A Christmas Surprise

From a December 1915 Natchitoches Enterprise - Mr.  & Mrs. A.J. Hargis of East Natchitoches had quite a surprise on Christmas when their daughter Miss Myrtle, who has been teaching at Greenwood, presented them with a son-in-law.  Miss Hargis and Mr. John White of Greenwood were married at the Methodist church at Shreveport on December 19^th-and kept the news of their marriage a secret as a Christmas surprise for the old folks.  They spent the yuletide with the parents of the bride, received the parental blessing and went back to their home at Greenwood.

 Died - Mrs. C.E. Edgerton -From a  December  1915 Natchitoches Enterprise - The tragic death on Sunday night of Mrs. C.E. Edgerton of Coushatta, was learned with the keenest of sorrow by her friends in Natchitoches, among whom she was a frequent visitor.  While she had been in bad health for a long time, she had regained her strength and had gone to Shreveport on Sunday evening so as to do her Christmas shopping the next day.  While at the supper table in her brother’s home Mr. J.C. Bell, in the best of spirits she was telling a joke, and in the midst of it, she suddenly stopped and fell over, became unconscious and tho physicians were hastily summoned who resorted to heroic measures, in less than thirty minutes she died and the remains were taken back to Coushatta and interred in the family burial plot on Tuesday.

Mrs. Edgerton was one of the most prominent and respected women of Red River Parish; one who was the friend of the poor and needy and who gave her time and attention to charity work and never turned any one away empty handed.  She was a leader in Civic and church matters and will be sadly missed.  She leaves a husband, four children, an aged mother, one sister Mrs. Maggie Pierson, two brothers, many other relatives besides a host of friends who will ever mourn the loss of a truly good woman.

Deputy Returns With Fugitive
Deputy Sheriff George Hill arrived in the city about midnight last night from Natchitoches having in custody, J.S. Wright, the saloon keeper, who was arrested at the place Tuesday on warrants sworn out here charging him with having operated his saloon in this city without a license. Wright was locked up in the Caddo parish jail. He will probably make application for bail this morning.
Wright claims that he will be able to prove that he did not violate the law when his case comes up for trial

Lost Bond
Natchitoches Times, 1921
Notice is hereby given that one Caddo Central Oil & Refining Corporation Gold Bond for $100, No C 370, bearing 6 per cent interest, has been lost. It is my property and the public is hereby warned to trade or negotiate for same. This Bond was in the Marthaville, La. Bank at the time it was robbed, Jan 6, 1921 and it is presumed that the robbers got away with it.  D.Z. Coats, Marthaville, La.

A Shorter Campaign
Quite a few newspapers throughout the country are now suggesting that the time has come for shorter presidential campaigns. The radio, they argue, makes it possible for both candidates to quickly put their arguments before all the people and that there is therefore, no longer any use for keeping the country stirred up from June to November. Have the nominations late in September, they suggest, and have a short campaign, with less loss of time�which means loss of money�to the voters of the country. They contend that no one changes his mind during the latter part of the campaign anyhow, and that weeks and weeks of speech making is no longer of value to either party. It sounds good. But of course it is open to argument. We pass on the suggestions, believing it is sure to become of nation-wide discussion later on, and leave it to our readers to form their own opinion on the subject.

Tourist Camp
Chamber of Commerce News
Natchitoches Times, 1921
A committee composed of Mayor Poleman, Secretary Keyser and the Automobile Dealers, of this City will select suitable grounds for Tourists Camp Grounds and have same supplied with water, electric lights, and other conveniences for parties touring the Jefferson Highway. Until permanent ground can be arranged and markers and signs designed to point out these grounds to tourists, every citizen should appoint himself a committee of one to interest himself in tourists and direct them to the Chamber of Commerce or the City Hall where they will be directed to temporary quarters.

Old Normal Success
Natchitoches Times, 1915
Evidence of the high esteem in which Normal graduate are held over the State are coming in continually. The employment bureau of the Normal School is informed that many of the schools in DeSoto Parish are wholly filled by trained teachers. Press reports also indicated that every position in the St. Mary Central High School at Franklin, La, excepting that of principal, has been filled by a Normal graduate. Tangipahoa parish reports thirteen Normal graduates as employed for the next year. St. Mary has twice this number.

Plea to Bankers
Natchitoches Times, 1917
I earnestly hope that the bankers of the South will be as active at the beginning of 1917 as they were at the beginning of 1915 and 1916, for I think the need of activity is as great now as it was then. The bankers have an influence in many respects far beyond the influence of the colleges. A farmer respects a banker’s business judgment. We college folk can furnish the scientific learningm and in a large degree the conomic philosophy, but we need the bankers to help in the movement in order to give it the practical money-making aspect which appeals to the farmers as strongly as it does to other average men
Clarence Ousley, Chief Extension Work, Texas A. and M. College

Jan 1907 Natchitoches Times

Calvin Mays, the faithful boot black at the Lestage Barber Shop was killed Saturday night in one of the negro gambling dives back of town. George Smith, section foreman on the T & P railroad committed the deed. Smith turned “Bad Mike� and was shooting up the dive. Mays was asleep and one of the bullets struck his head and caused instant death. Smith departed on one of the hand-cars of the rail road company and is still at large. The boy Mays, known as Bud, was a polite and accommodating darkey and was well known by the patrons of Lestage shop.

November 1906 newspaper
Dr. Patton, former President of Princeton University, recently delivered a sermon in New York City, his subject being “Faith.� He spoke of the blind faith of the client who puts himself at the mercy of a lawyer in preparing an action for trial and of the confidence of the sick in trusting themselves to the physician. “Here is a case of blind faith,� said the clergyman. “The doctor writes out a prescription. Oftener than not you cannot readt it, you don’t know what it is. He tells you to take it. Yours is not the reason why, yours but to do and die.’� A more or less audible smile rippled over the congregation and the orator flushed for a moment on realizing the double import of this quotation.

July 1926 Natchtioches Times Newspaper

Bet these guys had fast cars

Sheriff J. W. Payne and his force of deputies had a busy time during the past two weeks, making a number of arrests for violation of the state prohibition law.
Deputies M.J. Weaver, Albert Brossett and S. J. Procell went to Bourby Lake near Monette Ferry Bridge and destroyed 2 stills and 15 barrels of mash and destroyed a sill and six barrels of mash in the Nash Lake.

Sheriff Payne on July 29 made a big capture near Monette Ferry. E. W. Edwards, Berry Guin, Abram Versher, Theophilus Owens, Alvy Owens, David Owens, Buford Fuller, and Joe Salard were arrested and charged with violation of the Hood liquor act. All are white and were released under bond.

Pierce Lynch, colored, was arrested in Ward 7 on Aug 4 for violation of the prohibition law.

Lawson Pierson, colored was arrested in Ward 5 by Deputy R. J. Durr, charged with hog stealing.

Houston Johnson and Mal Williams, colored were arrested by Deputy R.J. Durr in Ward 5 on Aug 2, charged with violating the liquor law.

Joe Rivers, Mexican, was arrested in Ward 5, on Aug. 2, charged with violating the liquor law.

Frank Antley, white, was arrested in Ward 9 on Aug. 2, by Shriff Payne and Deputy H.H. Hathorne for violating the prohibition law.

L.M. Sowell was arrested on Aug. 5, by Deuties Hathorne and W. M. Payne, charged with carrying concealed weapons.

Anna Conde, colored female, was arrested on Aug. 2 by Deputy M. J. Weaver, charged violating of the Hood Act.

James Fleming of Flora was arrested on Aug. 2 by Deputy Weaver, charged with breaking into the store of Mr. B. F. Roberts.