National Register of Historic Places ~ Green-Lovelace House

Now known as the Chisum Place, the Green-Lovelace house was built between 1830 and 1840 by Gayoso Lemos Lovelace.  The house is located off of Highway 15 north of Sicily Island in Catahoula Parish, Louisiana.

Gayoso was born on October 10, 1796 to the marriage of Thomas Lovelace and Barabara Smith.  He was the grandson of John Lovelace and Anne Hughson.

On February 17, 1830, Gayoso married Eleanor Ann Harding in Claiborne County, Mississippi.  By 1840, Gayoso and Eleanor were living in Catahoula Parish, Louisiana with two of their children.

Gayoso Lemos Lovelace died on January 7, 1846.  Following the death of her husband, Eleanor married Henry Green.

The Green-Lovelace house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

Historic Significance: Architecture/Engineering
Architectural Style: Greek Revival
Area of Significance: Architecture
Period of Significance: 1825-1849
Owner: Private
Historic Function: Domestic
Historic Sub-function: Single Dwelling
Current Function: Domestic
Current Sub-function: Single Dwelling

National Register of Historic Places ~ Ferry Plantation

Ferry Plantation Store

In the late 1790s, John Lovelace, Sr. built the home pictured below for his wife, Anne Hughson.  

The home later became the residence of their son, Richard Lovelace (1787-1826) and his wife, Louisa Holstein (1802-1826), then of their son, John Henry Lovelace (1821-1891) and his wife, Julia Patience Kirkland (1827-1853).  John and Julia's daughter, Florence Celeste Lovelace, married her cousin, William Smith Peck, I (1842-1910).  Florence and William's son, William Smith Peck, II (1873-1946) married Barbara Estelle Woodward (1893-1983) who resided in the plantation home until her death.  (from Barbara Peck Gilbert Haigh, a descendant of the Lovelace-Peck families)

The house faces Lake Lovelace, also known as Lake Louie.

One of five ancient Indian Mounds on Ferry Plantation can be seen in the front yard of the Lovelace-Peck house.

Indian Mound

From the April 5, 1939 edition of the Hammond Times:

The Ferry Plantation was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

Historic Significance:	Information Potential, Event, Person
Historic Person:	Peck,W.S.,Jr.,et al.
Area of Significance:	Politics/Government, Commerce, Historic - Aboriginal
Cultural Affiliation:	Not Available
Period of Significance:	1900-1924, 1850-1874, 1749-1500 AD, 1700-1749, 1000-500 AD
Owner:	Private
Historic Function:	Agriculture/Subsistence, Domestic, Landscape
Historic Sub-function:	Agricultural Outbuildings, Garden, Single Dwelling
Current Function:	Domestic
Current Sub-function:	Single Dwelling

Lovelace-Peck House

National Register of Historic Places ~ Sargent House

Sargent House - Harrisonburg, Catahoula Parish, Louisiana (courtesy of Dorothy Stutson Tiser)

Built in the early 1800s, the house was originally called the Weinbert House and then the Disch House. The Sargent family took ownership in 1902 and since that time it has been known as the Old Sargent House.

Wooden pegs and square nails were used in the construction of the house.  High water marks can be seen on the outside walls and scars from Federal gunboat shells are reported to be scattered throughout the house.

The house was also used as a hotel for steamboat travelers.

Courtesy of Dorothy Stutson Tiser

The Sargent House was opened for tours during the Fort Beauregard Battle Festival and battle reenactments back in November of 1984.  At that time, the Catahoula News Booster reported that the house stood 'almost unchanged' from its original construction and still had the original furnishings.

Pictured above are Earline Carter and Inez Renfrow of the Harrisonburg Woman's Club.  The Woman's Club sponsored the tours of the Sargent House in November of 1984.

Courtesy of Dorothy Stutson Tiser

The Sargent House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

Historic Significance:	Architecture/Engineering
Architect, builder, or engineer:	Unknown
Architectural Style:	Greek Revival
Area of Significance:	Architecture
Period of Significance:	1875-1899
Owner:	Local
Historic Function:	Domestic
Historic Sub-function:	Single Dwelling
Current Function:	Recreation And Culture
Current Sub-function:	Museum

Sargent House - Courtesy of Dorothy Stutson Tiser

National Register of Historic Places ~ Battleground Plantation

Battleground Plantation - Courtesy of Dorothy Stutson Tiser

Located 4 miles north of Sicily Island, Battleground Plantation is the site of the last major battle between the Natchez Indians and the French. The battle occurred in January of 1731.  

The land was purchased in 1808 by William M. Smith from John Lovelace, Sr.  In December of 1828, William Smith's daughter Laminda Smith married Dr. Henry J. Peck.   Dr. Peck built the Battleground home in 1829-1830.   It is believed that the house was substantially altered to the present Greek Revival structure around 1850.

From an article on RootsWeb:

The Civil War and its aftermath brought great changes for the Pecks at Battleground.  According to family tradition, Dr. Peck and his wife spent about three years of the war away from Battleground in Cherokee County, Texas.  When the war was over they returned to Battleground, and in a letter of 1867 to former Governor Thomas O. Moore, Dr. Peck expressed his disillusionment in these words:

"I am 65 years of age and was the owner of 90 negroes before the war and a plantation of 2600 acres.  I was making 400 bales of cotton per annum.  I had 500 bales of cotton burned during the war by order of Gen. Taylor with my gin and mill.  I have had two crops of cotton eaten up since the war by caterpillars.  In short I am completely broken up and am disfranchised in consequence of having represented my district in the senate for some years since."

But Dr. Peck was planning to escape the situation:

"I will not submit to Yankee degradation any longer than I am compelled to do so under these circumstances.  I am disposed to emigrate to British Honduras.  I will be greatly obliged to you to give me a letter addressed to the authorities of that country stating my standing as an old citizen of the State of Louisiana."

Dr. Peck never carried out his plan to emigrate, however, for he stayed in Catahoula Parish until his death in 1881.  In the 1870 census, he is listed as a 67-year-old "retired physician" owning 450 acres of land worth $3300.  He also owned 2350 acres of livestock, and during the previous year the farm had yielded 200 bushels of corn and 28 bales of cotton.  The census of 1880 lists Dr. Peck as part of the household of his son, Thomas N. Peck, so he may not have been living at Battleground by that date.

According to family tradition, soon after Dr. Peck's death in 1881, the plantation was sold to a cotton brokerage firm from New Orleans, which in turn leased the land to tenant farmers.  Then, in the early 1900s, it was purchased by Charles Cornick.

De Bow's Review, vol. 12 - Dr. A. R. Kilpatrick visited the battleground site in 1851 and writes about his findings:

"...the remains of a gunlock, some gun flints, a number of ounce balls, all more or less flattened and battered, a piece of iron rod, a copper arrow-barb having a socket to fit on a large arrow, with many of the ordinary Indian flint arrow-points.  Many gun and pistol barrels, fragments of bomb shells and some cannon balls have been picked up on the same ground.  Pigs of lead, two feet long were found there in digging a ditch, and several bars of iron, which were subsequently used by Edward Lovelace in building the first gin erected on Sicily Island.  The musket balls were coated with a thick oxide, and were so plentiful that the early hunters used to resort there for a supply of lead.  A spherical ball was found, having a loop for a handle, and a rattle inside.  Its tone was very clear.  Some gentleman passing there, who had a taste for such curiosities, took it with him.  A part of a steel corn mill was also found, and part of a chain with a hook on it.  One day while fishing, Mr. Peck found the barrel of a pistol sticking in the bank on the border of this lake.  He also found some cannon balls, about eight pounders.  The Indians there in 1802-03, said there were two cannons sunk in the same lake.  The generation of Indians here at this time said they were told by their fathers that the whites and Indians had a battle there more than a hundred years before."

Battleground Plantation was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Historic Significance:	Person, Event, Architecture/Engineering
Architect, builder, or engineer:	Peck,Dr. Henry J.
Architectural Style:	Gothic Revival, Greek Revival, Renaissance
Historic Person:	Peck,Dr. Clarendon
Significant Year:	1850
Area of Significance:	Politics/Government, Architecture, Military
Period of Significance:	1850-1874
Owner:	Private
Historic Function:	Domestic
Historic Sub-function:	Single Dwelling
Current Function:	Agriculture/Subsistence, Domestic
Current Sub-function:	Single Dwelling

Courtesy of Dorothy Stutson Tiser

Courtesy of RootsWeb

National Register of Historic Places ~ Catahoula Parish Courthouse

Catahoula Parish Courthouse in Harrisonburg, Louisiana

The original structure of this Catahoula Parish Courthouse was built between 1930 and 1931.  This was the third courthouse constructed in Catahoula Parish.  In his book, 'The History of Concordia Parish', author Robert Dabney Calhoun writes about past Catahoula Parish courthouses:

The first courthouse was built [circa 1807] at the foot or base of the hill overlooking the town, and was constructed of pine and cypress logs and covered with cypress boards.  It served its purpose for about thirty five years, when in 1842 the Police Jury awarded a contract for the construction of a brick two story building.  This building was completed in 1843 and served the community well until the present building was completed in 1931.

On August 7, 1972, the Police Jury selected a committee to look into the possibilities of constructing a new courthouse.

Police Jury members at the time were H. C. Peck, Jr., Maizie Franklin, Grover Elliott, Roscoe White and Al Boughton.  Committee members included R. Roger Reeves, Jr., A. D. Taylor, G. D. Babin, H. C. Peck, Jr. and William H. Martin.

The committee recommended renovation to the original building as well as building a new addition.  This recommendation was based on the fact that the original building was structurally sound and along with the new addition would meet the parish's needs in the most economical way.

Following the passage of a $1,350,000 bond issue by parish voters, construction work began on October 13, 1973.

On May 14, 1977, dedication ceremonies were held in Harrisonburg with Governor Edwin Edwards delivering the final speech of the day.

Rev. J. O. McNair gave the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance was led by Clarence A. Richard, Secretary of the Police Jury.

Welcome addresses were given by Mayor Charles Myers of Harrisonburg, Mayor Lonnie Franks of Sicily Island, and Mayor G. D. Babin of Jonesville.

Other speakers included H. C. Peck, Jr., Senator Jim Brown, Congressman Jerry Huckaby, Representative Dan Richey, Judge R. P. Boyd, Sheriff Thomas L. Jackson, Clerk of Court W. A. Book and Assessor G. O. McGuffee.  The benediction was given by Rev. Oviel Kiper.

The Catahoula Parish Courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

Historic Significance:	Architecture/Engineering
Architect, builder, or engineer:	Tudor & Ratcliffe Construction Co., Smith, J.W., & Associates
Architectural Style:	Classical Revival
Area of Significance:	Architecture
Period of Significance:	1925-1949
Owner:	Local
Historic Function:	Government
Historic Sub-function:	Courthouse
Current Function:	Government
Current Sub-function:	Courthouse

National Register of Historic Places ~ Hardin House

Hardin House aka Hart's Crossing - Sicily Island, Catahoula Parish, Louisiana

The Hardin House is believed to have been built around 1875.  Oliver Goldsmith Ballard is said to have purchased the property in 1884 for $200.  In 1886 Ballard sold the property to Dr. John Calvin Hardin for $600.  Also known as Hart's Crossing, the property remained in the Hardin family for many years.

Dr. John Calvin Hardin, Jr. was born on June 15, 1849 in Barbour County Alabama to the marriage of John Calvin Hardin, Sr. and Mary Ann Rollins.  He married Texana Elizabeth Torrey in Catahoula Parish on January 27, 1876.  Texana was born on October 16, 1856 in Tarrant County, Texas to the marriage of Neil Torrey and Elizabeth Colson.

Dr. Hardin taught school in Sicily Island and later served as the Superintendent of Education for Catahoula Parish from 1909 to 1913.

Located on Hwy 913 and north of the Hwy 8 junction, the home and surrounding property is now owned by Daniel and Dawn Seal Ford.  From the hilly woods surrounding the property, to the blooming pear trees in Spring, to the abundance of flowers the owners have planted, the Hardin house and property continue to capture the beauty of the area.

Dawn Seal Ford, Owner of the Hardin House

Courtesy of Dawn Seal Ford

Courtesy of Dawn Seal Ford

 
The Hardin House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.

Historic Significance:	Architecture/Engineering
Architect, builder, or engineer:	Unknown
Architectural Style:	Other
Area of Significance:	Architecture
Period of Significance:	1875-1899
Owner:	Private
Historic Function:	Domestic
Historic Sub-function:	Single Dwelling
Current Function:	Domestic
Current Sub-function:	Single Dwelling

Courtesy of Dawn Seal Ford