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1840 |
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| South America & Caribbean: A dictator in Guatemala will dominate most of Central America through 1865. Slaves aboard Amistad revolt enroute from one Cuban port to another. | |||||||||||
| North America:More than 200 steamers can be found on the Mississippi River. New Orelans is the dfourth larges North American city and will soon pass New York as the largest port.The third Democratic national convention meets in Baltimore to nominate Martin Van Buren for president. William Henry Harrison defeats Van Buren 234 electorial votes to 60. The Union act by the British Parliament unites Upper and Lower Canada but stops short of self-rule. Amistad slaves steer into Connecticut port, where a U. S. court will decide their fate. America has 2,800 miles of canals and 3,300 miles of rails. Boston to New York: overnight steamer trip of six hour train ride. Philadelphia to New York: six and a half train and ferry ride except when the Delaware is frozen. Dental school in Baltimore. Novels published by James Fenimore Cooper in the last few years help establish libel laws in U. S. The Pathfinder by Cooper, Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana; Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque by Edgar Allan Poe. Polka comes to America. Oysters canned in Baltimore. McCormick's reaper gets improvements. Grapefruit comes to Florida. First Hereford cattle in New York. over 200,000 Irish, 75,000 English head to U. S. New York population over 300,000 up from 125,000 twenty years ago. | |||||||||||
| Europe: A world Anti-Slavery meeting in London displays split in American efforts, some of whom demand inclusion of women's rights. James Prescot Joule describes the first law of thermodynamics. A new cholera epidemic worldwide will kill millions in the next decade. Adhesive postage stamps in England. Paintings by Corot and Delacroix; opera by Donizetti. | |||||||||||
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January 1840
January 8 Andrew Jackson, now an ex-president, visits New Orleans again. It is the 25th anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans. He arrives at the Carrollton Wharf in the steamer Vicksburg. The next day he lays a cornerstone in the Place d’Armes for a base which will many years later bear a statue of him by Clark Mills. |
February 1840
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March 1840
March 24 Calcasieu Parish created by legislative act. |
April 1840
The Texas Navy uses New Orleans as a jumping-off point for its attack against the Mexican fleet in April 1843. |
May 1840
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June 1840
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July 1840
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August 1840
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September 1840
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October 1840
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November 1840
Parish Judge Washington Jenkins, on Nov. 4, 1840, sold his 2-story frame house for use as the first Caddo Parish Courthouse. A jail replaced the kitchen. This Courthouse was sold at foreclosure at its door in 1855. |
December 1840
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The population of New Orleans is placed at 102,192, making it the fourth largest city in the United States. Antoine Alcatore, the French born son of a wool merchant opens a boarding house on St. Louis Street that will become Antoine's restaurant. St. Patrick's Church in New Orleans, a Gothic Revival structure located at 724 Camp, completed by James Gallier, Sr. Godchaux's Department Store opens on Canal Street and will sell clothes, jewelry and toys until 1986. Antoine's Restaurant opens on St. Louis St. in the French Quarter. |
Free blacks organize the Negro Philharmonic Society led by black violinist Constantin Debarque and claiming over 100 members. Jules Lion, Artist and free man of color is credited with introducing the daguerreotype process in New Orleans and is known for his fine lithographs. |
John James Audubon will publish his first edition of Birds in America 1840-1844 in seven volumes in New York and Philadelphia. Each drawing is printed and meticulously hand painted by John T. Bowen and assistants. Raft removal begun on the Atchafalaya and finished in 1842. They kept forming however, and the last was removed in 1862 |
The East Feliciana Parish Courthouse in Clinton, built in 1840 is one of the architectural treasures of the state. The present building replaced a wooden courthouse that dated from 1825-26, which burned in March 1839. This is one of the oldest courthouses in Louisiana which is still in daily use. | Lawyer's Row constructed between 1840 and 1865 in Clinton, East Feliciana Parish is an outstanding group of early 19th century Classical style offices. Early occupants were noted for their contributions to the political and judicial history of the area and the state. The course of the Red River changes after Shreve frees the river. Natchitoches becomes landlocked. |
Houmas House near Burnside, LA on the River Road is built by the daughter and son-in-law of General Wade Hampton, a revolutionary war hero. Hampton bought the plantation in 1812 (from Daniel Coxe). Houmas House is a Greek Revival mansion built by John Smith Preston on the land bought by Revolutionary War hero Wade Hampton who is Preston's father-in-law. An original structure dates from the 1790s. The house will be spared during the Civil War because by then it was owned by John Burnside who claimed Irish citizenship. Restored by Dr. George Crozat in 1940. Orange Grove Plantation house is built c. 1840 near Houma in Terrebonne Parish. Noted for its handsome Greek Revival styling, its briquette-entre-poteaux (bricks set between posts) construction, and its faux bois (false grained) woodwork. Listed in National Register of Historic Places. Originating as a 1775 Spanish grant to Etienne Boudreaux Laurel Valley Plantation is the largest nineteenth century sugar plantation complex still surviving. A self contained community of over 72 structures, it will survive the Civil war intact and continued to prosper under the ownership of the J. Wilson Lepine family which bought the 3,000-acre plantation in 1890. The Lepine family has established a non-profit corporation, Laurel Valley Village which includes most of the plantation’s original structures, built around 1840, on a 30 acre tract. Although the cabins and ruins of the old sugar mill are off-limits to tourists, visitors may drive through the village in Thibodaux, La. Located on the east bank of Bayou Lafourche in Thibodaux, The Rienzi Plantation house is built, according to legend, as a possible refuge for Queen Maria Louisa, Consort of Charles IV of Spain during this turbulent time in Spanish history. She prevails in the civil war and in 1803 the plantation is purchased by Juan Ygnacio de Egana who had been a representative of Maria Louisa. Later an Italian is said to have owned the plantation and named it after a fourteenth century Italian patriot Cola de Rienzi. The house has two intersecting center halls on each floor. One of the halls on the lower floor was originally a carriage-way through the center of the house, but has been closed in since the 1850s. Most of the details are atypical of this period of Louisiana architecture , such as the double exterior stairs in front that gracefully curve for part of their ascent away from the gallery. Nicholas Girod |
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