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1837 |
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| South America & Caribbean:Events of this year in this region influencing Louisiana. | |||||||||||
| North America:Michigan admitted as the 26th state. Republic of Texas recognized by Congress and by President Jackson on his last day in office. Texas Rangers get their start as Fort Fisher (Waco) established. Supreme Court of U. S. increased from seven to nine. Canada experiences a rebellion by French Canadians. Seminole leader Osceola is tricked into surrendering and his followers are defeated by Col. Zachary Taylor who is promoted to general for his leadership. A congressional gag law suppresses debate on slavery. Smallpox epidemic along the Missouri River wipes out several Indian tribes. University of Louisville begins; Mount Holyoke Female Seminary is first U. S. college for women. Samuel Morse patents a magnetic telegraph while his assistant Alfred Lewis Vail devises the code.. Economic depression begins after failure of cotton brokerages in New Orleans. Over 600 banks fail and thousands face starvation. The Baltimore Sun begins publication; William Hinkling Prescott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Proctor and Gamble launched in Cincinnati, selling candles and soap. John Deere invents his self polishing plow. Steam powered threshing machine. |
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| Europe: William IV dies after a seven year reign and is succeeded by his niece Victoria who will rule until 1901. She will occupy Buckingham Palace. The kingdom of Hanover is separated from Britain since its law forbids female succession. Postage system with stamps based on weight devised in England.Thomas Carlyle, Charles Dickens, Honore de Balzac | |||||||||||
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January 1837
The Picayune begins publication. Its owners are Francis Asbury Lumsden, member of the legislature and City Council, Board of Administrators of Public Schools and the House of Refuge, and George Wilkins Kendall, 18, a Texas pioneer. The Spanish picayune coin (6.25 cents) is still in circulation in the former Spanish colony. The first issue has a poem Old Winter is Coming, Scenes from Life from the New York Mirror, A Prospectus for the Commercial New and Reading Room of the True American all on the first page. |
February 1837
The Commodore of the first Texas Navy, Charles E. Hawkins dies on February 11, 1837 in a boarding house on Canal Street of smallpox. He is a veteran of the U.S., Mexican and Texas Navies. At this time, the Texas Navy's flagship, the schooner Independence, is at anchor in New Orleans, where it had been for some time. The only other two warships of the Texas Navy, Invincible and Brutus, were in New York, stuck there for the winter due to massive debts they ran up for supplies and repairs. The Texas Navy will use New Orleans as a staging port for its offensive against Mexico in the summer of 1837. |
March 1837
The failure of the Herman Bridges and Co. cotton brokerage in New Orleans signals the beginning of economic depression across the U. S. |
April 1837
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May 1837
May 13 The panic of 1937 begins over the next year the banks in Louisiana suspend specie payments. Each municipality will issue emergency currency and later private companies and individuals claim the same privilege. |
June 1837
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July 1837
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August 1837
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September 1837
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October 1837
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November 1837
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December 1837
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The Mayor of New Orleans is Denis Prier. Hugh Evans (1837-1917) will be a designer and builder in New Orleans. John Burnside arrives in New Orleans to start a wholesale dry goods company on Chartres street. During a financial panic he an his partner Oliver Beirne are one of the few companies to extend long-term credit. They make tremendous profits and ten years later Beirne retires to his Virginia farm. John Burnside becomes a fixture in Louisiana. He moves the store to Canal Street and it continues to prosper. |
The city of Shreveport is founded by Shreve Town Co. Feb. 4, is named for Captain Henry Miller Shreve, who opened Red River to navigation, making the city a Southwest gateway and trading center. Shreveport is incorporated on March 20, 1839. | Population of New Orleans is 75,000. Streets are being paved, gas works and water works are being expanded. A nationwide bank panic results and 14 local banks closed their doors the day after President Jackson removes deposits from the Bank of the United States. |
The Constancia Plantation mansion, erected by Samuel P.A. Fagot between 1837-1843, and its many side buildings dominated its site until demolished during a move of the river levee in 1940. The House (1812) near Convent is now called Uncle Sam Plantation and will be one of Louisiana’s great sugar plantations. in 1940.
Justine Fervin Couvent Pickney Benton Stewart Pinchback |
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