SAMPSON THEOPILUS LANE
(1839-1933)
Son of Sampson H. Lane and Lucy Ann (Winfield) Lane, born on a
plantation in Fayette County, Tennessee, about fifty miles east of
Memphis, on September 26, 1839, and died February 28, 1933, at Poteau,
LeFlore County, Oklahoma, buried there in Oakland Cemetery. His father
dying when he was about one year old, when he reached the age of nine his
grandfather Sampson Lane prevailed upon his mother to permit the boy to
live with him, where he was provided with a private tutor until his
grandfather died in 1852. At the age of fourteen years he entered LaGrange
College, located in Franklin County, Alabama, which in 1855 was changed to
LaGrange College and Military Academy, and in 1860 to the LaGrange
Military Academy, the buildings of which on April 28, 1863, were burned by
Federal Cavalry under command of Colonel Florence M. Cornye., He also
attended Emory & Birmingham Southern College Bulletin, Vol. 26, No. 6
(Nov. 1933) issue, p. 23. Henry and Randolph-Macon Colleges, and the
University of Virginia.
Sampson Theopilus Lane, as S. T. Lane, enlisted May 16, 1861, at
Memphis, Tennessee, as a private in Co. A, 7th (Duckworth's) Tennessee
Cavalry, C. S. A., formerly known as Capt. T. H. Logwood's Company
(Memphis Light Dragoons), 1st Tennessee Cavalry, C. S. A. He was captured
near Memphis, Tennessee, October 29, 1863; imprisoned at Alton Military
Prison, Illinois, and at Fort Delaware, Delaware, at which place he was
released on June 11, 1865. As a brave soldier he participated on the side
of the Confederacy in the following battles: Cow Skin Prairie, Bell Mont,
Lockridge Mill, Farmington, Shiloh, Iuka, Oxford, Holly Springs, Davis'
Mill, Middleton, Okalona, Black River, Jackson, Yazoo, and Chickamauga.
After the war returning to Memphis he engaged in the practice of the
law and farming. He joined the Ku Klux Klan under General Forrest and
remained a member until it was disbanded by General Forrest, who stated it
having served its purpose, that it was no longer needed.
In 1871 he was licensed by the Methodist Episcopal Church South at
Memphis, Tennessee, as a preacher of the Gospel and in 1874 entered into
the ministry as an itinerant preacher, being assigned to a pastorate at
Puducah, Kentucky. On May 25th, 1875, he was married to Miss Sallie Bland
Parham at Germantown, Tennessee, where having taken a location from the
annual conference, he taught school for many years. In 1888 he removed to
Little Rock, Arkansas, later teaching school at Atkins and Dardanelle.
Afterwards he was superintendent of a Methodist District school located at
Booneville, Arkansas, continuing in that capacity for a number of years.
Many boys from Indian Territory attended this school and through them he
had occasion to visit their homes, coming in direct contact with the
people of the Choctaw Nation. This occasioned his removal to Poteau on
August 6, 1900. Preaching at various points in what is now LeFlore and
Haskell Counties and teaching school at Whitefield, Shady Point, and
LeFlore, he retained his residence during all that time at Poteau. He
served several terms as Justice of the Peace in the city of Poteau,
resigning therefrom in 1932, a short time before he was 93 years of age.
From 1912 to 1922 he was scout master of the boy scouts, retiring in the
latter year, being the oldest scout master in the world. He was active in
the organization
of the Confederate Veterans, holding places of honor. Retaining his
mental and physical strength, seldom having occasion to use a cane in
walking or glasses with which to read, he taught a Sunday School class in
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in Poteau until within a few days
of his death, endeavoring at all times to walk in the steps of his Master
and to be ready for the final summons.
He left surviving his widow, Sallie (Parham) Lane, and two daughters,
Mrs. H. J. (Linda) Fowler of Poteau, Oklahoma, and Mrs. M. E. (Vera)
Turner of Eufaula, Oklahoma, another daughter Mrs. R. E. (Pat) Patrick,
preceding him in death.2 His available
genealogy is as follows: His father, Sampson H. Lane, born April 18, 1809, killed
accidentally on Christmas day, 1842, and mother, Lucy Ann Windfield,
daughter of Joel Windfield and Francis (Shands) Windfield, were married in
Sussex County, Virginia, May 10, 1838; his grandfather, Sampson Lane, born
in 1772, Charles City County, Virginia, died at Memphis, Tennessee,
December 1852, was married to Mary (Thomas) Allen, who was born in Orange
County, Virginia, in 1792, the marriage taking place in Elbert County,
Georgia, she dying in Desoto County, Mississippi in August 1857; his great-grandfather,
William Lane, born in Charles City County, Virginia, in 1757, serving in
the colonial army, was married to Nancy Healey, who was born in Charles
City County, Virginia. The Lane family coming from England settled in the
colony of Virginia at an early date.
Believing in and living the simple life, and honest and courageous in
thought, speech and act, with no sordid ambition for wealth or
notoriety—an exemplification of a Southern Gentleman of the Old School,
he lived a long and useful life.
Source: Chronicles of Oklahoma, Volume 11, No. 4, December 1933, p
1126.
