Lakeland (), is a village in southeastern Pointe Coupee Parish,

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

United States. The area is home to several

plantation house A plantation house is the main house of a plantation, often a substantial farmhouse, which often serves as a symbol for the plantation as a whole. Plantation houses in the Southern United States and in other areas are known as quite grand and ...

s such as Alma and Poydras Plantations.

Geography

Lakeland is located on False River, in the south-east of Pointe Coupee, 6 miles to the south of New Roads. It was a so-called post-village in the 19th century, served by the (now vanished) Abramson railway station 4 miles to the west, and comprising one church, four stores, and several

cotton gin A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); ...

s and

sugar mill A sugar cane mill is a factory that processes sugar cane to produce raw sugar or plantation white sugar. Some sugar mills are situated next to a back-end refinery, that turns raw sugar into (refined) white sugar. The term is also used to refer ...

s. There are no officially designated boundaries to the community, but the area is more or less bounded by LA-416 on the northern edge of the area, Louisiana Highway 983 on the eastern edge,

Louisiana Highway 1 Louisiana Highway 1 (LA 1) is a state highway in Louisiana. At , it is the longest numbered highway of any class in Louisiana. It runs diagonally across the state, connecting the oil field, oil and gas fields near the island of Grand Isle, ...

on the western edge, and U.S. Highway 190 on the southern edge. This area is generally referred to as Lakeland. This area is home to Immaculate Conception Catholic Church and Alma Plantation Sugar Mill. The first post office in the area was established in 1878.Lockhart, John M. "Roadmap to the Westside",
The Riverside Reader
', January 21, 2008, p. 5

Alma Plantation

Julien de Lallande Poydras Julien de Lallande (Lalande) Poydras (April 3, 1740 – June 23, 1824) was a French American merchant, planter, financier, poet, educator and political leader who served as Delegate from the Territory of Orleans to the U.S. House of Represe ...

one of Louisiana's most notable poets,

planters Planters Nut & Chocolate Company is an American snack food company now owned by Hormel Foods. Planters is best known for its processed nuts and for the Mr. Peanut icon that symbolizes them. Mr. Peanut was created by grade schooler Antonio Gent ...

and philanthropists purchased land in Lakeland in 1789 and named it ''Poydras' plantation''. Poydras built a large home in the Lakeland area and called it ''Poydras Bayou''. He owned four plantations around the Lakeland area and two in

West Baton Rouge Parish West Baton Rouge Parish (, Spanish language, Spanish: ''Parroquia del Oeste de Baton Rouge'') is one of the List of parishes in Louisiana, sixty-four parishes in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Established in 1807, its parish seat is Port Allen, L ...

. The Pointe Coupee plantations grew

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

and

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

and exported these to

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. On May 4, 1795, the

Pointe Coupée Pointe technique ( ) is part of classical ballet involving a technique that concerns ''pointe work'', in which a ballet dancer supports all body weight on the tips of fully extended feet when wearing pointe shoes. A dancer is said to be ''en po ...

slave conspiracy occurred on other nearby Poydras plantations that resulted in 57 slaves and three white planters going on public trial. The controversy started when one of the farmers discovered a controversial book titled ''Theorie de l'impot'' written by a leader of the French Revolution named Count of Mirabeau in one of the slave cabins. The book contained

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (), set by France's National Constituent Assembly in 1789, is a human and civil rights document from the French Revolution; the French title can be translated in the modern era as "Decl ...

. The slaves were not allowed to have this book and were accused of attempting to organize and kill their masters. At the end of the trial 23 slaves were hung and beheaded and 31 were flogged and sentenced to hard labor. The three white planters were deported to

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Louis Philippe I Louis Philippe I (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850), nicknamed the Citizen King, was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, the penultimate monarch of France, and the last French monarch to bear the title "King". He abdicated from his throne ...

who later became King of France and Marigny de Mandeville were guests at his plantations. Julien Poydras died in 1824 and the plantation was sold to David Barrow, the brother of Alexander Barrow. The plantation was renamed Alma plantation after the daughter of David Barrow. Then in 1859, George Pitcher became the plantation owner. The plantation was later purchased by Hampton P. Stewart in 1959 and has remained in this family for four generations.

Historic catholic church

In 1853 one of the earliest Pointe Coupee churches was constructed in the nearby village of Chenal, Louisiana. Just a few decades later the church burned down to the ground. Twenty-four year old Father Louis Savoure, a native of Combourg made the decision to rebuild the church in Lakeland. The church became one of the largest in the parish. In 1882 there were an estimated 2500 parishioners and the church was named the ''Immaculate Conception''.

Hurricane four

In 1947 a powerful hurricane pushed inland and passed through Lakeland. Russel L. Honoré wrote that the hurricane passed through Lakeland just four days after he was born. The storm is now known as the

1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane The 1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane (Air Weather Service designation: GeorgeMultiple sources: * * * ) was a long-lived and an intense tropical cyclone that affected the Bahamas, southernmost Florida, and the Gulf Coast of the United States in Sept ...

and it was responsible for killing fifty-one people in Louisiana and caused an estimated $110 million in damages. Honoré wrote that these early experiences growing up in Lakeland taught him the survival skills necessary to survive disasters. Honoré claims that his hard life growing up in Lakeland gave him the skills necessary to lead the Joint Task Force Katrina later in life.

Education

There is one school in the area, Rougon Elementary School (formerly High School). The community was formerly home to the now defunct Lakeland Elementary School that was located on Louisiana Highway 413, south of Louisiana Highway 416.

Major roadways

* Louisiana Highway 413 * Louisiana Highway 416

References

Sources

* *

External links

Lakeland Boundary map
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana Baton Rouge metropolitan area Unincorporated communities in Louisiana