O resistless restless race!
O beloved race of all!
O my breast aches with tender love for all!
O I mourn yet exult,
I am rapt with love for all,
Pioneers, O Pioneers!
—Walt Whitman
Several years before the boundary between Louisiana and the Spanish province of Texas was settled, immigrants from the old states had settled in West Louisiana, and no doubt the first English-speaking settlers in this state located in the Neutral Strip and within the present boundary of Sabine Parish. In 1803 a regiment of United States troops in command of Col. Cushing was sent up Red River to repel Spanish aggression and Capt. Turner with a company of soldiers was left to garrison the fort at Natchitoches. The English-speaking homeseeker followed the soldiers, coming from practically all parts of the United States. These settlers were representatives of the great race which has made the pioneers of America the most famous the world has ever known. While English was their language, there coursed through their veins the blood of the various races of Northern Europe—the German, the Irish, the Scotch, the Dutch and the Anglo-Saxon—a blending of nationalities which has always added lustre and glory to the world’s civilization. They sought the unoccupied lands, covered with magnificent forests, where they could build homes. Many of them brought their families, and, despite the lawlessness which prevailed in the Neutral Strip, they cast their lots here, and with a few primitive tools erected houses and cleared land for cultivation of crops. A few came with slaves, but as a rule the pioneer of Sabine Parish possessed only small means and depended upon his strong arm and determination to build his new home. He had an exalted idea of justice and a profound respect for law, but in “No Man’s Land,” where the law did not prevail, he frequently became identified with the “regulators and moderators” who brought terror to the thieves and bandits by the administration of a code of unwritten laws, by means of a rope or a fusillade of bullets. Some of the applications of the unwritten laws would not be approved nowadays, but in those times probably had the effect of commanding more general respect for the law.
In 1805 the territory of Louisiana was divided into twelve parishes, viz: Orleans, German Coast, Acadia, Lafourche, Iberville, Pointe Coupee, Attakapas, Opelousas, Concordia, Rapides, Ouachita and Natchitoches. The parish of Natchitoches comprised all the territory in the old ecclesiastical parish of St. Francis. The town of Natchitoches was the seat of the ecclesiastical parish, which included the present parishes of Caddo, Claiborne, Bossier, DeSoto, Webster, Bienville, Red River and Sabine and part of Winn, Grant and Lincoln. The first grants of lands in Natchitoches Parish were made during the last half of the eighteenth century. “The Sanchez grant at Las Tres Lianas, where Louis Latham resided in the ’20s, was one of the oldest grants by Governor Lavois, who resided at Adizes. Sanchez’ son was 89 years old in 1820 when District Judge William Murray took testimony in the case.” (Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana.)
Later grants were made to Pierre and Julian Besson on the Ecore Rouge by Athanase Mazieres, commandant at Natchitoches (1770), and to Michael Crow on Sabine River. Crow’s father (Isaac) married the Widow Chabineau and purchased land of Vicente Michele, who held a Spanish grant. In 1769 St. Denys gave to his daughter, Marie de St. Denys, a tract of land in this vicinity. The claim of Athanase Poisol for lands at Three Cabins, purchased from Chief Antoine of the Hyatassees Indians, was approved, as was also the claim of Francois Grappe, who purchased lands from Indians of the Caddo tribe, and Pierre Gagnier and Hyppolite Bourdelin, who had bought lands from the Chesteur Indians at Natchitoches. Governor Miró made many grants to settlers who then (1799) lived within the boundaries of the present parish of Natchitoches. Under the Spanish regime, in 1795, Jacinto Mora was granted 207,360 acres on the east side of the Sabine River, “twenty-five leagues distant from the village of Our Lady of the Pillar of Nacogdoches, in Texas,” which was known as the Las Ormegas grant. In 1805 Mora sold this land to Ed Murphy, William Burr, Samuel Davenport and L. Smith, and the tract was legally transferred to them under the name of the “grant of Santa Maria Adelaide Ormegas.” The LaNana grant to Ed Murphy was made in 1797. It embraced a territory twelve miles square and included the present town of Many. The LaNana and Las Ormegas grants were not finally approved by the United States government until 1847.
Practically the entire Neutral Strip was parceled out in Spanish grants, but some were of doubtful legality. The Spaniards very generously donated lands to persons who had rendered military and other valuable services to the king. But grants were not approved by the United States until after abundant proof of their legality had been furnished. One method of establishing a Spanish claim consisted of pulling grass, throwing dust in the air and digging holes in the ground by the claimant. Many large tracts of land included in these grants were occupied by settlers who built homes and reared families on them long before a valid title was established. In the course of time many thousand acres reverted to the government and came into the possession of settlers under the provisions of the homestead laws.
A large number of the first immigrants to Sabine Parish settled on what was designated, and still commonly known, as Rio Hondo lands, the original title to which was based on a Spanish grant to the settler, in return for some stipulated service to be or having been rendered, or other considerations. The residents on these lands in 1805 were:
| Christopher Antony Thomas Arthur Jose Bascus Stephen Bascus Andrew Bassum Guilliam Bebee Asa Beckum Benjamin Biles David Case Manuel Cherino Remey Christy John Cortinez Raymond Dally William Davidson Dennis Dios Martin Dios Michael Early Jose Estrader Andries Galindo Domingo Gonzales Manuel Gonzales John Gordon Thomas Gray Thomas Hicks Samuel Holmes Nicholas Jacks James Kirkham Antoine Laroux Antonio de La Sarda Louis Latham Jacob Leahy Joe Leaky Jacques Lepine John Litton | John Lum Jose Antonio Mancbac John Maximilian Hugh McGuffy Hugh McNeely Joseph Montgomery Benjamin Morris La Lena Padea (Widow) Ganissieu Parried (Widow) Jean Biptiste Parrot Peter Patterson Edmund Quirk Henry Quirk William Quirk Jose Rivers Jose Antonio Rodriguez Francisco Rosalis Maria Sanchez Henry Stoker John H. Thompson Interest Toval (Widow) John Waddell James Walker David Watterman James Wilson Thomas Wilson Absalom J. Winfree Jacob Winfree Philip Winfree Benjamin Winfree John Yokum Matthias Yokum Thomas Yokum |
| Jose Maria Procello (heirs of James Denney and Manuel Bustamento) John Yokum (assignee of Jesse Yokum), Azer Mathias, George Slaughter (assignee of Louis Warren) Thos. Gray (assignee of James Bridges and John Mackay) Felicien and Francisco Gonzales Green Cook (assignee of Henry Charbineau) Robert McDonald (assignee of Stephen Moore) | |
These claimants presented evidences of their settlement on Rio Hondo lands in 1824, but after a new survey of the country had been made eight years later they filed new proof of their settlement and claims. The claims were for tracts of various size. One claimant, Antoine Laroux, very modestly asked for title to one or two acres, on which he had located his dwelling in the woods, explaining that he would not know what to do with more land.
In 1831 the government survey of the territory within the present boundary of Sabine Parish was completed, the lands being laid out in townships and sections. No official survey was ever made by either the French or the Spanish, even the alleged marking of the Arroyo Hondo line defining the Neutral Strip being regarded as mythical. The survey of the United States made available for settlement thousands of acres of land which could be procured by a small cash payment per acre. The “five-year” entry or free homes law did not prevail until many years later. In Sabine Parish, as in other sections, the liberality of the homestead laws and government grants to railway corporations resulted in diverting many thousand acres from the individual home builder, to whom the public domain rightfully belonged.
Settlers on government land in this parish between 1832 and 1860 were as follows:
1832 — Alonza Barr (the land lying near Many, and was sold in 1834 to Domingo Catrina who sold to F. Veuleman in 1837), William Palmer.
1833 — Eldred Parker.
1835 — James Tyler, Sam Wiley, Richard Cherrington.
1836 — Thomas Wilson, B. J. and Sam Thompson, Henry Hall, William J. Elam.
1837 — Sarah Greening.
1838 — Spencer G. Adams, Sam Westfall, John Spiker, Reuben Oxley, P. H. Craig, Carey Morris, James Cook.
1839 — Shadric Howard, Needham J. Alform, Couzie Biles (wife of Benjamin Biles), Silas Shellburne, John A. McClanahan, Zadock Turner, Asa Speights, John J. Francis, William Glallion, Cleri Grillet, Lydia Webb, Gora Munson, Lou Martha Moses, J. H. Crockett, Garrison Anderson, William Ferguson, John Lebo, Martha Wiley, Lindsey, B. and Benjamin B. Rayburn, William D. Stephens, James F. Murphy.
1840 — Andrew Woods, Henry Ruggley, G. A. Sleet, Sarah Litton.
1841 — N. Croker, T. E. Woods, George W. Tate, S. A. Eason.
1842 — Andrew Woods, T. Roberts.
1843 — Sam Eldredge, C. R. Wimberly, Thomas J. Dandy, John Graham, Matthew Jones, John H. Thompson, Samuel W. Fellerton, Thomas G. Godwin, John Godwin, Mary L. Branch, John Carroll, State to John Caldwell.
1844 — Cornelius Wiley, William T. C. King, John Lapsley, Albert Jordan, M. L. Branch, Martha Billingsley.
1845 — Mary L. Caldwell, William Curtis, John White, Stephen Wiley, John R. Yokum to P. A. Reagan.
1846 — Redic Sibley, Joe R. Billingsley, Nathan Darling, Shelton James, Washington and Bradley Deer, G. M. Cook; Mary Provence bought land from Palmer.
1847 — William L. Cobbs, Clay P. Waldrop, John Jordan, Louis I. Wamsley, W. E. Woods, James M. Holt.
1848 — William Cook, William Varner, John Pullen, William F. Woods, John Gillaspie, John H. Jenkins, J. M. Gibbs, John C. Royston, James Hampton, Elijah Rembert, Prudent Strother, William Iles.
1849 — Fletcher Rollins, Thomas Constable, Daniel P. Lockwood, James L. Williams, J. J. Greening, John Vines, Jesse H. Fincher.
1850 — T. S. Stafford, John Callens.
1851 — James I. Self, James A. Woods, John Self, Sam Webb, J. H. Armstrong, H. P. Hudson, R. M. Armstrong, Daniel R. Gaudy, William Antony, T. A. Armstrong.
1852 — J. J. Snell, Calvin Alston, John A. Gould, E. K. Baker, William H. Killough, James Walker.
1853 — William Foote, James A. Clifford, Robert Lambert, Ben H. Craig.
1854 — William B. Westfall, Robert Sibley.
1855 — John Bolton, James Earls, James R. Phares, John Miller.
1856 — William Rhodes, Andrew Cutright, J. Dove, J. Varner, J. P. Campbell.
1857 — Parish School Board sold land to R. Frances. No purchases from the government appear during this year.
1858 — Lydia Godwin, Charles Johns, Franklin Dutton, R. L. F. Sibley, W. W. Sibley, Hugh Dowden (Dowden settled in the Kisatchie country, making first entry in an entire township), George W. Addison, Allen Holland, Russell McDonald, Lavi Weldon, William Mosely, Joe T. Lynch, Robert F. Royston, Joseph Brewster, Max McGowan, William Crump, John L. Childers, William Fanley, Robert D. Miller, John Hampton, James Fike, W. W. Campbell, Green Weldon, William Kirkham, John Putnam.
1859 — James Owens, Daniel Britton, J. W. Kirkham, Napoleon Darnell, Sol Royston, Thomas M. Berry, Jeremiah Robinson, Sam Johnson, William Vines, John Aten, R. L. Armstrong, William P. Glass, Daniel Cumilander, Isaac E. Robinson, John C. Duncan, Samuel G. Lucius, Joe G. Garlington, Isaac Dickinson, William Gook, James Gook, Temperance Gook, T. B. Conerly, Valentine Nash, Crawford G. Presley, William Antony, Allen Arthur, William Parrott, Hosea B. Lewing, Major Hardy, Benjamin P. Norsworthy, Job Alford, G. W. Durritt, John Boswell, Sampson Whatley, Ann Lester, Henry Gook, Jesse Wright, William H. Stroud, Thomas J. Arthur, Thomas Grace, William Miller, Moses Salter, Alfred Self, Enoc Davis.
1860 — Bebee Michel, Robert Payroll, William P. Smith, Charles Darnell, Harris & Beck (merchants of Fort Jesup), Simeon Goodrow, Andrew M. Miller, W. W. Chapman, G. R. Wamsley, J. G. Sibley, P. L. Gorley, Wm. Y. Weldon, Allen Gandy, Mary A. Beddenfield.
Among the first land entries in 1832 was that of William A. Lecure for the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 33, Township 8, Range 11. After the entry was made no person ever came to claim or take possession of the land. The presumption is that Lecure was an attaché of the government surveying corps which surveyed the parish and acquired the land thinking that it contained valuable mineral deposits of some kind, but never returned to do any “prospecting.” No improvements have ever been made on the tract, which was sold for taxes in 1879.
In 1844 James Sepulvedo and others bought, in partnership, five acres of land on Sabine River in order to become qualified voters.
After the creation of Sabine Parish, several land speculators acquired title to old Spanish land grants. Yates & McIntyre were the first to buy, and between 1841 and 1859 they sold land to the following persons:
Thomas Ford, James Tynes, William Mains, John Scritchfield, Mary Langford, B. Dally, James Lesley, W. H. Edmundson, Hosea Presley, William M. Polk, William and B. K. Ford, Henry Hall, N. H. Bray, Samuel Eldredge, S. S. Eason, J. C. Sibley, W. G. Painter, Elizabeth McDonald, C. Cherrington, Peter Buvens, J. Anderson, John Graham, A. Arthur, D. G. Etheredge, E. K. King, L. Hymsby, Alfred Litton, Elizabeth Rembert, James Taylor, J. S. Childers, D. A. Blackshear, Asa Cherrington, W. B. Scritchfield, Hiram Litton, John Vines, Lee Vines, William Latham, James B. Stewart, J. M. Latham, Thomas Chambless, W. B. Schuyler, Alfred Lout, William Lout, John Branch, James Latham, T. F. Harkins, James A. Lane, Elizabeth Latham, Samuel B. Paul, Henry Jordan, W. S. Whatley.
During this period Thomas Patterson, who had acquired Spanish claims, sold lands to S. D. Bossier, John C. Garret, R. A. Patterson, W. M. McCullen. The Patterson lands were on the Las Ormegas and LaNana grants and were sold to Stone & Hamlin. Stone’s interests in these lands were subsequently sold to Florien Giauque, Lehmer & Pfirrman and heirs of Patterson.
Harvey Baldwin, another pioneer real estate dealer, sold lands to G. W. Waller, Robert McDonald, William Wilson, Jose Procella, Ephraham Butler, T. E. Boyd, Jose Rock, James Oliver, Elizabeth Roberts, Alston Nabours, W. T. Quirk, John W. Eason, Robert B. and William B. Stille. The Stilles also bought Waterman’s Rio Hondo claim in 1853.
Among those who purchased lands from the State were Thomas Hardin (1859), F. A. Fuller (1861), James W. Nettles (1860), L. Barbee (1859).
Many citizens resided on lands to which they had no title. If such lands were a part of the public domain, patents were finally obtained from the government under the provisions of the homestead laws. Others settled on lands which were a part of recognized Spanish claims. The Crow claim, embracing a large tract of land on Sabine River, was not finally approved until the present century, although several citizens had long been settlers on this tract. Squatters continued to occupy land without procuring a title even after the war between the states. However, that manner of settlement at this time was largely by ex-slaves or people who thought they were occupying public lands.
Some of the American settlers bought their Rio Hondo claims from the Spaniards. Henry Stoker, who came to the Fort Jesup community in 1818, acquired twelve hundred acres for a small amount of money and two or three “pack” ponies.
Until after the Civil War, Many and Fort Jesup were the only towns in Sabine Parish and these places were mere villages. The names of additional pioneer settlers appear in chapters devoted to the chronicles of these towns and of the parish government.
Back to: Sabine Parish – Louisiana History & Genealogy Project
Back to: Louisiana History & Genealogy Project
Source
Belisle, John G., History of Sabine Parish, Louisiana, Many, La. : The Sabine banner press, 1912.