Any mention of an enslaved person gets my attention, since so few of their stories remain. On the front page of the Southern Broadcast, Saturday, January 9, 1937, was the obituary of a 93 year old man named Thomas Jefferson. He had been the former personal body servant of Daniel Armand Breard, Sr. I will share the obituary as it was written, except in the last paragraph where the lines were mixed up:
OLDEST CITIZEN IN OUACHITA PARISH PASSES; WAS 93
Thomas Jefferson, 93, believed to be the oldest citizen in Ouachita parish, died Tuesday at his home, 20 Breard’s Alley.
Mr. Jefferson was a Civil War veteran, having fought with and under Col. D.A. Breard, to whom he belonged as a slave. The passing of Mr. Jefferson so closely behind Mr. Breard with whom he had been associated all of his life is significant and i[n]spires the press to exclaim, [‘]Faithful slave follows master in death’.
Funeral service for the aged citizen will be held Friday afternoon at Mt. Zion Baptist Church. Rev. E.E. Hollins, pastor and Rev. Louis Jacobs will officiate.
Mr. Jefferson is survived by his wife, 91 and ill, three step children. Mrs. Gertrude Caldwell, John Mays and Charlie Mays. The latter is in the government hospital in Alexandria. The Miller’s Funeral Home was in charge.
To tell you about what Mr. Jefferson likely experienced during the Civil War, I have to tell you about his enslaver, “Uncle Dan” Breard.
Dan and Thomas were the same age and most likely grew up together as playmates. Enslavers usually gave their children an enslaved child about the same age to keep them company as a playmate and personal body servant. Both men were 17 when the Civil War broke out and Dan enlisted in the Pelican Grays of Ouachita Parish (Company C, 2nd LA Infantry). As noted above, Thomas went with him. I will quote part of Dan’s obituary below:
During the early part of his service in the Confederate army, Mr. Breard was under the command of the immortal [Stonewall] Jackson, whom he saw carried from the field, fatally wounded at Chancellorville. General Robert E Lee and the leader’s noted horse Traveler were familiar sights to Mr. Breard.
Among 32 battles and skirmishes in which Mr. Breard participated were Bull Run, Second Manassas, the Wilderness, the seven days’ conflict around Richmond, Fredericksburg, Chancellorville and Spotsylvania.
Although he served in the Gray army, Mr. Breard was an ardent admirer of Abraham Lincoln. He often remarked that the assassination of the wartime president by John Wilkes Booth, the demented actor, was the worst calamity that befell the South.
One of his fondest recollections was that he had, at different times, seen both Lincoln and his assassin. He saw both while attending the University of St. Louis and Lincoln while campaigning for the presidency in Illinois.
One other tiny tidbit I found was that Dan was captured and sent to Elmira prison camp, one of the most infamous prison camps in the north. I wonder if Mr. Jefferson went with him or went back home.
Dan died December 19, 1936 and as you can see, only a few weeks later, Thomas followed. Unfortunately, I see no death certificate for Mr. Jefferson, so I don’t know where he was buried. There was no notice of his death in the white owned papers. The stories this man could have told!
Just a quick note of interest to me and possibly you too. I think one of Mr. Jefferson’s stepsons is buried out in St. Timothy Cemetery at Black Bayou. Charlie May was a WWI veteran, and I attended a ceremony many years ago where a new military stone was placed at his grave! Charlie would die several months after Mr. Jefferson, in a government hospital in Alexandria, so I am sure that is Mr. Jefferson’s stepson! It makes me wonder if Mr. Jefferson might be out at St. Timothy too!
Note June 25, 2025: I received the death certificate of Mr. Jefferson’s widow and she was buried at the “City Cemetery” which would be Magnolia. It would make sense that he would be at Magnolia too.
Ouachita Parish History Tidbits 