Papa's Letters . . .

I have been retyping our Grandfather's letters that he wrote in 1901 prior to his marriage to Marie Camille Seghers.  Camille or Cammie, was his second cousin and he had to get permission from the Archbishop in New Orleans to marry.  He got that dispensation.  For some reason our Grandmother, Cammie, kept those letters and a few others written to her by friends.  My mother read them and typed them up.  There were many typos, etc. through out the process.  I have endeavored to correct those slight oversights.  Now it will be digitally recorded on my computer and I will copy it to CD's.

One must remember in those days there were no electric lights, no railroad through New Roads, Steam boats were the primary long distant transportation for the most part.  There were no telephones and no roads either, no cars at all.  None of those had yet been invented.  So the written word, either in newspapers or by letter were the primary mode of communication.  And families depended on each other and their neighbors, so the community in general were much closer than we are today.

I found expressions used then are just as common today.  There are some things a bit different but not by much.   Life was tougher then.

Cammie lived in the Lettsworth area of what is now probably closer to Innis, LA.  She was not far from the river and thus, catching a steam packet was more normal, like getting a bus.  The boats stopped all up and down the Mississippi River and traveled the tributaries like Ouachita and Black Rivers.  New Orleans was a big city and a center of commerce.  That is where one obtained furniture, hardware, fine clothes and even education.  And the Morrison family had already established itself in New Orleans too.

Our Grandfather lived out on Pointe Coupee, and area known in Pointe Coupee Parish as the "Coast of Pointe Coupee."  It was along the river and North and West of the city of New Roads.  Our ancestor Jacob Haight Morrison bought Brunswick Plantation in 1956.    Walter, our Grandfather, was one of the heirs of Jacob Haight and managed to get his share and his half sister's (Sister Matt) share of Brunswick when Jacob died.  He then added additional lands adjacent to his holdings and today that is know as Angeles Plantation (Morrison Farm Inc.).   The Morrison's lost Brunswick in the great depression while Walter successfully held on to Angeles.  We can say we are the only named landholders along the Coast of Pointe Coupee that were there before the Civil War, all the other names have changed or families have moved on.  Rest assured we will be there for at least another 20 years if not a hundred years.

I have not finished the transcription yet.  When I do, I will copyright it and put it on CDs for the family.  Copyrighting will hold title to the intellectual property that belongs to the family.  In time it will the copy write will expire but it will hold up for a number of years.  These letters are heirlooms and of course I will give a copy to the Pointe Coupee Parish Library.  It is also part of the history of Pointe Coupee.