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| Monroe News Star - 11/12/1974 |
The Hall Family...
Uncle Ab [Albert B.] Hall and his wife [Ammie Mattox] lived over behind where the post office is now. I believe they came from over around Philadelphia, Mississippi. Two of their children were John Phil and Ammie Delle.
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| Former site of the Ab Hall house behind the Post Office |
A lot of people living here on Sicily Island don’t know that Uncle Ab Hall was Uncle Jim McLelland’s uncle. Uncle Jim’s mother was Ab's sister. I didn’t know this until a few years ago.
Uncle Jim McLelland was from out in Limestone County, Texas. I’d have to guess that Uncle Ab’s sister married a McLelland and they moved from Mississippi to Texas or she moved to Texas then met and married a McLelland.
Uncle Jim married Aunt Lena Steele who was a sister to my grandfather, I. A. Steele. I believe Uncle Jim and Aunt Lena had moved to Sicily Island before Uncle Ab arrived here. It could have been a coincidence that Uncle Jim and Uncle Ab ended up in Sicily Island but I bet there was some kind of communication between them.
After I learned about the connection I could see the resemblance. Uncle Jim was a much bigger man than Uncle Ab Hall but they did look alike.
I saw Ammie Delle Hall off and on through the years. The last I heard of her she was living up around Shreveport.
John Phil Hall left Mississippi and moved off to Chicago. He moved to Sicily Island in about 1936. He bought the old Dr. Usher house. He also put up a café and a tourist court on the corner at the triangle.
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| Former site of John Phil Hall's Cafe |
John Phil died in 1967 up in Illinois so he must have moved back north but I don’t remember. I used to see John Phil up town in his later years. We’d sit and visit. He’d sold his café business by then.
He had once been a casket salesman and covered several states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois.
He told me one time that he knew Al Capone, the gangster from Chicago. He said he knew Capone well and that Al Capone knew him well, too.
One of the stories he told me about Capone was about the day he was standing in the lobby of a hotel in Chicago and Al Capone and three or four of his bodyguards walked in. Al Capone said, “How are you Hall?" Then he followed his greeting up with, "You ought to get out of here, there might be some trouble.”
Murdered by Fugitives from Justice.
HARRISONBURG, Feb 18.--This little town of perhaps 300 people, located in the fastness of sparsely settled Catahoula parish of which it is the capital, awoke to new life when late Wednesday, news came of the blowing in of a gasser located midway between this town and Jonesville.
The leading building in the town, in matter of importance, is the little old red brick court house. It was built in 1843 and for eighty-four years, accordingly, has meted out justice through its confines. The building is about the size of a double garage and one can almost touch the low-hanging ceiling with his fingers when within. |
| Lake Charles American Press - 3/15/1960 |
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| Photograph is courtesy of Kathe Jackson Price |
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| Tombstone photograph taken by Gayle Price Evans |
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| Ouachita Telegraph 8/8/1888 |
CATAHOULA
A Desperado Shot Down by an Actor.
NATCHEZ, MISS., Dec. 4.--The news comes today of a shooting scrape at Troyville, La., which resulted in the death of one man and the wounding of another. L. L. Stubbs, who was in charge of a stave factory, a short distance above Troyville, was a quiet man when sober, but when too much under whiskey's influence was a desperate man. He has been noted for his escapades, especially his insults to ladies when drunk. Last night at Troyville he grossly insulted a lady who has charge of a hotel. Not satisfied with this he repeated his insulting remark to the wife of a member of the Nickel Plate show, which left this city for Troyville last week.
The lady's husband interfered, resenting the insult which had been offered both ladies, when Stubbs, true to his reputation, fired upon and wounded him, and in return received a shot which produced death. The slayer made his escape.
Stubbs, it is said, has a very unsavory reputation and was recognized as a desperate man, and his taking off is looked upon as a good deed.--Times Democrat.
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| Monroe Morning World - 7/9/1961 |
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| Johnnie and Beverly Weston circa 1990 |
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| Bureau of Land Management |
Emily Cooper came by here today to visit then she rode to Vidalia with Mildred to do a little grocery shopping. While she was here I asked her if she remembered her grandmother, Selene Cooper.
Selene is mentioned in Mrs. Allena Stafford’s book because she worked for the Hopkins family and was a slave at one time. Emily said she did remember her.
Emily Cooper Thomas
Emily was born in 1922. Her father was Charlie Cooper. Everybody called him Yiya Cooper. I remember Emily’s father but I don’t remember her mother. Her mother's name was Nancy.
Emily had two brothers, Stemmie and Little Charlie who died in WWII. Her sisters were Cora, Carrie and Lillian. I’ve known Emily since I was six or seven years old.
Emily & Bruce's grandson
January 1, 1964 we took over running the dairy queen from my mother and father. Emily helped us at the dairy queen. We ran it for about two years. When we closed it down, Emily came to work for us at home. She worked for us up until 1989.
I would get Emily recorded but she won’t tell you anything if you ask her. She brought me some alligator gar the other day and I asked her where she caught it and she refused to tell me.
You could sure trust her with a secret because she wouldn’t tell anybody anything.
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| Grandma Steele |
When Emily’s daddy died, her younger brother, Little Charlie, was about twelve years old. Emily’s father had always plowed Grandma Steele’s garden for her.So when he died, Grandma Steele started letting Little Charlie work around in her house and later in her yard and garden. Grandma Steele even taught him how to cook.
Several years later when Little Charlie went in the army, he wrote her a letter. I remember seeing Grandma Steele crying as she read the letter and asking her why she was crying.She let me read the letter from Little Charlie.
He thanked her for all that she had done for him. He was a cook in the mess hall.
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| Monroe News Star - 6/3/1955 |
[By The United Press]
Lovelace, La., March 29 -- This little section of Louisiana, historically known as Sicily Island, has changed in the past 200 years from the gathering grounds of the Natchez Indians to a wide expanse of growing cotton.
It was at Sicily Island that the power of the Indians in Louisiana was forever broken in 1729 by French soldiers and marines, under the command of Governor Perrier. It was here that the tribes met annually for hunting trips and feasts that lasted for days.
The tract embracing the battlefield and Indian rendezvous is now part of the plantation acquired by the Lovelace brothers and owned by they descendant, Wm. S. Peck, Jr.
John and Thomas Lovelace stepped from their flatboat on the Black River in 1776 and found the battleground that had been forgotten by all except a few Indians who remained in the area. Littered over the ground were parts of guns and warlike implements--signs of a major fight between Europeans and the red man.
Old Mansion Still Stands
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| Lovelace-Peck House |
Four miles away, John Lovelace, grandfather of the present owner, built his home--a colonial edifice that stands today.
It was through this English pioneer that the facts of the fight between white men and Indians in Louisiana came to light.
On Nov. 2, 1729, the Natchez tribe, aided by allies, the Choctaws and Chickasaws, cut off and slaughtered 1500 men, women and children at Fort Rosalie.
Governor Perrier, after several punitive expeditions had failed to punish the Indians, organized a force of approximately 600 French soldiers and marines, placed his men on flatboats and set out in pursuit. He found the tribes, led by Great Sun, St. Cosme and Chief of the Four, in a well fortified position between the Ouachita and Tensas rivers in what is now Catahoula parish.
Not until the three chiefs had been enticed into the French lines were the Europeans able to make much headway. Dragging up their cannon from their flatboats, the soldiers laid siege to the area for three days. Deprived of their leaders, the Indians surrendered.
Indians Sent Into Slavery
More than 400 Indians were taken prisoners. Most of them were sent to Santa Domingo as slaves. Only a handful of the Natchez escaped to mingle with the remnants of the Choctaws and Chickasaws.
The home built by John Lovelace also is surrounded with Indian lore. Directly in front of its spacious front porch is the landing where Indians on fishing and hunting trips in the region tied their canoes. The land on which the home stands is known as the Ferry Plantation.
Scattered over the plantation are five Indian mounds--a mecca today for the archaeologist in search of Indian relics. Around the bases of these piles of earth the Indians held their feasts, and it was probably here that the massacre of the inhabitants of Fort Rosalie was planned.
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| Lake Lovelace - view from the Lovelace-Peck House |
