Forwarded for Randy. Please use the [email protected] address to send things to this list. Morgan >X-POP3-Rcpt: [email protected] >Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 11:03:40 -0700 >X-From_: [email protected] Thu Sep 21 11:03:40 2000 >Reply-To: <[email protected]> >From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> >To: <[email protected]> >Subject: My Rapides Parish Roots and Location Map >Old-Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 13:05:14 -0500 >Organization: www.randywillis.org >X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400 >X-Diagnostic: Already on the subscriber list >X-Diagnostic: 114 [email protected] 32736 >[email protected] >X-Envelope-To: LARAPIDE-L-request > > >From Randy Willis [email protected] > >My parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were all neighbors near >Barber Creek between Forest Hill and Longleaf, La. > >The location of their Old Home Places: > >Graham Home Place: >My great-grandparents: ROBERT GRAHAM (b. August 20, 1818; d. February 10, >1890). Married RUTH SMITH (b. December 5, 1813; d. June 2, 1869). Both >are buried at The Graham Cemetery near Forest Hill, Louisiana. Ruth, after >becoming ill, told Robert that she wished to be buried at the top of a hill >[see present day Bell Road] on their home place near Forest Hill, La. She >was and that hill became known as the The Graham Cemetery. > >Willis Home Place: >My great-grandparents: DANIEL H. WILLIS, JR. (b. April 2, 1839; d. May 22, >1900). Married JULIA ANN GRAHAM (b. February 22, 1845; d. September 28, >1936). Both are buried at The Graham Cemetery. They married January 10, >1867 at her father, Robert Graham's home place. When Daniel asked Robert >Graham for Julia Ann's hand in marriage (just after the Civil War), Robert >asked him if he could feed her. Daniel replied that he had a horse, a milk >cow, a barrel of corn and a barrel of molasses. Robert responded my >goodness son you have enough to marry several of my daughters. Later, >three of Daniel's brothers would marry three of Julia Ann's sisters. When >Daniel Willis died in 1900, he left Julia Ann $35,000.00 in gold, a large >homestead near Barber Creek and the woods full of cows. Daniel H. Willis, >Jr. was the son of Rev. Daniel H. Willis, Sr. (b. December 28, 1817; d. >March 27, 1887) and Anna Slaughter (b. May 29, 1820 d. March 24, 1876). >Both are buried at Amiable Baptist Church Cemetery near Barber Creek. > >Lawson Home Place: >My grandparents: ROBERT S. LAWSON (b. March 25, 1868; d. in 1941). He >married NINA RUTH HANKS (b. 1891; d. 1962). Nina Ruth Hanks is buried in the >Butter Cemetery. Robert S. Lawson's parents were Robert W. Lawson (b. >April 9, 1810; d. November 25, 1890), and Florentine Rougeau (b. December >5, 1838; d. December 6, 1871). She is buried in the Rougeau Cemetery. >Nina Ruth Hanks parents were Nathan Hanks (b. December, 1850) and Mary >Celima Stagg (b. August 01, 1862, and died 1947 and buried in Butter >Cemetery). > >My great-grandparents: ARTHUR ALLEN HANKS (b. August 27, 1877; died August >22, 1942). He married MARY STARK (b. 1860; d. 1931). She traveled by >covered wagon first to Branch, La. and then to Forest Hill, La. in 1910. >She is buried in Butter Cemetery. Arthur Allen Hanks "ran off" with another >women and is buried in Oklahoma. Arthur Allen Hanks parents were William >Hanks and Francis Soileau. > >My Childhood Home: >We lived on part of the Old Lawson Home Place (adjoining the Old Willis Home >Place) until I was age four, which belonged to my mother. Our home was >between present-day Empire and Barton Roads facing Highway 165. We then >moved to Clute, Texas near were my dad had gotten a higher paying job at Dow >Chemical. My parents were neighbors as kids. Julia Ann Graham Willis had >always told her children and grandchildren that there was gravel in Barber >Creek. Both their parents/grandparents old home places, near Barber Creek, >were later destroyed by gravel and timber companies who bought up the >undivided shares of the old home places. A large pit/lake stands were their >homes once were. The gravel pit has destroyed the timber and Barber Creek. >It became overrun with sand and silt; literally smothered to death. The >EPA finally made them shut down but it was too late.