Albert bringing cane to the mill.
In 1874, Auguste Pierre Levert Sr. and Col. Louis Bush founded the Bush & Levert brokerage. Their firm loaned money to sugar planters and foreclosed on plantations when they couldn't pay. Eventually, the men built a fortune from the firm and acquired four sugar cane plantations in Iberville and West Baton Rouge parishes. When Levert Sr. died in 1886, his sons Jean-Baptiste, Auguste Jr., and Amedee inherited equal shares of these plantations.
On July 29, 1887, Alexandre Etienne DeClouet, a St. Martin Parish sugar planter, had his Magenta, St. Claire, and Lizima plantations foreclosed by Bush & Levert. In 1890, Jean-Baptiste Levert bought out Bush's stake in the company. He now became the sole owner of all three plantations. Levert then renamed the Lizima Plantation Levert-St.John.
Originally, mules hauled the sugar cane in carts to the mills. As the plantations expanded, it became more difficult for the mules to haul heavier loads over longer distances. Jean-Baptiste, who sent his 19-year-old son Albert to run Levert-St.John, oversaw the construction of a 36-inch narrow-gauge railroad.
The little branch line had 25 miles of track extending from St. Martinville to Catahoula Lake and Coteau Holmes. Its first locomotive purchased from the Dickson Manufacturing Co. was an 0-6-2RT built for the railroad in September 1898. She was named "Stephanie" after Jean-Baptiste Levert's late wife, Stephanie Marie Levert, who died in May 1898. Another engine was later built by H.K. Porter, a 0-4-4T, in September 1910. This engine was originally built for M.A. Patout & Son's Enterprise Plantation in Jeanerette, LA. It was eventually found to be too big for their operations and was traded to Leveret-St. John. The locomotive was named "Beatrice" after Jean and Stephanie's daughter, Anna Beatrice.
On July 29, 1887, Alexandre Etienne DeClouet, a St. Martin Parish sugar planter, had his Magenta, St. Claire, and Lizima plantations foreclosed by Bush & Levert. In 1890, Jean-Baptiste Levert bought out Bush's stake in the company. He now became the sole owner of all three plantations. Levert then renamed the Lizima Plantation Levert-St.John.
Originally, mules hauled the sugar cane in carts to the mills. As the plantations expanded, it became more difficult for the mules to haul heavier loads over longer distances. Jean-Baptiste, who sent his 19-year-old son Albert to run Levert-St.John, oversaw the construction of a 36-inch narrow-gauge railroad.
The little branch line had 25 miles of track extending from St. Martinville to Catahoula Lake and Coteau Holmes. Its first locomotive purchased from the Dickson Manufacturing Co. was an 0-6-2RT built for the railroad in September 1898. She was named "Stephanie" after Jean-Baptiste Levert's late wife, Stephanie Marie Levert, who died in May 1898. Another engine was later built by H.K. Porter, a 0-4-4T, in September 1910. This engine was originally built for M.A. Patout & Son's Enterprise Plantation in Jeanerette, LA. It was eventually found to be too big for their operations and was traded to Leveret-St. John. The locomotive was named "Beatrice" after Jean and Stephanie's daughter, Anna Beatrice.
Albert's builder photo prior to being delivered from the Davenport Locomotive Works.
The line's last steam locomotive was built the same month as Beactrice by the Davenport Locomotive Works. Named Albert after Jean's son, Albert O. Levert, it was the largest steam engine on the plantation. She originally had a kerosene headlamp and friction brakes. In the 1930s, her headlamp was upgraded to electric powered by steam-driven generators. Albert was used for the long-haul run to Catahoula Lake.
Twice every day, the trio of steamers pulled about 13 open-top cane cars filled with hundreds of tons of sugar cane to the mills. There were 11 stations along the line where planters could load their cane into the cars. The "dummy" trains, as engineers called them, would stop at each station's derricks and load cane into the company's various 23 10-ton and 230 5-ton cars. |
Albert at one of the sugar mills.
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A makeshift wooden derrick loading sugar cane.
Cherokee Wonderland was a short-lived western-themed amusement park on the Cherokee Indian Reservation off U.S. 441 in Cherokee, North Carolina. It was the brainchild of Eric Mitchell, who died in 1957 before his idea ever took off. After four years of planning by four Knoxville men, one of whom was Eric's brother Hubert, the $4,000,000 idea became a reality in 1961.
Encircling the 98.2-acre park was the approximately two-mile, three-foot narrow-gauge Cherokee Wonderland Railroad. Albert provided many rides to happy visitors passing by the scenic Oconaluftee River and the recently dredged man-made Inland Lakes. Along the route, riders also saw stagecoaches on the wagon trek trails and an Indian village complete with a staged Indian attack. In 1963, Albert's lease with Cherokee Wonderland was up. George Roose, who at the time was looking for steam locomotives for the Cedar Point and Lake Erie Railroad, picked up Albert. When Albert's lease to the CP&LE ended in 1965, it was purchased. |
Eventually, in the 1940s, activity on the rail line began to dwindle because of trucks and tractors. Soon, portions of the line were abandoned because of this. By 1947, Albert had been retired after her boiler was condemned. When Beatrice's boiler was condemned in 1951, it was decided to replace Albert's boiler and give the locomotive a complete overhaul, which included new tires. Albert was given the last riveted boiler replacement (1955) in the United States before Davenport closed.
Finally, in 1959, Levert-St. John discontinued their narrow-gauge line. All the rail equipment was sold for scrap to Lionel Sutton's, Sutton Junk and Salvage Company in New Iberia, LA. Albert, however, was spared from being scrapped. In 1960, Arthur E. LaSalle of the newly formed American Railroad Equipment Association, Inc., purchased Albert. Most of the company's business was locating rail equipment around the country for potential buyers. He would oversee the equipment's restoration for each order. Albert was refurbished and backdated to appear as a Civil War-era locomotive, per request for the Cherokee Wonderland Amusement Park. |
A colorized postcard of Albert at Cherokee Wonderland in 1961.
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A newspaper advertisement for Cherokee Wonderland June 24, 1962.
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