This collection documents the personal and professional lives of interrelated families living in and around the northern portion of Caddo Parish, Louisiana.

Items connected to the Hale family include George Washington Hale’s state, parish, and poll tax receipts (1861-1881) as well as dry goods and grocery receipts (1870-1879). Also included are records about Hale family members managing post offices (1883-1896).

Items connected to the Hawkins family include J. M. Hawkins’s state, parish, and poll tax receipts (1884-1894) as well as financial records (1889-1906). Also included are postcards (1907-1918) received by James and Ida Hawkins.

Correspondence connected to both the Hale and Hawkins family contains information about family members, travel, and business. The correspondence includes the following letters: William and Harriett Duckwork’s letter to her brother J. B. Hawkins (1853), Prudy Carter’s letter to her daughter Elizabeth Carter Golihar Hale (1853), Molly Leverette’s letter to Agnes Hawkins (1903), Jim Parnell and Horace Leverette’s letter to Agnes Hawkins (1905), and H. T. Johnson’s letter to his cousin James Hawkins (undated). Letters exchanged between Ada Stanberry and R. T. Douglas contain historical information about the Hale family and the Hosston community (1957).

Photographs – many of which include identification notes written on the back – include portraits of Hale and Hawkins family members as well as group images depicting Caddo Prairie Baptist Church, Willis School (circa 1900), the first train to Hosston (circa 1902), and the George Washington Hale family house.

A group of photographs depicting oil fields in North Louisiana (circa 1925) include the following locations: Cotton Valley, Gahagan, Haynesville, Hosston, Pine Island, Sarepta, Shongaloo, and Springhill. Also included are: Bayou State Oil Company refinery, Belchic-Laskey Oil Company, and Clifton Oil Company. Some oil field photographs include J. C. and Ada Hawkins Stanberry.