An overview of the origins and growth of Slidell was published in the St. Tammany Farmer newspaper in November of 1907. Here is a copy of that article. Click on the image below to see a larger and more readable version.
Here is the text from the article above:
TOWN OF SLIDELL
Some Interesting History or the Past and Present
Indications of a Bright Future and Continued Prosperity. Published November 1907
Slidell.(C. M. Liddle, in Sunday•Picayune.)
In the year 1882, twenty-five years ago, the writer first heard of the discovery of the place now know as Slidell. F. Salmen was engaged in the manufacture of brick at Handshoro, Miss., on a small scale, and wishing to enlarge the business and get in touch with a better market, located here. He had faith.
In the year 1883 the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad was completed and the town soon after named. It was so called in honor of John M. Slidell, who was connected with the Erlanger Syndicate, au English company which financed the road.
Mr. Slidell was in they year 1861 appointed by the Confederate States a commissioner to France. He passed .the blockade at Charleston and on the 8th day of November (forty-six years ago) sailed from Havana on the English steamer Trent. The vessel was captured by a United States gunboat and Slidell claimed as a prisoner of war.
The British government demanded his release, which was ordered by President Lincoln on Christmas day of the name year.
After the town grew into importance it was incorporated. The several mayors have been as follows and in the order named: S. H. Decker, Joseph Cherry, Elijah Linton, U. F. McMahon, W. 0. Wilder, 0. L. Ditmar (two terms) and F. A. Bourgeois(two terms). F. Salmen was also elected Mayor, but did not accept the position.
The growth of the town has been sure and substantial. Real estate values have increased rapidly. The entire square upon which is now the bank building, the Presbyterian church and the schoolhouse was offered seven years ago for $3,000, and at that figure the owner could not secure a buyer.
Slidell is twenty-eight miles north of New Orleans, fifty minutes rides on the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad, and is at the junction of the New Orleans Great Northern Railroad. It four miles north of Lake Pontchartrain and is also on Bayou Vincent, connected with the lake and Gulf of Mexico. Water communication is thus given to the world.
The town has a population at present of more than 2000. It is in St. Tammany pariah in the Ozone district, pronounced by the United States Government to be one of the health sections of the world. There has never been an epidemic and there has never been a quarantine against yellow fever
or other sickness.
The atmosphere is unequaled in the "Sunny South;" and with the lake breezes, pure water and proximity to the largest city in the South, this is the logical place for a summer or winter resort. The assessed valuation has almost doubled within the past few years:
1903- $186,170
1904- $ 212.694
1905- $236.688
1906- $339,352
1907- $354,953
The next year will show a total of more than half a million dollars.
At the present we have: Banks, hotels, schools, boating, hunting, fishing. farming, churches, newspaper, telephone, shipyards, lumber mills, brick-plants, creosote works, artesian water, electric lights, a $50,000 ice factory, a $25,000 school building, a $5,000 new town hall, $20,000 wholesale grocery. A $5,000 steel bridge will be erected in the near future; in fact, work has begun upon all.
A town can be well judged by its post office. The gross receipts show for the past few years a gradual increase in business activity :
1905. 1906. 1907.
First quarter $549.38 $683.73 $865.83
Second quarter 553.48 653.00 864.00
Third quarter 706.47 663,97 888.13
Fourth quarter 737.07 775.24
The above shows that $300 a month is paid by the citizens for postage. The Bank of Slidell has a capital stock of $10,000 and deposits of nearly $100,000. For the first nine months of the present year s grand total of all deposits was, $1,155,480.56; paid out, $1,132,354.01.
Hotels
Two well kept hotels furnish accommodation to the local and traveling public. Boating is one of the pleasures. there being a number of motor-boats. There are also a number of vessels used for extensive commerce, for import and export shipments of bricks and lumber.
Religious denominations are Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, Catholic and Episcopal.
Fraternal societies: Knights of Pythias, Woodmen of the World, Masons, I. 0. R. M. and others.
Farming is not on a very extensive scale, but sugar cane, rice, potatoes and vegetables are profitable. A. Provost, who has been a resident of the parish some fifty years, gives as a result of his experience, 200 bushels of sweet potatoes to the acre.
Dairying is an undeveloped but profitable industry. L. Usanaz has a herd of nearly forty cows. He can produce milk at a cost of 10 cents a gallon. Food is high in price now, but cheaper in summer season.
The New Orleans papers of Sunday mentioned the organization of the St. Tammany Dairy Company, capital $100,000, which is to be located near Slidell.
The manufacturing interests, while not varied, shows an immense volume of business. The Southern Creosoting Company handled the past year 20,000,000 feet of lumber and disbursed for labor $77,873.
The Salmen Brick and Lumber Co. in the past twelve months manufactured 27,834,294 bricks, 17,152,120 feet of lumber, 11,904,000 cypress shingles, 1,950,000 laths, and pine piling, if in one piece, sufficient to reach from New Orleans to Ellisville--132 miles,-and disbursed for labor $286,900.61.
The Southern Express Company's total yearly receipts were $25,000, and is double the business of three years years ago. The Cumberland Telephone Company's business Is $5,000 a year, and
growing rapidly. The New Orleans Great Northern Railroad's business in and out of Slidell for the year has been :
Freight forwarded, $11 920.67;
Freight received, $26,506 67;
Tickets sold, $9,873.85;
Grand total, $48.301.19.
In the above there is no passenger business south, all going north.
The New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad handled during the same period outward shipments 121,363 tons of freight and received 63,48.5 tons. Passengers out of Slidell 27,834.
The above shows that nearly 40,600 people travel out of the town in one year. It further shows that the 64,525 freight cars would make a solid train 450 miles long.
The future shows, with a better assessment, a lower rate of taxation will follow.
Then, with taxes no higher than now a fund can easily be secured to give drainage to the town. Drainage means health and wealth. With better school facilities, population will increase, and a good class of citizens will result in making the town more widely known.
The field for suitable manufacturing industries is inviting, as such is to be free from taxation until the year 1911.
With the completion of the New Orleans Great Northern Railroad and the opening of a new country to Jackson, Miss., Slidell, by virtue of location and advantages, will undoubtedly come into prominence and greater prosperity. To the attainment of the foregoing and resultful consequence, tie Slidell Progressive union will contribute.
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