Biographies: J. F. Boze, 1941, 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: February 20, 1941 Winn Parish Enterprise

"Uncle" J. F. Boze Remembers Several Events of Civil War

Eighty Six Year Old Man Leads Interesting Life

by Earl Mercer

Mr. J. F. Boze, known to many as "Uncle", was born on April 4, 1854.  He is 86
years old.  He resides in the home of Mrs. Fannie Martin in Winnfield.  The
late Mr. and Mrs. F. S. Boze of New Orleans were his parents.

Being seven years old when the Civil War began and eleven years old when it
ended in 1865, he remembers several incidents about it.  His father was
fighting in the Confederate Army when the City of New Orleans fell.

One thing that he remembers is the day that the Northern forces were marching
the Southern troops into the Custom House at New Orleans to hold them
captives.  One bystander remarked to a Southern soldier, "Well, they whipped
you at last."  The soldier replied, "No, they didn't whip ut, they starved
us."

Often Mr. Boze went with his mother to the Custom House and carried food to
the captured soldiers.

Before the war began, his father had purchased a 160 acre farm near Magnolia,
Miss., in Pike County.  A new house was constructed on the farm.  When the war
ended and the family returned to their farm in Mississippi, they found their
home burned to the ground, an action of the Yankees.

Mr. Boze finished school at the Magnolia Seminary of Learning at Magnolia,
Miss.  He took a mail order course by mail from a Mr. Johnson of New York, who
at that time was the nation's greatest instructor in such a course.  In New
Orleans he attended the Jackson and Marshall Schools and Armstead Hi.

His first job was working as a cashier in a Summer Resort Hotel in Magnolia,
Miss.  The next position he held was as collector and salesman for the
Southern Window Shade Manufacturing Co. in New Orleans.  The window shade was
something new at this time and his sales were high.

Leaving Louisiana he went to East Texas where he taught school.  He also
served as a clerk in a gun powder firm.  When he returned to Louisiana he
secured a job with the Minden Navigation Co., which operated a large warehouse
at East Point, La.  The company did long distance transferring using mule
teams and boats on Red River.

Mr. Boze served as Deputy Sheriff for eight years under Sheriffs Jim Bell and
John Hunter at Coushatta.  After his service as a sheriff he got a job as
railroad agent at Lofton, La.  (Lofton, La., was in south Winn Parish between
current day Atlanta and Verda).  

In 1917, Mr. Boze worked as a checking clerk in a warehouse at Camp
Beauregard.  Later he was promoted to manager of the warehouses there.

In July, 1919, "Uncle" was stricken with rheumatism.  After a few months he
was able to hold a ob at the Emden Experimental Farm where he kept books. 
(Emden, La., was near Lofton, in Winn Parish, and was on the Edenborn Railway
Line, established by Wm. Edenborn, famed inventor who patented dozens of
inventions, including the wire-nail making machine, which cut the price of
barb-wire in half.  More information on Edenborn can be found in these
archives).  

Mr. Boze visited Winnfield before it had a railroad passing through it and Mr.
Morris Bernstein had the only store in operation.  He went to Shreveport
before that city ever had a railroad.

He keeps up with the war news, national news, reads magazines, his Bible, and
other literature without wearing glasses.  He declares that he can see well
and doesn't need glasses.

He is a great admirer of the American Red Cross.

He enjoys visits paid him by friends and likes to talk of world conditions of
today and yesterday.