Milus W. Haughton

In December 1866, the life of Milus Haughton was filled with possibility. He had survived a war, married a local woman, and was looking forward to starting a family. Just three years later, his dreams would die with his wife and three babes. But Milus would persist, helping his sister to found a town named after their family.

The Graves

Milus Haughton rests under a granite obelisk in the Haughton family plot in Fillmore Cemetery, Haughton, Louisiana.

In a cemetery a few miles down the road rests Milus's wife and children. The grave to the right of the photo, with the obelisk belongs to the wife of Milus Haughton, Cornelia Burns Haughton. To the left of Cornelia, perpendicular to her grave, is the grave of their three babes. Image by Tarah Thomas

The grave of Cornelia Haughton. "They sleep together side by side,//The mother and her three babes;//Their bodies rest beneath the sod,//Their spirits dwell with God." Image by Tarah Thomas.

Beside Cornelia's grave is a stone with no names or dates. It's epitaph reads: "Like silver dew drops on the brow of mourn//They sparkled, were exhaled, and went to heaven." Above it is the image of three little lambs resting under a weeping willow tree, each lamb representing one of Cornelia and Milus's three babes. Image by Tarah Thomas.

The Soldier

Civil War POW record for Milus Haughton. Milus appears about halfway down the page. Photo courtesy of Fold3.com and NARA.

The Founder

Milus Haughton contributed to the founding of the town bearing his name in multiple ways, one being building a hotel. Photo courtesy of Newspapers.com and The Shreveport Daily Times.

The papers stated that he had no children, but deep in Bossier Parish, in a small, forgotten cemetery, is a stone that tells a different story.