St. Tammany Parish: L'Autre Cote Du Lac

A good local history is an excellent and

agreeable thing. It pleases on two counts. It satisfies the curiosity of the

inhabitants of a region, whether newcomers or old settlers, especially if no

adequate history had existed before. It dispels myths, corrects old wives'

tales. And, if the history is first-rate, it goes beyond a factual account of

persons and places, the particularities of a region, and shows the significance

of these human happenings in a larger scheme of things, in this case the

emergence of a new nation.

Ellis's history succeeds on both counts. It is a delightful and

authoritative account of lore which not even St. Tammanyites may have heard of.

Did you know, for example, that there was once a flourishing wine industry in

St. Tammany Parish? That local vineyards produced excellent red and white

wines, the red from Concord grapes, the white from Herbemont? Did you know that

in 1891 a rice crop of 50,000 barrels was harvested, half the entire output of

South Carolina? . . .

Ellis has rendered this pleasant and authoritative history in a graceful and

lively style and with a genuine affection for the people he writes about.

Walker Percy

From the Foreword