The inscription on the obelisk on Mahala Greene’s grave reads simply, “ Our Mother.” At the base of the marker is this: “Having served her generation by the will of God she fell asleep.” “Somebody had to be an artist to do this type of work,” Brown said.Īt the time Allen Greene died in 1883, most monument work was done by hand. Both markers weigh about 300 pounds.Ī special epoxy was used to secure the pieces, and the cracks around the bases of both stones filled with grout, Brown said.Īllen Greene’s marker features the Masonic emblem and scrolled leaves. Allen Greene’s marker needed more work he repaired it at Brown’s shop. Allen Greene’s marker was displaced from its base and broken in two.īrown said he cleaned and repaired Mahala Greene’s marker on site. The obelisk atop Mahala Greene’s gravestone appeared to have fallen off. Nobody knows how the Greenes’ markers got broken, or how long they had been that way. Just a short walk away are graves of Confederate soliders. Other family members, including an infant and a 7-yearold boy, are also buried there. The markers are the tallest in the cemetery and are inside the plot surrounded by a low, moss- covered rock border. They had a farm, tannery, and shoe factory in the area. The Greenes are buried in a family plot in Pecan Grove Cemetery on La. John Brown volunteering to repair the Greene markers without charge eliminated the need for a long fundraising campaign.”

“We put out the word requesting donations to repair the monuments, unsure how much we would raise. “The Browns really came to our rescue,” Harris said. He went to the museum and offered to repair both markers at no charge. “When I saw that article, I told my wife we ought to see if there’s something we can do about that,” Brown said Tuesday. His appointment of freed slaves to political offices, the establishment of schools for their children, and creation of jobs through his industries improved life for many,” Harris said.Įarlier this month, the committee and the Lincoln Parish Museum issued a call for donations to repair the markers as part of this year’s sesquicentennial observance. Yet, Greene’s influence on north central Louisiana was significant despite the turmoil of the times.

“He sought absolute power over politics to the point his opponents came close to responding with violence. Greene is one of the most consequential figures in early Lincoln Parish history, Wesley Harris, local historian, and chairman of the Lincoln Parish Sesquicentennial Committee, said. “It’s really meaningful to have a part in something for the man who founded Lincoln Parish,” said Brown, owner of Brown’s Monument and Stone of Dubach. Now the marble monuments that mark the final resting places of Allen and Mahala Greene once again stand tall and gleaming against the skyline in the small Pecan Grove Cemetery northwest of Ruston. It took John Brown about a week to restore the broken gravestones of the man credited with founding Lincoln Parish, and that of his wife.

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