Life On A Farm- Mid-1800's

 Published in 1922, this article in the St. Tammany Farmer newspaper detailed life on a farm in the 1800's with a trip into Covington every three months for supplies. 

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Here is the text from the above article. 

LIFE ON A FARM IN THE DAY OF MY GRANDMOTHER

Ox Teams In Olden Days Only Mode of Locomotion

By Winnie D. Reid St. Tammany Farmer Newspaper March 11, 1922

It is a trite but true saying that we do not fully realize the value of our dearest possessions until we have lost them. Certainly I never realized, until the clear voice was hushed forever and the stories and recollections recounted by her were only a memory, the wealth of experience and human sympathy expressed in the tales which my great grandmother used to tell as we sat around the hearth on cold winter  nights.

Born in 1830, she was ninety years of :age when she died. The experience of her long life had their beginning in the country neighborhood surrounding the town in Mississippi now known as Tylertown. In the busy life that she led, there were few interests which would be considered worth while by a girl of day. 

The girls of the family not only managed the affairs of the household, doing the cleaning, cooking, and sewing, but worked in the fields, helping to cultivate the crops which supplied food and clothing for the family.

Much of the time of the girls and women was spent in making cloth. After the cotton had been harvested, the fibers were separated from the seeds by hand. This was a laborious process, requiring many hours of painstaking labor. When the cotton fiber was free from seeds, it was prepared for spinning by a process called "carding," which consisted of placing the • cotton between two boards covered with bristling wires and pulling the boards or "cards" across each other by handles. 

The fibers were then spun into thread on the familiar old-fashioned spinning wheels and woven on' band looms into strong, coarse fabrics from which of the clothing of the

family was made. Grandmother said that she never had a dress which was made from machine-made cloth until she was grown.

Another interesting occupation of the women folk was soap making. In some country districts, soap is still made at home by using lye and fat, but lye being unknown in grandmother's day, a solution made from the ashes of oak wood was used. This solution was cooked with fat and allowed to harden into soap, except in time of such a scarcity of fat that none was to be had for soap-making. In that event, the clothes were boiled in the ash solution to remove the dirt. By. this process, my grandmother said, they were made as clean as they are-in the modern laundry.

Since the railroad was in my grandmother's day a thing unheard of, the securing of provisions would have been a great problem except for the fact that most of the provisions were produced on the farms. Flour, coffee, and sugar were practically the only products bought, and these were considered as luxuries. 

Among the very first things that grandmother could remember was the two weeks' journey to Covington, La., for provisions. The supplies, which had been: brought on barges to Covington were carried on ox wagons to the homes in the surrounding country. The oxen, usually from two to four yokes, or pairs, of them, would travel at their leisurely pace until night fell, when a camp would be made by the roadside. Enough supplies would be purchased at one time to suffice for three months, and during all that time the family, to whom the trips to Covington furnished almost the sole contact with the outside world, would be practically isolated.

The Civil War was one of the mile-stones in grandmother's life, and many of her most thrilling stories were of those stirring times. After the death of her husband, who was killed in battle, she cared for her children, provided their food and clothing, and often rode many miles alone on horseback transacting business affairs which she alone was left to manage.

Hers was a wide ,and varied experience, and her life and character such as her descendants would do well to emulate. Indeed, I hope that if I ever come to a time when I shall tell stories of my life to my great grandchildren, my own experiences, which at present lie mostly in the future, will have given me one-half the strength of -character, the understanding of life and the nobility of spirit that made of my great grandmother the • beloved woman of my childhood's memories.

End of article

Garbage Dumps Were Big Problem

 Back in the mid-1970's, attention began to be focused on the problem of garbage disposal throughout the parish. Up until then, it was common behavior for residents (or someone paid by the residents) to pick up the garbage, take it to an end-of-the-road garbage dump, and deposit it there to be forgotten about. Over time several of those neighborhood garbage dumps became official parish "landfill garbage dumps," and the parish did what it could with the sparse equipment it had to keep them pushed down, levelled out and somewhat covered with dirt. 

They then were called sanitary landfills. Some of the landfill dumps were reaching full capacity. 

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It was an ongoing task to use parish road equipment on dump maintenance and that helped somewhat, but it often created more problems than it solved. Some of those problems included vandals and garbage pickers, people who climbed through the garbage to see if they could find anything of value. 

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The City of Covington had a large city dump north of the city off of La. 25, and each Ward had its own garbage dump, more often than not in a low-lying area that needed to be "filled."

New federal environmental guidelines came along, particularly for low-lying wetlands, and government attention became laser-focused on doing something. It took a while to figure out what that "something" was.

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I remember going as a newspaper reporter to several police jury meetings, public hearings, and presentations by environmentalists and their lawyers about what shoudl be done, what had to be done, and possible ways to do it. Eventually, some research was done on what other parishes/counties were doing with their garbage, and St. Tammany had a number of interesting discussions about which one was the best. 

One of the more interesting proposals was presented by an out-of-state garbage disposal company that would put a bunch of dumpsters at key locations throughout the parish, then residents would bring their own garbage to the dumpsters and put them in. The company would make the rounds once or twice a week to empty the dumpsters. It sounded like a great plan and the police jury was definitely interested and leaning towards that solution. 

The company, during its presentation to the police jury, mentioned several counties and cities where it had provided the service and said they were all very happy with the operation.

Being the skeptic I was at the time, I left the police jury meeting, went back to the office, and began making several long distance calls to the actual county that had been mentioned during the meeting. I may have contacted the wrong individuals, I explained to them who I was and why I was checking on the performance of that particular company in their particular county. It was a simple question: we are thinking about hiring this company, and are they doing a good job?

Two hours later, I wrote my story. The counties that the company had bragged about were not always that satisfied with the way things actually turned out. Several of the people I talked to were not happy at all. So it pays to check up on promises and performances, especially when tons of garbage are involved. 

News Clippings from the 1970's

Thomas Wharton Collins Overview

 Local history researcher Jack Terry gave a presentation at the Covington Branch of the St. Tammany Parish Library Saturday, talking about his efforts to uncover more of the history of Thomas Wharton Collins, the father of John Wharton Collins, the founder of Covington. 

Terry outlined his many avenues of research, delving into genealogical records from Pennsylvania and Canada, tracking down the various members of the Collins family, and clearing up some possible historical inaccuracies. 

He detailed the charges against Thomas Wharton Collins during the American Revolution, (which accused him of being a British sympathizer) but showed how he was later cleared of those charges. 

Some of the statements in a Covington history put together years ago by local attorney the late Adrian Schwarz were called into question. Terry asserted that some of the history cited about Thomas Wharton Collins' family may have been merged with popular accounts published in magazines and in family stories down through the years. 

Some of those in attendance

Troop L Special Task Force - 1977

 In 1977, Troop L State Police announced a new effort to crack down on fatal traffic accidents. 

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Happy Fourth of July

 If you find fireworks too noisy, enjoy some of these flowerworks. 

Boom!

Bloom!

Sparkle blossoms

Police Jury Photo 1968

 In 1968 the St. Tammany Parish Police Jury posed for a group photograph on the front steps of the courthouse in Covington. Click on the image to make it larger. 

St. Paul's Wolves 1970

 In 1970, this was the football team at St. Paul's High School in Covington. 

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Community Historical Highlights

A presentation of the historical highlights of several St. Tammany communities was given at a Covington Chamber of Commerce Auxiliary meeting back in September of 1968. Here is the newspaper article sharing the interesting insights shared by members of the each town's pioneer families. 

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