Biography-Horace Bayard Chambers; Newton Co., MS., then Richland Parish, Louisiana A 
History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 234-235, by Henry E. Chambers.  Published by The 
American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925. 

Submitted by Mike Miller



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 Horace Bayard Chambers, proprietor of the Mangham Hardware and Furniture 
Company, has lived in Richland Parish for many years, though his business 
interests have been extended to other localities.  Mr. Chambers was one of 
the organizers of the Mangham State Bank in 1905 and served as its first president.
He was born at Hickory, in Newton County, Mississippi, October 21, 1880, son 
of Maj. James A. and Elizabeth (Burks) Chambers.  Major Chambers graduated from 
a college at Nashville, taught school as a young man and gave four years of service 
to the cause of the Confederacy.  He was wounded at the battle of Shiloh and 
afterwards transferred to the army of Virginia and went through much of the heavy 
fighting in that theatre of the war.  He was a major of the Twentieth Mississippi 
Infantry.  At one time he represented Scott County, Mississippi, in the Legislature.  
For many years he was a sawmill operator and lumberman in Mississippi, and in 1890 
transferred his lumbering operations to Bienville Parish, Louisiana, where he 
continued in business until his death in 1892 at the age of fifty-seven.  He was 
a deacon in the Baptist Church, a Master Mason at Hickory and a member of the 
Knights Templar Commandery at Meridian, Mississippi.  

The widow of Major Chambers is now seventy-eight years of age, and lives at hickory.  
In the family were five sons and four daughters, Horace B. being the fifth child.

Horace B. Chambers accompanied his father to Louisiana when he was ten years of age. 
He acquired a common school education and as a boy he swept out, cleaned lamps and did 
other work in a hardware store in Yazoo City, Mississippi.  At the climax of his ten 
years' service he was a salesman.  Returning to Louisiana, he taught school a year in 
Franklin Parish and at Mangham kept books and sold goods in the store of J. L. Boles & 
Company.  Saving his money, he bought an interest in the business, and was one of the 
factors in incorporating the Economy Mercantile Company, in which he is interested until 
the business was liquidated in 19l5.  While retaining his residence at Mangham he became 
a salesman on the road for Swartz & Stewart, 0 Natchez, and eventually became buyer for 
this house.  His active business interests were centered at Natchez from 1915 until 1924.  
It was in 1924 that he established the Mangham Hardware & Furniture Company.  Mr. Chambers 
represented the Fifth Ward as a justice of the peace from 1905 to 1912, and recently the 
citizens of the same ward elected him a member of the parish police jury.

Mr. Chambers married Miss Mary Talbert, daughter of R. L. Talbert of Mangham.  They have 
two children:  Mildred, attending Louisiana College, and Richard, in the local high school.  
Mr. Chambers is chairman of the Board of Deacons of the Baptist Church, is the present 
master of W. M. Baker Lodge No. 388, Free and Accepted Masons, at Mangham, is a member of 
the Council at Natchez, Rosalie Commnandery of the Knights Templar at Natchez, and has served 
as chancellor commander of the local Knights of Pythias and represented them in the Knights of 
Pythias Grand Lodge.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 234-235, by Henry E. Chambers.  Published by The 
American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.