Historic Louisiana

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Above: Felix J. Dreyfous (1857-1946) was
one of the great Jewish reformers of New
Orleans. He practiced the notarial
profession in its most thorough and
complete form for more than half a century.
One of the early reformers, he supported
the creation of levee boards, the New
Orleans Dock Board, school reform, and
drainage reform.
COURTESY OF THE NEW ORLEANS CITY PARK.
Opposite: One of the greatest achievements
of reform was the construction of the New
Orleans sewerage and drainage system.
Mostly below sea level, it pumps every drop
of rain out to Lake Ponchartrain. It was not
until the late 1970s that it began to break
down. In the twenty-first century, due to
major federal funding, rebuilding the great
underground canals has begun. This map
shows that Broad Street is the major axis
because it is the lowest portion of the city.
From Broad Street water is pumped out to
secondary stations as the Seventeenth Street
Canal, Orleans Avenue, and the Main
Outfall Channel. The map is taken from the
Twenty-Eighth Semi-Annual Report
of the Sewerage and Water Board of
New Orleans.
HISTORIC LOUISIANA
70
State Supreme Court judge who had just voted
for the lottery company in its appeal for a writ
of mandamus. They mustered control of the
Democratic Convention that met on December
15, 1891. The anti-lottery faction bolted,
called their own convention, and reached an
agreement with the Farmers’ Alliance. They
selected Murphy Foster for governor and
Charles Parlange for lieutenant governor, both
staunch opponents of the lottery. The election
in April 1892, led to a reform victory and the
lottery amendment lost overwhelmingly. The
future of the lottery had already been sealed by
actions of the Federal Government. On
September 19, 1890, Congress passed a
measure prohibiting lottery solicitations or
tickets from the mails. Prosecutions of those
violating the law followed. In 1895 the
Louisiana Lottery moved to Honduras and
became the Honduras National Lottery.
After using the state’s power to suppress the
lottery, reformers turned to the state to solve a
variety of New Orleans’ ills. In 1900 the state’s
largest city, almost ten times larger than the
second largest city, operated much as it had in
1800. Its population of 287,000 accounted for
more than a quarter of the state’s population.
The reform agenda was a campaign for public
works. These public works comprised
drainage, flood protection, municipally
supplied pure water, the removal of sewerage,
and public ownership of the docks.
Early in April 1888, reformer and notary
Felix Dreyfous ran an advertisement in a
newspaper seeking anyone with a plan for
protection of the city from floods. Some
parishes had already tried levee boards. A
New Orleans Levee Board became the goal for
the reformers. The legislature approved it in
1890. It was a state agency with its board
appointed by the governor. The new board
had the power to tax and to expropriate land
necessary for levees, either in New Orleans or
the surrounding parishes. Action was needed
immediately, because 1890 brought flooding
right up to the city. Many areas upriver from
New Orleans, especially around Convent,
Louisiana, suffered from deep floods. The
river broke through the levee along the
western bank of Jefferson Parish, making the
Ames crevasse on Missouri and Pacific
Railroad property next to Westwego. The New
Orleans Levee Board’s initial work went into
Algiers because the Ames Crevasse channeled
water around to the rear of Algiers. Under the
direction of Major Benjamin Harrod, the
board constructed the rear levee during the
winter of 1890-91. It cost $14,000 and was
paid for in one year by the one mill tax. The
levee board sent Commissioner Ed
Eisenhauer to Holland to gather data on their
dikes and levees.
By Spring 1892 the board had built
twenty-one miles of new levees. All the levees
along both riverfronts, as well as the Old and
New Basin Canals, were expected to be
completed in 1892. The new levees used the
most up to date engineering data, calling for
a 3-on-1 slope with an 8-foot crown. They
were designed to extend as far as three feet
above the flood stage of 1890. Almost a
million board feet of cypress was employed in
revetting or facing the levees. The reformers
did not hesitate to oppose powerful
industrial forces in order to secure the city
from floods. As chairman of the levee board,
Felix Dreyfous sued the New Orleans and
Northeastern Railroad Company to compel it
to build a levee along Florida Walk. The
Board received a favorable decision in the
local court, and the Supreme Court turned
down the railroad’s appeal.
By 1896 the reformers were champing to
take control of city government from the ring.
With the assistance of Governor Murphy
Foster, who was running for reelection,
Walter Flower and a reform council swept
into power. The first step of the Flower
administration was to draft a new city charter,
one approved immediately by the legislature
in 1896. The new charter was thoroughly
“reform” and provided for the first real civil
service system. 1 At the next election the city
council was to be cut from twenty seven to
seventeen members. The new council
members also received $20 a month, an
innovation. The new charter followed the
recommendations of the Municipal Reform
League and enhanced the power of the mayor.
He now appointed most department heads.
The reformers went right to work and,
with the help of the state legislature, created a