Yancey Brothers Store

From Our Island Heritage, Vols. 2-3 - Compiled by Sophie Haley & Mickie Smith:

At this location, Thomas J. Chisum owned a store and about 1913 his store, Mr. Knight's and Mr. Owens' stores all burned.  Stephen Richard Yancey bought the lot and built this store about 1914 and had a nice general store, carrying a line of dry goods, groceries and farm supplies.  (Editor's note:  In a later history written by Mickie Smith (Here), it is stated that the store that burned belonged to Mr. Yancey, not Mr. Chisum and that Mr. Yancey rebuilt the store.)

Stephen Richard Yancey was born and reared in Jonesville, Catahoula Parish, Louisiana.  He married Miss Laura Wood from Tensas Parish about 1906-1907 and lived there until forced out by high water.  They moved to Sicily Island and lived in a small four room house owned by Mrs. Anna Peniston.

From the Tensas Gazette, July 7, 1922 (courtesy of LSU/Library of Congress):

Children born to the marriage of Stephen Richard and Laura Wood Yancey were:

John Richard, 1907-1981 (m. Luceil Chambers)
Clarence Langston, 1908-1982 (m. Irene Elizabeth Gayden)
Charles Fredrick, 1913-1970
Honor Eloise, 1916-2001 (m. Raphiel Teagle)

Amanuensis Monday - The Stories That Should Be Told, Part 58

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

Tomato Sandwiches and Lemonade...

Willie Evans Knight

One time when I was about 7 or 8 years old, several of us kids were up town playing.  Mrs. Willie [Evans] Knight came along and picked us up and took us up to her house.  They lived in one of the little houses up on the bluff going down towards the first bridge heading out of town.  

Mrs. Willie fixed us tomato sandwiches and lemonade.  We had been running and playing and were so hot.  That was a wonderful treat for us.  I remember how she cut the ends off of our light bread.  I had never eaten a sandwich without the ends on the bread.  

That must have been around June of 1934 or 1935.  It wasn’t long after this when Mrs. Willie, Mr. Rufus and their daughter, Billie Sue moved into their new house that was a couple of streets over from my house.  It was built on the same street as Claude and Vivian Enright, Oscar and Birdie Krause, Alvin and Olga Seal and Ed and Irma Enright.

Mrs. Willie still lives in that house.  Mr. Rufus died years ago and Billie Sue lives out in Texas.  Mrs. Willie has been the same person she was back when she made us those tomato sandwiches and lemonade.  She has always done things for other people and especially children. 

Popcorn Balls...

Aunt Clara Bass was an old colored woman who made the best popcorn balls.  The Seal girls [Ouida and Juanita] and I loved to go visit Aunt Clara and eat those popcorn balls.  

One day a bunch of us kids were playing in the dirt road that ran beside Mr. Maurice Saltzman’s house and Mrs. Yancey’s house.  Eloise Yancey, Mrs. Yancey’s daughter, saw us playing and came to the door.  She invited us inside to eat popcorn balls they had made for us.  That was a nice thing for them to do.  Those popcorn balls hit the spot!

Yancey House and road across from Saltzman House

Strawberries...

Mrs. Yancey grew strawberries back in the 1930s.  As the berries began to ripen, she would go along and spread pine straw around the plants.  She would lift the berries off the ground and prop them on the pine straw to keep them from rotting.  

The birds were bad about eating strawberries so most people didn’t bother with them. This part of the country just wasn’t a good place to grow strawberries.

Sorghum...

There was a vacant lot behind Mrs. Yancey’s house.  It covered about a ½ acre.  People would rent the land to plant crops on.  Corn, cotton and sorghum had been planted on this little ½ acre lot. 

Sorghum looked like corn plants or sugar cane stalks.  I don’t know what all it was used for other than to make Sorghum syrup.  

I remember some of us boys slipping into that sorghum patch and getting us a stalk.  It was a disappointment because it wasn’t like chewing on sugar cane stalks.  

Note:  Parts 1-57 of 'The Stories That Should Be Told' can be found in the Tags List on the right-hand side of the blog.

Wedding Wednesday - Yancey and Chambers, 1936

Monroe Morning World - 6/7/1936

Luceil Hattie Chambers was born November 21, 1908 to the marriage of Edmon Clark Chambers and Lottie Arminda West.  

Record of Birth - Luceil Hattie Chambers

John Richard Yancey was born on November 16, 1907 to the marriage of Stephen Richard Yancey and Laura Morton Wood.

Luceil and John Richard Yancey were married on June 1, 1936.  

The following children born to this marriage:

Infant Daughter, b. 1940 d. 1940
John Richard, Jr., b. 1942
Stephen Clark, b. 1943 d. 2003
Cathleen Carson, b. 1945
Cynthia Luceil, b. 1947

Luceil Chambers Yancey died on February 28, 2004 and John Richard Yancey died on August 17, 1981.  Both are buried in the Old Pine Hill Cemetery in Sicily Island, Catahoula Parish, Louisiana.

Amanuensis Monday ~ The Stories That Should Be Told, Part 16

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

Some of the families that once lived on my street and a couple of streets away...

Yancey House

The Yanceys.  I never knew Mr. Yancey [Stephen Richard Yancey].  I knew Mrs. Yancey.  She was a Wood from over around Newellton or St. Joseph.

Gus Krause and his wife, Wardie.  Mrs. Wardie was a Reeves from Gilbert.

Oscar Krause and his wife. Birdie.  Mrs. Birdie was a Talbert from around Arcadia or Ringold.

Henry Krause House

Henry Krause and his wife, Earle.  Mrs. Earle was one of Mr. Zeb York's daughters.

Claude Enright and his wife, Vivian.  Mrs. Vivian was from Winnsboro.

Tom Enright and his wife, Lilla.  Mrs. Lilla's maiden name was Sorg. 

Tom Enright House

Tom and Claude Enright were born here on the Island.  I've heard two former slaves telling about the day Tom was born.  One of the former slaves was Uncle Henry Brown and the other was Uncle Hardeman Brown.  Hardeman lived down around Foules and Uncle Henry lived up the road at a place that belonged to the Peck family.

Those two Browns weren't kin.  Both had been slaves when they were boys.  They could remember back in the slave times.  In 1951, my mother and I spent a couple of hours up town talking to them.  They told us some stories!

Uncle Hardeman told us that during part of the Civil War, he was living over around Waterproof.  He said they could hear the guns firing at Vicksburg.  Maybe it was thunder they heard.  I don't know.  Waterproof isn't too far down the Mississippi River from Vicksburg so I guess it's possible that he did hear the guns firing.

He said the first money he ever saw was when three Yankee soldiers rode up on horses to the little cabin where he lived and got him to water their horses.  They gave him a nickel a piece.  Uncle Hardeman said he was afraid someone would take the nickels away from him so he took the three nickels and crawled up under the cabin and hid them on a sill.

Ed Enright, who was the son of Tom and Lilla Enright, married Irma Stutson from Harrisonburg.

Joe Bryan and his wife, Mamie, lived right across the street from my family.  Mrs. Mamie was a Bennett. 

Knight House

On down the street, towards the bluff, was Mr. John Knight.  He was originally from Mississippi.  He married Lil Ballard.  One of Mrs. Lil's sisters, Nellie, married Big Walling Chisum.  Another of her sisters, Laura, married Walling's brother, Big Emmett Chisum.  A sister named Maude married a Kendrick [William Dudley Kendrick].  Mrs. Maude was the mother of Mrs. Gladys Saltzman and Mrs. Sadie Hardin.  There was another sister [Sena Ione] who lived up in Kentucky.  They had a brother named Charlie.  I never met Charlie.  He married Katie Smith; one of Uncle Buck [James William] Smith's daughters.

Willie Benge was a rural mail carrier.  He lived over on the bluff next to Mr. John Knight.  The Benge family was from Mississippi.

Jesse Whitlock, the barber who took over from Mr. John Randall, moved here from Ferriday.  He was originally from Arkansas.  He came here in about 1933 or 1934 before moving up to Monroe in the late 1940s.  He had a son named Vernon who was also a barber.  Vernon's barber shop was close to the Northeast University campus.  I think Vernon is retired now.  I spent many a day playing with Vernon.  I remember just as well when they moved here.  Vernon started first grade the next year after they moved here.  Mr. Jesse's daughter, Jo Ann, was younger than me.  I didn't know her that well.

Maurice Saltzman was born in Cook County, Illinois.  His father came through here as a sort of peddler.  He settled here on Sicily Island.  There were several more boys besides Maurice and two or three girls.  I think most of his siblings were born here.  He married Gladys Kendrick.

Alvin Seal married one of John Knight's daughters, Olga.  I grew up playing with two of their daughters, Ouida and Juanita.  They had two younger girls, Patsy Ann and Carolyn.  Alvin was the son of Sam Seal who came from Mississippi in the early teens.

Mr. Sam Seal had three other sons named Walon, Garrel and Charles Lee.  His daughters were Lily Mae, Mildred and Lorelle.  Sam Seal and his wife [Lula May White] died years ago.  All the children are gone except Mildred.  She married a Prescott [William Andrew] and they had a bookstore on the LSU campus.

Rufus Knight, son of John Knight, married Willie Evans.  Mrs. Willie is still living.  Her sister, Sue, married Asa Kiper from Wisner.

Bennett-Bryan-Denham House

Pop Denham's son, Earl, married one of Mr. Joe and Mrs. Mamie Bryan's daughters, Bea.  Earl and Bea Denham had one daughter named Jo Ann.  Jo Ann still owns the old house across the street from me. 

Mrs. Duncle and Mrs. Winstead were sisters.  I didn't know their husbands' names.  The sisters came to Sicily Island from Mississippi.

One of Uncle Frank Smith's daughters, Jessie, married Mr. T. J. Peniston.  Another daughter, Sadye, married Marvin Nolen.  Marvin was originally from Arkansas.  He was a railroad man.  Uncle Frank's daughter, Mollie, married Fred Chambless who was from Arkansas.  Mr. Chambless was the depot agent for the Missouri Pacific Railroad.  Another daughter, Jennie, married a Cantrell [Shelleah Cantrell].  I never knew them as they lived away from here. 

Sicily Island Depot

Uncle Frank had four sons.  Buck [William Edward], married Mildred Harris.  Mildred was a sister to Katie, Mack and I-Bo Harris.  Clayton married Willie May Sapp.  Sidney [married Lillian Vic] was another son.  Isom married Otis McNair.  She was from Gilbert.  There was no kinship with the McNair family living on Sicily Island.  Isom and Otis had a son named Howard and a daughter named Eugenia.

McLelland House

Uncle Jim and Aunt Lena McLelland lived here.  They never had any children.  Aunt Lena was my Grandpa Steele's sister.  They moved to Sicily Island several years after Grandpa Steele moved here.

Dr. Gordon was from around Fayette, Mississippi.  He married one of Uncle Tom Chisum and Aunt Kate Smith's daughters, Eva.  Cousin Eva had a sister named Jessie who married John G. McNair.  She also had two brothers, Emmett and Walling.

Chisum House

We called the brothers, Big Emmett and Big Walling because they each had sons named after them.  We called their sons Little Emmett and Little Walling.

Little Emmett Chisum lives out in Laramie, Wyoming.  He is the living authority on the Indians who once lived here on the Island. 

There are signs that a lot of Indians lived around here.  Dr. Chisum can tell you about the Natchez Indian Tribe who were run out of Mississippi by the French.  Many of them escaped and came over to this part of Louisiana.  

Indian Mound on Ferry Plantation

There were Indians here before the Natchez Indians arrived.  This part of the country dates back to the Mound Builders.  There are still Indian mounds here on Sicily Island.

If anybody should ever want to know more about the Indians who lived here, they should contact Dr. Emmett Chisum.  In later years, after he's gone, I'm sure his writings and discoveries would provide plenty of information.  He was the one who knew the most about the Indians who lived here.

Sicily Island must have been a paradise when the Indians lived here and before the white people moved in.  All the lakes, rivers, forests, swamps and hills provided ideal places for hunting and fishing.  There must have been many Indians who lived here because people are still finding arrowheads and axe heads and pottery. 

Note:  Parts 1-15 of 'The Stories That Should Be Told' can be found in the Tags List on the right-hand side of the blog.

Amanuensis Monday ~ The Stories That Should Be Told, Part 26

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

My thoughts are going back to the old stores and merchants we had here in town in the 1930s and 1940s.  Mr. Maurice Saltzman, Big Emmett Chisum, Uncle Wes Ogden, Mr. Buck Smith, and Mr. and Mrs. Whatley.

Saltzman Store

One of the stores had big hooks of cheese out on the counter.  In the summertime, the cheese wouldn't be yellow.  It would be orange colored and soft.  You could get a pound of cheese for about 10 cents back in those days.  

You could fill a little brown bag with soda crackers for 5 cents and have you some crackers and cheese. There were jars of oil sausage, jars of sweet pickles and jars of pickled pig feet sitting out on the counters.

I remember the smell of coal oil.  The merchants would sprinkle it around on the floors to settle the dust.  

Everybody kept coal oil lamps.  We had electric lights on the Island back in the 1930s but they were always going out.  It seemed like they always went out on Saturday nights. 

Saturdays were big days and nights.  I don't know if it was overloading the system or what.  It took several hours before the lights would come back on so everybody kept their coal oil lamps nearby.

You could walk in one of the stores and smell the tobacco.  There would be a big square of tobacco and the store owner would cut you off a nickel, a dime or twenty cents worth of tobacco.

I remember the old tobacco cutters.  They looked something like a cheese cutter.  

Tobacco Cutter

The stores would have big ole wooden crates of loose apples out front.  You could even buy a slice of a dried apple.

New overalls had a certain scent to them.  You could smell the leather of the mule and horse gear they had in the stores.

I wonder how many people would remember that great big, black dog that belonged to the Whatley family.  His name was Old Dan.  He looked something like a German Shepherd.  Old Dan stayed at the Whatley store all the time. 

When John Fairbanks and I were little boys, we would go by the Whatley store and ask Mr. Whatley to get Old Dan to ask for a cookie.  Mr. Whatley kept the cookies in bins.  Old Dan would go over to the bins and bark for a cookie.

Mrs. Yancey had an old bird dog named Old Rex..  That dog used to stay in front of the Montgomery store that once belonged to Mr. Yancey.  

Old Rex was a liver spotted pointer.  He would come to that store every day.  Even after Mr. Yancey died, that dog kept coming to that store.  Albert Earl Krause and Charles McNair used to take Old Rex bird hunting.

Louisiana Cottonwood

There used to be a great big ole cottonwood tree in the alley by the Whatley store.  The story was told that this tree was the tree that one of the Bennett boys stood behind and was shooting at a store across the street over there close to the Methodist Church and close to where the Whatley's house was. Mr. Claude Enright and his brother Roy were supposedly up in the store shooting back at the Bennett boy behind the cottonwood tree.  They were shooting back and forth across the street at one another.  

John Fairbanks and I were told that you could still see the lead bullets in the cottonwood tree. We were always looking at that tree to see if we could find some of that lead.  The shootout was supposed to have taken place about 10 or 15 years before; in about 1915 or so.

There was a store that stood on the corner across the street from the Whatley store.  I don't know if that was the store that Mr. Claude was shooting from, though.  For years that store had a sign on the front that said Carl Shipp and Son.  I don't remember them being in business but I do remember Hughes McKnight having a store and a little meat market in that building.

That particular building hasn't been torn down for too long.  They last used it for a laundry. Claude Haley had a laundry there.  Later, a fellow by the name of Henslee had a laundry in that store.  He was married to one of the Cruse girls.

Herd Guice standing beside Haley's Cleaners Delivery Vehicle

Dr. Gordon's house was about fifty yards on down from that building.  The next house was the Chambless house, then Big Emmett Chisum's house, Cousin Jessie McNair's house, then the Garners, the Bourkes and Uncle Tom and Aunt Kate Chisum's house.  On down from there was Mrs. Anna [Doniphan] Peniston's house.

I make these tapes for those who are about my age and would remember the things I talk about. Future generations won't know about some of the things I mention but they're worth mentioning.

Note:  Parts 1-25 of 'The Stories That Should Be Told' can be found in the Tags List on the right-hand side of this blog.

Wedding Wednesday ~ Yancey and Teagle, 1937

From the December 2, 1937 edition of the Monroe News Star:

Honor Eloise Yancey was the daughter of Stephen Richard Yancey and Laura Morton Wood.

Sunday's Obituary - Laura Wood Yancey

Monroe News Star - 4/7/1971

Laura Morton Wood

Born on August 13, 1880

Daughter of

Gillam Wood and Honor E. Goodrich

Sister to

Mary, Martha, Honor and Charles

Wife of

Stephen Richard Yancey

Mother to

John Richard, Clarence Langston, Charles Fredrick and

Honor Eloise

Died on April 5, 1971

Buried in the Elder Shade Cemetery

Tensas Parish, Louisiana

Tombstone photograph from Ancestry member, mwood12358.

Fire on the Island

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

It was in either the year 1914 or 1915, that the word that struck dread in every person's heart was heard during the night.  Fire!  

The stores on one side of the street were on fire, and it razed four buildings; the Knight store, the Saltzman store, Dr. Gordon's medical office and Dr. Disch's dental office. 

Bryan-Denham Families

Editor's Note:  The following information was written by Beatrice "Bea" Bryan Denham in 1977 to be included in Our Island Heritage, Vol. 3, 1978, compiled by Sophie Haley and Mickie Smith.  Photographs have been added by the Editor.

The Bryan Family

Joseph Henry Bryan (1865-1960) was the eldest son of William M. Bryan (1830-1896) and Lucy Anne Duke (1838-1921).  

Matthews Cemetery, Franklin Parish

William was born in Harrisonburg and married Mary Desha in 1857; they had two children, one of whom died in infancy.  Mary died at the birth of the second child, Laura.  The Holstein family with whom Mary had been living while William was in the Confederate Army, took the baby with them when they moved to Texas during the War, and reared her.  Her descendants live around Texarkana and Fort Worth.  

William married secondly Lucy Anne Duke, whose father and mother were Thomas Duke (1809-1841) and Emeline Carter (1812-1859).  William was a farmer and teacher, and his family was reared in Richland Parish and Beouf Prairie in Franklin Parish.  

Phineas and Elizabeth Tovery Whatley Family

Phineas Whatley was born on May 7, 1815 to the marriage of William B. Whatley and Elizabeth Wiggins.  He was born in what is now known as Franklin Parish.

In 1849, Phineas married Elizabeth Tovery, a native of Mississippi.  Elizabeth was born on January 30, 1822 to the marriage of Robert and Mary Tovery.

The 1850 U.S. Census shows Phineas, Elizabeth and one child living in Catahoula Parish.

In 1860, the family is living in the Pine Woods of Catahoula Parish near White Sulphur Springs.  Note that Phineas' mother, Elizabeth is also living with the family.

The 1870 U.S. Census shows Phineas and Elizabeth with six of their children living in the same area of Catahoula Parish.  One daughter has married by this point and is no longer living in the household. Elizabeth's age is listed incorrectly on the census record.

In the 1880 census, the family is living in Ward 5, Catahoula Parish.  Only three children are living in the household at this point.

Phineas Whatley died on February 21, 1895.  He is buried in the Eden Cemetery in what is now known as LaSalle Parish.  Tombstone photograph was taken by FindAGrave member, Patricia Adams Guillory.

The 1900 U.S. Census shows Elizabeth Tovery Whatley living in Ward 5 of Catahoula Parish with her son, Phineas Walton Whatley.

Elizabeth Tovery Whatley died on October 5, 1904.  She is buried in the Eden Cemetery in what is now known as LaSalle Parish.  Tombstone photograph was taken by FindAGrave member, Patricia Adams Guillory.

The following children were born to the marriage of Phineas Whatley and Elizabeth Tovery:

William Robert, 1850-1921 (m. Elizabeth Angeline Yancey, 1850-1903); both are buried in the Eden Cemetery in LaSalle Parish.  Tombstone photographs were taken by FindAGrave member, Chiquita Richison Thompson.

Mary Elizabeth, 1851-1885 (m. William Turnley, 1845-1890); both are buried in the Turnley Cemetery in what is now known as LaSalle Parish.  Tombstone photographs were taken by FindAGrave member, Tommye Price.

Uriah T., 1853-1882 (m. Louise Electra Aber, 1858-1908); both are buried in the Eden Cemetery in LaSalle Parish.  Tombstone photographs were taken by FindAGrave members, Chiquita Richison Thompson and Patricia Adams Guillory, respectively.

Sarah, 1855-?

Phineas Walton, 1859-1936 (m. Julia ?, 1881-1957); both are buried in the Eden Cemetery in LaSalle Parish.  Tombstone photographs were taken by FindAGrave member, Chiquita Richison Thompson.

James Monroe, 1861-1941 (m. Lillie Marshall Yancey, 1874-1934); both are buried in the Eden Cemetery in LaSalle Parish.  Tombstone photograph was taken by FindAGrave member, Chiquita Richison Thompson.

Melissa Jane, 1862-1924 (m. 1. Healy Thompson; 2. George A. Beck, 1873-?); Melissa is buried in the Olla Cemetery in Olla, LaSalle Parish.  Tombstone photograph was taken by FindAGrave member, Karen Klemm Pinckard.

Note:
Franklin Parish was created from parts of Catahoula, Madison and Ouachita parishes in 1843.
LaSalle Parish was created from the western portion of Catahoula Parish in 1908.