DeSoto Parish, Louisiana; Biography: James W. Nolan - n450

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Submitted by Gaytha Carver Thompson
Typed by Trudy Marlow
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Submitted to the LAGenWeb Archives



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            James W. Nolan was reared to a knowledge
         farm life by his father, James Nolan, and like the
         majority of farmers' boys he has followed in his
         ancestor's footsteps, and is now one of the leading
         agriculturists of this parish.  He is a native of
         Wilkes County, Ga., where he was born in 1837,
         and until eighteen years of age, at which time the
         father died, he remained under the shelter of the
         paternal roof, his mother, whose maiden name
         was Almedia Florence, having died when he was
         twelve years old.  The father was born in Vir-
         ginia in 1780, being a son of George Nolan, who
         was of English descent, a Revolutionary soldier,
         and died in his native State of Virginia.  The
         mother was born in Lincoln County, Ga., in which
         State her father, Thomas Florence, was born and
         spent his life, being a tiller of the Soil.  James
         W. Nolan was the first of three sons and three
         daughters, and received a good education in his
         youth at Washington, Ga., also spending one
         term in the University of Virginia at Charlotte-
         ville.  In 1859 he came to De Soto Parish, La.,
         and farmed until the opening of the war.  He was
         married in 1861 to Miss Mary Fannie, daughter of
         Benjamin W. and Julia Pearson, the former a
         native of Raleigh, N. C., and the latter of Camden,
         Ala., their marriage taking place in Montgomery,
         of the latter State.  They came to De Soto Parish
         in 1840, the father dying in 1876, aged about
         seventy-two, and the mother still living, at the
         age of seventy-three years, a worthy member of
         the Methodist Church.  Mrs. Nolan was born at
         Fort Jessup, Sabine Parish, La., in 1840, and is
         the third of eleven children, and the mother of
         thirteen children, ten sons and two daughters liv-
         ing.  Mr. Nolan served for a short time in the
         Confederate army in Shelly's battalion, which was
         afterward merged into the Crescent Regiment,
         and held the rank of sergeant.  After the war he
         spent four years as a merchant of Mansfield, but
         has since devoted his attention to farming, being
         the owner of about 1,800 acres, with 600 cleared.
         He is also operating a saw, grist-mill and cotton-
         gin, in all of which enterprises he is doing well.
         He and his wife have been members in good stand-
         ing of the Methodist Church for a long time, and
         for many years he has been a member of the A.
         F.   & A. M.