Newspaper, Grass Roots & Cockleburrs, Early Possum Point, LaSalle Parish, La. GRASS ROOTS AND COCKLE BURRS- Early Possum Point By Jack Willis Sponsored by Finch Motors Transcribed by Pat Ezell, PatEzell@worldnet.att.net Submitted by: Kathy LeMay Kelly, P.O. Box 219, Trout, La. 71371 From the Jena Times - Olla Tullos Signal, Wed., March 8, 2000, Section B, Page 13 Thank You to the Times -Signal for allowing the following to be added to the Archives. ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** EARLY POSSUM POINT Ever so often the stark realization that one isn't a spring chicken anymore rises up and slaps us into measure of sensibility. Such is the case when you start thinking of older citizens to interview because of their historical knowledge. Through neglect and procrastination, many colorful and learned people have gone on to their eternal reward without being sought out and creating an audience for them to vent the victories and failures, successes and frustrations, health and illnesses that constitute a lifetime here on this Earth. And it's regrettable because they deserve to be heard and their wisdom salvaged and chronicled for the now generation. Such is the focal point of this column. We had the pleasure to visit Mr. John Norris recently. He's not in the best of health, has to spend a lot of time in bed, but this has not diminished his mental capacity. His eyes twinkled and danced as he fielded a barrage of historical questions about the Nebo and Rogers communities. He turned 89 on January 22, 2000. Mr. John's grandfather, Robert Tilton Norris, was born in Ohio and at an early age began training to be a steamboat captain, which he eventually did become. Not much is known of his early days on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, in fact, thirty-five years of activity is unknown. Evidently he was plying his trade on the waterways of the country. Wanderlust led him to Louisiana's rivers and bayous. At some point in time he made his way up the Red, Black, Catahoula (as it was known before it became Little River) into Catahoula Lake and up the Little River to the now Rogers Community. He homesteaded 160 acres about three miles from the river on the upper fringes of Alligator Brake and Kitterling Creek. It was choice sandy clay loam farm land, and he set out to raise a family and clear the homesteaded acreage for farming. Captain Robert Norris had married a lovely young lady by the name of Annelle Boyer. She was a gifted homemaker and mother, rearing her children with great care, instilling in them the social graces of the day. They reared three boys Robert Jr., Mr. John's father, George, who ran a store and post office and Boyer, who was blessed with a green thumb. He had orchards, root crops and raised sugar cane for syrup and sugar and maintained a cellar for storage. Robert Norris, Jr., fathered nine boys and three girls. One child died as an infant. Since the Norrises had so many children it fell Mr. John's lot to help his mother in the kitchen. Because of his ability to cook and clean house, he took a lot of hoorahing from his brothers. Every morning he got up, built a fire in the fireplace and cookstove, and rolled out 36 biscuits and cooked four dozen eggs. School was only held for three months of the year in Summerville, while crops were making. There were six grades taught and you were either in a low class or a high class in any particular grade. Jackson Russell from Tullos was the first teacher when the school was built. He was a native of Tullos, a brother to J.D., Geeley, Bill, and Herbert Russell, who were prominent educators at one time or another in LaSalle Parish history. Mr. John applied himself in his studies and made up three years of schooling in two years. He even remembered a rhyme from one of the classes. "Lucky Locket lost her pocket, Kitty Fisher found it…" Some of the lads in his classes were Troy Breland, Bolton Norris, Fred Thompson, Franklin Corley and James Breland. On one particular day when they were dispatched to get a bucket of drinking water, the boys through it was be a good idea to cool off by a quick dip in Calhoun Branch. When they got back to the classroom, the boys hair was still damp and the teacher, a Mr. Hutchins didn't buy their story at all that the evident moisture was caused by excessive perspiration. Later in life, Mr. John married Effie Coon of the Nebo Community. Mr. John did what most every male citizen did to bring in cash money, he went to work in the logging woods of Good Pine Lumber Company. Leonard Paul was the saw boss and some of his co-workers were Millard Hailey, Arch, and Phinn Gray and Lige Stapleton. The logging team crew that kept the logs ferried out to the spur lines where they could be loaded on flatcars was Artie Johnson and Fate Ainsworth. Their log hauling apparatus was made up of four strong horses and eight wheeled wagons. Some oxen were used in swampy areas. One of Mr. John's favorite animals of all that he owned was a small mule he bought from Walter Hailey. He wasn't but about 15 hands high and weighed about 900 lbs., but he had been broke to ride. Mr. Hailey took him out into some fresh plowed ground where the little mule couldn't get any firm traction for bucking and soon had him gentled down. Had the mule thrown him in the breaking, the plowed ground would have been less harmful. Mr. John's father-in-law was Tom coon, one of the best blacksmiths in the county. He had his own shop out in front of where Mr. John resides today in Nebo. He was also skilled in the fine art of making axe handles. Carpenters paid premium prices for his hammer handles also. He always had a big Western style coffee pot sitting on the edge of the fire bed on the forge. The Norrises were just one of many families that settled what had to be some of the most beautiful country, just north of Catahoula Lake. Other families were the Brelands, Corleys, Fraziers, Hanners, Thompsons and Greers. The land has been cut to barreness, the streams have been polluted at various times, and new growth pine trees attack the landscape. It's far removed from the Eden-line, pristine beauty so beautifully manifested…back when.