Olive Pearl Lentz  

Birth: She was born in 1888 in Indiana.  

Family Information: Married to Nick Lentz.

Mother of Philip, Jane, Joseph, Noel and Martha Lentz.  

Description: The 1940 census reports she had completed 4 years of college.  

Pre-Colony History:  

Home in Colony:  

Job in Colony: She was a teacher in the colony schools.

In June 1931 the midday meal was prepared and served by the Mesdames Lentz, Long, White, Corbett, Nesnow, Parsons, Hardy, Joynes and the Misses Stella Kittle, Bays and Caves. Frances Wilkerson and Virginia and Ruth Kittle gathered the trays which Mrs. Wright was kept busy wiping for repeated service.

In 1934 Mrs. Glavincheff served as president of the Parent-Teachers Association. Other officers included: Nick Lentz, vice-president and Professor Brown, secretary. On the program committee were Superintendent Lewis, Mrs. Lentz and Mrs. Potter. 

Other Info: In June 1934, a group of 2nd-4th grade children were taken to the Sabine River for a picnic by their teacher, Mrs. Lentz and Lloyd Potter in his Pontiac, into which the group of eleven all managed to fit. At the river, they went fishing and Lloyd rowed them across the river so each could get a handful of Texas soil to take back to Louisiana with them. They mixed the dirt with Louisiana soil for co-operation and brotherhood. They watched when a car honked its horn for the ferryman at Burr's Ferry and was taken across to Texas. For supper, they built a fire and had biscuits and eggs with strawberry jam. The group included: Dorothy Loutrel, Frances Peecher, Charlotte Hewitt, Ione Quipp, Lenin Tabb, Robert Peecher, Noel Lentz, Ernest Joynes, William Yost, Mrs. Lentz and Lloyd Potter.

On May Day, 1935, some dissatisfied colonists -- most of them younger members who had not yet earned their right to vote on colony decisions -- held a meeting while Pickett was out of town and elected a new Board of Directors that didn't include George Pickett. Doc Williams, an on-again / off-again colonist from the early years in California, was elected President; Eugene Carl, a new member who'd only been at the colony about three months -- he was still a probationer and consequently didn't even have voting rights in colony matters, was elected Executive Director; and Walter Robison, also a recent arrival, was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Pickett and his supporters fought the action in the Vernon Parish courts, but even though the courts ruled the new board was not legal, they also refused to name Pickett's board as the legal directors, so the disagreements within the colony only continued to escalate.

Read the Court Judgment dated September 6, 1935.

In order to claim that an official board had been properly elected after the court judgment had been handed down, the new board and leaders held another election. They advertised for former colonists to send in their proxies and adopted a rule permitting all resident members who had been at the colony more than sixty days to vote in the election, provided too few proxies were received to hold a regular stock holders' meeting.

In October 1935 she was nominated to be on the self-proclaimed "legal" Board of Directors, along with (in order of nomination), Robert K. Williams, E.D. Carl, Lester Caves, Crockett Campbell, John Szpila, Harold Emery, Charles Lawrence, Chester Peecher, E.O. Joynes, Chester Page, Horace Cronk, George Hullinger, Walter Robison, "Chauncey" DuProz, Mrs. Mabel Busick, Lionel Crossland, Charles Derleth, J.H. "Dad" Ribbing and Cy Horney, however, the following week she withdrew her name from the list of candidates.

As expected, less than one fourth the required stock was represented at the Stockholders' meeting, so the colonists proceeded with the election of a new board of directors as planned. Those selected were: Robert K. Williams, E.C. Carl, Lester Caves, Crockett Campbell, Harold Emery, Chester Peecher, E.O. Joynes, Charles Lawrence, and Chester Page. Runners up were Mrs. Mabel Busick, Horace Cronk and John Szpila.

In June 1936 some of her students put on a night of verses at the theater; In December she'd been working with her intermediate grade students on a Christmas program for the theater.  

Post-Colony History: In 1940 the Lentz family was living in a home in the unincorporated New Llano, Louisiana (site of the old colony).  

Death: She died in 1978 in Indiana.  

Sources: Indiana Marriage Index; "Llano Colonist": June 6, 1931, December 9, 1933, March 24, 1934, June 2, 1934, October 12, 1935, October 19, 1935, June 6, 1936, December 26, 1936; US Census: 1940; FindAGrave.com