Four Special Young Men
My name is Sue Ann Osbourn. I have a story that I’d like to share with you, but first it seems appropriate that I share some of my genealogy in order that the story makes more sense.
One of my maternal great great grandfathers was a man named Charles “Carlos” Favre, Jr. Without going any further back into Favre genealogy, I will say that Charles was of Indian descent. His father was Charles “Carlos” Favre, Sr. and his mother was a Choctaw Indian woman named Pishchenockie, who was also known as Ann V. Luellen. Pishchenockie is believed to have been full-blooded Choctaw.
To get on with it, Charles “Carlos” Favre, Jr., my great great grandfather, married Milliann Beason (or Beeson). Together, Charles and Milliann had three sons- Joel Joseph, James Callos and Lemuel David. According to my records, Joel Joseph was born in 1857, James Callos in 1859, and Lemuel David in 1862. Lemuel David Favre, who is my great grandfather, was born on 30 January 1862. Later that same year on 6 October 1862, Charles “Carlos” Favre, Jr. enlisted in the Confederate Army along with two friends. He served in Company F, 18th and 17th Mississippi Infantry. To the best of my knowledge, he never returned home. According to Civil War records that I have obtained, he died at a military hospital in a place called Buchannan, Virginia on 26 February 1864.
Milliann Beason (or Beeson) Favre married again- this time to David Wainwright on 22 July 1867. Perhaps I should mention that Milliann was the daughter of Josiah Beason (or Beeson) and Hanna Elizabeth Warren. Milliann’s parents are buried in a family cemetery in Edwardsville Community near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. At any rate, Milliann and David Wainwright had one son, George Henry. He is the most important person in the story I want to tell you.
Thus it was that Milliann Favre Wainwright bore four sons- Joel Joseph, James Callos, and Lemuel David Favre and their young half-brother, George Henry Wainwright. I want to say, at this point, that all four brothers were very large, tall, impressive-looking men. James Callos Favre, for example, is known to have been six feet four inches tall and he weighed 240 pounds. Lemuel David Favre was my great grandfather, so it is his physical appearance about which I know the most. He was well over six feet and weighed well over 200 pounds. Old pictures show him to be very Indian in looks with black hair, dark eyes, dark complexion, and a huge black mustache. People who knew him say that he had biceps like hams. In fact, at one point, a peace bond was taken out against him- against the use of his hands. By contrast to Lemuel, Joel Joseph was fair-complexed, light-haired, and blue-eyed. He seems to have been the shortest of the four brothers, but a picture I have shows him to be big, barrel-chested man of quite large size. I can remember George Henry Wainwright as a white-haired old man bearing his testimony of the gospel at great length at the little chapel on Bayou LaCroix. Even as a child, I was impressed with his size and vigor.
It is these four special young men who come to the story I’d like to tell you.
Sometime in the summer of 1894, it was told about the general Bay St. Louis-Waveland area that the Mormon missionaries would be holding a meeting. At the same time, it was rumored that the missionaries would be confronted by a mob during the course of the meeting. Now, the four brothers, Joel, James, Lemuel, and George heard these rumors. They talked the matter over among themselves and they all agreed that the missionaries had the right to speak to the people and be heard. They agreed that they would attend the meeting. Apparently, they hoped that their size and physical appearance would be enough to keep the peace at the meeting.
According to accounts shared with me, the meeting was held at a private home. When the mob began to assemble outside, those already in the house became frightened and shut all the doors and windows. At about this point, those four special young men arrived and were allowed to enter the house. Joel, James, Lemuel, and George directed that all the doors and windows be thrown open so that those gathered about the house as a mob could hear the sermon given by the missionaries. Then, the four brothers seated themselves on either side of the front door and prepared to take on any hostile person who attempted to enter the house.
The missionaries started the meeting. A lengthy, detailed sermon was preached on the topic “The Gathering of Israel.” As the meeting and the sermon progressed, the mob gathered about the house slowly scattered and departed. As those four special young men had hoped, the meeting was completed peacefully and without incident.
Perhaps the most special part of the whole story occurred after the meeting. In my mind’s eye, I can see those four special young men walking shoulder to shoulder down a dusty country road towards home. For a time, they are all silent. As the story was told to me, it was my great grandfather who found his voice first. He turned to George, who was the youngest of the four, and he said, “Well Georgie- what did you think of it?” George’s thoughtful reply was, “I’ve been looking for it all my life and I didn’t know it.”
Shortly after that, as a result of one meeting and one powerful sermon, the four brothers were all baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints on the same day. The date was September 22, 1894. The baptisms took place at Roma Landing near the present Bayou La Croix Community near Bay St. Louis and Waveland, Mississippi.
George Henry was a simple, uneducated, country man, but there must have been something very special about him. Of the four brothers, it was he who took the lead in the growth of the Church in this area in the years that followed. Although, he was the youngest of the four brothers, as far as the Church was concerned, he, like Nephi of old, was the leader. He leaves an extraordinary heritage because there are now six generations of his descendants among the membership of the present local Waveland Ward of the Church. Many of the leaders of the Ward have come from his descendants, including our present Bishop, Charles Thomas Sones, who is Brother George’s great grandson. Another of his great grandsons, Daniel Sones, is currently President of the Gulfport Mississippi Stake of the Church. I think it would be perfectly accurate to say that there have been some truly exceptional men and women among George Henry Wainwright’s descendants.
This is not the first time I have attempted to record a story that grows more extraordinary as the years go back. It amazes me beyond expression to think what can happen in the Church because of the baptism of one man. On this occasion- at this writing- I think that I’d like to just make mention of two of Brother George’s daughters, Sister Ellen Wainwright Ladner, and Sister Laura Wainwright Ladner. They were both pioneer women of the Church in this area and both have numerous descendants in the present Waveland Ward.
It brings me to tears to realize that I have a small part in the heritage that comes down from the four special young men of this story. As I have said, Lemuel David Favre was my great grandfather. My mother, Katie May Rutherford Osbourn, was his granddaughter. Mama joined the Church in 1933 and is considered by many to be another of the pioneer women of the Lord’s Church in this area. Some of her most important work was among the youth of the Church. There are many people still around whose lives she touched in their youth. Love ya, Mama- for bringing the heritage down to me.
