Beene, Loy L.

Submitted by Mike Miller

Loy L. Beene. In the two parishes of Webster and Claiborne, the Beene family has been marked by its noteworthy activities in many lines of business. Since pioneer times the family have been planter
sand land owners, and for a number of years an important center of their business operations has been at Haynesville, in Claiborne Parish,where the several brothers comprising the Haynesville Mercantile Company have represented a large share of the productive commercial enterprise of that community.

The father of the Haynesville business man was the late William L.Beene, a native of Claiborne Parish. He had five sons, and all of them were reared and trained in commercial lines and became successful and prosperous business men.In 1904 the older sons removed to Haynesville and formed the Haynesville Mercantile Company of which the oldest son, S. L.Beene, is president, while Loy L. Beene is the secretary and treasurer. The firm erected and owns the handsome and modern commercial building now occupied by the Dixie Store and have supplied capital for a number of other buildings in the town.

For years they have been extensive land owners in this section. On much of this land there is oil production, since the discovery well on the Taylor property was brought in March, 1921. While oil production has added greatly to the resources of the Beene family, it is only justice to state that these young men, long before the discovery of oil, had through their sagacity and enterprise made a comfortable fortune in the mercantile, land and financial department of their business. All of the Beene interests were departmentalized, each department being under the direction of one of the brothers who specialized in that particular line of work exclusively. This intelligent cooperation has brought about an organization that in point of successful operation has few equals anywhere.

In recent years they have retired from the active mercantile business, though they still continue their various enterprises under the old name of the Haynesville Mercantile Company.Mr. Loy L. Beene was born in Webster Parish in 1883, and he and his brothers are all comparatively young men. Besides S. L. Beene, previously mentioned, the other brothers are L. A., S. J. and Claude Beene. There are also two sisters, Mrs. L. T. Waller and Mrs. Clarence E. Miller.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p.340 , by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.