Bio: Dr. Rezin Laurence Armstrong, Sabine Parish, Louisiana

Submitted: by : Gaytha Carver Thompson

Source: History of Sabine Parish by John G. Belisle, The Sabine Banner Press,

1912
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DR. REZIN LAURENCE ARMSTRONG



Dr. Rezin Laurence Armstrong was born in Dallas County, Ala., on December 30,

1821, and died at Pleasant Hill, this parish, January 4, 1899.  He was of

Scotch Irish descent, and a worthy son of sturdy and heroic sires.  Tradition

relates that his great grandfather was burned at the stake by savages in some

portion of what was then referred to as "the wilderness of the West".  His

grandfather, William Armstrong, was a pioneer and Indian fighter of Christian

County, Kentucky, who made the savages pay dearly for the murder of his sire. 

The father of Dr. Laurence move to Sabine parish in 1847, and from that time

until his death the doctor practiced his profession in the vicinity of

Pleasant Hill and was a prominent figure in the community for more than half a

century.  



In his youth, while still a resident of Alabama, he graduated in medicine at

the New Orleans, Medical college, a prototype of the present Tulane

University.  Soon afterwards, on February 27, 1845, he married his firs wife,

Cynthia Reed.  Of the several children of that marriage, Dr. R. L. Armstrong,

Jr., of Pleasant Hill is the only survivor.  On August 5, 1858, Dr. Armstrong

married Virginia A. Pullen, his second wife and surviving widow.



Too modest and unselfish for a politician, the only public position that he

ever occupied was that of State Senator.  Besides standing, as it were, a

monument of incorruptible integrity and spotless honor, he was equally

distinguished for the greater and softer impulses of the heart, for open

handed liberality and above all his true charity.  Upon his memorial shaft is

inscribed, "He Was the Poor Man's Friend."  He was buried at Pleasant Hill by

the Masonic fraternity.  



Dr. R. L. Armstrong, Jr., was born June 9, 1857, near Pleasant Hill.  He

attended the Medical University of Louisiana in 1877-78 and graduated at the

medical department of Louisville University in 1879.  Soon after graduating he

married Miss Hattie O'Pry and located at Pleasant Hill, where he has been a

prominent physician for over thirty years.  He has a son, Dr. Ralph Armstrong,

who is now a physician, thus making in the family three generations of

physicians.



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