Waddell & Dorsett of Chatham Co., NC; Rapides, Louisiana Contributed by: L. Norman Waddell Jr., Pascagoula MS Submitter of Text File: Jo Branch Date: 28 Jun 2004 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** There was rumor of North Carolina ancestry in my father's family, but he never talked about his family. He, Lester Norman Waddell (Sr), was born in 1907 in LeCompte, a very small town near the center of Louisiana, in Rapides Parish (county). His father, DeWitt Clinton Waddell, apparently managed some businesses there, possibly including a liquor store and a movie theater. His mother, Minnie Furlow Waddell, played piano at silent movies. DeWitt Clinton was born in 1874, in Louisiana, the fourth of five children of Robert W. Waddell and his wife, the former Elizabeth Ann Dorsett, both from Chatham County, North Carolina. We do not know what the "W" stood for; he had a grandson named "Wilbur", so that is a possibility. Robert W. Waddell was born in1836 (or 1840) in Chatham County, and was married there by the Reverend S. D. Adams, four months after the start of the Civil War, on 29 August 1861. His wife was a member of the large Dorsett family of Chatham County. She was named Elizabeth Ann, and may have been called "Amy". In November 1863, in Releigh, North Carolina, Robert joined the Confederate Army as a private in Fitzhugh Lee's calvary, and served until the end of the war when he was paroled at St Lawrence, North Carolina. This was a small crossroads town, about 2 miles east of the present Siler City, on highway 64. Census records show Robert W. and Elizabeth Ann living in LeCompte, Louisiana in 1870, and having a child born in Louisiana in 1865. Elizabeth Ann was therefore pregnant at the end of the Civil War. Her husband was at home with her at the time. The couple moved soon after the war, and she made the journey while pregnant. Census records show that, in Rapides Parish, the Waddells lived near Oran Dorsett, and that a Taylor Dorsett lived with the Waddells. Apparently the Waddells and some of the Dorsetts moved together to Louisiana. The Waddells are shown as 'planters', not owning land, and Dorsetts as 'planters', owning land. The Taylor Dorsett living with the Waddells was Mary Taylor Dorsett, Elizabeth Ann's sister. The Spring 2001 issue of "Cartersville Crossroads" contains the Civil War diary of James T. Rogers. He mentions camping at Mary Taylor's spring near Pittsboro, North Carolina. We wonder if the sister was named after this Mary Taylor. In 1911, when she was 67 years old, Elizabeth Ann Dorsett Waddell applied for a Confederate widow's pension, in Rapides Parish. Her husband had died in LeCompte, in 1902. The end paper in a book entitled "LeCompte" shows a printing bill related to his death, mentioning the Masonic Lodge. A notorized document supporting the pension claim certified that Robert W. had been a Confederate soldier. It was prepared in Chatham County and signed by C. R. Beal and H. H. Palmer. The notary was J. M. Stinson(?). It is dated 1911. Robert W. Waddell's ancestry has been traced no futher. He and his wife are buried in LeCompte Louisiana, in an unknown location. The only known descendants are some Melders in the Baton Rouge area, Lester Norman Waddell Jr. of Pascagoula Mississippi, and his children (Wayne Norman, Camille Carol, and Glenn Gerald). Elizabeth Ann Dorsett's ancestry is shown below. Father: Hezekiah Dorsett II b 2 Mar 1816 d 23 Feb 1877 Mother: Julia Ann Perry Paternal Grandfather: Hezekiah Dorsett b abt 1782 Paternal Grandmother: Elizabeth Moak b abt 1784 Paternal Greatgrandfather: William Marsh Paternal Greatgrandmother: Sarah Stewart Paternal Greatgreatgrandfather: James Marsh Paternal Greatgreatgrandmother: Martha Head Maternal Grandfather: William Perry Jr. b 16 Feb 1775 d 1869 Maternal Grandmother: Anna Baldwin Maternal Greatgrandfather: William Perry b abt 1750 Maternal Greatgrandmother: Sarah Johnson A Dorsett cemetery is located near LeCompte. Directions to this cemetery can be found on the internet under "Cemeteries, Rapides Parish".