Notes |
- From the Crowley Signal 11-4 -84 by Mary Alice Fontenot.
The southwest Louisiana rice industry brought the first member of the Bier family to Crowwley, Charles J. Bier, native of New York, came here in 1900 from New Orleans, and became involved with the irrigation, milling, and marketing of rice. In 1900 Bier was manager of the People's Rice Mill; in 1901 he became a stockholder in Miller-Morris Canal Co., later bought stock in a brokerage firm. From an historical standpoint, however, Bier's chief distinction was his connection with the first rice packaging plant in the United States, In Crowley. John Green had machinery installed in the Crowley Rice Mill in 1902, and the business was chartered under the name of Columbia Rice Packing Co. Some of the giants in the business invested in the packing plant: A. Kaplan, C.J. Freeland, W.H. Hunter Jr., J.B. Foley, John Green, A.B. Allison and Dan Blum. The venture, however, was short-lived; the plant is believed to have ceased operations after 1904. Charles J. Bier was a veteran of the Civil War. There is no record of the year that the family moved to New Orleans, but it was there that Charles fell in love and married Mary Stephenson. Their son, Walter, and his wife, Elizabeth, were the parents of the eight children who took firm root in Crowley. Pioneers Walter's wife, Elizabeth, was the daughter of Dr. W.D. White and Lucinda Lyons of Abbeville. The Lyons, one of Acadia's pioneer families, settled here during the Spanish Colonial era. Walter attended college in Bowling Green Ky., majoring in business. He and E.L. Savoie went together to the Kentucky college. Like his father, he was associated with the rice milling industry. He worked under his father at the People's mill, then at several mills in Crowley, in both the clean and rough rice departments. Later he began doing income tax work, as he was a certified public accountant. When Walter started work at the People's he and Dan Fietel, the office boy at the mill, became good friends, and Dan was godfather to the Bier's first child, Winnie, the late Mrs. Warren W. Millet. The other seven children of Walter and Elizabeth Bier were Viola, first married to Johnny Blessen, now to Nelson Jodon; Walter Jr., married to Dorothy Caillouet of Rayne; Clyde, married to Bertha Hoffpauir of Rayne; Willie Louo, Mrs. Linton Sarver; Clarence, married to Blanche "Pud" Capel; Wayne, married to Connie Suiter. A Record Viola, the only one left of the eight, "took root" at Crowley's First National Bank, and has set a record of sorts for the city's career women. She has ben at First National for a total of 52 years. Not only has she racked up that impressive work reord at one institution, but she also worked at two banks, also H.G. Cottam Wholesale, for Merrick Bernard, civil engineer; Thompson Implement, the Nick Broussard garage, and Grahm's. For the most part her work with the smaller establishments consisted in keeping small sets of books, which she began doing part-time while still in high school, then full time after graduation. And she also worked with her husband at the Blessen garage. Viola likes to remember when she played soft ball, a sport once very popular in Crowley. "I played on the team with Verna Sudswicher and Grace LeBland. We were serious ball players!" When Viola Bier and Johnny Blessen were married, L.M. Davies made up a play-on-words pun and had it printed in the Crowley Signal: "Beer has always been a curse, but today Bier is a Blessen!" Bevo The Second child in the family, Walter Jr., was known to all and sundry as "Bevo." When Walter was a kid Henry Duson would walk past the Bier residence and see Walter sitting on the fence. "Mister Henry" always greeted his young friend.
|