CAROLA LILLIE HARTLEY
Contributing Writer
Recently I added another historic photograph to my extensive Opelousas collection. This one was about horse racing in the town. We know about the races held at Evangeline Downs today, and about the rural dirt racetracks around the parish in the last century. Although racing horses as a sport, and a business goes back over 200 years in Opelousas and St. Landry Parish, the history of this sport goes back thousands of years before that.
From research I’ve done on the history of horse racing, I learned the sport goes back thousands of years beginning soon after the horse was domesticated. The sport spread throughout the ancient world and was popular in Ancient Greece, Rome, Babylon, Syria and Egypt. Eventually it became popular in Europe, especially with aristocrats and royalty of British society, and was called the sport of kings. The British brought horseracing to America, and it is said the first racetrack was laid out on Long Island as early as 1665.
Horse racing is known to be the oldest spectator sport in the United States, and it was a favorite sport in the Antebellum South. That was the case in St. Landry Parish were the Bellevue Course in Opelousas was in operation during the 1820-1830s. In the 1840s, the St. Landry Jockey Club Course, with William Reed as Secretary, held races several times each year. In 1853 there was a 20-mile race in St. Landry Parish between a horse owned by William Henry Parrott and a stranger’s horse. As reported in the January 15, 1853, Opelousas Courier, Parrott’s horse won the race and the $150.00. In 1860, Martin Andrepont had a racetrack located on his land seven miles northwest of Opelousas.
The sport became even more popular in the parish following the Civil War. In the 1890s, the Jewell Farm Racetrack, located in Bellevue, about seven miles south of Opelousas, owned by Dr. L. Daly, was a popular one that attracted thousands of people from throughout Southwest Louisiana. It operated from 1891 to about 1895. The Opelousas Race Track, first owned by Dr. A. J. Bercier who sold it to L. B. Chachere in 1892, was also a popular place for those who enjoyed the sport of horseracing. That racetrack was reorganized in 1895 as a track for horse racing as well as foot and bicycle racing. The Jewell Farm Racetrack and the Opelousas Race Track featured races run by the famous horses of that time, including many called Ethan Allen Bred horses. (Ethan Allen (1849-1876) was a famous horse that is now in the Horse Racing Museum Hall of Fame.) The Sunny Side Race Track, used for horse racing as well as bicycle racing, also operated in Opelousas during the latter part of the 1890s.
By the turn of the twentieth century there were no more racetracks in Opelousas, but there were still several horse breeders in the area. The breeders proposed a new first class horse track and fair grounds was needed in the town. After several years, the Chinawood Stock Farm, located one and one-fourth miles Southeast of Opelousas, opened in 1907 and operated until about 1909. (It is interesting to note this racetrack was located on land in the area where the present Evangeline Downs is in Opelousas.) Chinawood, owned by Dr. Charles F. Boagni, was known across the US as the home of some of the best-bred stock of horses. Many horses from that farm were sold to owners in other states, with several going to Oklahoma. Chinawood also had a fine horse track for racing. Another leading horse breeder of that time was Major J. J. Thompson on his plantation and farm just outside of town. Besides having his own horse farm, Thompson, who was related by marriage to Dr. Boagni, was associated with him in the horse breeding business, serving as president of the Chinawood Breeders Association.
Who was J. J. Thompson?
The fourth of the ten children of Colonel James M. and Celestine Dupre Thompson, Jack J. Thompson, known as J. J., was born on March 10, 1852, in St. Landry Parish. J. J.’s father James was of English descent, born in 1818 on the ship that was transporting his parents to the United States where they settled in Illinois. James came to Louisiana after serving in the US military during the war with Mexico. He studied medicine in New Orleans and became a doctor in St. Landry Parish where he married his wife, Celestine Dupre. Following the Civil War, James Thompson gave up his medical practice and opened a large mercantile and drug store in Opelousas.
Eventually Colonel James Thompson was appointed St. Landry Parish Sheriff and later elected recorder of the parish, an office he held for four years. He was also president of the St. Landry Parish Police Jury. In 1867 after the Opelousas African Baptist Church was organized in a Blacksmith Shop on June 29th of that year, Rev, J. P. Davenport asked the St. Landry Parish Police Jury on August 16, 1869 for a donation of land to build a Church, parsonage and graveyard. James Thompson as Police Jury President, located and marked off the land and it was transferred to the church on that same day. It was the first Baptist Church in Opelousas. The first church building was constructed soon after and it became Little Zion Baptist Church that is still in Opelousas today. He died in 1885.
James’s son J. J. Thompson grew up in the Opelousas area, attending the local schools. He attended Louisiana State University but had health issues so did not complete his studies. He worked in the office of the parish sheriff and eventually was appointed the executive deputy in the tax collector’s office. He later became the Register of Voters for two years. After that job ended, he studied law in New Orleans, was admitted to the bar and practiced in Opelousas for a few years.
J. J. Thompson married Rosina “Rosa” Constance Boagni, born in Opelousas on April 12, 1855. She was the daughter of Vincent Henry Boagni, a wealthy St. Landry Parish physician, and his wife Susanne Littell. The couple had two daughters, Adela and Jennie.
Following his marriage to Rosa, J. J. left his law practice to live on his plantation and became a successful planter, growing sugar cane and cotton on his farm. After a few years his main business was stock raising and horse breeding. His horses participated in many of the state trotter races. Thompson’s horses won a lot of those races, and often he drove the winner.
Rosa Boagni Thompson died on June 2, 1888. Several months after the death of his wife, James J. Thompson coincided with Mary Estelle Newman. Born in Opelousas on July 16, 1879, Mary was the daughter of Major Newman and Mary E Sprigs. Through her relationship with J. J. Thompson, the couple had six children: Vertna Estelle Thompson Ballard born in St. Landry Parish in 1906, died in 1988; Florence Thompson Renaud born in St. Landry Parish in 1908, died in 2005; Earlyne Nydia Thompson Mason born in Opelousas in 1908, died in 1991; Leithe Velva Thompson Mcgruder, born in Opelousas in 1910, died in 2006; James Jackson Thompson, born in Opelousas in 1912, died in 1989; and Pearl Marie Thompson Mcgruder, born in Opelousas in 1914, died in 2015.
This relationship with Mary Newman was not appreciated by the family of his deceased wife Rosa Boagni, and J. J. Thompson was ostracized by many whites in the community. But Thompson was a man of different character for those times. He did not care what people thought, and he was always willing to help others and do what he knew was right. Following the start of his relationship with Mary Newman, Thompson built a small house on his Plantation where he and his shadow black family lived until his death.
Following the death of J. J., Mary Estelle Newman Thompson later married a Cunningham and lived out the rest of her life in Opelousas where she passed away on March 15, 1970.
Thompson was involved with many of the different Opelousas racetrack businesses for several years during his lifetime. He also had other business interests as well and served on the Board of Directors of the St. Landry State Bank in Opelousas. At one time he served as Vice-President of that bank. He was involved in the town and parish community in many ways and worked with the St. Landry Parish School Board on several committees including the one for the building of the St. Landry High School in 1893.
Thompson was active in local and state politics, serving as a member of the parish Democratic Committee for many years. He was elected treasurer of St. Landry Parish in June of 1888. He ran in the race for Louisiana state Senator in 1900 and won that election. He served as state Senator until the end of 1907, choosing not to run for re-election in that race. When he was in office, he was described in newspaper articles as one of the best-known citizens of Southwest Louisiana.
J. J. Thompson died on Tuesday, January 2, 1917, at the Opelousas Sanitarium. Funeral services were held at his plantation home right outside of Opelousas, with burial in the St. Landry Catholic Church Cemetery.
