Posted on: Bienville Parish Queries Board URL: http://genconnect.rootsweb.com/genbbs.cgi/USA/La/Bienville?read=450 Surname: Bledsoe, Bridges ------------------------- My gg-gparents couldn't decide where to live. They were torn between Richland Parish and Bienville Parish, which in the 1860-80 period, was a chore to travel between, some 100 miles. GGGPa FRANCIS MARION BLEDSOE died in Gibsland, Bienville Parish, LA, in 1891/7 (can't discipher the tombstone). GGGMa was SARAH J. TRULOVE (BLEDSOE) died 1899, Bienville Parish, no tombstone. They didn't live their entire lives in Bienville Parish. In fact, they had earlier lived in Richland Parish in the 1860s. Three of their children are buried in the Alto cemetery, all buried during 1863-66. Documents support their being charter members of the Baptist Church there. But somewhere just past the Civil War, they showed up in Bienville Parish, joined a church there, and lived and died there. FRANCIS MARION BLEDSOE is buried in the cemetery on the north end of Gibsland, as is his daughter and her husband, SARAH (SALLY) and ALONZO DAVIS BRIDGES, her husband. Their other children died or settled in Richland or Morehouse Parishes (some 100 miles farther east). Daughter DELLA MAY BLEDSOE is my g-gm. She met her husband ca. 1892 in Arcadia where he (JOHN WILLIAM FLYNN, JR.) was working in a mercantile. They married in Bienville Parish and moved to Morehouse Parish (his home). My brief research in Bienville Parish does not lend a clue to any surviving legacies. He was an industrious person, fought in the Civil War (have documentation), and a very devout Baptist. Any BLEDSOES or BRIDGES connections surviving in Bienville Parish? Would like to find church affiliated with, store son-in-law John William Flynn, Jr., worked in, and plot of land the Bledsoes lived on. Francis Marion Bledsoe was probably a farmer.