Those Fluker Kents

The following biography, along with a full-page portrait, may be found in Henry E. Chambers; A History of Louisiana:
Richard Amacker Kent. There are few names in the business world in Southern Louisiana better known or more respected than Richard Amacker Kent, for his interests are so numerous, diversified and important that wherever capital is found substantially invested Mr. Kent is almost sure to have been interested within the past thirty years. Banking, merchandising, lumbering, manufacturing and farming all have felt the invigorating influence of his energy, his business acumen and his spirit of progress.

Richard Amacker Kent was born at Kentwood, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, June 28, 1871, a son of James Fluker Kent and Delilah Amacker Kent, and a grandson of Amos Kent. He comes of fine old Colonial American stock, originally from Scotland (sic) and the founder of the family in Louisiana was his grandfather, many generations later. Amos Kent was born in Massachusetts (sic), probably about 1811, and engaged in lumbering and brick manufacturing in New England until about 1840 (sic), when he came to Louisiana and married Susan Fluker, who was born at Clinton, Louisiana, in Feliciana Parish. In 1850 he came to Tangipahoa Parish, and recognizing great business opportunities here, founded the town of Kentwood, where he engaged in lumber and brick manufacturing and lived to be ninety-four years old.

James Fluker Kent was born in August (sic) 1841, in St. Helena Parish, Louisiana, and died at Kentwood in 1886. He was reared in what was then a part of St. Helena Parish, now Tangipahoa Parish. He was attending college when the War Between the States broke out, and enlisted in 1861. He was serving with the rank of lieutenant in a Louisiana regiment when he was made prisoner by the Federal forces and was incarcerated in the fort on Johnson's Island until the close of the war. He came then to Kent's Mill, now Kentwood, and, like his father, was engaged in manufacturing brick and lumber, and additionally at one time had agricultural interests. He was a man of strong convictions and of sterling character; was a democrat in politics; a member of the Masonic fraternity; and belonged to the Baptist Church.

James Fluker Kent married Delilah Amacker, born in 1846, in Tangipahoa Parish, and who died at Hammond, Louisiana, in 1910. There children were: Amos, who was his brother's assistant at Fluker, Louisiana, at the time of his death, when aged thirty-one years; John Ellis, who was a student in the Virginia Military Institute at Charlottesville at the time of his death, when eighteen years old; Obie Amacker, who in boyhood was accidentally killed in a cotton gin at Kentwood; Richard Amacker; S. Grace, who is the wife of John Evans, superintendent of the boiler house of the Standard Oil company of Louisiana, at Baton Rouge; Alma, who is the wife of Henry Habig, of Amite, who is bookkeeper of the Strawberry Growers' Association, and was a candidate in 1924 for clerk of the court of Tangipahoa Parish; Maggie, who is the wife of Albert L. Stossell, lumberman, of Hammond, Louisiana; Catherine, who is a trained nurse and resides at Jackson, Mississippi; Eva, who is the wife of Edgar Bassett, an automobile dealer near Hollywood, California; James F., who is with the Standard Oil Company at Baton Rouge; W. Irwin, who is a resident of Hammond, a buyer of logs and lumber; and Jennie Dean, who is the wife of James D. Stewart, a veteran of the Spanish-American war, and connected with the Standard Export Lumber Company at New Orleans.

When Richard Amacker Kent was 15 years old, he lost his father. He had been attending a private school at Kentwood, but his father's death brought about many family changes, and at the age of seventeen he found himself with practically no capital and with the maintenance and comfort of his mother and his younger brothers and sisters dependent upon his efforts. Under such circumstances he began, in a small way, brick and lumber manufacture at Fluker, in 1888, the site of the present flourishing town being then but a wilderness, and named the place in honor of his father. From this beginning, Mr. Kent has built up one of the most important industrial enterprises in his lime in Southeastern Louisiana. He is sole owner of the R. A. Kent interests at Fluker, specified as follows: R. A. Kent Company, incorporated, for investments; R. A. Kent Mercantile Company; R. A. Kent Farms; and R. A. Kent, Individual. The R. A. Kent Mercantile company, Incorporated, owns and operates the only general store at Fluker. The R. A. Kent Farms Company owns 3500 acres of land, 600 being devoted to agriculture at present, while the rest is cut over land or yet in timber. Until 1917, Mr. Kent operated a lumber mill at Fluker, but removal was then made to Roseland, Louisiana, where it is now operated by the Roseland Veneer and Package Company, Limited, of which company Mr. Kent is President. This company manufactures lumber and all kinds of fruit and vegetable packages and containers, the Roseland plant being the largest of its kind in the entire South, employing 400 people and annually manufacturing 12,000,000 feet of lumber. In the banking business, Mr. Kent has been equally prominent for many years. He is president of the Kentwood Bank at Kentwood, Louisiana, and has filled that office for a long period. In 1912, he established the Roseland Bank at Roseland, Louisiana, which he removed later to Amite and in 1920 changed the name to the Security Bank of Amite, and continued president of this institution until 1922, when he resigned that office on account of ill health, but in November 1924, resumed the presidency. Although realizing the necessity of easing some of his heavy responsibilities, Mr. Kent continues one of the most active of the bank's officials. Another important concern with which he is officially identified in the La Salle Fire Insurance Company of New Orleans, in which he is chairman of the finance committee. In November, 1924, this company was merged with the Union Indemnity Company, which constituted considerably over one million dollars. He aided in the reorganization of the Louisiana-Mississippi Cooperative Creamery, of which he was made president.

Mr. Kent married at Greensburg, Louisiana, January 15, 1896, Miss Susie Freiler, daughter of Capt. John and Belle Carter Freiler, both deceased. Captain Freiler was formerly an extensive farmer and lumber manufacturer. Mrs. Kent was educated at the Norvilla Collegiate Institute, Greensburg, Louisiana, and Silliman College, Clinton, Louisiana. Mr. and Mrs. Kent have six children: Louise, who is the wife of Thomas Preston Field, private secretary to Mr. Kent, also manager of the R. A. Kent Mercantile Company at Fluker, and a veteran of the World War. Mr. and Mrs. Field have two children, Thornwell and Sue; Thomas W., who is manager of the R. A. Kent Farms, is a veteran of the World War. He married Camille Weishaar, and they have two children, Thomas and Marie Louise; Earl, who is assistant postmaster of Fluker, resides at home and is a director of the R. A. Kent Mercantile Company. Warren Douglas is a student at Tulane University, at New Orleans; Evelyn is a student in the Amite High School; and Isabelle and R. A. Kent, Jr., are both attending school at Amite. The family home at Fluker is a handsome, commodious residence that is often the scene of pleasant social functions. Mr. Kent and his family are members of the Presbyterian Church at Arcola, Louisiana, in which he is an elder. In matters political, Mr. Kent Has always been loyal to the democratic party, but has seldom felt free enough from business responsibilities to accept political ones, but for one term served as police juror of Tangipahoa Parish. During the World War, he not only contributed sons to the cause but his own services in every possible way, generously assisting in every drive and setting an example of patriotism and public spirit that is not forgotten. He is a thirty-second degree Mason and a Shriner, a member of Kentwood Lodge No 248, Free and Accepted Masons, Kentwood, Louisiana; St. Helena Chapter No. 43, Royal Arch Masons, Amite Louisiana; Kenneth Commandery No. 9, Knights Templar, Hammond, Louisiana; Grand Consistory of Louisiana, thirty-second degree, New Orleans; and Jerusalem Temple, Mystic Shrine, New Orleans.