USGENWEB PROJECT ARCHIVES: TENSAS PARISH LOUISIANA http://files.usgwarchives.org/la/tensas/ --------------------------------------------------------- Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.org/copyright.htm --------------------------------------------------------- BUCKNER, Louis, Jr., Tensas Parish, Louisiana Submitted to the USGENWEB Archives Project by Mike Miller, APR 1998. Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (volume 3), pp. 494-495. Edited by Alcee Fortier, Lit.D. Published in 1914, by Century Historical Association. Buckner, Louis, Jr., banker of St. Joseph, La., was born at Newellton, La., July 13, 1877. His father, Louis Buckner, was born at Natchez, Miss., in Sept., 1844, where he passed his youth and attended both public and private schools. At about 24 years of age he left Natchez and went to the Burn plantation in Tensas parish, where he remained for a number of years and married Tensora, daughter of Edward D. Newell, who settled the country now known as Newell's Ridge, just back of Newellton and for whom Newellton was named. Mr. Buckner, Sr., left the Burn plantation in 1877 and went to Newell's Ridge on the estate of his father-in-law, and about 1885 he moved to Newellton. There he became magistrate, notary and postmaster, which last he held until 1893. At the same time he operated the plantation which his wife had inherited from her father, which work he still carries on from his home in Newellton. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias. Mrs. Buckner died about 1885 and some years later he took for his second wife Janie, daughter of Dr. Robert Percy of Newellton, who was one of the early settlers there. The children of the first marriage were: Elizabeth Newell, now Mrs. Charles J. Macmurdo, Jr.; Louis, Jr., the subject of this sketch; Mary, who died in 1897. The children of the second marriage were: Routh, Alice, Edward and Lucile. Mr. Buckner, Sr., joined the Tensas cavalry at about the age of 17 and was with that command throughout the war, being one of its few surviving members. His brother, William A. Buckner, was captain of the same company and succeeded in getting Louis cared for in the tent of a superior officer when he had typhoid. At the close of the war Mr. Buckner returned to Tensas parish and resumed his former occupation. Louis Buckner, Jr., remained in Newellton until 1901, attending the public school at that place and 1-1/2 years in the Louisiana State university at Baton Rouge. He left that institution when it suspended on account of epidemic spinal meningitis, going thence to Millsaps college at Jackson, Miss. He remained in this institution 1 year, when he returned home and clerked for a while in Newellton. In 1901 he went to St. Joseph and worked at the wharf until 1902, when the Bank of St. Joseph was established and Mr. Buckner became assistant cashier. Jan., 1906, he was made cashier of the Bank of Vidalia, but in Feb., 1910, he resigned to accept the position of cashier of the Bank of St. Joseph, which position he now holds. Mr. Buckner has been a director of the Bank of St. Joseph since 1910, a member of the town council since 1911, and was elected a member of the state board of appraisers of Louisiana in 1913. He is a director of the Panoka Co., which is a Louisiana corporation capitalized at $150,000.00 and is the largest planting company in this section. He is a democrat in politics, and a member of that party's executive committee for the parish. Jan. 27, 1907, Mr. Buckner was married to May, daughter of S. M. McDowell of Natchez, who was a founder of the Baker, McDowell Hardware Co. of that city.