What Happened Between 1890 and 1898?

I have been trying to find out what happened with Will between 1890, when he was living at home with his parents, and 1898, when he was living in Denison, Texas and enlisted to fight in the Spanish American War.  Will's father was the superintendent of the Methodist Sunday School, and Will was "an agriculturalist" (his father was a cotton farmer).  What caused him to leave Bienville Parish?  From the scant evidence available, Will not only left, he never went back, and he never told his family about his marriage and his new family.  Since the scant evidence suggests that he was a boozer (Methodists in the Bible Belt in the late 1800s tended to be teetotalers), his drinking may have led to his being shunned by his family.  But this is speculation, at this point.

In my internet research, I ran across this interesting bit (which may have nothing to do with Will, but you never know . . .) from History of Bienville Parish by Sharon O. Kleinpeter:



In 1890 citizens of Arcadia and Gibsland petitioned the state legislature for permission to hold a referendum to decide whether or not to move the parish seat. In the third referendum, Arcadia carried the election by 65 votes eliminating other candidates, Bienville and Gibsland.

Controversy still surrounds what the residents call "the midnight raid". Approximately thirty minutes after the final tabulation of the ballots six wagons, loaded with Arcadians, surrounded the deserted Sparta courthouse. Some of the Arcadians entered the building and tossed out most of the parochial records to their waiting companions. In a wild chase which ensued, it is more than likely that some records were lost. Many newspaper articles referred to that night in 1893 as the night "Bienville government was stolen".

 A picture of the old Bienville Parish Courthouse in Arcadia.

History is fun.