A country picker’s dream

POINT BLUE — Point Blue farmer, retired teacher and vintage farm equipment collector J.D. Soileau would roll out the welcome mat if the crew from “American Pickers” wanted to check out his assortment of items.
Soileau, 73, said, smiling, “I’d let them look around.”
“I don’t know what I will do with it all. I guess I’ll have to get rid of it someday.”
The tiny community of Point Blue, located about halfway between Chataignier and Ville Platte, was once home to a cotton gin and a Texas and Pacific Railroad stop. While cotton is no longer king in the parish, farming itself still is, mainly rice and soybeans, and many local families are in possession of some of their ancestors’ farm equipment.
In 1969, Soileau purchased a building in the Point Blue area that has served many purposes over the last several decades, including a country and wholesale store and as a school during the early years of integration. Soileau bought the building from a member of the Perron family.
Soileau said he does not know when the structure was erected, but he recalled childhood memories from the building.
“We skated inside as kids,” he said. “I worked in the store growing up, during the summer and on weekends and even when I came home on the weekends from college at LSU.”
Soileau said he and local farmer Leroy Olivier also swept the floors of the building in the afternoon when it served as a school.
Inside the vintage building is where Soileau keeps his collection of items, and a quick glance at the room easily draws the attention of both young and old. The giant space is home to five wagons, countless antique bed frames, stacks of salvaged cypress and old doors and windows. Horse yokes and old political campaign signs hang from the walls.
“Some of the stuff is from auctions, and people are always giving me things,” Soileau said. “Some of things are from my family.”
One of the wagons belonged to Soileau’s father, Felix Soileau, who also farmed in the Point Blue area.
“We used the wagon to haul feed,” Soileau said. “We farmed corn, too, and we used the wagon to move the corn as well.”
The wagon is a John Deere wagon. The tractor and equipment company manufactured wagons from about the mid to late 1800s until the 1920s.
The axel of another wagon bares the words “Leon Wolff Hardware Store.” The building that once housed the store is located in Washington. The building, built in the 1840s, has been refurbished and now serves as a venue for weddings and other events.
Soileau also has a black surrey. Soileau used to loan the wagon to the late Drouet Vidrine, who was instrumental in the founding of the former American Security Bank in Ville Platte, and the wagon was put on display in the lobby of the bank.
Soileau said some of the windows in his collection of glassware are from an old Baptist church in Ville Platte that was torn down many years ago. Propped up near the windows is an old Courtableau tree fence post.
“Those Courtableau trees get hard like steel,” Soileau said.
In addition to bed frames, Soileau also has feather bed mattresses, pillow mattresses and even moss mattresses.
Soileau said his father’s wagon is among his favorite pieces, as well as an old Coke machine.
“That old Coke machine circulates water to keep the drinks cold,” he said. “You don’t see that too often.”
Soileau once let a Church Point couple, who traveled to Ville Platte to eat dinner occasionally, record video of the items in the building.
He said, “They were amazed by the stuff.”