Background
As a girl, Myrtis lived in Natchez on the Mississippi River in western Mississippi, until her father moved the family c. 1908 to Mangham in Richland Parish south of Monroe, Louisiana.
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Myrtis Methvin
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From 1933 to 1945, the Democrat Methvin was mayor of Castor in Bienville Parish in the northwestern portion of the state. Myrtis Gregory was the oldest of four children born to Elijah Milton "Lige" Gregory (1864-1937) and the former Anna Sweatt (1872-1958) in Ethel near Kosciusko in Attala County in central Mississippi. Elijah Gregory opened a store on the main highway in Mangham.
Meanwhile, Myrtis"s future husband, DeWitt Talmage Methvin, Senior
(1894-1975), himself a Mississippi native, also moved to Mangham. As a railroad depot agent, he named a town "Delco", which no longer exits.
The Castor years
The Methvins relocated to Castor in 1929, where they remained until their deaths.DeWitt, Senior, was engaged in selling timber to the Alexandria-based Roy O. Martin, Junior., company and its sawmill in Roy south of Castor. The senior Methvin also operated his own portable sawmill.
Not long after their arrival in Castor, Myrtis Methvin had a dispute with a neighbor, Henry Rufus "Hal" Lacy, Senior
(1870-1956),whose cow, "Bossie", despite warnings feasted in the Methvin vegetable garden. Methvin "jailed" the cow until Lacy agreed to keep the animal confined to his own property. Methvin"s success in handling Lacy prompted citizens to urge her to run for mayor, a position to which she was elected in 1933.
Membership
DeWitt Methvin, Senior, was also an elected official, a short-term member of the Bienville Parish Police Jury, the parish governing body akin to the county commission in other states.
