•PART TWO
"Yes, though I have nothing but gratitude for my upbringing in the church." --- John McGahern, renowned Irish novelist.
Born on the second day of February in 1904, Frank Lampton Richardson, the son of Stephen Pinkney "Pink" Richardson (1849-1907) and wife Lena Leota Burch Richardson (1864-1952), attended the Gorman School that his father had helped establish. He grew up at Richardson and in the Fisher Methodist Church, which his father also helped build. Sadly, I learned the historic church was to close at the end of last year, with the last service held on the eighteenth of December 2022. One of my favorite friends, Jill Bulloch, played the music at Fisher, until its closing.
Back to the Richardsons, Frank's son R. W. "Dick" Richardson explained that his father held several early jobs, including operating a filling station and working for the WPA. The WPA was the Works Progress Administration, created in 1935 as part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, which provided employment to many Americans who performed public works projects. These included the construction of buildings, parks, bridges and roads. And Mr. Frank also built his prosperous pulpwood business.
In the late 1920s he married Nora Wood who was born in 1905 to Delos Charley Wood (1872-1934) and Mary Ellen Pierce Wood (1874-1951). The Woods lived on Bickham Street where their great-grandson Thomas Richardson has his CPA office today. And they had nine children: Annie Ethel Wood (1893-1898); Agnes Wood (1895-1973), who married Henry Prentiss Magee; Ernestine Wood (1897-1973), who married Ellis Ewen Drake; Edith Wood (1897-1975), who married Cynicus D. Tisdale; Emma Wood (1901- 1990), who never married; Abner Poole Wood (1904-1993), who married Verne Richardson first and Ella Rivet second; James Wood (1909-1911), Joe Lillard Wood (1911-1935), and of course Nora (1905-1992).
It was the amiable Woods, with strong family tradition, who avidly assembled. Grandson Dick and wife Marilyn vividly recalled the offspring of Delos Charley and Mary Ellen Pierce Wood, revealing each Wood aunt and uncle and providing nuggets of information as I attempted to keep track. Exactly as with the Richardsons, these connections relate Mr. Dick to most every family in Washington Parish. His words reverberate, "You see how my roots run." They run deep. And as a result, according to Ms. Marilyn, this leads to a lot of familial funeral going.
Digging into the past, I was intrigued to learn that Ernestine Wood Drake and Edith Wood Tisdale, Mr. Dick's aunts, were twin sisters. Coincidentally, Edith Tisdale was the mother of my childhood dentist, Dr. Walter Tisdale of Bogalusa. That takes me back. And Mr. Dick's Uncle Abner Poole "A.P." Wood, who became manager of Valley Electric in central Louisiana, had a daughter Jeanette Wood (McMurray) who is Mr. Dick's double first cousin - a novelty which is neat and something I relate to as I have my own double first cousin in Tylertown.
But I thought it very sad that Mr. Dick doesn't much remember his Grandfather Delos Wood. He has been told that they sat together while his grandfather drank coffee. Chief Criminal Deputy Sheriff Delos Wood was tragically killed in the line of duty in 1934. As Mr. Dick explained, his grandfather was a range rider --- a perilous role --- ensuring that farmers dipped their cows in the vat, as per the law. A fellow at Clifton had refused to cooperate, preventing a range rider from inspecting his livestock, on a prior occasion. This culminated in tragedy when Delos Wood returned with an entourage to investigate on July 21, 1934. He was attacked and then shot to death, after he attempted to make arrest. A shooting ensued with several wounded. But that is not today's topic. My focus --- in my remembrance of the Richardsons --- is on Delos Wood, husband, father, and grandfather, who had been with the sheriff's department for eight years.
Born in February of 1933, ninety years ago this month, to Frank and Nora Wood Richardson in a home situated just off Bickham Street, Dick was a mere baby when he lamentably lost his grandfather Delos Wood. But soon after, he made his family proud describing the event as only he can, "My first claim to fame was I was best boy baby at the Fair."
And in my opinion, he also earned the title of best grandson --- for after his Grandfather Wood died, Dick faithfully spent every night thereafter with his Grandma Wood, next door on Bickham Street. Real responsibility. Describing to me how he would get dressed in his pajamas and then stroll next door to sleep, he reminisced, "That brought on going to church. Every time the church doors were open, Grandma Wood and I would be there" at Centenary Methodist Church. Recounting the former jail on the corner, Mr. Dick recalled that as the congregation sang hymns, the jailbirds called out, "Sing louder. Sing louder." Perhaps it was "Amazing Grace" or "The Old Rugged Cross." I hope so.
It bears noting that the Wood family goes way back, to the beginning, in the Centenary Methodist Church. Research on Centenary comes easy as my great-great-grandmother Sophronia Magee Brumfield was one of the earliest members. My review revealed that John R. Wood generously donated, in 1883, a lot for the first Centenary Methodist Church building, a frame structure which served the congregation well until mid-1923 when another building, on the same site, was thereafter erected and dedicated, in 1924. Thomas Jefferson Wood (1844-1874) who was John Randolph Wood's brother (1833-1923), was the father of Delos Charley Wood (1872-1934), Mr. Dick's beloved grandfather.
•Stay tuned for next week's continuation of Remembering the Richardsons.
