Newspaper, Grassroots & Cockleburrs, Back When..., LaSalle Parish, LA.

GRASS ROOTS AND COCKLE BURRS- Back When…
By Jack Willis
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., Oct. 27, 1999, 
Section C, Page 6
Thank You to the Times -Signal for allowing the following to be 
added to the Archives. 




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BACK WHEN
The month was October, and it connotes all sorts of images -- harvests, Indian
summer, pumpkins and October 31. I prefer to remember that date as my cousin's
birthday, rather than Halloween. But, that's my preference.
I was going over to keep an interview date and I was toodling merrily down
Sycamore Street. Memories came back in a rush. How many times had I ridden up
and down this long meandering hill on my red and white Western Flyer bicycle.
The area to the north of Sycamore in 1939 when we took up residence at the
bottom of the hill, was relatively undeveloped. We lived just across No-Name
Branch from the J.B. Peyton residence. It had been built by the Kings and
later acquired by a one-time LaSalle Parish sheriff, James Baxter Peyton, Sr.
The street proceeded eastward behind Dr. J.A. Coleman's estate and came to an
abrupt halt on the west bank of the Middle Prong of Hemp's Creek.
The only bridge spanning the creed was a narrow foot bridge. On cold winter
mornings when the creek would be frozen out from the bank, it would sway
precariously as my Mother and I were buffeted by the cruel north wind as we
made our way to Jena Elementary, the old three-story brick building erected in
1912.
About halfway down Sycamore was the Humphries estate, the Webb place, followed
by the Henry Ford place which my folks purchased in 1939. House, barn,
secondary dwelling, outbuildings and improvements plus 4.5 acres of land. Not
bad for $1,000 but that was a small fortune in '39 on the tail end of the
Great Depression.
Mr. James Knox Polk Humphries was the father of C.I. Humphries. C.I. had
migrated down to the Jena area from Caldwell Parish in 1910. He had heard
about the Buchanan interests building and operating the Trout and Good Pine
mills, so he arrived to seek his fortune.
C.I went to work at the Good Pine Commissary and in two years he had worked up
to the position of assistant manager. He had made the acquaintance of a co-
worker in the person of S.B. Poland. They both had been bitten by the
entreprenuership bug and S.B. was wanting to go into business for himself as
was C.I.
The Louisiana & Arkansas freight train pulled into Jena on New Year's Eve in
1893. Knowing that passenger service could not be far behind, an enterprising
young man from the Nebo area by the name of J.B. Wright built a small hotel
just to the north of the L&A tracks. 
He would later build and operate the Wright Hotel where it is situated to this
day. Wright would also found the Bank of Jena in 1910.
He Across the street of what would become U.S. 84, C.I. Humphries and S.B.
Poland purchased a corner lot and formed plans for opening their own grocery
outlets.
They opened their store in 1912 and soon were doing a thriving business. They
operated the store as partners for the next three years.
Meanwhile, C.I. had been reading and hearing about Henry Ford's success with
his first assembly line production Model T automobile. This "horseless"
carriage was taking the northeastern United States by storm. The whole U.S.
was in the last states of a monumental industrial revolution which began in
the 1890's.
On his way south to LaSalle Parish, C.I. had made the acquaintance of and
fallen in love with a beautiful young lady in the Olla area. Her name was Onie
Gandy McDaniel, and in a short while, being a man of substance, they were soon
married.
In 1915, he sold out his half of the grocery venture to his business partner
of three years and with business details worked out with Willy's Overland
Motor Company, he would become LaSalle Parish's first automobile dealer.
It was time for his father to move to Jena, so they bought lands on what would
become Sycamore Street. This street was also the limits boundary of the newly
incorporated Town of Jena. Thus, when the Humphries estate was incorporated
into the town property, his legal description was listed as the First Addition
to the Town of Jena. This was one of many firsts achieved by Mr. C.I.
Humphries. He would also become the dealer for the Willy's Whippet Auto.
Back down the street towards Hemp's Creek, the street turned up towards the
Peyton house, ran alongside of it, followed the ridge behind it back to the
original house built by the Kings. It was an old unpainted double pin-style
with a pitched roof. The construction was of lightered pine with a red "mud
daub" chimney. The road then turned down the hill to the home of Mr. J.B.
Peyton's son, George Oscar.
The road bent around their house place and headed northward towards what would
one day be the site of Jena High School.
To be continued…
*** See Back When II ***