Saving St. Francisville History, One Frame At A Time

By Anne Butler

“If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday,” said Nobel Prize-winning novelist Pearl Buck. West Feliciana Historic Society museum director Helen Williams has had to keep reminding herself of that every time another patron has arrived loaded down with dusty boxes full of fragments of local history---vintage sepia-toned photographs, dog-eared journals, ledgers, diaries, yellowed clippings from ancient newspapers, maps, and assorted other family treasures. A frustrated groan must surely have escaped from Williams at the prospect of preserving all these valued donations in the face of limited space, limited staff, limited funding. And yet she recognized the vital contribution of even the smallest shred of evidence of our yesterdays to our understanding of today. But there was just so much stuff!  Every old house had its trove of treasures, every family its fading ancestral photos. Mississippi’s beloved author Eudora Welty, herself an avid photographer, wrote movingly about the importance of images: “Among all living creatures, only human beings seem to have the knowledge that the moment is passing, and the acute wish to hold that moment.” While past generations took pride in stern portraits glowering from the walls, each with its lesson to teach (“You don’t change the course of history by turning the faces of portraits to the wall,” as Nehru understood), contemporary generations often shift their focus to the future with a desire to “clear out the clutter.” Consequently, a safe repository for all of these precious recorded moments of history is often required beyond the private home. That local repository has been the West Feliciana Historical Society museum, and within its exhibit spaces, its attic and barn, its warren of storerooms, there have been boxes piled upon boxes, papers and photos overflowing from file cabinets, and prized possessions stuffed into every nook and cranny. Williams and the historical society were not about to turn down any donations in this area that is so rich in history and with such a remarkable sense of place, but researchers were only able to access the collections in person, and in many cases there was no record at all to accurately identify exactly who was who and what was what. That’s all about to change, and just in the nick of time. The West Feliciana Historical Society board of directors has approved a proposal (“Copy Cats”) by Norman C. Ferachi and Anne Butler to create a permanent photographic history of West Feliciana’s past and present by collecting, cataloging, organizing and preserving old photographs, and, once that is accomplished, expanding the scope of the project to permit archiving more contemporary images as well. Beginning with the Historical Society’s valuable vintage images and then branching out to include private collections, the photographs will be duplicated and entered into a searchable electronic database, indexed by subject matter. Potential categories include religion, culture, commerce, communities, festivals and fairs, architecture and landscaping, labor and leisure time, people and organizations, schools and sports, transportation and waterways. Funding for equipment was provided by the society board and a suitable scanner has been obtained for the project’s museum office. The project will serve several purposes. Fragile and fading images will be permanently preserved, and it will be possible to view them online without further damaging the originals. It will also be possible for researchers and writers to access the digitally archived collections from a distance, encouraging the use of these historic images in various projects and publications. Every effort will be made to ensure proper identification of places, people and dates, for which the memories of elderly community members will be invaluable resources. An enthusiastic committee of volunteers will spearhead the project, each bringing specialized talents. Norman Ferachi has semi-retired from a publications career that included publishing Baton Rouge Magazine as well as a number of books of vintage Louisiana images. As the author of 20 books and hundreds of articles on Louisiana culture and landscapes, Anne Butler has had a great deal of experience in accessing historic images from archives around the state. Dr. Olivia Pass, retired university English professor, has edited scholarly journals and continues to teach under the auspices of the National Endowment for the Humanities and LSU continuing education programs (OLLI). Helen Williams, as director of the West Feliciana Historical Society museum, deals daily with its growing collections of historical artifacts, and two other volunteers, Arlene Folmar and photographer Kathleen Harris, bring to the project the discipline and detail orientation gained from demanding careers in nursing administration. The historic images in the museum collection span the mid- to late-19th century and most of the 20th. Photographs record in vivid detail Mississippi River floodwaters inundating low-lying Bayou Sara just below the St. Francisville bluffs, and there are other images of residents in quaint period dress, vintage steamboats, historic plantation homes (some long gone, burned to the ground or washed away in floods)---all lessons in history. Once the museum photographs have been preserved, the public will be encouraged to share private collections of old images as well as contemporary ones, which will be scanned into the database so that the owners can retain possession of the originals. This is a vast but important undertaking, and it will not be accomplished overnight. In the meantime, visitors to St. Francisville can view many of the original historic images on display in the West Feliciana Historical Society’s museum/tourist information center on Ferdinand St. Located on US Highway 61 on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge, LA, and Natchez, MS, the St. Francisville area is a year-round tourist destination.  A number of splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours daily: the Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, the Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation; Afton Villa Gardens and Imahara’s Botanical Garden are spectacular. Particularly important to tourism in the area are its two significant state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, which offer fascinating living-history demonstrations most weekends to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs. The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography, hunting. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some nice restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from ethnic cuisine to seafood and classic Louisiana favorites. For overnight stays, the area offers some of the state’s most popular Bed & Breakfasts, including historic plantations, lakeside clubhouses and beautiful townhouses right in the middle of St. Francisville’s extensive National Register-listed historic district, and there are also modern motel accommodations for large bus groups. For visitor information, call St. Francisville Main Street at 225-635-3873 or West Feliciana Tourist Commission at 225-6330 or 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com, www.stfrancisville.net or www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities, including the Farmers Markets on Thursday mornings).

Docking at Bayou Sara and Miss. River Burton Hotel - Bayou Sara Greenwood Plantation - Pilgrimage Vinci's Store on Commerce St. 3V Cafe on Commerce St. Stores on Commerce St. Left to right: “Copy Cats” digital archiving committee members Kathleen Harris, Arlene Folmar, Olivia Pass, Norman Ferachi, Anne Butler, Helen Williams. 1940 Students of Julius Freyhan School Car Ferry near St. Francisville, La.

SOUND OF MUSIC IN THE HILLS AROUND ST. FRANCISVILLE
By Anne Butler

n the 19th century, according to Louisiana author Stanley C. Arthur, “with the coming of summer, planters with their wives and children flocked into the city from the countryside, all looking for culture.” Everyone knows the story of how plantation mistress Lucy Pirrie of Oakley found gifted artist/naturalist John James Audubon down on his luck in New Orleans, engaged him to instruct her artistic fifteen-year-old daughter Eliza in drawing at $2 a lesson in the city, then persuaded him to continue the art lessons for the summer and fall in residence in West Feliciana Parish, where he would find the inspiration to paint dozens of his famous bird studies and also found the courage to continue his quest to paint all of the birds of this fledgling country.             That’s all true, but there’s more to the story than that, for what Mme. Pirrie was seeking for young Eliza was just as Arthur noted: culture, and Audubon was ideally suited to introduce his pupil to more than just drawing. Indeed, as Audubon wrote in a letter to his wife about Eliza, “Yesterday I begged to hear her Sing and play on the Piano. I played with her on a flute and made the mother stare. She was much surprised to hear me sing the notes.” And so, in June 1821, the destitute artist accompanied the Pirries upriver to the Bayou Sara landing aboard the steamboat Columbus, taking along his portfolios, art supplies and guns, violins, flutes and flageolets. He would spend some four months at Oakley, with half the day devoted to studying and recording the birds of the surrounding woodlands, and the other half instructing the beauteous Eliza in drawing, dancing, mathematics, French, complicated multi-strand hair plaiting (the artist called it “some trifling acquirement”), and music. Audubon’s sojourn in the St. Francisville area would last a scant four months, cut short by a bitter disagreement over money. After he left, his beloved Feliciana birdsong would be accompanied throughout the 19th century by mostly indigenous music---soulful gospel songs wafting from little country churches, sturdy field chants of slaves or prisoners, sprightly piano or harp playing in plantation parlors. Lately, there has been mostly just the live music every Friday night drawing folks to the little local casual cafe familiarly called The Mag. Though there are a handful of wonderful resident musicians, some homegrown and some transplants, this is, after all,  English Louisiana, lacking the French joie de vivre that elsewhere erupts so joyfully in song and dance, and so recently the Feliciana hills have not exactly been alive with the sound of music. That’s all about to change, thanks to two festivals coming to St. Francisville the second weekend in November. The LA Vets Fest, an annual event held on Veterans Day weekend at the spacious West Feliciana Parish Sports Park, is sponsored by the Louisiana Veterans Foundation, a non-profit organization whose goals include providing support for veterans or active military personnel and their families whose needs are not being met by community or private resources. Along with fun activities for the whole family, employment assistance is provided for veterans, along with recognition and appreciation for their service. The Louisiana National Guard provides military equipment---tank, helicopter, personnel carrier---plus soldiers to explain the performances of these vital big machines. There will be fund-raising auctions, children’s activities, hotly contested cook-offs (Friday gumbo, Saturday BBQ and jambalaya), classic cars and motorcycles. The LA Vets Fest takes place at the Sports Park on Friday afternoon, Nov. 8, and all day Saturday, Nov. 9; on Sunday a guided bus tour to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans will depart from St. Francisville (tour tickets of $74, aged 65 or older $70, include museum admission and supper at Boutin’s in Baton Rouge on the return trip). Headliner performance is by Tennessee singer-songwriter Craig Morgan on Friday, Nov. 8, at 7 p.m.; tickets, $20 plus handling, can be purchased in advance (www.lavetsfest.org).  Morgan is a country music star, competitive dirt-bike racer and award-winning host of an outdoor adventures television show. Inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, Morgan has had a number of hits, including “Almost Home,” “Redneck Yacht Club,” “This Ole Boy,” “That’s What I Love About Sunday,” and “Wake Up Lovin’ You” from his new CD “The Journey.” He also spent ten years on active duty in the Army’s 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions and nine years in the Reserves, and remains an avid supporter of America’s military. In 2006 he received the USO Merit Award. Other musical performers at the LA Vets Fest include talented young Julia DeJean singing the National Anthem to open the festival both days, the Alaina Richard Band Friday, and on Saturday the Richard Family, West Feliciana High School Band, Angola Prison Band, A. Scott Clement, and blues singer-guitarist Josh Garrett, plus the US Marine Corps Band. Another exciting musical extravaganza scheduled for this same weekend in St. Francisville is the Modern South Music Fest, set for Sunday, November 10, at Hemingbough, just off US 61 south of St. Francisville. Sponsor Anchorline Events, Nashville-based professional festival promoter,  promises a mix of music, food, fashion and culture in a series of tents and stages, with hopes the event will attract some 7,000 attendees from early afternoon to 9:30 p.m. Tickets may be purchased online (www.modernsouthmusicfest.com ); general admission is $39.50, reserved seating $49.50,  and varying levels of sponsorship are available. Featured musicians are the Avett Brothers, Texas country-Red Dirt singer Wade Bowen and Mississippi native Charlie Worsham, a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and Nashville session player whose debut album, “Rubberband,” was released this year by Warner Bros. Records. Formed in 2001 by North Carolina brothers Scott (banjo) and Seth (guitar), the Avett Brothers have released a number of albums, so popular they landed high on the Billboard Top 200 and received outstanding reviews from music critics across the country. Touring tirelessly, they have also performed on TV shows including “Austin City Limits,” “Late Show with David Letterman” and “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.” San Francisco Chronicle critic Dirk Richardson describes the band’s combination of bluegrass, country, punk, pop, folk, rock and roll, honkytonk and ragtime as producing a sound having “the heavy sadness of Townes Van Zandt, the light pop concision of Buddy Holly, the tuneful jangle of the Beatles, and the raw energy of the Ramones.” That’s a lot to live up to! Located on US Highway 61 on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge, LA, and Natchez, MS, the St. Francisville area is a year-round tourist destination.  A number of splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours daily: the Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, the Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation; Afton Villa Gardens and Imahara’s Botanical Garden are spectacular. Particularly important to tourism in the area are its two significant state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, which offer fascinating living-history demonstrations most weekends to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs. The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography, hunting. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some nice restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from ethnic cuisine to seafood and classic Louisiana favorites. For overnight stays, the area offers some of the state’s most popular Bed & Breakfasts, including historic plantations, lakeside clubhouses and beautiful townhouses right in the middle of St. Francisville’s extensive National Register-listed historic district, and there are also modern motel accommodations for large bus groups. For visitor information, call St. Francisville Main Street at 225-635-3873 or West Feliciana Tourist Commission at 225-6330 or 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com, www.stfrancisville.net or www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities, including the Farmers Markets on Thursday mornings).

Craig Morgan Avett Brothers Wade Bowen Charlie Worsham Josh Garrett

ST. FRANCISVILLE HAS ALWAYS CELEBRATED READERS AND WRITERS



BY Anne Butler

Audubon Market Hall

When the West Feliciana Parish Police Jury in mid-July approved a bid of $2.7 million to construct a new parish library on a wonderfully hilly wooded lot, oldtimers considered it a natural progression in an area that has traditionally been devoted to the literary arts. Indeed, St. Francisville, today the refuge for several published authors and retired university literature professors, had one of the state’s earliest public libraries. Historian Elisabeth Dart wrote that the state’s second oldest library was established in St. Francisville by 1812, and the Silver Anniversary Edition of the local newspaper, the True Democrat, commended the town for its public library as early as 1828.



The early plantations, of course, had extensive private libraries of their own, for the planter families were cultured and well travelled, with wide-ranging interests; their home libraries provided the resources for the education of the younger children, who often were taught by live-in tutors until they went away to colleges Up East. The book collection at The Cottage Plantation, donated to LSU in the fifties, numbered in the thousands, as might be expected for the home of an early contributor of scholarly writings to state historical quarterlies. The library at Butler Greenwood Plantation still contains nearly 3,000 vintage volumes, including such rarities as an 1807 Life of George Washington, the 1814 printing of the journals of the Lewis and Clark expedition, Malte-Brun’s 1831 geographies of the world, Gibbon’s History of Rome, and works by Hugo, Dickens, Fielding, Balzac, Robert Louis Stevenson, Hawthorne and others in French, Spanish, German and Latin as well as English. And one of the most poignant scenes in the Civil War novel So Red The Rose, written by Stark Young at Laurel Hill in upper West Feliciana, depicts the elderly Judge Edward McGehee distraught as he helplessly watches his home, Bowling Green, along with its library full of priceless treasures, burned to the ground by marauding soldiers.



Historic brick Audubon Market Hall on Royal Street in St. Francisville, built in 1819 as an open-air produce market, was later closed in and housed the Drama-Library League formed in honor of the artist Audubon, its members staging tableaux among the arched stalls where vendors once parked their produce wagons on market days. The library itself moved often as it grew to meet local needs. After Market Hall, where it remained through the thirties, it shared space on Ferdinand St. in an 1896 hardware store restored in the 1970s by the West Feliciana Historical Society as headquarters and museum. As the library outgrew that space, it moved into the former post office building down the street, a structure also purchased by the historical society in 1997.

WFP Historical Society Museum

Bursting at the seams once again, the library won approval in a bond issue election last year that allowed planning for a new parish library that can live up to its guiding principle: “Preserving our past, preparing for our future.” The library (website http://wfplibrary.org) is full of digital offerings, e-books, interlibrary loan offerings, computers and databases, and special activities geared to all ages and interests. And yes, there is even a card catalog bursting with good old books.



Besides looking forward to the spacious new library, today’s booklovers anticipate with great relish the revival of a special event dubbed A Gathering of Writers and Readers, begun in 2007 by the Friends of the Library and now under the auspices of Arts For All, the non-profit umbrella agency for all arts in West Feliciana. The celebration brings together published authors with readers who might not otherwise have the opportunity to hear writers read from and discuss their work. Scheduled for Saturday, February 22, 2014, at Hemingbough just south of St. Francisville, the all-day event will be moderated by SLU professor and former bookstore owner Charles Elliott, himself a writer, film director and noted character. Four professional authors will be featured, as well as repeat guest Ernest Gaines who will be honored for his extraordinary literary contributions, and featured writers from previous years are invited to “gather” again.



Dr. Wiley Cash, nationally acclaimed award-winning fiction author, had his first novel, A Land More Kind Than Home, selected as a New York Times Notable Book. A North Carolina native, Cash earned his PhD at UL Lafayette and studied under writer-in-residence emeritus Ernest J. Gaines; it was there that he began the book NPR called “great Gothic Southern fiction filled with whiskey, guns and snake-handling.” Rheta Grimsley Johnson is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist and author of nonfiction books including Poor Man’s Provence—Finding Myself in Cajun Louisiana about time spent in Henderson in the Atchafalaya Basin. Dr. Julie Kane, Northwestern State University professor and Louisiana’s past Poet Laureate, has published five volumes of poetry and her poems have appeared in dozens of anthologies and journals.. Anne Butler writes nonfiction books preserving Louisiana history and culture. Both Cash and Kane are experienced university professors, and Johnson has been on the short list for a Pulitzer for journalism; her popular folksy columns appear in The Advocate. These diverse authors have been specifically chosen to give the audience a well-balanced appreciation for the art of literature---poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, nonfiction, all with great appeal to Louisiana readers. They will share their creative processes and works; participants, including several students on scholarships, are encouraged to ask questions and will have an opportunity to interact with the authors. Online information http://artsforall.uniquelyfeliciana.com or committee chair olivapass@bellsouth.net.

Author Walker Percy

A few months later, in May 2014, another exciting literary event is being planned for St. Francisville, this one to honor acclaimed author Walker Percy, many of whose novels have local connections as did he himself; he called Feliciana “a happy land of decent fok and droll folkways and quiet backwaters, the whole suffused by gentle Epsicopal rectitude.” Country Roads magazine cites the “unique combination of existential questioning, Southern sensibility and deep Catholic faith” of Percy’s novels, books that “plumbed the depths of family history and the world around him to explore the dislocation of man in the modern age.”



The foundation established to restore the historic Freyhan School in St. Francisville as a cultural center/museum benefits from this fundraiser the weekend of May 9, 10 and 11. Organizers promise the Walker Percy Weekend will feature not just lectures and panel discussions but also tours of area locations important in Percy’s works, and maybe even some stargazing and bourbon tasting, the latter a tip of the hat (or clink of the glass) to Percy’s memorable essay from Signposts in a Strange Land. Bourbon, Percy said, “does for me what a piece of cake did for Proust,” and he meant the aesthetic of bourbon drinking, “the use of Bourbon to warm the heart, to reduce the anomie of the late twentieth century, to cut the cold phlegm of Wednesday afternoons…”



With a new library rising and several literary celebrations in the works, St. Francisville can indeed claim its place as a genuine cultural tourism destination within a state rightfully celebrated throughout the centuries for all of its arts. And with the summer heat making this the ideal time to curl up in the A/C or shade with a good book, readers now have advance notice and can be well prepared to participate in Q&A sessions with and about these wonderful writers.

Speaker Mark Lester

There are other end-of-summer activities in St. Francisville to be enjoyed as well. The West Feliciana Historical Society joins the Julius Freyhan Foundation to present “Remember Oleszyce: The Story of Eva Galler” on Sunday, August 18th, at 2 p.m. in recently restored Temple Sinai on Prosperity St. in St. Francisville. Featured speaker is Mark Lester, Social Studies teacher at West Feliciana High School and Holocaust Teaching Fellow. A passionate Holocaust researcher who participated in the first Fellowship program of the Southern Institute for Education and Research at Tulane, Lester will present the experiences of Eva Galler, born in eastern Poland in Oleszyce. Three thousand Jews lived there at the time Germany attacked Poland in 1939; twenty survived. The program is free and open to the public; for information, telephone 225-635-6330 or email wfhist@bellsouth.net.



On Saturday, August 24, beginning at 5 p.m., a fun evening extravaganza called Polos & Pearls puts a little after-hours sizzle into summer by enticing the community into historic downtown St. Francisville’s Main Street community for bargain shopping, food, art and lively music, with participants invited to stroll along the bricked sidewalks or hop aboard a trolley to enjoy the little town’s unique boutique shops, art galleries and antiques emporiums, each enhancing the shopping experience with fine food provided by area restaurants and live music. For information, telephone 225-635-3873 or online www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

Musicians at Polo & Pearls

Located on US Highway 61 on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge, LA, and Natchez, MS, the St. Francisville area is a year-round tourist destination. A number of splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours daily: the Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, the Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation; Afton Villa Gardens and Imahara’s Botanical Garden are spectacular. Particularly important to tourism in the area are its two significant state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, which offer fascinating living-history demonstrations most weekends to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs.



The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography, hunting. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some nice restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from ethnic cuisine to seafood and classic Louisiana favorites. For overnight stays, the area offers some of the state’s most popular Bed & Breakfasts, including historic plantations, lakeside clubhouses and beautiful townhouses right in the middle of St. Francisville’s extensive National Register-listed historic district, and there are also modern motel accommodations for large bus groups.



For visitor information, call St. Francisville Main Street at 225-635-3873 or West Feliciana Tourist Commission at 225-6330 or 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com, www.stfrancisville.net or www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities, including the twice-weekly Farmers Markets on Thursdays and Saturdays).