Laura Walker – one of three

My Great-Grandmother

Daughter of William Walker and Philomene Camilla Dooley

Wife of David Marshall Carrow

Mother of Carrol Antony, Velma Mary, Nora Mae, Mary Louise, Willie Lee Therese (Billie), and Marcus Gerald

The Reconstruction Era was ending when Laura Walker was born 29 June 1875 in Lydia, Louisiana, ten years after the Civil War.^[1]St. Nicholas, (Lydia, Louisiana), baptism, v. 1, p. 94, Laura Walker, 29 June 1875, digital image from 1953 microfilm, supplied 18 October 2021 by Diocese of Lafayette … Continue reading Ulysses S. Grant was in his second term as President of the United States. Lydia is a very small town in Iberia Parish, Louisiana, about 9 miles northwest of Jeanerette, Louisiana.

Laura was the daughter of Philomene Camilla Dooley and William Walker.^[2]Laura Walker baptism, St. Nicholas. She may have been named after her aunt, Laura Amanda Dooley.^[3]Hebert, Southwest Louisiana Records, 1855-1860, 6:177. “Dooley, Laura Amanda (William & Melanie TOUPS b. 5 Oct.  1860 (Abbeville Ch. : v. 2, p. 46).”   From the baptismal record, it appears that Caroline Doulé (Dooley), half-sister of Laura’s mother, was godmother. The godfather’s name may be Adolphe Etier. Laura was the wife of David Marshal Carrow.^[4]Marriage License Mr. David M. Carrow and Miss Laura Walker, 24 August 1899, original in possession of Sindi Broussard Terrien. Also St. John the Evangelist, (Jeanerette, Louisiana), marriage,  … Continue reading  She died at the early age of 55 from what many described as a broken heart after the tragic death of her daughter, Mary Louise (Louise).^[5]“Obituary, Mrs. David Carraw,” The Daily Advertiser, Lafayette, Louisiana, 3 May 1930, page 7, col. 3; image copy, newspapers.com … Continue reading

In the area Laura Walker grew up, there were numerous farms and sugar plantations.  Living near Bayou Teche must have been wrought with mosquitos but beautiful with cypress, oak, ash and gum trees. To live in southern Louisiana means unrelenting heat, high humidity and hurricanes. The many trees in Louisiana brought the lumber industry to the Parish of Iberia in the 1880s. Sawmills, planing mills and sash factories were everywhere.

Two hurricanes struck the area where the Walker family lived 22-23 August and 1 September 1879 when Laura was four.^[6]Stanley LeBlanc, “Hurricanes, Floods and Fires in Louisiana History, thecajuns.com, (http://www.thecajuns.com/lahurricanes.htm : accessed 7 January 2021). The second hurricane did more damage to Jeanerette. Sawmills were destroyed and trees were stripped of their leaves. Winds were estimated to be between 75-80 mph. What happened to Laura’s home? Did she sleep through the devastation or cry in her mother’s arms?

When she was five years old, Laura’s family was living in the 1st Ward of Iberia.  She was the second child, with an older sister Luvinia, a younger sister Eleonora, and younger brother Joseph. Her widowed step-aunt, Sarah Monroe, age eighty-four, lived with the family. Just above the Walker family in the 1880 census record is Joseph and Louisa Dooley who is believed to be her mother’s uncle and and his wife who lived nearby. The family probably lived on or near a farm as William Walker’s occupation is that of working on a farm and Joseph Walker is listed as a farmer. ^[7]1880 U.S. census, Iberia, Louisiana, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 26, p. 321A, dwelling 366, family 403, William Walker household; National Archives and Records Administration … Continue reading 

In the neighborhood were her grandparents, James Walker and Julianne Azelema Patin, as well as her Walker aunts and uncles and their children.^[8]1880 U.S. census, Iberia, Louisiana, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 26, Jeanerette, p.320C, dwellings 349-352, family numbers not indicated, James Walker, Ursin Walker, Joseph Walker … Continue reading Her grandfather was also a farmer. Maybe she played with Julieanne and August Walker, her cousins who were about the same age as she.

If Laura did live on a farm as a child, she would be expected to gather eggs if they had chickens. As one of the older children in the family, she would have been responsible for her younger brothers and sisters. Her mother had nine children. (Philomene Camilla Dooley Walker’s story will be coming soon.) Laura was seventeen when the youngest child was born, a brother named Enoch. It is possible that the family would go to the nearby town of New Iberia for one of the wild west shows or listen to the brass bands or even watch a baseball game.

Since the 1890 United States Federal Census was destroyed by fire, tidbits of information about Laura and her family are hard to come by for the years between 1880 and 1900. The family spoke English and she and her brothers and sisters probably went to school during that time as they could read and write.^[9]1900 U.S. census, Iberia, Louisiana, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 38, Jeanerette, p.10, dwelling 195, family 196, David Carrow household and enumeration district (ED) 28, … Continue reading

Jeanerette was on the Morgan Louisiana and Texas Railroad line and the town was growing. In 1881 telephone lines ran between the depot in Jeanerette and Monin’s sugar house in the prairie.^[10]Michael R. Rogers, From the Illinois County to the Bayou Teche Country: With the Provosts and Quebedeaus, (2000), p. 146, document privately held by author. Did the Walker family have access to a telephone?

Would Laura have heard stories of a gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territory in 1881 or that Billy the Kid was killed that same year? Was there talk about Jesse James when he was killed the next year? Would the family have gone to the World’s Fair held in New Orleans in 1884? Did Laura’s father consider going to Oklahoma for the land run in 1889? It was said that he was a drinker and did not provide well for his family. In 1895, Pawnee Bill’s Wild West Show was in New Iberia. ^[11]The History of New Iberia, Glenn R. Conrad, September 3, 1932-June 4, 2003 (http://www.cityofnewiberia.com/site403.php : viewed 3 May 2017). This webpage is now defunct.  Surely, at age 20, Laura would have wanted to see that.

Laura Walker married David Carrow on 24 August 1899 at St. John the Evangelist Church in Jeanerette after filing their marriage license at the Iberia Parish Courthouse in New Iberia on 15 August. Their story will continue next week.

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