Koll Family In Reunion To Mark 50 Years in Jeff Davis
By Harvey Laing
It was a beautiful day when Mr. and Mrs. Henry Koll, Sr., brought their family of six boys and one girl down from the unproductive, razorback ridden, Arkansas country some 30 miles east of Little Rock where they had stopped off for four years after leaving Iowa. They came with meager belongings and $25. Then with “plenty of hard work and savings,” increased their holdings to 2,120 acres by 1950.
The air sparkled and glistened with sunlight as the train chugged into the Southern Pacific Station that afternoon of February 18, 1900. Jennings, with its more than a thousand inhabitants, was all aglow. It was a beautiful sight for that family who had lost almost everything they had in that four year stint at Carlysle, Arkansas.
Chimney smoke arched and danced under a sky like a blue diamond. Out beyond the city lay fields of dimmed gold hue streaked with sea-green. It was a most exciting day for the Kolls.
The father had made a trip to Jennings several months previous to visit two old Arkansas neighbors who had pioneered a year before, and came back with all kinds of beautiful pictures of the area. He brought back with him oranges and other fruit, and the children thought there could not be any place like this one.
But father did not tell the whole story. For instance, how he had to take a boat to cross flood burdened Bayou Chene to arrive at the home of the Bruchhauses and the Groths who had settled at the same location of the present Niblett farms. The mother, the daughter, and the smaller children who arrived on the passenger train, took their belongings and registered at the McFarlain Hotel. It wasn’t long before the rest of the family came in on the freight train with the family possessions. They had been four days and four nights on the train and were tired. But it was good to be in Jennings!
The family moved into a home off what is now North Cutting road and settled down to the raising of rice. They had tried it in Arkansas, but the Razorback hogs uprooted the plants and tore down the wooden fences, so the only money crop they had was hay.
They had very little when they arrived—a hay bailer, binder, drill, a cow, horse and a few household items. 
Their beds in this one-room home just north of Jennings consisted of sacks filled with rice straw, since the family did not have adequate funds to purchase beds.
A dollar was hard to get, and a loan was almost an impossibity unless one had plenty of collateral.
But with everyone doing his job in the best manner possible the Kolls made a successful rice crop that first year—harvested 15 barrels to the acre.
And they branched out to a farm of their own—160 acre tract where the Bill Koll farm is now located four miles north of town [Koll Road]. This was the beginning that saw the industrious family increase their holdings with the coming years.
About the same time the Kolls moved into the 16-by-16 frame block house, another member was added to the family circle—a girl this time.
That rich quarter-section of land was ready for the planting by two horses and two 14-inch “walking plows.” Practically all the land could be harvested in those days just past the turn of the century. It was all virgin soil, and the farmers could harvest a rice crop off the same location year after year without even using any fertilizer. 
There were few neighbors out there in the prairie land and it was a somewhat lonely spot.
The school was three miles to the west by way of a dirt road.
On clear nights the lights of the town, seen in the distance twinkled like a hundred stars and the moaning whistle of the trains came in on the waves of the wind.
There was only a trail leading across the fields of tall sage grass to the curve on the present Jennings-Elton highway, some three miles north of Jennings. And that was the route the family would take when they went to town.
Almost with the passing of each year, the Kolls would expand—“by hard work and savings.”
In 1908, the family bought 320 acres at Raymond and to that has since been added a similar amount.
It was about this time that the last child was born—another girl.
For the past half-century the Kolls have been writing a great epic on the Jeff Davis scene—and chapters are still incomplete.
Here is the group that helped to pioneer in the development of this area: John Koll, Mrs. R.T. Compton, Bill, Pete W., Fred, Henry, and Ed Koll, Mrs. Clarence Britt and Miss Hulda Koll.
The family group celebrated its 50 years in Louisiana with a big dinner last Sunday.
And the memories of the past crept into the minds of the children of Henry Koll, Sr. as they pondered the happenings of the decades that have slipped away since 1900.
The family group that attended the 50th year celebration included: Mr. and Mrs. John Koll and daughter, Marie; Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Whittington and children, Ada May, Effie Ann, and John; Mr. & Mrs. Herbert Bucklin and daughter, Louise; Mr. and Mrs. H.E. Jester and children, Lela and Richard; Mr. and Mrs. Herman Talley and son, Roy; Mr. and Mrs. Robert Compton and children, Robert, Geneive, and Cecil; Mr. and Mrs. John Compton; Mr. and Mrs. P.W. Koll; Mr.s and Mrs. William Koll; Mr. and Mrs. Fred Koll and children, Robert and Betty Jo; Mr. and Mrs. Henry Koll and daughter, Lou; Mr. and Mrs. Ed Koll; Mr. and Mrs. Hilton Watson; Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Britt and children, Joyce, Eugene, William, Norma Jean, and Shirlene; Mr. and Mrs. Wilber Meche; Mrs. R.T. Meche; Miss Hulda Koll; Harvey Laing; Mr. and Mrs. John Reeves, Jr. and children, John W. Jr., David, and Dolores; Charlene, Deborah, and Charles Curet; Norma Lee Young, and Wayne Patterson.
1 comment:
Jeff, this is wonderful. I always loved and admired my Grandfather Bill Koll. He was DaDa to us and Uncle Bill to many. Hearing more and more of about him and his family only makes my love and admiration grow.
Blessings,
Charlene Curet Miller
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