White Linen Night

WHITE LINEN NIGHT
IN HISTORIC DOWNTOWN
ST. FRANCISVILLE, LOUISIANA

Taking a cue from the French Quarter’s popular event, the St. Francisville Main Street Merchants Association hosts its own White Linen Night beginning at 6 p.m. on Saturday, August 23. The evening promises to put a little sizzle into summer by pairing popular shops with the area’s finest eateries, local artisans and musicians. Trolley transportation will link the featured locations along Commerce, Ferdinand and Royal Streets, and each retail outlet is offering special red-hot deals to draw customers to the downtown area to shop in the cool of the evening. Stroll along the street, hop on and off the trolley, but by all means make it to as many participating destinations as possible, because intrepid shoppers who make it to every location receive a special reward.

Long the center of commerce for the surrounding rural area, the historic little rivertown lends itself perfectly to such a spectacular event. Nearly all of its finest mercantile outlets are confined to just a few short streets, for St. Francisville was established in the opening years of the 19th century atop a narrow finger-ridge stretching along an elevation toward the Mississippi River below the bluff. There was only so much level space suitable for building, so the downtown area has been spared modern intrusions and is listed as several inclusive Historic Districts on the National Register for its architectural integrity and significance. Today the picturesque downtown area remains alive and vital, still the community center of activity, with upscale shops in historic commercial structures side-by-side with gingerbread-trimmed Victorian homes and churches shaded by century-old live oaks.

White Linen Night is designed to showcase a sampling of just about everything the St. Francisville area has to offer. Colorful shops offer everything from gifts and decorative objects to antiques and specialty clothing. Participating restaurants run the gamut from down-home soul food and ethnic dishes to fancy gourmet cuisine, so shoppers can nibble while they browse. Artists, craftspersons and artisans will show a variety of works ranging from rustic birdhouses and other crafts to copper metalworks and fine-art jewelry as well as paintings, prints and photography. The local library, historical museum and town hall get into the act with special exhibits. And live music will fill featured locations with everything from blues to banjo picking, turning this special evening into one big ol’ block party encompassing the entirety of downtown St. Francisville and everything in it.

Parking is provided at four convenient locations (West Feliciana Parish Police Jury Complex, Courthouse, St. Francisville Town Hall and St. Francisville Post Office) so that shoppers can leave their cars and jump on the trolleys provided by Highlands Bank. The trolleys will run continuously throughout the downtown area, with local high school cheerleaders to provide helpful information and maps showing locations of all participating shops. Information may be obtained online at www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com or by telephoning the St. Francisville Main Street office at 225-635-3873.

Visitors can turn White Linen Night into a fun full weekend visit by staying over at one of the St. Francisville area’s unique Bed & Breakfasts or the modern motel (see www.stfrancisvilleovernight.com). Six restored historic plantations are open daily for tours—Rosedown Plantation and Audubon State Historic Sites, Butler Greenwood Plantation, The Cottage Plantation, Greenwood Plantation and The Myrtles; Catalpa Plantation is open by reservation, and Afton Villa Gardens is open seasonally. The surrounding Tunica Hills region offers a wide array of unsurpassed recreational opportunities, from birding and biking to horseback riding and hiking. For additional information on the St. Francisville area, telephone 225-635-4224, 225-635-3873 or 225-635-6330; online www.stfrancisville.us or www.stfrancisville.net.

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS:

1) MILES BLAIR SALON - 5951 COMMERCE ST.
ARTIST : KRISTEN WRAY

2) HILLCREST - 5943 COMMERCE ST.
REFRESHMENTS BY: CONFECTIONS BY
MICHELLE ARTIST: ZSQUARED!!!

3) AVONDALE ANTIQUES - 5877 COMMERCE ST.
REFRESHMENTS BY: THE OXBOW
MUSIC: LAUGHING LIZARD 6PM-7:30PM

4) TRENDS SALON- 5755 COMMERCE ST.
REFRESHMENTS BY: VARNEDOES
ARTISTS: LISA HORN, MEG BANKSTON,
KELLI DOUGLAS& MARGO SOLIER

5) THE WINE PARLOR & THE INN: 5720 COMMERCE ST.
REFRESHMENTS: THE WINE PARLOR
MUSIC: ADRIAN PERCY & FRIENDS
ARTIST: JILL JANSS

6) ST. FRANCISVILLE TOWN HALL: 11936 FERDINAND ST.
ARTIST: BLUE GOOSE MEDIA

7) NEXT TO MILLERS ON MAIN: 11917 FERDINAND ST.
MUSIC: THE BIG SHAKIN

8) MILLER ON MAIN & THE MASSAGE CLINIC - 11911 FERDINAND ST.
REFRESHMENTS BY: CYPRESS GRILL

9) ST. FRANCIS ARTS & ANTIQUES - 11914 FERDINAND ST.
MUSIC BY: TIM & BONNEY BROWN

10) BETTER BODIES & BRITCHES & STITCHES - 11890 FERDINAND ST.
REFFRESHMENTS: SMOOTHIES
ARTIST KEN STEWART

11) WFP LIBRARY 11865 FERDINAND ST.
REFRESHMENTS BY: SONNY'S PIZZA
ARTIST: LINDA FOX

12) THE SHANTY TOO - 11770 FERDINAND ST.
REFRESHMENTS BY: EIGHT SISTERS
DEMO: OOH LA LA

13) WFP MUSEUM - 11757 FERDINAND ST.
REFRESHMENTS BY QUE PASA
ARTIST: COPPERWOOD STUDIO

14) HARRINGTON GALLERY - 9907 ROYAL ST.
REFRESHMENTS BY: HEIRLOOM CUISINE
MUSIC SWEET OLIVE 6PM-7PM

15) OLD MARKET HALL - 9896 ROYAL ST.
REFRESHMENTS BY: NINE OAKS DESIGN
MUSIC: KEVIN JOHNSON

16) GRANDMOTHERS BUTTONS - 9814 ROYAL ST.
REFRESHMENTS: AUDUBON CAFE
ARTIST: ELIZABETH DENTON
ARTIST: HANK SCHLAU
MUSIC: NANCY POPPOLO

17) BACKWOODS GALLERY - 5701 COMMERCE ST.
REFRESHMENTS BY: MAGNOLIA CAFE
MUSIC: LAUGHING LIZARD 7:30PM-9PM

18) BIRDMAN COFFEE - 5695 COMMERCE ST.
ARTISTS: ARABIE BIRDHOUSES & ARTS FOR ALL

19) SAGE HILL GIFTS - 5622 COMMERCE ST.
REFRESHMENTS BY: HEIRLOOM CUISINE
ARTIST: DONNA KILBOURNE

P.T. Barnum Visits

ST. FRANCISVILLE, LA; DISPENSING A WARMER WELCOME NOW THAN WHEN P.T.BARNUM CAME TO CALL

By Anne Butler

That great American showman Phineas Taylor Barnum had an exuberant career exhibiting freaks and frauds, Fee-Gee Mermaids and Siamese twins, giants and midgets and everything in between, in various museums and theatrical settings until fairly late in his life he founded what would become the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus. His original, outrageous autobiography, The Life of P.T. Barnum written by Himself, was published in 1855 and gives an amusing account of his troupe’s visit to St. Francisville, Louisiana, in 1838.

Barnum’s traveling company performed throughout the South that year, from Nashville where they visited General Andrew Jackson at the Hermitage, on down through Vicksburg where they transferred from land conveyances to a steamboat purchased for $6000, to Natchez and on to St. Francisville. There, a drunk trying to sneak into the tent for free was denied admission and consequently took aim at Barnum with “a slung-shot.” Said Barnum with characteristic colorfulness, “The blow mashed my hat, and grazed the protuberance where phrenologists located the organ of caution.”

The rejected party returned with “a frightful gang of his half-drunken companions, each with a pistol, bludgeon, or other weapon. They seemed determined to assault me forthwith,” Barnum related in his autobiography. The showman begged the mayor and other respectable citizens present in the theatre for protection against the mob, but the mayor “declared his inability to afford it against such odds.” The rabble-rousing ringleader gave Barnum just one hour to load up his exhibits, strike the tent, and head on downriver on his steamboat. “He looked at his watch, I looked at the pistols and bludgeons, and I reckon that a big tent never came down with greater speed,” said Barnum.

Today’s visitors to St. Francisville, now a popular year-round tourist destination, receive a far more cordial welcome, thanks in large part to the hospitable and knowledgeable staff at the parish tourist information centers. On busy US Highway 61 about 15 miles north of St. Francisville, just below the Mississippi line, is the state-run St. Francisville Welcome Center (225-635-6962). Open daily 8:30 to 5, the facility provides helpful information on all areas of the state, with public-access WiFi and Direct TV for up-to-date weather forecasts. Capable supervisor Cathy Metz and her staff of seven dispense brochures, tour guides and maps while giving each traveler a warm and friendly greeting. Mrs. Metz says it’s a pleasure to assist the travelling public and assure that they enjoy their visit to Louisiana and the St. Francisville area.


On St. Francisville’s main thoroughfare, Ferdinand St., the West Feliciana Historical Society, West Feliciana Tourist Commission, and St. Francisville Main Street combine forces to provide helpful information and interesting museum exhibits (225-635-4224). This facility is housed in a vintage hardware store with gingerbread trim, flanked by a tidy little garden offering a welcome respite from the summer sun. Open daily from 9 to 5, Sundays from 9:30 a.m., the historical society’s well-designed museum houses excellent exhibits on the area’s vernacular architecture and history, including the long-gone port city of Bayou Sara below St. Francisville, artist John James Audubon’s stay in the area in the 1820’s, the West Florida Rebellion, and early Jewish contributions. Maps, brochures and plenty of information are dispensed by Museum Curator Helen Williams and her friendly staff, and the gift shop here is full of prints by Audubon and contemporary local bird artist Murrell Butler, photographs, Louisiana books and tasteful souvenirs. Says Mrs. Williams, who is the Jack-of-all-trades here filling many demanding roles, “We have visitors from all over the world, and it’s so interesting to meet and greet people.”

Of course the staff members of both tourist information centers say their jobs are made easier by what the St. Francisville area has to offer, from magnificent restored plantation homes and gardens open for tours to unspoiled wilderness areas in the Tunica Hills for recreation, from special events throughout the year to hospitable residents anxious to share their treasures with the world. There are wonderful little shops and restaurants, even a wine bar, though that would hold little attraction for master showman P.T. Barnum. After the reception he got in St. Francisville in 1838, threatened by local rowdies and run out of town, it was little wonder that Barnum soon became a teetotaler, enthusiastically involved in the temperance movement and lecturing across the country on the evils of strong drink. After returning from a European tour with the midget he called General Tom Thumb, he crisscrossed America promoting Jenny Lind and gave temperance lectures on nights when the Swedish Nightingale was not singing. In the early 1850’s his audience at the new Lyceum Hall on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans included 3000 of “the most respectable portion of the New Orleans public.” As he illustrated “the poisonous and destructive nature of alcohol to the animal economy,” an opponent in the audience yelled out, “How does it affect us, externally or internally?” To which the quick-witted Barnum replied, to thunderous applause, “E-ternally!”

Visitors to St. Francisville today will find fascinating restored 19th-century structures filled with fine shops and restaurants throughout downtown St. Francisville, which boasts an extensive Historic District listed on the National Register. The area has a wonderful assortment of Bed & Breakfasts as well as a modern motel. Six restored historic plantations are open daily for tours—Rosedown Plantation and Audubon State Historic Sites, Butler Greenwood Plantation, The Cottage Plantation, Greenwood Plantation and The Myrtles; Catalpa Plantation is open by reservation, and Afton Villa Gardens is open seasonally. The surrounding Tunica Hills region offers a wide array of unsurpassed recreational opportunities, from birding and biking to horseback riding and hiking. And yes, there’s even a Transitory Theatre. Mr. Barnum would feel right at home.

The True Democrat

St. Francisville’s True Democrat: more than a century covering the news in a historic little Louisiana river town

By Anne Butler

When The True Democrat first “unfurled its flag to the journalistic breeze” on February 3, 1892, in St. Francisville, it proclaimed purity as its emblem and truth and honesty as its lofty motto. It promised to labor for the advancement of the people, politically, socially and financially, to promote agricultural diversity, to encourage manufacturing and to liberally support education. But really, this early newspaper was begun to “make war on a great gambling monopoly,” the controversial Louisiana Lottery.

The True Democrat was not the little rivertown’s first paper. As early as 1811 James Bradford, son of a pioneer Kentucky printer and first official territorial printer in New Orleans, had established the Time Piece in St. Francisville, the first newspaper in the Florida Parishes which had only recently joined the territory of Orleans. This was less than two decades after the first newspaper in Louisiana was begun in New Orleans, prior to which news and official proclamations were spread only by the town crier and the posting of handwritten broadsides.

The True Democrat not only outlasted the lottery problem, but continues in publication today. When it published an ambitious 30-page Silver Anniversary Edition upon the occasion of completing its first 25 years in print, a hefty publication that it advised readers would require a whole two cents of postage to mail, the editor reprinted from the first 1892 issue the serious thought given to the publication’s name. Decrying the fact that many newspapers bear misnomers at their head, “Guardians that betray the public trust, Spectators that see nothing, Bees that make trouble instead of honey, Wasps that forget to sting the foe, and Sentinels that fail to see the spy lurking within the camp,” the editors chose a name assuring readers that the paper would adhere to the time-honored principles of true democracy. And they couldn’t help bragging that in those first 25 years, “despite death, quarantine, fire and flood,” The True Democrat never missed an issue.

Its first edition, like all newspapers of the time, was a four-page six-column sheet covered in just three sizes of type, with advertisements limited to a single column and just a few lines; before the mid-1800s, advertising was by broadsides, handbills and posters for the most part. Three lawyers, three doctors and two dentists “had their cards” in that first issue as advertisement, some of whom were still engaged in practice at the time of the Silver Edition, and the “Personal But Polite” alliterative column of juicy tidbits of local gossip began then and is still going strong today, with many of the same family names still present.

Interspersed throughout the anniversary edition’s articles were enthusiastic exhortations and encouragements: “Quit existing elsewhere; come to West Feliciana and live!” and “The spirit of progress is abroad in West Feliciana,” and “Once a West Felicianian, always a West Felicianian.” There was even a little piece entitled “A Second Heaven,” in which Saint Peter is showing a newcomer around heaven, with streets of gold, singing birds and beautiful flowers; asked about the disconsolate group of men over in a corner tied together, St. Peter explains that those were West Felicianians, who had to be kept tied up or otherwise they’d go right back home.

The editor of the True Democrat, in her 25th-anniversary look backward, proclaimed that it must have been “the rashness of extreme ignorance concerning the cost, risks and demands of publishing a newspaper” that led her to begin publication with her first husband, W.W. Leake, Jr., using “a three-fourths worn-out Washington hand-press and meagerly equipped print shop” and campaigning against the lottery at a time when most other publications in the state supported it. With little start-up capital, the True Democrat was begun with subscriptions raised from anti-lottery readers, subscriptions which ranged from five to ten dollars, “and a few of those, be it whispered, were never paid.” The editor’s husband Mr. Leake supported the paper for the most part with proceeds from his insurance business; in the first year, there was no net profit at all.

When the Louisiana Lottery was defeated, primarily due to a decision by the US Supreme Court denying it use of the mails, the True Democrat vowed it would “never be at a loss for good causes to foster, new ideals to implant, fresh enterprises to support for the good of the people among whom we live.” And when Mr. Leake died in 1901, his widow struggled to continue alone as a hardworking country editor, often in ill health and “with one baby at the breast, another’s tiny hands on my skirts, a son too young to be of material assistance, and the accumulation of debts incurred in extensive farming operations untimely cut off before possibility of reaching results.” The community reached out to support her, paying bills, renewing subscriptions, paying in advance, providing printing work. And when in 1908 a fire wiped out the little print shop, a new beginning was made yet again.

As the widowed Mrs. Leake began to rebuild her business, a new printer was called for. One she hired turned out to be a disreputable drunk, another so nervous he could not touch the standing type without knocking it over. But in 1906 she made the fortunate acquaintance of one Elrie Robinson, Texan who knew the printing business inside and out. The outcome was happy, not only for the True Democrat but for the widow Leake, soon to become Mrs. Elrie Robinson. The True Democrat flourished, and in 1917 the paper referred to West Feliciana, its 246,400 acres containing lands along the river “richer than the Valley of the Nile,” as “the portion of the State of Louisiana which burst upon the delighted vision of the sick and travel-worn Spaniards after their wanderings through the swamps and wilds of the Mississippi and Red Rivers, which in their joy they called ‘Feliciana.’”

The 1917 Silver Anniversary Edition of the True Democrat burst with pride at the accomplishments of the area, with histories of the West Florida Rebellion, Bayou Sara and St. Francisville, the West Feliciana Railroad, the Bank of Commerce and the Meyer Hotel (clean accommodations for boarders and transients described as “homey without being unduly familiar”), the Odd Fellows Lodge and other club groups, the historic churches (some like Grace Episcopal already nearly a century old) , agricultural and educational advancements, prize flower gardens, notable plantations, and Audubon’s associations with the parish. There were tributes to leading citizens, many of whose names continue in the parish to this day, the Bowmans and Barrows, the Butlers and Daniels, Plettingers and Haddens, Leakes and Lawrasons, Kilbournes and Ards, Rettigs and Nolands, Powells and Percys, Haralsons and Folkeses.

While the bulk of early parish residents claimed Anglo antecedents, of the 1917 population of 13,449 there were interesting injections of other influences…Peter Trocchiano, for example, pictured with swirling Salvador Dali-esque mustache, was described as a live-wire Sicilian married to the convent-educated Miss Salvatora Vinci who had many brothers in St. Francisville, and who began as a fruit peddler before branching out to establish a fine shoe store and manage the movie theater “where some of the most celebrated reels are seen.”

The Jewish community was not neglected, with articles describing the contributions of citizens like Daniel Mann, Max Dampf, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Stern, and Julius Freyhan who funded the fine brick school bearing his name. The Temple Sinai was called one of St. Francisville’s “most attractive places of worship,” completed in 1903 to house a congregation described as “charitable to the needy and kindly towards all without regard to creed.” Nearly a full page was devoted to M&E Wolf, as 1917 marked the golden anniversary of what the paper called “West Feliciana’s greatest enterprise,” beginning as a little country store opened in 1867 by Julius Freyhan in the “dark days of reconstruction,” and growing to become principal source of supply for a dozen Louisiana parishes and Mississippi counties, selling up to a million dollars’ worth of goods and handling up to 14,000 bales of cotton in a year. As Freyhan’s business prospered, the newspaper said he played no unimportant part in the rehabilitation of the parish as it recovered from “the ravages of war,” and as Freyhan retired to New Orleans and turned the firm over to his brothers-in-law, Morris and Emanuel Wolf, the firm continued to be “generous in charity,” ever ready to provide financing for individuals and businesses struggling to get back on their feet and contributing generously to civic improvements.



The 1917 edition’s advertisements shed as much light upon the life of the times as do the articles; Chas. Weydert offering a line of hardware and machinery at “live and let-live prices,” Max Dampf General Merchandise with “dry goods, staple and fancy groceries,” J.R. Matthews Real Estate Agency offering good farms and plantations while boasting that “this far south is the only section of the US today where good land can be bought cheap,” Parker Stock Farm described as an old-time cotton plantation now devoted to the livestock industry as breeders of Hereford cattle and Duroc Jersey hogs, the Bank of Commerce which had opened with just 30 depositors and $5,185.06, W.R. Daniel purchaser of sweet and Irish potatoes and all kinds of produce, L&S Stern’s “dry goods, notions and gents’ furnishings,” F.S. Percy of Plettenberg buyers of hogs or sheep or cattle in any quantity, Max Mann advertising wines, liquors and cigars, Abe Stern’s livery with “horses and mules always on hand,” and George Rettig’s “Best Eats.”



Mrs. Mae Leake Robinson’s son James M. would succeed his mother as editor of the newspaper until his death, and as he was also the fire chief, the pages of the paper during his tenure were often filled with hair-raising details of local conflagrations. More than a century after its humble origins, the St. Francisville Democrat is still in publication, still extolling the virtues of the parish and its residents, still being written in the same little structure built right smack in the middle of Johnson Street around 1908 as the first building constructed of brick made by the Bayou Sara Brick Company.



While it is now part of a chain of small-town newspapers and is printed elsewhere utilizing computers, modern printing technology and even color photos and graphics, the paper under the editorship of hard-working Becky Hilliard retains much the same appearance and local appeal so familiar to its loyal readers over the past hundred years. In the face of modern advancements, the editor has managed to keep the hometown feel throughout the pages of The Democrat, with the possible exception of editorials which are mostly generated elsewhere and rarely reflect local interest or sentiment. The Democrat, after all these years, is still being read by members of some of the same families who depended upon the editions of 1892 and 1917 and all the rest, and who still think St. Francisville remains just about the best place there is to live and work and keep up with the news.



Visitors today will find the little brick newspaper office with its collection of antique printing equipment across Royal Street from The Barrow House B&B, and they will also find fascinating little shops and restaurants, many of them located in restored 19th-century structures, throughout downtown St. Francisville, which boasts an extensive Historic District listed on the National Register, and a wonderful assortment of Bed & Breakfasts as well as a modern motel. Six restored historic plantations are open daily for tours—Rosedown Plantation and Audubon State Historic Sites, Butler Greenwood Plantation, The Cottage Plantation, Greenwood Plantation and The Myrtles; Catalpa Plantation is open by reservation, and Afton Villa Gardens is open seasonally. The surrounding Tunica Hills region offers a wide array of unsurpassed recreational opportunities, from birding and biking to horseback riding and hiking.
For additional information on the St. Francisville area, telephone 225-635-4224, 225-635-3873 or 225-635-6330; online www.stfrancisville.us , www.stfrancisville.net
or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com .