New Orleans Louisiana Genealogy

Early Exploration and Native Americans

De Soto and his band gave to the Choctaws at Moma Binah and the Chickasaws at Chikasahha their first lesson in the white man’s modus operandi to civilize and Christianize North American Indians; so has the same lesson been continued to be given to that unfortunate people by his white successors from that day to this, all over this continent, but which to them, was as the tones of an alarm-bell at midnight. And one hundred and twenty-three years have passed since our forefathers declared all men of every nationality to be free and equal on the soil of the North … Read more

Biography of Ira B. Oldham, M. D.

Dr. Ira B. Oldham, who for eighteen years has engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery in Muskogee and whose ability and wide knowledge lie behind the substantial success that he has achieved, was born on a farm in Madison county, Kentucky, March 2, 1871, his parents being William Kavanaugh and J. Catherine (Brown) Oldham, both of whom were representatives of old southern families early established in Virginia. Dr. Oldham’s father was born in Madison county, Kentucky, but his grandfather, Hezekiah Oldham, was born in Caswell county, North Carolina, and was a son of Captain John Oldham, an American … Read more

Biography of Edwin F. Guyon, M. D.

Edwin F. Guyon, M. D., who has become known as county physician of Bear Lake county, Idaho, assistant surgeon for the Oregon Short Line, member of Idaho and Oregon State Medical Associations and of the American National Medical Association, and as author of the law to prohibit illegal medical practice in Idaho and coauthor with Dr. C. J. Smith of the law to prevent illegal medical practice in Oregon, is one of the leading physicians in Idaho and is doing much to elevate his profession and augment its usefulness throughout the northwest. Dr. Guyon began the practice of medicine in … Read more

Mulvehill, J. T. Mrs. – Obituary

Mrs. J. T. Mulvehill, a former resident of Union, died in the Baker Hospital Sunday, December 1, 1918. The funeral took place Monday, December 2, from the Catholic Church in Baker. Josephine La Notte Mulvehill was born in New Orleans, May 28, 1862, and died in Baker, Oregon, December 1, 1918. She was taken suddenly ill Friday night November 29-her ailment was pronounced acute diabetes. She was rushed to St. Elizabeth’s hospital at Baker, early Saturday morning, where every possible aid was given her, but she passed away Sunday forenoon at 11 o’clock, surrounded by all her family. The Mulvehills … Read more

Biographical Sketch of H. Clay Lewis

Mr. H. Clay Lewis, one of the enterprising young farmers of Lake County, is the son, of Robert A. and Mary (Donaldson) Lewis and was born in Lake County, January 5, 1860. Mr. Lewis was raised on a farm, and when a boy had few school advantages. When seventeen years of age he went to New Orleans and entered Dolbear’s Commercial College, but the death of his father prevented him from completing his course, as he then returned to Lake County and assumed charge of his father’s farm. On December 25, 1884, he married Miss Maggie H. Harper, daughter of … Read more

A Hundred Thousand People

What a change! The same Governor Villeré could not but say, “The Louisianian who retraces the condition of his country under the government of kings can never cease to bless the day when the great American confederation received him into its bosom.” It was easy for Louisianians to be Americans; but to let Americans be Louisianians!-there was the rub. Yet it had to be. In ten years, the simple export and import trade of the port had increased fourfold; and in the face of inundations and pestilences, discord of sentiment and tongues, and the saddest of public morals and disorder, … Read more

Views on the Choctaw and Fables – North American Indians

The territories of the Choctaws in 1723, in which year the seat of the French government in Louisiana, then under Bienville, was definitely transferred from Natchez to New Orleans, then containing about one hundred houses and three thousand inhabitants, extended from the Mississippi River to the Black Warrior, east: and from Lake Pontchartrain to the territories of the Natchez, west, and Chickasaws, north. They possessed upwards of sixty principal towns, and could muster, as was estimated, twenty-five thousand warriors. The Choctaws called all fables Shukha Anump (hog talk) as a mark of derision and contempt. Some of their fables, handed … Read more

Biography of Isaac N. Cromwell, M.D.

ISAAC N. CROMWELL, M.D. – Perhaps there is no calling of men with which the issues of life and death are so intimately connected s with that of the physician: hence it is that popular sentiment demands a class of men to take up this profession who are in every sense of the word the leaders of their fellows, and especially endowed with keen perception, careful and discriminating judgment, alert faculties and sympathy, with perfect self-possession and steady nerve. The subject of this sketch is one of the votaries of the medical muse, and is today one of Union county’s … Read more

Flush Times

The brow and cheek of this man were darkened by outdoor exposure, but they were not weather-beaten. His shapely, bronzed hand was no harder or rougher than was due to the use of the bridle-rein and the gunstock. His eye was the eye of a steed; his neck-the same. His hair was a little luxuriant. His speech was positive, his manner was military, his sentiments were antique, his clothing was of broadcloth, his boots were neat, and his hat was soft, broad, and slouched a little to show its fineness. Such in his best aspect was the Mississippi River planter. … Read more

Biographical Sketch of John Jacobs

John Jacobs, of Germany, came to America and settled in Virginia, where he married Sarah Crawford. Their children were David, John, Peter, William, Elizabeth C., and Susan H. William married Margaret A., daughter of Daniel McDaniel and Mary Anderson, who were natives of Edinburgh, Scotland. By her he had Charles A., George R., Mary, Anna, Sallie, Sophia, and Catharine H. Mr. Jacobs died in Virginia in 1828, and in 1831 his widow removed to Missouri and settled in Montgomery County, where she died in 1850. Charles, who was a wealthy merchant of New Orleans, died without marrying. George R., who … Read more

Biography of James G. Sandidge

James G. Sandidge. In the colonial history of the United States may be found frequent mention of names that are familiar and even distinguished at present throughout the great Middle West. They ring with achievement as in the old days, and although generations have passed since their first bearers lived and labored and increased on American soil, the stock is the same and the vigor of the younger branches gives testimony to the strength of the parent root. A long line of notable men have borne the name of Sandidge, from the founding of Jamestown, Virginia, and the early settlement … Read more

Biography of Mark Carley

Mark Carley was one of the founders of the city of Champaign: His name appears again and again in connection with the early annals of that city and of Champaign County, and always he appears as a man of force, of almost unlimited enterprise and of a public spirit that was in keeping with his many successes in private life. He knew much of the world by experience and had come to Champaign County soon after returning from an excursion to California during the great gold excitement on the Pacific Coast. His own life was to a large degree the … Read more

Biography of Hiram C. Whitley

Hiram C. Whitley. The State of Kansas is filled with interesting men, many of them known to the world at large. The city of Emporia had several. One is a prominent business man, who for upwards of forty years had given his time and energies to the upbuilding of that locality. This is Hiram C. Whitley who was at one time chief of the secret service division of the United States Treasury. The story of his life, particularly the early years, reads like a book, and in fact his experiences have been described in a book which was published about … Read more

Biography of James T. O’pry

James T. O’pry, one of the representative and enterprising merchants of Colton, has a well equipped general merchandise store, centrally located on Front street opposite the Southern Pacific Railroad depot. Captain O’Pry came to Colton in February 1888, after years spent in active business pursuits in New Orleans, and in the next month established himself in mercantile pursuits. He also purchased a five-acre tract of orange land from the Colton Water Company and commenced horticultural industries by planting it with budded orange trees; and he is also interested in real estate in Colton, Glendora and other places. He is a … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Edwin Beard

Edwin Beard and his wife, Mary Bell, of Ireland, came to America and settled in Augusta Co., Va. They had William, John, David, Charles, and Samuel. The latter was a soldier in the revolutionary war, and was present at the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. He married Sarah Craig, of Staunton, Va., and settled first in Pennsylvania, from whence he removed to Kentucky in 1792, and to Missouri in 1827. His children were John, William, David, Samuel, Absalom, James, Mary B., Sarah L., and Elizabeth. William was a soldier in the war of 1812, under Gen. Harrison. He married … Read more

Biography of Jacob Kamm

No history of navigation upon the Willamette or Columbia would be complete without reciting the part borne by the subject of this sketch. From the time the demands of travel and commerce created business of any magnitude in this direction, down to the present time, he has been more or less prominently connected with this interest, and especially important was the part he bore in the incipient stages of its development. He was born in Switzerland, December 12, 1823. At the age of eight, with his father, who had resigned his commission as captain in the Swiss army, he came … Read more

Slave Narrative of James Cornelius

Person Interviewed: James Cornelius Location: Magnolia, Mississippi Place of Birth: Franklin Louisiana Age: 90+ James Cornelius lives in Magnolia in the northwestern part of the town, in the Negro settlement. He draws a Confederate pension of four dollars per month. He relates events of his life readily. “I does not know de year I was borned but dey said I was 15 years old when de War broke out an’ dey tell me I’se past 90 now. Dey call me James Cornelius an’ all de white folks says I’se a good ‘spectable darkey. “I was borned in Franklin, Loos’anna. My … Read more

Biographical Sketch of A. B. Conley

A. B. Conley, merchant, and a prominent citizen of Tullahoma, Tennessee, was born in Rutherford County, Tennessee, November 7, 1847; the son of A. W. Conley, a native of Tennessee. Our subject was reared on a farm in what is now a part of Crockett County. He acquired his education in the common schools and in 1867 began the study of medicine. He attended the Eclectic College at Cincinnati, Ohio, the medical department of the University of Louisiana at New Orleans, and graduated in 1884 from the American Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati. From 1871 to 1880 he practiced in … Read more

The Discovery Of This Continent, it’s Results To The Natives

In the year 1470, there lived in Lisbon, a town in Portugal, a man by the name of Christopher Columbus, who there married Dona Felipa, the daughter of Bartolome Monis De Palestrello, an Italian (then deceased), who had arisen to great celebrity as a navigator. Dona Felipa was the idol of her doting father, and often accompanied him in his many voyages, in which she soon equally shared with him his love of adventure, and thus became to him a treasure indeed not only as a companion but as a helper; for she drew his maps and geographical charts, and also … Read more

Establishment of Fort Gibson in 1824

By Act of Congress of March 2, 1819, Arkansas Territory was established July 4, embracing substantially all of what are now the states of Arkansas and Oklahoma; though the civil government of Arkansas Territory was limited to that section lying east of the Osage line, divided into counties, and embracing approximately the present state of Arkansas. That west of the Osage line was the Indian country, and in later years became known as Indian Territory. James Miller of New Hampshire was appointed the first Governor of Arkansas Territory, and among the duties of his office was that of supervision of … Read more