10/07/2026
WHEN THE FIELDS FED THE TOWN,
A rice crop belonged to the farmer, but a good harvest meant something to the entire community.
It meant work for the men in the fields, repairs at the tractor shop, fuel sales, fertilizer orders and another load headed to the drier. By the time that money made its way through town, plenty of families had earned a living from the same crop.
For many years, agriculture was the fuel that kept Vinton and Calcasieu Parish going. Men like Ernie Corbello, Buddy Breaux, Edward Jardell, Gene Sonnier and so many others were the backbone of that economy. Their businesses might have been down dirt roads instead of along Main Street, but their work reached into every part of our community.
That is what makes these old Tide Fertilizer advertisements interesting. The company needed farmers who could speak from experience, and it found them right here. Mr. Ernie, Buddy, Ed, and Gene appeared in its advertisements, along with Sulphur farmer Bruce Alexander. They were talking about saving time, getting good results and making their operations pay—the same concerns that determined whether another year of farming was possible.
Mr. Ernie was only 28 when he earned the area’s Outstanding Young Farmer recognition in 1971. He already had a 1,400-acre operation producing rice, soybeans and cattle. The year before, Vinton’s Eddie Jardell had won the state title. Our farmers were earning recognition beyond their own fields, and Vinton had something to be proud of.
Behind those accomplishments were people whose names did not always make the headline. A farmer needed someone who could repair a tractor, someone who understood the water and someone who knew what to do when a levee needed attention.
There is a photograph of men riding through rice fields with shovels over their shoulders puts a face on that work. Those men brought more than a century of combined experience to John Janssen’s farming operation. You cannot buy that kind of knowledge with a new piece of equipment. It comes from years spent watching, working and learning.
The Vinton Co-op Drier and Vinton Repair Shop were part of that same livelihood. Farmers depended on them, and they depended on farmers. When John “Hot Shot” Ferguson needed a bigger tractor in 1972, he bought it here at home from a shop owned by Mr Sam Leboeuf that had been serving area growers for nearly half a century.
These old photographs bring back more than old machinery and familiar faces. They remind us how closely our lives were tied to the land and to one another.
The men who planted the crops, worked the levees, repaired the equipment and handled the harvest all helped feed Vinton in more ways than one.
Aaron Moody
President, The Vinton Heritage Foundation
