Sally Merrel

Birth: She was born in 1889 at Arkansas.  

Family Information: Married to Sidney Merrel.

Mother of Lee "Brooks", Monroe, Lorene, Lucille, Ernestine and Maxine Merrel.  

Description:  

Pre-Colony History: In 1920 she was living in Arkansas with her husband and children. In December of that year she and the children arrived in the colony to join her husband, coming from Harrison, Arkansas.  

Home in Colony:  

Job in Colony:  

Other Info: One of 42 colonists who signed a petition, dated January 10, 1928 and sent to the governor of the state, 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: In 1940 she was living in Rapides Parish, Louisiana with her husband and children.  

Death: She died in 1981 at Pineville, Louisiana and was buried at Alexandria, Louisiana.  

Sources: US Census: 1920, 1940; "Vernon Parish Democrat": December 23, 1920; "Llano Colonist": February 25, 1928, May 13, 1933 (Story of Llano), May 20, 1933 (Story of Llano); FindAGrave.com