REWRITE: SHERIFF PIERRE McGLOIRE Avoyelles Black Sheriff during Reconstruction barbin/magloire or ed laurent/ gabriel magloire who were lynched PIERRE MAGLOIRE, 2nd black sheriff of Avoyelles   Good evening.  My name is Pierre MaGloire, and I was one of only two black men who have ever served as sheriff of Avoyelles Parish.    I was born right here in Avoyelles in 1826, but I was not a slave, but a free man of color. I was appointed sheriff in 1872, during the reconstruction years after the civil war.  I was  known as the “one-armed sheriff. By occupation I was a tailor who sought my trade in Marksville in the 1800's.      In the 1870 census, my wife Josephine Maglorie and I were listed, among our seven children including: Marie, Ramar, Wilode, Rosan, Philomene and Orleans.      In 1871, I was a jailer and deputy sheriff under Alexandre Noguez, Avoyelles first black sheriff. Also in 1871, I was elected as one of the first black alderman of the town of Marksville. And in 1872, I served as a state representative for Avoyelles down in Baton Rouge. Also in 1872, I served as the first Black on the Avoyelles Parish School Board.  Back in the 1870s, I donated the use of a lot in Marksville for a “school house”, but lost it to taxes in 1881.     I lived until the age of 74 when I died on Dec. 2, 1899. St. Joseph Cemetery at the time was a segregated graveyard for whites only. Therefore, you can see that the white persons of this community held me as one of their own. Like my public service My descendants have always fought for rightousnous: Gabriel Magloire, a black Creole Preacher, was hung by an angry mob in 1892 because he just he called from his pulpit for the hanging of some white men who had lynched a black man who had killed another white fellow.The Avoyelles Sheriff did not put up with the situation and arrested 12 “whte cappers” and placed them in the Marksville jail in the fall of 1892 And many of you know of my most famous descendant, who still lives on earth today. She was the first black female general in the U. S. Army, Sherian Cadoria.