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1804 |
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| Previous Hispanola: January 1, 1804; Haiti joins U. S. as second independent state of the Western Hemisphere.
As emperor Dessalines pledges that black liberation will be confined to the island of Hispanola.
Next South America & Caribbean: Saint Domingue becomes Haiti, the first republican government run by blacks. All slaves are freed and the white population flees the western portion of Hispanola. Many go to Cuba or New Orleans. |
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| North America:Aaron Burr, vice president of the U. S., mortally wounds Alexander Hamilton in a duel and is indicted. He heads south and west, where he becomes involved in conspriracies to establish an empire. Thomas Jefferson is re-elected as president over Charles Pinckney. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark begin their expedition to explore the treaches of the Louisiana Purchase. With the expansion of territory the U. S. Congress begins selling 160 acre tracts in auction. Bananas in New York, but food shortages exist east of the Alleghenies. The west is already becoming the nation’s bread basket. Ohio University.Events in North America this year influencing Louisiana. | |||||||||||
| Europe:Spain is now at war with Great Britain. After a royalist coup fails Napoleon becomes Emperor of France. The Code Napoleon is established throughout his realm. Canning will help feed Napoleonic armies. Francis I becomes Emperor of Austria. England sees first locomotive on rails and gas lighting. William Tell penned by Schiller. Between pests and restrictive duties, wheat is scarce in all of Great Britain. Events in Europe this year influencing Louisiana. | |||||||||||
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January 1804
January 11 James Wilkinson to the Secretary of War: Over night the stockade and a house on one redoubt has disappeared after he or the governor mentions its demolition. It is probably used for firewood. An inventory of public buildings is made by Joseph Vinache, who was a military engineer for Pierre Clement de Laussat during the brief 20 day term of French possession. A plan of New Orleans, based on the decade-old Pittman plan, shows the Treme plantation back of town. January 16 President Jefferson advises Congress of the assumption of Louisiana by Claiborne and gives authority for Spanish commandants to continue their duties under the name of the U. S. government. The population of the area to become the Territory of Orleans is 45,000 and greater New Orleans about 10,000. Most of the residents are of French descent, the small Spanish population are mostly officials and their families. A few Americans are merchants or shippers. Some western Europeans including Canary Islanders and Germans, refugees from Saint-Domingue including free people of color and a large population of slaves. Most of the inhabitants are on the isle of Orleans and the west bank of the Mississippi River south of the mouth of the Red River and east of the Atchafalaya. About 250 Spaniards at Galveztown move to Spanish territory across the Manchac, mostly to Baton Rouge. |
February 1804
Governor William C. C. Claiborne restores order after an argument threatens a Carnival ball. Voices are raised over whether English or French music is to be played. |
March 1804
March 26 The United States establishes the Territory of Orleans by the act of March 26, 1804 in that area that now forms most of the state. The Florida Parishes were not included yet. "all that portion of country ceded by France to the United States , under the name of Louisiana, which lies south of the Mississippi River at the thirty-third degree of north latitude and extending west to the western boundary of said cession, shall constitute a Territory of the United States, under the name of the Territory of Orleans. Effective October 1 1804 the Louisiana Purchase is divided into two parts, the upper portion is the District of Louisiana and the lower is the Territory of Orleans; the latter being "all that portion of country ceded by France to the United States , under the name of Louisiana, which lies south of the Mississippi River at the thirty-third degree of north latitude and extending west to the western boundary of said cession, shall constitute a Territory of the United States, under the name of the Territory of Orleans. The remainder of the Louisiana Purchase becomes the Territory of Louisiana with its capital at St. Louis. |
April 1804
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May 1804
 May 26 Mayor Etienne de Boré leaves office to attend to private business. Apparently he does not get along well with Governor William C. C. Claiborne and other Americans. |
June 1804
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July 1804
July 27 The Louisiana Gazette is founded with John Mowry as editor. The publication will add a French section in 1817. |
August 1804
The Kemper Rebellion in West Florida fails to add this area to the United States. Claiborne refuses to aid the Kempers. Cato West is the acting governor of the Mississippi Territory. George Erving the American Charge d'Affairs at Madrid is recalled and by next Spring diplomatic ties are severed. August 21 Capt. Joseph Newcomb is commissioned in the Revenue-Cutter Service. His cutter the Louisiana was stationed near the mouth of the Mississippi River to enforce U. S. Customs Regulations. |
September 1804
William C. C. Claiborne, who loses his wife Eliza Lewis and his daughter to yellow fever in September, writes to President Jefferson that yellow fever is beginning to prevail in the city and has proven particularly fatal to the Americans. In September 1804 John Sanderson is appointed special administrator of New Orleans by Governor William C. C. Claiborne. Other appointments are Dominic Hall, Judge of the District of New Orleans and James Brown-District Attorney and Secretary of the Territory. The city of New Orleans petitions Congress for rights to public buildings and properties including land under the old fortifications. |
October 1804
October 3, 1804; Governor William C. C. Claiborne is sworn in by James Pitot, mayor of New Orleans. Lebreton D’Orgenois is named marshal and Samuel Davis becomes master of the port. James Brown is the Territorial Secretary and Dickens is the Attorney General. Chosen for the Supreme Court of the territory are Prevost, Kirby and Duponceau. However Duponceau declines the appointment and Kirby dies enroute to Louisiana. James Pitot is the second mayor of the incorporated City of New Orleans, 1804-1805 and builder of one of the city’s first cotton presses. The Pitot House built in 1790 by Bartoleme Bosque and Joseph Reynes for Don Santiago Lorreins still stands on Bayou St. John, although it was moved in 1970 from 1370 Moss to its present location. It is bought by James Pitot in 1809 and he lives there until 1813. |
November 1804
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December 1804
In December the Legislative Council is chosen. Julien Poydras is president, James Workman-Secretary, Watkins, William Kenner, Morgan, Wicoff, Dorciere and Mather. In December the Union and its print shop are purchased by James M. Bradford who is the son of David Bradford, a pioneer printer in Kentucky. He establishes the Orleans Gazette. James Bradford becomes the official territorial printer, but loses the contract in 1809 because of differences with Governor William C. C. Claiborne. |
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Some of the most capable men De Boré, Bellechasse, Evan Jones and Daniel Clark will refuse to serve as appointees under Claiborne. In their place he chooses James Mather Dorciere, Flood and Oliver Pollock. Although the San Lazaro (St. Lazarus) Hospital for lepers held at least at least twenty patients in 1803, by the next year five remaining patients are said to be free of the disease. The patients are said to be suffering from African yaws and it is possible that a legitimate case of leprosy never occured in Louisiana during the Spanish era. Blaise Cenas, Postmaster announces that mail arrives from the U. S. every Monday, and a mail stage leaves New Orleans every Tuesday morning arriving at Manchac Church the next day at 5 p.m.. The Louisiana Bank is established with Evan Jones as president and Paul Lanusse as secretary. Directors include Paul Lanusse, James Pitot, Julien Poydras, Daniel Clark, Michael Fortier, John Soulie, Thomas Harmon, Thomas Urquhart, William Donaldson, John F. Merieult, Francois Duplessis, James Garrice, John McDonough, John B. Labatut, Nicholas Girod. Stephen Zacherie, cashier. Fras. Munhall is a Notary Public. |
In 1804 and 1805 Daniel Clark buys plantation land that now borders on Moss street (along Bayou St. John), and hires Barthelemy Lafon to draw up a plan for Faubourg St. John. It is a fan-like formation with a focus at place Bretonne (where Bayou Road meets Dorgenois street, just below Broad) resulting in 35 irregularly shaped blocks. The area along the Bayou is used for recreational purposes during the 18th and early 19th centuries. The Tivoli amusement park once stood where the Pitot House now sits.The park fronted on the Bayou and extended as far back as Esplanade. It is described By Thomas Ashe in his Travels in America. He wrote that the park featured, orange trees and a pavilion, where dances were held on Sundays. An 1852 lithograph of the pavilion exists. When Esplanade is cut through to the bayou in1855 many old homes in the neighborhood are destroyed, as when Ursulines is cut through later. But development is delayed by Myra Clark Gaines&# 146; litigation and only a few houses are built in the area before 1860. |
In the Spring of 1804 Congress passes the so called Mobile Act that treats Mobile and the rest of West Florida as a part of the U. S. in matters of tariffs and duties. Governor Folch reads about it in the Moniteur de la Luisiane and writes to Claiborne, explaining the history of Spanish exploration of the Gulf Coast and the South Atlantic Coast. His argument is that not only is Mobile Spanish Territory, but the U.S. should return the Carolinas and Georgia to Spain. Thomas Jefferson on the other hand is confident that the Louisiana Purchase should include land to the Rio Grande. Such is the confusion in which the new Orleans Territory exists. The boundaries of Louisiana today were not drawn for another fifteen years. |
Fort Claiborne is established in Natchitoches. Named after William C. C. Claiborne, Governor of territorial Louisiana. It will protect U.S. interests on the present southwestern frontier. Garrisoned almost continuously until the establishment of Fort Jesup in 1822. | After establishing a store and a cotton gin
on False River in Pointe
Coupee Julien
Poydras befriends governor Claiborne and becomes a local official. Elected as president of the first legislative council of the Territory of Orleans. |
The Louisiana Gazette
begins publication to bring news to the English speaking population of
New Orleans. Names on the subscription list include Evan Jones, Jacques
(James) Pitot, Richard
Relf, Thomas Urquhart, James Profit, Thomas Vassault, Col. Bellechasse,
Andry, Cantrell, Julien
Poydras, Fulton, Sam Flowers, Isaac Johnson, Nathaniel Evans, Richard
Butler. Subscribers are asked to return the papers as soon as possible.
In its first year it publishes wholesale price lists and arrivals and
departures of ships, brigs, schooners and flatboats from Natchez, and
advertises the sale of goods from various ships, a plantation sale in
Lafourche District, the dance academy of Mr. Francisqui and slaves for
sale by Alexander
Milne. The words to Erin Go Brah and a horse race at Captain Davis’
featuring Barbecue and liquors. The Gazette is published
each Tuesday and Friday by John
Mowry in the house of C. Norwood on Bienville St.
Thomas Overton Moore Alexander Mouton John Mowry John Watkins James Workman |
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