PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT, WINN PARISH, LOUISIANA Submitted by: Annette (Carpenter) Womack of Winnfield, Winn Parish, LA January 1998 (Spelling was retained as in document) BIOGRAPHICAL & HISTORICAL MEMOIRS OF NORTHWEST LOUISIANA COMPRISING A LARGE FUND OF BIOGRAPHY OF ACTUAL RESIDENTS, AND AN INTERESTING HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THIRTEEN COUNTIES --ILLUSTRATED-- Nashville and Chicago: The Southern Publishing Company (C) 1890 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT When Bienville and St. Denys returned to the Fort of Biloxi they found that the country through which they intended to travel was under water, so that they turned to the, village of the Ouachitas. Here they learned that the greater number of the tribe had gone to the Natchitoches. Going thither they met six Natchitoches carrying salt to the Coroa Indians of the Yazoii. After this visit the troubles with the Choctaws and other Indians began, the tribes became movable bodies of men, women, children and camp followers. The earliest settlements in this division of Louisiana were made on Red River and on the Saline, years before the country was surveyed, as in told in the history of Natchitoches and Rapides. The Indians of the Pascagoula and Choctaw tribes as well as bands of Tunicas and other resident savages, found pleasant and profitable hunting grounds along the rivers and on the highlands of this parish until the jingle of the surveyor's chain signalled the approach of what is termed civilization. Toward the close of the third decade of this century a new race appeared, and within a period, not exceeding twenty years, spread their claims over the greater area of productive lands, drove out the Indian and the animals which he hunted simultaneously, and won complete control of the territory of the Dugdemona. The section of Winn in the Natchitoches Land District, as established in 1838, comprised all from Township 9 north, Range 4 west, up to Township 13 north, Range 5 west, and in the Ouachita Land District from Township 10 north, Range 1 east, to Township 13 north, in that range, with Township 11, in Range 2 east, and Townships 10 to 13, in Range 1, west; Townships 10, 11, 12 and 13, in Range 2 west, and the same townships in range 3 west. The early land buyers in eastern Winn (part of Ouachita and New Orleans Land District) were: John Cooper, T. F. Smith, John A. Roberts, T. J. Farnell (killed during the war), Daniel Boyett, John G. Whitehead, Menan Monk, James Crawford, Jack S. Hewett, George C. Couch, A. J. Nelson, J. L. W. Brittan, T. J. Haddock, Thomas Davis (murdered during the war by bushwhackers), Adam Tyrone, Allen McCarthy, Joseph Peters (Samuel Herrin and John Tyrone entered lands in 1840), R. D. Wall, Isaac, George, Christian and Adam Riser (Christian Riser was killed about 1864), W. Lee (1850), Charles W. Bullock (1841), B. J. Boyett (killed about 1861, Allen Jenkins (1840), Jacob Riser (1839) Joseph West, William and James Kelly, Reddick Blake, S. N. West, James Rentz, Richard Cole (1840), Charles Peters, Leroy Harvey, Squire E. Hart, Henry and D. G. King, Jacob E. Willis, Lemuel Bullock (1840), Willis and Pleasant Smith, W. A. Griffin, Thomas W. Ramsey, Matthew Devoe, George Starks, (killed during the war), George H. Woodruff, D. A. Mills, Wade A. Wright, D. M. Wharton, James T. Gilmore. (died during the, war), George W. Harvey, Matthew Devore, Edwin Holley, Egbert H. DeLoach,(came in 1836), Zatter Johnson, Joseph Williams, John Cockerham, William Caves, James A. Carroll, Jesse F. Gullidge, Harbin Smith, Edmund Price, Absalom and Alex Wall, Bryant Smith, Thomas and James Richardson, Martin Smith, William T. Beall, J. M. Lang, William T. Bell, S. I Collins, C. N. Mercer, Marshall Jones, Sr., Hugh W. Holmes, J. L. McGinty, George W. Dyess (killed at Mansfield), Joshua P. Willis, James M. Thornton, Joseph B. Adams (ex-sheriff succeeded in 1887), Henry Rolen, Willis McCarthy, Shadrack Emmons, Lemuel Alford, J. H. Beavers, T. James, William Caves, J. L. Clark, John R. Bradley, George M. Sowers, George Bohanon, Zack Boyd, J. E. Lucas, Dan Southern, William Hatten, R. Tatum, Ben Thompson, Elisha W. Sims, Wilson Thomas, B. G. Adams, A. J. Perkins, L. L. Thomas, Jacob Shelton (killed by John Dove in 1870), Ed Eagles, Hollon Miller, Bryan Bailey, C. E. Slocumb, James Arrington, James P. Swindle, Adoniram Lyons, Thomas D. Milling (an old merchant Of Winnfield), James Durham, William Applewhite, William T. Mathis, George W. Gray, Q. A. Hargis, John Rayborn, Leander Walker, H. M. and Nathan Bolton, Spencer Wyatt, E. P. Martin, Darling P. Morris, J. T. Teagle, M. G. Jackson, Richard B. Williams, D. Williamson, James Brock, C. G. Campbell, Andrew J. Kelly, John H. Bilbs, Jacob Langston, A. D. Reeks, Reuben Drake (owner of salt works), Samuel Earnest, T. A. Jourdan, Dr. I. B. Payne, Luca Radescieb, D. M. Tannehill, Pleasant Mulligan, J. M. Smith, F. Shumake, A. J. Welton, T. L. Terry, George Starks, J. J. Hearn, J. E. Tison, G. W. Horn, W. M. McDonald, A. Violett, John T. Murrell, James R. Bevill, Dave Peoples, J. C. Compton, Jesse Womack, G. J. L. Brown, William Crump, William Holten, L. M. Hatten, Elisha Pepper, Albert Churchill, J. D. Denegre, Michael J. Gaar, M. L. Cottingham, J. M. Grant, W. R. Gaar, J. S. Dickenson, I. Parker, Christian Lewis, E. P. Foster, E. Pranett, Thomas Johns, W. Wilson, Ben, John and William Albright, S. M. Shillings, S. S. Stevens, Mason Jones, R. A. Key, W. Pennywell, J. McGee, B. McMillan, B. P. Smith, T. S. Collier, J. B. Lemoine, T. F. Swofford, J. G. Teagle, Nathan Bolton, A. C. Banks, W. J Teddlie, D. J. Warner, J. D. Buttell, Syl. G. Milam, Elisha Walker, James W. Holston, R. L. Stovall, David Caldwell, David Hagler, William Stone, John 0. Morris, Alphonse Stinson (representative in the seventies), Goodrich Terrill, A. C. Davis, J M. Wasson, John Welch, T. Moffitt, Samuel L. Dean, J. T. Milam, A. E. Hardee, Joseph Sass (1839) and Christian Lewis. In 1838 the first land entries were made in the eastern (Natchitoches District) townships of the parish. The first buyers in Township 9, Range 4 were Robert H. Rogers, J. R. Brady (1850), J. T. Hickman (1851), Benjamin F. Butler and T. S. Woodward (1855). In 1840 Benjamin Metoyer entered lands in Township 9, Range 5; Joseph Thompson, Jared J. Brady, Willis B. Neal, T. G. McCracken, Onezireine Rachal. Lemuel McGee, William Prothro, Wolcott A. Strong, Lorenzo De Soto. William H. Strong, Charles Noyret, John Waddell, Jean B. Prudbomme (1839), Edward Hughson, A. J. Upshaw, J. S. Hooter, Maj. Lyon, R. L. Eubank, Diana Spencer, Haynes Waddell (1839), Richard W. Hertzog (1839), Ambrois Lecompte (1839), James Harper (1840). Township 10, Range 6: Ambroise Sompayrac (1839), Peter McDaniel (1841), McCally Franks (1840), Samuel Hobart (1839), William O'Neil, James Ratcliff. William Miles, J. W. W. Durbin (1859), J. A. Rains, James Irvin (1857), Pernoce Radeschich, William Carter, Allen Cockerham, H. W. Shows, Solomon Aswell, Franklin Kelly, Everett Bates, J. B. Lowe, James L. Williams, Josiah H. Lacey, Marshall Frazier (1838), J. J. Liles, William Cloud, Elizabeth Brantley, William E. Tanner, Allen P. Morris, Abbott Mixon, J. A. Robeson, Cassa McCarthy, Conrad Starkes. Abram Brady, William Barnes, W. I. Kidd, C. B. Parsons, J. J. Green, G. W. Harville. Robert Underwood, J. G. Elliott, Wiseman Box, J. M. Hodges, William Ross, William Hogan, Zachius Lard, Joseph Hadden, Noah Cloud, A. K. Hagnie, John Babers and G. D. Clifton. ...Continued with part 3) Proceedings of the Police Jury ###