The Young-Sanders Center for the Study of the War Between the States in Louisiana was established in the spring of 1996 in Morgan City, Louisiana. The Center was, and is, committed to a traditionalist and historically accurate examination of the antebellum period, the War Between the States, and the “Reconstruction Era” in all parts of Louisiana with emphasis on military campaigns and battles, the daily life of soldiers and civilians, and the political, social, and economic impact of Federal invasion and occupation on the people of the Bayou State. In February 2000, the Center was closed in Morgan City.
On June 9, 2003, the Young-Sanders Center Foundation, Incorporated, purchased two buildings, formerly used by the local Elks Lodge, which are located on scenic Bayou Teche in Franklin, Louisiana. Today, the Young-Sanders Center for the Study of the War Between the States in Louisiana, through its extensive library featuring two special collections as well as an abundance of additional primary and secondary materials, provides an extraordinary research facility for scholars and casual visitors alike. In addition, a large meeting hall offers ample space for symposia, workshops, and “living history” presentations. While the Center is chiefly devoted to an understanding of the Southern perspective, which reflects Louisiana’s sympathies during the War Between the States, the collection and presentations provide a balanced view of the conflict and its aftermath.
The Center was named in honor of two of the early families which settled in what became eastern St. Mary Parish, Louisiana. Olympus Young was a native of Kentucky who arrived in St. Mary Parish in the 1830s and became a successful sugar planter. He and his family were neighbors of the Wofford and Sanders families. Young married Pauline Patout Rawles and the couple had three daughters. Following the death of his first wife, he married Mehitable McClellan, a native of Maine, by whom he had two sons, one of whom, Hugh, was born in 1865 in Rusk County, Texas where the family had sought refuge from the Federal invaders during the War Between the States while the other was born in St. Mary Parish in 1868.
Jared Young Sanders I was born March 8, 1791 in Chester County, South Carolina. His parents moved to Adams County, Mississippi and then, in 1815, to Wilkinson County, Mississippi. Shortly thereafter, Jared Young Sanders I followed his uncle, James Sanders, to western St. Mary Parish, Louisiana. In 1818, he married Rachel Nixon Hulick, a native of New Jersey, whose family had recently arrived in St. Mary Parish.
Jared Young Sanders I and his beloved wife, Rachel, were blessed with a large family. The youngest son, his father’s namesake, Jared Young Sanders II was born in 1839 on the Sanders plantation near Franklin. A short time later, Jared and Rachel sold their property in western St. Mary Parish and established Inglewood Plantation near Brashear which is today Morgan City.
Jared Young Sanders II was sent to his father’s native state to complete his education and, in December, 1860, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree from South Carolina College, which is now the University of South Carolina, in Columbia. The election of Abraham Lincoln, a proponent of unbridled Federal power, to the presidency in 1860 convinced the states of the South that the only hope for the preservation of states’ rights lay in secession from the Federal Union. A new nation, the Confederate States of America, was established in February, 1861. Lincoln’s refusal to withdraw Federal troops from Confederate territory led to war in April of that year; and Jared Young Sanders II became a lieutenant, and ultimately a captain, in Company B of the 26th Louisiana Infantry Regiment. He served with distinction during the conflict and participated in the defense of Vicksburg.
On his twenty-ninth birthday, February 4, 1868, Jared Young Sanders II married his childhood sweetheart, Elizabeth Alzira Wofford. The couple had many children, the first of whom was Jared Young Sanders III who would, in 1908, become Governor of Louisiana. Jared Young Sanders III and Byrnes Young, the second son of Olympus Young, were life-long friends. In 1996, it seemed both natural and right to name this Center which is dedicated to the honor, the nobility, and the heritage of Louisiana, after two neighboring families who typified the bonds of friendship, commitment, and duty which characterize the traditions of our state.
