Bio: Capt. 0. L. Durham, Desoto  Parish Louisiana
Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville,  1890
Submitted by Gaytha Carver Thompson





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Capt. 0. L. Durham has for forty-two years been a resident of De Soto Parish,
La., and during his residence here has become well known, and has won the
respect of all with whom he has come contact. He possesses excellent natural
abilities, and is deserving of a more extended sketch than the nature of this
work will permit; suffice it to say his life has been a success, both in
material affairs and in the esteem which has been accorded him among those
with whom he has so long made his home.   He was born in Fairfield County, S.
C., April 23, 1817, and has been familiar with farming from his earliest
boyhood, as his father was a worthy tiller of the soil, and upon his removal
to ,this state he purchased and entered land upon which no improvements
whatever had been made.  He began immediately to improve his land, and is now
the owner of at least 1,000 acres, of which 350 acres are cleared and devoted
to crops, the principal being cotton and corn.  He also gives considerable
attention to the raising of stock, and every particular is considered a       
thrifty and prosperous farmer.  Upon his first removal from his native State,
he emigrated to Alabama (in 1839), but afterward came to Louisiana, and from
this enlisted, in 1862, in the Confederate army, going out as commander of the
Dixie Rebels, Twenty-seventh Louisiana Regiment.  He was subsequently         
transferred to the quartermaster's department, collecting food and horses for
his regiment, and continued thus to serve the cause he espoused until the
close of the war, being paroled at Shreveport.  

He was married in 1839 to Martha J. Haywood, by whom he has five children:
Osmund Ross (died in infancy), Robert H. (died 1856, leaving a widow and two
sons-Abner R. now married, and Judson, who died in 1886), Melissa C., Mary E.
and Emma V. all of whom are married.  The mother died in 1880 and Mr. Durham
has never remarried.  Both he and wife were members of long standing in the
Baptist Church, and Mr. Durham has for years been a member of the school
board, of which he has for years been president, and has helped to build
Keatchie College. He was one of the originators of is school, and has taken a
great interest in its welfare, and is also interested in all educational 
institutions.  He is chairman of the District Baptist Association, composed of
De Soto and Caddo Parishes, and although he has often been solicited to become
a candidate for a political office he has ways refused as he is not an office
seeker.  

His parents, Robert W. and Molsey E. (Ross) Durham, were of English descent,
the former being a farmer South Carolina, in which State he died, he and his
wife having had a large family of children, four of whom are living.  Both
the paternal and maternal grandfathers were soldiers in the Revolutionary War,
the former holding the rank of captain and dying in South Carolina.  The
latter, whose name was Abner Ross, was reared in New Jersey, but afterward
moved to South Carolina, where he became a member of the State Legislature,
being a very prominent politician.