Our Many Branches

My great grandfather Robert Sambo Tyson was born into slavery on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1858, in Rodessa, Louisiana. His father Noah Samuel Tyson (1808) was that enslaver. As we all know during slavery children born to of enslaved mothers followed the condition of their mother, and that was true for my great grandpa. Sambo's mother Louisa is believed to have been gifted to Noah's wife Amanda by his brother prior to their migration from Alabama into Western Louisiana.

I'd like to think that being so young when the Civil War was fought that enslavement really didn't register at all with him, that it didn't affect him in one way or another. But then, a whole host of questions come to mind considering Noah also fathered at least 3 of Sambo's 4 older siblings. How were they treated prior to and after emancipation? And one other question I've never been able to wrap my head around is what was the family dynamic like between Noah and Louisa after she married Richard Gipson and gave birth to 5 more children? How did Noah treat his children by Louisa then? Oh, and then there's that lingering question that all inquiring minds would like to know. How in the hell did Richard Gipson who I'm sure knew Noah fathered all of Louisa's older children deal with this highly unusual sort of family dynamic, especially considering that after emancipation, Louisa and Richard and the entire family didn't leave the area, they stayed?

My great grandfather Sambo was truly a very interesting character to say the least. He fathered eighteen (18) children in all, by three women. "Papa was a rolling stone" doesn't even begin to describe Sambo and "wherever he laid his hat" is literally what he did!

Sambo's relationship with the three women in his life Louella Herndon, Virginia Baugus (my great grandmother) and Lela Parker (Virginia's niece) is something that Hollywood couldn't script.

Sambo's story begins with Louella and fifteen year marriage that produced seven (7) children. After which the plot thickens as they say:

Between the birth of Katie in 1897 its not certain if Sambo and Louella's were separated or divorced. What is certain is that Sambo had relations with the second woman in his life, Virginia, and 10 months later Virginia gave birth to a son, Elaska "Hoot" or "Manchild" Tyson (my grandfather).

A year to the date after grandpa Hoot's birth Louella passed away (June 9, 1899) and shortly thereafter Sambo would marry a second time. This time to the third woman in his life. Lela Parker age 20 was twenty-one (21) years his junior (he was 42 she was 20). Lela was the daughter of Richard Parker and Agnes "Aggie" Baugus the sister of Virginia Baugus, grandpa Hoot's mother. So, technically Sambo married his niece even though he and Virginia never married.

The Sambo, Virginia and Lela saga gets much more intriguing in the years between 1901 and 1903. Sambo who had been married to Lela for at least 2 years would have their first two children together; Attris (1901) and Beatrice (1902). Then being the rolling stone that he was Sambo stepped out on another wife and father another child, Mamie Bell (1903).

Wait for it...

You guessed it, Mamie Bell's mother was none other than Virginia Baugus, grandpa Hoot's mother, the woman he stepped out with during his 1st marriage with Louella.

Lela and Sambo would have seven more children between 1905 and 1919 and suffice it to say, the three were involved in a very unique, strange and complicated relationship that could never be understood or explained even if there was a need to. 

(Background image of Black Bayou Northwestern Louisiana)