William Chamberlin Myhand, W. Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Mike Miller ************** ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** ************************************************************** William Chamberlin Myhand was one of the substantial capitalists and representative citizens of his native Parish of West Baton Rouge and was vice-president of the Bank of Addis, in the Village of Addis, this parish. On the "Oaks" Plantation, near Ferry Landing, this parish, Mr. Myhand was born November 18, 1860. His father, Hilliard Crawford Myhand, a native of Georgia, died in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, in 1868, and the widowed mother purchased about a year later what is now known as the Myhand Plantation estate at Addis, this property having been purchased in 1906 by the son, William C., of this review, and the attractive old house on the place having been his home for a period of more than fifty years., even as it is today. Henry C. Myhand was reared and educated in Georgia, and was a young man when he came to Louisiana. He here became manager of the "Oaks" Plantation, owned by Doctor Patrick, in West Baton Rouge Parish, and later he assumed a similar position on the Barrow Plantation at Grosse Tete, Iberville Parish. He next initiated independent activities by renting the Ovide Le Jeune Plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish, where he was making successful operations as a planter at the time of his death. He was a staunch democrat and was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His wife, whose maiden name was Estelle Gibson, was born in West Baton Rouge Parish in the year 1835, and here her death occurred at the old homestead at Addis in 1888. Of the children the eldest is Melissa, who is the wife of Gilbert Hebert, a retired hotel proprietor, and they now reside at Addis ; Eliza, who likewise resides at Addis, is the widow of Leodore Guidry, he having conducted mail and passenger service between Addis and Port Allen; Joseph was shipping clerk for Perkins-Miller Lumber Company at West Lake at the time of his death, in 1902; William C., immediate subject of this review, was the next in order of birth Miss Estelle and Marie are associated in the conducting of a prosperous millinery business at Biloxi, Mississippi; Ada, who died in 1922, at Biloxi, was the widow of Joseph Thomassee, who was killed in a railroad accident while in service as a locomotive fireman on the Iron Mountain Railroad about two miles from Monroe; Allen died at Addis in 1894. when eighteen years of age; and Miss Georgia is associated with her sisters as a partner in their millinery business at Biloxi. The boyhood and youth of William C. Myhand were marked by his active association with the work of the home plantation, and the house in which he resided is the old Myhand Homestead that represented his place of abode for fifty-four years. This plantation is known as China Grove Plantation, and of the original area Mr. Myhand owned 120 acres, including the sturdy and handsome old homestead, adjoining Addis on the east. The productive operations of the Myhand plantation are assigned to desirable tenants, Mr. Myhand having retired from active plantation enterprise in 1899. He was the owner of more than twenty dwellings in the village of Addis. Mr. Myhand was aligned in the ranks of the democratic party, was for eight years deputy sheriff of the parish, and gave four years of service as a member of the municipal council of Addis. In addition to being vice president of the Batik of Addis he owned a one-third interest in the Myhand Herbert Cafe in this village. At Brusly he and his wife were communicants of the Catholic Church of St. John the Baptist, and at Plaquemine be was affiliated with Plaquemine Council No. 970, Knights of Columbus. May 12, 1904, recorded the marriage of Mr. Myhand and Miss Aimee Delahaye, who was born and reared in West Baton Rouge Parish and who attended St. Joseph's Convent in the City of Baton Rouge. Mr. and Mrs. Myhand had three children: Anna Leona is (spring of 1924) a member of the senior class of St. Joseph's Convent at Baton Rouge, Joseph Alvin is attending the public schools at Addis, and another child, Earl William, died in 1919, at the age of fourteen years. On August 12, 1924, recorded the death of Mr. Myhand at the home plantation. NOTE: A signed photograph/painting accompanies this narrative in the referenced source. A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 131-132, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.