Harley Bozeman

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Harley Bernard Bozeman
Louisiana State Representative from Winn Parish
In office
1928–1929
Preceded by J. W. Gaar
Succeeded by A. Lawson McDonald
Personal details
Born (1891-05-03)May 3, 1891
Arkadelphia
Clark County
Arkansas, USA
Died Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist.
Winnfield, Winn Parish
Louisiana
Resting place Winnfield Cemetery
Nationality American
Political party Democratic
Spouse(s) Annabell Estes Bozeman (married 1922-1956, her death)
Children Helen Gayle Bozeman Fausett
Estes Bernard Bozeman
Alma mater Winnfield Senior High School
Occupation Farmer; salesman; historian
Religion Southern Baptist
Bozeman is honored by the naming of a mini-park in Winnfield.

Harley Bernard Bozeman (May 3, 1891 - May 16, 1971) was a salesman, tree farmer, politician, and historian from Winnfield, Louisiana, who served in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1928 to 1929.[1] He was a confidant of Democratic Governors Huey Pierce Long, Jr., and Earl Kemp Long, who were also from Winn Parish in North Louisiana.

Background

Bozeman was born to Martin Waller Bozeman (1859-1926), a native of Georgia, and the former Caroline Elizabeth Eck (1866-1949)[2] at the Montroy Steamboat landing located between Arkadelphia in Clark County and Camden in Ouachita County in south Arkansas. He had two brothers, Mike Edwin Bozeman (1896-1955) and Eck Hart Bozeman (1908-1994) of Winn Parish, and three sisters, the oldest of whom was Clyde Orene Bozeman Bryant (1893-1928), formerly Mrs. C. B. Owen, who died at the age of thirty-four in Pampa, Texas.[3][4] The two younger Bozeman sisters were Myrtle Willis (1899-1983) of Bossier City and Eva Tamzy Bozeman (1906-1974) of Baton Rouge.[5]

Martin and Caroline Bozeman moved their family to Dodson in Winn Parish when Harley was ten years of age. When he was fourteen, they relocated to the larger Winnfield, the parish seat of government. There Bozeman graduated in 1910 from Winnfield High School, now known as Winnfield Senior High School, where he was involved in student debates with his young friend Huey Long and exhibited a great interest in the study of history. After leaving high school, Bozeman was a traveling salesman of items such as baking powder, starch, and pharmaceutical supplies. He often was joined by Huey Long in such pursuits. Bozeman served briefly in 1918 the United States Army, but a case of influenza and pneumonia soon returned him to Winnfield.[5]

With his pharmacist brother Mike, Bozeman for a time operated the old Winnfield Drug Company. Bozeman returned temporarily to the life of a traveling salesman. In Tyler, Texas, he met and soon married in 1922 Annabell Estes (1894-1956).[6] Back in Winnfield, he was sales manager for the Southern Minerals Company until the company quarry was sold in 1923.[5] Harley and Annabell Bozeman had two children, Helen Gayle Bozeman Fausett (1923-2007) of Oklahoma City[7] and Estes Bernard Bozeman (1926-2007) of Winnfield. Estes Bozeman, like his father a tree farmer and weather observer, died some three months prior to his sister's passing.[8]

Public life

In 1928, newly elected Representative Bozeman was named chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.[5] He introduced a bill for taxpayer-funded textbooks, a change also associated with John Sparks Patton[9] and the Long political dynasty. He soon resigned from the House to become chairman of the Louisiana Tax Commission. In private life, he purchased cut-over timberlands and was one of the first in Winn Parish to have a designated tree farm. For many years, Bozeman was an unpaid observer for the National Weather Service. He subsequently served on the Winnfield City Council, in which capacity he worked to establish the municipally-owned electric system in 1942.[5]

A charter member of First Federal Savings and Loan Association in Winnfield, he served on the board of directors until October 1970, when his son, Estes, succeeded him.[5]

Historian

Annabell Bozeman was a founder of the Winn Parish Library. Before her death she prodded her husband to begin writing the history that he had lived. In 1956, Bozeman hence launched a series of historical articles which ran in the weekly Winn Parish Enterprise-News-American newspaper under the name "Winn Parish As I Have Known It." These articles continued until March 1971, but were sporadic in the last months of his life because of illness.[5]

Bozeman's articles in The Enterprise covered many previously unknown facets of Winn Parish history. He conducted many interviews with old-timers and pored over old manuscripts, letters, and other historical sources. He possessed a personal memory of the past, and his work was often accompanied by rare pictures, drawings, maps, and letters. His articles were sometimes entertaining and frequently replete with humor. In addition to his writing, Bozeman helped libraries even beyond Winn Parish to build up their historical files. He became a source authority of historical materials. His local, regional, and state history was so highly regarded that the Louisiana State University professor T. Harry Williams quoted extensively from Bozeman in Williams' Huey Long (1969). Bozeman tried to answer personally the large volume of mail that he received regarding his historical work but at times was overwhelmed in doing so.[5]

Death and legacy

Bozeman was a long time member of the First Baptist Church in downtown Winnfield. He died in Winnfield General Hospital at the age of eighty. He is interred beside his wife, who preceded him in death by fourteen years, at Winnfield Cemetery.[5]

The Harley Bozeman Mini-Park in Winnfield is named in his honor.[10] In 2002, Bozeman was posthumously inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame, located in Winnfield. Huey and Earl Long were among the original inductees to the hall of fame in 1993. Inducted with Bozeman nine years later were two other Longite figures, Bill Dodd and Jesse Bankston, who was then still living.

References

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  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ The death certificate for Bozeman's sister, Mrs. Clyde (female given name) Bryant, signed by her presumably second husband, H. E. Bryant, says that her date of birth and the maiden name of her mother were unknown to Mr. Bryant, who was her husband for less than two years. The certificate indicates that the doctor at her death was unsure of her previous medical history because she had been treated earlier by a chiropractor. She died in a Pampa sanitarium and was interred the day after at Fairview Cemetery in Pampa, the county seat of Gray County in the Texas Panhandle. Mrs. Caroline Bozeman said that her daughter should be known to people in Winn Parish as Mrs. C. B. Owen (some references say Owens) of Houston, Texas. It is not clear if Mr. Owen died in 1926 or 1927 or if the couple was divorced. Mrs. Caroline Bozeman did not learn of her daughter's death of a lengthy illness until five days after the fact, presumably by letter.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 Harley Bozeman obituary, Winn Parish Enterprise-News-American, Winnfield, Louisiana, May 20, 1971
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ "John Sparks Patton", A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, Vol. 2 (1988), p. 635
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.


Preceded by
J. W. Gaar
 Louisiana State Representative from Winn Parish

Harley Bernard Bozeman
1928–1929

 Succeeded by
A. Lawson McDonald
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