Ouachita Parish History Tidbits

Author: Lora Diane Peppers

  • Cholera comes to Monroe

    The state of Louisiana was hit with a horrible cholera epidemic in 1849-50.  Whole towns were depopulated.  Monroe was not left unaffected though, as this New Orleans article relates. The…

  • Charles Ernest Wooten

    Back in 1893, the World’s Fair Edition of the Monroe Evening news, highlighted several businesses and businessmen of Monroe and West Monroe.  Among the businessmen profiled, was C.E. Wooten, a…

  • Ouachita Parish Sheriffs

    Ten years ago, reporter Ken Booth wrote the definitive work on the biographies of all known Ouachita parish Sheriffs called “The Sheriffs of Ouachita”.  It is now out of print,…

  • Buffalo…along the Ouachita River?

    This article fascinated me and makes me sad at the same time.  The wild bull they are talking about is the buffalo, which would be almost extinct before the century…

  • A Matter of Honor

    The Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock, AR) June 7, 1825 Page 4 Slander. – We have been informed that on the 19th April, came on for trial in the District Court…

  • George Byron Hamlet: Monroe’s first African-American mayor

    A few weeks ago, I was just playing around on the internet, seeing what was out there by searching prominent names in Monroe’s history, and seeing what came up.  I…

  • Abraham Morhouse resigns from the Orleans Legislature.

    This is the earliest reference to Ouachita Parish in national papers that I have found.  Abraham Morhouse, of course,  bought land from the Baron de Bastrop and settled in what would…

  • Monroe: The Parlor City

    Did you know that Monroe once had the nickname of “The Parlor City”?  A long time ago, someone asked me how we got that nickname, and I remembered that I…

  • The Earliest Hotel in Monroe.

    Mississippi Free Trader (Natchez, MS) August 26, 1836, Page 3 MONROE HOTEL. The subscriber offers this house to the patronage of the public.  It is well located, being directly opposite…

  • And now for something completely different.

    Over the years, I have found several obituaries that made me chuckle.  Yes, really.  These are a handful that came from Monroe papers. The old harlot… The Ouachita Telegraph October 18,…