MURDER ON TEN MILE CREEK
The Saga of Absolom Simeon Nolen & Obedience Wise Nolen: A True Story of Suffering, Courage, and Survival
Introduction —
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Medal Marker on the grave of Absolom S. Nolen,
located on a farm near Sugartown, in Beauregard Parish, Louisiana |
The story of Absolom Simeon Nolen (called Sim or Simmie) has come down in our family in several formats, including oral traditions, voice recordings, and writing. My purpose in this Blog is to share these stories with you using the words of the storytellers as they were passed to me. Therefore, there are three sections.
In the FIRST, I try to give the background information that introduce the reader to: (1) Characters of the drama; (2) the timeline and period that form the backdrop; and (3) the locale/area in which the action takes place.
In the SECOND, I provide copies of two versions of the story for readers to enjoy. I have tried to retain the flavor of the story and the “voices” of the storytellers. I have refrained from reorganizing the accounts or editing. I do on occasion insert a note regarding factual inaccuracies or contradictions between versions.
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Abidia Obedience "Bedie" Wise Nolen,
wife of Absolom Simeon Nolen, and heroine of the Story. |
In the final, THIRD, I relate additional information about the family histories of Absalom “Sim” and Obedience “Bedie,” and the stories of their children. This is for genealogists and those who want to know, “the rest of the story.” I encourage all descendants of Sim and Bedie to read this last section.
NOTE: I originally planned to include this section as part of this Blog, but later decided to create a separate Blog for that information. If you are interested:
https://communicatinglife2.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-history-of-nolen-family-of-louisiana.html
A note on spelling --The Nolen's gave their children imaginative, creative, lyrical names (and they spelled them with equal creativity). Then, after bestowing these wonderful names, the Nolen's proceeded to give nicknames (sometimes multiple nicknames) to all their loved ones. Everyone associated with these stories seems to have multiple names with variable spelling.
Every name from Nolen (Nolan, Nolin, Noland, etc.) to Evan (Ivan, Irvin, Evan, Evans, Eb) to Tillus (Tillis, Tilse, Tilce, Till) seems to have alternative spellings. Since my spelling gene comes from this branch of the family, I am not the person to resolve the "correct" spellings. I have done my best; I try to be consistent; I will not argue that my choices are accurate. Any suggestions are welcome.
PART 1 — THE BACKGROUND
The Storytellers, Witnesses, & Family Historians —
The Genealogists and Family Historians who made these stories available to all of us include:
- Dot Wirth of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. has researched the Wise Family for many years, and generously shared her work.
- Shirley Beason Manning, of Friendswood, TX., A descendant of Absolom and Obedience, who passed on the written version, as it was told to her.
- Hazel D. Miller of New Roads, LA., believed to be a descendant of Absalom and Obedience through their youngest, posthumous son, Absalom Simeon Nolen, Jr. (called Bud and Buddie). She provided the tape recording of Dempsey Akin on which the second version of the story is based. The recording was done in 1978. I have listened to the tape, but did not do an independent transcription.
- Lisa Lynn Lawson Hale of Midland, TX. Lisa provided the transcription of the tape from Hazel D. Miller, which I reproduce in this Blog, and for which I am deeply grateful. I believe she is a Nolen descendant, probably through “Bud” (A. S., Jr.), but I am not certain. I have also found her on-line research on the Aikin (Akin) family. If Lisa reads this, I hope she will contact me. In addition to sharing information, she could provide all of us with additional background on these recordings and transcripts.
- Meredith Heard of Baton Rouge, LA. Meredith was my
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Meredith George Heard, great Grandson of A. S. Nolen,
In Naval Uniform during WWII |
Uncle (great grandson and namesake of Merida Tillus “Till” Nolen). He was a favorite storyteller in our family and it was from him that I first heard the stories of “Sim” and “Bedie” Nolen. His version of the story did not differ in substance from that given in these two versions. It is where differences or questions arose that I have devoted time and effort to clarifying the factual information (These are: What was Sim’s role in the Civil War?; Why did the Nolen family move to Sugartown in the middle of a War?; Which force did Sim intend to join, Confederate or Union?; And Were the killers Jayhawkers or Home Guard? Thus, while I do not use Uncle Meredith’s exact words, his spirit and inspiration are behind the work.
The Storytellers who contributed the Stories include:
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Dempsey Akin on his 89th birthday, in 1981.
He would live, and tell the Nolen Stories for another decade. |
- Dempsey Akin — Dempsey plays a crucial roll in the preservation of this story. “Demps” as he was called lived to be 98 years old (1892-1990). He knew the story well because both of his parents were involved in the events, and their lives were forever changed. While Demps did not witness the events, his Father (Samuel Sylvester Akin/Aikin) was an eye-witness to the aftermath of the murder of Sim Nolen, and participated in the first burial. Demps’ Mother, Mary Nolen Aikin, lost her father as a result of the murder, and was an eyewitness to all the things that happened to Bedie and the Nolen children after their father’s death. The marriage of Mary Nolen to Samuel Silvester Akin, the boy who helped bury her murdered father, is one of those strange twists of family history. In another twist of fate, the woman who stopped to help bury Sim, Vashti Boyd Wells Mashon, was the grandmother of Demps’ wife, Emma White Akin, providing yet another personal link between storyteller and the eyewitnesses. The Akin family is listed among the earliest settlers of Hineston.
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| A.S. Nolen, III, in WWI -- Shirley's kin |
- Shirley Beeson Manning — Shirley wrote her story in 1978, but she says that the story on which it is based was written in the 1950’s. She says the 1978 story was checked by Granny, Mom Dempsey, and Virginia, who found some slight variance. She gives Dempsey (Uncle Demps) credit as the primary source. She also mentions “Uncle Bud” (Absolom Simeon, Jr. who lived until 1927) as a source as well as “Uncle Eb” (Evan R. Nolen, who died in 1871), and “Uncle Eph” (Ephriam Elbert Nolen, who lived until 1932).
The Witnesses cited in the Story
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| Tombstone of Sam Akin |
- Samuel "Sam" Sylvester Akin (Aikin) — Sam had just turned 18 when Sim Nolen was shot and killed. Sam was riding by in a buggy when flagged down by the Richmond sisters. Five years later he would marry the daughter of the man he helped to bury that day. Their youngest son, Dempsey, would one day marry the granddaughter of Vashti Boyd Wells Mashon, another witness to the events.
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| Tombstone of Vashti Boyd Wells Mashon |
- Vashti Boyd Wells Mashon — Vashti was Demps Akin’s Grandmother-in-law (his wife’s maternal grandmother). She was driving a buggy by the scene of the murder shortly after the shooting. Like Sam, she was flagged down by two girls (identified as the Richmond sisters). Vashti seems to have taken charge of the burial. She wrapped her apron around the dead man’s head, and kept one of his gloves and buried the other with him. She believed the gloves could be used for identification. One of Sim’s sons later came to see her, and she gave him the glove. Her home was located on what was then known as the Wade Robertson Place (previously the Col. Hathaway place) located on the Calcasieu River below Hineston crossing, on a road known as the Military Highway or the Merchant Highway. Vashti died in 1909, but both Demps and his wife remembered her and her story.
- Henry Collins — According to Demps’ account, Henry Collins was the source of the specific information about the details of the murder. Henry was part of the “Home Guard” or “Jayhawkers” who rode with Capt. Jim Martin on April 17, 1864. When Demps was a boy, Henry would occasionally stay with the Akin family (Sam and Mary Nolen Akin). Henry apparently regretted his participation in the affair, saying that he only rode with Martin in order to stay out of the army. He told the family the details of Sim’s capture and execution.
The Main Characters —
Absalom Simeon “Sim” Nolen, Sr. — On the day of his murder, April 17, 1864, Sim Nolen was 45 years old. He had been married to Abidia Obedience “Bedie” Wise for 21 years. Twelve children had been born to the couple, and Bedie was pregnant with a thirteenth. Their 10th child, a son named Acy, had died three years earlier (in 1861) at the age of two. Their first-born, a daughter named Arcadia, had died two years earlier (1862) at the age of 18. Their second (and oldest living) daughter, Arena Susan, was no longer living at home, having married David Frank “Doc” Garlington a year earlier, on Jan. 22, 1863.
Doc and Arena were married in Jan., and their first child (Sim and Bedie's first grandchild) was born in December. Over the eight years of her marriage Arena would give birth to 9 children. She would die in June of 1871, and Doc would remarry and have a child with his new wife by March of 1872. Doc served in the Confederate Forces, but records indicate he developed a hernia which apparently resulted in his discharge. Doc and Arena and their young son were apparently the first members of the Nolen Family to make the move from Claiborne Parish to Beauregard Parish. We don’t have exact information on when they made the move, but it was within the first year of their marriage.
Until 1863, Bedie and Sim and their children made their home on a farm near Lisbon in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana. They had owned the farm since 1850, and both of their extended families and many close kin lived nearby.
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| Land Grand of 1850 to Absolom Simeon Nolen from President Zachary Taylor |
On March, 15, 1862, (not long after little Acy’s death) Sim enlisted as a Pvt. In Company G of the 25th Louisiana Infantry. He participated in battles at Farmington, Mississippi (Oct. 8, 1862); Perryville, Kentucky (late Oct., 1862); and Murffreesborough, Tennessee (Dec. 3, 1862).
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| Louisiana Training Camp in Civil War |
Sim almost certainly didn’t make it back to Lisbon for his daughter Arena Susan’s marriage to David Frank “Dock” Garlington, because he was in battle in Jackson, Mississippi on July 12, 1863. That fall he was in Tennessee for the battle of Chickamauga (Sept. 20, 1863). Finally, his military service ended at the Battle of Missionary Ridge on Nov. 25, 1863.
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CSA Muster Roll from March, 1862
Time of Enlistment |
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CSA Muster Roll from Sept.-Oct. 1863
Just before Battle of Missionary Ridge |
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| CSA Muster for 1864-1865 |
Sim was wounded at Missionary Ridge, which has been described as the low point in Confederate military performance, or more simply as a useless massacre caused by the inept, leaders of the Confederate forces. Sim was furloughed and sent home to recover from his wounds. How he made the long journey from Tennessee to north Louisiana is not known. Only a few trains ran, and these did not go past the Mississippi, which was held by the Union. He certainly had to pass through Union lines.
After his return from Missionary Ridge, Sim and Bedie (who became pregnant shortly after Sim’s return) packed up their belongings and made the move 180 miles from Lisbon in Claiborne Parish to
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| Photo of an Ox drawn wagon from this Era |
Sugartown, in what is now Beauregard Parish. The move was made in ox-drawn wagons. They drove the livestock, and carried chickens and geese in cages. For reasons about which we can only speculate, they choose to move their entire family across the state at a time of extreme danger.
So let's speculate. After years of considering complex, political motivations (such as turning against the Confederacy, or disgust with War, or simply a fear of returning to combat), I have come to believe that their motivation was simple -- parental love. Having recently lost their baby and their eldest daughter to death, I think Bedie and Sim moved across the state to be near their oldest living daughter and their grandchildren. Bedie was a mother with a 19-year-old daughter, who had one baby, and was expecting another. She wanted to be near daughter and grandchildren, and she didn't want to wait for the War's end. Census records show that the Nolen's settled near two Garlington Families already living in Sugartown.
Whatever their motivation, they had to be brave and determined or foolhardy (or all of the above) to make such a move. The Union Army, with 30,000 troops under the command of Major General Nathaniel P. Banks held the Mississippi River, and were massing in the town of Alexandria, preparing to launch the Red River Campaign, which would last from March 10, 1864-May 22, 1864. The Nolen family’s move took them through the heart of besieged Louisiana.
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Official Map of Red River Campaign
Sugartown is Southweast of Alexandria |
Sim and Bedie and the nine children had barely settled into their new home in Sugartown when Sim left his pregnant wife to return to the conflict. I was told that Sim plowed the fields, planted the crops for fall harvest, and secured the fences and pens for the livestock before heading back to the War. He left his new home in Sugartown in early April, 1864, about the time the Battles of Mansflield (April 8) and Pleasant Hill (April 9) were being fought. When he set out, he could not have known whether northwest Louisiana would remain in Confederate control, or be taken by Union forces.
There is still confusion and speculation about whether Sim was
going to join the Confederate or the Union Forces. If he wanted to join his old unit in the Confederate Army, his travel route would have taken him almost due East. If Sim had taken this route he could have joined the 25th in the Atlanta Campaign, possibly arriving in time for the battles at Mill Creek Gap (May 7) and Resaca (May 14-15).
When he set out from home, the Union naval force was north of Alexandria moving up the Red River, and it was probably a good time to cross the Mississippi behind Union lines. However, by the time Sim reached Alexandria, Bank's retreating land and naval forces were returning, reinforcing the city, and patrolling the River. Moving east would have been risky.
If Sim wanted to join the Confederate forces massing in North Louisiana to oppose the Union invasion, he needed to go almost directly north along the west side of the Red River. If he followed this route, he would have received word of the Battles at Mansfield and Pleasant Hill and learned that the Confederacy had prevailed and that the Union forces were in retreat. He was behind the lines of the Union retreat, and he had missed the major battles. Heading home may have seemed the wisest course.
If he wanted to join the Union forces, they were only a few miles to the east. There was absolutely nothin to stop him from enlisting in the Army of the Republic. The second regiment of the Louisiana Volunteers were fighting with the Union forces under Banks, and would have welcomed him. If Sim's intent was to join the Union Forces, something must have changed his mind.
The following passage which describes what happened in Alexandria a month after Sim's death gives insight into the passions of the conflict there.
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| Artist's depiction of the Burning of Alexandria by Jaw-hawkers |
The Jay-hawkers [Louisianans loyal to the Union] kept their promise to burn the place rather than have it go into the hands of the enemy again. About daylight this morning cries of fire and the ringing of the alarm bells were heard on every side. I think a hundred fires must have been started at one time. We grabbed the few things we had to carry and marched out of the fire territory, where we left them under guard and went back to do what we could to help the people. Fires were breaking out in new places all the time. All we could do was help the people get over the levee, the only place where the heat did not reach and where there was nothing to burn. There was no lack of help, but all were helpless to do more than that. Only the things most needful, such as beds and eatables, were saved. One lady begged so for her piano that was got out on the porch and there left to burn. Cows ran bellowing through the streets. Chickens flew out from yards and fell in the streets with their feathers scorching on them. A dog with his bushy tail on fire ran howling through, turning to snap at the fire as he ran. There is no use trying to tell about the sights I saw and the sounds of distress I heard. It cannot be told and could hardly be believed if it were told. Crowds of people, men, women, children, and soldiers, were running with all they could carry, when the heat would become unbearable, and dropping all, they would flee for their lives, leaving everything but their bodies to burn. Over the levee the sights and sounds were harrowing. Thousands of people, mostly women, children and old men, were wringing their hands as they stood by the little piles of what was left of all their worldly possessions. Thieves were everywhere, and some of them were soldiers.
In the end, Sim didn’t return to the War to fight on either side. Somewhere northeast of the Calcasieu River, west of Alexandria, Sim turned around to return to Sugartown. We will never know what his original intent was, nor what news changed his mind. We only know that on his return route, he forded the Caleasieu River at Hineston Crossing, and was traveling toward the Ten Mile Creek community when he was stopped by a group of "Jayhawkers" led by Capt. Jim Martin. What happened next is the subject of the story to come.
To further confuse our understanding of Sim's actions, we found that he had a nephew also named Absalom Simeon Nolen, and for years we were unsure whether the thoroughly documented Confederate Records for S. A. Nolen (Initials reversed because he was called by his middle name) referred to the Uncle, or the Nephew, or both). However, this passage from the Records of Louisiana Confederate Soldiers and Commands, pg. 1291, seems to settle that question. The summary report on S. A. Nolen says, “Wounded at Missionary Ridge in the bloody Confederate defeat at the hands of Grant and Sherman, 1/3 of his unit was killed and another 1/3 wounded. He was sent to hospital. Military roles dated May, 1864 -- Feb., 1865 state that he was absent, possibly sent home to recuperate. He was killed by Jay Hawkers at Ten Mile Creek in Vernon Parish during this time.”
This official record identifies our S.A. Nolen as the Confederate soldier and as the murder victim. It also characterizes Jim Martin and his gang as Jay Hawkers, not Home Guard, a critical distinction.
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| Certificate Recognizing S. A. Nolen's Service in the CSA Military |
Jim Martin — Jim Martin, sometimes given the title of “Captain,” is the unchallenged villain of this tale (at least from our family’s perspective). He was either part of the notorious Calcasieu Jayhawkers or the leader of a irregular unit of the Home Guards. There is a critical distinction, often misunderstood by Sim's descendants, between these two groups. Jayhawkers were Southerners who sympathized with, and supported the Union; while Home Guards were irregular, guerrilla supporters of the Confederate Cause.
In the Hineston Chronicles, Don C. Marler of Hineston (the settlement closest to the site of Sim's murder) described the complex relationship between Jayhawker and Home Guard, saying:
"Those persons who supported the Union and those who supported neither side were called “Jayhawkers” – not to be confused with the Kansas Jayhawkers of an earlier time. Home Guards were Confederate companies that existed primarily to capture and kill Jayhawkers. They were ordered to not shoot them as “powder was too dear”. They were to hang them. The older men were usually held back for this service, and they were indigenous to the area. Therefore, they were in the uncomfortable position of hunting down and killing their neighbors. In those days there was no provision for conscientious objection to war service. So, the very lives of those who could not serve in good conscience were at stake. In order to avoid capture and certain death they hid out in the swamps.
The Hineston area, especially in the old Neutral Zone territory, and up and down the Calcasieu and Sabine Rivers, were hotbeds of Jayhawker activity. The local populace was often sympathetic to their plight, especially when their young children were affected. Many Jayhawkers committed petty crimes such as stealing from the local farm fields in order to eat. Some turned to more serious criminal enterprises. As one might expect some old grudges were settled and with neighbor killing neighbor new feuds and grudges were created and escalated to high levels. The Home Guards often carried out these personal feuds with vengeance and committed crimes of their own. They were often confused with the Jayhawkers themselves in the minds of the people. Researchers today have to take care when told that a Jayhawker did this or that—it may have been an act of a Home Guard."
From our family’s perspective, the difference between Jayhawker and Home Guard is unimportant. Jim Martin’s criminal guilt is evidenced not just by the cold-blooded murder of Sim Nolen and the theft of his horse, but by two additional facts: (1) When Southern patriots in Louisiana joined Maj. Gen. Richard Taylor’s forces to oppose the conquest of Louisiana, Capt. Jim Martin stayed safely behind the Union Lines in Rapides and Beauregard Parishes; and (2) At the close of the War, when the men who had served honorably were returning, Jim Martin chose to move his family out of the state to Vidor, Texas, where he was not so well known (or hated).
Jim Martin’s harassment of the widowed Bedie Nolen and her children was as vicious and barbaric as the murder. There was a Martin farm (I don't know if it belonged to Jim) not far from the Nolen farm, and the Nolen children regularly saw Jim riding the big black horse he had stolen from their dead father. While he is not directly mentioned in the subsequent “attacks” on Bedie, his involvement is suspect. One story, told in Sugartown, was that the Martin’s broke the stone tombstones on Bedie and Sim’s graves, and used the pieces to pave a walk to their steps. One of the unsolved mysteries of this story is how Sim and Bedie (who had only been in Sugartown for a few weeks) could have evoked the hatred that the Martin's exhibited.
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| Bedie Wise Nolen |
Abidia Obedience “Bedie” Wise — was born in Copiah, Mississippi on Aug. 10, 1827, the eleventh of fifteen children born to James Gideon Giles Eugene Wise (yes, he had 4 given names) and Amelia Permelia “Millie” Miller (originally Mueller). She was 17 when she married Sim Nolen; 18 when their first daughter, Arcadia was born; 37 when her husband was murdered and she gave birth to their 13th child; and only 53 when she died.
Bedie is without doubt the heroine of this tale. After Sim’s death, she bore his posthumous son, naming the child for the father. She unearthed, moved, and reburied Sim’s body near their home, and protected it until she was buried beside him in 1880. She faced down a gang of marauding raiders; survived the burning of her home and the kidnapping of her entire family; and still had the hutzpah to track down her husband’s murderer and demand (and achieve) the return of Sim’s stolen horse. The courage, fortitude, and strength she exhibited is absolutely remarkable in any time or place. I am so proud to be her great, great granddaughter.
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1870 Census showing the Nolen Household headed by Obedience (age 42) with 8 children.
Neighbors include 2 Garlington Families and a Martin Family. Note that Evan/Ivan
is shown as older than Mary. Jane who married Thomas Hill in 1869 is not
in the household, but Alice, Francis, Richmond, and
Absolom are listed. The older girls are shown as "keeping house" and the older boys
as farm laborers. No occupation is given for crippled Alice or the 3 younger children. |
The Nolen Children — In this section, I review the Nolen Children briefly, reserving more information about their lives for the final section:
In at least one account, Bedie and Sim's first child was son who died in early infancy. I don't have verification, and have not included this unnamed infant in the family.
Arcadia M. Nolen was the eldest of the Nolen children, and died at age 18, two years before her father’s murder.
Arrena Susan Nolen was the second child, born in 1845. She married David Frank “Doc” Garlington on Jan. 22, 1863, less than a year after her sister’s death, and two years before her father’s murder. Arena and Doc moved from Claiborne to Beauregard, and a desire to be near this daughter and their grandchildren may have motivated Sim and Bedie’s move to Sugartown. Arrena would survive her father by only 7 years, and would leave 9 children.
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| Tombstone of Mary L. Nolen Akin |
Mary L. Nolen, the third child, was sixteen when her father was murdered. Five years later, she would marry Samuel Sylvester Akin, who as a teenager helped bury her father after the shooting. Their youngest son, Dempsey Akin would become the storyteller.
Jane Nolen, the fourth child was barely14 when the events of this story unfolded.
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| Jane Nolen Hill |
Evan (or Ivan or Irvin) Nolen was the fifth child and first son born to to Sim and Bedie. He was only 13 when the death of his father left him, “the man of the family.” I believe that Evan was the son who established the dangerous, but profitable business of hauling merchandise to and from Alexandria. However, in the Hazel Miller version of the story, it is “Eph” (Ephraim Nolen) who has taken the oxen to
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| Original Tombstone of E. E. Nolen in the Hill-Mathis Cemetery |
Alexandria when his Mother dies. Either both boys were in the hauling business, or the similarity of the names created confusion. In her version of the story, Shirley Beeson Manning refers to him as “Uncle Eb.” She refers to his younger brother, Ephraim as “Uncle Eph.” In her version, Evan (Uncle Eb) accompanies Obedience to recover the body and then to retrieve the stolen horse.
Merida Tilis “Till” Nolen was the 6th child and second son. He
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| Merida Tillus "Till" Nolen as a young man. |
was 11 when this story takes place. He was my great grandfather, and according to our family’s version of the story, Till accompanied his mother her travels, first to dig up and move his father’s body, and then to Vidor to reclaim his father’s big black horse. In the Hazel Miller version, it is Till who makes the trip to Vidor with Obedience.
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| Old Anacoco Cemetery in Vernon Parish |
The 7th child, Alice Canada Nolen was crippled. Stories relate that she was carried from place to place. She was only 9 when these events occurred. She is buried in the Old Anacoco Cemetery in Vernon Parish.
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| Arrilla Relety Nolen Lanier |
The 8th child, Francis Marion Nolen was named for the “Swamp Fox,” and my grandmother and I are named for him. He was 7 during these events. He is called “Uncle Franz” in the second story.
Arrilla Relety Nolen, the 9th child was only 6. She became a beautiful woman.
The last four children were all sons. Asa “Acy” H. Nolen died at the age of 2, three years before the events of this story. Sim left for War not long after little Acy’s funeral.
Franklin Richmond Nolen (called “Uncle Rich”) was only 4 when his father was murdered. He lived to be 93, dying in 1953, having outlived his other siblings by over 20 years.
Ephraim Elbert “Eph” Nolen was born not long after his father left for War, and was only two when his father was shot. There is some confusion between “Uncle Eb” and “Uncle Eph.”
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| Absolom Simeon "Bud" Nolen, Jr. |
The thirteenth, and last child, Absolom Simeon “Bud” Nolen, Jr., was born after his father’s death. Sim Jr.’s oldest son was named Dempsey and his second son was Absolom Simeon, III. I have had difficulty distinguishing between Dempsey Nolen and Dempsey Akin. The cousins were about the same age, were both apparently storytellers, and were both were called “Uncle Demps.” Demps Nolen died in 1949, and thus was not the Uncle Demps on the tape recording; so Demps Akin has received credit. If I am mistaken in this, I hope someone will offer corrections.
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A mid-life image of Till Nolen, who rode
a bay stallion descended from his
Grandfather Sim's Big Black |
Sim’s Big Black Stallion — The big, black stallion figures prominently in both stories. Apparently the Nolen men were not tall, but they loved, and bred some fine, and very tall horses. All my life I have heard descriptions of my Great Grandfather Till Nolen’s big, bay stallion. By tradition Till’s horse was descended from
Sim’s big Black. Some have hypothesized that Sim’s fine horse, which had carried him through two years of war, was the motivation for his murder.
The Setting —
Claiborne Parish is located in Northwest to North Central,
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Louisiana Parishes --
Claiborne in Red and Beauregard in Green |
Louisiana, with its northern border forming the state boundary with Arkansas. Beauregard Parish is located in West Central Louisiana with its western border forming the state boundary with Texas. Claiborne was carved from old Natchitoches Parish and Beauregard from old Calcasieu Parish. In miles, the distance between the towns was, and is, about 180; but in the mid nineteenth century, they were worlds apart.
In terms of the people, dialect, religion, and agriculture, Claiborne
Parish is comparable to northern Georgia, northern Mississippi, southern Arkansas, southern Tennessee, or northern Alabama. While a few French hunters and trappers had explored the region, real settlement and agricultural development did not begin until after the area became part of the United States. Between 1812 and 1860, settlement gradually accelerated. Most of the settlers were Upland Southerners (speaking predominately the ‘R-keeping” Mountain Southern dialect). Flatland Southerners, like the Nolens, were in the minority.
While there were a few wealthy farmers with large land holdings
and slave labor, most were small farmers without slaves, or with only a family consisting of husband, wife and children. There were many slaves in the area, but whites outnumbered Africans. The primary crops were cotton (for cash) and corn (for livestock and cornmeal). When the question of secession was raised in 1860, the vote in Claiborne favored the proposition.
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Note the White area of Louisiana not drained by
the Mississippi, and not part of the purchase. |
The land in Claiborne is higher in elevation than much of the rest of the state, and the streams all drain South and East, reaching the Mississippi through different routes. While this “drainage” may seem trivial, it is key to the history of the region. Because the land is drained by the Mississippi, Claiborne and its neighboring parishes were part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, and part of Louisiana when it achieved statehood in 1812. This was not true of Beauregard Parish, which is drained by the Sabine River, and was not part of the Louisiana Purchase or the original state of Louisiana.
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Louisiana Lands not drained by the Mississippi and thus not
part of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase |
An early history of the region, written in 1886 (and republished in 2000) describes the area and the settlement:
The country then was almost entirely covered with a dense thicket of brush, briars and vines. Cane was abundant on all the streams and abutting hill points, but fire breaking out and spreading, all over the land, killed this mass of brush, while a second fire cleaned off all the face of the land, leaving it an open, beautiful country. You could see a cow or deer as far as the eye could reach through the intervening living timber. New grasses sprang up, the wild pea vine and switch cane, and a better range for farmer’s cattle, hogs, deer and turkey was never seen.. . . . .
Although the tide of emigration had been steadily increasing in
volume, it was not till 1850 that it reached its flood; then the rush, by land and by water, was continuous and immense, particularly to the eastern portion of the parish. Up to about that year, this part of Claiborne was rather thinly populated but those that had come in were of the best material. It was composed of such families as that of O'Banon, Hargis, Dr. Bush, Thomson, Nolan, Williams, Smith Barber, Wasson, Bruce, Kennedy, Hall, Nelson, Wafer, Bullock, Aitken, Stephenson, Dyer, Gee, Butler, Henderson . . . .
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Modern Road Map showing
alternative routes from Lisbon
to Sugartown |
Beauregard Parish has a more complex history and a more diverse population. Louisiana Folklife understates the truth when it says: “Understanding this region involves first understanding its history and then understanding the people and the lore that this history has shaped.”
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| Early Map showing the Neurtal Strip |
Carved from Imperial Calcasieu Parish after the Civil War, Beauregard was one of the Parishes included in what has been called: “The Neutral Strip;” “The Neutral Ground;” “No Man’s Land;” and “The Free State of Sabine.” There has been much recent interest in the history and people of this “buffer zone,” and I have given multiple links above for those who want to read more. Basically, from the earliest Spanish and French explorers, in the 16th and 17th centuries, through the brief years of the Republic of Texas (in the early to mid 19th century), the ownership of this area had been disputed.
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| Route of El Camino Real through the Neural Territory |
From the 16th through the early 19th century, most transportation and exploration was by water. European explorers were greatly interested in controlling major Rivers from their mouths to their sources. The Mississippi was of prime importance, and the French, by claiming all lands drained by this river and it’s tributaries, declared ownership of the heartland of America, from the Alleghenies to the Rocky’s. The Spanish, who moved north and east from Mexico were less focused on River travel, and built roads to access the land they called Texas. Their principle road from Mexico City to Natchitoches, the El Camino Real, passed directly through the disputed region.
These two great European powers faced each other across the strip of land along the Sabine River (Rio Los Sabines). The Spanish settlement Los Adaes and the French Ft. St. Jean Baptist in Natchitoches were established as outposts to defend rival French and Spanish claims. The Arroyo Hondo near Natchitoches and the Calcasieu River, which has its headwaters nearby, eventually formed the eastern boundary of the disputed territory, with the Sabine River forming the western boundary (although some claims extended the boundary all the way to the Neches River). The French and Spanish first disputed the territory; after the Louisiana Purchase the U.S. and Spain debated the border; and finally the U.S. and Mexico became the disputing parties. After Texas independence in 1836, the U.S. and the Republic of Texas surveyed and established today’s boundary. This became the boundary between Texas and Louisiana after Texas gained statehood in 1846.
“While determining exact boundaries of the region is difficult, historian J. V. Haggard defines the region as the area lying east of the Sabine River and lying west of the Calcasieu River, Kisatchie Bayou, and Arroyo Hondo. In its official historical form, the region stretched south until the Gulf of Mexico and north until the 32nd parallel of north latitude, which runs near Natchitoches. However, as a cultural region the southern boundary appears to be Highway 190 and the northern boundary to be Logansport, Louisiana. The Neutral Strip region encompasses the current parishes of Desoto, Sabine, Vernon, Beauregard, the northern portions of Calcasieu, and the western portion of Allen.”
In 1864, when Sim and Bedie Nolan moved there, Beauregard Parish had been subject to the rule of law for only 18-28 years. Prior to 1846, the region existed “between worlds,” with no recognized government, no law enforcement, and no property laws.
In the earliest times, Native Americans, displaced from their
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Amazon Price for owning
your own copy is $499.95,
and that is paperback. |
traditional homelands, moved into the area. These were accompanied by both escaped slaves and free people of color, seeking a safe asylum. Some men accused of crimes in other jurisdictions fled to No Man’s Land to escape prosecution. Criminals moved there to pursue their nefarious activities without interference from law enforcement. No one was safe crossing the Strip, and outlaws used it as a “safe haven” when raiding nearby communities in Texas and Louisiana. On several occasions, things got so bad the disputing governments sent joint expeditions of armed soldiers into the Neutral Zone to exterminate criminal bands.
After the former “No Man’s Land” officially became part of the United States, there was substantial conflict over land ownership. The region was now subject to settlement under the United States’ Homestead Acts; however, some of the best acreage had been held by local families for generations.
The region was part of the great long-leaf pine forests. Logging was a major activity, and timber was the primary source of income for many families. There were very few slaves in the racially diverse population, but large numbers of Free People of Color. There were also a large number of people of mixed racial heritage, locally called “Redbones” or “Ten Milers.”
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Modern map showing Sugartown and Alexandria
Hineston is marked by Blue. |
The primary action in our story takes place along the road Sim Nolen traveled from his new farm near Sugartown to somewhere west of Alexandria. The Union Army was retreating from Natchitoches back down the Red River following the Battles of Pleasant Hill and Mansfield (the aftermath of the Red River Campaign).
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| Map showing location of Hineston Crossing |
The locations named by the storytellers in describing the murder are Hineston (where Sim crossed the Calcasieu River) and “Ten Mile,” which designates a Creek, a Community, a road, and, as noted above, the people who lived there. I’ve used the following quote to describe the location of Ten Mile:
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Map showing Hineston Crossing
on the Calcasieu River at Ten Mile Creek |
A map of the southwestern portion of the state shows Ten Mile Creek. According to the map's scale I would describe the 1945 location this way: Its course is about 25 miles long, running in a north/south direction.The headwaters are located about 5 miles southwest of Hineston, LA.Following it south, Ten Mile Creek appears to be about 12 miles due west of Glenmora, LA; about 5 miles due east of Pitkin, LA; about 10 miles due west of Oakdale, LA; and about 20 miles due east of DeRidder, LA.At a point northwest of Oberlin, LA, it ends as it empties into Bundick Creek. Bundick Creek empties into the Calcasieu River.
The road which Sim followed, was called the Military Road (later called the Merchant Road) and was less than a year old. In 1863, after Federal troops captured New Orleans and blockaded the mouth of the Mississippi, General Taylor recognized the need to supply his army (west of the Mississippi) with provisions and ammunition. He ordered that a military road be build from Niblett’s Bluff on the Sabine to Alexandria. Supplies could be brought up the Sabine from Lake Charles to Niblett’s Bluff and transported into central and northwestern Louisiana via the new road. The first leg was built from Neblett’s Bluff to Sugartown, and the second from Sugartown to Alexandria via Hineson’s Crossing.
Politically, there were extreme tensions in Beauregard Parish during the war years. As pointed out in an early history of Beauregard Parish, “A large majority of the people of what is now Beauregard parish were opposed to the secession of Louisiana from the Federal Union; but when the act was passed in the convention, as loyal citizens, a large majority enlisted in the service and served until the close of the war.”
What Mrs. Lether Edward Frazar, author of the quoted history, doesn’t mention are the Jayhawkers and Unionists who became active participants in a covert war against the Confederacy. They have been called the Calcasieau Jayhawkers because much of their activity was centered in this area of the state.
Sugartown is located in the northwest portion of what is now Beauregard Parish. In the mid 19th century, settlers harvested the abundant timber, including pine, cypress, and a variety of hardwoods. They operated small sawmills or floated logs down the streams to Lake Charles. In addition to hogs and dairy cattle, sheep, goats, and a wide variety of domesticated foul were raised. Cotton, corn, and sugar cane were the main crops. The corn was used to make cornmeal; the cane to make syrup, and the cotton and wool to make Lindsey-woolsey for home weaving. There were no large plantations. Then, as now, the sandy soil grew the world’s best watermelons and some of the best sweet potatoes.
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Modern map showing alternate routes
from Sugartown to Vidor, Texas |
Vidor Texas is the remaining site of events in our story. Vidor is located between Orange and Beaumont, and was founded as a lumbering and sawmill center. It’s greatest claim to fame is as, the “most racist town in Texas.”
PART 2 — THE STORIES
STORY VERSION #1 —
As told by Shirley Beeson Manning of Friendswood, Tx.
(Everything in black ink is from Shirley; My comments are in pink, or are inserted as footnotes. The most gruesome details of the story are told in such a matter-of-fact tone, the reader has to pause to imagine the emotions of the scenes depicted.)
Absolom Simeon Nolen, known as Sim Nolen was born about 1810, (1819) probably in South Carolina. He died 17 April, 1864, bushwhacked as he returned from Alexandria where he had gone to sign up with the Union Army (maybe). The Union Army had already pulled out so he set out for home. When he got back to Hineston, a group of supposedly Southern sympathizers, Jay Hawkers, caught up with him, demanded his fine black stallion and told him of their intentions to hang him. Led by a Jim Martin, he (Sim) was asked if he would rather die by being shot. He replied that being shot was preferable to hanging. With his feet and hands tied, he was told to run, which he did. He was shot in the back and fell over a log. His neck was also broken, supposedly from falling over the log.
The shots were heard by a lady who lived in a cabin nearby. She came outside to see what was going on and tried to hail an approaching wagon with a Mrs. Akins and her son, Sam, to ask them to help her investigate. Mrs. Aikens became alarmed at the woman’s shouts and whipped up the team, going a-ways down the road before realizing that the woman was asking for help. They turned the team around and went back. Together the two women and young Sam dug a shallow grave.
One of the women said she could not bear to throw dirt in the poor man’s face so she took off her apron and placed it over his face. They did not know who the man was so they took one of his gloves, which they thought to be very finely knitted, and passed it about the countryside for identification.
It took almost a year before Bedie Nolen identified the glove and learned the story of Sim’s death. She later took one of her sons and brought Sim’s body back to be buried near Sugartown where they lived.
After the war, learning who the murderers were and where they lived, she (Bedie) then took her oldest boy, a mule and a buckboard to Vidor, Texas, where Martin was then living and asked him to give her horse back, as she had thirteen (eleven) living children and needed the horse to farm her land. Martin replied that his wife was off riding the horse, and that he had given her the horse as a gift so he could not return it.
Obedie said she had come for the horse, and she did not believe a Christian woman would want such a gift of those circumstances. She waited until the lady returned and then told her the story. The lady agreed to let her (Bedie) have her horse back and asked her to please stay the night. Obedie did so, but later told that she slept not one wink, as she was sure she and the boy would be murdered in their beds. She sat up all night with her shotgun in her lap. Early the next morning, she got her boy up and they left before the light of day, riding as quickly as possible for home. The trip took about two weeks.
Obedience Lettie Wise was born, probably in Mississippi on 10 August, 1811, (1827) and died 6 April, 1880. She is buried beside her husband in a heavily wooded hillside which has a chain link fence around just two graves. A family of Foshee’s is buried nearby. The graves are outside Sugartown, and without a guide to lead the way probably impossible to find. There are broken, rusted funeral home glass/metal/paper markers on the graves. It seems a shame that so courageous people as Sim and Obedie Nolen would not have a more fitting headstone to mark their graves. (more about their graves in Section 3)
Even though Obedie did not know what had happened to Sim, it is certain she felt he had come to harm. I believe stories about Sim and Obedie well illustrate what history calls, “strong feelings that ran wild throughout the countryside turning father against son, brother against brother.” It is hard for those of our generation to understand what our ancestors were up against regardless of the side they chose as right. Even later generations did not forget, but they did seem to forgive, perhaps there was, for some of them, no other choice, for the years after the Civil War were difficult for all.
One of the reasons for this was that not only had almost every family suffered the loss of their men folk, but the countryside was laid in waste, and not always made that way by the armies, Gray or Blue, as the following story illustrates.
Running the countryside were many desperate men, some whom rode to escape serving in any army, and others who had deserted any cause, and those who saw in the ravages of war a profit to be made out of the spoils and tragedy of others. Such men were known as scalawags, bushwhackers, and the scourge of the earth. These men plundered, killed, stole, burned, looted, murdered and sometimes even gallingly acted as vigilantes, purportedly to serve the law. In reality they knew no law, being only self-serving.
Such men were those who murdered Sim Nolen, and such were those, who one hot summer day rode into the yard of Widow Obedie Nolen. They demanded she give them her flour, sugar, cornmeal, etc. and then, finding no man about the place, told her to pick the corn and round up chickens, the cows and hogs for them — which they would later return to fetch. Very cooly Obedie watched them ride off, and then gathered her children about her, giving them instructions to take everything of value in the house to the woods and bury it. She herself shooed the remaining few chickens and rooster out to the field garden, and then set the horse, mule, and cows to the field. The small boys had rounded up the other cows and a few of the hogs, which were also set to the field. After trampling and ruining the field and the garden, she sent the children off to the woods to hide the stock and to scatter the hogs and cattle. Then she set the garden and fields afire and went back to her house to wait with her children for the marauders to come and see what was burning.
And they did come, riding quickly into the yard, faces flush with anger. Threats were made, and the men plundered and pushed Obedie and her children about, but fortunately did not physically harm any of them. Although Obedie and the children nearly starved that winter, living only off what little had been hidden in the woods, there was not one who, in later years, did not seem to derive great pleasure in the thought of the anguish they had caused those thieves that fine hot summer day.
Remember that Obedie was at this time about 55 (40) years old, and her last born, Simeon was only a small baby, with the oldest boy (Evan/Ivan).in his teens, and the oldest girl (still living and unmarried) about 16 or so. She (Obedie) sure did have spunk and a very definite sense of belief in what was right and wrong. She was obviously a woman of high morals and strong character.
She raised her family all to adulthood, too. With one girl, paralyzed and one boy dying about 1862 at the age of two years, she knew sorrow well, but she never lost faith nor her pride. She was truly a remarkable woman in very hard times.
(Shirley ends her account with this summary of the Nolen genealogy)
This 1978 story is rewritten from the original story written in the fifties with Granny. Mom Dempsey, & Virginia checked the ’78 story. There is some slight variance.
Obedience Lettie Wise and Absolom Simeon Nolen had the following children:
(1). A male child, name not know, who died young.
2). Arkada, who died at the age of 18 years, probably born about 1842. (1844)
(3). Arena who married Doc Garlington, who was a pioneer of Dallas, Texas, and became a very prominent citizen there. The Garlington’s trace their linage back to the Custis-Ball’s of colonial days. (George Washington’s wife’s family)
(4). Mary, who married Sam Aikens, the youngster who had helped to bury her father, and whose son, Dempsey told me the stories I have recounted on the preceding pages. Dempsey Akins and his wife had no children, but he has a nephew who lives in Denham Springs of whom he is very fond.
(5). Nancy Jane who married William Thomas Hill.
(6). Irvin (Evan called Eb)
(7). Till who married Mariah (Maria pronounced Mariah) Jones. She was an aunt to Governor Sam Jones.
(8). Alice, who died as a young lady and was paralyzed most of her life. My grandmother, Mam, remembers Alice being taken to camp meetings and visiting riding on a feather mattress and quilts and pillows in the back of a buckboard. She is buried at Old Anacocoa.
(9). Frances of whom there is no other information at this time.
(10). Acy, the little boy who died about 2 years of age around 1862.
(11). Richmond who married Margaret LaCaze and is buried at Ford Cemetery in BonWeir, Texas. One daughter, Ola, married a Simmons and lives at Honey Island.
(12). Ephraim Edward (Elbert) “Uncle Eph” was born 1831 and is buried at Hill-Mathis Cemetery in Pitkin, Louisiana. The grave is marked, but without dates. “Eph” married two sisters. First he married Lizzie and had 3 children. Second, he married Jane by whom he also had two children. Jane raised all five children. She would not be buried by Eph, saying that he should be buried by her sister and she would prefer being buried by one of her boys. She is at Blue Branch Cemetery in Pitkin, Louisiana. Eph asked Kizzie (may have meant Lizzie?) if she thought it proper for him to marry his wife’s sister and she replied that since Jane already lived in his house and cared for his children as though they were her own, she thought it not only proper but highly necessary! Eph smiled and agreed that he certainly understood that. The family has always recalled this little story with much knee slapping and chuckling.)
(Here Shirley Beeson Manning ends her story)
STORY VERSION #2 —
As told by Hazel D. (Mrs. Nolen C.) Miller
of New Roads, Louisiana;
As related to us by Lisa Lynn Lawson Hale of Midland, Texas.
This tape is of Dampsey Akin, son of Mary L. Nolen and Samuel Sylvestor Akin telling of his grandfather’s death on 17 April, 1864. The first part of this tape is of a woman who was taking the tape for record, retelling the story as Demps told her. The last part of the tape is the actual tape of Demps telling the story, and it is very hard to hear, so I have listened to it and the only discrepancies I could hear was that Absolom Simeon, “Sim” Nolen went to Alexandria in 1862; in Demps’ version of the story. I being Lisa Lynn Lawson Hale, 4207, South Country Road 1135 Midland, Texas. 79701 — July 19, 1990.
“__________7th, 1970. Uncle Demps Akins, a first cousin to my daddy, is goin to tell us a true story as to how my great grandfather, Absolom Nolen was killed during the Civil War, back in 1864. Uncle Demps’ mother, Mary and my grandfather, known as Buddy Nolen were brothers and sisters. I’m going to tell the story as Uncle Demps told it to me.
Grandpaw Nolen was born (living) in Claiborne Parish (when the family moved to) near Sugartown, Louisiana which at that time was in Calcasieu Parish in 1862 (1863). They were five weeks on the route. They moved by ox wagon teams, and on the way through Rapides Parish they stopped at a little place known as Mary (have not located on modern map) Louisiana. While there he (Sim) bought some corn or feed from a Mr. Nelder, and it started an awful rain, and he asked Mr. Nedler for permission to camp there all night. He (Mr. Nedler) told him (Sim) he could, but if he wanted to cross Spring Creek, he’d better cross it that evening because it would be 10 days before he would be able to cross it, the water would be so high. So he (Sim) went on across the creek and camped, and while there they all . . .when they camped, they always arranged their wagons to make a pen to put . . . in which to put the calves at night. The next morning they would milk the cows. They hooked up the wagons and moved on to what is now New Hope Baptist Church, East of Stratto Crossing (have not located on modern map) on the Calcasieu River. There they stayed camped for 10 days (Demps said the River was up too high) and then they moved across on in to Sugartown, Louisiana.
While he lived. . . well he lived there a year or so, well he decided he’d enlist in the army (Sim had been in Sugartown only a few months, and had previously served in the Confederate forces). So he got on his horse and rode to Alexandria, but when he got there, they had run the people,. . .now, I’m, . . . I don’t know what kind of people, I misunderstood so I’ll get that later. But they had run them out of Alexandria so there was no way for him to get in the army, so he started back home, and he got to the Stratto crossing on the Calcasieu River and there the home guards, better known as jay hawkers, captured him and carried him up on Big Creek, about 7 or 8 miles from where they captured him, which is now known as the Merchant Road that connects the Pitkin Road, or Hwy 463 with Hwy 121, and by the way, this place that he is speaking of where they . . uh. . killed my great grandfather is only 3 or 4 miles from where I live right now, where my home is.
They made preparations to hang him, and when they got his hands tied, they asked him if he had something to say and he told them that he would rather be shot than hung, so he ran and they shot and killed him. Well, then they taken his horse and left him lying there on the ground, dead.
About 1/4 or 1/2 mile from there, where he was killed, were two women known as the Richmond girls. They lived there and they could hear all the guns and the noises, and when everything got quiet, they decided to go see what had happened. And they found him there on the ground, dead. They didn’t know who he was, so a Mrs. Wells, its Uncle Demps’ wife’s grandmother, came along on a horse, but not knowing what it was all about, she was hard to get stopped.
She didn’t know him either, so she took her apron, tied his head up in it and they dug, she and these Richmond girls, dug a shallow grave and put him in it and cut poles and built a pole pen around the grave.
Well, so the jay hawkers went on to Sugartown and told the people they had killed a man up on Big Creek. But they didn’t know who he was, but everyone knew the horse.
So mother and grandma (Mary and Obedience Wise Nolen) went to Captain Martin’s headquarters there; he was the captain of the whole gang, and asked for the horse. Well he wouldn’t let her have it, so there was nothing to do but to go back home.
So after about 12 or 14 months, after the War was over, they made a coffin and carried it up there on the Merchant Road and dug grandpa’s remains up and put him in it and took him down close to Sugartown and buried it.
And then to make things worse, the same crew that killed Grandpa came back in the Sugartown community and found Grandma’s house and they moved everything she had out of the house and burned the house down. Then they loaded her and the 12 (10) children up in a wagon, she didn’t have but 12; and moved her off to Alexandria. They intended to take her up North to be a slave for somebody, I suppose. But when they got there, they’s run the Yankees. . .all. . uh. . .out of there. So they had to leave her there, a good 65 miles from home with 12 children.
Well it seems like the Lord always has a hand in some things. Well he has a hand in all things. So there was a neighbor lived in Sugartown community that was in the army, but he had gotten a furlough, ..uh. . they called them then, they call them passes now. So when he came through Alexandria he found, Grandma there, so he came on to Sugartown and told all the people there and so they got up some, uh. . . her oxen and wagons and they came back to Alexandria and got her and the children and brought them back home.
Well she didn’t have any house to live in because the Jay Hawkers had burned it down. So the people built her a log cabin and moved her in it. Now the youngest son, who was named for him, Absolom Nolen, also know as Buddy, Dempsey Nolen’s father was born 3 months after Grandpa was killed.
Well after a short time, Grandma taken one of her sons, Uncle Till Nolen, and she hunted this Capt.Martin up. And he had moved to Texas by then, but she found him and she told him she’d come after her horse. He said, well, you can have him, but my wife is visiting on him right at that particular time.
But she (Mrs. Martin) came in and she was very gleeful until Grandma’s name was announced, and Grandma said she (Mrs. Martin) looked like she almost fainted. Well she (Obedience Nolen) brought the horse back with her.
Well, uh. . . Uncle Demps’ mother (Mary Nolen Akin) said that she (Bedie Nolen) had cleared new ground, split rails, done everything else to make a living, but it looked like that there was tragedy in store for the Nolen family. Uncle Eph Nolen, that was one of her boys, had a good ox team, 4 or 5 yokes of oxen and at that time the merchants of Sugartown hauled their freight from Alexandria by ox teams — there were no other teams there. There was no railroads in this country at that time. So he (Eph) left one morning to go to Alexandria to get a load of freight. Grandma and all of them was well, and it took him 10 days to make the trip. But when he got back, Grandma had died and was buried so that was the last time he ever saw her, so that’s the way it goes.
Well, in the family of Grandpa Nolen, he had 12 (13) children, 7 boys and 5 (6) girls. There was Uncle Eph Nolen who married Della Sigler — they had two children; Ellis who never married, and Mattie who married Neal Roberts; and Uncle Till Nolen, he married Mariar (Maria) Jones and I don’t know about their children, but they had several died as infants; Uncle Eb Nolen, he married a Jeter, in fact he married two of them. Uncle Rich, he married a LaCaze and I don’t know about their children. Uncle Franz married a James — Mattie James, and he moved to out somewhere in Texas where they died; and Uncle Buddy of course, he married Aunt Mag Roberts, Dempsey Nolen’s mother and they had one infant son, two years of age, but I don’t know his name. Now the girls — there’s Aunt Jane. She married Doc Hill, Arrenie, she married Doc Garlington; Rilly, she married a Lanier, and Alice, she was and invalid and she’s buried at Old Anacoco Church; and Mary, that was Uncle Demps’ mother, she married Sam Akins. So that completes, as far as Uncle Demps knows, the family tree of Absolom Nolen.
(Here there is a sudden shift, and Uncle Demps Akin’s Story resumes with His telling of the Trip to Texas to get the horse from Capt. Martin.)
When Grandma and Uncle Til went to Texas to hunt up this Capt. Martin to get the horse, they had to spend the night there in his home and she said that Uncle Till slept all night, but she couldn’t sleep at all. Said that man carried on the worst she ever heard in her life — grunts, groans, praying, and all such carryin’ on. Said she couldn’t sleep a wink. She said she couldn’t slept anyway knowing that she was in the house with the man that had killed her husband. And when Grandma and Uncle Till, before they left to get this horse, she made Uncle Till promise that he wouldn’t do or say anything that would cause trouble because they had trouble enough.
I asked Uncle Demps about the Richmond girls, uh. . . that found him (Sim) and the lady that they flagged down to see if she knew him, but she didn’t know him any more than they did. And she was a Mrs. Wells and she was a Boyd before she married. She was Uncle Demps Akin’s wife’s grandmother, and she lived on what is now known as the Wade Robertson place. It was known then as the Col. Hathaway place, down on the Calcasieu River below the Hineston Crossing, which again is not just a few miles from where I live.
And I also asked Uncle Demps how they knew who this man was who had been killed — how did they know it was our great grandfather? He said that they had found a pair of hand knitted gloves in his pockets. So his (Demps Akin's wife's) grandmother (Mrs. Wells) kept one of the gloves out and buried the other one with him. Said she kept one of the gloves thinking it might be the means of identifying who it is, and of course when they carried the horse down to Sugartown, everybody knew the horse, and they knew who it was that had been killed.
Later on Uncle Demps’ Mother, Mary, which was a daughter of the man who had been killed, and one of her brothers — he (Demps) didn’t know which one of the brothers that it was — they came up to Col. Hathaway ’s place to talk to Mrs. Wells and she showed them the glove and of course his mother recognized it, and that’s another reason they knew who it was.
And I also asked Uncle Demps how do we know that this is a true story of him (Sim) as to how he met his death? And he said we know it because there was a man in the crew by the name of Henry Collins. Said he (Henry) was in the crew that killed him (Sim), but he (Henry) was a good man. He was just there to stay out of the army. And said he (Henry) stayed at their (Mary and Sam and Demps Aiken’s) house different times at night, and he’d (the boy Demps) sit and listen to him (Henry) tell of how they tried to hang him (Sim) and how he ran and he was shot. He (Sim) was killed April 17, 1864.
I am so grateful to Uncle Demps for helping me with this recording, because as far as I know, he’s the only person living that knows all this history of our great grandfather Nolen and how he was killed.
The history of the Nolen family is very near and dear to his (Demps’) heart. I know this is true because when he’s visiting me in my home, I can sit and listen at him tell over and over different things and I can see how he enjoys talking so much about the Nolen generations. I know there’s a lot more information about the Nolen family that I don’t have and I’m going to do my best to get all of it I possibly can and put as much on these tapes as I possibly can so whenever we’re all gone the younger generation can have this tape and they’ll know more about their forefathers.
REST IN PEACE, SIM and BEDIE-- The Burials
As soon as she was able, Bedie brought Sim's remains home for burial. One can only speculate on why she choose to bury Sim in a private plot on their farm, but she placed him where she could see his grave. Sixteen years later, she was laid to rest beside him. Over time, several neighbors (reported to be Foshee's) were buried beside them in the little graveyard. I have already related the legend that the Martin's raided the plot, removing the stones to use for pavings on the walkway to their house.
When the Cemetery at the Sugartown Baptist Church at the main crossroads in the town was developed, the family that had the graves beside Sim and Bedie moved their family members to the new cemetery. My grandparents, James Addison Heard and Clora Frances Nolen Heard, are also buried in the Surgartown Baptist Church Cemetery, less than a mile from her grandparents, Sim and Bedie.
At some point, there must have been a controversy among the Nolen descendants about moving Sim and Bedie. I am persuaded this is true because of the memorial marker placed by their son, Merida Till Nolen, in the Blue Branch Cemetery in Pitkin, Louisiana. Till and his wife Maria (pronounced Mariah) are buried there, and near their graves is a memorial marker for Sim and Bedie. Many people have mistaken this marker for the actual location of their graves. I think Till wanted to move them, but was outvoted by other family members.
In the 1990's my cousin Sara Joe Allerdyce and I conducted a search for their graves. After months of futile research into private cemeteries and land records, and many phone calls, we found nothing except stories of the Martin destruction of the headstones. So we embarked on a in-person, door-to-door search in Sugartown. We hit the jackpot at our second stop. The gracious owner of a dairy walked us to the fenced, but overgrown plot behind her home, where out great, great grandparents are buried.
She told us we were not the first of their descendants to come looking for their graves. I know this is true because I have found photographs taken by other visitors, and stories written by distant cousins. Apparently a desire to visit their graves is felt by many who know their tragic story.
Inside the protective fencing, trees had been allowed to grow, sinking roots deep into the graves. In many ways it was a sad sight, and part of me longed to move their remains to more hallowed ground, or to at least clean and remark their existing graves. I was conflicted.
But as we sat there, absorbing the quiet beauty of the place, I began to feel at peace. This has been their spot on earth for over a century. They have rested peacefully as their decay feeds the pines whose roots embrace their bones. We should all return to our "roots" as truly and simply as Sim and Bedie have.
PART 3
The Ancestors and Descendants of Absolom Simeon and Obedience Wise Nolen
If you are interested in "the rest of their story" or if you are a Nolen descendant, you may want to continue by reading:
This is a brief sample from that Blog:
Out of the Mists of Legend
With the Spotlight of Y-DNA
For many years, I have resisted including the legends of the NOLEN CLAN as part of my family history. And this has been difficult because the Nolen Mythology is absolutely the BEST. But I was resolved to keep this genealogy as factual as possible, and the remote past WAS impossible to prove.
Well, that was once true, but it is no more. In fact under certain circumstances we can be more positive of our ancient roots than of our immediate kin. We have moved into the era of genetic genealogy, and new avenues of investigation are available.
And I won't be shy -- I AM LOOKING FOR NOLEN MEN interested and motivated to do Y-DNA testing to determine which Nolen Linage we are descended through, and whether we are indeed descendants of Niall, (often called Niall of the Nine Hostages), the great King of Ireland.
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| Modern Depiction of King Niall o Ireland |
If you are unfamiliar with the legends of Niall, you are in for some great fun. For a first look at the stories of Niall, I recommend: https://bardmythologies.com/niall-of-the-nine-hostages/. OR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y19x3pp_t7k
You can watch any of a large number of videos on You Tube. Just search for videos on Niall. Niall and Irish history/mythology is currently a very hot topic. I really love the story that Niall won his kingdom because he was willing to kiss a withered, ugly, old hag.
When you are ready for factual information, you may want to try any number of serious books, films, and lectures on Niall. A good start would be: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niall_of_the_Nine_Hostages.
Most histories place Niall in the 5th Century A.D., using the year 400 as an estimated date. However, some experts believe the "historic" Niall lived much earlier.
In recent years, the Y-DNA of Niall has become rather famous, and a bit controversial. Y-DNA is passed down from Father to Son, for generations. Specific mutations can identify different lines, while commonalities can be used to trace back hundreds, even thousands of years. This approach has been used in DNA mapping studies in Ireland. Interesting results have emerged related to surnames associated with Niall (including O'Niall/Niel/Neal and Nolan/Nolen/Noland). The O' means "son of" and indicates the sons of Niall. Nolen/Nolan is the English version of "Nolgiallach," so these surnames, as well as several of others, are associated with Niall.
