Reflecting back, Alan Cain died in 1918 and after a brief attempt to make their way farming in the Scranton AR area, Mary Lou Belle and her youngest girls Ada, Jessie and Bessie sold the farm and migrated south to the north Louisiana oil fields near Oil City. Jessie doesn’t remember exactly what year they made the move to LA, but it was approximately 1920 because she remembers them only making one crop at the Scranton farm before moving to LA. Approximately 1922, May and Elmer, Etta and Henry, and Ruth and Olon all moved to the Haynesville oilfield area, taking Mary Lou Belle, Ada, Jessie and Bessie along. Also relocating, Fred and Clara moved to Norphlet AR (near El Dorado), and Bird and Minnie moved to Eagle Mills AR (near Camden).

In the early 1920s, Haynesville was the scene of one of Louisiana's biggest oil booms. When the first oil was discovered, Haynesville became a boom town with a population of some 20,000 persons. (Note: The 2002 population is approximately 2200.) The Haynesville field included several small elements, Roxanna Camp, Oil Center, Baucum Spur and Magnolia Camp, which were in effect “company towns” for the various oil exploration companies with leases in the area.

Mary Lou Belle, Bessie and Jessie lived in a shanty house at Roxanna Camp, Ruth and Olon lived at Oil Center, Henry and Etta at Baucum Spur and May and Elmer lived at Magnolia Camp. It was common for the oil companies to provide company housing for its workers in those days; Jessie, Bessie, Ada and Mary Lou Belle secured the job of cleaning the company bunk houses which housed the oil field workers, and keeping the huge tool house swept out.

A short time after Mary Lou Belle and the girls moved to Haynesville, Mary Lou Belle decided to go back to AR to try to make a living there farming (Jessie thinks that she simply missed Arkansas and the life they once had there). She bought land at Dublin, but failed to make a profit so she and the girls returned to Haynesville after a very short interlude.

Some happenings at Haynesville. A tornado hit one Thanksgiving night at Baucum Spur and Roxanna Camp. The tornado completely tore up Mary Lou Belle’s shanty house leaving only a portion of the floor, but thankfully due to divine providence, she and the girls were not at home; Mary Lou Belle and Bessie were at Etta’s, Jessie was at May’s, and Ada was at Ruth’s. Etta’s house was blown off of its foundation and was sat down right next to where it had been. (Note: this was the first of two tornados Bessie would survive during her lifetime). Someone told Olon that a tornado had blown away Mary Lou Belle’s house. Since the tornado did not hit where Ruth and Olon lived, Olon thought someone was trying to trick him, so he took his gun along while checking out the report.

It was here in the Haynesville oil field that May and Elmer Ward welcomed their 3^rd and 4^th children, Margaret (Babe) and E.F. Ward Jr. (Phil or Junior) into the family. When Phil was a small baby, he became sick because the milk did not agree with him. He was so ill and lost so much weight that May had to carry him on a pillow. She took him to a doctor in Shreveport where he was hospitalized. He was put on a very unusual diet (to May’s horror) of green beans, bacon, bananas and probably goat milk. May just knew the doctor was going to kill Phil on this diet. However, in a week’s time, Phil gained weight and did not look like the same child. When he was discharged from the hospital, the doctor recommended the family obtain a goat, as goat’s milk is easier to digest than cow’s milk. They did so and Phil lived to be an adult and is still living as of this writing. Another memorable happening here was one night after it had been raining alot, Ruth, Olon and Jessie were headed to church. The red clay road was slick and badly rutted because of the rain, and they had to negotiate a fairly steep hill enroute. However, the wheels started spinning because there was insufficient traction and the car could not negotiate the hill. Jessie and Olon got out to push as Ruth drove, but all to no avail. In the process, Olon got his new Stetson hat and suede jacket splattered with mud. They wound up backing the car about a quarter of a mile down the hill and on to the house, aborting the trip because Olon was “mad as an ole wet hen” over his permanently stained hat and jacket.

Jessie graduated from Haynesville High School while living with Ruth and Olon in Oil Center in 1929, a feat that none of her siblings accomplished. She completed the 11^th grade, the last grade of high school back then. Jessie finished at age 19 (when most of her classmates were age 16), because the family had not always lived close enough to a school for her to attend. Other significant events during the period 1922-1929 were several more family additions including: Mary Pauline Manning, Truman Faye Edgmon, Eva Juanita Edgmon, and Mary Lou Manning all in Haynesville; Clara Earlene Cain and Allen Lee Lasiter were born in Norphlet and Eagle Mills. It should also be noted that Charles Monroe Cain was born in 1922 in Oil City—this information was unavailable at the time last issue’s publication.