Top of page

Notice
Special holiday hours in effect, December 2025 through January 2026. More information.
Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper St. Landry Clarion (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921 Saint Landry clarion / Clarion

View All Front Pages

About St. Landry Clarion (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921

The St. Landry Clarion was founded in 1890 in Opelousas, an important town on the so-called “Cajun Prairie” of south-central Louisiana. Established in 1720 as a French trading post, Opelousas developed into a regional cattle and farming center. A railroad line constructed in 1880 stimulated agricultural activity. Lumber also became an important local industry with the founding of the St. Landry Lumber Company in 1888. By 1910, the town’s population had grown to about 4,000. With boosterism typical of the time, the St. Landry Clarion asserted in 1908 that Opelousas “has taken a new lease on life…Progress is written all over town.”

Published under the motto “Here shall the press the people’s rights maintain, unawed by influence and unbribed by gain,” the Clarion was originally a four-page weekly. Democratic in politics, it opposed the Louisiana Lottery, a revenue-raising scheme widely regarded as a corrupting influence on state government. It also supported the Farmers’ Alliance and published the proceedings of the local farmers’ union. Edited for many years by Raymond Breaux, the paper’s reporting was a mix of local, national, and international news. For a brief period in the 1890s, one page was printed in French. In the early 1900s, the Clarion’s fiction section was reduced in favor of increased local reporting on topics such as the south Louisiana oil and gas boom and immigration to the region; at the same time, the paper was expanded to eight pages. Reporting on other topics included the Good Roads movement, the effect of World War I on local life, and news from nearby Grand Coteau, site of the Academy of the Sacred Heart, a well-known Catholic girls’ school.

In 1921, the St. Landry Clarion was consolidated with the Star-Progress to form the Clarion-Progress.

Provided By: Louisiana State University; Baton Rouge, LA

About this Newspaper

Title

  • St. Landry Clarion (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921

Other Title

  • Saint Landry clarion
  • Clarion

Dates of Publication

  • 1890-1921

Created / Published

  • Opelousas, La. : St. Landry Print. and Pub. Co.

Headings

  • -  Opelousas (La.)--Newspapers
  • -  Louisiana--Opelousas
  • -  United States--Louisiana--Saint Landry--Opelousas

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (Oct. 11, 1890)-v. 32, no. 4 (Nov. 19, 1921).
  • -  Available on microfilm from Louisiana State University Library.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format as part of the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  In English and French, Nov. 22, 1890-.
  • -  Star-progress (DLC)sn 88064249 (OCoLC)17616419
  • -  Clarion-progress (DLC)sn 88064251 (OCoLC)17616382

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn88064250

OCLC Number

  • 17616440

ISSN Number

  • 2332-5429

Succeeding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

The NEH awardee responsible for producing each digital object is presented in the Chronicling America page display, below the page image – e.g. Image produced by the Library of Congress. For more information on current NDNP awardees, see https://www.loc.gov/ndnp/listawardees.html.

For more information on Library of Congress policies and disclaimers regarding rights and reproductions, see https://www.loc.gov/homepage/legal.html

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

St. Landry Clarion Opelousas, La. -1921. (Opelousas, LA), Jan. 1 1890. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn88064250/.

APA citation style:

(1890, January 1) St. Landry Clarion Opelousas, La. -1921. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn88064250/.

MLA citation style:

St. Landry Clarion Opelousas, La. -1921. (Opelousas, LA) 1 Jan. 1890. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn88064250/.