Biography - G. A. F. Poole

G. A. F. POOLE has been a tiller of the soil throughout life, and the attention he has given to each minor detail of his calling has placed him in the front ranks of the agriculturists of this section. He is a Tennesseean, his birth occurring in Giles County, Tenn., in 1830, but his parents, Armstead and Sallie (Craddock) Poole, were born, reared and married in South Carolina, but afterward removed to Tennessee, and about 1837 to Marshall County, Miss., where the father passed from life the following year. His widow afterward married a Mr. Arnold and removed to Texas, in which State she passed from life in 1858, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Poole was of Irish descent, a farmer by occupation, and being an upright and honorable man commanded the respect and esteem of all who knew him. David Craddock, the maternal grandfather, was a farmer, a soldier in one of the early wars, and died in Mississippi. The subject of this sketch is the eldest of two sons and three daughters, he and two sisters, who reside in Texas, being the only members of the family now living. His youth was spent on his father's farm, and after securing a common school education he began farming for himself at the age of eighteen years, and form 1849 to 1854 he followed this calling in the State of Texas, at the end of which time he came to Bossier Parish, where he was married, in 1857, to Mrs. Jane E. Bryant, a daughter of William and Sarah E. Bates, who came to Bossier Parish in 1838, purchasing land on Red River, but locating at Minden, where he spent the rest of his days as a wealthy planter, dying before the war, he and his wife being members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. After his marriage Mr. Poole settled on a portion of his present farm, which then consisted of 200 acres, but by good management and industry he has now become the owner of 3,000 acres of land, nearly all of which is tillable, about 1,300 acres being under cultivation, and about two-thirds of which he has cleared himself. He raises from 600 to 700 bales of cotton annually, and raises corn enough for home use. He is one of the oldest settlers now living in his present neighborhood, and is one of the most extensive and successful planters in the Red River Valley. From about 1859 he served four years as justice of the peace, and after the expiration of his term he joined the Twenty-second Louisiana Infantry, and when that command crossed the Mississippi River he joined the State Guards, of which he was a member until the close of the war. To him and his wife a family of eight children was born, one son and five daughters now living.

Contributed 29 Aug 2020 by Norma Hass, extracted from Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana, published in 1890, page 144.