Abstracts from the 4 June 1886 issue of the "Home Advocate", a Union Parish Louisiana newspaper Submitted for the Union Parish Louisiana USGenWeb Archives by T. D. Hudson, 2001 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ ================================================================================= ================================================================================= 4 June 1886 Abstracts from the "Home Advocate", a newspaper published in Farmerville, Union Parish Louisiana ================================================================================= ================================================================================= ================================================================================= Abstracts from microfilmed copies of the original papers. This material was abstracted, edited, and submitted for the USGenWeb Archives by Timothy D. Hudson ================================================================================= ================================================================================= Historical Background of the "Home Advocate": The oldest newspaper published in Union Parish with a contiguous run of extant issues is the "Home Advocate", which debuted on 11 February 1885 with Judge Thomas Charles Lewis, III (30 July 1838 - 12 Jan 1900) as its editor/owner/publisher. Lewis was well-known public figure in Union Parish between the 1850s and 1890, serving as a Union Parish lawyer, clerk of court, parish judge, and newspaper editor and publisher. Lewis was the son of Rev. Thomas C. Lewis, II, the pastor of Farmerville's Methodist Church prior to his death in 1853. We think that the younger Lewis got into the newspaper business in the latter 1850s and was associated with publication of the "Union Democrat", a paper issued in Farmerville beginning in late 1858 or 1859 and lasting at least through July 1860. After a stint in the Confederate Army during 1861 - 1862, Lewis received a medical discharge and returned to Farmerville. He resumed his duties as the Union Parish Clerk of Court, and in February 1866, it appears he helped to found the "Union Record," the Reconstruction newspaper published in Farmerville 1879. About 1872, Lewis was elected parish judge, but he clashed with other Farmerville lawyers over political issues associated with Reconstruction. The situation became so bad that Lewis feared for his life, so he left for south Louisiana in 1879, settling in St. Landry Parish. In 1878, James E. Trimble, a Pennsylvanian-born teacher, lawyer, and judge who settled in Union Parish in the 1850s, founded the Farmerville "Gazette" to compete with Lewis' "Union Record". Trimble had served as the District Court judge during the period in which Lewis was the parish judge, and the two had serious political differences. Lewis returned to Union Parish in 1884, purchased the printing equipment of the "North Louisiana Appeal," and founded his new publishing endeavor, the "Home Advocate." ================================================================================= Explanation: (1) The items below marked by "+++" are quoted directly from the original newspapers. (2) My comments are in brackets [ ]. (3) I have only abstracted the local notices from these papers, and generally these are only on page three of the four-page paper, with the occasional local article on page two. I have abstracted some of the local advertisements, but only once; many of them ran repeatedly. (4) In some of these papers, the left margin of the local notices is damaged, causing a few words to be unreadable. I have indicated such instances with "[?]". ================================================================================= ================================================================================= Friday, 4 JUNE 1886 ================================================================================= ================================================================================= page 1 Tax Sale STATE OF LOUISIANA vs. Delinquent Tax Debtors - Parish of Union By virtue of the authority vested in me by the constitution and laws of the State of Louisiana, I will sell at the principal front door of the Court house in Farmerville, parish of Union, State of Louisiana, within the legal hours for judicial sales, beginning at 11 o'clock a.m. on Saturday, 17th day of July 1886, and continuing following Monday and each subsequent day until said sales are completed, all immovable property on which taxes are due to the State of Louisiana, parish of Union, to enforce collections of taxes due on roll of 1885, and previous years, together with interest from the 31st day of December, 1885, and all costs. The names of said delinquent tax payers, the amount of tax due by each on the assesments [sic] and the immovable property assessed to each to be offered for sale, are as follows, to wit. WARD 1 J. N. Boatright Mrs. Jane E. Boatright Estate of Mrs. E. BAker Mrs. Pit Eubanks Abe Fields Thos. F. Gilbert, agt. Louis Golden William Gibson Heirs of Mrs. Laura Hall Mrs. Eloyann Ham Wilson Jones Andrew Jelks Robt. Johnson Polly Minser Heirs of Sidney W. McGough W. T. Phillips Heirs of Saml. Robinson Capt. J. M. Rabun Wm. Smith J. R. Simmons J. R. Shults D. Stein & Co. J. E. Trimble J. G. Trimble Mrs. Belle Trimble Mrs. H. D. Webb Mrs. Ann Williams WARD 2 Heirs of W. A. Bufford Heirs of Henry Funderburk W. P. and Butford Smith Joe Tucker J. R. Tidwell Mrs. S. E. Ward WARD 3 Heirs of Robert Beesley Mrs. M. Coleson W. J. Coston Amos Carter Mrs. Nancy Coker Heirs of E. G. Cashell Goliah Davenport Sampson Davenport Newton Goodger E. W. Guinn agt for Island heirs F. P. Hill A. C. Harrell Heirs of Thomas Harrell J. W. Halley J. J. Halley Jesse Harison C. C. Jackson James Johnson W. D. Morris Lack MeFee C. C. Norman E. R. Parks J. L. Parks Wily Roberson Heirs of J. M. Spier J. P. Striplin Wm. Thomas Eli Williams Lum Williams Green Williams WARD 4 Heirs of Charles Absent Edmond Bluford Albert Cain W. M. Cole Calvin Dickinson John Day Est of Geo. Defee, J. D. Defee admr. T. B. Dawson Wm. Henry [continued on second page] page 2 +++ POLICE JURORS. At a joint Democratic caucus held at Baton Rouge last week it was decided that the Police Jurors throughout the State be appointed until 1892, and a bill to that effect has already been introduced in the State Senate pursuant to this action of the caucus. Soon after the caucus convened Mr. Foster offered the following resolution: “Be it resolved that it is the sense of this caucus that the Police Jurors throughout the State be appointed by the Governor for the next four years, after the expiration of the present term.” To this Gen. Lewis, of St. Landry, offered the following amendments: First; That the resolution should [?] the rights of certain [?] for the election of Police Jurors, and Second; That the vote on the original resolution should be published, so that the public might know how their Senators and Representatives voted on the question. Both these amendments were rejected. Senators Lewis and Gaskins and Representatives Heard, Wall, Adams, Wocoski, Shattock, Pritchard and Price withdrew from the caucus. It is certainly to be deplored that this question should cause dissension, but the gentlemen who withdrew from the caucus were no doubt actuated in their course by an earnest and commendable zeal in behalf of Democratic principles. We are very sure that a large majority of the people in this parish, and senatorial district, will unhesitatingly endorse the action of Senator Gaskins and Representative Heard. The Police Jury is a legislative body and its ordinances often times more nearly and directly affect the interests of the people than many of the enactments of the General Assembly of the State. Bodies having the local powers of police Juries should be chosen by the people. It is an essential part of local self-government, and perfectly consonant with the principles of Democracy. The Legislature can with equal propriety and consistency pass an act prohibiting the people from electing their Senators and Representatives because a few parishes in the State have a Republican majority and will elect their members. We trust the measure making police jurors appointive will be voted down, and if it should ultimately pass, that Gov. McEnery – whose genuine Democracy is of an undoubted character – will promptly veto it as being subversive of the rights of the people. We are in favor of making the office of Police Jurors elective, because we believe that the principal of election as regards officials of this character is right, and the principle of appointment wrong. +++ DEMOCRATIC AND INCORRIGIBLE. [From the] Colfax Chronicle: Bro. Lewis, of the Farmerville HOME ADVOCATE, wants us to name the parishes in which other police jurors were appointed instead of those selected by election by the Democratic voters. For the satisfaction of our doubting friend we will state that it was done in both Grant and Winn parishes. We try never to make assertions unless we have the fact to back them, and as for our Democracy, we are perfectly willing for our personal record or the record of our paper to be compared with that of Bro. Lewis. Nearly all of our readers understood what instances were referred to in the comments used in this paper, and we did not particularize for the reason that we did not care to widen that breach THE ADVOCATE professes to be so zealously guarding. The old method of whipping into the traces by accusing Democratic papers of traitorism because they see fit to comment upon party abuse has become obsolete in these days of fair discussion, and the only way to meet facts and arguments nowadays is to oppose them with other facts and arguments. As a Democrat we claim the right to discuss the “errors” of our officials. If our confrere feels called upon to condone or apologize for them, that is his privilege, and we have no disposition to abuse him for it and, because we demand that a wrong be righted within the party ranks, he has no right to place us in the attitude of a malcontent or sower of discord. We have never joined in the cry of venality and corruption against Gov. McEnery, but on the contrary have at all times recognized him as a staunch and faithful Democratic executive and an honorable man. A difference of opinion does not constitute us as a personal enemy to the governor, nor is it an unpardonable party or political offence. [Judge Lewis responding:] In reply to the first portion of the above article we publish the following from the Capitolian Advocate of 22d inst: “We have been reliably informed, in this connection, that when Governor Nicholls was first clothed with the power of appointing police jurors, two Senators called on him [several words in a fold of the paper when microfilmed] primary election for appointments. Governor Nicholls refused to make these appointments, assigning as his reason that to do so would be to surrender the prerogative with which he had been clothed by the law, which contemplated his free exercise of the power it vested in him. He regarded selections of that kind as a species of dictation to which he would not submit. In exercising the same power, without regard to similar instructions, Governor McEnery has but placed the same construction upon his prerogatives that his predecessor so properly expressed.” [Lewis again] We heartily concur with our confrere in demanding that any existing wrongs, or abuse, be righted in the party lines. Our comments last week were not in advocacy of perpetuating the appointment of Police Jurors, as might be inferred from the first portion of the above article, but in deprecation of the course now freely indulged in by certain journals of making vague and indefinite charges against the present State Administration. While the Chronicle disclaims ever having joined in the cry of venality and corruption against the McEnery Administration, we submit that taking unfair advantages of mistakes – heirlooms of erring humanity – inadvertently made, and heaping odium upon the acts of the State Executive are equivalent, in effect, to an out-right charge of mal-administration. We fully recognize the ability of our confrere, and in all kindness we plead that he will cease to pander to those who seek to “widen the breach” and weaken the party. We trust that he will come over into Macedonia and help us to consolidate and work – inside the party lines – to correct any existing abuses. It may be obtuseness on our part but we utterly fail to understand the aim of the warfare now waged against Gov. McEnery and other State officials. One not cognizant of the time of holding our State elections would naturally infer that we are now in the midst of a heated political campaign and that Gov. McEnery is seeking promotion at the hands of his enemies. This is not as it should be, and if persisted in will result in increasing factional divisions and we fear ultimately dethrone the Democratic supremacy in this State. +++ Delinquent Taxes continued from First Page. Mrs. Emily Hawkins David Hunt Mrs. Julius James C. A. Love Warren Mitchell Wm. Riley, Sr. Estate of John Steele (J. A. Love agent) J. E. Stevenson W. P. Spencer Charles Toler Tylor Trailor W. R. Takewell John Thomas H. T. White Brooks Will, Sr. Ward 5 John Andrews J. S. Bruce Mrs. J. A. Brasher Henry Clark John Canally Mrs. M. A. Clark M. E. Daniel Estate of D. D. Dawkins S. A. Gibson R. A. Gibson Mrs. G. A. Harris, J. L. Tugwell agent Mrs. Amy Kindrick Geo. McGough Mrs. Mariah Purifoy Henry Thomas Ward 6 Mrs. Ellen Beard [should be “Miss Elizabeth Beaird”] G. W. Carroll Noah Ganter Mrs. Eliza Gafford Ward 7 Estate of Mrs. Mary Brazzil Charlie Clark R. B. Everett Mrs. Nancy E. Landers J. F. White Ward 8 Geo. R. Bivins Dr. S. W. Clemands W. L. Crider Mrs. Ann Gulley John H. Hannon Mrs. Mary W. Lee Simon Stein Rufus Williams Ward 9 Benj. Irving Andy Kennedy D. O. Miles F. H. Pardue Ward 10 R. S. Ashcroft G. M. Carter Geo. Emerson A. Polk Gibbs page 3 LOCALS. +++ Our thanks are due Hon. J. Floyd King for public documents. +++ The members of the Farmerville Brass Band under the instruction of Prof. E. Hoeffner are making excellent progress. We tender them our congratulations. +++ A would like-to-be married man remarked the other day that Farmerville contained more pretty girls than any town of like size in the State, but they seemed to be a little offish. +++ My customers – especially the LADIES – are informed that I have just received a new stock of NOTLINGHAM LACE CURTAINS, to which I invite special inspection. JACOB STEIN. April 2nd +++ Several of our citizens are now absent on business and pleasure tours. We trust that each of them may enjoy their vacation and be permitted a safe return to homes and loved ones. +++ We direct attention to the delinquent tax sales published in this issue of the ADVOCATE. The necessity of issuing a supplement, in addition to our regular edition, has caused a delay in the issue of our paper. +++ We tender sincere thanks to Mr. S. D. Pearce, editor of the Ruston Caliagraph, for a favor he extended us under, circumstances which render it truly appreciative. We will cheerfully reciprocate at any time it may be in our power to do so. +++ The Ladies of Union parish are invited to examine my stock of SLIPPERS, SANDALS, ETC., just received by JACOB STEIN. April 2nd +++ We believe the gardens about town are in good condition but are now much in need of rain. We trust our farming friends in the country have not neglected the raising of vegetables. The garden should receive particular attention at this season of the year. It is too often neglected on account of corn and cotton, which seems to need the undivided attention of the farmer. +++ Don’t neglect being present at the picnic entertainment to be given by the ladies next Friday evening. It will cost you nothing to attend, and we believe we can guarantee you a pleasant time. +++ The ladies of Farmerville have arranged to give a “moonlight picnic” on next Friday evening, in the grove near the Methodist church. The object of the entertainment is to raise funds to purchase song books and library books for the Methodist Sunday school. There will be no charge for admission to the grounds, but a moderate price will be charged for refreshments of cake, lemonade, ice cream, etc., furnished to persons willing to purchase. We understand that the Farmerville Cornet Band have kindly consented to assist the ladies in the evening’s entertainment. We have no doubt but that all who attend will be well entertained and spend a pleasant [one line of article destroyed] credit for their effort in this behalf and should be encouraged by a good attendance at their entertainments. +++ Mr. Jas. M. Smith, our popular and ever obliging Clerk of the District Court, appeared at the ADVOCATE office last week and besides renewing the subscription of a friend, pre-paid his own subscription to close of vol. 3 – up to about 1st March, 1888. That is the way to show your appreciation of your home newspaper. We tender him thanks for this expression of confidence and good will, and commend his course to all others who desire the perpetuity of the paper. +++ “THE BEST IS THE CHEAPEST. Try a pair of Murry’s Celebrated Custom made Shoes and you will be convinced of the truth of the above adage; for sale by JACOB STEIN. April 2nd +++ We acknowledge the receipt of an invitation to attend the Annual Commencement Exercises of the Agatheridan and Erosophian Literary Societies, of the University of Nashville, Tenn., sent us by our young friend, W. N. McFarland of this place. Mr. McFarland is a student of Nashville University, and presiding officer of the last mentioned society. We tender thanks for kind rememberances [sic] and regret that it was not our privilege to attend. +++ LUMBER FOR SALE. Persons desiring lumber can procure any ordinary dimensions and of the best quality at my steam mill, or from Messrs J. Marx & Bro. Farmerville. DAVID NOLAN. +++ Ladies must have PARASOLS and they will find an excellent assortment at, JACOB STEIN’S. April 2nd =========================================================================================== =========================================================================================== ===========================================================================================