The Sevier Family of Madison Parish, LA
Richard P. Sevier (dicksevier@comcast.net)
Madison Parish LaGenWeb
Coordinator
April 2005
NOTE: The data on the Sevier family has been
obtained from court records, census data, tax rolls, tombstone records,
newspaper reports, the Social Security Death Index and Internet websites. Also,
much of this data has come from the 553 page Sevier Family History
published in 1961 by Cora Bales Sevier and Nancy S. Madden. No attempt will be
made to footnote every fact gleaned from this outstanding volume. There are
many “missing links” in this family’s history, and anyone who feels that they
can fill in some of the blanks is encouraged to do so. This website will be
updated as additional data is obtained.
At
last count there were almost 70 Sevier descendants and spouses buried in
Tallulah. Did you ever wonder where all those Tallulah and Madison Parish
Seviers came from? Probably not, but if you did, it’s a long, involved story,
as you will see if you read it all.
This
family dominated politics in Tallulah and Madison Parish for many years and
became an important part of the area’s history. Included among the
longer-termed political officeholders are: William Putnam “Buck”
Sevier, Jr., Tallulah Mayor and Alderman from 1932-1974; Andrew
Jackson Sevier, Jr., Madison Parish Sheriff from 1904-1942; Andrew
Leonard Sevier, State Senator from 1930-1962; George Washington Sevier,
Police Juror and Tax Assessor from 1891-1916; Henry Clay
“Happy” Sevier, Sr., State Representative from 1932-1952 and the father-son
team of James D.
Sevier, Sr. and Jr., who have held the Madison Parish Tax Assessor office
for over 40 years. As a matter of fact, except for the years 1887-1890, there
has been at least one Sevier in public office in Madison Parish for the past
122 years. When W. P. Sevier, Jr. died in 1985 he had held a public office and
had been a Mayor longer than anyone else in Louisiana.
In
addition, L. Mason
Spencer, husband of Rosa
Sevier Spencer, represented Madison Parish in the Louisiana legislature for
many years and announced for governor in 1935, but later withdrew.
Mayor W. P. “Buck” Sevier Senator Andrew L. Sevier Rep. Henry C. “Happy” Sevier Sheriff Andrew J. Sevier
Alderman and Mayor of LA State
Senator Madison
Parish Representative Madison
Parish Sheriff
Tallulah 1932-74
1930-62
1932-1952
1904-1942
Chart showing Seviers in
public office from 1883-2007.
All
of the Seviers in Madison Parish were descended from Henry Clay Sevier
(1830-1892) or his brother George Washington Sevier, Jr. (1813-1875), neither
one of which ever lived in the parish. Two other brothers, John Vertner Sevier
(1819-1886) and Putnam Sevier (1827-1882) lived in Madison and Tensas Parish
during the middle and late 1800’s but left no descendants. At this count George
Washington had at least 56 descendants[1],
but Henry Clay has over 280 – most of them now live or have lived in Madison
Parish. Henry Clay and George Washington Sevier’s father was George Washington
Sevier, Sr.[2], son of John Sevier[3],
first governor of Tennessee and one of the heroes of the Battle of King’s
Mountain during the Revolutionary War. George Washington Sevier Jr.’s wife
was Saran Knox Sevier, who was raised by Andrew Jackson and his wife Rachel.
Portrait of John Sevier[4] John Sevier-Statuary Hall-US Capitol
Although
Henry Clay Sevier may never have lived in Madison Parish[5],
his first wife, Mary Clarke, reportedly was from Tensas Parish[6].
His brother John Vertner Sevier[7] is
believed to be the first Sevier to live in the area.
Index Map Showing Relation
of Henry Clay and George Washington Sevier, Jr.’s Birthplace in Overton County,
TN to Tallulah, Thomastown and Port Gibson where they and most of their
descendants settled.
What follows
discusses only the Madison Parish related children of George Washington Sevier,
Sr. and all of the grandchildren of Henry Clay and George Washington Sevier,
Jr. A complete listing of all the descendants of Henry Clay and George
Washington Sevier will be found at the end of this article. Note that there
were seven different Henry Clay Seviers and six different George Washington
Seviers involved with Madison Parish.
JOHN VERTNER SEVIER
John
Vertner Sevier was born in 1819 probably in Overton County, Tennessee. He
settled in the Madison-Tensas area sometime between 1840 and 1850. In 1850[8] he
was living on his plantation located just south of the Madison-Tensas line. By
1860 he is listed as a Planter with a personal estate of $35,000[9],
almost $800,000 in today’s dollars. John Vertner Sevier does not appear in the
1870 or 1880 censuses but must have been there because he died June 18, 1886
“near Lake St. Joseph in Tensas Parish.” John Vertner Sevier apparently never
married and therefore had no descendants. There are three different John
Vertner Seviers mentioned in this article, one being his nephew (son of Henry
Clay Sevier) and one being his nephew’s son.
The
map below is a modified portion of a “Map of the Country between
Milliken’s Bend, LA and Jackson, Miss shewing (sic) the routes followed by the Army of the
Tennessee Under the Command of Maj. Genl U. S. Grant U. S. Vols
in its March from Milliken’s Bend to the Rear of Vicksburg in April and
May 1863.” It clearly shows
John Vertner’s property, although the name is spelled “Severe.”
Plantation of John Vertner
Sevier just south of the Madison-Tensas Parish border during the Civil
War. From a map showing Grant’s march
during the spring of 1863 from Milliken’s Bend southward, thence eastward and
ultimately northward to Vicksburg. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
John
Vertner was in pretty good company because Jefferson Davis’ property[10]
was located just northeast across the Mississippi River, and Somerset, the
gigantic plantation of Judge John Perkins,
was only a few miles to the north.
PUTNAM SEVIER
Although
John Vertner Sevier was the first in the Madison-Tensas area, his brother,
Putnam, whose exact whereabouts are somewhat of a mystery, may have been the
first to live in Madison Parish. Putnam was born about 1827 in Overton County,
TN. The 1850 census[11]
shows him living in Edgefield, TN with his sister Laura Jane Sevier Norvell and
her husband. It is known that by 1862 he was living in Port Gibson, MS. Also
the 1866 Mississippi Census lists him in Claiborne County. When his nephew
George Washington Sevier came to Tensas Parish about 1874 to operate a country
store “for his uncles John Vertner Sevier and Putnam Sevier” (Sevier Family History),
Putnam must have already been there.
Putnam
is not listed in the 1870 census, but he was probably living in Madison Parish
by that time. It is believed that Putnam had some business connection with his
brother, John Vertner. He apparently lived in Madison and Tensas Parishes, LA
and Claiborne County, MS during the 1860-1884 period. It is not known what role
he played during the Civil War. Putnam died May 25, 1882 on “Roundaway Bayou,
Madison Parish, LA.” He is buried in
Nashville, TN. Like John Vertner he apparently never married and left no heirs.
HENRY
CLAY SEVIER
Most
of the Madison Parish Seviers are descended from Henry Clay Sevier, who was
born in July 1830 in Overton County, TN. He was the youngest of Col. George
Washington Sevier (Sr.) and Catherine Heatherly Chambers Sevier’s twelve
children.
Col. George Washington
Sevier Henry Clay Sevier (Miniature photo on
porcelain)
in War of 1812 Uniform
(Miniature painted on porcelain)
In
1850 Henry Clay Sevier was living with his cousin Waldo Washington Putnam in
Hinds County, MS. Waldo was listed as a “Planter” and Henry Clay as an
“Overseer.”[12] Waldo
was the son of Henry’s sister Catherine Ann Sevier Putnam and Albigence Waldo
Putnam, a noted attorney and historian, who lived in Port Gibson, MS, but later
moved back to Tennessee.
The
1860 Census[13] shows
that Henry Clay was living near Port Gibson, MS with his new wife, Mary
Clarke’s family, and had a year-old son named George Washington, born December
15, 1858. Henry and Mary had two more sons, James Douglas born August 28, 1860
and John
Vertner (named for the previously-discussed John Vertner Sevier), born
August 27, 1863. All three of these sons would later move to Madison Parish.
Unfortunately, Mary Clarke Sevier died shortly after the birth of John Vertner.
By
the time of Mary’s death Henry Clay had already enlisted in the Confederate
Army (May 13, 1862) in Port Gibson and was serving in Company K, First
Mississippi Light Artillery. He was captured July 9, 1863 but released on
parole in Port Hudson, LA the same month. On June 1, 1864 he was on detached
service to procure horses. He was recaptured at Blakely, AL on April 9, 1865
and transferred from Ship Island, MS to Vicksburg, MS on May 1, 1865. At the
end of the war he was paroled at Jackson, MS on May 12, 1865. During the Civil
War Henry Clay Sevier fought in the Battles of Troth Landing and Plains Store
and the Siege of Port Hudson.
By
1863 Henry Clay’s sons were without parents since their mother had passed away,
and their father was in the Confederate Army.
It has been said that a colored woman named Violet took the three little
boys in an open wagon from Port Gibson up the Natchez Trace to Thomastown, MS[14],
where they had an aunt, Henry Clay’s sister, Eliza Sevier Donald.
After
the Civil War Henry Clay Sevier moved to Thomastown, MS where he met and
married Nancy
Adeline Ophelia Nash in September 1866. To them were born seven children,
Henry Clay, Jr. (1867), William
Putnam (June 13, 1868), Barton Metts
(February 1870), Katherine (1871), Ophelia
Nash (April 12, 1874), Laura Eliza (1876) and Dora Victoria (September
1878). William Putnam Sevier and Ophelia Nash Sevier would later live in
Madison Parish.
Henry
Clay and his wife farmed and lived in a large two-story house directly on the
Natchez Trace between Thomastown and Kosciusko, MS. The old house was a
historical landmark, and when it burned about 1976 the fire was reported in
newspapers across the United States. It had long since been abandoned when it
burned.
Henry Clay Sevier home on the Natchez Trace between Thomastown and Kosciusko, MS. This photo was taken in 1962 when the house was practically abandoned.
The 1880 Census lists Henry
Clay Sevier and all ten of his children living near Thomastown in Leake County,
MS.[15]
Map showing places lived in by descendants of Henry Clay Sevier and
George Washington Sevier, Jr.
William
P. Sevier, Sr. of Tallulah in an October 1936
interview by WPA[16]
canvassers (as a result of their project to “interview” for local memories) had
this to say of his boyhood in the old house with nine brothers and sisters:
“I first saw the light some 68 years ago. I was born June 15, 1868 on what is known now as “The Sevier Place” in Leake County, Beat three, four miles north of Thomastown on the Natchez Trace Road.
My father, Captain Henry C. Sevier, is a grandson of General John Sevier, the first governor of Tennessee, and who in his administration as governor had a committee appointed to cut out along with other roads the Natchez Trace from Nashville to Natchez, 1798. (See Annals of Tennessee by Ramsey 1853).
My mother, Nancy Nash, daughter of John and Ophelia Nash, Alabamians, were among the first settlers in our neighborhood. They came in, of course, before the war between the states, acquired and settled what is now known as the Sevier place. My grandfather Nash owned a lot of negroes and was rated in that time a very successful planter. The old Nash negroes, their descendants, are scattered throughout the country.
My father was through the entire Civil War and was taken prisoner, placed on Ship Island, paroled on Canal Street, New Orleans, Louisiana with other barefooted, about naked, and starved, men (1865).
My father was married twice. His first wife, a Miss Clarke of Claiborne County. To them three children were born: George W., J. D. and J. V. Their mother died while father was in the war. Coming home, he brought his three little boys, George, Jim and Vert to his sister, Mrs. John T. Donald, whose plantation joined the Nash place. That was the cause and the means of my father meeting my mother, his second wife. They were married and seven children were born to them: Henry C., Jr., W. P., Barton M., Mary L. Ophelia N., Laura E. and Dora V. A GREAT FAMILY. My mother was a great and good woman. I never knew until after I was grown that my half brothers were not mother’s own children, and that, I found out myself. Mother never mentioned it; her actions were the same with her stepchildren as with her own.
Our old residence was built by the slaves about the fifties. While we had to do some repairs, she stands today in good shape. Grandfather Nash set the first saw mill in that country and the material in the old house was manufactured and everything about the home was fashioned right on the spot where it now stands.
My father loved company and fond of having someone to talk to. His home was a great stopping place for the stay-all-nighters. Always company. It didn’t matter what day or night that “hello, want to stay all night” came, or who he was, father would say “get down, come in”. We boys knew what was coming next. “You boys go take the gentleman’s horse and put him up and feed him”. Next morning our duty again was to feed, then curry, saddle and hitch the horse on the front awaiting the gentleman’s pleasure.
John Sharp Williams spent the night with us on about his first attempt in the political arena, and I remember Wiley P. Nash, mother’s kinsman, was with us for his political rounds. I remember Jesse Mills and Henry Niles (after Jude Niles) was with us. On one occasion mother ordered us to catch a chicken. We always had a pack of fine hounds so we boys being full of devilment aroused about a dozen hounds and captured the chicken on the front, right where Henry Niles and Jesse Mills were being entertained by father. Being very dry and dusty the dogs and the chickens in the middle created such a dust screen, you could not tell for a few seconds who was who. Mother was mortified and, of course, we were delighted.
On another occasion, mother ordered a chicken. Bro. Henry spots the chicken under the front gallery just under where Father always entertained. Henry slips under the house with one of the old muzzle loader shotguns, powder in each barrel, and shoots the chicken. Upon the report, Father and his company turned turtle for a few seconds. No doubt, thinking perhaps there was an earthquake.
Henry Clay Sevier’s percussion cap 10 gauge shotgun held in 1974 by his great great grandson, Will Sevier
On another occasion, Mr. Cadenhead,
a fine man afterwards Chancery Clerk, spent the night with us. In the war
between the states, Mr. Cadenhead lost one of his legs, therefore used
crutches. When we had company, we had to wait for the second table, being a
hardy set and having to work on the farm at any and all kinds of labor, we had
appetites that knew no bound. In waiting for that second table minutes seemed
like hours for us, and it would seem a century for the company to finish their
meals.
There were three entrances to the old dining room. We made a miscalculation as to the door father and Mr. Cadenhead would make their exit. When we made a charge for that second table it was in a rush with much force behind it. Father, Mr. Cadenhead and we ran into and over one another, knocking him, he going one way and his crutches another. Father was able to rebound and with his walking stick used it right and left to clear the way. WHAT A SCATTERATION!! We lost our appetites for that day so we got our farming outfit and went to our work awaiting the early blowing of the dinner horn.
Father had another good friend who was with him very often; he liked his drink, and this certain friend of father’s was awfully close and stingy with his beverage. He came very near seeing it for himself to the last drop. He was clever and accommodating with anything of his, but do not touch his JUG. So one night we boys for mischief more than anything else when he stopped for the night spotted where he put that Jug. We always had a lot of negro boys around, so when father and his company went out to breakfast, we made a charge on the Jug – Not much remained. We watched him on leaving shake and look down at the package. That was the last time he stopped with us. Father knew nothing of it, or we would have been in a pickle. Many more funny things actually happened, but time as well as space prohibits.
The late Clay Sharkey and father were great friends, in fact I think they were through the war together. Father did love for Clay to come along. He used to tell some funny stories. I remember one Clay told father. It was he and his family moved in a neighborhood among many good people. After being there some time, Mrs. Sharkey was distressed. The neighbors did not call. He said to her “You build a fire in the back yard, carry all cooking utensils out, get barefooted and do your cooking out there, then you will have company”. Clay said company became so numerous Mrs. Sharkey had to go back to the old way.
I remember the first time I saw Clay Sharkey. We little fellows were throwing hickory nuts from a tree near our old home. Clay came along with a beautiful hunting horn around him with several beautiful black and tan hounds following. I think he was rounding up some of his lost dogs of a late fox hunt. He came up to us, pulled his horn off and said, “I’ll get nuts for you all”, and up the tree he went. We were one happy set. That was some sixty years or more ago. We thought then what we know now; he was a great and good man.
In our coming up there were not many school advantages and if we had had any, being just after the war between the states, everyone was demoralized. The negroes all free; and we had to work and I mean work. The hardships and the exposure father had to go through in that war left him an invalid. Mother had her old spinning wheel and loom, and through her management and our willingness to work and through the guidance of that great and good LORD we made good.
We had the “old
field school house” located in the bushes. The building was crude and built out
of green rough lumber, no ceiling, not even a loft in it. The flooring was
rough, 1 by 12 put down green, after shrinkage, an inch of space between the
plank, no sash, openings with rough shutters and one rough door tied to a nail
with a string, and a little common cheap wood stove. The neighbors would move
the building about every two years to fresh skirt of bushes. I figured out in
after years why they did it. It was for the purpose of a new wood yard and a
fresh toilet. We children would be delighted to go in threes and fours from
time to time and bring in wood, without the use of an axe. Our teacher would
offer a prize, which would be a thumb paper, to the one who brought in the
biggest arm full of wood. You can guess we loaded ourselves down. We would find
an old fallen tree where the brush was well seasoned and easy to break, then
what a rush for that thumb paper which was prized far above anything we have
secured since. What we got from the old Blue Back Speller, Davis’s Arithmetic,
Smith’s Grammar, McGuffy’s Reader and Writing book, was our high school course.
Our college education was reading what college students did and what they did not, that course with us still going on.
Now something about that dear old “wash hole” in the Yockanookany Creek. We called it at that time, river, and should we have been asked at that time the longest river in the world, our answer would have been Yockanookany. We will never love another river like we did Yockanookany. Well the old wash hole known before my time and will ever be known as “Sander’s Wash hole”. After a hard week’s work and our crops safe, every Saturday evening to the “wash hole”, some on mules, some on horses and the greater number on foot. We were joined by all the neighbors and visitors, all barefooted and with untold enthusiasm. We were off. There was no such thing as bathing suits, and our neighbors regulars and our own were just barely enough to observe the law, but we were a happy set of people, more so then than we will ever be again. The old “wash hole” is patronized today just the same and with as much enthusiasm as ever before. There have been many great and near great bodies bathed in that old “Sanders Wash hole”. Our mules and horses, after we finished our swimming, were carried in, soaped and washed off, then swam around so much they looked forward to it and enjoyed it as much as we did. God bless the old place, and He must have, for there were never in my memory or in the memory of the oldest one, been any mishaps there. The churches both black and white used it at times for a baptizing place. Father was baptized in the old “Sanders Wash hole”. Oh how I wish I could turn back the pages of time and go through those happy days again in dear old Leake County.
Father died 1892 at sixty-five years of age. The burial was conducted by Rev. Thornton. His and Mother’s ashes and other loved ones now lay in the old Yockanookany church graveyard. A spot we will never cease to love.
Mother died in 1929, burial conducted by one of our best beloved friends. One who, I think, came near living the Christian life than anyone I have ever known. Uncle John W. Sanders as he was affectionately known by his hundreds of friends. Wiley Sanders a younger brother, owner and editor of Kosciusko Star. No doubt Uncle Wiley gets many of his fine traits from dear Uncle John.
Col. John T.
Donald’s wife was Eliza Sevier and father’s sisters were among the first
settlers of our neighborhood. Before settling here Col. Donald was a Commission
Merchant for years in New Orleans, Louisiana and considered for those times a
wealthy man. Uncle John took the notion to buy slaves and go in the planting
business. He sold his interest in the
commission business to his partner, A. H. May, afterwards the old firm of
Richardson and May. Why Col. Donald selected in particular this spot, I found
out in after years. He had a colony of kinfolks who had just arrived in this
then new country from Alabama and the Carolinas who I will have a little more
to say about later.
He (Col. Donald) settled on what is known today as the Donald place, built, I guess, the first brick structure or residence in Leake County. In fact the only brick residence I remember seeing or know of way out in the country. There was no transportation in those days closer than Yazoo City. The brick was made by the slaves right near the spot (about two hundred yards) where the old residence, in part, now stands. The entire structure was placed, planned, fashioned and built by his slaves. Our old home and Aunty’s (Mrs. Donald) was just one mile apart – adjoining places, fronting the old Indian Trail (Natchez Trace).
While Col. Donald and wife (our aunt) had no children of their own, they partly raised half of the children of the neighborhood, and there were healthy children in that time. No functions I have ever attended before or since were with as much enthusiasm and happiness as going to Aunties and Uncle John’s. Aunty was loved and a friend in the fullest sense to humanity and especially children. She was one of those old-time straitlaced Presbyterians and she practiced her convictions. The Sabbath day was sacred with her, everything prepared on Saturday; no cooking on the Sabbath Day. She was niceity itself, no faults, modesty all natural. Uncle John and Aunty did detest vulgarity, strong drink and tobacco. Hence, when their kinfolks, which were many, their neighbors and friends knew they were coming in contact with Mr. and Mrs. Donald, they were on their good behavior to the last minute. Aunty and Uncle John were a balanced wheel for the community. Auntie was always visiting the sick and depressed, offering her encouragement and nourishment of whatever nature needed. She played no favorites, human was human with her where they were in need and distress. Col. Donald was highly respected especially for his intelligence. He was quick to respond to those who he thought were acting in ignorance on any matter or question.
Chap. L. Anderson was once telling me at a neighborhood barbecue on Col. Donald’s premises that Col. Anderson was called upon by Col. Donald for his first attempt for a speech. Being his first speech, it made him, of course, shaky and Col. Donald to criticize. He said he was scared to death fearing he would make some break which was not in keeping with the old Colonel’s ideas. After he finished, the old Colonel came forward and congratulated him. He said that in all his life no compliment was appreciated as much as that one from Col. Donald.
After Uncle John’s death, my Aunt went to Nashville to live and there died. She was buried in the spot she loved most, in Tennessee, the state her grandfather, Governor Sevier, assisted by other great characters carved out under untold disadvantages and established a great government of their own; wrote the first article of free independence on this continent. Afterwards with his true and tired pioneers with their coon skin hats and squirrel rifles surprised and captured General Ferguson with his entire army at the Battle of King’s Mountain, turning the tide of the revolution, acknowledged by many military critics. He joined other statesmen of that time in making America the greatest government in the world.
Uncle Owen Sanders (where the
celebrated wash hole gets its name, being located on his property) was the
first settler here in this neighborhood. His first wife, a sister of Col.
Donald. Uncle Owen came directly after the government traded the Indians out. I
often regret the many times he and I were together because I did not listen or
pay more attention to him. I remember on one occasion I was going to market
with a bale of cotton, driving one yoke oxen. Uncle Owen was with me. I was
just a boy, anyway the roads were bad and the oxen slow. It took two days as we took our time. We
camped out at night, and all I had to do was to listen to this great and
noble old character, but, alas, I guess I was no exception to the rule of all we smart alecs around that age. Father
used to tell us that we were getting smart when we found that we were a fool,
and that is so. Going back to Uncle Owen and our trip. He would point
out each place as we went along telling me its first owner, giving me an
abstract to that present day. We were going north on the Natchez Trace, eleven
miles to Kosciusko. When we got to what is known as the Fuller Hill, five miles
south Kosciusko, Uncle Owen said, “Right there on the top of that hill was the
first settler (Mr. Fuller) in this country. I stayed all night with him on my
first trip down here.” Uncle Owen lived up in the eighties, reared a large
family and was married twice. I think all of his children by his first wife are
gone under the shade of trees. His grandson, Jesse V. Norwood, and sister are
living today on the old Sanders Place. By his second wife he has daughters
living in the neighborhood. They married good, honest, industrious men and are
among the first citizens of that community.
Mrs. Adkinson, Mrs. Freeland, and
Mrs. Ned Davis were sisters. Col. John F. Donald had one brother, Harrison
Donald. All were among the first settlers. They came in from Alabama and the
Carolina and reared large families, all intelligent and fine people. The older
Laceys were among the first settlers of our neighborhood. I never knew until I
was grown we all were not blood kin. There was a great devotion between my
mother’s family and the Lacey family. The Rileys and Allens among the first
settlers. Robys, Edwards, Beemans, Hollingsworths, Wards, Beauchamps,
Jordans and many more. All fine people, honest, homebuilders, intelligent,
practice that neighborly spirit that we hear so much about. They are moral
honest, God-fearing people. God bless Leake County and her people. The older I
am, the more devoted I become to them all. I will always rejoice to the bottom
of my heart to say I am from Leake County, Mississippi.”
W. P. Sevier, Sr. house on Lower Banks Plantation. Painted by Adeline Couch in 1960. Courtesy of Charlotte Donald Walter, Shreveport, LA
Henry Clay Sevier passed away
February 29, 1892. He is buried in the Yockanookany Baptist Cemetery in Atalla
County, MS just north of the Leake-Atalla County line. Nancy Adeline Ophelia
Nash Sevier died March 29, 1929 in Innis, LA at the home of her daughter Laura
Eliza Sevier Herring. She is also buried in the Yockanookany Baptist Cemetery.
Henry Clay Sevier’s Tombstone – Yockanookany Baptist Cemetery, near Thomastown, MS
GEORGE WASHINGTON SEVIER, Sr. (Son of Henry Clay Sevier and Mary B.
Clarke)
George Washington Sevier, Sr.
appears to be the first of Henry Clay’s sons to come to Madison Parish. George
was born December 15, 1858 in Port Gibson, MS. About 1863, when his mother died
and his father was off fighting for the Confederacy, George and his two young
brothers moved to Thomastown, MS to live with an aunt. When his father returned
from the Civil War and remarried, George lived in the old house mentioned
above. About 1874 he moved to Tensas Parish, La., near Newellton, and operated
a country store for two of his uncles, John Vertner Sevier and Putnam Sevier.
At the age of 20 (about 1878), George moved to Madison Parish, south of
Tallulah where his uncle, John Vertner Sevier, purchased another country store
and gave it to him to operate. According to the Sevier Family History:[17]
“...while still operating the
second store, George was able to rent 160 acres of land to farm. This acreage,
which came to be known as the Lower Bank Plantation, had less than 20 acres
cleared. The rest was in virgin timber. He cleared the remainder, a tremendous
undertaking. In 1886 he purchased the 160 acres and built a large country store
on it. In 1898 he sold this land to the Jordan family.
George then bought, from a New
Orleans firm, 1,700 acres called Oak Point Plantation. When he acquired it,
less than 40 acres were in cultivation, the remainder being in virgin timber --
white oak, gum, cypress and other indigenous varieties. The trees were cut and
burned, since there were no saw-mills in the area and no sale for the timber.
When George bought Oak Point, there was only one Negro cabin on the place. At
the peak of his operation of this plantation, there were 35 cabins, each with
its own garden and crop. The money crop in Madison Parish then, as now, was
cotton.
George was a fine provider, was jovial
and hospitable, and his home was constantly filled with guests. On the long
table at breakfast, for example, there would be several kinds of meat, ham,
bacon and platters with two to three dozen eggs on them. To supplement the
produce of the large gardens he maintained, he would order barrels of such
staple foods as sugar, flour and cured meats from New Orleans. These would be
brought up the Mississippi River on sidewheel steamboats and be transported to
his plantation 16 miles away on wagons pulled by six-mule teams. At times the
roads were so bad, it would take a week to complete the last 16-mile lap of the
trip.
In 1908 he erected a two-story
14-room colonial type home on the 200-acre portion of Islington Plantation
which he purchased about 1890. At the time of George's death, he had cleared
and put into cultivation approximately 1,000 acres of Oak Point Plantation.
After his death, Oak Point and the 200-acre portion of Islington were renamed
Evergreen Plantation, and it is still in the family.”
George married Florence
Leonard on November 23, 1883 and to them were born nine children; George
Washington Sevier, Jr. (1886-1965), Howard
Clay Sevier (1888-1944), Albert
Vertner Sevier (1892-1968), Andrew
Leonard Sevier (1894-1973), Juanita Sevier (1901-????), Sherrill Jefferson
Sevier (1903-1928), and three other children who died in infancy. All were born
in Madison Parish. He died in 1925 and is buried in Tallulah.
George Washington Sevier
served as Madison Parish Tax Assessor from 1891 to 1916. He also served on the
Madison Parish Police Jury from 1898 to 1902.
In January 2005, while the
house mentioned above was being demolished, a letter dated April 29, 1909 that
told of the construction history fell out of the fireplace wall. The following
is a transcription of its contents:[18]
“Geo W. Sevier house built in the year 1908 & 1909. The greater
part of the timber, in fact all except the mouldings & the parlor &
front hall floor was sawed off Oak Point & sawed on Emerson Mason Saw Mill
on West Point Plantation
owned by G.L. Bishops.
"The
Carpenters who erected or built the house are as follows Viz. Mr. Green of
Shreveport, La. Finish workman R.H. Commander, Kosciusko, Miss. Subordinate,
Henry Acres, Negro, Tallulah, La; Tom Ball, Bill Dagle, Tallulah, La, Geo. W.
Sevier Plant. The Lumber was planed at Geo Sevier Gin by a Mr. Hatfield of
Kentucky assisted by Mr. J.A. Blanton of Alabama who was at the time plantation
manager for Geo W. Sevier. Chimneys was built by a negro from Ruston La. G.H.
S- - -dew The house was painted and prepared by Miss M.A. Riggers and Fred
Risinger of Ruston, LA.
"May the Lord of Heaven bless them all &
cause them to live long and prosper.
W.P. Sevier
"The plan of the house was drawn by Mr.
J.D. - - - - - of Vicksburg, Miss. Geo
W. Sevier in person did all the directing & every piece of timber was
placed according to his instructions.
W.P. Sevier”
(This was written by his
brother W. P. Sevier, Sr. who must have been the family historian since he also
wrote the letter about growing up in the Henry Clay Sevier house at Thomastown,
MS.)
JAMES
DOUGLAS SEVIER, Sr. (Son of Henry Clay Sevier and Mary B. Clarke)
James Douglas Sevier, Sr.
was born in Port Gibson, MS on August 28, 1860. During the Civil War he moved
to near Thomastown, MS to live with his aunt. There he lived until about 1881
when he moved to Madison Parish and became a farmer on Islington Plantation
with his brothers George and John Vertner Sevier (named after his uncle, John
Vertner Sevier.)
On November 14, 1887 he
married Roxie Roberta Allen (1866-1921) of Thomastown, MS in Leake County, MS.
Their children were James Douglas Sevier, Jr. (1890-1912), Lucy Emeline Sevier
(1892-1869), and Henry Clay
Sevier (1896-1974.) All of their children were born in Madison Parish and
lived there all of their lives. After his wife died in 1921 he married Roxie’s
sister Margaret Allen (1879-1966) in 1923 and they spent the remainder of their
lives in Gulfport, MS. He died in Gulfport on September 15, 1951 and is buried
in Tallulah as are Roxie and Margaret.
James Douglas Sevier was a
member of the Madison Parish School Board from 1896-1900.
JOHN
VERTNER SEVIER, SR. (Son of Henry Clay Sevier and Mary B. Clarke)
John
Vertner Sevier, Sr. was named for his uncle by the same name who had a
plantation in northern Tensas Parish before the Civil War. He was born in Port
Gibson, MS August 23, 1863, but moved with his two little brothers to
Thomastown, MS before the end of the Civil War. He grew up near Thomastown and
may not have moved to Madison Parish until about 1894 even though he owned an
interest in Islington Plantation.
John Vertner married Mary
Ophelia Lampley, who appears to be the daughter of his stepmother’s sister, on
March 14, 1888 in Leake County, MS. Their children were: Mary Clarke Sevier
(1889-????), Rosa
Sevier (1891-1978), John Vertner Sevier, Jr. (1893-1959) and Henry Clay
Sevier (1895-1895). All of the children except Henry Clay were born in
Thomastown, MS indicating that he must have gone back to Mississippi to live
after he was married. Henry Clay Sevier was born in southern Madison Parish
near Afton. Mary Ophelia Sevier died of “swamp fever” at Afton on December 11,
1895 and is buried near Thomastown, MS in the Yockanookany Baptist Cemetery.
After Mary died John
Vertner married Alice Peterkin (1878-1966) and they had a daughter, Vertner
(1907-1943) and a son who died in infancy. Alice died January 25, 1966 and is
buried in Tallulah.
Soon after his second
marriage John Vertner sold his interest in Islington Plantation and became a
planter along the Tensas River in Richland Parish. He apparently continued to
live in Tallulah, however, because he served as a Tallulah Alderman from
1902-1906. He died October 15, 1932 and is buried in Tallulah.
HENRY
CLAY SEVIER, Jr. (Son of Henry Clay Sevier and Nancy Adeline Ophelia Nash)
Henry Clay Sevier, Jr.,
the eldest son of Henry Clay and Nancy Nash Sevier, was born in Thomastown, MS
in 1867. He married Carrie M. DuBard of Attala County, MS on February 2, 1893.
Although he never did live in Madison Parish he later moved to Ferriday, LA
where he was a merchant and owned a hotel.
Henry Clay Sevier, Jr. was
a staunch Methodist and gave the land for the Sevier Memorial Methodist Church
there. He also donated the land for the Ferriday colored high school, which was
named in his honor. Sevier High School apparently does not exist today having
probably been consolidated into the Concordia Parish School System. Henry Clay
had two sons, Robert (1899-1905) and Victor Henry Sevier, Sr. (1900-1944) – the
longtime postmaster of Ferriday. Henry Clay Sevier, Jr. died July 31, 1938 and
is buried in Natchez, MS as is his wife Carrie.
WILLIAM
PUTNAM SEVIER, Sr. (Son of Henry Clay Sevier and Nancy Adeline Ophelia Nash)
William
Putnam Sevier, Sr. was the author of the previously mentioned letter describing his early life at Thomastown and the
only son of Henry Clay Sevier and Nancy Nash to come to Madison Parish to live.
He was born in Thomastown, MS on June 13, 1868 and came to Madison Parish in
the early 1890’s where he became a plantation owner and country store operator.
On November 29, 1898 at Stamboul Plantation in East Carroll Parish he married Ada
Shadburne Graves. Ada, the daughter of John
Francis Graves and Louise Maher Graves and the granddaughter of Philip Maher
a pre-Civil War prominent plantation owner from Milliken’s Bend, was born
August 28, 1877 in Milliken’s Bend.
William and Ada began
their married life near Afton in extreme southern Madison Parish. They later
moved to Lower Banks Plantation a few miles to the north. Their children
included William Putnam
“Buck” Sevier, Jr.,. (1899-1985), Nan Louise
Sevier (1901-1968), John Graves Sevier (1903-1925), Barton
Metts Sevier (1907-1983), Ada Maie
Sevier (1909-1957), James
Douglas Sevier, Sr., (1911-1990), Charlotte Sevier and Laura Eliza Sevier.
William Putnam Sevier, Sr. died November 4, 1943 and Ada died April 10, 1955.
Both are buried in Tallulah.
BARTON
METTS SEVIER (Son of Henry Clay Sevier and Nancy Adeline Ophelia Nash)
Barton Metts Sevier was
born in February 1870 in Thomastown, MS. He married Fannie Turpin, a
Louisianian, before 1900 and their four children included Rebecca (1901-1953),
John Sevier (1904-1968), Catherine Sevier (1906-1994) and Helen Sevier. Barton
and Fannie moved to Georgia where he was a farmer and where all of the children
were born. Barton died in May 1912 in Kosciusko, MS and is buried in the
Yockanookany Baptist Cemetery near Thomastown, MS. It is not known where Fannie
died.
KATHERINE
SEVIER (Daughter of Henry Clay Sevier and Nancy Adeline Ophelia Nash)
Katherine Sevier was born
in Thomastown, MS in 1871 and married Fulton Harvey Hutson, a merchant in
Isola, MS in 1893. Their children were Fulton Sevier Hutson (1894-????) and
Katherine Hutson (1901-1977). Katherine Sevier Hutson died in 1930 in Belzoni,
MS.
OPHELIA
NASH SEVIER (Daughter of Henry Clay Sevier and Nancy Adeline Ophelia Nash)
Ophelia
Nash Sevier was born in Thomastown, MS on April 12, 1874, and is the only
one of Henry Clay Sevier’s daughters to live in Madison Parish. She married
Albert Rowley Nicols in Tallulah on June 6, 1894. According to the Sevier
Family History Mr. Nicols was the superintendent of a cotton plantation in
Pointe Coupee Parish at that time. Their children were Alberta
Nicols (1895-1986), George Nicols (1896-1918), Edwin Nicols (1897-1963) and
Albert R. Nicols, Jr. (1913-1992). Albert Nicols, Sr. died in Tallulah February
25, 1917 and Ophelia died in Vicksburg August 22, 1949. She is buried in
Vicksburg.
LAURA
ELIZA SEVIER (Daughter of Henry Clay Sevier and Nancy Adeline Ophelia Nash)
Laura Eliza Sevier was
born in Thomastown, MS about 1876. In 1898 she married Samuel Preston Herring
of Vicksburg. Their only child, Preston Street Herring (1902-1990), reportedly
was the first baby born in the Street Clinic at Vicksburg where he later became
a physician. Laura died in Innis, LA on November 14, 1944 and is buried in
Vicksburg.
DORA
VICTORIA SEVIER (Daughter of Henry Clay Sevier and Nancy Adeline Ophelia Nash)
Dora Victoria Sevier was born in Thomastown, MS in September 1878 and died there in 1899. She is buried in the Yockanook