Walker Deadening, Tensas Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by James W. Newman, JUL 2004 to the LAGenWeb Archives: 

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Walker Deadening, Tensas Parish, Louisiana


These pages are public domain and may be used for any purpose.  Written
by James W Newman, resident of Newlight community 1934-1950. 
  
Re. Walker Deadening, et al.

When I moved to Tensas Parish in the fall of 1933, we crossed Tensas River 
from Franklin Parish on the shiny new Huey P Long bridge on the Newellton/
Winnsboro gravel road.  Whether the new concrete and steel bridge replaced 
an earlier bridge is not known.  There was a country store at the west end 
of the bridge which we referred to as the "Randall" store.  If the crossing 
had a name, I never heard it although most crossings in the area were named, 
ie. Newlight ferry, Jordan Landing, Cooter Point, etc.  There was a gravel 
ramp down the riverside to the water that suggested a fording spot or a hand 
pulled ferry boat landing. 

It is probable that there were no earlier bridges as there were no piling
stubs and the river was still being used by river traffic and the new
bridge could be opened by three or four men turning a capstan.  The last
known "steamboat" was a diesel driven unit pushing several barges of road
gravel which was off loaded several miles up stream at the upper end of
the Pecan Grove plantation for distribution by trucks to the various
all-weather (Almost) roads of the area.  The river traffic waned during
the depression years and the bridge was opened only a few times and the
machinery rusted shut by the 1950s.  The bridge was scheduled for
replacement about 2002, but may have been delayed although other bridges
in the area had been replaced with grade level concrete spans that were
no longer noticeable by passing drivers.  Pilings have blocked the river
to freight boats but it is still navigable by motor boats and skiffs.
From the river on back towards Winnsboro was several miles of woodlands
so the Randall store was somewhat isolated.

At the eastern or Tensas parish end of the bridge was the beginning of a
community with company store, woodburning steam Gin, farm equipment
repair shops and plantation manager's house.  Along the road eastward
for a couple of miles was property we knew as the "Walker Deadening" . 
Later the area was referred to as the Walker Place or Walker Tract.  The
road cut off a large bend in the Tensas River and delineated the Walker
property which extended about two hundred yards past the highway.  There
was no visible evidence that the area had ever been farmed and most of it
was overgrown with mature trees.  I never heard the name Waterloo
Plantation but it could have existed along the river.  The Walker
Deadening did not reach to Mound Bayou but was cut off by the Lynch
Holdings and smaller farms.  The rusty rattle trap bridge across
Mound Bayou was almost too narrow for the school buses to cross and was
replaced after WWII.

The term "Deadening" referred to the area which was covered by mature
trees that had been ringed by axe bites which severed the trees cambium
layer and killed the trees.  The standing trees were plowed around and
the falling limbs were collected each winter and piled against the tree
bole and burned before spring plowing.  This was a common method of
clearing timber land for farming in the time and area.  It took about 
five years to clear the land for practical use and another five before it
could be farmed by tractors and large cultivators.   

The land was transferred to the McKinney and Trimble Oil company of
Eldorado AR and was developed into a thriving plantation community.  The
Pecan Grove Plantation and a smaller plantation between Newlight
Plantation and the Mound Bayou were added and Capt. Haswell, a McKinney
son-in-law who had been mustered out of the Army was sent down to manage
the combined properties.  The Walker holdings were thriving with two or
three dozen tenant houses and adequate farm machinery.  

The Walker Place, now McKinney-Trimble did not have a plantation house
suitable for a retired Captain's family so Haswell elected to refurbish
the Plantation house on Pecan Grove which had been vacant for some time. 
Plantation houses were just plush enough to impress the hired help as
plantation owners of the Tensas area could not persuade their wives and
children to live in the swampy mosquito infested plantations and opted to
build their mansions in Natchez or Vicksburg and let their slaves keep
the mosquitoes properly fed.  Pecan Grove was about 1400 tillable acres
and was surrounded by a dirt levee standing about the height of a man to
discourage the spring floods which were something of a nuisance in the
area.  Seventy slaves built the levee by carrying leather aprons of dirt 
to the end of the levee in a production line of shovelers and toters.  
The operation could have taken a couple of years to finish and may have
trapped as much rainwater as the floodwaters they kept out.  The remains
of the sluice gates could be seen along the levee which became a hiking
trail through the wetlands for hunters and ultimately was flattened a bit
to make a country road around the area.  The plantation house was set
back from the river a quarter mile or so and faced the river and the
river road across an overgrown pasture which was fine rabbit hunting
territory in the early thirties.  Randall cleared the pastures and
rebuilt the house to face the new road which now passed on the other side
of the house.  The Randalls lived like antebellum planters until the
onset of WWII pulled him back into Military Service.  He returned from the
War as Col. Haswell, but did not stay long before his wife took him back
to Eldorado.  The management of the properties fell to various hands
until the Plantation house was sold to LLoyd Newman and the tillable
acreage was leased to the Newman-Powell cotton growing enterprises for
efficiency cotton growing and the many cabins and farm houses have been
cleared away.  Most of the areas mentioned are now being farmed by Laverne
Powell and her sons using heavy machinery and very little manpower.    

The Walker Deadening made good farm land except for the wetlands formed
here and there by poor drainage.  Most of the residents have moved out of
the area and it's romantic aura has faded to fields of cotton, corn and
soybeans. The old plantation communities have faded away and the old
names don't mean anything anymore.  

A few names worthy of mention in the history of Walker Deadening might
be Cpt/Col Haswell, John Randall, JW Kitchens, Ralph Ervin, Laverne
Powell, LLoyd Newman and others that have escaped down the tunnels of
memory.

I never knew who Mr. Walker was that started the whole sequence.
There were other plantations in the area and people named McCarty, Lynch,
Crow, Wactor, Hollis, Jones, Prather, and Moses were part of the passing
scene but most have now drifted on.