Churches always follow hard upon the founding of settlements. There is strong evidence the Methodist church in Vinton started at the same time as the town itself and may have offered the first organized services. However, much of the evidence is second-hand. No original sources remain. The committee that wrote the original history of the Vinton church in 1958 commented how the early years “was rich in legend and tradition” but steadfastly refused to give any details.

It is possible the settlers from Vinton, Iowa brought the church with them. There could have been a lay minister among the settlers, although the papers of the late R.M. Davis indicate that around 1888-1889 when Dr. John R. Miller, President Elder, came to Vinton he did not find an organized church. He noted Brother Gibson of Lake Arthur, who accompanied Dr. Miller, took charge of the Vinton church. At the same time, in a letter to Mrs. W.A. Sutton dated 31 July 1928, Reverend R.H. Wynn claimed that Brother R.P. Howell came to the area in May 1886 from Indian Bayou and preached in Vinton as part of his new pastorate, giving the first Methodist sermon in the community when he served as the pastor of the Sulphur Mines and Edgerly charge.

Church lore claims the congregation initially held their services in a local store and construction on a church building did not start until 1889. The church history noted young men without families served as stewards and other capacities in what was considered a mission station until 1900. Of the many lay persons and ministers to serve in Vinton, only the name of W. Schule has survived; no records remain of the others. Other churches would follow soon after, starting with the Catholic church.

At the same time Vinton was founded, a terrible hurricane struck near the mouth of the Sabine River on October 12, 1886, killing between 136 and 260 people. It would be the most destructive hurricane to hit the area until Audrey in 1957. Records suggest the storm was every bit as powerful as Audrey. Yet the event did little to stop the increasing influx of settlers.

Not even the extraordinary weather of 1895 made much impact. On February 14-15, 1895, the edge of the worst blizzard in American history touched southwestern Louisiana. The blizzard stretched from the Gulf Coast to New York, layering vast swathes of the country under snow drifts. Louisiana was not spared. A record 22 inches of snow fell on Lake Charles. Some areas reported snowfall between 18-24 inches. In Vinton, the cold crippled the new sheep industry and the farmers salvaged what they could by shaving wool from the dead flocks.

The final great spur to development in Southwest Louisiana made its appearance at the same time Vinton was founded and went unremarked upon. Although locals had recorded the location of petroleum springs along the Calcasieu River since 1839, no one thought of oil while drilling for sulfur in the early spring of 1886. No records tell of the reaction of the drilling crew when one mine struck oil instead of sulfur. The records do show that on March 25, 1886 at a depth of four hundred feet, a crew struck a pocket of oil, which yielded twenty-five barrels a day until the May 1887. When the well ran dry, the owners capped the site and everyone forgot about it until Spindletop ignited a new oil boom in 1901.

Oil changed the economic and demographic complexion of Texas and Louisiana when Captain Anthony Lucas struck oil at Spindletop on January 10, 1901. The results were astonishing. Beaumont grew from nine to fifty thousand people within a few weeks. When oil was found in Ged, not far from Vinton, it had a similar if lesser effect. The Vinton dome, some four miles to the southwest of the town, one of thirty-six such domes recorded before 1911, was discovered in 1901 but did not produce oil until 1910. At its height, some 1200 oil wells were drilled into the field.

Census data shows the town grew rapidly once incorporated, perhaps stimulated by the growing rice, sugar cane, cattle, and oil industries. In 1900, the population in Vinton numbered sixty-two people. The 1920 census listed a population of 1,441. By 1930 the number reached 1,989. The Great Depression led to a population drop by 1940 and Vinton did not recover until the 1950s when it saw another growth spurt in the post-World War 2 boom era.

Town Of Vinton, Louisiana

Town Of Vinton, Louisiana