| Annual Report of the New Orleans, Opelousas
& Great Western RR |
| as of January 1, 1863 |
| Land Agent's Report |
| |
| Engineer’s and Land Agent’s Report |
| |
|
A. B. Seger, Esq
|
|
Acting President
|
|
|
|
Sir,
|
|
I respectfully submit the following report of the
departments under my charge.
|
| At the date of the company’s
last annual report, the roadway graduation from Berwick’s Bay to a
point near Vermillionville a distance of about 63 miles -- had been
completed, with the exception of half a mile of very light grading
across Mrs. Mead’s plantation – on Bayou Teche – and one and a
half miles of embankment required across the swamps east of Bayou
Sale. In part, the bridges, culverts, cattle-pits and road-crossings
needed on this portion of the line had been built, and material
procured for continuing their construction. About 11,500 cypress
cross-ties – or sleepers – mostly sawed, had been purchased and
piled on the west bank of Berwick’s Bay in readiness for the
commencement of tracklaying. These ties were a part of a large number
– 100,000 – contracted for and then in course of delivery. The
Bayou Vermillion bridge abutments – of brick masonry – had been
commenced, and an iron bridge for this crossing had been contracted
for. |
| Early in the spring of 1862, a
contract was concluded between the Company and Messrs. Phillips &
Gillman, for the graduation – by steam dredging machinery – of the
unfinished portion of the swamp east of Bayou Sale. About the time the
contractors had completed their preliminary preparations for the
commencement of this work the events of the war prevented further
proceedings, and nothing whatever has since been done. |
| The same cause has, to this
time, prevented the further delivery of cross-ties, -- under the
contract for 100,000 above referred to, -- and the force employed in
procuring them was broken up and dispersed. |
| Nothing further has been done
towards the completion of the remaining small bridges, culverts,
cattle pits and road crossings required between Berwick’s Bay and
Vermillionville, including also the bridge masonry at the Bayou
Vermillionville, for the same reason. |
| Contracts were concluded, in
February last, between the Company and Messrs. A. E. Mouton, and John
McGinty, for the graduation of the road way from the end of the old
work, near Bayou Vermillion, to Opelousas. Work was immediately
commenced by both contractors; one beginning at Vermillion and working
northwards, the other at Opelousas, working south. The former had
about ten miles of moderately light grading through open prairies,
mostly cultivated, the latter about twelve miles of rather heavy work,
mostly through woodland, comprising the high embankments required
across the valleys of the Bayous Carroncro, Bourbeau, Callahan and
Tesson. |
| At the date of my last visit of
inspection of this work, in the later part of May last, both
contractors were progressing rapidly and very satisfactorily; several
miles having been completed by each contractor. Mr. Mouton was working
exclusively with slaves, and McGinty with whites, mostly irish
labourers. At this time I arranged to have the clearing completed
between Grand Coteau and the Tesson by Mr. McGinty, and by negroes
under the management of Mr. Moor, an employee of the Company. |
| The interruption of
communication between the city and country, which soon afterwards
occurred – and which has since continued – incapacitates me from
reporting, a fully as is desirable, upon the present state of this
work, but I am informed that up to a recent date it was still
progressing and well advanced towards completion, under the efficient
superintendence of Thomas Kleinpeter Esq’r, Assistant Engineer. The
clearing was entirely completed some months ago, and I believe that
fully seventeen, of the twenty two miles to be graded, -- and possibly
more – have been finished. Our late President, Wm. G. Hewes Esq’r,
who was in Attakapas from the early part of summer up to the date of
his decease – in August last – gave his personal attention to this
work and urgently insisted upon its being continued uninterruptedly to
completion. This done, our Company will have a very important division
of their road – extending from Berwick’s Bay to Opelousas, eighty
five miles, -- ready for tracklaying; the one and a half miles of
swamp near Bayou Sale excepted. |
| I need not enlarge upon the
very great importance of completing the road to Opelousas, for this is
fully appreciated by you. Regular and rapid communication between the
city and the cotton districts of Attakapas will thus be secured, and
the prompt sale, at good prices, of the seventy five to eighty
thousand acres of fertile and valuable land – especially adapted for
the culture of sugar-cane, cotton or corn – owned by the Company
opposite this portion of their line. |
| The completion of the
graduation to Opelousas will entitle the Company to receive from the
State, for the purchase of rails, $510,000 in state bonds, at the rate
of $6,000 for each mile graded. |
| A company, organized under an
Act of the Legislature of 1861-62, has been formed for the purpose of
constructing a railway from our line at New Iberia – one hundred and
twenty five miles from New Orleans – to the terminus of the railway
from Houston, Texas, at Orange, on the Sabine river. Arrangements had
been concluded for the location and construction of this important
connecting railway at once, but it is not known what progress has been
made. In behalf of our Company and under instructions from our late
President, I made arrangements for the injunction of the two roads at
the site of our New Iberia Station, but the matter was not definitely
settled. The completion of this connecting link of railway would place
New Orleans in communication with a large part of Texas, by means of
the several roads now in operation and radiating from Houston. |
| The line of our road from
Opelousas to the Sabine river – ninety three miles – was staked
out in the summer of 1857. The total distance from Algiers to the
Sabine river terminus is two hundred and fifty eight miles. No better
point could have been selected for a terminus on and crossing of the
Sabine valley than at Thompson’s Bluff, from Burkesville Texas to
the Sabine end of our line. A railway thence b y way of Burkeville,
San Augustine, Nacogdoches, and on to Dallas will, it is hoped at a
not far distant day, connect New Orleans with the great cotton and
wheat regions of eastern and northern Texas. |
| From Pine Prairie – 190 miles
from Algiers – a branch road of twenty miles would connect with the
Alexandria railway, in the rich and fertile valley of the Bayou Boeuf,
sixteen miles distant from Alexandria on Red river; making the
distance from New Orleans to Alexandria 226 miles. |
| Profiles of the line of road
from Opelousas to the Sabine have been prepared – during the [past
year – and estimates made of the earthwork to be done to grade the
roadway between said points. A maximum grade of 31-68 feet per mile
was assumed for this part of the line, there being no necessity for
exceeding this comparatively low limit. |
| A “General Reference Map of
so much of lower Louisiana and eastern Texas, as is necessary to
exhibit the main line of the New Orleans, Opelousas & Great
Western Railway from New Orleans to the Sabine River, or eastern
boundary of Texas, together with its proposed branch to Red River,
extension into northern Texas, connection with southern and western
Texas, and the lands belonging to the railway Company” has been
carefully and accurately made during the past year. It is suggested
that this map, if handsomely engraved, published and circulated, would
be valuable to the Company in their future negotiations, and very
interesting – as well as useful – to all interested in the truly
great work of developing the resources of western and southwestern
Louisiana, and of connecting our city, by railways, with the valley of
Red River and with northern Texas, and ultimately with Mexico and the
Pacific coast. |
| |
| Lands |
| |
| The New Orleans, Opelousas
& Great Western Railroad Company, by and in virtue of an Act of
the United States Congress approved June 3d 1856, and an act of the
Legislature of Louisiana approved March 16th 1857, received
a donation of land, consisting of the alternate odd numbered sections
within six miles of their line of road, and all vacant odd numbered
sections within fifteen miles of their line if found necessary to
supply any deficiency in the grant of six sections per mile within the
six mile limits. As the total length of the line of the road is 258
miles, -258X6=1548 sections of 640 acres each, or -990,720, acres were
called for by the grant. As only about 705,000 acres of vacant land
were found within the entire fifteen mile limits, the grant
practically conveyed to the Company all the vacant odd numbered
sections included within a strip of territory thirty miles wide,
bounded by lines parallel to the railroad line and every where fifteen
miles distant there from. |
| Though this grant was made in
June 1856, it was only in 1861, or five years thereafter, that it
became available to the Company. All this time was consumed in
defining the grant limits; determining what was vacant and selecting
the vacant lands in the District and General Land Officers; preparing
and correcting the land lists for final approval, &c. Several
other railway companies were the recipients of similar donations in
1856, and all could not be attended to at once. The lists for our
Company were, in consequence, postponed to the last. Other companies
received their lists and made extensive sales before our lists were
transmitted to us; but for the great delay in our case we also might
have made large sales and thus have obtained funds for the more rapid
prosecution of the work of construction. This is fully evidenced by
the fact that up to the 25thof May lat one hundred and eighty six
applications had been made to purchase lands from the Company,
amounting in the aggregate, to 50,000 acres. It is true that in
several cases several parties applied to purchase the same land, but
this competition serves to show how active would have been the demand
for the Company’s lands but for the intervention of the war. But two
sales were made; one tract at $15 and the other for $2.50 per acre,
cash. Rapid sales may be anticipated when peace is restored and
business is resumed. |
| The plan adopted by the Company
has been to have each tract of their land carefully examined, and an
accurate description of its characteristic made and filed, together
with a plat or sketch, in a Land Description Book prepared for the
purpose, before fixing the price at which the land will be sold. This
undoubtedly occasions some delay in sales, but, as the Company desire
to realize all they can from their lands, and to invest the proceeds
in the extension of their road, this is not considered objectionable,
particularly as the extension and opening of the road adds constantly
to the value of the lands unsold. The Company will, of course, avail
themselves of the benefits of such increase in value. The early
purchases, at the first price fixed by the committee on lands –
composed of members of the Board of Directors, appointed by
themselves, for the purpose of determining the price at which lands
shall be sold – will have the advantage of this increased value, it
being well known that the completion and operation of a railway
greatly adds to the former values of landed property. |
| Many examinations have already
been made and reported, but these have, necessarily been discontinued
for the present. Prices have been fixed upon nearly all of the tracts
so far reported. |
| Advantage was taken of the
experience of other land grant companies in determining upon the
system to be adopted in conducting this important branch of the
Company’s business, and it is believed that the arrangements made
are such as will prove to be simple and efficient. |
| Books of Registry have been
opened and the lands registered therein according to the lowest legal
subdivisions; two large folio volumes being filled therewith. Books
for Land sales, Descriptions, &c., have also been prepared. |
| The engraving, publication and
distribution, of the General Reference Map of the whole line of road
described in the engineer’s report – showing as it would all the
Company’s lands and their locality – would serve admirably as an
advertisement of these lands. |
| Opposite the first one hundred
and twenty five miles of the line of road, the lands owed by the
Company are situated in the rich and generally heavily timbered valley
of the Mississippi. Thence to Pine Prairie – or the one hundred and
ninetieth mile – we have a large quantity of fertile and valuable
prairie and wood land, well adapted for the culture of cane, cotton,
corn, &c., and for orchards, stock-farms and country residencies.
From Pine Prairie to the Sabine the line of road traverses the heavily
timbered pine ridges and hills and the valleys of clear water creeks,
peculiar to an upland country. Good cotton lands, an abundance of the
best quality of pine timber, sulphur springs and springs of pure
water, limestone quarries, clear trout streams and plenty of game, are
found here. Many settlements have recently been made and cotton
plantations opened, in this section of country, by immigrants from
Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. The land is well adapted for cotton,
the only objection being the difficulty and cost of getting the crops
to a market. The completion of the road, by remedying this difficulty,
will create an active demand for these lands. |
| At the time our land lists were
being prepared in the General Land Office it was ascertained that
lists of high and valuable prairie lands, rightfully the property of
the Company, had been, on fraudulent affidavits, selected by the State
as swamp land and submitted to the secretary of the Interior and Land
Commissioner for approval to the State as such. Timely action on our
part arrested the approval of these lists, and further investigation
resulted in their being finally approved to our Company. The lands
refered to are the most valuable that we have, being, mainly, situated
in the high prairies between New Iberia and Opelousas. Most of the
land so selected by the State as swamp land was immediately sold by
the State Register – improperly and illegally of course – to
parties interested in procuring the affidavits, in anticipation of its
approval to the state by the United States. It is proper to state here
that it is probable that the state officials were unaware of the true
character of the lands referred to, and that the witnesses making the
affidavits acted in ignorance of the true meaning of the swamp land
act. Many, if not all, of the purchasers bought from the state in good
faith. The trouble is mainly – if not entirely – due to and the
result of the operations of land speculators. |
| Many [persons still occupy and
cultivate the Company’s lands, thus illegally sold to them by the
State Register. Efforts have been made to procure the passage of an
act of the Legislature confirming such sales, but it was justly
considered that the matter ought properly to be left to the courts. |
| Legal proceedings will probably
have to be instituted to dispossess the occupants of railroad lands,
for their occupation operates seriously against sales to others. It is
to be hoped that, on the return of peace, such occupants will come
forward and purchase from the Company and thus acquire good titles,
and not compel a resort to legal proceedings. |
| G. W. R. Bayley |
| Chief Engineer and Land Agent |
| New Orleans, La. |
| January 15th, 1863 |
|