Lane, John Allen

Submitter: James M. Perrin, 14187 Randall Ave., Hammond, LA 70403 5/98

John Allen Lane was born 13 Sept. 1806 in Elbert County, GA, and was the son of Thomas Lane and Nancy Haley (also spelled Healey). John was given a good education and received a solid Methodist religious foundation. John married 25 Nov. 1830, probably in GA, to Ann Pettway Mayfield. Ann was born in April 1807 in Franklin County, GA. By the early 1830's John and Ann had removed to Vicksburg, MS. John had family connections in the new Mississippi River town, as his uncle Rev. John Lane, who was only a few years his senior had settled in Vicksburg much earlier. Rev. John Lane married Sarah C. Vick, one of the daughters of Rev. Newit Vick and Elizabeth Clark Vick.

John Allen Lane and his uncle Rev. John Lane, operated a business together, worked together on charitable and educational causes worshiped in the same church, and of course were relatives. Because they lived in the same community for many years and were both named John Lane, they have sometimes been misidentified.

John Allen Lane purchased or constructed a home in Vicksburg, and also purchased a plantation in Washington County (now Issaquena County), MS. He also owned plantations in other Mississippi counties, as well as those in Madison, Carroll and Terrebone parish in Louisiana. In 1834, he purchased an 880 acre plantation on Millikens Bend in Carroll Parish. He later purchased a 1132 acre plantation from his wife's brother through the estate of William Sims Mayfield (Wm. S. Mayfield b. 18 Nov. 1802 in Warren Co., GA, d. 21 Dec. 1857). This plantation, called "Reclusia," was one of his favorites and was a residence for his family, especially in the late 1850's and early 1860's.

Ann Lane died 19 Sept. 1843 at the family home in Washington Co., MS.

Ann and John Allen Lane had a number of children.

* Alberta Lane, b. 1831, d. 1832.

* John Jay Lane, b. 1833, m. Alice S. Hubbard.
* Dr. Alexander Gallatin Lane, b. 1835.
* Cornelia Victoria Lane, b. 1837, d. 1844.
* Jane Anna Lane, b. 1839, m. Richard P. Salter.
* Emma Vick lane, b. 1841, m. James W. Scott.
* George Washington Lane, b. & d. 1842.
* Octavius Lane, b. & d. 1843.

Between 1843 and 1850, John Allen Lane, his children and his brother-in-law, William S. Mayfield moved to south Louisiana. John and William entered into a partnership in a large sugar plantation at Bayou Grand Caillou, Terrebone Parish, LA. John also started a commission merchant business in New Orleans, called Lane, Mayfield, & Co. William Sims Mayfield, died 21 Dec. 1857, and was buried in the Lane tomb in the Girod Cemetery in New Orleans, which is now below the Superdome in which the aply named New Orleans Saints play football. John continued in the business after Mr. Sims' death, and took in his sons John J., and Alexander G. Lane into the business, as well as his son-in-law, Richard P. Salter.

The War Between the States was an economic disaster for the Lane family. John and other family members had invested most of their wealth into land, and slaves to work the sugar and cotton plantations. At the end of the struggle the slaves were freed and the land value was greatly reduced.

John's sons John J. and Alexander G. Lane, as well as his son-in-laws Richard P. Salter and James W. Scott served the cause of the South.

John continued to work as a commission merchant after the war. He invested in cotton lands in Chicot County, Arkansas. Sometime after 1873, John moved from New Orleans to Chicot County, where his son-in-law James W. Scott and his children were living. John Allen Lane's life ended 15 Aug. 1883 at Eudora, Chicot Co., Arkansas, and he was buried in the town cemetery.

Thus ended the life of lad from the granite hills of Elbert County,Georgia, who gained wealth and respect from the cotton and sugar lands of the South, and left a legacy of hard work and achievement for his descendants.

James M. Perrin, 14187 Randall Ave., Hammond, LA 70403