- PART 2 -
"The first farmer was the first man, and all historic nobility rests on possession and use of land."
---- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Returning to the McDougall Place, renowned local historian Daunton Gibbs explained in his fascinating article, published in The Era-Leader on April 5, 1978, that the original place consisted of a 640-acre headright. The Penn family owned it before the Civil War, and even then, the family and property already had prominence. Judge Martin G. Penn, who lived on the place at least by 1840, served as District Judge from 1845-1850. The land's landmark pre-war was the old water mill that was situated just to the west of the Louisiana Highway 450 bridge over Catca Creek.
Like their land, the Penn family was also prominent. Several members within the family served in the Civil War in Company "I," Ninth La. Infantry, which was organized as the Washington Rifles by Capt. Hardy C. Richardson in Franklinton. And according to Mr. Daunton, still with Company "I" at the war's end, they were rare local survivors. Apparently, J. G. Penn was captured in Virginia during the Battle of Five Forks near Petersburg. He fortunately retrieved Company "I"'s roster from the battlefield, providing much valuable information about the Company's role during the War between the States.
But the war led to the Penn property's decline. Mr. Daunton cited several reasons that were typical of the time: "frequent raids, shortage of labor and other wartime conditions." After the war's end, in just a few short years, the property was pretty much "in ruins." This was common among the other large farms in the area; they were prosperous pre-Civil War but were in a downturn post-war.
After the war's end, Major Myford Van Buren McDougall (1834-1904) acquired the property, which is surely how it got its name. A former officer in the Confederate Army, he reportedly paid $1200 for the land. Arriving here from Vicksburg, Mississippi, better known as the "Key to the South," he must have been relieved to escape and to find Washington Parish, after the losses in Vicksburg.
Mr. Daunton reported that Major McDougall initially planned to raise "Angola" goats, which I took to mean Angora, on his newly acquired property. Angora goats are elegant, little goats raised either for their meat or for mohair. Mohair isn't as fine as cashmere, but I find it a favorite, quite warm in the New England winters. Nevertheless, with this goat venture being unremunerative, McDougall turned to farming crops.
The McDougall home, which was large and imposing, stood near Louisiana Highway 450, just south of the Catca Creek. In this general vicinity, this road became known as the McDougall Road. The house itself was a frame structure built on pillars six feet off the ground. All that was left of it in the late 1970s was a grove of live oaks.
After Major Myford McDougall drew his last breath on March 8, 1904 (he is buried in the Covington Cemetery, St. Tammany Parish), his son Lindsay W. McDougall (1884-1970), a lawyer in Franklinton, took over the place. Shortly thereafter, he married Florence Nurcelia Babington, the daughter of William Walker Babington (1856-1946) and wife Florence Galnair Magee Babington. The couple tied the knot in April of 1907.
Digressing, Florence's father W. W. Babington, about whom I have written extensively in the past, was particularly important in the history of Franklinton and our parish. A graduate of Soule Business College, he was the president of the Bank of Franklinton; master and grand master of the Masonic Lodge #101; and the mayor of Franklinton. Together with his brothers, W. W. also worked tirelessly to bring the railroad to Franklinton and build our first sawmill, among other notable accomplishments.
Back to his son-in-law Lindsay W. McDougall, he had lived in Franklinton on the corner of Dobson Street and Tenth Avenue in a home, once known as the J. Vol Brock home. But in 1915, McDougall returned to the home where he had been born, on April 9, 1884. Interestingly, some years later his own son W. W. McDougall was born in the exact same room as his father. But in 1922, upon moving to Covington, Lindsay W. McDougall sold his place, and that of his father before him, Myford Van Buren McDougall, to Mr. and Mrs. Fred Yates - Frederick Whitehurst Yates (1894-1968) and wife Camille Gardner Yates. Like his father-in-law W. W. Babington, Lindsay W. McDougall was very involved in Masonry as was Fred Yates, who was a Freemason and member of Franklinton Lodge #101. In the past I have also written extensively on the Yates lineage in Washington Parish.
The Yates resided in the home for approximately fourteen years before, in 1935, selling the McDougall Place to Chester Green (1913-1992), son of Walter and Florence Cornelia Bailey Green, and husband of Victory Carter Green (1918-1987).
The McDougall Place, as it has long been known, occupies a significant place in Washington Parish history. A landmark, as Mr. Daunton noted, it began in the early 1800s with my family - the Brumfields - and enjoyed continued centuries-long ownership by a cavalcade of prominent Washington Parish families - the Penns, the McDougalls, the Yates, the Greens, and those since. But all the old timers remember it as the McDougall Place.
