By Jessica Gorman
A son of Reverend Alexander Banks and his first wife, Elizabeth Pratt, is reportedly buried in the Minden Cemetery. The are no records of those early burials. The only source we currently have is an article written by his younger half-sister in 1929. That article and her description of the cemetery are the reasons that I originally chose to write about him. As I learned more, my focus shifted to a different story that seemed to ask to be told.
In that article, Mollie Banks Gray tells of a trip to visit friends in Minden. During that trip, she stayed with Mrs. Katie Drew and they paid a visit to the cemetery. She tells of “the old cemetery where beautiful monuments and shafts, tall cedars, and great oaks…keeping guard over the loved dead.,” and how she “strolled around and read the names of Minden’s honored citizens…all loved and honored long ago, and so closely associated with the development and growth of this city.”
Their stroll through the cemetery took them to the grave of Mollie’s half-brother who she says died in 1847. “The monument was well preserved and had never been cracked or broken.” Today, there is no sign it. My thoughts are that it was likely damaged during the tornado of 1933. In the years since, his marker has been lost. Mollie does give a clue as to the location of his grave stating it was “not far from Mrs. Drew’s loved ones.” In addition, she reveals that her father’s first wife was Elizabeth Pratt. While she is not buried here, the Pratt plot is not far from the Drew plot. I hope that this lost marker is still there below the surface and that, one day, it can be restored.
To learn more about the Banks family, I started with Mollie and made a surprising and fitting discovery in light of the significance of this year as we celebrate America 250, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the founding of our country. Mollie’s obituary states that she was a 2nd great-grandniece of President George Washington. So, I took a look. The obituary gives a slightly inaccurate line of descent from the Washingtons. Mollie was actually a 3rd great-grandniece. Her 3rd great-grandfather was Augustine Washington, Jr., a half-brother to George Washiington.
Reverend Alexander Banks was a Presbyterian minister born in 1808 in York County, South Carolina. He graduated from the Theological Seminary of Columbia, South Carolina in 1835 and made his way to Arkansas in service of the ministry. Rev. Banks is thought to be the first Presbyterian minister in North Louisiana. He made his home in Spring Hill, Arkansas. There, he met Elizabeth Pratt who had come there about the same time from New York to serve as principal of the Spring Hill Female Academy. The two were married in June 1838. I’m not sure for what period of time, but in 1847, the Banks family came to Minden for Mrs. Banks to teach. Their youngest son died here later that year.
The Banks family soon returned to Arkansas where Elizabeth Pratt Banks died in 1853. Three years later, Rev. Banks remarried to Mary Fitzhugh. Mary was born in 1826 in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C. She was the daughter of Dr. Edmund Fitzhugh and Eliza Ann Roberts who died within a month of each other when Mary was only six years old. She was raised in Tennessee by an uncle.
Mary’s grandparents were Judge Nicholas Fitzhugh, of the U.S. Circuit Court in Washington, D.C. and Sarah Washington Ashton. Sarah Ashton’s mother was Anne Washington, daughter of Augustine Washington, Jr. who was a half-brother to President George Washington.
When Mollie Banks Gray wrote her article about her visit to Minden, she probably had no idea that it would ever hold any future significance. That article, included among the society columns, left us with bits of historical evidence. While it led to other information that revealed her family’s connection to our larger national history, it provided clues to our own local history. Not only does she identify one of the many unmarked graves in the Minden Cemetery, she also includes other bits of information that help us piece together a more complete history of our community.
(Jessica Gorman is Executive Director of the Dorcheat Historical Association Museum, Webster Parish Historian, President of the Minden Cemetery Association, and an avid genealogist.)