PART TWO: EXTRA, EXTRA!

In my last post, I started telling you about my Aunt Olivia’s story about her two uncles who were accused of a murder occurring in Coulee Croche community of St. Landry Parish, Louisiana – Jean Baptiste Chevis (born circa 1866) and William Chevis (born circa 1879). Remember, I’m investigating this story by focusing on newspaper reporting of the incident.

Read All About It!

During the post-Civil War period in which Jean Baptiste and William grew up, Louisiana was reeling from the impact of Radical Reconstruction.  According to one source, “the 1870s and 1880s in Opelousas were marked by reactionary racial politics and a stagnating economy.”¹  Many white Democrats in the state and in St. Landry Parish were embittered by Republican policies that aimed to neutralize their power and endow previously enslaved people with rights and privileges that seemed to threaten their socioeconomic position.  As reporters wrote about these issues, yellow journalism and its characteristic sensationalism had begun spreading across the United States starting around the 1890’s.  This type of journalism often emphasized scandals and offered information provided by unnamed sources. It also relied on attention-grabbing layouts and misleading headlines in large print, as well as “lavish use of pictures or imaginary drawings, fake interviews, and pseudo science,” to create narratives that would increase its readership, sway public opinion, and improve sales.²

The newspapers printed at the time of the Chevis incident definitely were impacted by the issues, politics, journalistic practices and trends of the times.  There were at least 136 newspapers operating in Louisiana at some time during the period from 1836 through 1922. Forty-five of these newspapers were in circulation at the time.  Of those, seven were located in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, or in adjacent parishes; four mentioned the story of Dr. Courtney and his assailants – The Crowley Signal, The Lafayette Advertiser, The Opelousas Courier, and the St. Landry Clarion.³ The latter two were the principal newspapers of St. Landry Parish. The St. Landry Clarion was founded in 1890 in Opelousas and, at the time of the Chevis incident, was edited by Raymond Breaux.  The four-page weekly paper was staunchly Democratic in its politics, reflected in its motto, “Here shall the press the people’s rights maintain, unawed by influence and unbribed by gain.”  Its contemporary, The Opelousas Courier, alternatively entitled Le Courrier des Opelousas owing to its inclusion of French-language content, was founded in 1852 by Swiss immigrant Joel Henri Sandoz.  Although originally intended to be apolitical, the paper endorsed Democratic candidates and policies at various times.⁴

Breaking News…

The Chevis incident did not remain a solely local interest piece. Over the course of the case that unfolded, it was referenced in the following newspapers, by state:

• Louisiana – The Times-Democrat of New Orleans; the Daily Picayune-New Orleans (not featured in the aforementioned databases) ; Daily Town Talk of Alexandria; Kentwood Commercial in Tangipoah Parish (not featured in the aforementioned databases); and the Lafourche Comet of Thibodaux (not featured in the aforementioned databases). 
• Texas – the Evening Messenger of Marshall, Texas; the Austin American-Statesman; 
• Mississippi – The Port Gibson Reveille; Vicksburg’s The Daily Commercial Herald; and Natchez’ The Weekly Democrat;
• Tennessee –  Knoxville’s The Journal Tribune; the Chattanooga Daily Times; Nashville’s The Tennessean; and Memphis’ The Commercial Appeal; and
• the Chicago Tribune.⁵  

So, what monstrous thing had the Chevis brothers done on Thursday night, September 19, 1895, and how did the newspapers cover it?

The Saturday Edition

The local newspapers had much to say about Dr. Courtney’s death and Jean Baptiste’s and William’s roles in it.  As previously mentioned, The St. Landry Clarion had received only scant details right before going to press early the morning after the incident. However, local correspondents were able to send wires in time for other newspapers in the area to print more information in their Saturday editions. This dispatch appeared in the New Orleans Times-Democrat:

Alexandria’s Daily Town Talk reported,

“Deputy Sheriff P.D. Williams, of St. Landry, arrived here last night [i.e., Friday, September 20, 1895] from [on the Southern Pacific] from Opelousas, with William and John Cheives [sic], two French negroes, charged with murdering Dr. Desan Courtney, a white man…they were brought up on the Morgan passenger [train]…a reporter visited the jail to-day and found the two negroes in the iron cell. Through an interpreter, Fred Alexander, a prisoner in the jail, the reporter was informed that Wm. Cheives [sic] acknowledged that he killed the Doctor with a stick. The accused can speak English only brokenly.⁶ 

During the week following Dr. Courtney’s death, the St. Landry Clarion gathered all of the information it needed to present a more thorough accounting of what happened to Dr. Courtney than they had first reported on September 21^st.  It printed a lengthy piece, a mélange of fact and opinion in a story headlined, “The Murder of Dr. D.T. Courtney by Negroes:  A Hemp Rope the Logical Sequel, the Murderers in Jail”. Here are a few snippets:

• The leading sentence of the article explained, “The people of the parish of St. Landry were shocked on Friday morning of last week upon learning of the most atrocious, villainous and dastardly crime that ever blooded the annals of a parish, a crime that would have been avenged by an indignant people had the news got abroad before the black murderers were arrested and smuggled away to the Alexandria jail.”
• After explaining the events described earlier, the reporter offered, “…medical aid [was] immediately summoned, but the physician at once pronounced Dr. Courtney’s case hopeless.  His skull had been crushed in, and the brain was oozing out.  He lingered until next day at 11 o’clock, when the soul of a good man, a respected citizen, and a noble character whose beacon-light was Justice and Charity, took its flight to the other world, the victim of treacherous blacks” who were previously described as “burly” and “pestiferous”.
• The newspaper declared, “We are no advocate of lynch law, but we say openly that had these red-handed assassins been strung up by a mob the perpetrators would have met no condemnation at the hands of the Clarion.  The negroes were brought back Wednesday [September 25], and it is the sincere hope of the community that a speedy trial will take place, and justice meted out to them.  No legal technicality can save their neck.”
• The newspaper explained its view of Leontine Chevis’ testimony that Alex Guilbeau was Dr. Courtney’s killer, “We can not pass unnoticed the attempt of the mother to shield her son and fasten the guilt on an innocent party.  Of all the glib-tongued perjurers we ever heard this old hag took the prize…The coroner and the jury tried every art to make her tell the truth, but all their cross-examination could not make her change or alter her statement…The grand jury will no doubt indict her for perjury.”⁷

The Crowley Signal provided a few additional particulars, acknowledging that “the particulars of the sad sad affair are somewhat conflicting.” A self-proclaimed”scribe” named “Max” reported that the Chevis family had been hosting a boisterous party when Dr. Courtney and his friends arrived “to go over and try to calm them”. That is, “the negroes were having a ball near the doctor’s residence on that night, and during the progress of that dance…the negro Willis [i.e., William] Chevis” dealt the blow that had “brought the doctor to the ground senseless.” Furthermore, it was one Dr. Jenkins of Crowley who was the physician called to attend to Dr. Courtney, who later was buried at Grand Coteau, probably St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church.⁸

I’ve presented a few of the newspaper reports about Dr. D.T. Courtney’s untimely death and the circumstances involved in it. The language used to describe “the Chevis boys” and their fatal actions reveals the salience of race and the black-white divide; grief, loss, and outrage; and the embers of revenge. But what’s the truth? Find out by reading the perspectives of the main characters in my next post.

Read about how to use newspapers in your genealogy research here, and scroll to the bottom of the page to leave a comment or subscribe to be notified when new posts are made.

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Footnotes

1. “About the Opelousas Courier,” Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83026389).
2. “Yellow Journalism,” Wikipedia, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism).
3. The Digitizing Louisiana Newspaper Project (DLNP) features images of the pages from 128 of the newspapers that were published in Louisiana between 1836 through 1922.  The Chronicling America initiative includes eight additional papers in its list covering the same time frame.
4. “About the St. Landry Clarion,” Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88064250). Also, “About the Opelousas Courier,” Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83026389).
5. Search results for “Chevis” and “Dr. Courtney” for the period 1895-1897: Newspapers.com.
6. “A Mob after Them,” The Daily Town Talk, 21 September 1895, Saturday; digital images, Newspapers.com (newspapers.com); citing original, p. 3, col. 3. Also, “Alexandria, La.- In Jail to Prevent Lynching,” The Times-Democrat, 22 September 1895, Sunday; digital images, Newspapers.com (newspapers.com); citing original, p. 8, col. 1.
7. “The Murder of Dr. D.T. Courtney by Negroes:  A Hemp Rope the Logical Sequel, the Murderers in Jail, ” The St. Landry Clarion, 28 September 1895, Saturday; digital images, Newspapers.com (newspapers.com); citing original, p. 3, cols. 2-3.
8. Dr.. D.T. Courtney, The Crowley Signal, 28 September 1895, Saturday; digital images, Newspapers.com (newspapers.com); citing original, p. 8, cols. 3.