Biographies: P. E. Grisham, 1932, Winn Parish, LA
Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483
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From: June 3, 1932 Winnfield News-American

Passing In Review This Week We Have P. E. Grisham (by R. W. Oglesby)

P. E. Grisham was literally a bundle of nerves and energy.  After he got back
from the Civil War he settled in the Gaar's Mill Community.  He was one of the
most successful farmers in Winn Parish.  Even in the stress of hard times he
always had plenty of everything, because he did his part and trusted to the
Lord for the rest.  One of the first Grange Stores, if not the very first in
Louisiana, was established by the citizens of that community and managed by
him successfully for more than thirty years.  He paid the stockholders in
dividends many times over what they had put into the business.  He did a
credit business, but in those days a man's word was his bond and nothing was
lost.  When the railroad built into the Parish from the north in 1900 they
moved the store to Dodson and enlarged it and carried a large line of general
merchandise.  Uncle Jake came in contact with a different kind of people. 
He undertook to do business as he had always done it, but the foreigners
taught the citizens a new trick.  They took advantage of his generosity of
extending credit and it wasn't long before the business went on the rocks.  It
was liquidated and the debts paid, but it took every cent he had in the world
to do it and he was left in his old age penniless.  Did he complain and find
fault with the world in general?  He did not.  He put up a cobbler's shop in
Winnfield and went right on as if nothing had happened.  He went from house to
house selling books when he wasn't able to walk.  His son, Orrin, offered to
support him if he would quit, but he would hear to no such thing until he was
stricken with fatal illness.  It was in his last days that he would accept a
pension as a Confederate Soldier.  He belonged to that splendid class produced
by the Civil War that he knew how to meet and combat hardships without the aid
of the government.  How different from the soldiers of the World War!  Too
many of them have their eyes turned towards Washington, instead of trying to
help themselves, when they didn't have half as hard a time as did the old
Confederates who fought naked and starved for four long years for a lost
cause.

Mr. Grisham, with the help of the other enterprising citizens of that
community, went down into his pocket and supplied the public school.  As a
result of their efforts some of the leading citizens of Louisiana and other
states are now carrying on.  There was nothing free in those days except
water, air and pine knots.  Their limited opportunities were bought and paid
for and duly appreciated.

His son, O. M. Grisham, now one of the leading lawyers of the state says
that when he went to Ruston to college, he went to Tullos to take his first
train ride via Monroe.  When he got to Ruston, Ben Smith, the transfer man,
approached him and asked him if he wanted his "trunk" hauled over to the
college which was only about two miles distant from the depot.  Orrin says,
"How much will you charge me?"  Ben said, "Ten cents."  "No sir," said Orrin,
"I can tote it cheaper than that."  He shouldered his little striped truck and
marched through town with it.  He said when he became twenty one his father,
as was the custom in those days, presented him with a horse, bridle, and 
saddle which he promptly gave back to him and said he would make it himself. 
He went five years to college and made his way by selling books during the
vacation.  He had inherited that spirit of determination from his father to
succeed by his own efforts.

Uncle Jake was very religious and was a regular attendant at all of the
services of the Baptist Church and that included prayer meeting every
Wednesday night.  He was an honored member of David Pierson Camp Confederate
Veterans and was for a time its commander.  He enjoyed attending reunions, but
was not given to much talk about his prowess as a soldier.  His comrades,
however, said that a truer or better soldier never shouldered a musket than
Jake Grisham.  He never shirked his duty.  All he wanted to know was that it
was right and no matter how irksome he carried his part.  That same principle
actuated him throughout life a private citizen of which Winn Parish never had
a better one.  A few years ago he laid down the burdens of a well spent life
but the good deeds remain as a benediction to the present and future
generations.