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Lafayette Parish

Who the USDA Helped: Three Crop Notices from One 1909 Louisiana Newspaper

May 22, 2026 by The Kinstructure Company

Composite image showing three newspaper clippings from page nine of the St. Landry Clarion of May 22, 1909, arranged left to right: "Crops In Lafayette" reporting boll weevil damage in Lafayette Parish, "Farmers Disappointed" reporting Irish potato crop failure in Avoyelles Parish, and "Other Moneyed Crops" reporting James Clayton's USDA-backed oats and hay success in East Baton Rouge Parish.

On May 22, 1909, the St. Landry Clarion ran three short notices on one page. Cotton was failing in Lafayette. Potatoes were failing in Avoyelles. Oats and hay were succeeding in East Baton Rouge with USDA help. This is what those three pieces document together.

Filed Under: Louisiana Heritage, The Great Migration, This Day In History Tagged With: 1909, agricultural extension, Avoyelles Parish, Black agricultural history, boll weevil, cotton, East Baton Rouge Parish, Great Migration, James Clayton, Lafayette Parish, Louisiana Creole history, Louisiana diaspora, St. Landry Clarion, tenant farming, USDA

Aurelia Godfrey Mitchell: The Lafayette Parish Widow Who Built the South Liberty Oil Field

May 19, 2026 by The Kinstructure Company

Portrait of Aurelia Godfrey Mitchell (1859 to 1940), a Black Creole woman from Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, who settled in Liberty County, Texas. She is shown seated, wearing a light-colored blouse, with silver hair parted in the center and round wire-frame glasses. Photograph hosted on Find a Grave Memorial ID 90549631.

Aurelia Godfrey Mitchell was born in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, in 1859 and died in Liberty County, Texas, in 1940. Between those two dates she built an oil and gas estate the Supreme Court of Texas construed twice. The wells still produce under her name today.

Filed Under: Black Creole History, Genealogy, Louisiana Diaspora, Louisiana Heritage, Women's History Wednesday Tagged With: Ames Texas, Aurelia Godfrey Mitchell, Black Creole, Black women in oil and gas, Black women landowners, Lafayette Parish, Liberty County Texas, Louisiana to Texas migration, Marie Jean Pierre, Mitchell v. Mitchell, Our Mother of Mercy Catholic Cemetery, Sosthène Godfrey, South Liberty oil field

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