ANIMALS Remind of St. Francisville’s History

ANIMALS Remind of St. Francisville’s History
By Anne Butler
Since the dawn of history, animals have played vital roles in the development of civilization, as food and furs, as beasts of burden, as comrades and pets. Imagine the early colonists, if you will, enduring months-long ocean voyages in cramped quarters with the fowl and pigs and goats they needed to start a new life in a new world (remind anyone of their last cruise??), or the conquistadors with their warhorses and cattle that became the ancestors of many of our wild mustangs and longhorns. Not only in peacetime did animals contribute; the National World War II Museum in New Orleans currently has an exhibit saluting the four-legged and feathered friends’ significant security roles in campaigns on the Home Front and across the European Theater as well.

A turkey named Gus welcomes visitors to the museum at Audubon State Historic Site.

Today animals continue to contribute in unique ways as visitors are welcomed to the St. Francisville, LA, area, especially on the historic plantations open for daily tours, where costumed human hosts often find themselves upstaged. This is especially so at the Oakley house, center of the Audubon State Historic Site. In a beautifully preserved pastoral setting where artist-naturalist John James Audubon painted many of his Birds of America studies in 1821, it is particularly fitting that the Wal-Mart greeter is a gregarious gobbler named Gus. Discovered as a feathered foundling abandoned at the front gate, Gus is a gorgeous broadbreasted bronze turkey who serves as the unofficial mascot of the historic site, welcoming guests in front of the museum in friendly fashion. Visitors, say site managers, “either love him or freak out,” but Gus is the most photographed icon at Oakley. Other animals on-site include a couple of cows named Daisy and Buttercup, some old-fashioned geese and chickens, a peacock and a few cats, giving guests a feel for the farm animals so important in the 19th century; Prissy the pig has unfortunately passed on.

The St. Francisville area’s other major state historic site is gorgeous 1830s Greek Revival Rosedown Plantation, where the emphasis is on the glorious gardens and the only present-day animals are a dozen or so chickens, while the lovely landscaped grounds of nearby Hemingbough are graced by a flock of peacocks, the most popular being an albino one the owner calls, naturally, Whitey.

Farm Animal at Oakley House

Butler Greenwood Plantation, established in the late 1700s by members of the same family in residence today, also boasts a friendly roving peacock called Humphrey, whose colorful tail feathers are much in demand during molting season. Humphrey, typically vain, likes to admire himself in shiny surfaces---car bumpers, French doors, and even the bubble skylights above some of the B&B cottage Jacuzzis, giving bathers a thrill until they realize the preening peacock atop their roof is looking at his own reflection rather than at them. As the only resident peacock, Humphrey is relatively quiet, but on occasion lets out a screech shrill enough that one New Orleans visitor exclaimed, “Oh my God! Is that a gorilla??”   Butler Greenwood also has ducks, a friendly dog, and an assortment of outside cats including one whose initial homeliness was compensated for with the elegant name of Eudora Rose and another that is half bobcat.

At historic 1790s Cottage Plantation, guests are greeted by a little yellow Labrador retriever named Tara, unfailingly eager to escort visitors on excursions across the extensive grounds and across the creek into the surrounding unspoiled woodlands. While Tara jumps into the pond to gobble the food thrown to the pet mallard, a previous lab had the strange habit of actually fetching the duck itself out of the water and burying it in the ground with only its head sticking out, quacking for dear life! Just up US 61 above The Cottage, Wakefield Plantation, now a private residence, is surrounded by a picturesque herd of registered longhorn cattle whose lean meat is recommended by the cardiologist-owner as far healthier than other fat-laden beef beloved by less health-conscious consumers today.

Longhorns at Wakefield Plantation

Early Louisiana author Lyle Saxon included in his 1929 book Old Louisiana a description of the hallways at Acadia Plantation where 9 pointers and setters slept until summoned to go hunting. Said Saxon, “All day long there would be growls and yelps as their tails were stepped upon, for it was nearly impossible to go from room to room without stepping on some sleeping animal. But the dogs must have been strangely good-natured, for no one was ever bitten.” Sounds like Catalpa Plantation, where instead of herds of cattle, the soft-hearted owner today has a milling herd of dogs, many of them friendly drop-offs or salvaged strays.

Greenwood Plantation tourists and overnight guests enjoy gazing at the horses and the Beefmaster-mix cattle in the adjacent pastures, and there’s a popular green-eyed black cat named Sam. Nearby, the former Angola Plantation now is the Louisiana State Penitentiary, where there are large herds of beef cattle and  horses, some used as mounts for the correctional officers patrolling  farm fields as inmates work the crops and others bred to pull the heavy farm wagons and equipment. Among the most popular features of St. Francisville’s annual Christmas parade are Angola’s immense Percherons pulling Santa’s sleigh, coats gleaming and harness bells jingling. Angola’s canine population works, too, with bloodhounds bred to track escapees and also often used to locate lost or missing persons in nearby rural areas; there’s also one very scary-looking wolf-dog.

Mary Thompson of Catalpa Plantation and one of her several dogs.

Of course at The Myrtles, which bills itself as “America’s most haunted house,” there have been sightings of spirit animals. The longtime tour director recounts stories of a smokey grey cat called Myrt with a disfigured face, who returned after death to haunt the grounds, never showing up in photographs but immediately recognized by return visitors because of the unusual facial characteristics. And then there was the big white dog, remarkably similar to one said to have been owned by a turn-of-the-century resident, spotted by contemporary visitors. Said the tour director, “If the dog had been seen on the grounds, it might have been passed off as one from the neighborhood. But to see it inside in the hallway??? And then it would disappear…”

These resident domestic creatures serve as reminders of the important roles animals played in the early years---the hunting dogs and barn cats and mousers, the sleek coach horses and walking horses carrying plantation owners across their fields, the sturdy stubborn mules pulling plows and farm wagons loaded with cotton or cane, the strong oxen hauling huge trees felled in the forests for building, the dairy and beef cattle providing milk and meat and hides, the practical poultry and more decorative fowl adding beauty to 19th-century landscapes and plumage to decorate ladies’ bonnets, the pigs and goats and sheep and all the other reminders of the days when plantations were self-sufficient entities raising all the necessities of life right on the place.
They serve as perfect introductions to the St. Francisville area, which features a number of splendidly restored plantation homes open for tours daily: The Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, The Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. 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.

Peacok at Hemingbough.

The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography, horseback riding with rental mounts from Cross Creek Stables. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from soul food to Chinese and Mexican cuisine, 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. The month of September features some fun special events in the St. Francisville area, including the popular Vibes in the ‘Ville on Saturday, September 25, filling oak-shaded Parker Park with an afternoon music festival featuring everything from blues to bluegrass, plus a kids’ kazoo parade. That same weekend, the Audubon State Historic Site celebrates the bicentennial of the West Florida Rebellion with military encampments, period crafts, live music, vintage dancing, and lectures by noted scholars. For visitor information, call St. Francisville Main Street at 225-635-3873 or West Feliciana Tourist Commission at 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities, including the lively monthly third Saturday morning Community Market Day in Parker Park) or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com

ST. FRANCISVILLE’S QUIRKY LITTLE BIRDMAN

by Anne Butler
There’s one in every town, that favored gathering spot where townsfolk come together to hear the news, share joys and sorrows, castigate crooked politicians and, particularly for the lonely, enjoy a therapeutic touch of socialization. These gatherings used to take place around potbellied stoves in old general stores, where whiskered whittlers sat on three-legged stools and told tall tales while the womenfolk crossed creaking wood floors to gossip over bolts of calico or barrels of flour. Today in urban areas, these gathering spots seem to be the ubiquitous but far less atmospheric Starbucks or CC’s.

But in the quaint little 19th-century rivertown of St. Francisville, Louisiana, there’s no question that this significant central role is filled by the colorfully quirky Birdman Books and Coffee, right in the middle of historic uptown and entrenched in the hearts of visitors and residents both young and old.

During the dog days of summer, patrons of the Birdman follow the advice of Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Adopt the pace of nature. Her secret is patience.” And indeed this is an unhurried place, a place to ease into the day, a place to give the gift of time and a sympathetic ear to those with burdens or triumphs or special news or knowledge to share. Sit down. Take it easy. Sip your cappuccino or your healing chamomile tea. Savor the experience, savor the repast, savor the conversation. That’s what it’s really all about at Birdman--the conversation, the communion, the coming together of longtime friends and complete strangers. This is the spot to see into the soul of St. Francisville, the heart of the community.

This isn’t a fancy place. It’s cozy, comfortable, welcoming. Owner Lynn Wood is a creative soul, an artist around whom the local creative community coalesces. The walls are hung with original artworks, often her own, and an eclectic collection of books spills from the shelves along with fanciful wooden birdhouses and Lynn’s father’s artfully carved birds. The atmosphere is stimulating. encouraging of intelligent conversation, with tables close enough in proximity so that everyone can join in. Although she is mostly confined behind the counter presiding over the preparations, Lynn Wood calmly watches as the world instead comes to her.

There are regulars like the silver-haired retired banker who consistently holds court at a center table and who once knew everyone worth knowing in state government and high finance, making for interesting chatter as he consumes his customary big breakfast of Birdman’s specialty omelets or sweet potato waffles. Another regular, a retired cattleman and landowner who listens to the BBC on still nights, contributes a wealth of historic detail, for as a child he was unusually attentive to the conversations of surrounding elders now long dead, making him the local expert on off-the-wall genealogy and minutiae.

Twirling on the stools at the counter, by glass display cases filled with scones and baked goods, may be found the town surveyor chatting with a local minister in his favorite porkpie hat, while the elementary school principal sits nearby treating grandchildren to breakfast as a last fling before school starts. Conversations wax and wane as patrons come and go, newcomers joining in as departing customers hand off the responsibility for keeping things going. The town’s most faithful employee, who rain or shine walks a million miles a day keeping the roadsides free of litter, stops in for refreshment, and Lynn often kindly provides a nourishing comp meal to a down-on-his-luck patron in exchange for a quick sweeping of the outside patio where guests are welcome to dine with well-behaved dogs.

From the big fancy financial institution across the street comes the bank VP, who is greeted with kisses by the late longtime ministers’ elderly daughters who get together regularly at Birdman. Tables fill with realtors and lawyers with their laptops jumpstarting busy workdays with a jolt of caffeine and maybe some muffins made with blueberries straight from the local farmers’ market. Power walkers and sweating joggers breeze in for a quick pick-me-up before powering on. Foreign tourists and out-of-state visitors stop in to check the pulse of the town; even strangers can tell at a glance that Birdman is the ideal place to find out what’s happening locally, what’s really happening.

The conversations quiet as the day wears on, with shoppers stopping in for a brief refreshing respite, laden with packages from St. Francisville’s wonderful antiques and gift shops—The Shanty Too, Grandmother’s Buttons, Sage Hill, Hillcrest, Bohemianville Antiques—or art galleries like Backwoods and Harrington’s and the artist’s co-op. Midafternoon the Birdman hosts quiet meetings of movers-and-shakers, perhaps planning tourism events and the many special activities designed to keep St. Francisville one of the state’s top tourist destinations with its historic plantation homes and glorious antebellum gardens open to visitors, plus its unspoiled wilderness recreation areas. After school, kids pop in to chill out with root beer or coke floats and ice cream.

On most Monday evenings Lynn schedules live music with simple suppers, and she’s deeply involved with children’s art projects, community arts market days, and the inclusive Arts For All group. She has a finger in just about every pie, literally, as the sponsor of the much-anticipated Fourth of July Pie Baking Contest, in the spirit of the old-fashioned county fair cook-offs of yesteryear; the most recent event even had an organic category, and proceeds benefit the ongoing restoration of the town’s first public school building.

This warm and welcoming gathering spot provides the perfect introduction to the St. Francisville area, which features a number of splendidly restored plantation homes open for tours daily: The Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, The Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. 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, horseback riding with rental mounts from Cross Creek Stables. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from soul food to Chinese and Mexican cuisine, 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 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities, including the monthly third Saturday morning Community Market Day in Parker Park) or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

JULY HOT AS A FIRECRACKER IN ST. FRANCISVILLE, LA

by Anne Butler An eloquent document formally severing the colonies’ ties with Great Britain, the Declaration of Independence was officially adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. Thomas Jefferson, the architect of much of the document, declared, “May it be to the world…the signal of arousing men to burst the chains…and to assume the blessings and security of self-government…the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion...All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man.”  Thomas Jefferson would die some years later on July 4, a date he hoped would annually “forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.”  Also on the committee charged with drafting the document along with Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin was John Adams, who wrote his wife Abigail that he felt that momentous day in July should be “celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival…commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God…pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfire, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.” Philadelphia first marked the anniversary on July 4, 1777, with bonfires, bells and fireworks, plus the adjourning of Congress, and this custom soon spread to other towns and cities, especially after the War of 1812. By 1870 Congress had established Independence Day as a national holiday, and over the years it has traditionally been observed with patriotic oratory, political speeches, fireworks, parades, symphonic spectaculars, and lots of baseball games and barbecue. But imagine, if you can, the fervor with which the day was celebrated by the early residents of the St. Francisville area, center of cotton plantation country settled by Anglos who began descending from the East Coast shortly after the Revolutionary War, a desperate conflict many of them either witnessed or participated in. The early owner of The Cottage Plantation, for example, was the son and nephew of five brothers who served with honor on George Washington’s staff. The son-in-law of the builder of Butler Greenwood Plantation was the son of a valiant young soldier who survived being bayoneted nine times by the British during the revolution, nearly froze during the harsh winter at Valley Forge, and lived to become governor of Georgia. And as for “taxation without representation,” that battlecry of the 13 colonies objecting to King George III’s taxes, it was still resonating with the builder of The Myrtles Plantation when he led the so-called Whiskey Rebellion against new president George Washington’s excise taxes on spirits, the first test of the new nation’s federal powers, and had to escape from Pennsylvania to Spanish territory.  For a number of years the St. Francisville area has celebrated the Fourth of July with fireworks and free hot dogs and cold drinks provided by the Town of St. Francisville and its active Main Street Program (www.stfrancisville.us or www.stfrancisville.net) at the ball fields behind Sonic. In addition to this family-oriented event, gorgeous Greek Revival Greenwood Plantation, off LA 66 north of St. Francisville, hosts its first old-fashioned Fourth of July celebration with free open house from 1 to 4, plus food, games, rides and other activities (www.greenwoodplantation.com) . The Myrtles, on the outskirts of St. Francisville, salutes the members of our armed services on the Fourth (225-245-1525) with Freedom Appreciation Day on the grounds, with children’s activities, free hot dogs, soft drinks, chips, and great live music from local favorites Emily Branton, Nancy Ropollo and the Angola Prison Band. Participants are requested to wear red, white or blue, and to bring lawn chairs or blankets and photos of servicemen for a Tribute Table. Another favorite event in the St. Francisville area in July is the annual Feliciana Hummingbird Celebration, held Friday and Saturday, the 30 and 31st. Birding celebrations are particularly appropriate in this area that harbors such a huge population of both resident and migratory birdlife, just as it has since the 1820s when artist-naturalist John James Audubon was so spellbound by the abundant flora and fauna that he painted some 80 of his Birds of America around St. Francisville. The event, sponsored by the Feliciana Nature Society, highlights the unique hummingbird breeding habitat that entices ruby-throats to linger awhile in the months between late March and early September as they migrate from South and Central America up to Canada. Friday evening’s entertainment begins with a 6 p.m. wine and cheese reception in the 27-acre spectacular gardens of Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site. The evening’s featured speaker is Andre Brock, whose degrees are from LSU in Animal, Dairy and Poultry Science (BS) and in Horticulture (MS). Now serving the St. Francisville area as 4-H Agent and Assistant County Agent, he will present a program on gardening to attract hummingbirds. On Saturday, July 31, from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., the festival continues at two private gardens, where vendors will offer hummingbird-attractive plants and where hummingbird biologists Linda Beall and Nancy Newfield will capture and band birds, giving visitors the rare opportunity to observe the tiny creatures up close as they are being weighed and measured. The banding sites are the homes of Carlisle Rogillio on Tunica Trace and artist Murrell Butler on Oak Hill Road, both of which usually attract dozens of hummingbirds. A small fee is charged for both events. For more information, visit www.audubonbirdfest.com or call 800-488-6502. The St. Francisville area features a number of splendidly restored plantation homes open for tours daily: The Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, The Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. 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, horseback riding with rental mounts from Cross Creek Stables. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from soul food to Chinese and Mexican cuisine, 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 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities, including the monthly third Saturday morning Community Market Day in Parker Park) or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.