J. H. Netterville

James Howard Netterville, usually cited as J. H. Netterville (December 4, 1879 - December 17, 1943), was a large cotton plantation manager in Newellton in Tensas Parish in northeastern Louisiana in the Mississippi River delta country.

Background

Netterville was born near Woodville in Wilkinson County, Mississippi; his father, Charles Netterville, was a planter in Adams County; his mother, the former Mattie Morris, was a native of Natchez in Adams County, where she also spent her later years.^[1][2]

Plantation manager

Shortly after the start of the 20th century, Netterville came to Tensas Parish, where he was first a clerk in the plantation stores of C. B. Muir and then William O'Kelley at Summerset. From these starting positions, he obtained the training to become a plantation manager whose job was to maximize profits with minimum input. In 1907, Netterville began employment for the Panola Company, an agricultural business that controlled some eleven thousand acres, two thirds planted in cotton and the other third in grains. Panola was based in the parish seat of St. Joseph; among its principal founders was William Mackenzie Davidson, the mayor of St. Joseph from 1901 until his accidental death in 1930. Netterville became general manager of three highly profitable Panola properties, the Balmoral, Blackwater, and Wyoming plantations, in which capacity he supervised 125 African-American tenant farming families on some of the richest farmland in the United States.^[1]

Netterville's brother, Wade A. Netterville (1876 - February 20, 1936)^[3] was also a plantation manager in St. Joseph for the Panola Company. He began his career as the manager for six years of the store at Winter Quarters Plantation, located between Newellton and St. Joseph. He was employed in that capacity by Dr. J. M. Gillespie. Wade Netterville then ran the store at Panola Plantation prior to becoming the manager for two years of the Wyoming Plantation. He subsequently assumed the management of the 1,000-acre Panda Plantation, a Panola property near St. Joseph. Wade Netterville and his wife, the former Susie Hair (died 1909), named their son "Howard" for his uncle, Netterville's younger brother. Considering her early year of death, the marriage was presumably brief, as Wade would have become a widower by the age of thirty-three.^[4]

Personal life

During World War I, J. H. Netterville was parish chairman of the local chapter of the American Red Cross. He was elected to the Tensas Parish School Board.^[2]

In 1903, Netterville married the former Bessie Swayze (1884–1964), daughter of H. C. Swayze of Adams County, Mississippi; their two daughters were Mattie Swayze Netterville Roundtree (1904–1986), wife of William Henry Roundtree (1902–1972),^[1][5] and Elizabeth Netterville Coit (1913–2004), the wife of Wilson Lindsey Coit (1911–1999). Wilson "Lindsey" Coit, a native of Enterprise in Clarke County, Mississippi,^[6] graduated from the former Newellton High School. For many years Coit was the Chevrolet and John Deere dealer in Newellton. Elizabeth Coit was born on Balmoral Plantation and taught school in Newellton for forty-two years.^[7] Wilson and Elizabeth Coit were in-laws of former Louisiana State Representative Chuck McMains, a Republican from Baton Rouge, who is married to their daughter, the former Mary Lynn Coit (born c. 1948).^[8]

Netterville died in Newellton two weeks after his 64th birthday. He, his brother Wade, his wife Bessie, and daughter Mattie and son-in-law William Roundtree, are interred at Natchez City Cemetery in Natchez, Mississippi.^[5] Wilson and Elizabeth Coit, however, are buried at Legion Memorial Cemetery in Newellton.^[8]

See also

Related names in Tensas Parish agriculture:

• Daniel F. Ashford
• Clifford Cleveland Brooks
• W. W. Burnside
• Elliot D. Coleman
• Charles C. Cordill
• Joseph T. Curry
• William Mackenzie Davidson
• Samuel W. Martien
• Clyde V. Ratcliff

References