Newspapers, Woodlands and Waterways Echoes; LaSalle, Louisiana Submitter: Jack Willis Date: 29 Sep 2004 Source: Jena Times - Olla Tullos Signal "Woodlands and Waterways Echoes" Source Date: January ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Woodlands and Waterways Echoes She probably knows more about the topography and history of Catahoula Lake than any woman living, and that is the main reason I contacted Clarinda Moffett Breland Bradford to set up a visit, and by phone, we agreed upon a day and a time. On that appointed day, Ms. Bradford answered the front door at my knock, inviting me into her cozy home which is located in the Nebo community, just down the hill towards Devil's Creek, and down stream from where her father and mother Jesse and Bertie Moffett lived out their retirement years in one of the oldest houses in LaSalle Parish and according to tradition was built for a Tarpley family and is still standing. It was a time of renewal for Clarinda and me, because she and I are about twice-removed cousins, and share the same set of great-grandparents, who are Samuel Franklin and Mary Bairns Graham. Entering her living room I was impressed with the variety of artwork adorning the walls, featuring paintings from an earlier age by old masters, as well as homegrown renderings by the hostess. An old hand saw hanging on the wall was embellished with a moonlight scene on a river, no doubt drawn from a memory of days gone by. We took our seat at the kitchen table which was covered with yellowed photographs, picture albums and journals and she stated, " I thought we'd visit a while before we get into anything serious", and I heartily agreed. As I took my seat, my mind went back in time to the first time I remembered meeting Clarinda, and her first husband John Breland at Kee's Park in Pineville, LA. during the Catahoula Lake Festival, where they were demonstrating early Catahoula Lake lifestyles at the Breland House. She was weaving fishing nets by hand, having learned this skill as a commercial fisherman's wife, but before she even married at the tender age of 16, she already had knowledge of the great outdoors because of her father's love for hunting, trapping, and fishing. My mother was the best of friends with Clarinda's mother Bertie, and besides being kinfolks, they had both also attended Louisiana Normal College together at Natchitoches, LA, and later teaching together at Sharptown, or Crossroads School in Southern LaSalle Parish. Times were good across the nation in the twenties, but Southern folks weren't exactly overwhelmed with prosperity, and as a result there was a constant quest for jobs that would support one's family. Clarinda's father had the reputation of being somewhat of a "rolling stone" laughingly remarked saying, "Daddy wouldn't move unless the moon had changed at least once". Her birthplace was in Jena on what is now Sycamore Street next to the William Humphries property, where the Michael Dempsey Masonic Lodge is now located. Shortly after her birth, the family moved to Homer, Louisiana where they resided for several years, until it was time for Clarinda to begin schooling and the family moved back to Jena where she began the first grade. The second grade found her enrolled at "Hailey High", located about a quarter of a mile off the Jena-Nebo highway on top of the hill just South of Mill Creek, and so named because one Hailey family had 13 children that made up the bulk of the school's enrollment. Her year of third grade was spent at Crossroads, where Clarinda's mother and Alice Graham were both employed as teachers. Then, the family relocated to Tullos, La. where an oil boom was in progress where she was able to complete the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades in one school for a change. She finished the seventh grade in Jena just before her father's wanderlust rose up again, with the family relocating down to the Magnolia community, near the head of Catahoula Lake. It was here that Clarinda finished the ninth and tenth grades and made the acquaintance of her husband-to-be John Breland. The tenth grade was as high as one could go at Nebo, resulting in her attending Jena High in the eleventh and graduating in the old First Baptist Church. At this time, she felt she ought to mention that she'd already been married for two yeas when she graduated, because she and John had eloped when she was 16 and he was 21 years of age. After her graduation the couple began immediately to build a four-room house, doing most of the carpentering themselves. Using a mallet and froe, John rived the cypress boards for the house construction out of logs he felled himself. When the house was finished, they only had $16.00 cash invested in the totally finished structure. Then, after a short while, to her dismay, John confessed that he had always wanted to live on a houseboat, utilizing it as a commercial fishing base. He "just happened to know someone" that had such a floating residence, that would be more than willing to swap it for a nice four-room house. So the swap was made and the Brelands set sail literally upon the Catahoula Lake basin watercourses commercial fishing for a living, following the migrations of the fish populations, and plying the inland waterways as far North as Big Creek on Little River, and as far South as the mouth of French Forks. Occasionally word of mouth would come down Little River that Stone Container Corporation had dumped copious amounts of " black water", which defined was overflow from their paper manufacturing process at their mill located at Hodge, La. This poisonous waste, so blatantly and flagrantly loosed into this pristine watershed would kill all wild life in the river. When this happened, which was frequently, all the commercial fishermen had to band together and race ahead of the "black death" and scoop up all the fish having to catch the fish while they could, because they knew that it would be a long period of time before any living thing could live in the polluted waters. Consequently, they didn't stop for wood, water, or coal, as the saying goes. While their houseboat was tied up at the mouth of French Forks was when Clarinda began her now extensive collection of Native American artifacts from the tribes of Caddo Indians that had inhabited the peninsula between the lake and river in years gone by. The last mooring of their houseboat was on the South side of the lake near Willow Bayou, near where the Diversion Canal outflow is today. When asked if she remembered the most memorable fish her husband ever caught, she replied without hesitation, "Why yes, I remember it like it was yesterday". She went on to say that she had just walked out on the porch of the boat and looked out across the wide expanse of the lake, and she could see her husband in his skiff paddling furiously towards her. Wondering what was amiss, she noted he was almost cutting a rooster tail wake he was moving so fast. When he arrived at the houseboat, and while tying up to the houseboat, he pointed to the bottom of the skiff, and there lay the biggest blue channel catfish she had ever seen, which weighed in at 75 lbs. John had caught him on a trot line hook, and somehow managed to land him before he became "the one that got away." By this time Clarinda was expecting their first child, and it was time to trek back to civilization, so they crossed the lake and tied up at Hanner's Landing, and with the able assistance of Dr. David L. Trax, she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl the proud parents named Patricia. Ten years later she would give birth to another baby girl, which they would name Gloria. Deciding that a houseboat was no place to rear their daughter, they decided to leave the water and move back on land to the Magnolia community. When World War Two erupted, John was called up for induction into military service, but for reasons unknown he was turned down, so he went to work in a refinery in Sulphur, La., in the production of aviation fuel for the war effort. Tragedy struck the Brelands in 1956 when their oldest daughter was killed in a grinding head-on car wreck on the Nebo road, south of Jena. After this horrendous event, John felt he needed to move Clarinda back home close to her parents. He then built the house she resides in today. Clarinda lost her beloved John in 1976. As the years passed by, she busied herself with her hobbies, later marrying her second husband, Spencer DeBrock "Pete" Bradford, with them having several enjoyable years together until he passed away in 1999. She is a confirmed genealogy buff, and has done a lot of research on her personal family tree, as well as various families where she was reared. Her paintings always fare well in competition, and she has many ribbons to show for her efforts. She still collects driftwood sculptures and makes appearances at folk festivals, demonstrating the facets of the Catahoula Lake lifestyle that was her way of life for so many years. Her trademark twinkling eyes, the saucy pert smile hinting of mischief, are indicators that a visit captured with her will always be a most enjoyable occasion. I had a good time!