingles for the frontier for miles to the west. The shingles from the Lamourie Mill were sent as far as the Oklahoma territory. The shingle mill may have been the reason that Ford was sending logs from his sawmill to Lamourie. In Northup's account he used expertise gained in the northern rafting to lead an expedition into Lamourie and become something of a hero in the savings this represented to Ford.

The Red River Railroad was the first railroad contructed west of the Mississippi River. The primitive train was destroyed during the Civil War by Union forces  and the rails were used in the Bailey Dam in Red River in 1864.

Northup Trail through Central Louisiana

In the next series of posts I am going to write about my findings of the Northup Trail. This trail begins at the Louisiana State University in Alexandria and leads through Rapides and Avoyelles Parishes. I have in my possession a book which seems to have been a free booklet for visitors to the area, may no longer be in print. I have attempted to contact the University in the past with no luck in obtaining a copy. It's possible that copies may still be sitting in various places throughout the region, but the hope that they are still in production seems highly unlikely. My copy seems very old and I handle it with extreme care.

On the cover of the book, there is a statement: "Prepared by Sue Eakin, Ph.D with assistance in tracing the trail by Harvey Kimble; photographs by Paul Eakin, Sr., and others; illustrations by Isleta Shexnyder; cover art by Charles Saucier, Information Services, Louisiana State University at Alexandria. Funding for this project was provided by the Louisana Committee for the Humanities."

Inside front cover: THE NORTHUP TRAIL

TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE, 1841-1853 by Solomon Northup, edited by Sue Eakin and Joseph Logsdon, was published in 1968 by Louisiana State University Press. The original book, published in 1853, in New York, appeared later in the same year Northup was freed at Avoyelles Parish Courthouse, Marksville. The LSU volume adds the documentation in Central Louisiana - Rapides and Avoyelles Parishes - by Dr. Eakin, and the story of the New York trail of the kidnappers after Northup's release by Dr. Logsdon. It is doubtful any other slave has left a document of such value which has been so thoroughly researched.

THE TRAIL OF SOLOMON NORTHUP THROUGH CENTRAL LOUISIANA represents research of Dr. Eakin's that has taken place over nearly half a century, ever since she was a child living on the Bayou Beouf herself. Bit by bit, place by place, Northup's journey can be traced to afford the feel of reality to life in this country before the Civil War.

William Prince Ford, a Baptist minister of Rapides Parish, went to New Orleans and purchased Northup (called "Platt" as a slave) and returned on the "Rodolph," a steamboat plying the Red River at that period. He brought Platt and two other slaves purchased at New Orleans Slave Market on the Red River Railroad (on the site of the railroad track running in front of LSU Alexandria). The train moved at about three miles an hour, and its terminal was first at Lamourie, a few miles south of the University.

Northup Trail through Central Louisiana

Marked by numbered signs, as indicated

RAPIDES PARISH SITES (Purple background)

1. Begins at Louisiana State University at Alexandria
2. Lamourie - locks in Bayou Lamourie (1857); site of 1837 terminal of Red River Railroad, first railroad laid west of the Mississippi River
3. Smith's Bridge over Bayou Boeuf
4. Martin's Springs in the "Great Pine Woods," home of W.C.C.C. Martin
5. Site of Ford's sawmill on Indian Creek
6. William Prince Ford Home
7. Historic Cheneyville, locale of William Prince Ford; Ford, Mary McCoy, and Ralph Smith, Smith buried here; house remaining of Mary McCoy's slave
8. Bennettville - bend of bayou store of Ezra Bennett, New York school  teacher who migrated to area in 1820's, neighbor to Ford on adjacent plantation.

AVOYELLES PARISH SITES (Black background)

1. Edwin Epps House Museum at Bunkie, La.
2. Bayou Boeuf: Boundary between Rapides and Avoyelles Parishes
3. Home of Mary McCoy as bride in 1854
4. Small Port of Holmesville on Bayou Boeuf; *Old Fogleman Cemetery site where Edwin Epps (1867) and wife, Mary (1867)  buried.
5. Edwin Epps plantation site (home removed)
6. P.L. Shaw House
7. The Burns House; *Hillcrest, rented plantation of Epps, 1843-44
8. Historic Evergreen
9. Lone Pine, home of Alanson Pearce
10. Historic Marksville, parish seat of Avoyelles
11. Avoyelles Parish Courthouse where Solomon Northup was freed

*Unnumbered; discovered in research after Avoyelles Trail begun.

How I'm related to Bayou Boeuf, Louisiana

My great grandmother, Mary Dunwoody Burges Wier, b. 23 Jul 1894; d. Sept 1975, was the daughter of Lovatt Francis Burges, M.D., b. 17 Aug 1863; d. 30 Jul 1896, and Annie Mitchell Grace, b. 19 Dec 1858; d. 20 Mar 1927.

Mary "Dunwoody" Burges Wier
was the daughter of:

Lovatt Francis Burges
and

Annie Mitchell Grace Burges Drake

Lovatt Francis Burges was the son of Austin Willis Burges, b. 16 Jul 1829; d. 26 Jun 1870 and Mary Dunwoody McCoy b. 16 Jun 1834; d. 10 March 1913.

Austin Willis Burges
2nd husband to Mary Dunwoody McCoy

Mary Dunwoody McCoy Rhodes Burges Cooper
Mentioned in Solomon Northup's "Twelve Years a Slave"

Through several years of genealogical research for my family, I have found the most intriguing and mysterious family history to come from this line in my family tree. In the small, rural area of Central Louisiana, in the area of the Bayou Beouf, there contains a wealth of fascinating history. Along Bayou Boeuf stands many plantation homes as well as the Trinity Episcopal Church which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Mary Dunwoody McCoy is buried there in the cemetery located on the grounds of the church and so are many others, I believe who were involved in creating this rich history.

One of those people is Myrtle Sue Lyles Eakin, known as "Sue Eakin" (December 7, 1918–September 17, 2009). She was an American professor, newspaper columnist, and historian from Bunkie in Avoyelles Parish, who researched Louisiana history, particularly the Old South plantation system. Dr. Eakin is best known for documenting and reviving interest in the 1853 slave account, Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup. 

Eakin's collection of voice recordings is housed at the University of Kentucky. The online catalog can be found here: http://www.kentuckyoralhistory.org/collections/sue-eakin-louisiana-oral-history-collection. Eakin assisted in a recording dated 1st November 1970 of my great grandmother, Mary Dunwoody Burges Wier. The recording was about her life on Bayou Boeuf where she mentioned riding in a horse drawn carriage with her grandmother Mary McCoy. I was able to attain a copy of the sound recording from the University of Kentucky, since their library now houses the historical records taken by Eakin of her hometown area in Central Louisiana. Eakin is buried at the Trinity Episcopal Church in Cheneyville.

Annie Grace Drake is known as the ghost writer for the book: William O'Neal (1827-1907); Or, the Man Who Sold His Wife. Mary Dunwoody McCoy is known for being mentioned in the book, Solomon Northup 12 Years A Slave.

I found the following blog entry which contains additional information about the Trinity Episcopal Church in Cheneyville:
http://accordingtorichard.blogspot.com/2010/01/history-150-years-of-service-trinity.html