What's in a Name? Part 1 | Lost Louisiana (2005)

[Music] hello and welcome to another edition of lost Louisiana your host Charlie Whittle we are calling this program what's in a name throughout the state there are many names of towns and cities that just left us wondering how did they get their names sounds like Zwolle Tickfaw dri prong or LaCount or just some of the towns we are highlighting on the map tonight our research included probing questions and uncovered some fun facts to the towns with those unique names for example is the town I'm in now bunkie Louisiana actually named after a monkey you'll have to stay tuned to find out also did you know one community is actually named after a racehorse and that same town was highlighted in 1989 on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and it became a TV classic so get ready to take a ride through some of the more unique name towns across los Louisiana [Music] let's get things started with bunkie Louisiana and how in the world did this town get its name some people will tell you it was named after a monkey and as you'll find out it's partially true it all started back in the late 1800s with the Hays family that settled this area and the unusual name of the town still sparks interest when strangers hear the name for the first time to the best of our knowledge no other city in the world is named bunkie just this town of roughly 4,000 in southern Avoyelles Parish in fact even the word bunkie was made up by a two-year-old over a century ago and it all revolves around a toy bunkie and a little girl by the name of Mackey Hays lifetime resident Nancy Carruth is a direct descendant of Mackey and knows the tale of the bunkie monkey very well my great-uncle had this little girl it had a toy monkey and she called it her bunkie and so that became her nickname and so when the railroad got the property from there right away they gave the Hays is the the privilege of naming the city so they named it after the little girl bunkie bunkie is located in the heart of some of the best farmland in the south and the hub of bunkie is arguably the 100-year old bailey hotel current owner Tommy McNab saved the structure from the wrecking ball six years ago I hated history in high school but now I really enjoyed digging up historical tidbits about the hotel history like Huey Long once campaigning of a front porch of the hotel my dad used to do an imitation of you alone when when he long was on the steps campaigning and he'd like me to do it well he would he would step up and he'd say my friends and you all my friends I have a vision for Louisiana I look out there and those cotton fields see those horses and luggage he said that's not my vision he says my vision is I look out there and I'll see those John Deere's and I can't do justice to it like my dad could but anytime you're in the middle of a bunch of people just jump up and say that my friends and you all my friends and you've done here alone life from a front porch can be very relaxing and from the rocking chairs of the Bailey Hotel you get the sense that day do not monkey around when it comes to preserving the past just ask the town's mayor you know we have we really do have a bunch of remarkable old buildings still intact you know there is some effort to restore some now and some restoration taking place by an energetic bunch of ladies who started it pushed this community like so many in Louisiana was shaped by the railroads of the late 1800s the bunkie train station is another great example of recent restoration efforts the depot was built in the early 1900s here the days of the Texas and Pacific Railroad come back to life the bunkie train depot Phyllis this is a beautiful place it's a beautiful place in a real asset to our town it was built in 1911 we received a nicety grant about five years ago to restore it back to exactly like it was they came in and used some of the same wood and did it exactly like it was back then yep plenty of artifacts - yes yes we had people Mitch this was the way that the engineer and the people at the station would communicate someone would stand on the end of this by the railroad and hold it out and they'd come through and put his arm through it and take the note off of it my dad was telling me that the drummer's got off the train and I guess that's where the term drumming up business came from because there was traveling salesmen they'd get off here and they'd spend the night here and sell to the to the grocery stores the farmers and what-have-you [Music] notes and drummers would evolve and bunkie by the 1930s and 40s with the sounds of the big bands watch out these were the days when bunkie went funky now you wouldn't know it by looking at present-day bunkie Louisiana but back in the day about 60 years ago or so some of the most prominent Americans made their way through this town folks like George Patton Howard Hughes Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington what do they all have in common well they all made it through this little cool jazz music and dancehall by the name of the blue moon the blue moon was known throughout Central Louisiana as the place for hot jazz as well as a sizzling steak when the United States prepared for World War two thousands of soldiers were in the area for army training a $2.00 ticket got you inside to hear Duke Ellington into the wee hours of the night everybody loved to go to the Blue Moon Sonny Harris's mom and dad opened the Blue Moon in 1936 the one young man was a prisoner of war and when they asked him where he was from he said from bunkie Louisiana and somebody the back said did you ever go to blue movie that was in Germany in World War two over the years Sonny Harris and his wife Sybil put together a priceless scrapbook from the blue moon days and who do we have here well that's Cab Calloway and that's that's a that wasn't made it to blue moon but it was a production picture mm-hmm and Earl Hines he was a top musician a good drummer that played there and I think yellow Fitzgerald was singing in the band when they were there really and she's not in that an advertisement but she was his singer at that time that's incredible you have a Hall of Fame of musicians that went through bunkie that went through the blue moon well it the big bands they were popular [Music] [Applause] I was there when cam Calloway played and they had they had a that was the first big man that played it the blue moon name band and it had a big crowd and my father had a little stage down in the front of the band staying and that's where cab calloway stood and sang he charged my father about $1,200 to a Saturday night and that the big bands that played there had usually been in New Orleans and were going back east or west or wherever they were stayed and so that's the way we would get them the anti-gambling administration of Governor Robert cannon in the 1950s marked the beginning of the blue moons demise it was converted into an antique store in 1958 before burning down in December of 1961 do you miss the - give us the days of the oh yeah yeah we miss a civil and I go out to dinner and we on the way home we past where it was and I would say well sever 60 years ago I was really having a good time history is alive in bunkie either in the hearts and minds of people like Sonny Harris and Nancy Carruth or in the structures of the train depot and the Bailey Hotel having lived here all my life it's it's always been home to me I've never lived anywhere else so one of those nope I really wouldn't like it right here if the name of bunkie originates from a monkey then surely Somali gets its name from its famous tamales maybe maybe not Somali Louisiana is located just east of Toledo been in Sabine Parish and I promise you learning about sue Ali will be almost as big a treat as meeting its town historian James Q Salter is a Wally Louisiana population about eighteen hundred people and one of those residents is James Q Salter he moved here as a fourth grader and never left so Allah has as rich and unique a heritage I believe as in a town in this date it's different over the years James served as a teacher and principal and even wrote a book about his home town called Somali Louisiana our story and he serves as our resident expert and from one of the city landmarks the sawal e train depot there are volumes he can tell us about his quiet little town well quiet most of the time when I wrote this book they had an office for me on the other side of the depot and the train would come back about 30 feet from me then I'd get right back there if you see why it was noisy the Kansas City Southern Railroad has it say from time to time and without it Wally would never have existed so what's in a name and how did the Wally get theirs well somebody think it has some kind of Spanish or Mexican roots because of the famous there's a wily tamales no but we'll talk about tamales in a little bit the name actually goes back over a hundred years and it's Dutch when the Kansas City Southern Railroad made its way through here so wally was born there's a traveling insurance salesman turned railroad magnate by the name of Arthur Edward Stillwell he left his native Rochester New York and went west to build a railroad by September 19 1896 the railroad was built to Zwolle originally the line was to go to Galveston Texas but Stillwell had a dream which proved prophetic he had a premonition that Galveston would be destroyed by a tidal wave he was a very forceful and charismatic individual he win it on his Board of Directors and said we're not going to Houston and Houston we're going to go right straight down through western Louisiana and harvest all that timber the virgin timber lands some of Stilwell's railroad investors were from Holland including a man named John - Queen at least that's what the folks in the area back then called him he'll the name of John Jay Anton de goe ije n we couldn't pronounce it that way so everybody called it - Queen such as de Queen AR consult named after him they fell in love with st. Joseph Catholic Church they love this little place they came back they said we're gonna name it after our hometown Sawadee ha DeQuincy Louisiana was named after a famous Dutch baron de Quincey de river that's a Dutch mean lelandland Texas was established for the people to come over from Holland to grow rice the Dutch influence was very prominent in the building of the Kansas City Southern Railroad Wally had plenty of influences that shape the area even before gaining its name this area served as a buffer zone between Spanish and French settlements back in the 1700s the Native American influence goes even further and is arguably the most noticeable influence the siwalik tamale Mexican tamales ginger and bernie box run the EB tamale company it was found in 1981 but my father while he bmail they and they didn't operation ever since oh it's a fun process first step is we're going to make some dough and by doing that we grande court good lord that's ready to be ground up or the dough bring it over and put it in a mixing bowl just go ahead a little hard first yeah we're talking about the real thing Lord then it's over to the somali tamale making machine oh I don't know it's that's why there's a log truck going down the road called the price process shucks and they are ready to use all we do is soak them in warm water to get them soft we bake between 3,000 and 4,000 dozen and every one of them is hand rolled in the show these folks have been at it for quite a while and they're real good at I I can't really do what they do my my fingers I'm all thumbs as they say cook the tamales in foil in these kettles for an hour or so and you have the final product the original Somali tamales wholesale to distributors so we have a lot of grocery stores in Louisiana Texas Oklahoma [Music] Arkansas and Mississippi some over in Alabama but we also have a lot of retail customers come in they bomb the wall eat tamales come mild or hot similar to the town's history of the past 80 years back in the oil boom days so Wally had a reputation as a rough-and-tumble town back then oil as well as the vast acreage of virgin timber fueled the economic engine and the timber industry remains vital to the area the town of Zwolle known for its tamales inhabited by Native Americans settled by the Spanish and French named by the Dutch and player in the nation's Industrial Age history rolls in this town either by train or by tamale [Music] welcome back to lost Louisiana what's in a name I'm your host Charlie Windham our travels take us next to LaCount Louisiana though it looks like flick hop on the map this Rapides Parish town is named after one of the biggest stars of race horsing during his time before the likes of Secretariat and Seabiscuit there was lecounte the racehorse that put his name on the map a century and a half ago [Music] lecounte Louisiana is a one-horse town and the folks could not be prouder this town is named after a world-class racehorse back in the mid-1800s named lecompt there are no photographs of this chestnut colt but there is a replica of this legendary animal inside the Johnson branch of the Rapides Parish Library historian Evelyn carnal and mayor Rosa Jones takes us on this historical ride well I think everybody knows about the horse in Central Louisiana and maybe other places too and it it was really a thing that young people did in the county and the surrounding area they raced horses mayor Rosa Jones is a retired schoolteacher and the horse came up from time to time with her students the kids asked in history class one day Miss Jones did you know how to count got its name I said yes it got its name from a racehorse well why I said I don't know they're many time there many times named after different things there are towns named after frogs crawl fishes and all of that and they would laugh at me I said but so happened we were blessed to have a resource that came through this little town and it made history the Copts grew up in Central Louisiana owned by Thomas Jefferson wells and sired by Boston generally hailed as America's first great racehorse the cop was part of racing history on April 5th 1853 at the Metairie course in New Orleans the Colt won its first heat race of one mile in one minute forty five and a half seconds back in those days horses could run as many as four heats in one day the daily Picayune declared it the quickest heat ever made by a two-year-old as well as the fastest mile ran in the United States this horse ran in the biggest races of its day some 20 years before the first Kentucky Derby the tops audiences included some of the most prominent social and political figures including at Millard Fillmore the Colts racing prowess was so admired back home that the area known Dennis Smith landing was renamed LeConte Louisiana there is very little evidence of this trailblazing cult by the name of the cop but here's a very small piece of history locals around here tell me this is actually part of the racetrack of the wells family where the cop ran and also other Louisiana thoroughbreds sometimes approximately 150 years ago horses ran here the track is very stable now the drains were on each side and you can see the curve on each end with the straightaway being here and this is where LaCount and other racehorses ran and people from the bar came out here and enjoyed their races but if you hadn't noticed yet the horse's name never included the letter P but the letter well it was accidentally added to the city back in 1882 well so the story goes they authorized a painter to paint the name on the depot and he put a P in it and when the Town Council met says it was already up there they decided to just let it be that way just let it go the letter P can now stand for the counts other famous commodity pie all kinds of pie coconut cream sherry pecan chocolate cream pie Lee's lunchroom serves as the centerpiece of the town's claim as the pie capital of Louisiana the restaurant has been in Toby trailers family for 77 years started by his grandfather Lee Johnson the grandfather was quite a character yes he was he absolutely was people would come into the restaurant all the time and the first thing that they heard when they walk through the door was was his voice and normally when they came through the door he would holler out well you're the right church and I'm the preachers the biggest surprise I mean there's there's a very short list of people from Louisiana that have been up at tonight's show one of those people have to him your grandfather how did that happen well they had a scout that came to New Orleans and the Scout was asking people well who who could we talk to you that would be Louisiana icon somebody that's a big character that would fit for the Tonight Show and the rest is lecounte television history made on Thanksgiving week 1989 you can see it on the computer you can go to our website wisn.com and look in our family photos section and it's on there let's take a look okay [Music] [Applause] we read about this gentleman in a newspaper article that describes him there's kind of a local legend he's been in the restaurant business since 1928 that's the year he opened his first lunch room we thought you might like to meet him he's from lecounte Louisiana would you welcome Lee Johnson I declare which one name wise did you eat gentle with today yes the store goes as I knew it he stayed on longer than any unknown guest for The Tonight Show he stayed on through three commercial breaks come on he did he sure did and he was very proud of being on The Tonight Show Lee held court with the king of late-night for 11 minutes yeah so I brought you that home let's let's talk about your restaurant it's Lee's Lee's lunchroom that's right 1928 first open yeah that's right what do you have on the menu outside the pecan pie menu you don't have no menu no menu no take too long to make up the man would do all but if they don't eat when I put on a plate I don't want a minute nowhere well you're a fine gentleman and it's nice to meet you if I if I get down to Louisiana wake and I drop in the have a bite to eat at your place you gonna stay all night if you are two different good people that work for the people that work for us we we have people that literally raised me in this restaurant I'm 33 years old there's a lady that's been here since 1950 when we came to this location in LaCount we also have a couple of waitresses that have been here for 20 years we have a cashier that's been here since before I was born so we have some longtime employees at the restaurant and that's something that we're very proud of and our customers notice that you're like oh do I like my favorite one oh my god coconut cream if you wanna eat a good delicious pie visit Lee's restaurant on highway 71 and get you a pie so the pies got ahead of the horse as far as what's being famous around this area right the horse is on top and these gums at moto a photo finish say well a photo finish one and two neck-and-neck Thanks exactly exactly yeah bless them we're really blessed by the way the lecount branch library which is behind me bears the name of Lee Johnson's wife it is known as the Georgia Johnson branch library if you want to see Lee Johnson's appearance on The Tonight Show in its entirety you can go to the website at WWE mm and click on the photo gallery well we next traveled to a town even Johnny Carson would be careful about asking too many questions at first it's dry prop this little community on the edge of the Kisatchie National Forest started along a small creek there's one problem with the creek it had a tendency to dry up during the summertime dry prong Louisiana is a small village located just off of highway 167 in the middle of Grant parish but dry prong did not always exist here it actually began about two miles away for that bit of history we head into the forest with longtime resident and former mayor Glenn Maxwell so Glenn this is the original town of dry frog we're standing right in the original you can't get any more dry prone than this because we're standing right on top of what was the actual mill grist mill that was the was the foundation of this community how did dry prawn get its name Treiber got its name post so people came in here oh I guess before the turn of the 20th century and they were looking for a place to actually put a mill and back in those days everybody lived on creeks and and you were the creeks were well this little creek here was a actually a problem off of B Creek and it was called the dry prong because in the summertime it would actually wouldn't get completely dry but it would go down to where it really wasn't usable for people in those days for any kind of industry Glenn says this is part of what used to be called Hannigan's mill and it was deliberately built on this dry prong because a foundation to the mill could be built in the summertime what we're walking over is part of the old mill actually we're walking over the actual foundation of the mill really don't fall off this log I do four in the middle of the meal but right here where my stick is that that is actually an actual timbre of the meal and it's just a solid today as it was the day that was put in don't get off your fall before a fall off good luck with that and now I'll try it my best as well it's a slippery piece of wood here Glen how much of a mill are we talking about actually these mills were not that big you see them in the magazines and the whole history books and whatnot and you see these massive structures but that wasn't the case there were a lot of meals up here on these little creeks every local community pretty much had one of some sort so as far as this physical size it wasn't that big I would imagine the waterwheel was probably 10 foot high something like that just up about 20 feet from the creek the mill maker created a manmade pond to power the waterwheel so what he did he came in as you can see the remnants of the old dam right through here we're basically in the what used to be the pond huh resting in the old pod of course when you look out a car so you can tell from all the cypress trees that this was some type of a very wet area you know water went down during the course today if it got too low or too long afternoon and these mills or multi-purpose mills yes very much so what types of uses they were used for women have a sawmill used for a grist mill a syrup mill that you go in and change the equipment that they needed long before Hannigan's mill this area was inhabited by Native Americans we're just touching the surface on the people here and drive home because the out of an area just this part of The Dropper own community we brought artifacts out of there that dated back to really the beginning of recorded history and I had invaded by the state archaeologists the federal archeologist and dr. Greger at Northwestern State University so when the people came in they came in to where the Indians were already living of course you know the story the Indians they moved him out in 1890 1900 back to Oklahoma so they worked the disappeared overnight ironically so did the residents of dry prong about fifty years later due to World War two this area became an enormous training facility for the army that took up tens of thousands of acres Glenn you grew up in these hills yeah I've been here all my life it always looked like this I have you know nine trees no in the early days there was nothing more sage Brice blackjack oak scrub oaks if this looked like World War one bummed out battlefield in fact you still need to watch your step throughout the pines signs still warn of unexploded shells in some areas Glenn inside the Kisatchie National Forest is what what is this well this is an old bunker left over World War two this was all we're in the middle of all on one of the ranges out here where they were using live ammunition primarily on this particular range it was a lot of small arms and what we have right here is a storage area for a little train that pull targets around a range up here that target stuck up above the range and the man with the soldiers with the the rifles are in war machine guns cocking you wanna hit fire on those targets and it helped them learn how to shoot a moving target and they're still up there reminisce so fall Oh foxholes were the me and would crawl by and live explosions explosives would be going off beside them so that they would get the feel of back in the current village of dry prong there is another remnant of the war the Garlington Memorial gymnasium it was originally built south of Alexandria in Camp Kleber after the war it was taken down board by board and rebuilt in dry prom some fifty miles away and served as the town's high school gym by the time the LNA Railroad made its way through town in 1906 try prongs original site moved to its current location [Music] but whether you talk about dry prong of the present or the past some things don't seem to change there was probably a hundred fifty people hundred twenty-five people living around here but all the social activities is what not everything took place around this mill so thanks to the efforts of people like Glenn Maxwell our time travel guide folks in this area can appreciate the many lives of dry prom not too far away from southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond is Tickfaw GW Nissim was one of the first white settlers there and has left his mark for many generations in fact some of his kin still live the life more resembling their grandfathers time than that of today and in some parts of this community all you see are signs of a very cherished past seesaw Louisiana is located in the southern portion of Tangipahoa Parish the name Tickfaw originated from the Indians meaning rest among the pines at least that's how third-generation Tickfaw area resident sue Hamilton recalls from what we understand the railroad was putting putting in the railroad track down through this area and so every 10 miles they were putting a mouth you know and putting in a station and they named all these stations to Indian names and so Tickfaw it means rest among the pies sue was a good source of local history as is her burly big brother Jim Jenkins back in the late 1800s sue and Jim's grandfather and grandmother helped shaped Tickfaw George Willborn decent moved into the area in 1897 and would later marry Cornelia a few years later this unlikely pair of a six foot six man at a five foot three woman was he to tick laws early days George opened up the general store which would employ up to 28 people during its heyday GW would also become tick Foss first postmaster a position he would for 35 years I have heard a lot of tales about him and I have inherited a lot of his characteristics somebody comes along and says let's go hunting to me I drop whatever I'm doing and I'm on my way he was that way across the street from the general store stood a beautiful two-story structure that would become home base to the decent family for generations now this beautiful Victorian home was built in the early 1900s by three men including tick flaws first postmaster George Nissim now the story goes it took these three men three years to build what would easily become Tickfaw centerpiece home we had lots of fun there we had lots of parties and my mother loved and daddy both loved to have people there were people you know friendly they'd love to have people come in in fact the home still entertains guests back in 1995 the home was restored by Rosalyn and Donald Cimino and Rose Lowenthal after two years of renovations it opened in 1997 as the GW Nissim house bed-and-breakfast the home is listed on the National Register of historical places and the Nissim home will remain a cornerstone to take fall for future generations meanwhile brother Jim feels pretty good at his home just down the road time stands still here with an array of old farm equipment that still works and around here the progress of the 21st century is no match to Jim's sugar mill and blacksmith's shop okay this is a cane mill that we used to squeeze the sugar cane go away got some cane there for about a week week and a half from now we'll be squeezed into making syrup okay run it over into a big pan and then cook it for four or five hours and you also have a blacksmith shop yeah I showed it to me here my hand blacksmith shops right out here that's a cold fire soft cold bituminous coal and blow air into it what this forward of to make it burn fast Jim forges architectural hardware things like door latches and ornamental gating in fact some of his work can be seen at the Cabildo in New Orleans and in this quick Show and Tell he's going to turn this metal rod into an ornamental leaf [Music] this family has left its mark in many other ways the Methodist Church is named after GW Newsome that's fitting since the first services were held under the tree of the GW Newsome house a century ago and with a long line of teachers in the family the elementary school was named after a longtime educator Lucille so under the canopy of the tall restful Pines there is a family that has forged a proud legacy in thick fall it is tough as nails it is also warm and inviting as grandma's feather bed GW Nissim also helped organize Hammond Junior College and that is now Southeastern Louisiana University it's also located just five minutes away from the Nissim house well that does it for this edition of lost Louisiana what's in a name from a bunkie monkey to a Zwolle tamale I hope you've enjoyed the ride then like the racehorse LaCount we have hit the finish line hope to see you again for another edition of lost Louisiana before I go home I'm definitely taking home some pies I'm gonna get a chocolate cream pie that's my favorite V said he likes apple pie coconut cream pie for Kevin kanpai from this peg - no she likes that well show us okay i canna let's let's it let's it Todd Keith cherry pie dab likes blueberry Stevie and Willie one peach Julie and Ty get lemon pie Tom and Jan - Kahn strawberry pie for mom aunt medline Uncle Jack they like apple pie know that Dave and Jenny get sweet potato pie hey everybody here's Charlie

Channel: Louisiana Public Broadcasting

Views: 3,693

Rating: 4.8571429 out of 5

Keywords: bunkie louisiana, dry prong louisiana, tickfaw louisiana, zwolle louisiana, lost louisiana, dry prong, tickfaw, zwolle, lost louisiana towns

Id: RlV6z5SLnnI

Length: 39min 14sec (2354 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 14 2020