Amanuensis Monday - The Stories That Should Be Told, Part 4

The following transcription is from a series of recordings my father made in the early 1990s:

Part of the village of Sicily Island used to be named Florence.  Around 1909 it changed from Florence to Sicily Island.  Two names were up.  Up before what body, I don’t know.  Policy Jury, state legislature or whoever.  They didn’t have a town council back in those days.  One name was Bluff City, the other was Sicily Island.  They chose Sicily Island.  There has always been a Sicily Island.  Even the village of Florence was a part of Sicily Island.  The story goes that the name Sicily Island came from an old Sicilian who came through this area years and years ago and it reminded him of his homeland.  

Mrs. Allena Stafford wrote a book about Sicily Island.  Her book started back in the 1890s.  I visited with that old lady in her home in Jena for several hours back in about 1980.  It was a couple of years or so before she died.  I mentioned Sicily Island and the fact that I was disappointed that it hadn’t always been Sicily Island but was once Florence.  She said it had always been Sicily Island.  The village of Florence was later named Sicily Island.

Mrs. Allena was 90 something years old when we visited.  Mrs. Allena married Dave Stafford.  Dave Stafford and old man William Peck were first cousins.  Their mothers’ maiden names were Lovelace.  Dave Stafford worked for William Peck around the cotton gin.  Allena and Dave Stafford lived on the Peck place in the old Gillis house when they were first married.  It was around 1912.  Mrs. Allena was a Hopkins. 

There’s a place or point on the Ouachita River called Stafford’s Point.  It was a steamboat landing.  Dave Stafford’s father was a steamboat captain.

I still have Mrs. Allena’s book.  It’s mostly about the 1890s that she’s writing about.  She quotes from historical records of what a beautiful place Sicily Island was.  They called it the breadbasket of this area.  Wonderful farming country.  Sicily Island was almost like a paradise back in those days.

In fact, Sicily Island, to me and others that have lived here, has always been a paradise.  I grew up here.  Every boy that grew up here can tell you that back in the 1930s and 1940s this was a Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn land.  Tom and Huck didn’t do more than we did.  They didn’t have the different things to do that we did when we were boys.  This was just a wonderful place to grow up back in the 30s and 40s.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

John Henry Knight Family

From Our Island Heritage, Vol. 2 - Compiled by Sophie Haley & Mickie Smith - Commemorating Frontier Days 1977 - June 24-25, 1977 - Sicily Island, Louisiana:

John Henry Knight, a native of Pelahatchie, Mississippi, moved to Sicily Island with his family at the age of seventeen.  John was the son of William Bryant and Sallie Myers Knight.  He was born on August 14, 1871.  Sometime around 1880 William Bryant Knight moved his family to Victoria, Texas and it was from there in October of 1888 he brought them by covered wagon to the Island.   Mr. Knight secured farm land about halfway between the villages of Florence (now Sicily Island) and Harrisonburg where they lived for several years.  Their place later came to be known as Knight's Landing as people boarded boats there on their way to New Orleans.

It was on Sicily Island that John met and was married to Miss Lillie Margaret Ballard, daughter of Oliver Goldsmith Ballard and Margaret Sargent Ballard, on December 5, 1897.   Lillie was born on April 11, 1876.  John and Lillie moved into the village of Florence and he began working in a store owned by  Thomas J. Chisum.  After a time, John and Lillie decided to go into business for themselves so they moved to Winnsboro, Louisiana and ran a livery stable.  It was while they were living in Winnsboro that their child, Sallie (Fairbanks) was born.  

They returned to Sicily Island to operate a store. The building in which Mr. Knight began his store had been built by a Mr. Carter.  Lillie Ballard Knight's sister, Laura Eveline Ballard (Chisum), clerked in the store for her brother-in-law.

Remembrances of Ollie Chambers Carson

Laura Ollie Chambers was born on April 18, 1905 in Florence (now Sicily Island), Louisiana to Edmon Clark Chambers and Lottie Arminda West Chambers. 

Mr. and Mrs. Edmon Clark Chambers

The following are excerpts from a collection of remembrances entitled, Down Memory Lane, written by Ollie  between 1987 and 1989 at the age of 82-84.

Life is the opening to many doors.  But there is a single door one may open without fear, confident of what lies on the other side.  That is the door of memory.  For most of us, it becomes an increasing pleasure to open that door more often and take a restful mental stroll back down past corridors. 

Mr. and Mrs. Edmon Clark Chambers moved to Florence, Louisiana in early January, 1905.  The first year my parents came to Florence, Louisiana, they boarded with Mrs. Joe Bryan for several weeks, until they could find a place to rent.  They rented the Old Bennett House on the banks of Lake Louis, just beyond where Clarendon and Mamie Dell Peck now live.  

We lived in the Bennett house only one year.  The following year, our parents rented a house about one-half mile from town, on the Peniston place, living there until 1912.  Darris and Luceil were born there.  This road is now highway number eight.

Our parents rented the Steele house (that is where Bruce and Mildred Edmonds live now) in 1912.  That was indeed a terrible year for our family.  Mearine, Darris, Luceil and Ollie had typhoid fever.  The only help our parents could get was an old colored woman named Annie Barkshare.

Steele House - Storm Cellar, bottom right corner

There seemed to be many tornadoes or hurricanes at this time.  There was a storm cellar in the side yard in easy access to the front porch, in which our parents kept a lantern, plenty of matches in a can, fresh water was kept in jars or bottles, also quilts for us to sleep upon.  There were benches in the storm cellar.  

Annie Barkshare always came to our house to join us in the storm cellar.  Our parents always had a big can that had a top on it, in which they kept canned foods, vienna sausage, potted meat, crackers, and cookies.  If Mama had time, when we went to the storm cellar, she took cottage cheese that she had made, also fresh milk. Fortunately, we never had to stay in the storm cellar long enough to use up all the food.  However, you can imagine with four hungry girls, Annie Barkshare, and Mama and Papa that a great deal of nourishment was consumed.

In 1911, Papa opened a butcher shop, in a small building on Main Street.  Papa only sold fresh beef on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.  There was very little refrigeration at that time to keep a shop open all week.

In 1913, we moved in a house that was on the plot of land where Kitty and Marvin Nolen now live.  At the end of the year 1913, our parents bought the Old Miller Home and started the co-enterprise, Sycamore Boarding House and Livery Stable Business.  

Chambers Hotel, 2011

Sycamore House was enlarged in 1918 with the addition of four bedrooms on the North Wing and one bedroom on the South Wing. [Note:  Sycamore House was also known as The Chambers Hotel]

Chambers Hotel, 2011

Chambers Hotel Office, 2011

My father made daily round trips to Harrisonburg, Louisiana, the parish seat, using horses and buggies.  It wasn't long before they were replaced with Model-T Fords.  About this time, Papa acquired a contract to carry mail to and from Sicily Island to Harrisonburg.  Other activities included farming and raising cattle.

Mr. and Mrs. Edmon Clark Chambers and daughters

In 1919, our parents bought the Old F. O. Denham place, at the foot of the Ouachita Hills, near Leland.  Later on Papa rented Lakeview, on the Tensas River, for farming and raising cattle.

When we went to the store on Saturday mornings, each of us had a nickel to spend.  We always bought something different.  Afterwards, we came home and sat on wooden blocks and divided equally what each one had bought.  A nickel bought a lot in those days.

My first Christmas memories were in Sicily Island.  There was a tall Christmas tree in the First Methodist Church.  I saw a big doll on the tree and how I wished for it.  I couldn't believe my eyes when Santa Claus handed me the doll.  I cried from joy.  Mama and Papa looked so pleased, as I was so happy.

Mama had a cow named Old Maggie.  I'm not sure who did the milking before Mearine started when she was old enough.  She wanted me to try, but I fooled them.  I just could not get a drop of milk, so Darris took over, delighted to have the job.  Luceil and I never did milk that cow.

Late in the afternoon, mama would permit us to take off our shoes and make footprints in the dirt road.  Then we had to come in for a good foot washing.  After we went to bed, we made shadows on the wall.  A lamp was kept lighted in our room that made it possible for us to create unusual shadows. 

One day I did something that I was forbidden to do, consequently, Mama broke off a small branch from one of the peach trees and switched me with it.  I remarked, "Mama, we won't have any peaches if you do this often".  Mama said, "If you would listen to me, this won't be necessary again".

We had two double beds in our room.  Mearine and Luceil slept in one and Darris and I slept together in the other bed.  Darris was always wanting me to move over, so one night I got out of bed and came around to her side of the bed.  All of a sudden I heard Darris crying.  She had fallen out of bed and landed between the bed and the wall.

Papa bought us our first basketball.  He had a goal put up for us in the backyard for us to practice goal throwing.  

[Note:  Mearine was a member of the Sicily Island Central High girls basketball team as well as the State basketball team.  She is pictured below (4th from Left) with her high school teammates.]

Mama taught us to dance.  We learned to waltz and to do the two-step.  We were permitted to have parties at our house.  Mama always had nice refreshments for us.  It might be pull candy, popcorn balls, lemonade,  or hot chocolate.  One of our favorites were her delicious pop-ups.

Some of the highlights were going to public dances, which were always well chaperoned.  One that we particularly enjoyed was held at the Old Gillis Home, an antebellum home on Lake Louis, and the music was by Bud Scott's Band, a well known black musician from Natchez, Mississippi. 

My grandfather, Lewis West, my mother's father, lived with us a number of years.  He always sat on the front porch, with his hat on to prevent the glare in his eyes, and smoked his pipe.  He showed us how a frog could not jump or hop.  He would throw a ball bearing to the frog, which the frog swallowed, and then he couldn't jump.  Then Grandpa would hold up the frog and shake him.  The ball bearing would fall out and the poor frog would hurriedly hop away.

I remember when Darris jumped off the back porch, before it was screened, and cut her foot very deep.  Dr. Gordon was out in the country on a call.  But fortunately Mr. Squires came by and saw Darris was bleeding so much, he asked Mama if he could help.  He reached under the steps and got a hand full of cobwebs and added sugar to the cobwebs, and that really stopped the bleeding.  We were all amazed.

Sicily Island Teachers - Darris Chambers standing to the right of the flag pole

Kit Carson came to Sicily Island in the fall of 1919 to become the principal at the Consolidated School, which was located over a mile from town.  He boarded in our home.  My parents liked him very much and only charged him very little for living quarters and meals.  When the school year ended, Kit returned to S.L.I. in Lafayette, Louisiana and completed courses for his B.S. Degree.

Every summer, my parents invited Kit to come and spend a few days fishing and during the Christmas Holidays to come and go deer hunting.  When I entered Normal College at Natchitoches, Louisiana, Kit began sending me candy and sheet music ever so often.  That is when I realized that he was interested in me as a real friend.  After the first year at Normal, Kit came to see me in Sicily Island.  He came every summer and during the Christmas Holidays afterwards.

We became engaged during the Christmas Holidays in 1927.  He gave me my engagement ring.  How happy we were and so were my parents.  We were married August 15, 1928 in my home, with Reverend W. T. Woodward officiating.  

August 15, 1987, we celebrated our 59th Wedding Anniversary in Baton Rouge.



Laura Ollie Chambers Carson died on June 25, 1989.  Francis Marion "Kit" Carson died on September 2, 1989.  Both are buried in the Old Pine Hill Cemetery near Sicily Island.

Dirt to Gravel Roads, a Livery Stable and the First Automobiles on the Island

From Sicily Island:  A Partial History, compiled by Mickie Smith:

In the late 1800s the road for vehicles still ran along the bluff, going under the trestle, then back up on the bluff and paralleling Falcon Bayou, up to the York place.

In 1905, the Police Jury granted a public road leading from Florence along the New Orleans and North Western Railroad to Peck Station and on to the Winnsboro road, provided the citizens of Florence and vicinity build the necessary fences and gateways through private property at their own expense.  (Catahoula Parish Police Jury Minutes, Ordinance # 2118, 1905)

Governor John M. Parker

These were dirt roads, for it was not until between 1920 and 1924, during the time that John M. Parker was governor of Louisiana that any gravel was placed on any roads.  


For this reason Governor Parker has been referred to as the 'gravel-road' governor. (Taylor, Joe Gray, Louisiana:  A Bicentennial History, Norton & Co., 1976, p. 153)

Naming (and re-naming) of a Town

In Sicily Island:  A Partial History, compiled by Mickie Smith, she states the following:      

The beginning history of the land we now know as Sicily Island goes back to long before the coming of the white man.  We now associate the name Sicily Island to a town, but at that time there was no town.  The name referred to the entire area surveyed which is bounded by these waters:  The Ouachita River, Boeuf River, Deer Creek and Tensas River.  Since tradition has it that the men who surveyed the area named it Sicily Island because in shape it resembled their homeland in the Mediterranean Sea, the Island of Sicily, this area was evidently surveyed after 1762, and before 1803, which was the time Louisiana was under Spanish rule.