Flat Lick Plantation

OVERVIEW

Location

Located in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, six miles southwest of Homer, Louisiana.

Date Constructed/Founded

1819

Associated Surnames

Murrell, Sasser, Peters

Historical Notes

In August 1818, John Murrell, after leaving his home in Tennessee and traveling down the Mississippi and up the Red River into Loggy Bayou and Dorcheat with his wife, six children, a pack horse, his rifle and a dog or two found a cooling spring and settled his family near Isaac Alden's home in the "Flat Lick" (small creek) area just east of today's Minden. At the time his only neighbors were Isaac Alden and a half-indian named Fields. But that winter brought Mr. Allen for whom the settlement was later named (Allen's Settlement), Daniel Moore, Wm. Gryder, and Newton Drew who established the community of Overton on the east banks of Bayou Dorcheat.

Associated Slave Workplaces

Associated Free Persons

• John Murrell Sr. - owner
• John Murrell Jr. – son
• Isaac Murrell – son

Associated Enslaved Persons

• Edmond Merritt
• Enoch White

Research Leads and Plantation Records

**Bessie Murrell Gray, Family Papers, 1848-1965, Louisiana Tech University, Department of Special Collections, Manuscripts and Archives, Ruston, Louisiana.

Miscellaneous Information

After the Civil War, John Murrell, Jr. gave each of his former slaves forty acres, a cabin, and the right to be buried in the family cemetery. They took the last name of White.

References

Users Researching This Workplace

• Edward B Adams