The O'Neal Store at Bellevue 1900's-1910's
In
her latest column for the Bossier Press Tribune, “The
Bossier Parish Boy who More than Made Good,” our Director Ann Middleton
excerpted the words of a writer for the
June 28, 1928 issue of The Bossier Banner who took pleasure in introducing
a friend, former playmate and schoolmate named W. P. O’Neal, known to him as “Pierce:”
“Mr. O’Neal was born and reared at old Bellevue, removed
with the members of his father’s family from that place to Benton about the
time the town became the parish seat and his employment during the days if his
youth, when not a student in the home schools, was to clerk in his father’s
general merchandise store, both here and in Bellevue. He left Benton for
New Orleans twenty-eight years ago, and we happen to know that he reached that
city with only 75 cents in change in his pocket—and fewer changes of underwear
in his weather-beaten suitcase. But he had the determination to
succeed—bulldog tenacity—and did. Being stranded and in a city, among
strangers, did not daunt him in the least, as his rapid rise in commercial life
reflects. Recently he was elected president of the Louisiana Bankers’ Association,
which is the highest office the bankers of the state can bestow upon any one of
their members."
I would add that “Pierce” ‘made good,’ no doubt, but he
was also lucky. Mr. W.P. O'Neal was president of
the Louisiana Bankers Association for the year 1928-29 in a "bull
market." Imagine the year his successor must have had for 1929-1930, the
time of the Great Stock Market Crash of (late)
1929. Ironically, the mass of stories like Mr. W.P. O'Neal's, rural Americans
emigrating to cities with hopes of a more prosperous life in the rising
industrial sector, is often blamed as a significant factor in the crash. While
American cities prospered, major migration from rural areas and the resulting
neglect of US agriculture created financial hopelessness among American farmers
and instability for the US economy.
No comments:
Post a Comment