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History of Lake Charles, Louisiana:
While Several Indian Tribes Are Known To Have Lived In The Area Of Modern Lake Charles, The First European People, Of French, Spanish, English, And Dutch Descent, Arrived In The 1760s. At The Time, The Area Was Covered With Dense Pine And Baldcypress Forests. Oral Tradition Holds That Jean Lafitte Frequented Contraband Bayou And The Lake Before And After The War Of 1812.
Mr. And Mrs. LeBleu Of Bordeaux, France Were The First Recorded Europeans To Settle The Area Around 1781. The Area They Settled Is Now Known As The LeBleu Settlement. Charles Sallier Married LeBleu's Daughter, Catherine. The Sallier's Built Their Home On The Shell Beach Where Lake Charles Now Stands. Afterwards, The Lake Became Known As "Charlie's Lake". By 1860 This Area Was Being Called "Charles Town".
The Rio Hondo River, Which Flowed Through Lake Charles, Was Later Called Quelqueshue, An Indian Term Meaning "Crying Eagle", And Still Later, Calcasieu. On March 7, 1861, Lake Charles Was Incorporated As The Town Of Charleston, Louisiana.
The Growth Of The City Was Fairly Slow Until Captain Daniel Goos, A Frisian By Birth, Came In 1855. Goos Established A Lumber Mill And Schooner Dock, Now Called Goosport, And Promoted A Profitable Trade With Texas And Mexican Ports By Sending His Schooner Down-river Into The Gulf Of Mexico. Until The Arrival Of Goos, A Man Named Jacob Ryan Dominated The Lumber Industry. Between 1817 And 1855, The Timber Provided By Longleaf Pines And Baldcypress Remained The Primary Industry.
Jacob Ryan Convinced The State Government To Move The Parish Seat To Lake Charles From Its Former Location At Marion, Which Was About 8 Miles Upriver. Later That Year, Ryan And Samuel Kirby Transferred The Parish Courthouse And Jail By Barge To Lake Charles, Which Was At That Time Still Called Charleston. Six Years After The City Was Incorporated, Dissatisfaction Over The Name Charleston Arose. On March 16, 1867, Charleston, Louisiana, Was Incorporated Into The Town Of Lake Charles.
By The Time Of The Civil War, Many English And Northeastern Americans, Along With A Large Influx Of Continental Europeans And Jewish People, Had Come To Settle The Area. Attitudes Toward Slavery In Lake Charles Were Mixed, And Was Secondary To Business Interests. The Citizenry Did Finally Become Involved In The War, And Young Men Of Local Families Went To Serve The Confederacy.
After The Civil War, Lake Charles Had Become A Major Lumber Town. The Mills Of The Area Were Swamped With Orders. The 1880's Saw What Was A Small Sawmill Village Develop Into A Boom Town. This Was Largely Due To The Innovative Advertising Methods Of A Man Named J.B. Watkins. With His Astounding $200,000 Advertising Campaign, The Town Grew 400% In The 80's.
By The 1890's, Finer Homes Were Being Built. Carpenters Struggled To Outbuild Each Other With Their Use Of Elaborate Fretwork And Victorian Decoration. Fancy Spindles, Newel Posts, Soldiers And Paneled Doors - All Native Of Native Pine - Filled The Houses.
The Courthouse Donated By Ryan And Kirby Was Replaced Many Times, A Cypress Wood Two-story One In 1872, Then A Brick One In 1890. The 1890 Courthouse Was Destroyed In The "Great Fire Of 1910". The Historic Calcasieu Courthouse Was Completed In 1912, Two Months After The Louisiana Legislature Divided Old "Imperial Calcasieu" Parish Into The Current Parishes Of Allen, Beauregard, Cameron, Jefferson Davis And Calcasieu.
In March 1904, The Carnegie Memorial Library, The Modern Calcasieu Parish Library, Opened, Having Been Partly Financed By Andrew Carnegie And Built On Land Donated By W. S. B. McLaren, President Of The North American Land And Timber Company Of London, England.
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