Friday's Faces From the Past - Keystone Lodge No. 213 Celebrates 100 Year Anniversary, 1972

Front Row (LtoR):  Marvin B. Nolen, Sr., Larry Barron, Harwell L. Allen, Maurice Saltzman

Second Row (LtoR):  Freddie Cooper, Lonnie Franks, Aubrey B. Chisum, Sr., Clarendon Peck, Jr.

Third Row (LtoR):  J. W. Barron, Claude Tarver, Floyd Cole, Stewart Chisum, Johnnie Crawford, Marvin B. Nolen, Jr., Bruce Edmonds

100 Year Anniversary Program Cover

100 Year Anniversary Program

A special thanks to Karen Barron Egloff for sharing the photograph and the program.

Note:  If others would like to share old photographs or documents pertaining to Sicily Island or other communities within Catahoula Parish, please email me at rootsfromthebayou@gmail.com.  

Wedding Wednesday - Pearson and Barron

Virginia Pearson and Larry Barron
Married September 11, 1951

Wedding Announcement

Larry and Virginia Pearson Barron - 1961

Photographs and wedding anouncement are courtesy of Larry and Virginia's daughter, 

Karen Barron Egloff.

The Good People of Harrisonburg, 1887

The following article is from the February 12, 1887 edition of the Meridional in Abbeville, Louisiana:

Transcription:

The good people of Harrisonburg, Catahoula parish, are evidently awake and fully alive to the importance of civilization and education.  They vote a tax for the railroad and have made a well-directed effort to establish a high school in their town.  The health and morals of the place are excellent, but we think their strongest card is cheap board, which may be had by a child at the exceedingly reasonable rate of $5 per month.  We wish Abbeville could "see" these figures, even if it did not go "one better."  It would assure the succes of our high school.

Amanuensis Monday - The Stories That Should Be Told, Part 67

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

Sometime around the end of 1911 or early 1912, Grandpa and Grandma Steele moved out to Childress, Texas near Grandpa's sister, Lydia Steele Greer .  My mother and her sister, Lucille “Dick”, were their only children at the time.  They didn’t stay in Texas but about six months.

When they moved back to Sicily Island, Grandpa Steele built a house out on the old Steele place.  Grandpa Steele planted over 100 pecan trees on the old Steele farm. 

Steele House on the old Steele place

The big two-story school had been built right out there beside the Steele place. Mr. Howard Wright, Mr. and Mrs. J. K. Stone and Mr. Jesse Beasley boarded with my grandparents on the old Steele place. 

Mr. Charles Mackey was the first principal at the two-story school.  After he left, Mr. J. K. Stone was the principal.  When Mr. Stone moved up to be the superintendent of the parish, Mr. Howard Wright became the principal.  In 1917, Howard Wright moved up to be the parish superintendent.

I’ve heard my mother and my Aunt Dick talking about Mr. Jesse Beasley, Mr. and Mrs. Stone and Mr. Howard Wright boarding with them when they lived on the old Steele place.

The two-story school was right there next door to Grandpa and Grandma Steele’s house.  Sisters Emily and Blanche Wilson and Anita Bondurant stayed with them during the week because they lived so far up towards the Peck Station that it was too far to travel to school every day. 

Two-story School House near Steele Place
Courtesy of Gladys Nelson

My Aunt Dick remembered Anita Bondurant sleeping with her when she stayed with them.   She was several years younger than my Aunt Dick.  Anita later married an Oliphant who died just a few years after they were married.  She is still living and is in the nursing home up at Harrisonburg.

My oldest son, who was the great grandson of Grandpa and Grandma Steele, married Mr. Jesse Beasley’s great niece.  Mr. Charles Mackey’s wife was a sister to Mr. Jesse Beasley.  Isn't it something how the circle comes back around?

At one period of time, Charles Mackey and his wife Lee Etta Beasley lived in the old Steele house here in town where I lived until it burned in August of 1990.  I believe they were living here along about 1912.

Several different families lived in the Steele house in town at one time or another in earlier years.  This was because Grandpa Steele liked to move back and forth from town to their house on the farm.  

Old Steele house in town

Old Steele house in town

Note:  Parts 1-66 of 'The Stories That Should Be Told' can be found in the Tags List on the right-hand side of the blog.

Sunday's Obituary - Lee Edward White

Monroe News Star - 5/3/1974