36th BIRTHDAY OF THE CROWLEY SIGNAL

Crowley Signal March 13, 1922

Thirty six years ago today, on March 13, 1886, the first copy of the Signal came from the press of its publishers, Felter & Addison, in Rayne, our prosperous sister town.

It was not the Crowley Signal then, but the Rayne Signal, which greeted the readers of what was at that time St. Landry parish, for this was even before Acadia Parish was carved from the mother parish of St. Landry, and as for Crowley – this now substantial city existed only in the minds of those who saw in the then worthless prairies an opportunity to build a city that would some day take rank with the leading centers of the state.

Not until 1887 was Crowley laid out on the Acadian plains, on land whose value can be indicated by the records of a sale of the 174 acre tract upon which the main business section of Crowley now stands sold for $80. less than 45 cents an acre.  Soon after the new town became the parish seat of the parish which it has retained and which has always identified with the progress made by the city and section since the first foundation of crowley’s success was laid on the unfenced, grassy land of old St. Landry.

The Signal has been issued each week since that time as a weekly paper and has grown in influence and favor with each passing year.  The Daily Signal started on September 1, 1898, by L.S. Scott, who at that time was in charge of the paper, has been issued daily except Sunday since that time, with the exception of a brief suspension for several months was made necessary by a labor shortage, the ravages of influenza and unsettled business conditions in general.

In the first editorial announcement of policy, the publishers said in part:

"The Rayne Signal has the honor to shed its luster for the first time upon the public generally, but especially upon this community, which it shall endeavor to carefully and arduously represent."

"Locally we will make it our duty to allow nothing of the slightest interest to escape us that will tend to promote the interest of our town and its citizens generally."

"We shall make it a specialty to advance the interests of our town, parish and the state generally, by advocating improvements of every description."

"We will also give attention to the promotion of education, and use all means in our power to encourage it in the state."

"In conclusion, we will make all due exertions to make The Signal a first class paper, and with these assurances on our part, we leave our success in the hands of a discerning public."

The Signal today is guided by the same purposes set forth above. It will stand or fall in the degree in which it measures up to the standard of service set by its founders and handed down to their successors, but we believe that Crowley joins with us in a seeing for the Signal’s constantly widening field of usefulness in the up building of the city and section from which it has derived its support since its founding thirty-six years ago.