Fauborg Ste. Marie

If one will stand to-day on the broad levee at New Orleans, with his back to the Mississippi, a short way out to the left and riverward from the spot where the longvanished little fort St. Louis once made pretence of guarding the town’s upper river corner, he will look down two streets at once. They are Canal and Common, which gently diverge from their starting-point at his feet and narrow away before his eye as they run down toward the low, unsettled lots and commons behind the city. Canal Street, the centre and pride of New Orleans, takes its … Read more

Prominent White Men among the Chickasaws

Holmes Colbert

At an early day a few white men of culture and of good morals, fascinated with the wild and romantic freedom and simplicity of the Chickasaw life, cast their lot among that brave and patriotic nation of people. I read an article published in Mississippi a few years ago, which stated that a man by the name of McIntosh, commissioned by British authorities to visit the Chickasaw Nation and endeavor to keep up its ancient hostility to the French, was so delighted with the customs and manners of that brave, free and hospitable people that, after the accomplishment of his mission, he … Read more

Alfred Lewis Todd of McComb MS

Alfred Lewis Todd10, (Wilmer L.9, Henry8, Ezra L.7, Ezra L.6, James5, James4, James3, Samuel2, Christopher1) born May, 13, 1876, in New Orleans, La., married at McComb City, Miss., Adele Ford, who was born Jan. 14, 1884, in McComb City, Miss., where they were living in 1918. Child: 2819. Belden Wilmer, b. Aug. 22, 1902.

Biographical Sketch of James Glenn

James Glenn and his wife, Sarah Grigg, with their two children, James and Nellie, came from Ireland to America, and settled in Virginia. After their settlement there the following children were born Polly, William, Thomas, and Whitehill. Mr. Glenn and his three sons, William, Thomas, and Whitehill, moved to Ohio; the rest of the children married and settled in Kentucky. James, William, and Thomas were in the war of 1812, and the former was killed at the battle of New Orleans. The other two were with the armies that operated in Canada and the northern part of the United States. … Read more

Biography of Benton O. Johnson

Benton O. Johnson, one of Redlands best known and highly respected citizens, is a native of Connecticut, born at Bethlehem, April 20, 1855. His parents were David and Sophia (Stone) Johnson, both of whom came of old Connecticut families, and the father a merchant. B. O. Johnson was but two years of age when his parents removed to the South. They resided at various places throughout the Southern country, among them New Orleans, Matamoras, Brownsville, etc., and the outbreak of the civil war found the elder Johnson carrying on the dry-goods business. In 1863 the family left the South and … Read more

Descendants of John Saxton Kent of North Bridgewater, MA

John S. Kent

HON. JOHN SAXTON KENT, ex-mayor of the city of Brockton, and one of that city’s leading manufacturers, is as well one of the most enterprising and progressive citizens who have made their way to success in this Commonwealth. Merit commands recognition, and the deserving find doors opening and the way growing plainer as they go onward. In the life of Mr. Kent we have a noble example of the result of pluck, untiring energy and perseverance, combined with natural business acumen, he being the architect of his own successful career, and having acquired, through his own capabilities, a place among … Read more

Biography of John Hamilton Farish

John Hamilton Farish, prominently known in real estate circles in St. Louis, has conducted business since 1890 under the name of J. H. Farish & Company, and is also identified with prominent financial interests as a representative of the directorate of several important corporations. Born in St. Louis on the 5th of March, 1863, he is a son of Edward T. and Lilly (Garesche) Farish, the former an attorney at law. The family comes of Virginia ancestry, represented at an early day in Caroline county. In fact, the first of the name came to America about one hundred and fifty years … Read more

Biography of Peter Taschetta

Peter Taschetta. One of the early permanent settlers of Leavenworth was Peter Taschetta, a native of Switzerland, born in Canton, January 6, 1822. He was of Italian ancestry, but long before his birth his people, living on the border between Italy and Switzerland, had property in the former country and his parents became Swiss subjects by purchase. The father was interested in stained glass manufacturing and, as a contractor, traveled extensively, particularly in France, overseeing the placing of stained glass in cathedrals and other structures, some of these being rare examples of artistic coloring. He employed a large number of … Read more

The Battle of New Orleans

Once more the Creoles sang the “Marseillaise.” The invaders hovering along the marshy shores of Lake Borgne were fourteen thousand strong. Sir Edward Packenham, brother-in-law to the Duke of Wellington, and a gallant captain, was destined to lead them. Gibbs, Lambert, and Kean were his generals of division. As to Jackson, thirty-seven hundred Tennesseeans under Generals Coffee and Carroll, had, when it was near Christmas, given him a total of but six thousand men. Yet confidence, animation, concord, and even gaiety, filled the hearts of the mercurial people. “The citizens,” says the eye-witness, Latour, “were preparing for battle as cheerfully … 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

Wilmer Lewis Todd of New Orleans LA

Wilmer Lewis Todd10, (Wilmer L.9, Henry8, Ezra L.7, Ezra L.6, James5, James4, James3, Samuel2, Christopher1) born Nov. 27, 1879, in New Orleans, La., and there he married Oct. 9, 1906, Anna Albertine Vitter. Children: 2820. Audrey, b. Aug. 11, 1907, d. March 8, 1909. 2821. Lewis Junior, b. Nov. 8, 1913. 2822. Audeth Anna, b. July 3, 1915.

Slave Narrative of Berry Smith

Interviewer: W. B. Allen Person Interviewed: Berry Smith Location: Forest, Mississippi Place of Birth: Sumpter County, Alabama “Uncle Berry” Smith is five feet two or three inches tall. He is scrupulously neat. He is very independent for his age, which is calculated at one hundred and sixteen years. He believes the figure to be correct. His mind is amazingly clear. “I was born an’ bred in Sumpter County, Alabama, in de prairie lan’, six miles from Gainesville. Dat’s where I hauled cotton. It was close to Livingston, Alabama, where we lived. “I was twelve years old when de stars fell. … 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 Francis Lester Hawkes

The old saying, that North Carolina is a good place to start from, is the key-note to the greatness of her people, as well as a term of reproach as accepted by them. All great men must seek the large centers of civilization in order to give to the world their message, but the great principles of their lives come from the land of their birth. A State is to be measured by the number of its good and great men, and not by material or physical predominance. Even intellectual gifts and culture cannot make a people great, but may … Read more

Biography of Samuel R. Parkinson

The name of this gentleman is so inseparably connected with the history of Franklin, its up-building and its progress along commercial, educational and church lines, that no history of the southeastern section of the state would be complete without the record of his useful career. He was one of the first to locate in Franklin and is numbered among its honored pioneers. A native of England, he was born in Barrowford, Lancastershire, April 12, 1831, a son of William and Charlotte (Rose) Parkinson, who were likewise natives of that country. He was only six months old when his father died, … Read more

Biography of John Dovell

JOHN DOVELL. – Mr. Dovell is one of those men who have belabored fortune, and have knocked about the world until it is sufficient to turn one’s hair gray simply to listen to their adventures. A native of the Azores, of Portuguese parentage and born in 1836, he came to Portland, Maine, at the age of fourteen, and learned shipbuilding. He left in four years and plied his trade in New Orleans, shipping thence to Liverpool, and coming as ship’s carpenter from that foreign port to San Francisco. He soon came up the coast to Portland, Oregon, and worked upon … Read more

Natchez Trace

Natchez Under the Hill

In 1792, in a council held at Chickasaw Bluffs, where Memphis, Tennessee, is now located, a treaty was made with the Chickasaws, in which they granted the United States the right of way through their territory for a public road to be opened from Nashville, Tennessee, to Natchez, Mississippi. This road was long known, and no doubt, remembered by many at the present time by the name “Natchez Trace.” It crossed the Tennessee River at a point then known as “Colberts Ferry,” and passed through the present counties of Tishomingo, Ittiwamba, Lee, Pantotoc, Chickasaw, Choctaw, thence on to Natchez, and … Read more

Biography of Thomas J. Delaney

THOMAS J. DELANEY. To become distinguished at the bar requires not only capacity, but also sound judgment and persevering industry. These qualifications are combined in no gentleman at the Greene County bar to a greater extent than in Thomas J. Delaney. A careful and accurate adviser, and an earnest and conscientious advocate, his success at the bar has been achieved by the improvement of opportunities, by untiring diligence, and by close study and a correct judgment of men and motives. Like so many of the eminent men of the present day his early career was not a very auspicious one … Read more

Biography of John F. Sheehan

JOHN F. SHEEHAN. – The gentleman whose name heads this brief memoir, an excellent portrait of whom appears in this history, has been a leading business man and resident of Port Townsend, Washington for almost thirty years. Mr. Sheehan is a native of the Sunny south, and was born in Baltimore Maryland, in 1840. When but an infant he suffered the irreparable loss of his father by death. His widowed mother then, with her two sons, our subject being but eighteen months old, paid a visit to Ireland, and at the end of one year returned to Baltimore. John F. … 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