Kitty Rose loves the history of her little home.
The original clawfoot tub stretches the length of the bathroom wall.
The family boat at Bateman Island.
The steering wheel is all that is left of the family boat.
The old range in the kitchen still works.
The field across the road from the home was a cotton field 100 years ago.
The original wood heater from the house is now a planter in the front yard.
The old Friendship Baptist Church on Highway 59 is now used for storage.
The old phone on the wall no longer rings, but it’s a great piece of décor.
An old cotton seeder sits in the front yard.
The Little Lanier Farmhouse
Less than two miles South of the Cass County line lies a community that spent its infancy caught in a land battle between two counties. Now, all that is left of Lanier is the Friendship Baptist Church and Cemetery on Highway 59 and a few homes.
Besides the Friendship Church on Highway 59 the only other original structure is a house on CR 1638, now owned by Kitty Rose. Built in 1900, Kitty and her late husband bought the house in 1991.
Now listed in Jefferson, Marion County, the land on which it sits was originally in Cass County when Jefferson was the county seat before Linden. Cass became Davis County from 1861-1871, before going back to Cass.
When Marion County was formed later, the boundary line between the two counties changed so many times, it is uncertain which county the home was originally built in. Another uncertainty is the name of the original builder and owner.
Lanier was settled in the 1870s and named after Lanier, Georgia, where the earliest settlers came from. By 1900 it was comprised of a store, a post office, two churches and a population of 50. In 1912 the Jefferson and Northwestern Railroad was completed to Linden, bypassing Lanier, and the majority of the residents moved. Between 1925 and 1929 the population jumped from 25 to 150. That year the post office closed, and by 1933 the population had dropped back to 25.
Equally as colorful as the town history, is the life story of the current owner of the old farmhouse. Born on Bateman Island in the Atchafalaya Basin in the South Louisiana swamp, Kitty came to Texas at the age of 16 with her parents and four sisters.
“We were the only family on the island. President Kennedy gave us a boat to get to the school in Morgan City,” she said. “But we couldn’t get there in Hurricane season, or when it was foggy, so we really didn’t go much.”
Waidus Rose made a living as an alligator hunter on the bayous during a time when it was illegal. He was also a fur buyer and hunter loggerhead turtles.
Waidus delivered all five of his daughters and taught them the ways of the swamp. Two sons were born at Linden Municipal Hospital after moving here.
“Now, my sister, Mary, she loved going with daddy to hunt and fish,” recalled Kitty. “But I knew if I learned to cook and clean I wouldn’t have to go.”
That older sister, Mary Humphrey, lives in Jefferson where she is a riverboat captain and is known as the “Gator Granny.” She is the person that is called when someone needs a pesky gator removed from their yard.
Kitty has four children – Woody, Holly, Clint and Tanna - with former husband, Woodard Belcher of Linden. Photos of her kids and grandchildren decorate the walls in her home. During the 1980s, Kitty owned a bunkhouse called “The Gloryhole” in the goldmining town of Central City, Colorado. It was there she taught her children to love adventure.
Although she’s been alone for years now, she has the company of her canine furbabies. She gardens and grows most of what she eats, and she enjoys spending time with her family.
The little home under the grove of tall sycamore trees is Kitty’s favorite place of all, and here she keeps the memories and mementos of her beloved daddy and life on the family island.