COMMUNITY SECTION
BRIEF HISTORY
My Hometown Urania and surrounding communities of Olla , Jena & Tullos
Urania, founded in 1898, contemporary with its owner, The Urania Lumber Company, by the late Henry E. Hardtner, the father of reforestation in the south, has grown from a population of a few scores to approximately 150, and from a small sawmill of a few hundred feet daily production to one of the nation's largest sawmill operations. Unique to its history its name "Urania" (meaning Heavenly), given the town by its founder, Henry E. Hardtner, who was fatally injured in an automobile accident in 1935 near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
In the late 1890's, Mr. Hardtner became interested in the sawmill business, which led him to purchase a tract of land and a small sawmill from John and Emerson Prestridge. The land and the mill were located at Prestridge Spur on the Missouri Pacific railroad known then as the Iron Mountain. It was near Chickasaw Creek south of the present Urania. From all accounts, the living was rough around the mill, so Mr. Hardtner moved the living quarters a mile or more to the north. The peace and quiet combined with the beauty of the towering pine trees of the new site was a welcome relief to the newcomers when compared with the rough, rowdy and ready way of life in Prestridge Spur. Because of such an atmosphere of beauty, the name Urania was elected by Mr. Hardtner for his hew home site.
In 1802, the Hemphiltis; for whom the "Hemps" and later the post office Hemps Creek was named; entered a considerable block of land some 2 miles below the site where Jena stands today. This section, therefore, began to attract settlers. In the late 1850's, Hemp's Creek Post Office was established with Isaac L. Baker as the first postmaster. Mr. James Forsythe came to Hemp's Creek ub 1861, served with distinction in the Confederate Army, returned in 1865 and established his home there. In 1871, the Post Office Department, in an effort to eliminate all creeks and bayous from the names of its offices, asked that a new name be given to this place. Andrew Forsythe, brother of James Forsythe, was visiting at the time, suggested Jena, for Jena, Illinois (his hometown), which was named for Jena, Germany. This was submitted to the post office department, and it was accepted. In 1906, the citizens of Jena petitioned for incorporation, which was granted by Gov. Newton C. Blanchard, and he appointed W.E. Banton as Jena's first mayor.
The town of Olla was named for Miss Olla Mills, who later became Mrs. C.C. Young. The Pinehill Baptist Church was established September 22, 1890. A military high school established in 1890 by Riley Joe Wilson, was named Olla Institute. The school flourished for several years but was destroyed by fire in 1899. It was never rebuilt, since a public school was established at that time.
Prior to 1893, the Post Office was known as Sulphur Springs and was located two miles west of the present town on Castor River or Creek. It was here that steamboats landed and brought supplies for the area. Sulphur Springs was quite a place in the 1870 - 1895 period. It flourished as a summer resort and spa with a nice hotel, "for rent" cabins, a large store, drugstore, and post office. The curative powers of the "Blance Sulphur" mud was publicized over a large part of the nation and sufferers of gout, arthritis, rheumatism and other muscular troubles were frequent patients and visitors.
The Houston, Central, Arkansas and Northern Railroad began operations in 1892, and the town of Olla was incorporated on August 1, 1899, with Dr. WIlliam Vannah Tayor III as its first mayor.
The Olla State Bank was established in 1908. The Central Louisiana Fire Fair was established at Olla several years prior to World War I.
The Olla Oil field was bought in 1938. It has steadily expanded since that time. Resolute in their purpose, drillers and roughnecks, pushers and roustabouts, pumpers and others went about their jobs with slight regard for unavoidable hazards. Through a distinctive manner of dress, raunchy jokes, and a vocabulary of "cuss" words unique to the trace, the life style of a few earned the label of "Oilfield Trash" for all. With characteristic tolerances, group loyalty, and Ironic humor, the epitaph became a proud symbol recognized around the world as a tribute to the courage, perseverance and peculiar honesty of wildcatters chasing rainbows that promise gushes of black gold.
John Tullos was born in 1810, and when becoming a man, settled near the New Union Baptist Church. Pendarvis Landing, named for Benjamin Pendarvis was the steamboat landing on the Castor Creek nearby, and eventually became a designated shipping point by purchasers in the southern part of the parish, for merchandise bough in Natchez and New Orleans. An old ferry boat remains buried deep in the mud and silt where it became grounded when flood waters receded and rose again unexpectedly at the landing.
John Tullos's son, Henry, was identified with this trade and commerce, and accumulated considerable land and property at what is now the town of Tullos. In 1893, when the Houston, Central, Arkansas and Northern Railroad started operating trains through the western part of Catahoula Parish, the town of Tullos was surveyed, laid out in lots and a depot built. THe town was just named "Tullos" in honor of Henry Tullos.
Thanks to Sonny Bailey for sharing this page with me. If you wanna go visit a great site.....Check out Sonny's Place....he is not only my neighbour...but a GREAT FRIEND. Hat's Off to you Sonny!!!!
