Arthur Allen Lasyone and the West Monroe Gravel Pit

Like a lot of you, I went to the Kitchen estate sale a few weeks ago. I bought the below picture due to it being taken in West Monroe. I really don’t know much about it. When I think West Monroe gravel pits, I think of the one that is now Restoration park. I can’t make out that last line of the writing (McGuire maybe?), but I was able to figure out who A.A. Lasyone was. His Findagrave memorial (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17086319/arthur-allen-lasyone) has a wedding photo on it, and after a side by side comparison between it and the man whom the arrow is pointing to on the train, I am convinced I have the right man. Lasyone was born in 1883 and died in 1965. He looks to be a young man in the train photo so I am guessing this was taken close to the turn of the century, between 1905 and 1920 or so. It isn’t an actual photo, just a copy, but still…a neat little photo!

Edit August 13, 2025: My colleague found out that there was a McGuire gravel pit located at Traveler’s Rest Plantation, owned by Herman McGuire. It was the first gravel pit in West Monroe. It was so extensive that a line was run from the V.S.& P. Railroad to get car loads of gravel out! See The Ouachita Citizen, July 20, 1956, Page 1.