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SAMPSON THEOPILUS LANE
(1839-1933)

Son of Sampson H. Lane and Lucy Ann (Winfield) Lane, born on a plantation in Fayette County, Tennessee, about fifty miles east of Memphis, on September 26, 1839, and died February 28, 1933, at Poteau, LeFlore County, Oklahoma, buried there in Oakland Cemetery. His father dying when he was about one year old, when he reached the age of nine his grandfather Sampson Lane prevailed upon his mother to permit the boy to live with him, where he was provided with a private tutor until his grandfather died in 1852. At the age of fourteen years he entered LaGrange College, located in Franklin County, Alabama, which in 1855 was changed to LaGrange College and Military Academy, and in 1860 to the LaGrange Military Academy, the buildings of which on April 28, 1863, were burned by Federal Cavalry under command of Colonel Florence M. Cornye., He also attended Emory & Birmingham Southern College Bulletin, Vol. 26, No. 6 (Nov. 1933) issue, p. 23. Henry and Randolph-Macon Colleges, and the University of Virginia.

Sampson Theopilus Lane, as S. T. Lane, enlisted May 16, 1861, at Memphis, Tennessee, as a private in Co. A, 7th (Duckworth's) Tennessee Cavalry, C. S. A., formerly known as Capt. T. H. Logwood's Company (Memphis Light Dragoons), 1st Tennessee Cavalry, C. S. A. He was captured near Memphis, Tennessee, October 29, 1863; imprisoned at Alton Military Prison, Illinois, and at Fort Delaware, Delaware, at which place he was released on June 11, 1865. As a brave soldier he participated on the side of the Confederacy in the following battles: Cow Skin Prairie, Bell Mont, Lockridge Mill, Farmington, Shiloh, Iuka, Oxford, Holly Springs, Davis' Mill, Middleton, Okalona, Black River, Jackson, Yazoo, and Chickamauga.

After the war returning to Memphis he engaged in the practice of the law and farming. He joined the Ku Klux Klan under General Forrest and remained a member until it was disbanded by General Forrest, who stated it having served its purpose, that it was no longer needed.

In 1871 he was licensed by the Methodist Episcopal Church South at Memphis, Tennessee, as a preacher of the Gospel and in 1874 entered into the ministry as an itinerant preacher, being assigned to a pastorate at Puducah, Kentucky. On May 25th, 1875, he was married to Miss Sallie Bland Parham at Germantown, Tennessee, where having taken a location from the annual conference, he taught school for many years. In 1888 he removed to Little Rock, Arkansas, later teaching school at Atkins and Dardanelle. Afterwards he was superintendent of a Methodist District school located at Booneville, Arkansas, continuing in that capacity for a number of years. Many boys from Indian Territory attended this school and through them he had occasion to visit their homes, coming in direct contact with the people of the Choctaw Nation. This occasioned his removal to Poteau on August 6, 1900. Preaching at various points in what is now LeFlore and Haskell Counties and teaching school at Whitefield, Shady Point, and LeFlore, he retained his residence during all that time at Poteau. He served several terms as Justice of the Peace in the city of Poteau, resigning therefrom in 1932, a short time before he was 93 years of age. From 1912 to 1922 he was scout master of the boy scouts, retiring in the latter year, being the oldest scout master in the world. He was active in the organization

Sampson Theopilus Lane

of the Confederate Veterans, holding places of honor. Retaining his mental and physical strength, seldom having occasion to use a cane in walking or glasses with which to read, he taught a Sunday School class in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in Poteau until within a few days of his death, endeavoring at all times to walk in the steps of his Master and to be ready for the final summons.

He left surviving his widow, Sallie (Parham) Lane, and two daughters, Mrs. H. J. (Linda) Fowler of Poteau, Oklahoma, and Mrs. M. E. (Vera) Turner of Eufaula, Oklahoma, another daughter Mrs. R. E. (Pat) Patrick, preceding him in death.2 His available genealogy is as follows: His father, Sampson H. Lane, born April 18, 1809, killed accidentally on Christmas day, 1842, and mother, Lucy Ann Windfield, daughter of Joel Windfield and Francis (Shands) Windfield, were married in Sussex County, Virginia, May 10, 1838; his grandfather, Sampson Lane, born in 1772, Charles City County, Virginia, died at Memphis, Tennessee, December 1852, was married to Mary (Thomas) Allen, who was born in Orange County, Virginia, in 1792, the marriage taking place in Elbert County, Georgia, she dying in Desoto County, Mississippi in August 1857; his great-grandfather, William Lane, born in Charles City County, Virginia, in 1757, serving in the colonial army, was married to Nancy Healey, who was born in Charles City County, Virginia. The Lane family coming from England settled in the colony of Virginia at an early date.

Believing in and living the simple life, and honest and courageous in thought, speech and act, with no sordid ambition for wealth or notoriety—an exemplification of a Southern Gentleman of the Old School, he lived a long and useful life.



 

Source: Chronicles of Oklahoma, Volume 11, No. 4, December 1933, p 1126.

 

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