History of West Monroe, Louisiana
History of West Monroe
West Monroe has a rich history filled with strong, determined, conscientious citizens. Efforts were being made to settle on the west bank of the Ouachita River as early as 1780, but the history of West Monroe begins a bit later. It is centered on two towns, Trenton and Cotton Port, which merged to form our community.
In 1815, a locally operated ferry was established, linking Fort Miro to the west bank and opening the "pine hills" country to entrepreneurs and tradesmen. Cotton became the major crop. The area expanded as merchants, willing to sell goods on credit to the cotton farmers, moved to accommodate their customers.
Dr. John Campbell attempted to establish the first town on the west bank of the Ouachita River in December 1837. The following year he was forced into bankruptcy which halted the development of his plans. Twenty two years later this area would become the town of Cotton Port.
Meanwhile, a Georgia native, William Trent, had purchased a large tract of land to the north of Campbell’s proposed town. The tract of land is the present day location of Claiborne Street. By the 1840's, Trent had built a sizable warehouse and cotton shed named "Trent's Landing". In 1848 Trent, along with two businessmen, sold the property to a New Orleans' merchants company. That company subdivided the land in 1851 and created the town of Trenton, named after William Trent.
Purportedly the town did not levy taxes. The treasury consisted only of funds collected from fines of lawbreakers. The streets were kept in repair by contributions of labor-- four days each year by every male citizen. Now that’s community involvement!
The town of Trenton survived the hardships of the Civil War and continued to prosper with the growth of the cotton industry. By 1870, the town of Trenton had numerous merchants; two hotels; and its own newspaper, the Louisiana Farmer. For “up to the minute” news surely the barbershop was the place to visit.
In 1873 and 1874 the town suffered a one-two punch from major disasters. The growth and prosperity of Trenton was first interrupted in May of 1873 by a fire. The fire began at Moore's drugstore and quickly spread down Claiborne Street, engulfing the wooden store buildings. The losses to the Trenton merchants exceeded $142,000, a large figure for that time period. The people of Trenton quickly rebuilt. Then the Great Flood of 1874 came. It inundated Claiborne Street with three feet of water. The people of Trenton had to travel to businesses by boat! Still the citizens persevered. Trenton continued to prosper, surviving numerous floods and economic downturns in the cotton market. What Trenton could not survive was the pull of the newer, larger towns like Vicksburg and Shreveport. The Texas Railroad, which was located to the south of the town, was also detrimental.
This is about the time an effort was made to establish a town to the south of Trenton, at the terminus of the railroad. The property, which was located on the same site previously owned by Dr. John Campbell, was acquired by a Virginian. Dr. Christopher Dabbs attempted to establish a town called Cotton Port but his plans did not materialize. He sold the property in 1858.
In March 1859, the Louisiana Legislature acknowledged the existence of Cotton Port. With the completion of the railroad bridge in 1882, the town prospered. The following year, the fathers of Cotton Port applied for full town status. Just as most things never go quite as planned, there was a problem. About 10 years earlier, a small town in Avoyelles Parish had registered the name of Cotton Port. In November of 1883, the name was set as West Monroe.
History of Ouchita Parish
The parish bears the same name as the Ouachita River, which flows through southern Arkansas and northeastern Louisiana. In 1541, the first Europeans to set foot on the territory that is now Ouachita parish was the expedition of Spanish explorer and conquistador Hernando de Soto. After crossing over onto the west bank of the Mississippi River near the White River, the expedition descended into Louisiana near the junction of the Ouachita and Tensas Rivers to avoid the muddy western banks of the Mississippi River.
French settlers arrived in Ouachita Parish around 1720. In 1769, Don Alexander O’Reilly took Ouachita Parish for Spain. A census of the parish was taken and the result was 110 people. In 1785, Don Juan Filhiol established the first European outpost in Louisiana, called Fort Miro, which became a city in 1805.
Fort Miro was renamed the Ouachita Post in 1819, sixteen years after the Louisiana Purchase was signed. The Ouachita Post grew so large that it later became the city of Monroe around 1820, which is named for the first powered steamboat to sail the Ouachita River.
On March 31, 1807, the Territory of New Orleans was divided into 19 sub-districts. Ouachita Parish was one of these original 19 but was later broken up into eight other parishes (Morehouse, Caldwell, Union, Franklin, Tensas, Madison, East Carroll, and West Carroll). In 1853, Cottonport was formed in the northern part of Trenton. Finally, in 1882, Trenton was incorporated, only to surrender the town’s charter in 1886.
In 1883, the first railroad bridge across the Ouachita River was built. In 1916, the Monroe natural gas field was discovered. The field stretched over 500 square miles (1,000 km2) and was estimated to have 6,500,000,000,000 cubic feet (180 km3) of natural gas in it. This is what caused the city of Monroe to be known as the natural gas capital of the world for a time. The town of Sterlington was incorporated in August 1961, and in 1974 the town of Richwood was incorporated.