The Old Hen

Willie Clark's third wife was the "grandmother" Carlton and his two brothers knew in their years on the farm in Natchitoches. Her name was Sarah Jane Matthews Clark, but the boys and others also had a nickname for her, "the old hen."

"A tall lady that Sarah Jane!" This is what Mr. Ficklin had to say about Sarah Jane when Carlton mentioned her to him yesterday. He remembered her! She was a well-known church going lady. Willie, as Carlton put it today, "was a Christian who didn't need to go to church." Willie also maintained the New Town Church. Carlton said he fixed it up, but he did not attend. It was a church without a full-time pastor, a church whose pastor was on the "circuit."

In my research on ancestry.com, it was clear there were a lot of Matthews family members and they all lived nearby, as well as a lot of members of the Gay family in the area (remember JC Gay?). This was a very rural black farming community, there were few Clarks, but some families were very, very large.

We had a hard time finding out anything about the church or the cemetery before heading to Natchitoches. We scoured Google maps and Andy even called a local funeral home to try to get directions, to no avail. Carlton is certain Willie is buried at the New Town cemetery.

Leave it to Ms. Shirley. By Friday evening, we had directions to the cemetery and a handwritten map of the cemetery markers. Ms. Shirley confirmed for us that Willie had died May 5, 1957, at about the age of 74. Sarah Jane died on October 4, 1959, at age 66. And, Sarah Jane was on Ms. Shirley's map. Willie was not on that map, but Carlton believes Willie was the kind of man who would have told Sarah Jane not to waste money on a gravestone.

So, Saturday morning, we made our way to New Town. Carlton warned us that we'd be on dirt roads and there really is no town. Boy, was he right. We were only about 20 minutes outside of Natchitoches, and this was the road we were on:

While at the cemetery, the only vehicles that passed were logging trucks, pulling timber out of the forest.
Sadly, this is what is left of the New Town (aka St. Mark's Methodist) Church:

Carlton tells us that when he saw this, he thought, "Yes, Willie really is gone." We found Sarah Jane's gravestone in the cemetery beside the church and knew two things. 1) If this was Sarah Jane's marker, then, yes, it is likely Willie does not have one. And, 2) there was just enough space between Sarah Jane's marker and the next one for Willie's plot. There was no stone, but I think we all agreed there rests Grandpa Willie.

On our drive into the woods to find New Town, we passed Crit Gay Road. Carlton remembers Crit Gay and says Crit Gay taught him and his brothers how to swim. Said Ms. Shirley about New Town and the Gay Family, "Oh, all the Gays live out there. We call it Gayville."
Well, wouldn't you know, we came across Crit Gay's tombstone in the little Methodist cemetery.

I remarked to Carlton, "Crit Gay was black and Jewish in this rural area?" To which Carlton responded, "So? This is Louisiana. Everything is different in Louisiana."
We also came across this remarkable tombstone, which says,"Pvt. Willie Kemper To the memory of a brave man who died that his country might live."

I'm glad I took a picture. After lunch today, we came across a veterans' memorial. Andy noticed the named WWI veterans of Natchitoches did not include Pvt. Kemper. We'll put Ms. Shirley on that!

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