Towns & Cities: Jordan Hill Community, 1939, 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: November 3, 1939 Winnfield News-American Jordan Hill Community Settled Before Civil War Under Homestead Timber Operations Prospered In Community East of Winnfield In Past Days; Now Going to Farming Church is Now Center of Community Interest as Schools Consolidated by Mrs. Houston Jordan With its public school, then the most important interest of the community, being built on a hill, and with much of its population named Jordan, what is probably the oldest settlement in Winn Parish was given the name Jordan Hill. This occurred about 1890, however, quite a few years after first settlement of that community. Located nine miles east of Winnfield on the farm to market gravel road to Rochelle, Jordan Hill is bounded by the Dugdemonia River on the east, Kisatchie Forest on the west, and Zion Community on the south. The land is called "hill country" but the Dugdemonia and Big Creek streams furnish some of the farmers with swamp land. Other residents have only hill land, and most of the farms are small family plots of from 20 to 40 acres each. One reason for the small farms is that agriculture has never figured as a primary means of livelihood for the people. In past days Jordan Hill was a booming lumber camp, growing and dying as that business prospered, but now little timber is being cut for trade, and the families are living at home, raising hogs, cattle, sheep, and turning more and more to farming, which will probably become the principal business here in coming years. Timber operations began for the Tremont Lumber Company of Rochelle, the logs being floated down Dugdemonia to the mill. Other mills which have come and gone are the Murray and Northern, located here, which greatly increased the Jordan Hill population, and afterwards came the Durias Smith mill, DeBusk and Madden mills were the latest. Eli Jordan, a widower, and his two sons, Billie and Jeff, joined the westward movement of the pre-Civil War days, left Mississippi and settled in this parish. Here he married again, to Susie Crawford, and from this family came the Jordan descendants which now number more than those of any other family. The Smith family runs a close second and probably at times has outnumbered the Jordans. Pat and George Smith were the forerunners of that family. They and Eli were the community's first settlers; acquiring their lands under the homestead act, which allowed a man to own as much as 160 acres free. Other early comers to the Jordan Hill area were the families of S. S. Rosier, Monroe Rosier, J. W. Atwell, Joe Kyson, R. W. Bartley, W. M. Bartley, Jake Keen, Riley Wilder, and the Liles, while members of the Hutto, Hand, and Long-father of the late Senator Huey P. Long and Governor Long-families to name some, once lived here but moved away. Many of these families also homesteaded their homes, while the latter ones bought theirs, and a number of the present residents live on lands handed down to them by their forebearers. Earliest community interest was the Baptist Church, according to W. M. Jordan, known by everyone as "Uncle Billie", the oldest living resident of the hill community. The church, he relates, was organized more than 65 years ago, with the Rev. Jeff Smith one of the principal workers. "There are probably only three persons living who were present then," Uncle Billie states. These were Mrs. Pharlene Liles Smith, wife of the late S. P. Smith, Mrs. Farby Jordan, wife of the late W. M. Jordan, and a sister of Uncle Billie, the third of the group. The church was named Big Creek because of that stream. Before its organization the people of this community attended and joined the Corinth Church. Corinth, too, was where many of the children first went to school, while others attended the Killian, or Pleasant Hill tabernacle. These early seekers of knowledge sometimes walked as many as four miles to their schools, which were pay schools and opened only three months of the year. About 1887, the first school was taught here by Dr. Spence Smith, father of Mrs. Joe Kyson and grandfather of Mrs. S. S. Rosier, Lucy, John, Floyd, Odis, and Marion Smith of this community, and the late S. P. Smith. Now the boys and girls go from their homes by bus to schools and colleges many miles away, a privilege students of 15 years ago did not have, for after they finished the courses of the country schools they were forced to board away from home to attend a higher institution. Will Wallace was superintendent of education in the 1890s and it was he who suggested the name for the community, according to Judge Cas Moss, a later superintendent. With the removal of most of the country schools under the present syster, churches now make the main factor of community interest. Weekly meetings of Sunday Schools, the Young People's Training Union and choir practice, W.M.U. and Brotherhood Unions are held. Farm organizations also play a large part in the people's life. As "no man cometh to himself" neither does a community. Corinth is our good neighbor, and from that settlement has come many of the early residents of Jordan Hill, notably Dr. Spencer Smith. The nearest community is Zion, which is an inspiration by its progressiveness and closely interwoven with the people here by marriage as well as by nearness. Pleasant Hill, only five miles away, is often visited by church groups, and a friendly relationship is maintained. As Beulah Community is in the same ward with Jordan Hill, there are political ties between the two as well as those friendships. Jordan Hill has two annual events to make the people more community conscience. An all day program is presented on Mothers' Day by the church, a celebration which has been carried on for the past nine years. Four years ago the Sunday School Celebration Day was organized and each class of the Sunday School renders a special program on the school's birthday. Several times the church has been host to the Shady Grove Association of which it is a member, in 1903, 1918, and in 1930. Big Creek church has also been where the West Dugdemonia and Winn Parish Singing Conventions have met. Ward politics in Jordan Hill was divided by Big Creek until 1928, when S. S. Rosier, ward nine police juror at the time, put the whole community in that ward instead of part of it being in ward one. J. F. Keen was for many years the school board member, followed by M. M. Rosier and the present member, Houston Jordan. S. S. Rosier, C. S. Smith, Hatley Lowry, and Joe Long, the present member, have represented the ward as police jurors under the present boundaries. R. W. Bartley is now justice of the peace and Ervin Jordan is Ward constable. No complete church record has been kept until recent years but many of the older residents remember the pastors who served years ago, such as S. Lisberry, Lattier, W. M. Grice, R. T. Long, Curtis Odom, J. A. McMurry, and others. Pastors who most of the present generation can recall include C. E. Autrey, R. E. McPhearson, G. B. Foster, Couch, Morris Curry, and C. C. Wilson. J. R. Smith, W. M. Bartley, Lawrence Jordan, R. W. Bartley, and Houston Jordan constitute the present deacon board. W. M. Bartley is Sunday School Superintendent. John Bartley is church clerk. Ellis Jordan is president of the training union, and the Rev. C. C. Arrington of Dry Prong is present pastor.