Biographies: James L. Durham, 1932, Winn Parish, LA Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** From: May 27, 1932 Winnfield News-American (by R. W. Oglesby) Passing In Review This Week We Have James L. Durham One of the most optimistic men I have ever known was James L. Durham. There was no such word in his vocabulary as "fail". With him, everything if not all right at present, would be all right in the near future. He was strictly business. The only chance one had talking with about matters other than business was at his home after working hours and that was usually late bed time, because he never stopped until everyone else had retired, was on a ride from one business point to another. Once I had the pleasure of riding with him to Natchitoches and I had gained more historical knowledge of Winn Parish, the inside dope of the West Clan, and the Colfax Riot, than I had ever heard before. It's a pity that he didn't take time to sit down and dictate this history to a stenographer to be preserved for future generations. He lived in the history making period of this country and had a most fascinating way of relating these stirring events. His was first hand information because he was right in the thick of the fray. The strange part of it to me was that he would relate those blood stirring events without the least bit of rancor or hatred. His philosophy was that these things came in every generation and they had to be met and grappled with and when that task was done go on to another with the same determination to meet and conquer. I have never known a milder or gentler tempered man than Mr. Durham. He never spoke an unkind word about any living person. He always said something good or nothing at all. If he ever had an enemy you could not find it out from him. Every person, no matter how bad, (had) some good points and Mr. Durham invariably spoke of the good points. He had the faith of Abraham, the meekness of Moses, and the shrewdness of Jacob, the energy of Paul and the gentleness of St. John. The task of trying to educate a very large family is all that kept him from being a rich man. He visualized the importance of the timber industry in the early days. He had reached the age when most men think of retiring when the railroads built into the timber belt, but he quit farming and went into the timber business as a livelihood. Every morning, winter or summer, when the clock stuck four he was on his horse and gone. He knew every section corner in the southern part of Winn and the northern part of Grant. His familiarity with land lines enabled him to make deals. He would buy one day and sell the next. If he got a tract that he could not sell he would cut and market the timber himself. He was eternally on the job and never stopped until he was stricken with a fatal illness from which he lingered for some two years before he passed away. Although emaciated to a mere skeleton from his long illness his mind remained clear until the very last. I went to pay him a visit just before the end came and before I left he happened to think about a note which he owed his good friend, Capt. Teal of Colfax. He tole me that he had a piece of land in Grant Parish that he would sell Capt. Teal and pay the note out of the purchase price. I wrote Capt. Teal about it and he replied enclosing a check for the difference and said he was doing it more to relieve his friend's mind than for any other purpose. In a few days after making the deed he passed into the great Beyond having transacted business up to the very last. If all the men were like him there would be no such thing as depression. There would be no need for court houses and jails. With his many business deals, I never knew of his having a law suit. He believed in square dealing and adjusted his differences satisfactory to the other party. He was a loyal member of the Baptist Church but was broad and Catholic in his views on religious matters. He was religious without bigotry, hospitable without affection, and generous without the hope of reward.