Mason Barrett, left, and Sam Higdon share a pleasant moment as they are ready to close the Martin Luther King Day program in the county courthouse Jan. 13. Both men are community leaders who are working to restore and revitalize Linden.
The Wright Patman home on North Main in Linden is shown following the restoration work completed on the outside in this photo in 2022.This house was built in 1861,” Sam Higdon said. “And Wright Patman, who began his legal career in Linden, had lived i
Sam Highdon is taking note of the chimney brick which is being re-used to build the fireplace in the old Wright Patman home in Linden. Many of the brick here were the same as made for building the county courthouse, an activity done by slave labor.
Higdon speaks to hometown at MLK observance
Linden native son Sam Higdon makes his home now in Baton Rouge, LA, but he is still a cheer leader for Linden.
Focus upon “leader.” Higdon is president of the Linden Heritage Foundation and president of the town’s cemetery board, too. Both projects require enthusiasm. He supplies it.
Recently, Higdon had a chance to speak to his hometown when he took the microphone at the conclusion of the Martin Luther King Day of observance Jan. 13.
First, he mentioned the cemetery which is a community source of pride basking in the glow of having recently taken down a fence which had separated an African-American section from the rest of the cemetery. That section called Macedonia was then cleared and cleaned. Now the effort is being made to find and identify graves.
“The Macedonia section is no longer there,” Higdon pointed out with emphasis. “Fences have been taken down. It’s one cemetery now. You can be buried anywhere you want.”
Then he added with a smile, “Anyone one can be buried here — as long as you have $500.” That’s the standard cemetery charge.
Then, he added this challenge. “We still have graves there unmarked, not found or identified. We’ve used ground penetrating radar to find many. There are others, and we need to decide what their markers will look like and what they’ll be made of so we can take the best care.
“Let’s get this job done,” he said. Higdon then moved to talk about a Linden history project that is being proposed by the Linden Heritage Foundation and others. It could be a plaza with markers telling a part of Linden’s and Cass County’s history. That history involves the county’s courthouse which is the oldest continually operating in the state. The building was built starting in 1859 and using slave labor.
“We’ve cleared the drainage ditch from the Kaufman Street bridge to the city park where spring and streams were,” Higdon said. “The water was used for living but also for the clay to make bricks back in 1859 when thousands of brick were fired here.
“Slave labor was used to build the courthouse. We want to recognize and acknowledge everyone who took part. We’ve thought maybe there could be a replica of a kiln. A good idea might be to have children come here and make their own bricks and learn about our history. It would be a great history lesson.
“We’ve cleared a slope and top of the hill where the monument could be established to highlight the history of Linden. We want to get the community excited.”
Higdon has been involved with other Linden history projects. One is the restoration of the Wright Patman home on North Main Street. Higdon became involved when trying to buy and restore his childhood home just a block away but in a state of disrepair. At this time in 2011, it was not available.
“But I’ve always intended to come back to Linden,” Higdon said, “and I thought of the home I was raised in. That didn’t work out, but then local historian Sue Lazara told me about the Patman home which was just around the corner from my home. I quickly bought it and began restoring it.”