Augustus A. Lloyd

Birth: He was born around 1852.  

Family Information: He was survived by nephews and nieces in Monroe County, Mississippi, from which locality he had joined the colony.  

Description: Always uniformly pleasant, cheerful and friendly, he was of a quiet, unobtrusive nature.  

Pre-Colony History: He joined the colony in 1915.  

Home in Colony:  

Job in Colony: In California he had been prominent in the clearing of the land and in the care of the horses and mules, of which, at the time there were 135.

After the move to Louisiana, he always worked in food production. Less than a week before his death, colonists had harvested a remarkably heavy crop of sweet potatoes which he had tended personally.

In September 1931 one hundred fifty sacks of beans and peas were picked in the forenoon by a volunteer crew of men, women and children. The crowd gathered a little after 7 am and was divided into different crews to look after different fields; by 11:30 the job was done. Volunteers included: Killian, Butts, Lloyd, Baldwin, Waters, Doc Williams, Quentin, Fred Busick, Roscoe Busick, Byron Busick, Vivian Busick, Graves, Webb, John Allred, Melvina Hullinger, Fred Levan, Goeke, Eldred, Tom Farrell, Claud Allred, Earl Swenson, Mackie, Frank Collins, George Collins, Boydelatour, Cleve Campbell, Mr. Caves, Clarence Long, Harry Rennick, Dee Kurtz, Pittman, Edminster, Walter Fread, Clarence Fread, Mrs. Herron, Woodruff, J.W. Gilbert, H.M. Wood, Winegar, Bert Moore, Lindwall, Ole Synoground, Rohr, Carnahan, Hoens, Mrs. Wooley, John Neill, Robert Roe, Warren Roe, Nesnow, Bartrum and B. Stevens.

In February 1932 Dad Lloyd, Carl Bradshaw and Bickle were sorting peanut seed in the sweet potato kiln while L.C. Thomas, Louis Rohr and Comrade Hartman were sorting peanut seed in the south wing of the commissary building.

In August 1933 he was helping a crew of men chop wood for the kitchen stove. The crew included: Comrade Slaughter, Dad Lloyd, Harry Ribbing, Nichols, Lindwall and Bingham. John Hight was among them, but not having poor sight, pleaded exemption due to sore feet. Shortly afterwards he was reported hot-footing towards Leesville.  

Other Info: Was one of the members of the colony when George Pickett first named General Manager.

One of 42 colonists who signed a petition, dated January 10, 1928 and sent to the governor of Louisiana, which objected to the securing of a new charter being issued to the colony. Among other things, this petition claimed that affairs of the colony had been grossly and intentionally mismanaged and conduct of the management so flagrantly opposed to good morals that a receiver assigned by the District Court was necessary to handle affairs. It alleged that management had: 1. Used misleading propaganda which caused hundreds of people to invest their money in the colony, only to be disillusioned and have to leave with nothing to show for their investment. 2. Reduced the colony to a peon camp - these "peons" being poorly fed, clothed and housed. 3. Advocated "free-love", including promiscuous relations of the sexes and other practices contrary to good morals. 4. Expressed contempt for courts and authorities by taking it upon themselves to punish two boys for stealing from the colony store. 5. Prostituted colony schools by employing nondescript persons as teachers, while issuing fraudulent reports and drawing hundreds of dollars from the Parish School funds in the names of certified teachers and by exploiting child labor. The case was taken all the way to the Supreme Court but eventually was annulled and the plaintiff's demands rejected.  

Post-Colony History:  

Death: On October 25, 1935, a beautiful, balmy day, his funeral was held in the grove near the schoolhouse. Dr. Williams spoke to the assembled friends and the choir sang "Nearer My God to Thee".  

Sources: "Vernon Parish Democrat": April 28, 1921; "Llano Colonist": February 25, 1928, September 5, 1931, February 27, 1932, April 11, 1933 (Reprinted from the Colonist May 17, 1924), May 13, 1933 (Story of Llano), May 20, 1933 (Story of Llano), August 5, 1933, November 2, 1935