Timber was the major industry of Central and Northwestern Louisiana in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Timber companies purchased vast forested acreage and setup operations in a central area, then built a town based on their timber business economy.
"Western Louisiana is dotted with probably as many or more sawmill ghost towns than is East Texas... In 1905, Louisiana Long Leaf Lumber Company (known as the ‘4-L') owned two large sawmills, the biggest at Fisher, Sabine Parish, six miles south of Many on the Kansas City Southern Railroad, and the other at Victoria, Natchitoches Parish, LA, between Robeline and Provencal." (1)
"The Victoria, LA, sawmill was founded on the Texas Central (later Texas and Pacific), forty miles southeast of Mansfield, in 1886...marked on the Hardee's Map as Victoria Mills. At its peak, the Victoria population was about 1,500 persons. In 1905, a newspaper article observed that the ‘mill at Victoria is quite a picturesque spot'. Victoria had both a church and a school house, a dispensary and drug store, a machine shop, a mill office, hotel and boarding house, depot, post office, barber shop, and an elevated water tank and standpipe. In 1936, Victoria cut out its timber, and its machinery and mill hands were transferred to Fisher, LA. Today it is doubtful if more than an old concrete foundation survives to mark the erstwhile location of Victoria." (1)
Other northwest Louisiana towns such as Victoria, Peason, Kisatchie, Alco, Kurthwood, Slage, Simpson, and Bellwood suffered similar fates. But the one thing that did not move with the timber companies was the cemeteries and these can be found throughout the parishes: some large, some small, some well-tended and others almost lost in the reforested areas once home to thriving communities.
Such a cemetery is the Stacy Cemetery, located between Provencal and Robeline, in the area of the former community of Victoria, LA. Located on private property and inaccessible to the public, the cemetery contains the following marked burials as well as several graves marked only with large rocks. Submitted by N. Liles
STACY, W. H. ( 14 Feb 1839 / 24 Oct 1895)
STACY, Matilda Wagley ( 02 Sep 1848 / 10 Apr 1932)
w/o W. H. Stacy
STACY, H. S. ( 11 Nov 1841 / 09 Dec 1910)
STACY, Parthenia ( 08 July 1842 / 18 June 1905 )
w/o H.S. Stacy
STACY, Alexander ( 11 Nov 1872 / 14 Oct 1887 )
THOMASON, Josephine (Miranda Stacy) ( 10 Apr 1843 / 15 Dec 1894 )
d/o Alexander Franklin Stacy and Miranda Stanley Stacy;
w/o John Calvin Thomason;
m/o Daniel Benjamin Thomason;
gr/m/o Woodrow Wilson Thomason.
THOMASON, Wallace ( 20 July 1873 / 25 Sep 1881 )
s/o John Calvin and Josephine Miranda. Stacy Thomason
THOMASON, Newton ( 29 Dec 1867 / 30 Dec 1892)
s/o John Calvin and Josephine M. Stacy Thomason
THOMASON, John C. (06 Mar 1881 / 24 Nov 1896 )
s/o John Calvin and Josephine M. Stacy Thomason
WALDRON, Nancy E. Stacy ( 12 Dec 1875 / 04 July 1931 )
d/o W. H. and Matilda Wagley Stacy
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Note: Both John Calvin Thomason (1837/1928) and his son, Daniel Benjamin Thomason (1872/1942), are buried in Oak Grove Cemetery, near Natchitoches, LA. Woodrow Wilson Thomason (1912/1990), grandson of John Calvin Thomason and Josephine Miranda Stacy Thomason, is buried in Mt. Carmel Cemetery, near Florien, Sabine Parish, LA. Lizzie Bengaman Thomason (1875/1962), wife of Daniel Benjamin Thomason, and mother of Woodrow Wilson Thomason, is buried in Shiloh Cemetery, in Provencal, Natchitoches Parish, LA.
References/Sources:
1. Block, W.T. Early Sawmill Towns of the Louisiana-Texas Bordelands. Dogwood Press, Woodville, TX. ISBN: 1-887745-03-3. Page 49, 56, 57, 61.
2. Screpetis, Patricia Lynn Stewart. The Zachariah Thomason Family: 1804-1997. 2207 Military Highway, Pineville, LA. 71360-4326.
3. Files of Mrs. Reba Goins Jones and N. G. Liles.
4. Information furnished by Mrs. Jo Dison Honeycutt.
5. Conversations / interviews with various family members.
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