The Lake Charles Echo (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
857 issues from 1876 to 1894, published in Lake Charles, Louisiana, digitised for Chronicling America.
Located in coastal southwest Louisiana near the state’s border with Texas, Lake Charles is one of Louisiana’s youngest cities. It is the seat of Calcasieu Parish, which in the 19th century was about four times larger in area than it is today. Neighboring Cameron Parish was formed in 1870 from part of Calcasieu Parish; another division in 1912 led to the formation of Allen, Beauregard, and Jefferson Davis Parishes. Though a few Europeans settled in this remote area in the late 18th century, it did not attract significant numbers of immigrants until after the Civil War, when grain farmers from the Midwest were lured to the region, largely through the promotional efforts of Northern land agent and railroad developer Jabez Bunting (J. B.) Watkins. Southwest Louisiana quickly became a significant producer of rice. The older lumber industry was also important, but by the 20th century the region’s principal source of wealth was oil and sulfur mining. Today, Lake Charles is the site of major refineries and offshore drilling companies.
David J. Read and Louis S. Leveque established the Weekly Echo in 1868, the same year Lake Charles was officially incorporated. The Echo‘s first editor was Bryant Hutchins, who began his career at the age of 13 as an apprentice at the Opelousas Gazette. Hutchins moved frequently and left the Echo after about a year to work as a newspaperman in nearby Galveston, Texas, but later returned to Lake Charles and resumed his post at the Echo. The paper…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Lake Charles, Louisiana, United States
- Language
- English
- Collection
- Chronicling America
- Licence or status
- None stated by the archive
- Rights
- The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety.
- Credit
- Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities
- Who can read it
- Teens profiles and older (placed by Invisible Network from what the archive says; archives give no ratings)
- Archive
- Library of Congress