Bio: Ward, John Thomas; Union Par., Louisiana Submitter: T. D. Hudson Date: ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Detailed Biography of JOHN THOMAS WARD (Jack) & SARAH ANN ELIZABETH SCARBOROUGH (Betsy) of Union Parish Louisiana written & submitted by T. D. Hudson --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- John Thomas Ward, more casually known as Jack, was the second son of David Ward and Cynthia Seale. His June 1835 birth occurred while his parents still owned their 40-acre farm in southern Lowndes County Alabama near Jack’s grandfather, James Seale. He was born a few months before the extended Ward family left their homes in south-central Alabama and moved westward. Jack’s grandfather Elisha Ward, Sr. may have already moved west towards Mississippi prior to his birth, but even if Elisha grew his 1835 crops in Lowndes County, he had settled in Kemper County Mississippi by January 1836. David, while still a Lowndes County resident, purchased government land in Mississippi adjoining his father’s in March 1836. Despite his purchase, all evidence suggests that David Ward returned to Alabama and grew his 1836 crops there. However, instead of following his father to Mississippi, in January 1837 David, Cynthia, and their children Mary (aged 10 years), Hub (7 years), Rachel (4 years) and baby Jack (18 months) joined the group of settlers from Lowndes and Butler Counties led by Colonel Matthew Wood and his son-in-law John Taylor (the former sheriff of Butler County), and headed west towards northern Louisiana. ANTEBELLUM MIDDLE-CLASS PLANTER Other than a brief foray with his parents up the Mississippi River into Tennessee when he was around six or seven, Jack Ward grew up and spent his entire life in the piney hills of the Bayou de’Loutre region of east/central Union Parish Louisiana. He apparently had his own livestock by the time he reached eighteen, for he filed his stock mark in the Union Parish courthouse on 2 November 1853. The next summer, on July 24th, nineteen year-old Jack Ward married fifteen year-old Sarah Ann Elizabeth Scarborough (Betsy). Her parents Noah Scarborough and Samantha Fowler had moved to Union Parish in 1847, apparently to escape the severe drought that plagued Georgia and Alabama between 1845 and 1850. While the Wards had strong Methodist ties, the Scarboroughs followed the Primitive Baptist faith, and Betsy Scarborough Ward belonged to the Liberty Hill Primitive Baptist Church for her entire adult life. Since the local churches had services only once a month in those days, presumably she and Jack attended Methodist services at Ward’s Chapel as well as services at Liberty Hill. Four months after his marriage, Jack Ward purchased 160 acres of land from his father. David Ward had purchased this property a few years earlier from the government. Jack’s new farm lay a few miles west of his father’s; the modern Ward’s Chapel Road leading eastward from Farmerville (a road that David Ward helped to construct in the early 1840s) bisected Jack’s new farm. Jack increased the size of his plantation by purchasing adjoining government property in 1855, 1859, and 1860, all at the government land office in Monroe. He also bought another 120 acres of land from Simeon Slawson in 1860. These land acquisitions brought Jack Ward’s ante-bellum plantation in eastern Union Parish to a total of about 680 acres. In 1860, the plantations of Jack and his brother Hubbard appeared similar. Neither had as much land in cultivation nor owned as much livestock as their father David, nor nearly as much as their Uncle William Ham (the husband of their mother’s sister Clarenda Seale) or his sons Hillory and Reuben Ham. However, in 1860 Jack had 25 acres in cultivation, together with an additional 15 acres cleared and improved (probably pastures or orchards). In 1859 Jack’s farm produced 150 bushels of Indian corn and 3 bales of cotton, whereas Hubbard’s produced 200 bushels of corn and no cotton in 1859. Jack’s livestock consisted of 3 horses, 4 “milch” cows, 6 other cattle, and 5 swine, all valued at $400. By the latter 1850s, numerous Ward, Auld, Seale, Solomon, and Scarborough relatives farmed the lower Bayou de’Loutre region of Union Parish near Jack and Betsy’s place, about seven miles east of Farmerville. Besides David Ward’s own grown children and those of Cynthia’s sister Clarenda Seale Ham, many of Jack’s cousins, the children of David’s sisters Margaret Jane Ward Auld and Elizabeth J. Ward Solomon, had married and purchased their own farms in the neighborhood. Furthermore, many of Betsy’s relatives resided in the immediate vicinity of their farm. Actually, Jack and Betsy’s relatives cultivated almost every surrounding farm for several miles. Louisiana seceded from the United States in February 1861, and by the fall several of Jack and Betsy’s male relatives had enlisted and left Union Parish for military service in the Confederate Army. Jack’s first cousin and Betsy’s brother-in-law, Hillory Herbert Ham, raised and outfitted his own company consisting of men from the region, which had then elected him as its captain. Several of Jack’s first cousins joined that group, and a number of his Auld cousins joined different units raised in Union Parish that summer. Still, most of the younger males in these families had wives and children to support and their own plantations to operate, and they did not enlisted for military service in 1861. However, by the early months of 1862, it had become clear that the South would not win the war quickly, and in addition, the Confederate Congress began debate on a conscript (draft) act. As a result, several new companies of volunteers formed in Union Parish that spring, including the unit that later began Company G, 31st Louisiana Infantry. Jack’s brother Elijah Hubbard Ward enlisted in this unit, and the men elected him as their second lieutenant. In addition to Hub, several of Jack’s brother-in-laws, nearly ten of his first cousins, and later his Uncle Pinkney Odom enlisted in this regiment. Although we do not know for certain, it appears likely that Jack’s younger brother James Madison Ward perished in the Civil War, for he disappears after 1860. In the midst of virtually all of his male relatives of military age departing the region by May 1862, one would think Jack Ward would have also enlisted, but he did not. According to family tradition related by several of his grandchildren, Jack Ward refused to enlist in the Confederate army and leave Betsy and their young children. After the Confederate Congress passed their Conscript Act (the earliest governmental draft in the United States), he supposedly hid in the woods when Confederate officials came looking for him, and reportedly on several occasions Betsy took Jack food until the conscript collectors left the area. Another family story relates that Jack forced the conscript collectors off his property at gunpoint. I have no idea how reliable these traditions are, but I believe it more likely that he avoided service due to his first cousin, Hillory Herbert Ham (son of his Aunt Clarenda Seale Ham), being the conscript collector for the Confederate Post of Farmerville between 1862 and 1865. He possibly avoided service due to some physical disability, but I have found no evidence that suggests this. RECONSTRUCTION & BANKRUPTCY The war formed a clear turning point in the lives of Jack and Betsy and their family. During the antebellum period, Jack increased the size of his plantation every few years and by all accounts lived the life of a moderately successful middle-class young Southern farmer. We have no clear record how Jack fared during the war years, but from the fall of 1866 until his death in 1883, he remained in a state of financial bankruptcy. I have found no single indication for Jack Ward’s drastic transformation from an apparently thriving planter in the years leading up to 1861 to the bankrupt farmer who had to dispose of all of his personal property in the latter 1860s to prevent the sheriff from seizing and selling it to pay his debts. Many of Jack’s relatives and neighbors suffered similar financial problems during the immediate postwar period of 1865 – 1870. Additionally, their disastrous financial situations forced many Union Parish residents (including quite a few of Jack and Betsy’s close relatives) to leave and move westward by 1870. But although Jack’s Uncle Pinkney Odom (the husband of his Aunt Mary Caroline Ward Gee Odom) and Britton Honeycutt (the husband of Jack’s first cousin, Louisa Jane Gee) both faced similar financial difficulties in the mid-1860s, they had recovered by 1870 and apparently prospered during the 1870s and 1880s. Jack Ward, however, remained in a state of perpetual bankruptcy for the rest of his life. Many Southerners suffered severe financial setbacks as a result of the war. Although Southern farmers generally enjoyed tremendous financial success during the cotton boom of the latter 1850s and especially in 1860, the cotton market entirely evaporated with the opening of the war in 1861. Many Southern historians claim that this plus the political turmoil resulting from the Confederate defeat caused a Southern economic depression that lasted until well after the turn of the century. It appears that the evaporation of the cotton market beginning in 1861 may have served as the impetus for Jack Ward’s financial difficulties. Perhaps anticipating successful harvests over the next few years, Jack over-extended himself financially in 1859 and 1860 while increasing the size of his plantation. He spent $140 in cash paying the government for 280 acres of land adjoining his existing 200-acre farm in late 1859 and early 1860. He also borrowed $155 in December 1859, perhaps the cash he used to pay for the government land. Then, on 11 October 1860, Jack purchased 120 acres from Simeon Slawson for $360. Instead of paying cash as he had to the government, he signed two promissory notes to Slawson, one for $200 due in January 1861 co-signed by Jack’s older brother, Hub Ward, and the other for $160 due in January 1862 co-signed by Jack’s brother-in-law John Robert Auld (the husband of his sister, Rachel Jane Ward). The 280 acres Ward acquired from the government was relatively cheap land that contiguously adjoined his existing farm. On the other hand, Jack paid a very large sum to Slawson for his 120 acres, which lay about 3 miles due south of Jack’s place, and adjoined the farm his Uncle Elijah Michael Auld bought in 1838. During the 1850s, Jack’s father David and brother Hub both bought land at this location, perhaps intending to eventually move there (the war may have upset their plans). We know nothing of Jack’s activities during the war years, but on 5 June 1865 he purchased the farm of his brother-in-law John R. Auld from the Union Parish sheriff, who had seized and sold it to raise money to satisfy a Union Parish court judgment against Auld. The circumstances of this suit against Auld remain unclear. According to the sheriff, Jack Ward paid $666.66 in cash for Auld’s 360-acre farm. The record does not state whether this amount was in the practically worthless Confederate money or in United States dollars. Considering the date and the outrageous sum Ward paid for this property, I believe it was in Confederate dollars. Auld was almost certainly not present in Union Parish at this time Ward purchased his farm; he received his official parole as a soldier in the Confederate army in Monroe on June 12th, and presumably returned home after that. Jack Ward never paid the notes he signed in 1859 and 1860 to pay for the Slawson property, and after the war the owners of the notes sued him (promissory notes were used as legal tender in those days, and by 1866 all three notes belonged to others). In debt for $515 plus interest and court costs, and in danger of having the sheriff seize his property and auction it to pay his debts, Jack and Betsy went to court. In a game played by numerous other couples of the latter 1860s, they hired separate lawyers and Betsy petitioned the Union Parish court on 29 September 1866, claiming "...that the affairs of her said husband J. T. Ward are in such disorder that she cannot bring any rights she may acquire or any property into the Community without subjecting the same to claims of creditors and probably loss and dispossession of the same. Wherefore your petitioner prays that she be authorized to prosecute this suit and stand in judgment & the said J. T. Ward be duly cited to answer hereto, and that upon a final trial she obtain a decree of your honorable court dissolving the community of acquits and gains heretofore existing, and that she be declared a femme sole with the right to manage and control her own property separate and apart from that of her husband, and further that she have judgment for costs of suit..." Jack appeared in court with Betsy’s lawyer James E. Trimble that day (she may have appeared as well) to accept service of her petition; this avoided additional costs associated with having the sheriff serve the petition at Jack’s home. The next week on October 5th, Jack’s lawyer R. W. Futch filed Jack’s answer to Betsy’s petition. Futch claimed thatwhile his client admitted their marriage had occurred in 1854, he "...denies that his affairs are in such condition as to justify any seperation [sic] in property. Wherefore he prays to be hence dismissed at plaintiffs costs..." After a trial at which Jack’s brother-in-law John R. Auld testified as a witness for Betsy, Union Parish Judge T. B. Tompkins issued his ruling on November 10th. He decreed that "...plaintiff Sarah A. E. Scarborough have judgment dissolving the community of acquits and gains heretofore existing, and further that she be authorized to control and manage her own property apart and seperate [sic] from her husband Jno. T. Ward..." This legal action in no way indicates any sort of marital discord between the Wards. On the contrary, the available evidence suggests that they were a couple devoted to each other for the duration of their twenty-nine year marriage. Jack’s stated opposition to Betsy’s petition was a façade necessary to ensure that his creditors did not later claim to the court that this suit was the Ward’s attempt to defraud them (which, literally, it was!). This legal wrangling allowed Betsy to possess property in her own right, thus preventing Jack’s creditors from having the sheriff seize his farm and auction it to pay them. In this instance, Jack and Betsy fared better than his aunt and uncle, Mary C. Ward and Pinkney Odom. The court refused to dissolve their community, so they lost their farm and had to move away and start over completely. To follow through with his attempts to prevent the sheriff from seizing and auctioning his property to satisfy the court judgments against him, Jack began to dispose of his most valuable farmland in the fall of 1866. On September 11th, he sold his brother Elijah Hubbard Ward the 120-acre Slawson place that caused many of his initial financial problems, and on October 1st, he sold his first cousin Joseph A. Meeks 200 acres of his primary farm for $150. Jack kept the rest of his farm until April 1868, when he sold his final 280 acres to his wealthy neighbor William P. Smith for $140. That same fall, on November 12th, Betsy bought back the portion of their farm Jack had sold to their cousin Joseph A. Meeks. Then on 11 April 1870, she bought back the remainder of their farm from Smith. Betsy paid both Meeks and Smith the precise figures they paid Jack when he sold them the property. Notice that in both instances, Betsy waited for two years before buying back the portions of their farm that Jack sold. Through these carefully orchestrated legal maneuvers between 1866 and 1870, Jack and Betsy had successfully managed to have the court dissolve their matrimonial community of acquits and gains, and then with the help of their cousin and neighbor, they transferred their farm entirely into Betsy’s name where it remained safe from Jack’s creditors. After this, Jack never again owned property of any value in his own name. He apparently retained ownership of about 80 acres of property he had purchased from the government in the latter 1850s, but the courts made no attempt to seize and sell this. It appears as if this 80 acres remained wooded, and thus, not valuable enough to generate any funds if sold. In 1872, Jack filed a homestead application on property adjoining Betsy’s existing farm, paying $14 as the initial application fee for 160 acres. Being wooded land, this property had no value and so the courts did not attempt to seize it. It does appear that he cleared and put into cultivation a portion of this new tract of land by the early 1880s. In their attempts to collect on his unpaid debts, John Thomas Ward’s creditors frequently filed suit against him in the Union Parish courts between 1866 and 1883. The standard legal procedure in those days required the sheriff or his deputy to serve an official copy of a lawsuit on the defendant at their home or business. However, this increased the legal fees associated with the lawsuit. In most of the suits against him, Jack appeared in court with the person to whom he owed money and confessed his unpaid debt at the same time the creditor filed the lawsuit (thereby saving the sheriff’s costs). However, once Jack placed his farm in Betsy’s name, the sheriff had no way to enforce the judgments against him. The two judgments for the notes Ward used to pay Slawson in 1860 remained unpaid between 1866 and 1873, when the judgments were sold to William P. Smith (Jack’s wealthy neighbor who helped him transfer his farm into Betsy’s name). Although it appears Jack finally paid Smith in the mid-1870s, no record exists to indicate he paid other judgments against him. POSTWAR OCCUPATION It has proved difficult to determine John Thomas Ward’s primary occupation during the postwar period. Tax records indicate that he produced no crops in 1866 or 1867, although in 1867 he did have 10 acres planted in cotton and 35 in corn. He had the same acreage planted in 1868, and that year his farm yielded 2 bales of cotton and 50 bushels of corn, an extremely poor corn yield for 35 acres. As the market for cotton improved after many dismal seasons, Ward switched back to focusing on cash crops in 1869 and grew more cotton than corn for the first timesince before the war. In 1869 he planted 25 acres in cotton and only 12 in corn, and he harvested 8 bales of ginned cotton, each weighing 450-pounds, 150 bushels of sweet potatoes, 50 pounds of butter, yet only 75 bushels of corn. Jack raised more cotton than any of his relatives did in 1869 except for his Uncle Pinkney Odom. This suggests he needed the cash that a large cotton crop would generate (as we know he did!). On the other hand, Jack raised less corn than any of his neighbors, which suggests that his family did not depend upon their corn harvest for food, but used this for fodder. In 1870, Jack Ward only cultivated 10 acres of his farm, 5 in cotton and 5 in corn. The above farm data indicates that Ward did not exclusively rely upon farming to support his family during this period. However, I have not determined what precise occupation in which he may have engaged, although he did move his family to Farmerville by the summer of 1870. At that time, he resided next door to his first cousin, Louisa Jane Gee and her husband, Britton Honeycutt, as well as near another first cousin, Willis M. Cooper (the son of Jack’s Aunt Elvira Seale Cooper). Both Cooper and the Honeycutts operated mercantile businesses in Farmerville, so Jack possibly assisted them. The Honeycutts had encountered similar financial problems to Jack’s, and they left the Downsville area and moved to Farmerville in the latter 1860s as did Jack. His living in Farmerville perhaps explains the low acreage he kept in cultivation in the latter 1860s. In fact, he may not have cultivated any crops on his farm in 1870; sharecroppers may have raised those crops on Jack’s property during this period and afterwards even though the Wards retained ownership of their farm seven miles east of town. In 1873, former slaves Green Richards and Milley Staniford apparently lived on Jack’s place, for on March 1st, they signed a mortgage that agreed to pay Ward "...the sum of four hundred and fifty lbs. of lint cotton delivered at James Deans Jin [sic] for family supplies..." by October 1st of that year. The Wards may have moved to Farmerville in the latter 1860s so that Jack could take a job in law enforcement. Such records for that period are very sparse due to sporadic record keeping during the Reconstruction era. However, we do know that Jack served as a special deputy sheriff on at least one occasion, for he took this oath for that office on 8 April 1874: "I John T. Ward do solemnly swear or affirm that I accept the civil and political equality of all men and agree not to attempt to deprive any person or persons on account of race, color or previous condition of any political or civil right, privilege or immunity enjoyed by any other class of men. That I will support the constitution and Laws of the United States and the constitution and Laws of this State and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent on me as Special Deputy Sheriff in & for the Parish of Union La. So help me God..." The next year, the citizens of Ward One elected Jack Ward as their constable, and he took that oath on 29 December 1875. He served in that capacity until at least 1877, and possibly longer. Part of his official duties involved serving court orders and seizing property in the name of the state. Jack had frequently experienced officials serving him court orders and seizing his property, and now he himself performed these duties upon others. Jack Ward’s official duties as constable embroiled him in various legal matters during the 1870s. On 11 January 1876, Ward served a writ of attachment on the farm of Dempsey Joiner. Signed by a local justice of the peace, the writ ordered Ward to seize and attach property belonging to Joiner’s son. In compliance with the writ, Jack took possession of two mare mules and advertised them for sale in the local newspaper, the Union Record. Dempsey Joiner sued Ward in the local justice court, claiming the mules belonged to him and not his son. After the local court found that Ward acted properly and ordered him to proceed with the sale, Joiner appealed to the parish court. In response, the court issued a writ of injunction to Ward on 1 April 1876, and Ward appeared in court that day to accept service of the writ. That fall, as it prepared for a trial of the case, the court summoned Jack’s first cousin and Farmerville neighbor Britton Honeycutt to testify on Ward’s behalf, as well as William H. Hearn and Farmerville merchant Hugh Glasson. At the trial held on November 28th, Judge Lewis found in Ward’s favor and set aside the writ of injunction. Joiner again appealed, this time to the District Court. Ironically, merchant Daniel Stein (to whom Ward remained indebted during the 1870s) served as Joiner’s security on his appeal bond. The next activity in this case occurred on 3 April 1877. On that day, Jack Ward appeared before the court and requested a postponement of his case. His assistant council stated that Ward "...moves this honl. Court to grant [him] a continuance in this case for the reason that G. A. Ellis Esq. who was employed as leading council in this cause to defend this suit is absent from the Parish on publick [sic] business, to wit: a member of the General Assembly now in session in New Orleans. Wherefore he prays for a continuance until the next term of this court..." For the year 1878, the lawyers for this case repeatedly requested that the court postpone its consideration. Finally, on 8 April 1879, the court transferred it to the “dead docket”, effectively ending the case without definite resolution. This record provides no indicate as to the fate of the Joiner mules that Jack had seized and attached three years earlier. Another mysterious incident apparently associated with Jack Ward’s actions as constable involved the Allen Barksdale, a lawyer who later served as judge of the Union Parish Court (the Shreveport, Louisiana Air Force base was named after him). As the district attorney, Barksdale filed a bill of information before a grand jury on 9 April 1878, claiming that on April 4th, John T. Ward, John S. Meeks, and Charles Meeks had all assisted David Nolan in Nolan’s “willful and malicious assault and beating” of Hezekiah Malone. The Union Parish sheriff arrested Ward and the Meeks brothers (John S. Meeks was Ward’s nephew by marriage and the Meeks men were brothers). After his arrest, in order to secure his release from the sheriff’s custody, Jack had to post an appearance bond as required by law. His securities on the bond indicate a very strong level of support from two influential Farmerville residents. The securities included John M. Lee, Jr., John M. Lee, Sr., James A. Dean, Elijah Roan, and Matthew A. Scarborough. John M. Lee, Sr. at that time served as deputy sheriff and later as parish treasurer, and Lee Jr. would serve in various governmental capacities in the future, including Union Parish tax assessor. On 16 October 1878, the district court considered David Nolan’s case. After a trial, the jury found him guilty of simple assault. Jack Ward’s case was on the docket for that same day, but the court postponed it on account of Jack’s sickness. The next day, the court passed sentence upon David Nolan, fining him $15 plus costs of prosecution; in default of payment, the court ordered that Nolan be imprisoned in the parish jail for sixty days. The court met next in April 1879, and it heard the case against Jack Ward and the Meeks brothers on April 10th. The district attorney first filed a motion to withdraw the charges against John S. Meeks, who incidentally also served as a local constable during this period. With this granted, the court proceeded with the case against Jack Ward and Charles Meeks. Both appeared in court and by their counsel waived arraignment, pled not guilty, and requested a trial by jury. After hearing the evidence and deliberating, the jury returned to the courtroom, with Jack Ward and Charles Meeks both present when the foreman read the jury’s verdict. The jury found both men not guilty. ANNUAL RITUAL: MORTGAGE & PLANT It would appear that Jack Ward spent the antebellum years playing a “cat and mouse” game with his creditors. He would borrow from one for a few years, and when his failure to repay them caused that firm to cancel his credit, he would then borrow from another. Jack became thoroughly entangled in the vicious cycle that plagued many Southern whites and virtually all former slaves in the postwar period. At the approach of each planting season, he would mortgage his crops (and sometimes his farm) for supplies to get him through to the harvest, and then he would pay what he could to his creditors. But by the beginning of the next year’s planting season, he would have to again mortgage his property as collateral for supplies to get through another planting season. Jack Ward’s relationship with the Farmerville mercantile firm of D. Stein & Company resulted in long- term litigation for him. In exchange for $184.25 worth of merchandise, Ward signed his promissory note to them on 5 May 1871. The next January, instead of full payment of his note, Ward only paid Stein $10.25. One year later, in early January 1873, Stein sued Ward. As he customarily did when being sued by his creditors, Jack appeared in court when Stein’s lawyer filed the suit against him, and he confessed his debt. Since he owned no valuable property, Stein had no means by which to force Jack to pay his liability and the situation remained in a stalemate. In debt to and unable to pay Farmerville’s main merchant, Daniel Stein, Jack apparently could not secure a line of credit there to allow him to plant his 1873 crops. As a result, he had to borrow money from local citizens of means for the next few years. To secure his repayment, they required Ward to file an official mortgage on either his farm or his crops in exchange for money and supplies. On 3 March 1873, he acknowledged that he owed his wealthy neighbor William P. Smith (the man who helped him and Betsy transfer their farm to her name a few years earlier) the sum of $500, "...partly advanced & to be advanced, during the present year in Family and plantation supplies and one mule to aid me said Ward in Raising a crop in the Parish of Union during the present year 1873. And in order to secure the said Wm. P. Smith in the true and punctual payment of the above sum of five Hundred dollars including interest and 2½ per cent for advancing, does by these presents grant in favor of said Wm. P. Smith a first privilege and lien upon my entire crop Raised by me the present year on my farm in the parish of Union, and I further obligate myself not to dispose of said crop to the prejudice of this privilege..." The next year on March 19th, Jack and Betsy mortgaged their 400-farm to Union Parish Recorder William C. Smith (no relation to their neighbor Smith) for $120, "...which is money advanced to us to purchase bacon and other necessary articles of Groceries for family use the present year 1874..." To further secure their payment of this sum plus 8% interest, they granted Smith "...a first privilege & lien on our Entire crop that we may raise on said farm during the year 1874 and obligate us not to dispose of same to the prejudice of this mortgage..." This sum did not carry Jack and Betsy through to the fall harvest, for on September 23rd, William C. Smith appeared before Union Parish Judge Thomas C. Lewis and had an official statement regarding supplies he had furnished the Wards that month notarized and recorded. After being sworn by Judge Lewis, Smith stated "...that Mrs. S. E. Ward and her husband John T. Ward is [sic] justly indebted unto him for provisions & family supplies such as Bacon, flour, molasses, coffee, domestic etc. to the amount of sixty Dollars same being furnished during the month of September 1874, to enable said parties to gather their crop, for which Deponant [sic] claims a privilege upon the crop of the said Mrs. S. E. Ward & Jno. T. Ward raised in the Parish of Union the present year 1874..." It would appear that Jack’s 1873 and 1874 crops brought in some money, for he apparently paid the above debts to his neighbor William P. Smith and to Union Parish Recorder William C. Smith. Moreover, on 1 January 1875, Ward paid the bulk of his balance with Daniel Stein’s store, $168.25. However, Ward still owed Stein $7 principal, plus interest and court costs, a sum he never paid. James Addison Ward (Jim), Jack and Betsy’s eldest son, turned eighteen in the spring of 1874. That August, he petitioned the Union Parish Court to emancipate him, which would give him the legal status of an adult (in Louisiana, one cannot manage one’s own property until the age of twenty-one unless emancipated by either marriage or court decree). Jack’s financial difficulties probably prompted his son’s unusual application to the court. After Jack appeared before the court and gave his approval, Judge Thomas C. Lewis granted Jim Ward’s emancipation request. The next fall, on 20 October 1875, Betsy sold Jim 160 acres of her farm. Jack, Betsy, and their now-emancipated minor son Jim collectively mortgaged their farm to Union Parish Recorder William C. Smith on 21 February 1876 in exchange for $148.13 in family and plantation supplies for the present year 1876. In addition to their farm, they also granted Smith a lien upon their 1876 crops. Perhaps due to a poor 1876 harvest or some other cause, the Wards could only pay Smith $38 the next January when their note became due. So although he had nearly paid off his balance at Stein’s store in early 1875, Jack was again in debt and unable to pay his creditors in early 1877. In order to furnish supplies for his family until the fall 1877 harvest, Stein’s store again allowed Ward a line of credit. He signed this statement on June 6th: "I...do hereby obligate myself to deliver to D. Stein & Co., merchants in the Town of Farmerville...my entire growing crop of cotton, corn, Potatoes, Peas, and other Produce which I may raise, for a supply of Groceries, Shoes, clothing & general merchandise, to the amount of One Hundred Dollars furnished and to be furnished during the ensuing year up to the first of November 1877, at which time furnishing ceases and the crop has to be delivered. I further grant to said D. Stein & Co. from this date forth full privilege on my entire growing crop of cotton, corn and all other Produces, until any amount due to them by me shall be fully paid. I also promise, that in case my indebtedness to said D. Stein & Co. has to be sued on for collection, I shall pay the usual attorney fee of 10 per cent for collection..." Apparently, Ward repaid this 1877 loan of $100 from Stein’s store, but he still owed $118.13 to the Union Parish recorder, William C. Smith. To enable him to plant his 1878 crops, Ward had to again obtain a loan from Stein’s store. Apparently, Ward’s recent payments to Stein improved his credit rating with them, and on 8 March 1878 they accepted his promissory note of $132 without requiring him to file a mortgage. Stein & Co. would regret this decision, for Ward never repaid them. Since he owned no valuable property that would justify a lawsuit, Stein’s store took no action until early 1883. Apparently the $132 he obtained was not sufficient to last the season, for two weeks later, in exchange for $100 Jack mortgaged the 160 acres of government land he purchased the previous year to his first cousin, Farmerville lawyer Randall H. Odom. Ward apparently repaid Odom the next year, for he retained possession of his land and Odom never took legal action against him. Although Jack Ward had saved his farm from being seized and sold to pay his creditors back in the latter 1860s by placing it in Betsy’s name, his dire financial situation in 1877 and 1878 nearly caused him to loose it then. After waiting fifteen months for his payment of $113.13 from Jack and his son Jim Ward, Union Parish Recorder William C. Smith filed suit against them on 13 May 1878. The Wards appeared in court on that day and confessed their debt to Smith. The judge issued a ruling in Smith’s favor against the Wards, ordering them to pay the amount due or give Smith the right to have the land seized and sold at public auction. For whatever reason, Smith did not choose to have the farm seized and sold. Jack Ward paid him $50 on 22 February 1879, and on 3 February 1881, Ward paid Smith’s son James M. Smith 435 pounds of pork @ 5¢ per pound ($21.75). Since they retained possession of their farm, the Wards clearly repaid the remainder of the money they owed to Smith. However, I have found no record that indicates when or how they did so. It appears as if Jack obtained financial assistance from his father during this latest court case as well. On 10 October 1879, Jack’s father David purchased 80 acres of land from his son for $150. Jack sold his father the property he had purchased from the government back in 1860, land that David sold late that year to Hezekiah Malone. It is unclear how Jack Ward regained possession of this property, and I find it ironic that David paid his son $150, roughly the amount of Smith’s claim against Ward. David Ward at this time lived on the opposite side of the parish, west of Shiloh (and present-day Bernice), and David never returned east to the location of his former home. Thus, I believe this transaction related to Jack’s financial difficulties. Other records indicate that David loaned his son money during this period for which Jack gave David his promissory note. Jack Ward made additional mortgages of his crops during the early 1880s, although he now found a new merchant with whom to deal. On 12 May 1880, Jack promised to "...deliver to J. Marx Merchant at the town of Farmerville…my entire growing crops of cotton, corn, peas, potatoes and other produce which may be raised on my entire place, for a supply of groceries, shoes, clothing, and general merchandise to the amount of One hundred Dollars furnished and to be furnished during the ensuing year up to the first day of November 1880 at which time furnishing ceases and the crop has to be delivered. I further grant to said J. Marx from this date forth a full privilege on my entire growing crop of cotton, corn and all other produce until any amount due him by me shall be fully paid. I also promise that in case my indebtedness to said J. Marx has to be sued on for collection I shall pay the usual attorney fee of 10% for collection..." The next year, Jack and his son James A. Ward jointly mortgaged their 1881 crops to Marx for $100, with both of them equally responsible for the payment to Marx. They apparently repaid their liability to Marx. In 1882, the Wards obtained supplies from David Redden. Jack and his son made separate mortgages of their 1882 crops to Redden on May 9th, Jack’s for $56.25 and Jim’s for $31.25. Jack promised to repay Redden with 8% interest by the first of January 1883, "...said sum being furnished to me by the said Redden for the sole purpose of purchasing supplies necessary to enable me & my family to grow, cultivate and gather a crop the present year 1882 upon the farm I am now residing upon and cultivating in Union Parish La and in order to better secure the said Redden in the true & prompt payment of said sum of $56.25 I do hereby recognize and grant a pledge and lien upon the entire crops of corn, cotton and other produce that I may raise or caused to be raised the present year 1882 either by myself or my family on the aforesaid place and I further promise that I will not dispose of any portion of the crops raised as aforesaid to the prejudice of this privilege note..." On June 23rd, Redden loaned Jack Ward $32.37 worth of "...family and plantation supplies to further enable me to make & gather a crop the present year 1882 on the farm on which I am now residing and cultivating..." Finally, on August 15th, Redden furnished Ward with an additional $37.50, with the "...said sum being furnished me to further enable me to grow, cultivate & gather my present crop..." JACK WARD & HIS BIG BROTHER HUBBARD Without any old letters, diaries, or family stories from that era, we cannot today accurately characterize the relationship that existed between John Thomas Ward and his siblings. However, judging from available records, the children of David Ward and Cynthia Seale remained a close-knit bunch. Jack, his older brother Hubbard, and his older sister Rachel Jane Ward all married between 1852 and 1854, and they each settled on adjoining farms some few miles west of their father’s. During the 1850s and early 1860s, all of them maintained similar farms and gradually increased the acreage they possessed with purchases from the government and their neighbors. The records show all three families witnessed each other’s records and testified in court on the other’s behalf. As previously noted, Hubbard co-signed his brother’s promissory note for $200 in October 1860 when Jack bought land from Simeon Slawson, and John R. Auld co-signed Jack’s other note for $160 to Slawson. After the war, Hubbard Ward’s fortunes appeared to thrive, whereas those of Jack Ward and John R. Auld nose-dived into bankruptcy. The available records do not explain these divergent financial paths. John R. Auld died of pneumonia in May 1870, leaving Rachel two months pregnant and deeply in debt. Then Rachel herself died the following December soon after giving birth to her baby. Hub Ward managed her estate, and the court appointed him as the “tutor” or guardian to Rachel’s children. Upon Hub’s request, the court appointed Jack as their “undertutor”. Jack also served as his Hub’s security on his $2225 administrator’s bond a few days after Rachel’s death, and in January, Jack participated in a family meeting to decide how to best dispose of Rachel’s real estate. To raise money to pay the bills of his sister’s estate, Hubbard Ward conducted a sale of her personal property on 4 January 1871. Jack purchased items valued at $188.71, including four head of cattle @ $17.50, one cow and calf @ $12, 50 bushels of corn @ $1.10 per bushel ($55), a pine table @ $3.50, one loom @ $10, four chairs @ $6.20, and other unnamed miscellaneous items. The law required purchasers to pay for this personal property in cash. Although Jack did not have the means to pay cash for these items, Hub allowed his brother to take possession of this property. Jack later gave his promissory note to the estate for this merchandise, although he failed to put a date on the note. However, like most of his debts during this period, Jack could not pay his brother. Legally, Hubbard Ward had to sue Jack for this money to protect his sister’s estate, for else Hub would forfeit his administrator’s bond. Thus, on 13 January 1872, Hubbard and his lawyers appeared in court in Farmerville and filed suit against his brother. Under oath, Hubbard Ward stated "...that he is the administrator of the Estate of R. J. Aulds decd. and that the sum of One Hundred and Sixty Nine 65/100 Dollars is due said Estate of R. J. Aulds by John T. Ward… And that the said J. T. Ward is about to mortgage, assign, or dispose of his property or some part thereof with intent to defraud his creditors or give an unfair preference to some of them or that he has converted or is about to convert his property into money or evidences of debt. with intent to place it beyond the reach of his creditors..." Hubbard’s lawyer requested that the court issue an attachment on Jack Ward’s property to secure the amount due Rachel J. Auld’s estate. The court issued the writ on Jack’s property as requested, and on January 15th, Deputy Sheriff J. M. Lupo served the writ on Jack in person at his farm eight miles east of Farmerville. Deputy Lupo seized and took possession of this property belonging to Jack: four head of horses valued at $200, one yoke of oxen valued at $80, and one wagon valued at $40. No records exist to indicate whether or not the sheriff returned any of this property to Jack or if he auctioned it to pay Jack’s debt to Rachel’s estate. We have no indication whether or not this situation soured Jack and Hub’s relationship. However, it does not appear to have done so. Towards the latter 1870s, Elijah again served as the security on one of Jack Ward’s mortgages, this time to David Redden. Apparently Jack did not pay his debt, and Redden sued Jack and Hub and won a court judgment against them for $29.38. In contrast to his brother’s ongoing financial crises during the antebellum era, Hub Ward maintained a very successful planting operation in eastern Union Parish. After David Ward’s third marriage, he moved to his new wife’s old farm west of Shiloh on the Claiborne/Union Parish line. Hub purchased his father’s 520-acre plantation for $650 in cash, bringing Hub’s acreage in eastern Union Parish to right at 1000 acres. During the early part of the 1870s, Hub planted large crops with successful harvests. Additionally, in the 1870s and 1880s, Hubbard Ward entered local politics. He served as the justice of the peace and police juror for his neighborhood and later as deputy parish surveyor. In 1880, the citizens of Union Parish elected Hubbard Ward as their parish surveyor, a position he held until his death in 1887. After his election, Hub’s official surveying duties occupied much of his time and he apparently concentrated less on his farming operation. THE FINAL YEARS: 1882 - 1883 Jack’s father David Ward apparently remained in relatively good health through 1879, and in October of that year he appeared at the Farmerville courthouse and signed a deed of purchase from Jack. It would appear this was David’s attempt to financially assist his struggling son, and it was one of David’s last legal acts before his health declined. A government official characterized David as “crippled or maimed” by mid-1880, and in May 1881 he was bedridden and suffering severely with “bladder inflammation”. Despite his poor health in 1881, David Ward lived for another year, finally succumbing on 4 May 1882. Two weeks after David’s death, his two surviving children, Hub and Jack Ward, as well as their stepmother Ellen Brazeal McLelland Ward, all witnessed the appraisement of his estate at his home west of Shiloh. Their father’s neighbors George W. Harper and George W. Lowrey served as appraisers, and they valued David’s property at $867.50. Among the debts to David Ward’s estate was a $20 note from Jack Ward dated 10 April 1879. Jack assisted his brother in managing their father’s estate, for on June 6th, he served as Hub’s primary security on his $1085 administrator’s bond. David Ward possessed a fair amount of property at his death, and Jack was an heir to this estate. Moreover, Jack still owed money to Daniel Stein and his store in Farmerville. He owed $7 plus interest on $184.25 from 1871 and court costs, all resulting from the 1873 judgment Stein’s store had won against Jack in the Union Parish court. Moreover, Jack had defaulted on his promissory note to Stein dated 8 March 1878 for $132. Seeing their opportunity to secure the money Jack owed them, Stein filed suit on 10 January 1883, first to revive their 1873 judgment against him (which was about to expire) and then to garnish Jack’s portion of his father’s estate. After the court revived Stein’s 1873 judgment, Stein had the court issue a fi fa or writ of attachment to the Union Parish sheriff, ordering him to seize any property in the possession of Hubbard Ward that belonged to John T. Ward. On that very day, Deputy Sheriff J. C. Montgomery encountered Hub in Farmerville and gave him the court order. Meanwhile, as a part of this legal action, Stein’s lawyer John E. Everett solicited answers to several questions from Hub Ward as the administrator of David Ward’s estate. Hub Ward appeared in the Farmerville courthouse on January 18th and offered his sworn testimony, saying "J. T. Ward was or is an heir to the Estate of David Ward Dec’d. but he has no interest in said Estate now. He having sold his interest in same to me on Decr. 20th 1882 as is evidenced of a written transfer of that date." Everett asked whether any other heir of David Ward’s estate had transferred their share to John T. Ward. Hub responded "Yes. Mrs. Nancy L. Ward an heir to said Estate transferred her entire interest in said Estate to Deft. herein J. T. Ward on the 12th of Decr. 1882 and at the time I bought Deft. J. T. Ward interest in said Estate I also bought the interest of said Mrs. Nancy L. Ward that Deft. J. T. Ward then held by written transfer, from him all of which is evidenced by the written transfer to me from Deft. J. T. Ward of Date Decr 20th 1882." Everett then asked a series of questions in an attempt to determine what money Hubbard Ward as administrator would be due John T. Ward, to which Hub responded "There will be no amount due Deft. J. T. Ward as an heir to said estate because his interest now belongs to me purchased as aforesaid… I am not nor will I be due J. T. Ward Deft. herein as admr. of said Estate, any amount." Thus, through apparent foresight on Hub or Jack’s part, they had taken the legal steps necessary to be sure that no portion of David Ward’s estate would be garnished to pay Jack’s debts to Daniel Stein & Company. Based upon these answers, the sheriff returned the writ of attachment to the court in March 1883, stating that he found no property belonging to Jack Ward’s that he could seize. For various reasons, David Ward’s property depreciated during 1882 and 1883, and to raise funds to pay the debts of the estate, Hub Ward held an estate sale at his father’s old home west of Shiloh on 2 December 1883. Although Hubbard surely must have known that his brother could not afford to pay him for anything he bought, Hub allowed Jack to purchase and take possession of property valued at $80.97 after giving his promissory note to the estate. Jack bought this property belonging to his father’s estate: 1 table & wardrobe $2.25 1 rocking chair 2.35 1 clock 5.00 6 corn chairs 2.05 1 feather bed 9.00 1 lot plows 2.00 2 pillows 1.35 1 lot bed clothes 3.00 5 bushels corn 3.00 1 reel 0.17 1 table 0.20 1 hog chain 4.00 1 sausage grinder 0.35 1 water bucket 0.30 oat cutter 0.10 scales 1.00 gun 3.25 1 saddle 1.50 1 red heifer 4.00 1 ”mully” heifer 6.25 1 hog 7.85 1 bull 5.50 1 hog 7.50 1 hog 6.00 On Christmas Eve 1883, several weeks after he attended the sale of his father’s estate west of Shiloh, Jack and Betsy sold 40 acres of their farm to their neighbor Thomas Allen Dean for $65, a transaction witnessed by the Ward’s eldest son James A. Ward. Thus, the records give every indication that during December 1883, Jack Ward remained in good health and traveled both to Farmerville and to his father’s old place about thirty miles west of Jack’s farm. However, on December 30th, less than one week after this transaction with Dean, John Thomas Ward died at the age of forty-eight years of unknown causes. At his death, Jack did own 120 acres of property in his own name, so legally his creditors could have sued his estate and seized this portion of the Ward farm. However, Stein did not pursue this avenue, nor did Hub Ward as administrator of their father’s estate. So Jack’s debts to Stein’s store and to his father’s estate remained unpaid. Jack’s death left Betsy a widow at age forty-five with three young children to raise: Henry Jefferson (age 13), George Allen (age 9), and Nancy Theodosia Ward (age 5), as well as her daughter Cynthia Jane Ward (age 19) who still lived with her. Betsy retained possession of her farm next to her grown son Jim and lived there the rest of her life, with her grown daughters Sarah Ann E. McGough and Mary Ann Taylor living nearby. Cynthia Jane married in 1888, but her husband died within a few years, leaving her a widow with a young daughter. Cynthia and her daughter moved back in with Betsy and her younger siblings, and they all resided on Jack Ward’s old farm during the 1890s. Jeff Ward died prematurely in 1898, but Dosia married in 1897 and George in about 1904, and both settled on farms that adjoined their mother’s. After an illness for which Dr. Evans treated her, Sarah Ann Elizabeth Scarborough Ward died there at the age of seventy-five years in 1914. Her family buried her beside Jack in the Ward’s Chapel Cemetery. Despite the dire financial circumstances in which Jack’s early death left her, Betsy still managed to erect a tombstone over his grave in the Ward’s Chapel Cemetery. It appears that his stone was made by a person with merely a rudimentary grasp of proper English and ingraving techniques, whereas Betsy’s appears more professional. Their stones read as follows: In Memory of John T. W ard Born Jne 30 1835 Died Dec 30 1883 Bi A Devoted Wife There AR Rest for those that Die in the Lord SARAH E. Wife of J. T. WARD BORN Sept. 3, 1838 DIED Mar. 25, 1914 Rest mother rest in quiet sleep While friends in sorrow o’er thee weep #################################################################################### SOURCES: I wrote the above biography based upon my own personal research into the Ward family plus information shared with me by my late grandfather, Lillian Patterson Upshaw, and Lula Mae Patterson Hague. Sources include family Bible records, census data, land records of the United States, and various court records of Union Parish Louisiana. T. D. Hudson