On March 15, 1729 a ceremony was held for Sister Stanislas Hachard at the Ursuline Convent here in New Orleans.
In a Ceremony of Profession on that date, Sr. Stanislas was the first woman
to become a Nun in America.
1932 -- The Smokey Mary makes its' last trip to Milneburg
1830 -- The Pontchartrain Railroad is Chartered
The name Smokey Mary didn’t refer to a single railroad engine but was the popular name for any of the Pontchartrain
Railroad engines that ran along Elysian Fields Avenue from Decatur Street to Milneburg, a once-popular resort area
in the vicinity of the present-day University of New Orleans. According to The Streetcars of New Orleans by Louis C. Hennick
and E. Harper Charlton, the Pontchartrain Railroad Co. introduced horse-drawn train service April 23, 1831. Less than
a year later, on Sept. 17, 1832, the company introduced a steam-driven train. Passenger service on the Pontchartrain Railroad,
one of the nation’s oldest lines, ended about a century later, on March 15, 1932, when Smokey Mary made a final
trip from Milneberg.
