Shreveport's first road machines tested in Stoner Hill at dawning of inmate road crews
This month's focus is the Stoner Hill neighborhood.
In Stoner Hill's origin story may surprise you, Dr. Gary Joiner (Professor of History at LSU Shreveport) taught us that Stoner Hill is older than the city of Shreveport. In part II of our series on Stoner Hill, Was Stoner Hill in Shreveport named after cannabis lovers, we learned where Stoner Hill got its name and how it connected to America's Civil War. Part III of the Stoner Hill series showed what Stoner Hill was like in 1935 vs. what Stoner Hill is like today. Part IV examined how a tornado destroyed much of the Stoner Hill community in 1912. In Part V, Dr. Gary Joiner answered a question from Cookie Coleman, who asked the team if rumors about a mass grave located in Stoner Hill were true.
For Part VI of the series, we'll discuss how Stoner Hill became one of the first testing grounds for road machines in Louisiana and how officials traveled from parishes and counties in Louisiana and Texas to see the new state-of-the-art technology in action on a road at Stoner Hill.
Jaclyn Tripp took the lead on this article.
SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – When The Good Roads Committee in Caddo Parish decided that Freewater Hill, which later became Stoner Hill, would become one of the first testing grounds for mule-drawn road machines in Louisiana, officials from parishes and counties in Louisiana and Texas traveled to Freewater Hill (Stoner Hill) to see the new state-of-the-art technology in action.
By the late 1890s, the idea of using road machines was controversial in the United States. The concepts and technologies behind road machines were brand new. And many police juries in Louisiana were just beginning to create parish-run road systems.
Some argued that road machines were expensive and wouldn't be used enough to make the purchase worth it to a parish. But others disagreed.
Roy Stone, the director of the office of public road inquiries, was quoted in the (Shreveport) Times, Jan. 20, 1900, as saying, 'The consensus of opinion in this correspondence is that 'state aid' is the best law under which to build and maintain roads. The method of working convicts in quarries and gravel pits in preparing road material is earnestly supported by everyone, and the use of convicts in actually building roads is strongly advocated by many people, especially those from the south.'
'Because a parish fails to utilize a road machine after having purchased is no argument against the value of the machine… A great deal also depends upon the police jury which can greatly aid and facilitate road and bridge work by proper legislation,' wrote a journalist in The (Shreveport) Times on Aug. 5, 1899.
Stone also said that no community in the United States had invested in building good roads and abandoned the new technology for the old 'hog in the mud' method of road-building.
'The general opinion is that the free rural delivery of mails should be extended to those communities where the roads are so good that they will be firm and smooth during all seasons of the year,' said Stone. ' 'The prospects for new road work for the present year are brighter than ever before, and some of the road-machine companies have more orders for machines than they can fill for many months.'
By August of 1901, Freewater Hill (Stoner Hill) had been selected as the site for a road test to examine the pros and cons of mule-drawn road machines. The parish was to test three different machines, and the parish road committee was to carefully observe the machines to determine which should be purchased.
Freewater Hill (Stoner Hill) was chosen for many reasons. First, the soil in Freewater was stiff clay. Second, a hard-paved road at Freewater Hill (Stoner Hill), leading from the Red River into the city of Shreveport, would benefit Shreveport's importers and exporters.
By July of 1901, Caddo Parish was moving forward on the public road test project. Leaders from DeSoto, Sabine, Vermillion, and three other parishes expressed interest in attending the test of the road machines.
'The day might well be set aside as one to be celebrated,' wrote one journalist.
'Event will be the occasion of presence of visitors,' promised a headline in The Shreveport Journal on July 23, 1901.
'It is probably that a public test of the three machines will be made within the next ten days, and it will be made an occasion of the greatest interest to the citizens of Caddo and at least six other parishes in the state,' wrote a reporter from The Shreveport Journal.
The project aimed at creating an easy thoroughfare from the Red River into the city of Shreveport that could be travelled in spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
As of Aug. 4, the committee purchased ten mules and was slated to buy fourteen more for the road machine test. Andrew Querbes was the chairman of the Road Improvement Committee, and his mules were used to pull the machines.
'One of the proposed features of the improvement work will be the employment of drainage pipes along the new highways,' we read in The Shreveport Journal on Aug. 4, 1901. 'This will be an innovation in road work, but as the drainage problem is the most important connected with the construction of better roads, the committee is determined to start on scientific principles and use every utility that will constitute a permanent improvement.'
Chairman Querbes hoped the road test would 1) help inaugurate the use of road machines in Caddo Parish, and 2) determine if asphaltum would make a good sprinkler for roads.
'Similar oil is used on the roads in California with the best results. When oil is constantly applied the asphaltum therein hardens and reduces the road almost to an asphalt basis,' wrote a reporter for The (Shreveport) Times on Aug. 1, 1901.
There was much talk about how a system of good roads would increase land value for Shreveport residents and investors.
'The good roads enthusiasts estimate that the building of more perfect highways will increase the value of property to an undreamed of extent,' stated a reporter from The Times.
F. T. Woodward, the secretary of the Texas Good Road Association, was on hand for the road test on Aug. 5.
Officials from St. Landry also made the trip to Northwest Louisiana.
A newspaper headline across the front page of The Shreveport Journal proclaimed PROMINENT VISITORS TO SEE CADDO'S TEST.
Unfortunately, during the road machine test one of the parts a road machine failed. The road committee tested the other two road machines that were still in working order and decided to wait until the third machine was repaired and test it before selecting which road machine to purchase.
The third road machine was tested at Freewater Hill on Aug. 12, 1901.
'Monroe Machine too heavy,' declared a headline in The (Shreveport) Times. 'The good roads committee… purchased two of the Champions, represented by J. W. Guy, and one Western Machine, represented by Mannery.'
'The Champion won,' declared a reporter with The (Shreveport) Times on Aug. 14, 1901.
Andrew Querbes said, 'In the opinion of the committee, the Monroe machine is superior to either of the two selected for keeping the road in good repair, and while it can construct roads possibly as well as either of the other two, yet in our opinion the machine is evidently too heavy for our hilly country, and would require more mules and more expense to manipulate same than our revenues justify.'
The Good Roads Committee also stated they would take advantage of every opportunity for prisoners to work on the roads. The Times estimated the parish would save between $1500 and $2000 by putting prisoners to work on public roads.
By Feb. of 1902, one year after the road machine test and purchase, Shreveport's Municipal Court was punishing criminals by sentencing them to road work.
'Henry Ward, a white man, received the severest punishment inflicted in a long time,' explained The (Shreveport) Times on Feb. 11, 1902. 'Ward was charged with being drunk and disorderly and the evidence showed that he struck his mother, sister, and choked a younger brother while in his drunken condition… he will be compelled to serve on the public road for 155 days.'
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