Bio: William J. Sullivan, Caddo Parish La
Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville,  1890

Submitted by: Suzanne Shoemaker


**************************************************

**********************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm
**********************************************
 ********


     WILLIAM J. SULLIVAN, the subject of the present sketch, was born in
Jackson County, Fla., in the year 1824, being the son of John and Esther
(Keith) Sullivan, natives of the Carolinas.  His parents were married in
Georgia, and from that State moved to Florida.  In 1838 he came to Caddo
Parish, and was among the earliest settlers in this place, indeed, so few
were four or five miles apart.  They settled upon their present estate,
which is situated about eighteen miles from Shreveport, and that city
contained in those days only two small log-business houses, while the
country around was little more than a wilderness, overflowing with deer,
wild turkeys and wolves, and presenting a truly primeval appearance.  The
chief part of the population was composed of the Caddo Indians, who dwelt
contentedly in their rude wigwams made from the bark of trees, with no
desire for improvement of progress.  The father passed the remainder of his
life here, and was regarded as a planter of the strictest integrity and
energy.  He settled on a 280-acre tract, and supposed he had made all the
necessary proof, but only a few years ago his son, the subject of this
sketch, was called upon to furnish additional proof, and being unable to do
so the case came up before the various departments, and was finally decided
against the Sullivan property, thus compelling Mr. Sullivan to buy it in at
the price of $2 per acre, the land being claimed by the V. S. & P. R. R.
The father was justice of the peace here for a time, and in Florida  had
served as deputy sheriff.  Mr. Sullivan's paternal grandfather, Robert
Sullivan, was probably born in North Carolina, and his parents were of
Irish descent.  His mother died in 1858, and his maternal grandfather,
Elibu Keith, died in Georgia.  The subject of this sketch was one of the
four sons and four daughters born to his parents, and of these children
only he and a sister, Mary Viola, are now living.  He received his
education in a little old log school-house, such as were found in those
days in every neighborhood, and the information imparted by those early
school teachers was very limited indeed.  In the year 1849 he crossed the
plains to California, where he remained about four years working in the
mines, and returned home via Aspinwall after a season of adventure and
excitement.  He enlisted in the late war in March, 1862, joining Company I,
Twenty-seventh Louisiana Infantry, and took part in the battle of
Vicksburg, and served until the close of the trouble restored peace to the
country.  He has had possession of his present plantation some time (1839),
and owns 800 acres of valuable land, and all this has been gained by means
of his own perseverance and energy.  He has served as justice of the peace
nearly twenty years in all.  He is a member of the A. F. & A. M., Lank Mark
Lodge No. 214, and was once worshipful master.  He is now, perhaps, the
oldest Caddoian in the parish, and his agreeable manners and excellent
judgment have won him a host of friends both in religious, business and
social circles.