Wednesday, January 24, 2018

MENTION OF GEORGIA PEOPLE IN BOSSIER PARISH

Mr. J. T. Manry at Plain Dealing School in 1939 celebrating his 88th birthday.
The November 22, 1928 issue of the Bossier Banner noted that a number of Bossier Parish residents originally came here from Georgia.

“Our attention has been called to a brief article appearing in last week’s issue of the News-Gazette, published in Barnesville, Ga., three paragraphs of which read:

“’Though nearly a thousand miles from Lamar County, there is a former citizen, Mr. L. S. Moore, who is making good at his chosen profession, that of a construction engineer.’”

“Up in the northwest corner of Louisiana, hardly an hour’s drive from Texas or Arkansas, Mr. Moore has been retained by the municipality of Plain Dealing to superintend the construction of a large water supply and sewerage disposal plant. The town got its name from the first settler, who we also understand was from Georgia, and had named his estate by that name, ‘that those about him may know that wealth would never turn his head.’ And when the Cotton Belt railroad, a pet of the late Jay Gould, came through the town took on a progressive spirit. Seven years ago it had built a $112,000 school plant, only to build another this year to care for the overflow of children.”

“Natural gas is produced within nine miles of the town, and close by are oil wells spouting forth their contribution to the resources of the people, many of whom went from Georgia thirty or more years ago. Mr. Moore tells of meeting Mr. J. T. Manry, a brother of the Messrs. John T. and Ben H. Manry, of the Goggans community, this county. Mr. Manry left here sixty years ago, after finishing an apprenticeship under Joel Chandler Harris on the Monroe Advertiser, Forsyth. Other homefolk nearby are Mr. and Mrs. Albright, Mrs. Albright being a descendant of the Potts Family, of this county.”

To discover more about the origins of early families of Bossier Parish visit the Bossier Parish Library Historical Center.

By: Ann Middleton

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