50th Wedding Anniversay C. B. & Lee Irma Weems, Franklin Parish, La Submitted by Betty Jean Weems Neathery Newspaper clipping from the Northeast Electric Co-op No date and no byline, but their anniversary was in 1969 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Golden Couple Recalls Days of Depression, Flood Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Weems have know some hard times in their lives in Northeast Louisiana. Long-time residents of their farm southeast of Crowville near Bayou Macon, these members of Northeast Electric Co-op celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversay on January 26. Obviously appreciative of today's convenient way of life, this charming couple's memories are rich with the accounts of how life used to be in this part of the country. The parents of three children, nine grandchilren and nine great- grandchildren, Mr. Weems is originally of Tullos, LaSalle Parish; she's a native of the community where they now live. After working and logging in the Crowville area as a young man, Weems and his brother planned a crop in 1918, a crop they never made together. For Weems was drafted into the Army in February of that year. He was never sent overseas, however, remaining stationed in Oregon and Washington, serving until almost a month past Armistice Day. Released on December 9, 1918, he returned home. The Winnsboro- Crowville road was then just dirt, he says, and was impassable. Not until 1924 was this road built up and graveled, they recall. Early upon his return, on January 26, 1919, he married the former Lee Irma Strickland and made a crop with her dad, Harrison Strickland, that year. Since one couldn't buy a farm in the uncertain times after World War I, Weems logged in the area with mule and ox teams. Weems recalls once loading one oak log on an eight-wheel log wagon drawn by six horses. Even though the ground was dry, four more horses had to be hitched to the wagon before it could be moved. In this era of the crosscut saw, he recalls cutting one gum tree which had four 16-feet sections, totalling almost 4,000 board feet. Weems and his saw partner accomplished this in 45 mintues. Leaving the area, the Weems family moved to Urania, where he helped build logging railroads awhile in the hills. But they soon returned to farm west of Winnsboro. Weems also worked making wooden barrel staves. But the land near their present farm drew them back, where they stayed until forced to flee during the Flood of '27. Once during this high water, they boated all the way to Winnsboro to get medicine for their small children. Where the Mississippi River broke through its levee between Newellton and St. Joseph, they recall, mules were bogging to their bellies in the mud while patching the 18-20 feet deep hole that had been washed out along some 350 years of levee. Back in the area when it dried out, the Weems family rented land and farmed during the depression. One day a week, Weems walked four miles to Crowville and back to work for the PWA at $1.50 a day, "This didn't even include a meal," Weems said, "so I had to carry a lunch." Briefly, from 1934 to 1936, the Weems family again moved away - this time to live in Rayville. But, again, they returned. And bought 40 acres of their own - 40 acres where the giant virgin timber had been cut away, allowing the sunlight to penetrate creating a forest with briars and bushes so thick that the only way one could get through was to crawl. "The woods were full of wolves in packs. Wolves and wildcats would come and eat our chickens," Weems recalls. Weems, his two boys and helpers he sometimes hired for $1.00 a day and their dinner cleared the thick woods with crosscut saws and briar blades. "We worked until 10 one morning on one group of trees wrapped together with vines so thick that none would fall until all had been sawed down," he remembers. Raising cotton, corn and hogs, Weems then bought and cleared a second 40 acres. He also raised "Louisiana blue cane," one year making 192 gallons of syrup, with which he helped pay farm help. They remember that back in the woods early in the morning, before the day of the fence, ringing a big bell around the bell cow's neck could be heard clearly in the distance. Weems said he used to ride back there, listening for the "clang-a-lang." "Once you found the bell cow, all the others were nearby," he says. During World War II, electric service came to their farm, when Northeast Louisiana Power Co-op built lines into the area. They remember the thrill the first night with electric lights. After the war, they signed up and were lucky enough to get a sca- refrigerator. Weems farmed until 11 years ago. He still has a garden, cows and chickens. Yes, Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Weems have known some hard times in their Lives and experienced things today the younger generation have never dreamed of. They, more so than many others, really appreciate the comforts of today's world. They only regret that the best part of the bygone years - the old-time "help your neighbor" spirit appears to be less and less a way of life with every succeeding generation. The world today could well stand a giant dose of the "pull together" spirit that prevailed in the era of the two-handled crosscut saw. **Submitter's notes: Charlie Benjamin Weems was born November 20, 1892 in Tullos, the son of James Jackson "Jack" Weems and Sarah L. "Vicey" Bass Weems. He died March 31, 1972 and is buried in Harris Cemetery. Lee Irma Strickland Weems was born August 12, 1897, the daughter of Henry Harrison Strickland and Mary Elizabeth Lupo Strickland. She died December 15, 1969.