LACALS, BETTIE EAGLE PARSONS
LACALS, BETTIE EAGLE PARSONS (c. 1850 – 1935) Bettie LaCals,
who once owned land that is now the South Highlands neighborhood, was one of
Shreveport's black woman pioneers. Born in Louisiana around 1850 Bettie Eagle
was of mixed white and African American parentage. She was the second
wife of Mark Parsons (1830-1889). Parsons' first wife, Frances, a free woman
of color, operated a successful restaurant in downtown Shreveport.
According to the New Orleans Republican, she was well known
as a popular restaurant keeper from the Red River to the Rio Grande.
At some point, Frances Parsons purchased ten acres of land in
downtown Shreveport, at the corner of Common and Travis Streets. In 1866,
she purchased "ten acres of land from Captain Leroy Moncure Nutt just south
of downtown Shreveport. Frances died in the yellow fever epidemic of 1873.
In 1874, Mark Parsons married Bettie Eagle, twenty years his junior. He had
inherited his first wife's property and, in 1880 he turned the properties
over to Bettie.
In 1883, Bettie Parsons bought seventy-nine acres of land in the
South Highlands area south of downtown Shreveport from James F. Patterson for
the sum of $1000. The South Highlands property would become the nucleus of an
affluent neighborhood, but in 1883, it was largely wooded and unbuilt except
for a log house and a small cemetery containing two marked graves. Four years
later, the Parsons bought more land from a black masonic organization.
Mark Parsons ran a successful café on Texas Avenue and became a "green grocer"
at the city market in downtown Shreveport. He died in 1889, leaving Bettie very well off.
Bettie sold the property at Common and Travis Streets to L. E. Carter,
her notary, at a tax sale. She married Henry J. LaCals (1852-1934), a local blacksmith,
in 1903. They lived together in a log cabin on Delaware Street facing Fairfield Avenue.
Bettie continued to purchase and sell property in several places in Shreveport,
including downtown and the Allendale neighborhood.
In 1908, Line Avenue, a main north-south artery, was extended across
the eastern edge of LaCals’ property and the value of the land grew. In about 1912,
Bettie began selling sections of land to A. C. Steere and his real estate development
company. By that time, Henry LaCals had lost his sight and Bettie needed the money.
In 1928, she sold the last of the property to A. C. Steere with the proviso that she
and Henry would be allowed to live on the property rent-free for the rest of their lives.
When Henry died in 1934, he left Bettie a $500 life insurance policy from the
Grand United Order of Odd Fellows. She spent half of that sum to bury Henry,
but because she had a loan from Commercial National Bank, an interdict was placed
on the money and it could not be used for burial expenses. The bank sued the
Odd Fellows for the full amount of the policy. Bettie died in relative poverty
a year later in April 1935.
Bettie LaCals would have been a millionaire in today's figures,
especially once she had sold large tracts of land to Steere, but her fortune
was gone before she died. Carrie Williams, wife of local undertaker J. S. Williams
paid for LaCals' funeral out of her own pocket and buried Bettie next to Henry LaCals
in Hopewell Cemetery on Stoner Hill in Shreveport.
Bibliography: Brock, Eric.
Shreveport Chronicles: Profiles from Louisiana’s Port City. Charleston, S.C., The History Press, 2009;
Burton, Willie. The Blacker the Berry. Shreveport, LA: The Times, 2002;
"The Epidemic at Shreveport," New Orleans Republican, 16 Sep 1873;
Finch, Scout, "Bettie Eagle LaCals," Findagrave.com;
Finch, Scout, "Henry J. LaCals," Findagrave.com;
Finch, Scout, "Mark Parsons," Findagrave.com;
"Louisiana, Compiled Marriage Index, 1718-1925," s.v.
"Bettie Eagle," Ancestry.com;
1880 United States Census, Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana, digital image s.v.
"Bettie Parsons," Ancestry.com.
Sarah Hamer
Citation
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style,
is the preferred citation for this article.
Sarah Hamer, "BETTIE EAGLE PARSONS LACALS," Handbook of North Louisiana Online
(http://www…….), accessed …………. Published by LSU-Shreveport.
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