Rapides Parish Biographies of th e People

GENEALOGY TRAILS WELCOMES YOU TO RAPIDES PARISH

BIOGRAPHIES OF THE PEOPLE OF RAPIDES PARISH

THOMAS ELLIOTT

REVOLUTIONARY WAR OFFICER AND AIDE-D-CAMPE TO GENERAL FRANCIS MARION BY Betty Jean Gill Couch (Descendant of Thomas Elliott & William David Elliot) & David Couch

Thomas Elliott was born in Virginia about 1760 or 1761. His father was George Elliott of Virginia. George Elliott likely migrated from England to Virginia. George Elliott and one of his sons were killed at the Revolutionary War, Battle of Brandywine on 11 September 1777. Thomas Elliott left Virginia after the Battle of Brandywine.

Thomas Elliott became responsible for the care of his mother and younger brothers and sisters, after the death of his father. After the death of George Elliott, a group of Tories harassed Thomas Elliott’s mother and family, and according to family information, Thomas killed two of the Tories. After this incident, Thomas Elliott, his mother, and his brothers and sisters left Virginia and moved to South Carolina. In South Carolina Thomas Elliott joined the forces of General Francis Marion, the “Swamp Fox.” In the South Rapides (Louisiana) Chronicle, Vol. 5 No. 28, Monday, September 17, 1973, it was reported that Thomas Elliott continued in the service until Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown and that Thomas Elliott participated in the Battle of Yorktown. It is certainly possible that Thomas Elliott did participate in the Battle of Yorktown because Lighthorse Harry Lee had been sent to South Carolina to assist General Francis Marion, and prior to The Battle of Yorktown, Lighthorse Harry left for Virginia, taking troops with him. Thus is was possible that Thomas Elliott went to Yorktown with Lighthorse Harry Lee. Family records indicate that Tomas Elliott was one of General Francis Marion’s aide-de-camps.

Information that has been passed down by the family indicates that the Elliott, Phillips, and Erwin families left Virginia about the same time, possibly traveling together. These families traveled to the south and southwest through the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and into southeast Louisiana.

Thomas Elliott married sometime between 1790 and 1792, and he lived in the portion of Warren County, Georgia, that later became Jefferson County. The marriage document of Thomas Elliott’s son, Willis Elliott, indicates that Thomas Elliott was married to Elizabeth Mayers. Thomas Elliott is on the 1794 Warren County, Georgia, Tax List in Grays District (Source: Georgia Census Records.) Thomas Elliott and Elizabeth Mayers had three sons, all born in a portion of Warren County, Georgia, that later became Jefferson County. The sons were William David Elliott (b: 1 February 1795 in Warren Co, GA. d: 30 January 1865 in Rapides Parish, LA); Willis Elliot (1793-1860) and Edward Elliott (1794- ). After the birth of his three sons, William David Elliott, Willis Elliot, and Edward Elliott, Thomas Elliott moved from Georgiato Spanish West Florida (the East Feliciana Parish area of Louisiana). Thomas Elliott died and left a will dated in 1805. In the succession of the will of Thomas Elliott it can be determine that he died in 1805. It is clear that his wife was deceased prior to 1805, as the will left the three boys in the care of David White. Volume 15 of the Index of the Archives of Spanish West Florida shows that the Will of Thomas Elliott and Succession is contained on pages 283 through 291 of the transcriptions from Spanish to English. William David Elliott and Willis Elliott grew up in the East Feliciana Louisiana Parish area. Until after 1809 this area was known as Spanish West Florida. Feliciana Parish was formed in 1810 from Spanish West Florida. The area of Feliciana Parish had grown so populated that by 1824, it was divided into East Feliciana Parish and West Feliciana Parish. It is known that before leaving EAST FELICIANA, both WILLIAM DAVID and WILLIS ELLIOTT served in the War of 1812 in the 10 and 20 Consolidated Regiment of the Louisiana Militia. It is also known that they served with ANDREW JACKSON during The BATTLE of NEW ORLEANS in 1815. [Added: WILLIAM ELLIOTT was Quarter Master Sergeant of the 10th and 20th Regiment and WILLIS ELLIOTT was a private in the unit. Source: War of 1812 Service Records, Roll Box 66, Roll Exct 602, National Archives, Washington, D. C.] Both of the brothers are on the 1820 Census of West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. William David Elliott is in Rapides Parish,Louisiana, on the 1830 census, and his brother, Willis Elliott, is on the 1830 Census of St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. William David Elliott lived near Glenmora, Louisiana, in Rapides Parish, Louisiana. He was married to Elizabeth Andrews(b: 17 August 1800 in Connecticut d: 17 August 1866 in Rapides Parish, LA.) William David Elliott and his wife, Elizabeth Andrews, are both buried in Butters Cemetery near Glenmora and Forest Hill, Louisiana. Willis Elliott lived in Pine Prairie, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, in a portion of St. Landry Parish that later became Evangeline Parish. Willis was married to first wife, Delia Bushnell, on 19 September 1820, and to second wife, Abigail Lebarge on 18 November 1824. Willis Elliott died in Pine Prairie, Louisiana, in 1860 in Evangeline Parish, Louisiana.

BLANCHARD, NEWTON CRAIN, governor of Louisiana, was born Jan. 29, 1849, in Rapids parish La. He received an academic education; graduated as a bachelor of laws at the University of Louisiana in 1870; and commenced practice at Shreveport, La., in 1871. He was a delegate to the Louisiana state constitutional convention of 1879. He was appointed a major in the state militia, and was made a trustee of the University of the South, at Sewanee, Tenn. He was a representative from Louisiana to the forty-seventh, forty eighth, forty-ninth, fiftieth, fifty-first, fifty-second and fifty-third congresses, when he was appointed United States senator to fill a vacancy, and received the election for term ending in 1897. In 18971904 he was associate justice of the supreme court of Louisiana. He is a member of the democratic national committee for Louisiana. His governor of Louisiana for the term of 1904-08; and resides in Baton Rouge, La.

[Source: Herringshaw's American Statesman and Public Official Yearbook: 1907-1908; By Thomas William Herringshaw; Publ. 1909; Transcribed by Andrea Stawski Pack.]

BLANCHARD, Newton Crain, a Representative and a Senator from Louisiana; born in Rapides Parish, La., January 29, 1849; completed academic studies; studied law in Alexandria, La., in 1868 and graduated from the law department of the University of Louisiana in 1870; admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Shreveport, La., in 1871; delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1879; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-seventh and to the six succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1881, until his resignation, effective March 12, 1894; chairman, Committee on Rivers and Harbors (Fiftieth through Fifty-third Congresses); appointed and subsequently elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Edward D. White and served from March 12, 1894, to March 3, 1897; was not a candidate for reelection; chairman, Committee on Improvement of the Mississippi River and its Tributaries (Fifty-third Congress); elected associate justice of the supreme court of Louisiana and served from 1897 to 1903, when he resigned; Governor of Louisiana 1904-1908; resumed the practice of law in Shreveport, La.; member of the State constitutional convention in 1913 and served as president; died in Shreveport, La., June 22, 1922; interment in Greenwood Cemetery.

--Source: Biographical Directory of U. S. Congress, 1774-Present; contributed by A. Newell.

Buck, Charles Francis, lawyer, orator, congressman, was born Nov. 5, 1841, in Germany. He received his education at the public schools; and at the Louisiana state university of Alexandria. For two terms he served as city attorney of New Orleans in 1880-84; has been a member of the school board, and has held various other public positions of honor in that city. In 1895-97 he served as representative from Louisiana to the forty-fourth congress. He is an able lawyer and a brilliant orator; and his oration on the Life and Death of James A. Garfield received publication in all the leading newspapers of America, and was highly eulogized. His law firm of Buck, Walshe and Buck, of New Orleans, attorneys for many of the largest corporations in the south. [Herringshaw’s National Library of American Biography: Contains Thirty-five Thousand Biographies of the Acknowledged Leaders of Life and Thought of the United States, by William Herringshaw, 1909 – Transcribed by Therman Kellar]

MADDOX, ROBERT GWINN, Rapides parish treasurer of Louisiana, was born Aug. 5, 1846, in Rapides parish. La. He served in the civil war as a soldier in the confederate army. He was schooled at St. Johns college of Annapolis, Md. He is a planter, bookkeeper and accountant; and is prominently identified with the business and public affairs of his community. Since 1892 he has been parish treasurer for Rapides parish; and resides in Alexandria. La.

[Source: Herringshaw's American Statesman and Public Official Yearbook: 1907-1908;

By Thomas William Herringshaw; Publ. 1909; Transcribed by Andrea Stawski Pack.]

MOORE, Thomas Overton, governor: b. in North Carolina, 1803; d. Rapides parish, La., June, 1876. Moore was of Revolutionary stock. After a fair school training he came to Louisiana and engaged in cotton planting in the Red River Valley. In politics he was a Jacksonian Democrat. After a term as state senator he was elected governor in 1860. He actively favored secession, seized the forts and arsenals in Louisiana, and rapidly organized the military resources of the state. After the fall of Baton Rouge, Governor Moore removed the capital first to Opelousas, then to Alexandria and finally to Shreveport. When his term expired in 1864 he returned to his plantation, where he remained until his death. His plantation was confiscated, but was restored through the efforts of Gen. W. T. Sherman.

[Source: THE SOUTH in the Building of the Nation Volume XI; Edited by James Curtis Ballagh, Walter Lynwood Fleming & Southern Historical Publication Society; Publ. 1909; Transcribed and submitted by Andrea Stawski Pack] transcribed by Nancy Wright

RANDELL, JOSEPH EUGENE, United States congressman from Louisiana, was born Oct. 7, 1858, in Alexandria, La. He was educated in the public schools of Alexandria and graduated at Union college. Since 1883 he has been engaged in the active practice of law. In 1884-96 he was attorney of the eighth judicial district of Louisiana. He was a member of the state constitutional convention of Louisiana in 1898 which framed a new constitution for the state. He was elected to the fifty-sixth congress to fill a vacancy, and was a member of the fifty-seventh, fifty-eighth and fifty.-ninth congresses from Louisiana as a democrat. He was re-elected to the sixtieth congress from the fifth district of Louisiana for tie term of 1907-09; and resides in Lake Providence. La.

[Source: Herringshaw's American Statesman and Public Official Yearbook: 1907-1908;

By Thomas William Herringshaw; Publ. 1909; Transcribed by Andrea Stawski Pack.]

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