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Subject: [LAEVANGE] Re: Jacob Keller m. Massie Thompson, p. 26, "Looking Back: A Narrative History of Bayou Chicot" by Mabel Alice Thompson
Date: 6 Aug 2002 11:50:53 -0600

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.

Surnames: Keller, Thompson, Scott, Glaze
Classification: Query

Message Board URL:

http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/EEB.2ACI/256.1.3.1

Message Board Post:

Dear Michael,

"Another name in the building blocks of the Bayou Chicot structure is that of the Kellers. Jacob Keller married Massie Thompson, a sister of Edmund Thompson, who had married Rachel Scott. (The Edmund Thompsons would be my great grandparents, as Edmund and Rachel were my grandmother Scott's parents.)

"Jacob and Massie owned the Star Plantation near Eola, Louisiana, and their children were Jim, Henry, and Dave. After Massie's death, Jacob married a Miss Hargrove, and had other children. The Kellers spent their summers in Bayou Chicot at Prescott Springs, as they found the hill section more healthful. The drinking water here was much better, too.

"It was Jacob and his relatives that built the high walls around what is known as the "Old Brick Cemetery", as the burial spot for themselves and relatives. This cemetery is located in the bend of the old stage road. Jacob died in 1844 and his tomb was the last one standing.

"Jacob and Thomas Keller were cousins. Thomas built one of the finest old homes in the community at that time, and the only one having a cellar. He and his wife, Melinda Montgomery, and their children Lucinda, Delia, John James, Sarah Ann, and Eugenia, lived here many years. Melinda was born in 1801, and died in 1835 in January, and Sarah Ann also died in 1835 and both have markers in the Vandenburg Cemetery. I have no knowledge of where the other members of this family were buried.

"On the record books in the Court House in Opelousas, Louisiana, it states that Isaac Griffith, John H. Overton, and Marsden Campbell were the appraisers of Thomas Keller's property in 1838.

"Jacob and Thomas were supposed to have been related to the famous Helen Keller. Many years ago she wrote to Mrs. Robert Windes Tatman, whose mother was Nancy Keller, asking if she knew where Jacob, Thomas, and others of the family were buried.

"John T. Heath came into the community as a young man from South Carolina, met and soon married Charlotte Ferguson, daughter of Daniel and Esther Peak Ferguson. Mr. Heath bought the property and house from the Thomas Keller heirs, and here he and Charlotte reared their large family.

"The house was said to have been one of the finest in the community. After the Heaths were all gone many other families made their home here, among them Gomer Guillory and family, the Henry Singleton family, the A. S. Baker family, and last Henry P. Griffith, wife and daughter, Frances. It was then the property of the Sam Haas family as Charlotte Heath sold the place to him after her husband's death.

"The tenants on the Haas farms were allowed to tear this fine old home down to use the cypress boards for fencing, kindling, and other uses."

"One of Eliza Glaze Murdock's brothers was also a doctor. He was Dr. Patrick Henry Glaze who was born in South Carolina. He lived in Avoyelles Parish until about 1850 when he went with his family to Madison County,Texas, and later died in Houston", p. 15

Best regards,

Rosie Morein Wells
Birmingham, AL

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