Sabine County Louisiana Archives Obituaries.....Gandy, D. R. May 12, 1867 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Greg deValcourt devalcourt June 24, 2008, 5:26 pm Family member 1867 DIED May 12, 1867 (My Mother’s Father) OBITUARY OF D. R. GANDY To the Sabine Baptist Association: --Having been appointed by your body to write an obituary, with a brief history of our departed brothe D. R. Gandy, I beg leave to present for your reception and approval the following:The writer has been intimately acquainted with the deceased over twenty-six years, during that period his intimacy was something more than mere acquaintance. We knew him to love him for his kindness and Christian life. We knew him to love him for his kindness and christian life. We knew him in adversity and in prosperity -- in sickness and in health. We have been his associate at home and abroad, and always found him the same upright christian gentleman. Brother Gandy was born in the State of Georgia, March the 22d, 1811. When but a boy his parents moved to Bibb County, Alabama, At the age of eighteen he was married to Miss Nancy Evans in Octoger the 10, 1830, and moved with some of his wife’s family to Texas about the year 1831, and stopped near the mouth of the Little Brazos for a short time. Like many others, he became very much dissatisfied with the country, and in the latter part of the same year, he with his wife and two or three Spanish ponies, moved to Louisiana and settled on the place where he died. He built him a camp and borrowed the axe to do his first work, having spent all in moving. He was very poor, but being a man of strong constitution, with untiring energy, he soon, by God’s blessing on his labors, found himself surrounded with plenty and good friends. About the year 1833, he became a professor of religion and was baptized by Eld. Ben Garlington, into the Zion Hill church. He dated his conversion from his fifteenth year. In a short time he was ordained a deacon. In 1834, soon after the organization of this Parish, he was appointed Sheriff by Gov. Mouton, and was afterward elected twice to the same office. In 1853, contrary to his wish, he was nominated and elected to the State Legislature; and while at Baton Rouge his first wife was taken suddenly sick and died on the 27th of April, 1853, leaving him three living children, having buried four. The same year, December the 1st, he married his second wife, Miss L.J. Sibley, and in April the 21st, 1862, she died, leaving him four children -- they having buried one. He was married to Miss Angeline (Mama’s mother) Duggan, his third wife, on the 30th of September, 1862, his now bereaved widow, Leaving her two children -- they having buried one. So his family was and is as follows: Seven children by his first wife -- two of which are living; five by his second wife -- four of which are living; three by his third wife -- two of which are living, making fifteen, of which eight only are living and seven dead. Up to the war, he had by industry and economy, accumulated a considerable property, the loss of which he bore patiently. On the 12th day of May, 1867, after six months’ sickness, the two last of which his sufferings was very severe, he fell gently asleep in death, without a struggle or murmur, with a full assurance of his reconciliation with his God, through the merits of a Redeemer’s blood. He died of Chronic Diarrhoea in the 57th year of his age. Thou art gone, dear brother, to the grave, but we will not deplore thee, since God was thy ransom, thy guardian, thy guide. He gave thee, he took thee; and he will restore thee. And death hath no sting, since the Savior hath died.In taking a final leave of our beloved brother, it behooves us, who have known him so long and so well, to give to his memory something more than a passing tear. As a man he was exemplary in his conduct; gentlemanly in his bearing; hospitable to his friends, and always ready to lend a helping hand to the poor and needy in their distress. He fed the hungry, clothed the naked, he visited the widows and fatherless, the sick and afflicted, and administered to their wants and to all such as needed. The string of the latches of his store-house and barn, always hung outside, with a purse open when a friend wanted to borrow. As a legislator he was faithful to his constituents: as an officer of trust he was honest; as a christian he was consistent; as a citizen and neighbor he was useful. To speak of his virtues as a husband, father, friend, neighbor and christian, we find it difficult to express in words the extent of his usefulness and our loss. As one of the founders of this Association, he has ever been at his post, and ready as he was able, with a clear head and kind heart, to give his advice in time of trouble. He leaves behind a bereaved widow and eight children, with a large connexion of relatives in Alabama, together with numerous friends to bemoan his loss. But thank God, we mourn not as those that have no hope; for we believe that our loss is his eternal gain. N. H. BRAY. Additional Comments: THE DAINIEL ROSS GANDY FAMILY Daniel Ross Gandy, son of John and Cloey (Mullins) Gandy, was born in Georgia in 1811. The Gandys moved to Perry County Alabama and there Daniel married Nancy Evans (born in Mississippi) in 1811. Daniel and Nancy came across country in a wagon train with her family, going to Texas where land was free. It took them many months to make the trip. They had to stop to make a garden, to rest a team, or to tend a sick person. There were no roads or bridges. The Mississippi River was so big, the crossing so formidable, that when they lost a dog there, everyone cried. Finally reaching Texas, they were plagued with a severe drouth and encounters with hostile Indians. They couldn’t rid themselves of visions of the lush green forests east of the Sabine River. They returned to Sabine Parish in 1833. Daniel and Nancy settled on land just south of Many and lived there the rest of their lives. He was elected sheriff of Sabine Parish twice, and to the State Legislature in 1853. While he was in Baton Rouge, Nancy died. Of their seven children, only Mary Elisa (married Vincent A. Montogomery), Daniel Ross (married Nancy A. Self), and Marion Franklin survived their mother. In December 1853, Daniel married (2) Louisa Jane Sibley, daughter of John Isaac and Jane (Felder) Sibley, Louisa Jane died in 1862 and was buried on the Gandy home-place.They had five children, three of whom reached maturity: Frances Eugenia (married George S. Plant); Nancy Jane (married James W. Brumfield); and Rufus Sibley (married Ida Rilla McLanahan). Daniel Ross Married (3) Angeline Jane Duggan, daughter of Rev. Edmund and Elizabeth (Swint) Duggan. They had three children: Mary Louise; Willie Elliot (married Louisa Jane Cook); and Anna Elizabeth (married Francis J. Davis). In 1867 Daniel Ross Gandy died. He was buried beside Louisa Jane on the homeplace. In later years, the KCS railroad cut through close to this little cemetery. Cedar trees grew up around the graves and eventually some landowner cleared the trees, threw the gravestone against the fence, and plowed the land. Bertha (Gandy) Miller (daughter of Rufus Sibley Gandy and Granddaughter of Daniel Ross Gandy) when searching for the gravesites, rescued the old stone. She mounted it in the Antioch Baptist Church Cemetary, beside the grave of her father. Daniel Perry Gandy, and Harvey M. Gandy, sons of a deceased brother of Daniel Ross Gandy, came to Sabine Parish in the early 1850’s from Alabama. Their parents were Harvey M. and Caroline (Martin) Gandy of Bibb County Alabama. Herbert R. Sibley Willa Dean Duggan Reynolds Lona Mae Duggan Gordon Sabine Parish Library Many LA (file 90) File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/sabine/obits/g/gandy1056gob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/lafiles/ File size: 8.5 Kb