Oakwold Plantation in Evergreen is more about people than a fine old home

By Donna Culotta

As you enter Evergreen from the Bunkie side, if you look to the left you’ll see an
old home surrounded by old trees. It seems they go together, old houses and old
trees. It’s Oakwold Planation and it serenely sits back from the road and the world. From its vantage point, Oakwold surveys its domain that covers 191 years. Built in 1835 the house has had eight generations of owners all in the same family coming through the daughters. Currently the house is under the proprietorship of David Hilleren and his wife, Becky Descant Hilleren. Their story easily fits into
the history of the house. Oakwold just keeps on going, welcoming who-ever will care for it, who ever is the keeper of the story. And the story is long, 191 years long, yet it’s not so much about a house, it’s about the people who worked the land and wore down the thresholds. The names that accompany Oakwold ring with familiarity in that part of the Avoyelles Parish. Pearce, Kemper, Wright and Brunson all played their part in the historical survival of the house. William Pearce built the home at the confluence of Bayou Rouge and Bayou Huffpower. The spot drew him in immediately and he was determined to build “good and stout.” An important reason why the house has remained. House fact: there were no nails used in the heavy cypress framing of the house. It was all solid and hand hewn, which can be seen to this day, It was the Kempers, the next owners, who gave the
house it’s name, which has endured. The name Oakwold is basically German with some tweaking. It fits the house and the land. When the next family, the Wrights, lived at Oakwold, there were at one time, four generations living together. They were the family who donated the land for the Bayou Rouge Baptist Church.
Through the years the house was added to, taken from, reconfigured to the needs of the family and always repaired. Solomon Northup of “12 Years a Slave” fame was also a part of the Oakwold history. In 1852 he came to play his fiddle at Christmas time for the Oakwold slaves. Alanson Pierce, owner at the time, asked permission of Edwin Epps, with whom Northup was enslaved, to let him come play and Epps agreed. Sam Houston the first president of the Republic of Texas visited Oakwold in 1863. The room where he slept has been appropriately named after the Texas hero and famous man. Throughout the house, wall to wall and room to room, items of historical significance can be seen. Things from years ago that belonged to members of the eight generations who called Oakwold home. Simple things, like perhaps a vase that holds story unto itself. The drop leaf table supported by handcarved hinges. It was the wedding breakfast table for ancestors of 100 years ago and a treasure. Every article, every item has a story and represents someone from a past generation. Relics of the past that are
just as welcome today as well as for future families who will walk Oakwold’s
handhewn floors. Paintings hang on the walls alongside many pictures of the ancestral families. In the sitting room especially, they are lined up
and have become the silent listeners to conversation. Today the keepers of all the history and family legacy are David Hilleren and wife Becky. Newly married, they
have accepted their role in keeping Oakwold...well...Oakwold. “Billy (Crutchfield
Wright) Hilleren was my best friend growing up,” Becky said. Billy was the
sort of special person who fell into your life and stayed. Becky and Billy, although
attending different schools, stayed besties until the day Billy died.
Becky was in Billy’s wedding and Billy was in Becky’s wedding. When the Hillerens lived in New Orleans it didn’t keep the friendship from surviving.
They were girl friends, they were also couple friends. Becky lost her husband, Don Pat Descant, over 10 years ago. David lost Billy over a year ago. Cupid worked its arrows and David and Becky found each other. At one time, Oakwold was one of the largest plantations in Avoyelles with originally 175 acres and more acquired through the years. Besides the main house there are currently several outbuildings with stories of their own. Every part of the property speaks of how things were and how things will always be. David and Becky are committed to that because it’s not just about a house but all the people who made it a home.