Settlements and Neighborhoods
Chapter VIII
Although the
tide of emigration had been steadily increasing in volume, it
was not till 1850 that it reached its flood; then the rush, by
land and by water, was continuous and immense, particularly to
the eastern portion of the parish. Up to about that year, this
part of Claiborne was rather thinly populated but those that had
come in were of the best material. It was composed of such
families as that of O'Banon, Hargis, Dr. Bush, Thomson, Nolan,
Williams, Smith Barber, Wasson, Bruce, Kennedy, Hall, Nelson,
Wafer, Bullock, Aitken, Stephenson, Dyer, Gee, Butler, Henderson
and Henry, James Dyer, Sam'l Smith, Dr. Bush and Richard Hargis,
who once, represented the parish in the State Legislature. These
pioneers came to North Louisiana when it was one of the most
charming countries in the west. The axe had never resounded in
these forest isles, save the chipping of the early surveyor.
The forest
was grand in its primeval state; the cloth of green spread
interminably, presenting a vast range for all manner of stock in
summer, and in winter was the switch cane on the hillsides and
dense masses of large growth in the bottoms. The huge oaks never
failed to furnish a bountiful supply of mast, or acorns. Game,
consisting of bear, deer, turkey, wolf, fox, cat, ducks,
numerous birds, fish in such quantities that the supply really
appeared inexhaustible. It was certainly the happiest community
to be found. Unpretending, possessed with a bountiful supply of
the real comforts of life, with elementary schools in log
cabins, the pathetic story of the Cross told under some
umbrageous arbor, or in a rude log house with puncheon floor and
seats, with wants few, and ways just, these people were happy.
But about 1849-50, this primeval land was found by the working
Georgian and Alabamian, and from 1850 to 1861 lands changed
ownership rapidly, the large area of public lands, then vacant,
were soon entered.
Then indeed
the busy hum of agricultural industry commenced in earnest.
Loud sounds
the axe,
redoubling stroke on stroke.
On all sides round, the forest, hurls
the oak.
Headlong, deep echoing, groan the
thickets brown,
Then cracking, crashing, rushing,
thunder down.
And the busy
thud of the massive maul, swung by black sinewy arms, kept time
to the old plantation song of the simple happy Negro, which for
its plaintive melody can never be recalled on stage or in song.
Roads were opened, the bayous bridged, academies were built and
churches reared, in which such men as Randal, Wafer, Pennington,
Fancher, Fuller, Simmons and others of equal ability and
earnestness worked to develop the religious spirit of the
people. Up sprang the village of Lisbon, surrounded and built by
many well known families.
I recall
those of Killgore, McClendon, Cook, Duke, Patton, Tate, Bullard,
White, Simmons, Heard, Coleman, Tippet, Aycock, McCasland,
Dawson, Williams, Pennington and many others, with Dr. Seth
Tatum, making it a live village. A few miles west of Lisbon was
the thriving business stand of Forest Grove, the leading spirit
of which was that truly good and upright man, Frank Taylor. He
now sleeps in the bosom of Texas, and the place he once made
noted throughout Claiborne, is now pointed out by the cold
marble shaft in its silent forest grave yard. Here rests the
remains of that eloquent and active Christian, Tatum Wafer; and
Dr. Scaife, a physician of note and a man of business; of Milton
Barnett, and many others whose memory is yet green in the hearts
of surviving friends and relatives. The Methodist Church at this
place was the most noted in the parish in its day, for here the
ablest men preached and the most effective work was accomplished
in the name of the Master.
North from
this place on the banks of the Corni flourished for years the
active village of Scottsville at the supposed head of navigation
on that stream. But navigation never came. Yet such men as Major
Browning, Dr. Bush, Thomas Hart, the Stanleys and others like
these, gave it life and vigor for years. But the village is now
dead and no longer known. West of this place was situated the
little inland village of Colquitt, surrounded by such men as
John Wilson, Elbert Gray, the Tignors, and others, whose names
we cannot now recall. Blessed with a good church and a thrifty
community, it flourished as did Claiborne, but is now nearly
silent. A few miles west of this place, we come to Gordon, named
for Dr. Gordon, who started it, and is now, if living, a citizen
of Texas. It too, was surrounded by an active, growing
community, and flourished to the outbreak of the war.
We next come
to Haynesville. The original name of the place was Taylor's
Store, for J. C. Taylor, who opened a small retail business
there in 1848. Previous to that date, in 1843, Hiram Brown had
located close by, also J. C. Wagon and L. S. Fuller, in 1844. In
1846 Miles Buford and Samuel Boyd cast their fortunes in this
settlement, and in 1849 Henry Taylor came among them. Yearly the
settlement increased in numbers, and farms, large and small,
were opened. In consequence of this increase in population and
agriculture, Wm. W. and J. L. Brown began a mercantile business,
next door to Taylor. Sam Kirkpatrick and Dr. Wroten opened a
drug business. Up to 1848 very little of the public lands had
been entered in this neighborhood, and farming was on rather a
small scale. The country was full of game, and deer skins and
hams were staple articles of trade. But with the rush of
emigration that began in 1850 and which continued up to 1860,
new ideas came, new wants and new industries. Agriculture began
in earnest, and in a few years large farms were in every
direction, the public lands were all entered, roads opened and a
mighty prosperity was exhibited all through the region.
Summerfield,
situated in the northeastern portion of the parish, is a
thriving village of about one hundred and twenty inhabitants. It
was settled by W. R. Kennedy in l868, by the erection of a wood
and blacksmith shop, and a business house. It now has four
stores dealing in general merchandise and plantation supplies,
several drug stores, a saw and gristmill, and several mills in
the vicinity, all run by steam. It has four churches, M. E.
Church South, Methodist Protestant, Missionary Baptist, and
Primitive Baptist, all with live and progressive congregations.
The town has a good school building, with a good and regular
attendance of pupils. The four stores do an aggregate business
of about fifty thousand dollars annually. The town has two mails
a week. The country around is in a prosperous condition, and
with good water, pure air, good health, and a fertile soil.
Summerfield and its neighborhood offer strong inducements to
those hunting homes. The land is well timbered, and can be
bought, at from one to five dollars per acre. The agricultural
future of this section of our parish is bright for him who puts
his heart in his farm work and will use progressive methods of
tillage.
About six
miles east of Homer is located the beautiful village of Arizona.
Soon after the war a magnificent cotton factory was erected at
this place, capable of employing a large number of hands. Its
inconvenience to easy and rapid transportation, with other
trouble, caused it to cease operating after a few years. It is
now owned by John Chaffe of New Orleans, and is motionless.
Arizona for a number of years, was the seat of Arizona Seminary,
a very popular and flourishing school under the principal-ship
of J. W. Nicholson, now the eminent Professor of Mathematics in
the State University at Baton Rouge. Not withstanding the
discontinuance of the factory, and the decadence of its school,
Arizona has held many of its best citizens, the Willises,
Wafers, Nicholsons, Drs. Calhoun and Baker, Dutcher, Corrys,
etc., and is happily blessed with, surrounding community of
thrift, morality, and intelligence. In addition to the school
and factory buildings, Arizona has one or more stores in
operation, and a large and excellent meetinghouse, the property
of the M. E. Church South, in which large and intelligent
congregations meet regularly for religious worship. Tulip,
another small village, situated about nine miles southeast of
Homer, was, until quite recently, a fine trading point. Here for
many years, P. Marsalis & Sons have carried on a heavy general
merchandise and supply business; but lately much of their custom
has, been drawn to Arcadia, a rising town on the V. S. & P.
Railroad, twelve miles south; and to meet the exigencies brought
about by this change, they have moved the greater portion of
their business to that place. Besides its store and post office,
Tulip owns a steam saw and grist mill, a steam cotton gin, a
schoolhouse, and a commodious and very good Methodist meeting
house.
There are a
number of other steam cotton gins and saw mills in the immediate
neighborhood, no less than five or six steam whistles being in
easy hearing of the place. Tulip is noted for the steady and
churchgoing habits of its people, and for the permanence and
excellence of its school. The neighboring lands are among the
most productive in the parish, and are occupied by a class of
industrious and thrifty citizens. Among the old settlers, we may
mention the Watsons, Marsalises, Whites, Gandys, Fomby, Leslie,
Hays and others. The water shed of Claiborne is quite simple;
Dorcheat carrying the water from the western slopes to Red River
and D€™Arbonne and Corni to the Ouachita River from the eastern
slope. From D'Arbonne east the country is gently rolling, but
from D'Arbonne to Sugar Creek south, the ridges are more sharply
defined, particularly near the bayou, as well as the valleys and
plains. This portion of the parish was very thrifty in the
antebellum days, and claimed the largest farms and heaviest
taxpayers, of whom I recall the names of W. A. Obier, S. P. Gee,
J. W. Andrews and B. C. Frazier.
The Sugar
Creek and adjoining lands were fine, and here were to be found
the Hood family from Alabama, Buck Edmunds, Perritt, Howard,
Snider, Landers, Robinson and many others; here their numerous
industrious descendants are yet to be found. We cannot close
these notes of the early days in Claiborne without referring to
two or three characters among the living and the dead. James
Dyer, who represented this parish in the State Legislature when
the country was in its primeval state left just after the war,
an old gray headed man, with his young wife and several
children, for Texas. He has been dead for some years. Josephus
Barrow, a leading man in the Primitive Baptist Church, and who
died six or eight years ago, was a worthy man and well
qualified. He was a good neighbor and an active citizen,
possessed of strong natural ability, considerate in the
discharge of all his duties in obedience to the law of his God,
as he understood it.
He was
steadfast in his friendship, his word was his law, provided for
his family, left them a competency and has many children to
revere his memory and follow in his path of truth and honor.
Joshua Willis, yet with us, a native of Virginia, but from Troup
County, Georgia, to this parish, now in his 90th year, belongs
to that modest but true type of Virginia, gentlemen, that
secures the regard and esteem of all good people. He has a
numerous family of sons and daughters, grand and great grand
children around him. Courteous in manner, even in his temper,
just in his ways, he can truly say he is ready to leave without
an enemy. His good wife, Aunt Barbara, who had stood by his side
aiding and encouraging in all the vicissitudes of his long life,
has gone to her happy home. And now, as this upright old man,
veteran of the War of 1812, a pensioner of the United States,
nears the apex of that mount which stands before all the human
family, he no doubt feels in his heart that when his eyes look
out upon the pleasant, restful plains of the true promised land,
that wife who was the soul and the pride of his young days, and
his prop and stay in the hard toils of this life, will be the
first to greet, as of yore, and welcome him home.
But here
comes another character before us, with head gray but not bowed,
and eye flashing as ever, Capt. W. G. Coleman. Genial in manner,
with a good word for all, he was and is yet a son of Carolina.
An ardent subscriber to the Calhoun school of polities, in his
early manhood he was an outspoken nullifier, and in older years
a bold and defiant secessionist. His first taste of war was as a
volunteer, under Captain Jarnigham, in the Creek War of 1837.
Returning to Carolina he married, and in his native State
remained till the death of his wife. The charms of old Carolina
now became dimmed to his eyes, and with his four children he
emigrated in 1844 to Perry County, Alabama. Here he contracted a
second marriage, and this wife, who has borne him eight
children, is yet with him.
In 1846, when
Mexico declared war against the United States, he was one of the
first to respond to his country's call, at the head of one
hundred gallant men, known as the Perry Rangers. He joined Col.
Coffee's regiment of Alabama volunteers, and with that regiment:
for twelve months, was engaged in all it, marches, hardships and
battles. And here let us not fail to recall the name of his
faithful body servant, Sep. Although in a free country and other
servants fleeing to the Mexican lines, Sep stood fast by his
master, nursed him in sickness, faithfully administered to his
wants when worn down with fatigue and exposure, and not only to
him but to others of the company when he possibly could. He had
the good will and confidence of all the men, became the
custodian of their little treasures and never betrayed a trust.
Returning home with his master, he died in his arms, and as his
glazing eyes looked up into that kind master's face for the last
time, that master's stricken heart blessed the faithful African.
In 1850,
Capt. Coleman moved to Claiborne Parish, and being fond of the
chase greatly enjoyed the rare sports of the day. In 1854, he
with Col. J. W. McDonald, in a hotly contested campaign, as the
Democratic candidates, gained a signal victory over the then
rampant Know Nothing party. He has refused all political
preferment since. When the war of secession was about to
commence he, being to old to serve, drilled several volunteer
companies previous to their march to the front.
Capt. Coleman
joined the Missionary Baptist Church at Lisbon in 1854, and was
elected clerk of the church. For twenty three years he has as
promptly taken his seat at the desk as he did at the head of his
company when the long roll called it to arms on the arid plains
of Mexico. Always fond of company, always, good neighbor, his
friends are many. Having ever been temperate in his habits, he
now, although in his 80th year, writes a clear and even hand,
and can yet bring down his bird on the wing as often as the best
shots among our young men. Without enemies, with hosts of
friends, he now serene and happy, awaits the bidding of the
Master, summoning him to the great church above.
Another
character who appeared in this parish between 1830 and 1840, and
is yet with us, is Col. John Kimball. A Georgian by birth, in
his young manhood he sought this part of the western world, and
by strict attention to duty and business, secured to himself a
competency and hosts of friends. He represented this parish in
the State Legislature in 1855-1856 with credit to himself and
satisfaction to his people. He is now an old man, feeble in
strength but with a heart strong as ever; yet a tiller of the
soil and with honor untarnished, he is beloved by many and
respected by all.
Nathan Brown,
with his wife and four children, left Tennessee in 1833, crossed
the Mississippi River at Memphis, from which point he made his
way slowly through the wilds of Arkansas, camped a day or two
where now stands the flourishing town of Prescott in amazement
gazed at the magnificent meteoric display in November of that
year, and in the timbered lands on their route had frequently to
cut their way and as often dig down the banks of streams or
bridge them before crossing, finally landing at or near Crystal
Springs in Claiborne Parish. Here he remained about five years.
When he settled down at his home, near Haynesville, where he has
resided since.
Prospering in
this world's goods he reared a large family of sons and
daughters, sixteen only, thus enlarging the little family that
left Tennessee toward a regiment in number. Mr. Brown, after an
absence of fifty two years, returned to Tennessee on a visit to
a sister whom he left a young married woman. She is now a
grandmother. Old and stricken in years, but with honest hearts
and dear consciences, this brother and sister meeting will they
recognize each other can they recall, he young manly and sweet
womanly faces that separated so many years ago in Tennessee,
when life's young morning was bright, and so full of promise.
Almost weekly
can be seen on the streets of Homer, the tall, erect form of
Isaac Gleason. He came from the swamps of the Mississippi and
Ouachita to this Parish in 1835. Born on the frontier and there
raised, he is one of nature's unsophisticated children,
warmhearted, liberal, just, doing evil to none. All around
Homer, in the D'Arbonne bottom was his hunting grounds, and many
are the bear, panther, turkey and deer that have fallen at the
crack of his long flint and steel Kentucky rifle. He claims to
have killed the last bear that was killed on the grounds of
Homer. Nature was his school, and he has culled much profound
knowledge there from, knowledge by experience, which others only
obtain by reasoning. Uncle Isaac has raised a good family of
sons and daughters, has given his daughters every advantage the
schools of Homer could offer, and now he can safely point to all
his children with pride, for they have taken their places among
the just and the good.
As another of
our old and honored citizens, we may mention Col. J.W. Berry,
who came to Claiborne in 1834, when a mere youth. In 1836 and
1837 he resided at Overton. In 1838 he moved to Minden and
engaged in merchandising, which he continued till near the
commencement of the war. He has been honored by his fellow
citizens with many positions of trust. In 1847 he was elected
1st Lieutenant of a company of militia, and commissioned by
Governor Isaac Johnson In 1849 he was appointed on the staff of
General Gilbert, of Shreveport; was elected to the Legislature
in 1851; elected Colonel of Claiborne Regiment in 1855;
reelected to the Legislature in 1860; appointed Colonel in the
Confederate service, and assigned to duty as enrolling officer
of Claiborne Parish; and was again returned to the Legislature
in 1864. Since the formation of Webster in 1871, Col. Berry has
resided in that parish, and has been constantly honored with
public trusts.
Among the
early settlers of Claiborne Parish, who yet live, is W. F.
Moreland. Engaged in agriculture, he has never sought political
preferment, but at the request of his people has served them m
both Houses of the Legislature. In these positions he discharged
the duties with marked judgment and ability, and to the
satisfaction of his constituency.
In 1879, with
Rev. J. T. Davidson, he represented the Parish in the
Constitutional Convention, and his course was heartily endorsed
by the people. Pure and irreproachable, he has passed through
the trying ordeals of public life with honor unsullied; and
honored of all who know him, he is now spending the evening of
his life in the quiet of his country home.
Claiborne Parish History
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