WILLIAM BRUMFIELD, Washington Parish, LA,
Submitted by Carolyn Brumfield Henderson

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William Brumfield, eldest son of John and Margaret Kelly Brumfield
Taken from the Manuscript "BRUMFIELD HISTORIES"
By Albert Brumfield and Del Magee Clawson (1997)
With permission of Al Brumfield:

William Brumfield was born about 1789 in York Co., South Carolina. He died
ca. 1868, and is buried in the yard, adjacent to the blacksmith shop, at
the Leon Bankston place, 2 miles West of Clifton.  William married Harriet
Statum (from mortgage among Lymon Briggs Papers in Covington Courthouse.)
There were 3 daughters and possibly 1 son born to Bill and Harriet before
1820, judging from the 1820 and 1830 censuses of Washington Parish.  There
may have been as many as 9 children, from indications on the censuses.

After moving to Louisiana, he entered 630 acres in the Silver Creek area on
the West Bank of the Bogue Chitto River, in what is now Washington Parish.
He filed for title in 1818 in the Greensburg Land Office, and received
Headright Title to Section 37, TIS, RIOE, where he would later in the
1840's operate the Oakgrove Post Office.  He based his claim on occupancy
in 1809, and continuous cultivation since 1813.  This may mean that he
preceded his parents to Louisiana or that the claim was based on occupancy
by an earlier owner.  See mortgage in Lyman Briggs Papers, Covington.

William served in the 1813 Creek Indian War in Alabama.  Service record not
found.  William Brumfield was a Sgt. in Capt. Thomas Bickham's Co., 12th &
13th Consol. Regt., La. Militia, and served in the Battle of New Orleans
Campaign.  He was Sheriff of Washington Parish in 1829, 1830 & 1836.  He
was State Representative in 1833, 1844 & 1845.  William was delegate to the
two La. Constitutional Conventions, 1824 & 1825.  He became a Master Mason
in 1851 in Masonic Lodge #101.

William apparently acquired the 641 acre Headright of his father, John
Brumfield.  This was Sect. 41, in T3S, RIOE, on the West Bank of the Bogue
Chitto, and just North of Bonner's Creek.  This occurred in the 1840's,
when William was appointed administrator of the Estate of Fleming
Brumfield, who had bought the place from the widow and heirs of John
Brumfield.  William bought and sold other tracts also.  William purchased
the 38 mile house and the Woody Jones headright, ca. 1854, and may have
built parts of the house, still standing in 1997, known as the Leon
Bankston place, 2 miles West of Clifton, La.  William and the Brumfield
Family operated the Palestine Post Office there after 1854, and according
to legend, a tavern also.  William, his wife Harriet, brother Alex
Brumfield and perhaps others are buried there, with only a slab marker.
The place was sold to Young Peter Bankston shortly after William died ca.
Oct. 1868.

On 10-22-1850, Mr. William Quinn and Mr. William Ketchings, prominent
Mississippi Planters, were returning from selling their cotton in Covington
or New Orleans.  They camped out near the Brumfield Place, it being near
the Holmesville, Miss. to Covington, La. freight and mail road, and
convenient to the Franklinton Ferry.  One of the Brumfield slaves
entertained them with his fiddle by their camp fire.  The slave returned
during the night, and bludgeoned the planters to death for their money. He
then climbed down into the Brumfield shallow dug well and washed the blood
from himself and his clothes.  William was not content with the sheriff's
investigation, so he questioned his slaves, perceived the guilty slave, who
was afterwards tried, convicted, and hanged.  The Brumfields would never
drink from that well again.