William Douglas Humble; Bio: Franklin Parish Louisiana

Submitted by Mike Miller

Sept.2001



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







William Douglas Humble, of Mangham, said to be the heaviest 

taxpayer in Richland Parish, has shown an ability amounting 

almost to genius for managing and operating plantations and farms

and all their related activities.  Mr. Humble is owner of the plantation 

named Goldmine,located between Big Creek and Bluff River, in 

Richland and Franklin parishes, chiefly in Richland Parish.  

This plantation contains 4,300 acres.  Mr. Humble recently sold his brother,

George W., about 1,100 acres from this tract of plantation land.



Mr. Humble was born on his father's plantation at Libbieville in Franklin Parish, 

January 15,1874.  He is a son of George and Virginia (Adams) Humble.  

His paternal grandfather was Rev. Thomas Jacob Humble, while his mother was a 

daughter of Buck Adams.  Rev. Thomas J. Humble was

a well educated man, moved from Alabama to Louisiana, living at Columbia in 

Caldwell Parish and rendered a pioneer service as a Methodist minister over an 

extensive territory.  George Humble, father of William D., served as a lieutenant 

in the Confederate Army, was also a sharpshooter and was a participant in some 

of the great campaigns in Virginia.  He spent four years in the

service of the Southern cause and after the war married and established his 

plantation at Libbieville.  He was a stockraiser as well as planter and left his 

family in good circumstances.  He was college educated, and his life was 

comparatively brief.  He died at the age of forty-two and his wife at fifty-two.  

They had a family of nine children, four sons and five daughters.  

The living children are:  William D.,  George W.;  Henrietta, wife of Charles

King of Winnsboro;  Samuel, a planter at Mangham; and  Maude, wife of 

Ben Duff of Laredo, Texas.  Three of the daughters and one of the sons are 

deceased;  Mary, wife of James Woode; Fannie, who married I. M. King, and  

Miss Virginia, and  Thomas.



William Douglas Humble was reared in the home of his grandfather, Buck Adams.  

He attended school regularly to the age of twenty, being educated at Eldorado in 

Mount Lebanon College and a college at Clinton, Mississippi.  He finished a course 

in commercial law and bookkeeping.  At the age of eighteen he had taken charge of

the Gold Mine Plantation and has made all the improvements on this magnificent farm 

property.  For a few years he was associated with J. R. Hewitt.  For the proper management 

of the plantation he conducted a store and also a saw mill

to supply the building needs of the place and also operated a Cotton gin.  In addition to his

planting interests in Louisiana, Mr. Humble owns 1,068 acres in the irrigated section of

Southwestern Texas.  This land is used for the production of onions and other truck not only in

carloads but trainloads.  He has fifteen pumping plants to irrigate the land.



Mr. Humble has frequently been urged to accept office but has steadily refused.  He has voted

for road and school taxes though himself one of the heaviest taxpayers. He is a member of the

Parish Road Commission, giving his services without pay.



Mr. Humble married on his birthday, January 15, 1896, Miss Kate A. Boughton, daughter of

Sherman Boughton of Richland Parish.  Mr. and Mrs. Humble have a beautiful home just west of

Mangham and their hospitality is noted far and wide.  Mr. Humble is affiliated with the Knights

of Pythias at Rayville, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Monroe and he is one of

the directors of the Mangham State Bank.  His recreation is chiefly hunting and handling good

horses.



A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 226, by Henry E. Chambers.  Published by The American

Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.