This home is reported to have been built before Civil
War and purchased in 1870 by Doctor T. J. Vance.
This was reported in the Minden Signal Tribune, Tuesday,
September 25, 1934: Vance Home Bought By W.C. Sugg“Old
House Has Witnessed The Growth of Minden.” W.C. Sugg,
local merchant, has purchased the Vance house, and will
begin work of remodeling at once. He intends to use the
house as his residence.
The Vance home is one of the old land marks of Minden,
and was constructed before the civil war. According to
Alberta Glass, Minden confederate veteran, when he
returned from the war, the house was occupied by a Mr.
Lanchester. It was then sold to Tom Carter, who
remodeled it and lived there. Carter sold it to Dr.
Vance when the doctor moved to Minden from Red River. It
has been in the possession of the Vance family until the
recent sale. Dr. Vance was prominent in the life of
Minden and Webster Parish. The old house has seen Minden
grow from a small village to one of the most progressive
little cities in North Louisiana. Dr. T. J. Vance was a
doctor in the Civil War his wife was Belle Pratt Vance:
script from Minden Cemetery Ghost Walk Tour. I don’t like
to admit it, but my parents were Yankees. My father,
Luther Pratt, was born in New Hampshire and Mama, she
was Dorliska Rathbun, was born in New York state. They
came to Louisiana after they married and had a store
down in Overton, , it was the
town on the Bayou back before Minden was here. Folks
kept dying from the Yellow Fever and eventually that
town just disappeared. They tell me that you can’t even
see where it was anymore, it’s under those pits they dug
the gravel out of, they call them bar pits. Anyway, our
family moved to Homer for a while, and that’s where I
was born on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1852. But we
moved back to Minden and I went to school here. In fact,
I was the valedictorian of my class at the Minden Female
College, the class of 1869. I remember the big party we
had after graduation at my parent’s house. I wanted it
to be done with because my brother promised he’d give
$100 dollars to the first girl in our family to graduate
with honors from the college. That was a lot of money in
1869. After I married Dr. Vance – my husband was Dr. T.
J. Vance of the Bossier Parish Vance’s and we married on
May 4, 1875 – we came back to live in Minden. We built a
nice house up there on Broadway. People seem to want to
call it the Sugg House, but it was really the Vance
home, my nephew Mr. Sugg inherited it after I died in
1933. I saw a lot of things change in Minden; I remember
telling the newspaper about that just before I died.
They interviewed me on my 81st birthday; it was just
before we had that awful fire and the bad wind storm. I
told them that there wasn’t half as much meanness when
the people were permitted to have whiskey. There was
nothing I liked better than some whipped cream flavored
with whiskey. But I really loved Minden; I thought we
were the prettiest town in the state, especially that
boulevard around my home. I’ve enjoyed visiting with you
folks come back and see me again.
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Clarence Pratt |
Nina Vance Sugg Age 18 |
