Sheriff's Deputy Edward Toefield, Jr., Killed in the Line of Duty

Sheriff Deputy Edward Toefield, Jr. 

February  2, 1984, Sheriff's Deputy Edward Toefield, Jr., was shot and killed by a bank robbery suspect just south of Amite. His killer was captured the following day, tried and sentenced to death.

Source: Amite Genealogy Library.

Celebrating the Life of Walter James Boykins

Walter James Boykins was born to mary and Ernest Boykins in Fluker, La., on August 6, 1938. His is the third child of seven. Walter attended West Side Hight School in Amite, La where he played quarterback on the school's football team. In 1958 toward the end of the football season, Walter broke his neck and had to stay in the hospital for two years. Once he recovered, he attended Xavier University for 2 1/2 years. Mr. Boykins later dropped out fo school to help his moother and father in their time of need. He got a job at a chemical plant where he worked for years.

Walter met and married Rosalie Boykins. They married for 50 years in February. In 1982, Walter started working for Goliath in the field for 1 1/2 years and then began driving trucks for the company. He has been with them for 26 years now. Over the years, he had learned a lot just being around all the great workers from the company, especially  Harry Lazarus. Even though his work days have come to an end, he deserves to sit back, relax, and enjoy life with the remote in one hand and Brandy inthe other. He preceded in death by his mother Mary Boykins and father Earnest Boykins Sr., borhter Earnest Boykins Jr., Jerry Boykins, Lonnie Boykins, Ellis Boykins, and his sister France Boykins, his Florence Boykins, his children children Patrick Boykins, Antoinette Harrell, Zelda Mitchell, Edward Johnson, Kennedy Johnson, Shelia Johnson, Charlie Williams, his grandchildren Kanika Thompson, Renesha Scott, Joseph LaCoste, Bernard, LaKeith Grear J., and his great-grandchildren Tyrik Brigalia, Ky'Lel Thompson, Tiffany Morris, Tyanune Morris, and Patrice Morris. 

Reconstruction in Tangipahoa Parish 1869-1877

In the last public speech at the White House on April 11, 1865, Abraham Lincoln called for emancipation for the entire nation.

This plan was, in advance, submitted to the then Cabinet, and distinctly approved by every member of it. One of them suggested that I should then, and in that connection, apply the Emancipation Proclamation to the theretofore excepted parts of Virginia and Louisiana; that I should drop the suggestion about apprenticeship for freed-people, and that I should omit the protest against my own power, in regard to the admission of members to Congress; but even he approved every part and parcel of the plan which has since been employed or touched by the action of Louisiana. The new constitution of Louisiana, declaring emancipation for the whole State, practically applies the Proclamation to the part previously excepted. It does not adopt apprenticeship for freed-people; and it is silent, as it could not well be otherwise, about the admission of members to Congress. So that, as it applies to Louisiana, every member of the Cabinet fully approved the plan. The message went to Congress, and I received many commendations of the plan, written and verbal; and not a single objection to it, from any professed emancipationist, came to my knowledge, until after the news reached Washington that the people of Louisiana had begun to move in accordance with it. From about July 1862, I had corresponded with different persons, supposed to be interested, seeking a reconstruction of a State government for Louisiana.

Genealogy researcher can learn a great deal from conducting genealogy research and local history research in Tangipahoa Parish about Reconstruction.   In 1866 my maternal third great-grandfather  Robert and his family entered into a contract with Eliza Andrews in St. Helena Parish, Louisiana to work as
tenant farmers.  It was on this property that he lived with his wife, 30 years old, his son Alex Harrell, 16,  his son John, 12 years old, and his two daughter Millie, 10, and Anna Harrell, 8 years old. 

The vision of pioneers like Rev. Arthur Tasker, founder of the Tasker A.M.E Church in Ponchatoula. In 1872, he became the first and only African American to be elected as the Mayor of Ponchatoula. .  Louisiana.  The Tangipahoa Parish Color Training School was founded in Kentwood, Louisiana by Armfield Mitchell Strange.  Thomas Freeman, the first African American man to purchase land in Livington Parish was a free man of color.

A man named Robert "Free" Bob" Vernon purchased thousands of acres in Tangipahoa Parish for him and his family.  The land he donated for a school, church, and cemetery is the result of his generosity. The first African-American church was founded by Charles Daggs of Hammond, Louisiana in 1877.  These men was among others African-American leaders in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, attended meeting to improve and enhance the lives of African-Americans in the parish.     

Tangipahoa Parish was formed in 1869 and Reconstruction ended in 1877. The life of American-American during Reconstruction wasn't document in the Louisiana Florida Parish. From Ponchatoula to Kentwood, Louisiana. On Wikipedia, it is written that during the period of 1877-1850; a total of 24 blacks were lynched by whites in the parish as a means of racial terrorism and intimidation. 

http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/last.htm