USGENWEB PROJECT ARCHIVES: TENSAS PARISH LOUISIANA http://files.usgwarchives.org/la/tensas/ --------------------------------------------------------- Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.org/copyright.htm --------------------------------------------------------- Biographies: Martin Guthrie: Early settler of Tensas Parish Compiled by Dorothy Guthrie; Submitted to the USGENWEB Archives Project by Edith Ziegler 03 OCT 1999 The progenitor of the Guthrie family in Tensas Parish was Martin Guthrie. He came to the Concordia- Tensas Parish area in the early 1830's from Seventy- Six, Kentucky. Martin probably floated down the Mississippi River on a flat boat. He is found on the Concordia Parish census in 1840, and as a bondsman on a marriage bond for Jane Ballew and John Young, 11 January 1832 in Concordia Parish. Martin owned land in the section now known as Tensas Parish as early as 1840. Martin Guthrie's two marriages are recorded in the family Bible. The records have been searched in Concordia Parish, La. as well as Port Gibson and Fayette, Mississippi for either marriage and no listing was found. The records of marriages in Concordia Parish for 1837 and 1847 are missing. Most of the early marriage Licenses and bonds in Concordia Parish are lost. In the Guthrie family Bible, the birth and death of Ann Elizbeth Taylor, Martin's second wife is recorded as follows: Ann Elizabeth Taylor, born February 25, 1832, died June 19, 1910. We believe she was born in DeSoto County, Tennessee, and spent her childhood in Mississippi. On the 1850 census her birth place is listed as Mississippi, but in 1860 and 1880 it was given as Tennessee. Her obituary in the Tensas Gazette gives her birth place as DeSoto County, Tennessee. This information was probably given by her daughter, Kate Guthrie Johnson, as Ann Elizabeth was living with her at the time of her death. In a genealogical workshop we were told this discrepancy was often found in old census records. The census taker of the early years would ask where you were from, but in later years they asked where you were born. This would account for the difference in showing the place of birth. Martin married first Mariah (Maria) Cole in 1836. They had four children: William, Olivia, Proctor, and Roxana. There are no living descendants from this marriage, as the children all died young. Their daughter, Olivia, married R. Terry in 1855 in her parents' home. She died a month after her son, Martin Terry was born. He lived to be seventy-four and was called "Uncle Mart" by the young people. Mart is buried in the family plot on Monticello Plantation. Martin and Elizabeth are also buried there. William Cole, Martin's father-in-law owned Pinhook Plantation. He died in 1839, and in the settlement of the estate Martin swapped land he owned (which was close to the mound on the Cooter Point Road) to one of William's sons for the share in Pinhook. Then Martin bought the other heirs' share in the land, and he and his family lived on Pinhook until 1860. After the death of his first wife Mariah in 1845, Martin was left with three small children to raise. He married the second time in 1847 to Ann Elizabeth Taylor. The remaining three children died in 1848 and 1856. After the loss of all of the members of his first family, Guthrie became restless and began thinking about a move to Texas. There was a great movement to the west at this time. He had re-married and there was a small grandson to raise. He sold Pinhook Plantation, and packed their furniture and belongings in preparation for the long journey to Texas. According to family tradition, the small family had traveled only a few miles when the wagon broke down. It was near this site that Martin found land for sale that had a plantation style home on it. The house was built above flood stage as were many in that period. He purchased the house and plantation known as Monticello in 1860 and lived there until his death in 1878. Later the original house burned and the only possession saved was the family Bible. This plantation is still owned by Martin's grandson, Clyde Guthrie. Located on the west bank of Van Buren Bayou in a grove of oak and gum trees in Ward 4, Tensas Parish, is the historic Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church. It has the distinction of being oldest surviving church building in the parish. Construction began on Wesley Chapel around 1850-52. Martin Guthrie was a member of this Methodist congregation and his donation to the building was the roof of hand rived shingles on peeled sassafras pole rafters. During the renovation of the building in 1956 one of the carpenters remarked that the sassafras rafters were still solid as ever. Their first minister was Reverend Phillip H. Dieffenweirth, a very colorful character. He wore a Prince Albert coat and a stove pipe hat, and rode a mouse colored mule, whose favorite food was pumpkins. Ann Elizabeth made her sons, Jeff and Pink, plant pumpkins for the mule. They even stored them in hay during the winter to prevent them from freezing, so the mule could enjoy this delicacy the year around. Wesley Chapel is on a circuit with Waterproof and St. Joseph. Church services are still held early every Sunday morning. The congregation is small but very loyal, and the church building cemetery and grounds are lovingly kept.