Obits: The Ouachita Telegraph 1877 Obits, Ouachita Parish La These older obituaries are being typed in by Ms. Lora Peppers at the Ouachita Parish Library. We are once again fortunate to have someone interested in helping us find our ancestors. Thank you Lora! Date: Aug. 2000 Submitted by: Lora Peppers * ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** * If your obituary is not found here and you would like a special look up, you may send $5.00 and an self-addressed stamped envelope to: Lora Peppers - Phone (318) 327-1490 Reference Department Fax (318) 327-1373 Ouachita Parish Public Library 1800 Stubbs Ave. Monroe, LA 71201 These newspapers are on microfilm at NLU. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, January 12, 1877 Page 2, Column 5 DEATH OF SENATOR MEREDITH Thursday a sad event occurred in the death of Thos. E. Meredith, State Senator from the Eighteenth Senatorial District. Mr. Meredith expired at the St. James Hotel, at 4:30 P.M. In the the (sic) death of this estimable young man the people of this State, as well as his afflicted family have suffered a serious loss. His untimely demise, in the prime of life, is an event to be most deeply deplored, not only by a family of whose affection he was the beloved object; but also, by the people of the State to whom his services were especially valuable at this momentous period. Mr. Meredith was born in the parish of Caldwell, La., where he has continued to reside. He was admitted to the bar in 1871, and as an attorney has earned a high reputation for ability and integrity. He represented his parish in the Legislature of 1874 with credit to himself, and was elected Senator at the late election. In the walks of public and private life his conduct was exemplary and above reproach. To his friends and relations it will be some consolation to know that he died with an unsullied honor, and resigned to the dispensation of inscrutable Providence, regretting only that his last hours on earth should be spent away from hoe and family. Mr. Meredith, though elected Senator for the Eighteenth District, was not returned by the Returning Board. – N.O. Picayune. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, January 12, 1876 Page 3, Column 3 OBITUARY. In memory of Charlie W. Stamper, died January 6, 1877; only son of Mrs. M.E. Stamper. Surely, “Death rides on every passing breeze And lurks in every flower; Each season has its own disease, It’s perils every hour.” Charlie was a bright young man of 21 years and only surviving son of his devoted mother, possessing a kind and gentle disposition. The sound of his footsteps and sweet, gentle voice made music for home and filled the heart of his mother with gladness. But grieve not, dear parent, for Charlie will walk the beautiful city of God; and though his gentle voice be hushed to you, will join in anthems of praise around the eternal throne. “To those who for his loss are grieved This consolation’s given – He’s from a world of woe relieved And blooms a rose in Heaven. HIS FRIENDS. Trenton, LA., January 10, 1877. Cuthbert, Ga., papers please copy. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, February 9, 1877 Page 2, Column 3 Died, At his father’s residence, Lake Charles, La., January 30, 1877, HOWARD B. GRAY, eldest child of General Henry Gray and Elenora Ann Howard, born at Louisville, Miss., April 21, 1842; aged 34 years, 9 months and 9 days. The deceased leaves a father, brother and two sisters to mourn his loss. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, March 2, 1877 Page 2, Column 2 Mr. Edward L. Hodgkins, for several years a citizen of this parish, but formerly a resident of Catahoula, died, Sunday, in this city, at the residence of his sister, Mrs. Sorg, of typhoid pneumonia. Mr. Hodgkins had been in bad health for some time, and a sufferer from a painful wound in the foot received in the late war on the Confederate side. He was a man of sterling worth, kind and generous in his nature, cheerful, patient and industrious in his disposition and habits, and honest in all his dealings. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, April 20, 1877 Page 2, Column 3 UNION. We are pained to learn that Dr. L. Larche, an old and estimable citizen, died at his residence near Downsville, last week. Dr. Larche was one of the pioneer settlers of this section of the State, and his upright course of life united with his other admirable qualities as a citizen, had endeared him to the people of his acquaintance. He raised a large family of children who proved an honor to him in his declining years. His demise has caused a feeling of depression throughout the entire community. Requiescat in pace. – Record. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, April 27, 1877 Page 3, Column 3 DIED, Near Woodville, La., April 13, 1877, ORVILLE, infant son of Joseph L. and Jessie L. Bond. His was the morning hour – And he has passed in beauty from the day, A bud not yet a flower, Fair in its sweetness from the parent spray. The death wind swept him to his sweet repose, As frost in spring-time blights the early rose. Mother, thy child is bless’d, And tho’ his presence may be lost to thee, And vacant leave thy breast, And missed a sweet load from thy parent knee – Tho’ beauty, familiar, from thy eye has past, Thou’lt meet thy child with his God at last! J.L.B. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, May 18, 1877 Page 3, Column 1 Mr. George Koehler died at his residence in this city on the 16th, after an illness of several weeks caused by an affection (sic) of the throat. Mr. Koehler was a native of Baden, Germany, and was born in 1815. He came to the United States in 1851, having taken an active part in the revolution of 1849 in Germany. He was an excellent mechanic, well known as a gun-smith, in which trade he was thoroughly skilled. At one time he was a member of the City Council. He leaves two little boys, for whom ample provision is made in property left by the deceased and by a life insurance policy in the Knickerbocker company. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, May 18, 1877 Page 3, Column 2 DIED, At 1 o’clock, A.M., May 15, 1877, at his residence on the island in Ouachita Parish, Capt. CHARLES W. PHILLIPS, aged 59 years. The deceased was born in North Carolina in the year 1818. His youth found him in Huntsville, Alabama, learning the rudiments of the merchantile profession, in which he became eminent and successful. To men of ability, enterprise and energy New Orleans was attractive. To this city Capt. Phillips moved in his early manhood, and was successfully engaged in commercial pursuits for twenty-two years. He was a partner in several prominent firms which did extensive business in the Southwest, among which were Williams, Phillips & Co., and Phillips, Nixon & Co. Having acquired both distinction and fortune as a merchant, Capt. Phillips, before the war, invested largely in some of the most fertile lands in that rich section of our parish known as the Island. Under his splendid administrative capacity a large scope of the most beautifully cultivated country appeared, and to-day the traveler is enchanted with miles of fertile fields, due to his wonderful energy and capacity. Capt. Phillips was a patriot, and no service that his country demanded was withheld. No sacrifice was too great for him to make. During the late war he organized and commanded the Phillips Rangers, an efficient and gallant company, which served with distinction in the army of Tennessee. Ill health compelled him to relinquish his command, and he reluctantly quit the service. His unselfish disposition, his modesty and diffidence were proofs against repeated solicitations to enter the councils of the State, because, he said, there were experienced men in the parish, who he thought could do more good in the legislative halls. How few resist such solicitations! But he was a hard and ardent laborer for our political salvation. He was usually a member of the Executive Committee of the Parish, and generally presided at our public meetings, and in our conventions. During the late campaign, he was the efficient President of the Island club, an organization justly proud of its wok. His whole heart and soul were in the great work of the redemption of our State, and faithfully, zealously and nobly did he do his part. No man felt more exultant over the great work of ’76 than Capt. Phillips. How hard to realize that he has gone from among us, not permitted to witness the fruits of his labors, nor to see the glorious sun shining where but a short time ago, the dark and ominous cloud hung. Capt. Phillips had a strong and vigorous intellect, keen perceptions and an accurate judgment. In his political opinions and actions he was true, and never deviated from what he thought was honorable and just. Is private life was irreproachable, and no one can say aught against it. In his social intercourse he was attractive and charming. His dignified and grave manner, his sober judgment, attracted the old; his genial disposition, his elasticity of spirit, and open and frank manner, won the affections of the young. Those who visited his house loved to visit it again. A princely hospitality and a unbounded welcome were the outward signs of a great and good heart; a loving disposition which shed peace and happiness everywhere. To the colored people he was a sincere friend. The multitude who knelt around his grave, and listened with devotion to the heart-feeling payers of his faithful old servant Jeff Robinson, attested the sorrow among them. He was stricken down in the midst of health; when he lay down he was the strong and robust man – a frame for energy and power rarely seen. In an hour’s time, his devoted wife awakes to find him in the throes of death, and just within the shadow, and in the twinkling of an eye, the solemn shade is over him. But who was better prepared? How few have left such a record! M. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, June 1, 1877 Page 3, Column 3 OLD GILBERT. Old Gilbert, an aged colored man of some local fame, was sitting in his chair Sunday night, in front of his room (next door to this office) chatting and laughing, and, seemingly, in excellent health. His co-renter went off to church, and when he returned at eleven, old Gilbert was dead. His wife from her bed heard the old man breathing hard, went to his relief where he sat, and found him dying. Taken to his bed, he soon died, with “Good-by, Lizzie,” (to his wife,) as his last words. Old Gilbert, as we have often had occasion to notice, was not a very common character. He was respectful, obliging, industrious, and had no mean idea of manly dignity. His other claims to our notice consisted in his afflictions, and in the energy and success he exhibited in having surmounted them. In one eye he was blind, and he had but one arm. The loss of an eye gave him, apparently, no trouble; he would march as straight to the front and walk as upright as an Indian, and the blind eye seemed to twinkle and shine in laughter almost as merrily as the good one. His right arm was but a stub, but it as no useless, idle stub. Gilbert was a fiddler, and no very mean one either, as many lads and lassies about Monroe, and older toes, too, might attest who have danced many pleasant hours into the past to the music of old Gilbert’s fiddle. Perhaps, some one-armed soldier who, before the war, like Burns’s old friend, could make his “elbuck jink and diddle,” but has now no supple elbow and no music, save in his head and heart, left, may be curious to know how this old darkey managed to draw his bow with only a stump of an arm, such as this same old Confederate may remember Major General Loring has. The mechanism may, or may not have been Gilbert’s invention, but the movement certainly was his. To his short stump of an arm old Gilbert had rigged up a frame-work of small iron rods, so arranged that the fiddle-bow could be secured at the end, the whole being adjusted so as to be put on, or removed at pleasure. With this simple contrivance, the bow could be made to oscillate with all the rapidity necessary in the fastest jig or fiercest puncheon-floor break-down ever fiddler fiddled. Gilbert was also an expert woodchopper, missing his kerf but seldom and cutting a chord of wood for burning in such time as enabled him at least to make a living. But Gilbert tired of land and pole axe, and took to fishing with a trot line in the rive, in which one has need of a skiff and of the knowledge and skill necessary to use it. Swimmer, or not, the old darkey set his lines in water forty feet deep at places and tended them punctually in his skiff, taking off fish and re-baiting his hooks, in spite of wind and weather, and managing his skiff, sitting amidships, with one arm, better than the writer can with two. His adroitness in this business may have passed unobserved, save by a few, but it is, nevertheless, no small achievement for a man with but one arm to accomplish, successfully, that which will puzzle most full-armed oarsmen to do without considerable practice. But Gilbert’s fishing venture did not prove lucrative, and, we believe, like many others who have courted and cajoled the fishes and got no bites, he reeled his lines and betook himself to some other calling, exactly what we do not know, except that he devoted his head to the business of carrying clothes for his dusky spouse, a colored woman who takes in washing, and survives to wonder, perhaps, if there was not some way and means by which that large basket of clothes could not have been moved about with calling into requisition the head of her old one-armed devoted husband. Good-by, Gilbert! The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, July 20, 1877 Page 3, Column 1 Mr. A. Ferrand, of Caldwell parish, died at his residence, Sinope, on the 4th inst., aged 7 years. Mr. Ferrand was born near this place in 1805. He was a citizen highly esteemed, had lived a long and useful life, and died greatly lamented. He was a subscriber to this paper from its’ birth, now nearly 12 years ago. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, August 10, 1877 Page 2, Column 4 The Franklin Sun of the 3rd announces the death of its associate editor, Mr. J.F. Griffing, a very worthy citizen of Franklin parish and a worthy member of the editorial fraternity. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, August 17, 1877 Page 3, Column 1 Judge John R. Temple, proprietor of the Ouachita House, died on the 13th inst., after a short but painful illness. A wife and five minor children mourn the loss of husband and father, while all who knew him will bear testimony of his virtues as a man and feel how deeply society must be wounded in such takings off. We sympathise (sic) with his afflicted family, and are conscious that one of our best citizens has gone from among us. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, August 31, 1877 Page 3, Column 2 DIED, August 26th, 1877, at 6:20 A.M., LAURA C. BRES. Dead! Dead! And the voice of a loving, devoted mother was borne out on the morning breeze in a heart-rending wail of agony. Dead! And the tears that filled the eyes of “LOLLIE’S” friends told of the heart’s sorrow and broken links of the golden chain of friendship. LAURA, second daughter of Charles and Cynthia Bres, was born in 1857 in Caldwell parish, La., Removing to this city at an early age; she gave us the opportunity of knowing her well, an opportunity that we, with all her many friends, have never ceased to congratulate ourselves for. We have watched her as she threw aside the character of happy, blithesome girlhood and put on that of a woman’s kingdom, which she dignified and ennobled. Watched her, esteemed her and praised her, for her life was without blemish, her faults were none. Her character, her example, her life, is one to be profitably followed by al her friends. A sunbeam in the household of her parents, LOLLIE was a bright, sparkling gem in society, which she ornamented to a degree seldom accorded one so young in years. But she is gone, with all her brightness, all her goodness, all her sweetness, to a better land. She has left the garden of fair flowers among whom she bloomed so radiantly and purely here on earth and has taken her abode among the stainless lillies of the celestial realm, at peace with men, at peace with her God. To the bereaved family we offer the fullest sympathy of a heart that highly esteemed their LAURA. And though the unsparing hand of Death has crossed their lives and darkened their household, tis but for the purpose of brightening that of her other parents above. LOLLIE is not dead but sleepeth; and though she be gone from our sight, “She’ll be often, often with us When we think she’s far away.” We are consoled by feeling that this loved daughter, sister and friend is at home, at rest among the angels of Heaven. Sanctus, sanctus, cried the angels; Sanctus sang a man of God; And the gates of Heaven opened To admit her to reward. Monroe, La., Aug. 29, 1877. J.H.D. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, September 28, 1877 Page 3, Column 1 Mr. James M. Bennett, of Caldwell parish, died at his residence, Waverly, yesterday morning at 5 o’clock. Mr. Bennett was a man of great energy and fine business qualifications. He was a gallant soldier of the Confederate army, and bore upon his person the evidence of his soldierly zeal. The writer knew him well, and laments his death. To Mrs. Bennett, with her little daughter, we extend our sincere sympathy. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, October 19, 1877 Page 3, Column 1 Mrs. Henrietta McGuire, nee Madden, wife of Mr. J.E. McGuire, lessee of the Choudrant toll bridge, died in Trenton on the 11th. The bereaved husband hs our sincere sympathy in his great affliction. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, October 26, 1877 Page 2, Column 2 Hon. Chas. W. Lowell, ex-Postmaster of this city, we see by an exchange, departed this life on the 3d inst., at Foxcroft, Me. The late Mr. Lowell was a leading Republican politician of this State for many years, and possessed to a remarkable extent the confidence and support of the colored voters. He was elected by them to several important positions, vis: a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1868; member of the Legislature for several terms, and Speaker of the House of Representatives; in all of which he acquitted himself creditably. He will long be remembered by a host of friends here who mourn his loss. We tender our sympathy to his family and friends in their hour of bereavement. – N.O. Louisianian. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, November 2, 1877 Page 2, Column 2 IN HER GRAVE. The DeSoto Democrat of last week contains the following announcement of the death of the editor’s wife: We regret that we are compelled to apologize to our readers for appearing on a half sheet this week. Since our last issue an awful calamity has befallen the editor of this paper. His wife, Mary Ella Hewitt, in the bloom of young womanhood, and comparatively in good health at this time last week, is now in her grave. On last Tuesday morning while sitting before the fire cleaning a large lamp filled with oil a part of the bottom dropped out. Her clothing became saturated and she was ablaze n an instant. To protect her little child sleeping in a cradle near the fire she seized the lamp and carried it out, burning as she went. Mr. Wimbish, a neighbor, and a colored man at work in a potato patch near by, were attracted by the screams and made all possible speed to the rescue. On arriving she was prostrate on the floor nearly burned to death. They succeeded I extinguishing the flames but the fire fiend had done its work. Notwithstanding the assistance of many friends and the best medical attention, she quietly passed away on Thursday evening at 10 * o’clock P.M. The catastrophe to us is heart rending, and hardly to be endured. Let us submit with humble resignation to the decrees of an all-wise Providence. Will our friends excuse us for having turned aside this week to shed a tear on the grave of buried love? The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, November 10, 1877 Page 2, Column 1 Hon. B.L. Defreese died in Anderson county, Texas, on the 28th of May last, where he had lived since the war. Mr. Defreese was well known in this State, and in Alabama, from which State he removed to Louisiana about 1854, settling in Jackson parish where he engaged in planting and in the practice of law. The first public position he filled was that of senator from this district, to which position he was re-elected. On the State ticket with Gov. Moore, Mr. Defreese was a candidate for State Treasurer and was elected. When H.W. Allen was elected Governor, Mr. Defreese was again elected Treasurer, and filled this office when the Confederacy collapsed. He then removed to Texas, and up to his demise was engaged in planting and raising stock. The news of his death will be received with regret in all Louisiana. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, November 9, 1877 Page 3, Column 2 DIED, At the residence of his son, Dr. W.L. DeGraffenreid, in Ouachita Parish, La., October 23, 1877, WM. DeGRAFFENREID, Esq., in the 84th year of his age. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, November 16, 1877 Page 3, Column 1 The shadow of a deep affliction rests upon a stricken household, and we share in the grief, in the death of Mrs. Bettie D. McLeod, the wife of Capt. H.W. McLeod, who died on the 10th instant, at the family residence, after an illness of great physical pain lasting nearly seven weeks. Mrs. McLeod was a woman of superior excellence – one of those feminine characters whose merits are inestimable, whose lives are beautiful and whose deaths are affliction indeed. The writer knew her well from a timid dutiful little girl. She was then a model in womanly ways, and her whole life has been but the fulfillment of the promise then given. But if her life was such as to command this recognition of its beauties, what might not be said of one, who like her, saw and realized the stealthy approached of Death for days and night together, struggling with fierce pain all the weary hours, and yet laced the monster fearlessly, and finally bid the world and friends adieu as resignedly as if life itself were a shadow? The power of faith and the consciousness of a life well spent had a notable exemplification of their virtues in the death of this devoted young wife and mother. Pain could extort no complaint and Death excite no appreciation of terror of what is to come, and the poor suffering wife and mother went to the Better Land victorious over both. To the bereaved little ones, husband, mother and relatives we extend the sympathy expressed only in tears. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, November 16, 1877 Page 3, Column 2 Cornelius Scott, a very clever old colored man who has been doing a small business just out of town, on the DeSiard road, died a few days ago. Cornelius was once a patron of the TELEGRAPH, and paid us promptly, one of the few freed men we have trusted who ever has. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, November 16, 1877 Page 3, Column 3 DIED, At the family residence, Ouachita parish, November 6, 1877, in the 69th year of her age, Mrs. SARAH K. NOBLE, wife of Eli Noble, Esq. Mrs. Noble had lived in Louisiana since 1841. She was born near Columbia, South Carolina, in 1809. At 13 years of age she joined the Methodist church, and for 55 years has been a consistent member of that church, and devoted to its interests and teachings. For years she has suffered from heart disease, but bore her afflictions patiently and died with perfect resignation to the will of the Maker she had served so faithfully. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, December 7, 1877 Page 5, Column 1 Col. Willis Wood, of Lincoln parish, died at his residence on the night of the 1st. Col. Wood had been a sufferer from a chronic affliction for many years, but maintained a lively interest in the progress and welfare of his people and State. His hospitality was proverbial and his energy was indomitable. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, December 14, 1877 Page 2, Column 2 James E. Hamlett, Esq., died at his residence in Vernon on the 2d instant. Mr. Hamlett was a native of Virginia; came to this State over twenty years ago, settling in Vernon where he has ever since resided. He was a fine scholar and a man of extensive general information. He was about 70 years of age at his death, and leaves a wife and three children. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, December 14, 1877 Page 3, Column 1 Another pioneer has passed away. Hon. Simeon Thomas died at the residence of Capt. Fluitt, in this parish, of pneumonia, on the 7th, aged 78 years. Mr. Thomas came to Louisiana about 1830 and selected a home in Caldwell parish. He was twice elected to the Legislature from that parish, and was once a candidate for the Senate but was defeated by Col. John Ray by one vote. Mr. Thomas was one of the solid men of our country in everything expressed by the word manhood, and died, as only such patriarchs die, with the esteem and regrets of all who knew him. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, December 21, 1877 Page 3, Column 3 DIED, At the residence of his father Lee A. Galloway, FRED A. GALLOWAY, aged 22 years, 5 months and 17 days. “We shall meet him on the other shore.” (Franklin Sun please copy.) The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, December 28, 1877 Page 2, Column 1 Mrs. Delia Fahy, widow of the late Michael Fahy, died on the 24th and was buried on Christmas day. Mrs. Fahy had been an invalid for years, but bore her afflictions and sorrows with the fortitude of a Christian firm in the faith. # # #