Home Care In Cheneyville, LA

SHREVEPORT – Today, U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) met high school seniors participating in the Louisiana Boys State Conference. He talked with them about leadership, participating in the democratic process and getting involved with their communities.

“These young men were selected for Boys State precisely because of their leadership abilities,” said Dr. Cassidy. “They are the future leaders of our state and nation, and for us to move forward, they need to realize their potential. Boys State helps give them the tools and confidence to do that.”

After his prepared remarks, Cassidy took questions from students. During the conference, these students will participate in a simulation where they run cities, parishes and ultimately a state government, passing laws and managing their communities. Students will run for office and learn what it takes to mount a political campaign and ethically run a state.

Cassidy was welcomed by Mrs. Tina Cielatka, Chair of the Boys State Commission for the Louisiana Department of the American Legion.

“The American Legion has sponsored Louisiana Boys State since 1940 with the goal of teaching young men about government, developing them as leaders, and promoting active citizenship in American democracy,” said Ms. Cielatka. “Senator Cassidy joins a long list of notable presenters who students have heard from over the years, and we were so glad to have him join us this year as our keynote speaker. His words on leadership and involvement in government provide great insight for our students as they move from high school into being civically engaged young adults.”

Earlier, Cassidy met with Mr. Derrick Johnson, the Mayor of Cheneyville, and got a tour of the town. They also discussed Cassidy’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), and how small, rural communities can benefit from the law.

“Cheneyville Mayor Derrick Jackson is committed to his town,” said Dr. Cassidy. “The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act provides help with sewage and broadband to which every community can apply. It is Louisiana’s chance to grow.”

Mayor Johnson welcomed Cassidy to Cheneyville and thanked him for his support.

“We appreciate Senator Cassidy for taking time out of his schedule to visit Cheneyville. We toured Cheneyville as I showed him some of the challenges not only Cheneyville has but rural Louisiana,” said Mayor Johnson. “We discussed how to best tackle these issues, especially infrastructure pertaining to water, sewer, and economic development.”

Already, central Louisiana has benefitted from the IIJA. As part of the bill, the I-14 corridor was authorized. It will run from Georgia to Texas, with stops in Leesville and Alexandria. This will bring commuters in need of food and lodging through the heart of the state. Additionally, money for bridges and natural gas distribution systems in Rapides Parish has been announced, as well as for improvements to the Alexandria International Airport.

Cassidy has also helped communities in central Louisiana recover from Hurricane Laura. In September of 2021, Cassidy secured supplemental disaster assistance to aid victims of hurricanes and severe winter storms in Louisiana from 2020 and 2021. Money has been allocated to state and local agencies to aid recovery.

###

[email protected]

Descendants of Solomon Northup and the general public were among those to "follow in Solomon's footsteps" on Thursday for the Louisiana Office of Tourism's unveiling of the Northup Trail and Byway in Avoyelles and Rapides Parishes.

The Avoyelles Tourist Commission and Alexandria Pineville Convention and Visitors Bureau made a day out of the trail's unveiling, inviting people to come out and caravan to a few of the Central Louisiana sites. The locations and buildings on the trail are ones Northup mentions in his autobiography "12 Years a Slave," also released as a movie in 2013.

According to the Avoyelles Commission of Tourism, the trail includes the spot of Solomon Northup's 1841 arrival in Alexandria, near where the Alexandria Museum of Art is located today; Ludger Barbin Landingm, where he left Marksville in 1853; and 20 places he visited in between. As the title of his personal narrative says, Northup was kidnapped and sold into slavery for 12 years, which he spent in Rapides and Avoyelles Parishes.

Thursday started out at the Haas Auditorium in Bunkie with a welcome from officials and introduction of presenters, who acted as tour guides for the day. After a lunch break, everyone met on the front steps of the Bunkie Depot, located in front of the former Bunkie Record newspaper building. A marker now identifies that land as a spot on the trail, because of the late Sue Eakin. She owned and operated the paper for much of her adult life, which she devoted to researching the Northup story.

Carlos Mayeux, chairman of the Avoyelles Commission of Tourism, called the documents she left "an amazing trove of information," which have helped piece together more about Northup's time in Louisiana.

Eakin, who also taught at Louisiana State University of Alexandria, is buried in Cheneyville at the cemetery next to Trinity Episcopal Church, another landmark on the Northup Trail and the third stop on Thursday's outing.

At the Bunkie Depot a representative for Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne who had been scheduled to appear, but was unable to attend, unveiled the new Louisiana Trails and Byways sign for the Northup Trail. Matching markers are now at the other 21 spots to identify their historical significance in the Northup account.

"We want to get people (tourists) off the interstates," Doug Bourgeois, director of Louisiana Byways and Trails Program, said speaking to the program's purpose. One of the reasons is that many smaller towns with spots of historical significance tell the story of the state, Bourgeois said. He called those places the "real Louisiana."

"We (in Louisiana) are full of great stories," Bourgeois said. " ... This is one of those stories so special that it can only be found it Louisiana."

Wilbert Carmouche, director of the Avoyelles Commission of Tourism, said the trail is a "wonderful tool" to boost tourism in the area while also educating people.

"People are very interested in this story because I think this has changed the lives of people ... from slavery to (where) we are today," Carmouche said. "We're hoping that people realize the significance of this trail and the positive effects that this (story) has caused through the years and brought us to what we are today as people all united."

From the Bunkie Depot, the caravan moved on to Live Oak Plantation, also in Bunkie, and the home of Mary McCoy, a prominent figure in Northups' writing. The next stop was Trinity, and the final destination was the restored Epps House now located on the campus of LSUA. There, Jerry Sanson, a professor of history and political science at the school, talked about the house where Northup was a slave at for 10 years. It was originally located on Bayou Bouef.

Sanson also said the new Northup Trail markers are "wonderful" for the state as they designate important historical locations that "we need to have identified."

"It's a story that happened here in Central Louisiana that has worldwide implications," Sanson.

Cynthia and Eileen Jackson, the great-great-great granddaughters of Northup, flew in from California for the unveiling and "to just follow in Solomon's footsteps" once again, Eileen said.

"To me that kind of tribute deserved to have his descendants here," Eileen said.

It was Cynthia's second time to see the trail and Eileen's fifth time, although their first trip to Louisiana was just last year. Both ladies said since the movie was released, the response from people in Louisiana and across the country has been 'overwhelming.'

"I feel just tickled to death to know that people care about Solomon this much," Eileen said.

"It's a little overwhelming knowing he has such notoriety," Cynthia said.

Editor's Note: This is the ninth in a series, in which travel and tourism reporter Leigh Guidry and family are traveling along all 18 Louisiana Byways. The marked routes encourage visitors to explore the back roads and small towns along the way. Follow along and take the back roads with us.

My daughter and I walked around the 1850s building Saturday, trying the door and peeking in the windows to see if it was open before we woke her sleeping sister in the car with Dad.

Avery, 4, stood on the porch of the Epps House, now a museum on the campus of Louisiana State University of Alexandria. Inside were artifacts telling the story of "Solomon Northup’s Gateway to Freedom."

A free black man in New York in the 1840s, Solomun Northup was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Louisiana. He spent 12 years enslaved in Rapides and Avoyelles parishes.

More travels: What's 'the most beautiful place' in Louisiana? | We followed the highways along Bayou Teche

You might have seen his story portrayed in the 2013 film "12 Years A Slave." It was based on a book of the same name written by Northup and a ghost writer.

His narrative had mostly faded out of public knowledge until Sue Eakin, a former history professor at LSU of Alexandria, researched his story with Joseph Logsdon in the 1960s.

The single-story Creole cottage was built in 1852 on Bayou Boeuf near Holmesville in Avoyelles Parish. Northup helped to build the house for Edwin Epps, who owned Northup for 10 years.

Northup told his story to Samuel Bass, the Canadian carpenter he was helping to build the home, and Bass wrote to Northup's friends and family and helped the enslaved man regain his freedom.

Using the 1840 New York anti-kidnapping law, Northup regained his freedom in the Avoyelles Parish Courthouse in Marksville.

It was in the house that Epps was informed that Northup was a kidnapped free man who would return to his family in Glens Falls, New York, according to records.

This was the story I told my daughter, leaving out the dates and a lot of the names. That would only confuse a 4-year-old (and me a bit, too).

But she understood that mean people lied to Solomon Northup and took him away from his family only to be mistreated and forced him to work for 12 years. We will get more into the details when she's older.

More: Fits and fireworks in one trip along Cane River

She was very interested, especially when she learned it was a true story. Northup was real, as opposed to, say, Captain America or Peppa Pig. We have to include these kinds of details at 4.

She was so interested, in fact, that she said, "Tell Daddy the story you just told," as we joined the rest of our family in the car.

So I did. I told Eric, who already knew much of the story, and I appreciated when Avery filled in a little as we went. (Marie, 2, kept sleeping.)

We continued the story as we saw more of the Northup Trail, like the site of Judge Cushman's office and the historic courthouse in downtown Marksville, where we snapped our family road trip selfie. It was fitting to be all smiles here, where Northup had been set free.

The Northup Trail is 83 miles long and goes through many cities — Alexandria, Bunkie, Cheneyville, Mansura, Marksville and more.

It became part of the Louisiana Byway system in 2013 when the Epps House became the "Solomon Northup’s Gateway to Freedom" museum.

In 1976, the Epps House was relocated to Bunkie, where Eakin owned and operated the town newspaper, the Bunkie Record. She worked to have the structure reconstructed after it was moved to LSUA in 1999.

What are your favorite things to do in and around these towns? Tell me at [email protected].

Stay tuned on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest (@thedailyadvertiser) for more road trips along Louisiana Byways! We've got nine more to go.

[email protected], (318) 487-6490

The Louisiana History Museum has taken another step to live up to its motto of "We preserve the past for our future."

The Newcomb Photo Collection "has totally been digitized in unedited form" by the museum to preserve all 675 photographs for posterity, according to Dale Genius, director of the museum located at 503 Washington St. in Alexandria.

People visiting the museum can see the actual photographs in the collection or see the digital version of them. Admission is free.

The Newcomb collection, featuring photos from the 1860s through the 1980s, were donated to the museum by Newcomb camera shop and photo studio on Murray Street in downtown Alexandria after it closed in 2004. Various photographers in the area contributed to the collection.

Only recently has the collection been digitally preserved.

The collection includes "various photographs of buildings that are long gone," such as the old Rapides Parish Jail and the old Rapides Parish Courthouse, Genius said, as well as decades-old images of some buildings that are still standing, including St. Francis Xavier Cathedral before the iconic clock and bell tower were added.

It also has photos of transportation scenes, such as a steamboat laden with cotton on the Red River.

"It's just priceless as far as history is concerned to Central Louisiana," Genius said of the Newcomb collection.

Many of the Newcomb collection photos are included in a two-volume DVD set called "Central Louisiana: 100 Years of Photographs & Illustrations." That set includes photos from the 1850s to the 1960s and is being sold at the museum for $40 as a fundraiser.

Visitors can make an 8-by-10 copy of a photo from the Newcomb collection for $2 each.

The Newcomb collection includes "various photographs of buildings that are long gone," such as the old Rapides Parish Jail, as well as decades-old images of some buildings that are still standing, including St. Francis Xavier Cathedral before the iconic clock and bell tower were added.

Photos show scenes from throughout Central Louisiana, not just the Alexandria-Pineville area. Included are photos of Boyce flooding, the Montgomery Bank, buildings in Pollock and a Cheneyville panoramic circa 1904.

Among Genius' favorite photos from the Newcomb collection are those of Bailey's Dam, the old Rapides Parish Jail, the old Rapides Parish Courthouse and the original Alexandria City Hall, which was built in 1857.

The latter building "housed a fire department, and horses were behind it. In the pictures, you can see the horse shed for the fire department. Upstairs was the jail, and during the Civil War, the original City Hall served as a jail for Confederate and for Union prisoners, because it changed hands," Genius said.

A second, more charming City Hall was built in 1909 and opened in 1910. It was replaced with the current City Hall building in 1964.

"Somewhere in Alexandria is the cornerstone of the second City Hall serving as a coffee table, and I would love to get a picture of it (for the museum), but I don't know who owns it," Genius said.

The Louisiana History Museum shares a building with the Alexandria Genealogical Library. Both are open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, with no admission fee, he said.

Genius is encouraging Cenla residents to visit the museums to see the Newcomb collection and many other exhibits telling the history of Central Louisiana.

"We get more people from out of town than we do in town," Genius said. "We've had people from, literally, all over the world."

Most visitors from outside the area learn about the Louisiana History Museum through its website.

The museum is funded through public donations and fundraisers such as the sale of the DVDs from the "100 Years" collection. Genius is the driving force of the museum, but he is quick to note his wife, Claris, deserves a lot of the credit.

Genius said the museum has stayed away from grants because they can come with strings attached, like trying to dictate what exhibits shouldn't be displayed for political correctness purposes, such as Confederate history.

"We show what really happened. This is absolute history," Genius said.

DVDs on sale

Photos from the Newcomb collection are featured in a two-volume DVD set called "Central Louisiana: 100 Years of Photographs & Illustrations," which is on sale for $40 at the museum as a fundraiser.

For more information, call (318) 487-8556 or visit www.louisianahistorymuseum.org.