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ERATH — A Mass of Christian Burial for Mrs. Peggy Romero LeBlanc, 77, will be held at 2:00 PM on Friday, July 8, 2022 at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church with Monsignor Douglas Courville officiating.  Interment will follow at the LeBlanc Cemetery.
Visitation will be held at David Funeral Home of Erath on Thursday, July 7, 2022 from 5:00 PM until 9:00 PM with a recitation of the rosary at 6:00 PM.  Visitation will resume on Friday, July 8, 2022 from 9:00 AM until the time of the services.
A native and lifelong resident of Erath, Peggy passed away peacefully on June 26, 2022 at her residence in Erath surrounded by her family. Peggy graduated from Erath High School in 1962. After graduation, she married her childhood sweetheart and the love of her life, John Earl; she then went to work at Suire’s Clothing Store where she worked for over 30 years.
She was a member of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church where she served as a Eucharist Minister and was a member of the Catholic Daughters of America and Ladies Alter Society. Peggy served on the Board of Directors for the Erath 4th of July celebration for many years. She was a faithful prayer warrior and a loving wife, mother, grandmother, sister and friend. Peggy adored her beloved sister and friend, Diana, who was always there for her, loving and supporting her from childhood to the end.  And Peggy especially loved her grand-kids, who she adored and spoiled from the deepest part of her heart.  She never missed celebrating a single event in her grandkids life and made sure to always go over and beyond to acknowledge all of their accomplishments no matter how big or small.  She will be missed dearly by all that knew her. 
Survivors include her loving husband of 58 years, John Earl LeBlanc of Erath; two sons, John Felix LeBlanc of the LeBlanc Community and Gregory LeBlanc and his wife Brooke of Maurice; five grandchildren, Alex LeBlanc, Emma LeBlanc, Brilee LeBlanc, Kate LeBlanc, and Luke LeBlanc; a sister, Diana Ortemond; a Godchild, Christina Franques and her husband Andre’ and their children, Mary Catherine, Anna Grace, Jeanne Claire, and Laura Anne; a nephew, Lance Ortemond and his wife Kelly and their children, Caroline, Catherine, and Madeline; a brother-in-law, Stephen LeBlanc and his wife Jolynn; two nieces, Shannon Durham (Godchild), and Melissa Vincent; and a nephew, Troy LeBlanc.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Frank Felix and Laura Mae LeBlanc Romero; a brother-in-law, Leon Ortemond; a nephew, David Ortemond; and her in-laws, Simon and Ida Rose Thibeaux LeBlanc.
Serving as pallbearers will be Lance Ortemond, Andre’ Franques, Alex LeBlanc, Christopher Davis, Tommy LeBlanc, and Jake Landry. 
Honorary pallbearers will be Luke LeBlanc, Terran Menard, Shane Suire, Bart Bouillion, Edson Davis and Stephen LeBlanc.
Lectors will be Christina Franques and Brooke LeBlanc. Gift Bearers will be her grandchildren,  Emma, Brilee, Kate and Luke LeBlanc. Leah Mergist, soloist, and Lance Mergist, accompanied by Frances Marie Toups, organist, will provide the music for the services. Music selections will be “Amazing Grace” and “On Eagles’ Wings”.
The family would like to extend a special thanks to Brooke LeBlanc for the exceptional care she gave her mother-in-law, Peggy;  as well as Dr. Diogo Torres, and nurses Kelly Corvers, Taylor Baggarley, Cherie Wooldridge, Jessica Taylor, and Melody Theriot.
You may sign the guest register book and express condolences online at www.davidfuneral.org
 David Funeral Home of Erath at 209 E. Putnam St. (337) 937-0405 will be handling the arrangements.

VERMILION PARISH – Shortly after 7:15 a.m. on July 3, 2022, Troopers from Louisiana State Police Troop I were notified of a single-vehicle crash on Louisiana Highway 35 near W. Liberty Farm Road in Vermilion Parish. The crash took the life of 49-year-old Larry August Ragas, Jr. of Franklinton.
The initial investigation by State Police revealed that the crash occurred as Ragas was driving a 2014 Nissan Armada north on LA 35. For reasons still under investigation, the vehicle ran off the roadway to the right, struck a bridge rail, and overturned.
Ragas was not restrained and was ejected from the Nissan. He was pronounced dead at the scene by the Vermilion Parish Coroner’s Office. A toxicology sample was obtained for analysis and this crash remains under investigation.
Louisiana State Troopers would like to take this opportunity to remind motorists to always make good decisions while operating motor vehicles. Never drive while impaired, fatigued, or distracted, always ensure every occupant is properly restrained, and follow all traffic laws. While not all crashes are survivable, taking simple precautions such as these can often mean the difference between life and death.
Troop I has investigated 22 fatal crashes resulting in 25 deaths in 2022.

March 25, 1937 ~ June 24, 2022

KAPLAN — Funeral services will be held at 11:00 AM on Saturday, July 2, 2022 at Vincent Funeral Home - Kaplan honoring the life of Arville Touchet, 85, who died Friday, June 24, 2022. He will be laid to rest at Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Cemetery with Reverend Mark Miley officiating the services. Serving as pallbearers will be Terry Mire, Mario Barreto, Cedric Babineaux, Steve Clostio, John Duhon and Matt Greene. Landon Folsom and Gus Babineaux will be honorary pallbearers.
At the age of eight Arville began working in the rice fields with his father, which was where his knowledge of soils began. Arville attended Kaplan High School. It was there under the teaching and leading of his agriculture teacher, Mr. Art Lazard Landry, that his formal soil education began. After graduating in 1955, he began college at SLI majoring in Agronomy, studying crops and soils. Upon graduating from SLI in 1959, he got a job at USDA Soil Conservation Service in Alexandria. He received his Master’s Degree in Agronomy which led him to become the Louisiana State Soil Scientist, earning several promotions allowing him to oversee 17 states. His expertise has been used in publishing maps of the parish soils for our state.
Arville’s ability to speak French opened the door for him to do work in the French speaking countries of Africa, through the University of Ghent in Belgium. In 1992, he retired from the USDA SCS and developed his own consulting business. He did some lecturing on soil at UL, and was an Adjunct Professor at LSU in Wetland Studies. He has also served as expert witness in trial cases regarding wetland issues. Arville was also very grateful for the mentor he had in Dr. Charles Cain, his college professor who continued to help him throughout his career.
He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Annie Grace Mire Touchet of Kaplan; his son, Timothy Arville Touchet and his wife, Joni of Harmony, FL; his daughter, Tina Carolyn Folsom of Abbeville; his grandson, Jeremy Daniel Folsom and his wife, Kecia of Maurice; his two great grandchildren, Landon Folsom and Avery Folsom; and his two sisters, Shirley Thibodeaux of Kaplan and Zula Perry of Alexandria.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Semar Touchet and the former Alix LeBlanc; one son-in-law, Larry W. Folsom; his sister, Marie Abshire; and his brother, Philip Touchet.
The family requests that visiting hours be observed at Vincent Funeral Home - Kaplan, 300 N. Eleazar Ave., on Friday, July 1, 2022 from 2:00 PM until 9:00 PM with a rosary being prayed at 7:00 PM; Saturday, July 2, 2022 from 8:00 AM until the time of the services at 11:00 AM.arrangements are being conducted by Vincent Funeral Home of Kaplan, (337) 643-7276 [Service Information 225-5276]. Condolences may be sent to the Touchet family at www.vincentfuneralhome.net.

Questions turned into consternation when a mysterious stranger tried to buy every square inch of public land in Cameron Parish in 1883.
The news of the offer first appeared in the Lake Charles Commercial in May, in a report that “a gentleman from Cameron Parish … went to Baton Rouge [to buy] some State lands, and was informed … that an application had already been made [for] all of the State lands in that parish.”
The Cameron gentleman was so flummoxed that he “returned as he went, not even being able to ascertain who it was that made application for the lands.”
The Commercial’s editors complained that “a large proportion” of the land bought in this “land grab” had been “fraudulently entered at the rate of 12½ cents an acre as lands subject to tidal overflow.” The newspaper claimed the land was actually dry and worth 75 cents an acre, but that the sale was likely to stand because state law regulating it was “nothing but an encouragement to fraud and perjury.”
The buyer turned out to be Kansas banker Jabez B. Watkins, who saw things in the marsh mud that others had missed. Opinion changed after he explained his plans to the New Orleans Item. People decided he was a fool, not a fraud.
It turned out he was neither.
“He is quite a young man, but seems to be full of that calm determined energy which is certain to achieve success,” the Item reported. “He says he has heard so much of Louisiana swamps and marshes that curiosity impelled him to come and take a look at them, and the more he saw the higher his appreciation rose.”
He eventually bought up more than a million acres in Cameron and Calcasieu parishes, paying 12½ cents for marshland but a little more for higher ground. The New Orleans States reported later that “knowing ones” said “nearly the entire parish of Cameron has been purchased … and that the name of the parish will shortly be changed from Cameron to Watkins.”
The southwest Louisiana wetlands had until then been regarded as useless for anything but grazing cattle, and not very useful for that. But Watkins assured the newspapers that “if leveled and drained … they will be … quite as productive as the finest alluvial lands in the State.”
He said he intended to begin a huge reclamation project, using “the finest machinery which can be obtained. … Large drains will be made, half a mile apart, levees will be constructed wherever necessary, and where the ground is sufficiently drained for cultivation steam gang-plows of the most approved pattern will be used to turn up the virgin soil and subject it to the mellowing influence of the sun and the atmosphere.”
Watkins said no land anywhere in Louisiana would be better suited for growing rice, oranges, sugarcane, and other crops. Reclamation would be “expensive and relatively slow,” he said. Land not suitable for crops would be “devoted as far as possible to grazing … [such] as the stock [that] will be placed thereon [and] the climate and conditions will bear.”
His plan for rice fields in the lowest parts of the marsh did not work out. Levees made by stacking marsh mud on top of marsh mud were too soggy and porous. But the rest of it turned out pretty well. The scheme was hugely successful on land where rice could be irrigated with fresh water. Watkins made a fortune.
It didn’t hurt anything that he was a peerless promoter. He bought a newspaper in New York to publicize his vision of a bountiful south Louisiana and later moved it to Lake Charles, where it became the forerunner to the American Press. He outfitted a railroad car with Louisiana products and his land company’s brochures and toured the Midwest. When yellow fever and malaria scares threatened to keep settlers away, Watkins organized the Telegraph Medicine Company to advertise and sell a patent medicine to take care of those and other diseases. He formed the Watkins Railroad to haul crops to market, built a mortgage banking conglomerate, and invested in other businesses drawn to south Louisiana by his success.
By the time he died in 1921 his business had grown into an empire with offices in Lake Charles. Dallas, New York, and London. His estate included seven corporations holding 200 smaller companies, more than 200 farms mostly in Kansas, and more than 100,000 acres of land in Texas and Louisiana.
Nobody described him then in anything but glowing terms. The foolish speculator was lauded as one of the greatest developers ever in south Louisiana.
You can contact Jim Bradshaw at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.