Land Records: Affidavit-Possession & Use of Moffett Property, Winn Parish, LA Submitted by Leah W. Talbot, 591 Brookside Drive, Longmont, CO 80501 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** The following is a transcription from a photocopy of a document dated June 9, 1965, and passed down to me through my mother, Janey Moffett Cohen, granddaughter of Nathaniel Marion Moffett (also often referred to as N.M. and Nathan Moffett). One of the affiants, Linnie Amanda Moffett Jones, was my mother's aunt. My copy of the document is not signed by affiants or witnesses, although places exist on the document for such signatures. AFFIDAVIT OF USE, POSSESSION, AND NON DEVELOPMENT STATE OF LOUISIANA ) PARISH OF WINN ) KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS: ON THIS DAY, personally appeared the following three persons all good and reliable citizens and residents of Winn Parish, Louisiana. A.F. (Floyd) Taylor, 75 years of age a lifelong resident of the Gansville community, has been familiar with the Moffett land all his life. Mr. Taylor is husband of Bertie Talley Taylor, who was raised on land adjoining the Moffett property in Section 24, T13N, R4W, Winn Parish, Louisiana. Mr. Taylor attended the Evergreen School in 1905, 1906, and 1907, when it was located on Moffett land, and has been in the home of N.M. Moffett many times during his lifetime, and is familiar with the acts of possession on this land. Neil Taylor, 38 years of age has lived just one quarter of a mile from Moffett land for more than 33 years, and has hunted on this land, is familiar with the boundaries of Moffett land, and acts of possession during his lifetime. Linnie Amanda Moffett Jones, 67 years of age, wife of Dayton Jones, a resident of Winn Parish, Louisiana, was born at Moffett homeplace in 1898, and lived on said land nineteen years. In her lifetime has lived in the vicinity of this land and is well familiar with the acts of possession on said land. The land above referred to as Moffett land is more particularly described as follows, to-wit: NE/4 and NW/4 of SE/4, Section 24, Township 13 North, Range 4 West, Winn Parish, Louisiana (this paragraph is followed by a drawing of said land's boundaries). The following statement concerning the Use, Ownership, Occupancy, and Possession of the above described land is a compilation of statements given by the three parties above described. Early History Nathaniel M. Moffett grew to manhood in the Gansville Community where his father Thomas Moffett apparently had substantial land holdings. N.M. Moffett worked in and partly owned a store with his brother Mose Moffett in Gansville. At the age of 35, in 1885, N.M. Moffett married Laurissa Jane Chambless, and they resided in Gansville for approximately five years or until after their third child was born in Sept. of 1889. At sometime after the third child and prior to the fourth child who was born in September of 1891, N.M. Moffett moved his family to the land above described. It is thought that there was probably some cleared land in the West half of NE/4, and it was in this area that Moffett located his homeplace and built a large house. The last remains of that old house were completely blown down when Hurricane Audrey passed this way in about 1958, and today there remains just evidence of the old footings and old pieces of lumber lying about. This house was located in just approximately the middle of the W/2 of NE/4, Sec. 24. At the time Moffett moved to this land, there apparently were two main roads on this land. There was an East West road, which runs along the North boundary of this property, which today is the Dodson to Readheimer road or State Highway 126. There was another road running from Gansville to Winnfield, which was North slightly West to South slightly East, and intersected the above road, approximately right on center of the Northwest corner of the NE/4 of NE/4 of Sec. 24, and angled down across Moffett property to the Southeast, and crossed the South boundary of Moffett land described as the SE/4 of NE/4. These two roads remain today in the same roadway as was used in the early times, although they are much improved and widened. The highway 126 is a blacktopped highway and the Gansville-Winnfield road is a much improved hard-surfaced gravel road. For the convenience of himself and his neighbors, Nathan Moffett built another road across his land, which was a small road that ran from the intersection of the two above-described roads and angled across his land to the Southwest, going past his homeplace and crossing his West boundary approximately at the Southwest corner of the NW/4 of the NE/4, which is the Southeast corner of Hasson Morris land, and Northeast corner of Abe Talley land. All of the people living in the Cypress Creek area used this road. Nathan Moffett had his land completely under fence and he placed a gate at his Northeast boundary and at his west boundary, and when anyone used the Cypress road they were required to open and close these gates which were well known as the Moffett Gates. 1890-1922 From the time N.M. Moffett moved on this land in 1890 until he left it in 1922, he lived on this land continuously, openly, and peaceably and did use and possess the entire land as follows: In the winter and early spring as much land as could be cleared would be cleared and then planted in the spring and harvested in the fall, and then the cycle would be repeated year after year until a man had more land cleared than he could handle. This didn't happen to N.M. Moffett, however, as he raised thirteen children on this land and it was well known in the community that all thirteen, the mother and father worked very hard all of their years. Moffett began clearing and planting fields in the western part of his land. Before he finished his work, he had cleared all of the West half of the NE/4, the NW/4 of SE/4, except for a few acres along the branch called Moffett's Creek and around the water hole which has always had water; and he had cleared about half of the East half of the NE/4. The extreme East part of Moffett land was used as pasture for his stock, and was not cultivated, even today one might find hickory trees which could be as much as 100 years old. Moffett had a split rail fence around his cleared fields, and as mentioned above, gates at the road crossings. Moffett had approximately 160 of these 200 acres in cultivation while he lived there. The Moffetts raised cotton as their principal crop for cash, and corn for the livestock. A 20 x 20 ft. open top crib was filled many times with dried peas, and 600 to 700 bushels of sweet potatoes have been harvested in a year on this place in addition to 700-900 gallons of sugar cane syrup. Much of Moffett's trading was done in sugar cane syrup, and he in turn would trade syrup for staple items at the Gansville store. One event which happened periodically at the Moffett place was the log rollings. When the timbers had been cut to clear the ground for cultivation, the neighbors were invited in to help stack the logs for burning. The men would have contests of strength and the women would prepare huge meals for both noon and suppertime. Floyd Taylor remembers well a log rolling in 1914, the year after Abe Talley moved to the adjoining land, and the stumps and logs were cleared from the northernmost part of the NW/4 of NE/4. Linnie Moffett Jones remembers the log rollings as well, as she helped prepare all of the food. During this period of time from 1890 to 1922, N.M. Moffett raised thirteen children on this land, which he had fenced, cultivated and made continuous use and occupancy. Apparently, there was no school in the immediate area of Moffett land for the younger children, because in 1898 Nathan Moffett donated to his neighbors a two-acre tract of land for use of the school. This two-acre tract was located at the intersection of the two main roads (Gansville-Winnfield and Dodson-Readheimer) and to the southeast of said intersection. A one room building was constructed on this site, situated about 50 to 75 ft. southeast of the intersection of those two main roads. Taylor attended this school which was known as Evergeen School, in 1905, 1906, and 1907, and Linnie M. Jones attended there in 1907, 1908, and 1909. She remembers well writing 1908-1909 on the blackboard of that old school, and remembers that as about the last thing that was done in school in that building. After 1909 there never was any more school classes held in that building. A school was started in Gansville at the Methodist church house and another school was started in the Cypress Creek community. The children north of Dodson Road went to Gansville and those south of said road went to Cypress. The Evergreen School was abandoned in 1909. In 1912, Moffett donated the same two-acre tract of land on which the Evergreen School building was located to the Winn Parish School Board, but actual classes were never reactivated at this place and the School Board gave the land back to Moffett in 1914. The Evergreen School, described above and situated on the two-acre tract southeast of the intersection of two mail roads, was the only school ever located on Moffett land. The old building remained located southeast of said intersection for several years. In 1914 Moffett either sold or gave one acre of land in the shape of a square around this old abandoned school building to the Winn Parish Police Jury. The Parish used the building for a polling place for that Ward. For several years this old building was the place where all the ballots were cast. At a later date, however, the Parish built another building across the road to the north, and that newer building was used as the official polling place until the 1930's when the Wards were changed and new polling places were designated. In 1934, the Parish sold the old abandoned Evergreen School building and later polling booth to Virgil Taylor, along with the one square acre surrounding it. Virgil Taylor tore down the old building and used the lumber to build a house on another piece of property of his. Since V. Taylor moved that old building there has not been anything on this one square acre to identify the exact boundaries of the one-acre tract. It would be fair to say that one could locate the northwest corner of the one acre at the southeast corner of the intersection of the two main roads, thence run East along south boundary right of way of Dodson road, 70 yards, thence run South 70 yds., thence West 70 yds., thence North 70 yds. to the point of beginning. As to the rest of the 200-acre tract, there was never any question of Nathan Moffett's ownership and possession of that land. Moffett fenced off about a 10-acre square around his house with a split rail fence, and at each corner where the rails were overlapped, he planted a cedar tree. He planted these cedar trees all along his West boundary similarly in the corners of his fence. There was some barb wire fence on the place, but the boundaries were mostly set with a split rail fence. There has never been any dispute as to the boundaries of the Moffett land, above described. There was one main house on this entire land and that was the Moffett homeplace. From time to time when the place was cultivated, there were shacks built for extra farm hands or temporary tenants. All extra houses have long since been destroyed, the main homeplace has been destroyed, and the old school building has long ago been torn down and carried off. During the days of Nathan Moffett, the boundaries were well defined by cultivated fields and well known landmarks. 1922 to Present In about 1922, Nathan Moffett, having become too old to carry on his work, moved away from his homeplace to reside with his children elsewhere. A year later in 1923, he sold his entire place to one of his sons, Tom C. Moffett. Tom Moffett was working for a sawmill in Oakdale, and it is well known by the family that he practically sweated blood to pay his father and mother for that farm. Until he died in 1927, Nathan Moffett lived on the money which Tom Moffett paid to him for this land, and Nathan Moffett's widow lived on the money until it was paid out by Tom Moffett. As Tom Moffett was working away from this land, he did not actually work it himself; however, for a year or two after he purchased it from his father in 1923 he did rent it out to sharecroppers. The first was a man named Mitchell, who lived there and worked the place a couple of years, then a year or two after he left a man by the name of Roden lived there and worked the place one year. It seems that these men didn't realize how hard it was to make a living out of this place. At any rate in about 1930, Tom Moffett decided to quit attempting to rent the place, and he let it go to pine timber. An examination of stumps of trees cut about three years ago reveals they were about 31 years old when they were cut, which lends further evidence that the place was not cultivated after 1930. The old homeplace was left to nature and was not used thereafter, except for one period of about two years beginning in 1940 when one of Tom Moffett's brothers, Orbin Moffett, made some minor repairs to the old place and lived there for a couple of years. While there, about all he did was raise a small garden for vegetables. After Orbin Moffett left in about 1942, the old homeplace was left alone, and it finally completely blew down in the hurricane of 1958. Tom Moffett married Sadie Lou Morris, a sister of Hasson Morris, and they are all very good friends. Through the years Hasson Morris has helped Tom Moffett look after this land, to make sure that no unauthorized persons have lived there or cut timber therefrom. Hasson Morris owns the forty acres adjoining this land on the West. Through the years, a man named Ed Lewis has been authorized by Moffett to cut from pulpwood from this place for the purpose of thinning out the underbrush and make for good timber growth. In 1962, Tom Moffett contracted with Ardis Brewton to have all the timbers of 8" stump cut off the place, and at the present time it is obvious to even an untrained eye where the boundaries of Moffett land are. On Moffett the land is well cut over, and the adjoining tracts have good tall timbers. The Northeast corner of Moffett land is marked by a small white oak tree with a white slash mark on its side. Said tree is next to a tall pine which is dead in the top and lies about 50 ft. south of Hwy 126 and Government Bench Mark on the south right of way of said highway. The North line is almost completely marked by the Dodson road, except at the Northeast corner where the road is south of that corner, and the Northwest, where the road is North of that point. A big part of the land to the west of Moffett land is owned by Continental Can Company, and their boundaries are well marked with a hack mark and a circle painted white around it. On the south, Moffett is bounded by Jesse Temple, who lives on his land and knows his boundaries well. Tennessee Gas Transmission has a pipeline right of way across this land, running almost the full length from the southwest corner to the northeast corner of this tract of land. Other than this pipeline right of way, this land has been undisturbed and used for timber growth for more than 35 years by Tom Moffett. There has never been a well or wells drilled in search of oil, gas or other minerals anywhere on this Moffett land, nor has any well or wells been drilled within four miles of any of its boundaries. There are no railroads, churches, cemeteries, or private roads on or across this land, nor has there ever been other than those mentioned. It is a fact that Tom C. Moffett and his predecessor in title, Nathaniel M. Moffett, have had open, peaceable, continuous, and undisturbed ownership, use, and possession of this 199 acres of land for more than 75 years, and there has never been an adverse claim made to this land by any other nor has there ever been a boundary dispute of any kind whatsoever. The facts herein stated are true and accurate to the best of the knowledge and ability to remember of the above named affiants. THUS DONE AND SIGNED, this 9th day of June, 1965. WITNESSES: LINNIE AMANDA MOFFETT JONES A.F. TAYLOR NEIL TAYLOR