La. 182 memorializes Louisiana doughboys

In 1916, the United States government pledged millions of dollars over a five-year period for Louisiana roads. And according to a Sept. 2, 1916, article in the Morgan City Daily Review, P.M. Milner, president of the Louisiana Good Roads Association, said Louisiana would subsidize an even greater amount.
At the time, groundwork was being performed for the Jefferson Highway which began at the corner of St. Charles and Common Streets in New Orleans. The route was proposed to remain on the east bank of the Mississippi River, meandering in a northwesterly direction near Donaldsonville, and on to Baton Rouge, cross the Mississippi River at Port Allen, and then cross the Atchafalaya River by ferry at Melville.
From there the Jefferson Highway would continue through Lebeau, Bunkie, Alexandria, Shreveport and remain northward to Winnipeg, Canada. The federal highway was reportedly 25 percent complete at that time.
Published in the same newspaper as above on the same date and page was an article that reported the Standard Oil Co., which would be an archenemy of Huey Long, had recently completed a plant in Baton Rouge for the manufacturing of “every variety of street paving asphalt and surface oils.”
At the time, Standard Oil was one of the largest corporations in the world. And to prove its reliability and knowledge in road construction, the Bayou Sara Road and another unnamed road in East Baton Rouge Parish had recently been completed by the petroleum giant. The ingredients were said to be a “combination of Tioga gravel from Alexandria sheeted with an eighty-five percent mixture of liquid asphalt on clean sand and pea gravel,” which reportedly cost 8 to 10 cents per yard. The good roads movement in Louisiana credited Standard Oil Co. as being one of their most consistent supporters.
In March 1919, following on the heels of the good roads movement, a women’s organization proposed planting more than 100,000 trees along both sides of the Jefferson Highway to commemorate the soldiers of World War I. The announcement was made by Mrs. Virgil Brown of the Louisiana Federation of Women’s Club.
Mrs. Brown was the first woman in New Orleans to advocate the planting of trees for this worthwhile effort.
An assortment of native trees was chosen for the project, such as pecans, water oaks, poplars and palms. Mrs. A. F. Storm of Morgan City was the president of the state organization at the time. She appointed one woman in each of the 17 parishes where the highway was constructed.
The plan called for a number to be placed on each tree. These numbers were to be kept in a bronze tablet in each parish courthouse along with the corresponding name of the soldier to the specific numbered tree.
The trees were to be planted in localities where they would most likely thrive best.
For instance, the poplar trees would be planted in the northern sections of the state, while the pecans, water oak and palms were to be planted closer to New Orleans.
The organization didn’t want the rows of trees to be reminders of deaths and funerals.
They wanted to commemorate all of the World War I soldiers regardless if they made the supreme sacrifice or not. The ladies had the full co-operation of the State Highway Association and the Good Roads Bureau of New Orleans.
Also in 1921, according to The St. Mary Banner of Dec. 10 that year, a women’s organization began a beautification project for their part of national highways extending through St. Mary Parish. Their highway was the General Pershing Highway and the Old Spanish Trail, which in St. Mary Parish was one and the same.
However, beginning in 1921 Louisiana began a system of numbering its state highways instead of naming them.
Today that highway is La. 182. As you drive along the backroads, perhaps you’ve noticed some of the trees from the memorial avenues of trees.
This column was written by William Thibodeaux, who contributes occasional articles on Acadiana history to Louisiana State Newspapers.