The Old Dutchman

Unlike the turn-of-the-century structures preserved in the nearby Mile Branch Settlement, the little house on Grayson Ball’s family land in Washington Parish has fallen victim to both the years and the elements. (A vicious final blow was delivered by a crashing tree during Hurricane Katrina.) To Ball and his relatives, though, the cabin will always be home to the Old Dutchman.

“I later found out he was from Bulgaria,” laughed Ball, who was able to see and photograph the remains of the cabin for himself during a family hike two years ago across land first homesteaded by Ball’s great-great-grandfather in the 1880s. “I have no idea why everyone called him the Old Dutchman. Geography wasn’t their strong suit, I guess.” 

The so-called Dutchman was a tenant of Ball’s great-grandfather and would catch rides on the school bus his landlord drove, to the fright of local children. “He was very scary-looking. He always wore a big coat and a black hat,” said Ball. “‘Don’t dare pick on this man,’ my great-grandfather would tell them. I never got the whole story, but he had to escape some kind of political persecution. Supposedly he left his family over there.”

Stories of the Old Dutchman continue to reach Ball, always to his amusement. “My grandmother’s cousin remembered when he married. He married a widow first, then he married a younger lady. They were given a shivaree on their wedding night. All the men from the community crept up and started ringing cowbells and banging on the windows.” 

Ball’s great-aunt lived down the road from the Old Dutchman and vividly recalled his young, buxom wife, who often wore a bow on the backside of her dress. “They’d have these fights,” said Ball. “And you could tell when they had the fight, because she’d come walking down the road, and that bow would be shaking. ‘I’m going and I ain’t never comin’ back!’ she’d say. I think she always did come back, though … until one day she didn’t.” 

Visit Ball’s Instagram, @31stparallel, for more of his work.