1925 Biography - William D. Humble

William Douglas Humble, of Mangham, said to be the heaviest taxpayer in Richland Parish, has shown an ability amounting almost to genius for managing and operating plantations and farms and all their related activities. Mr. Humble is owner of the plantation named Goldmine, located between Big Creek and Bluff River, in Richland and Franklin parishes, chiefly in Richland Parish. This plantation contains 4,300 acres. Mr. Humble recently sold his brother, George W., about 1,100 acres from this tract of plantation land.

Mr. Humble was born on his father's plantation at Libbieville in Franklin Parish, January 15, 1874. He is a son of George and Virginia (Adams) Humble. His paternal grandfather was Rev. Thomas Jacob Humble, while his mother was a daughter of Buck Adams. Rev. Thomas J. Humble was a well educated man, moved from Alabama to Louisiana, living at Columbia in Caldwell Parish and rendered a pioneer service as a Methodist minister over an extensive territory. George Humble, father of William D., served as a lieutenant in the Confederate Army, was also a sharpshooter and was a participant in some of the great campaigns in Virginia. He spent four years in the service of the Southern cause and after the war married and established his plantation at Libbieville. He was a stockraiser as well as planter and left his family in good circumstances. He was college educated, and his life was comparatively brief. He died at the age of forty-two and his wife at fifty-two. They had a family of nine children, four sons and five daughters. The living children are: William D., George W.; Henrietta, wife of Charles King of Winnsboro; Samuel, a planter at Mangham; and Maude, wife of Ben Duff of Laredo, Texas. Three of the daughters and one of the sons are deceased; Mary, wife of James Woode; Fannie, who married I. M. King, and Miss Virginia, and Thomas.

William Douglas Humble was reared in the home of his grandfather, Buck Adams. He attended school regularly to the age of twenty, being educated at Eldorado in Mount Lebanon College and a college at Clinton, Mississippi. He finished a course in commercial law and bookkeeping. At the age of eighteen he had taken charge of the Gold Mine Plantation and has made all the improvements on this magnificent farm property. For a few years he was associated with J. R. Hewitt. For the proper management of the plantation he conducted a store and also a saw mill to supply the building needs of the place and also operated a Cotton gin. In addition to his planting interests in Louisiana, Mr. Humble owns 1,068 acres in the irrigated section of Southwestern Texas. This land is used for the production of onions and other truck not only in carloads but trainloads. He has fifteen pumping plants to irrigate the land.

Mr. Humble has frequently been urged to accept office but has steadily refused. He has voted for road and school taxes though himself one of the heaviest taxpayers. He is a member of the Parish Road Commission, giving his services without pay.

Mr. Humble married on his birthday, January 15, 1896, Miss Kate A. Boughton, daughter of Sherman Boughton of Richland Parish. Mr. and Mrs. Humble have a beautiful home just west of Mangham and their hospitality is noted far and wide. Mr. Humble is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias at Rayville, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Monroe and he is one of the directors of the Mangham State Bank. His recreation is chiefly hunting and handling good horses.

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from A History of Louisiana, by Henry E. Chambers, published in 1925, volume 2, page 226.