William C. Chevis Was Editor of One of First Newspapers In Acadia

Golden Anniversary Edition of the Crowley Daily Signal Pub. 1949, page 87

William C. Chevis of Rayne was born in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, February 8, 1862. Dr. John W. Chevis, father of W.C., was born a native of Virginia, and was born in 1822. He removed to Louisiana in 1850, where he became a successful sugar planter before the war. The mother of Mr. Chevis, Martha Hayes, was born in what is now Acadia Parish, Louisiana in 1832.

He received his preparatory education in the public schools of Acadia Parish and later pursued a course of study at the University of Kentucky at Lexington, from which institution he graduated in 1884. After leaving school, he was for some time engaged as a bookkeeper and later as a school teacher.

Subsequently he became editor of the Acadia Sentinel, one of the first papers published in Acadia Parish. In 1889 he was appointed assessor of Acadia Parish by Governor Nicholls. He was the special correspondent of the "New Delta" at Baton Rouge, during the legislative session of 1890, in which capacity he enjoyed the distinction of representing at the State capitol the only anti-lottery daily published in New Orleans.

William C. Chevis