Museum the New Llano Colony | ||||||||
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Rufus W. Banta Birth: He was born around 1854 at Indiana. Family Information:
Husband of Elizabeth Banta. Description: Pre-Colony History:
He'd married Elizabeth Banta on July 4, 1874. In 1890, they had taken their six sons and two daughters to Louisiana where they'd prospered, growing first rice and later sugar. In 1932, they still owned 500 acres on Bayou Teche where they had once rubbed elbows with southern aristocracy whose prosperity rested on the backs of menials, though even then the Banta men personally worked their plantation while Mrs. Banta did her own housework. Home in Colony: The Banta home was nicer than most in the colony because it had been built by their sons -- while most colonists were forced to wait until colony workers had time to harvest materials that were needed to build a house from colony property. Job in Colony:
In 1928, he and Mrs. Banta went to live and work at the Rice Ranch, doing housework and cooking for the workers there. On the 1930 census he was listed as a farmer in the colony. He was sometimes pressed into service to help sort peanut seed for a large order. Other Info: In March 1933 he attended a good-bye party for the Sanford family, along with Cyrus Horney, Mrs. June Black, Sybil Black, Mr. and Mrs. DuProz, Mr. and Mrs. Hess, Mr. and Mrs. Brannon, Mr. and Mrs. B. Stevens, Mr. and Mrs. Marve Sanford, Lou Colt, and the Messrs. Githens, D. Sanford, Beanfellow, and Starkweather. Post-Colony History: Death: He died in 1955 in Louisiana. Sources: US Census: 1900, 1930; "Llano Colonist": October 13, 1928, November 7, 1931, June 18, 1932, March 4, 1933, December 14, 1935, February 29, 1936; Louisiana Statewide Death Index |
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