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JOHN ALEXANDER BUCKNER, Central, '52, entered Princeton Theological Seminary and left without graduating on account of ill health. In 1858 he became a minister in the Southern Presbyterian Church. In 1861 he entered the Confederate army as captain of the 8th Kentucky Infantry and was promoted until he became colonel and adjutant-general to Gen. John C. Breckenridge, and adjutant-general and chief of staff to Gen. S. B. Buckner. After the war he became a planter at Illawara, La. In 1884 he was president of the Board of Commissioners of East Carroll Parish, La., and from 1892 to 1908 was a member of the 5th District Levee Board. He died at Illawara in 1908. |
| William Jennings Jefferson, a Representative from Louisiana; born in Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La., March 14, 1947; G.W. Griffin High School, Lake Providence, La.; B.A., Southern University and Agricultural & Mechanical College, Baton Rouge, La., 1969; J.D., Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., 1972; lawyer, private practice; law clerk for United States District Judge Alvin B. Rubin, Eastern District of Louisiana, 1972-1973; legislative assistant to United States Senator J. Bennett Johnston of Louisiana, 1973-1975; member of the Louisiana state senate, 1979-1990; candidate for mayor of New Orleans in 1982 and 1986; elected as a Democrat to the One Hundred Second and to the eight succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1991-present). |
| James BROWN, (brother of John Brown of Virginia and Kentucky (1757-1837), cousin of John Breckinridge, James Breckinridge, and Francis Preston, uncle of James Brown Clay), a Senator from Louisiana; born near Staunton, Va., September 11, 1766; attended Washington College (now Washington and Lee University), Lexington, Va., and William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Va.; studied law; admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Frankfort, Ky.; commanded a company of sharpshooters in an expedition against the Indians in 1789; secretary to the Governor 1792; soon after the cession of the Territory of Louisiana moved to New Orleans and was appointed as secretary of the Territory in 1804; subsequently became United States district attorney for the Territory; elected as a Democratic Republican to the United States Senate on December 1, 1812, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John N. Destrehan, and served from February 5, 1813, to March 3, 1817; unsuccessful candidate for reelection; again elected to the United States Senate in 1819, as an Adams-Clay Republican, and served from March 4, 1819, until December 10, 1823, when he resigned; chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations (Sixteenth Congress); appointed United States Minister to France 1823-1829; returned to the United States and settled in Philadelphia, Pa., where he died on April 7, 1835. |
| Joseph Eugene Ransdell, a Representative and a Senator from Louisiana; born in Alexandria, Rapides Parish, La., October 7, 1858; attended the public schools and graduated from Union College, Schenectady, N.Y., in 1882; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1883 and practiced at Lake Providence, La., 1883-1889; district attorney for the eighth judicial district of Louisiana 1884-1896; interested in cotton planting and pecan groves; member of the levee board, fifth levee district 1896-1899; member of the State constitutional convention in 1898; elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-sixth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Samuel T. Baird; reelected to the Fifty-seventh and to the five succeeding Congresses and served from August 29, 1899, to March 3, 1913; was not a candidate for renomination in 1912, having become a candidate for the United States Senate; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1912, reelected in 1918 and 1924 and served from March 4, 1913, to March 3, 1931; unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1930; chairman, Committee on Public Health and National Quarantine (Sixty-third through Sixty-fifth Congresses), Committee on Mississippi River and Its Tributaries (Sixty-sixth Congress); in 1920 founded a printing firm in Washington, D.C., and served as a director until 1931 when he returned to Lake Providence, La.; engaged in the real estate business, cotton planting, and pecan growing; member of the board of supervisors, Louisiana State University and Agricultural College at Baton Rouge 1940-1944; died in Lake Providence, La., July 27, 1954; interment in Lake Providence Cemetery. |
| Joseph Kerr, a Senator from Ohio; born in Kerrtown (now Chambersburg), Franklin County, Pa., in 1765; was privately tutored; moved to Ohio in 1792; employed by contractors furnishing supplies to troops in the Ohio Valley; surveyor; justice of the peace at Manchester, Adams County, Ohio, in 1797; appointed as a judge of the first quarter session court of Adams County, Northwest Territory, in 1797; elected clerk of the board of commissioners of Adams County; moved to Chillicothe in 1801, and farmed; deputy surveyor of the Virginia military lands in Ohio; became a leading industrialist, shipping produce by a fleet of boats to New Orleans for export; elected to the Ohio senate in 1804 and 1810, and to the Ohio house of representatives in 1808, 1816, 1818, and 1819; appointed by President Thomas Jefferson in 1806 as one of the commissioners to survey the road from Cumberland, Md., to the Ohio River; adjutant general of Ohio 1809-1810; appointed a brigadier general of Ohio Volunteers during the War of 1812; operated a hotel, slaughter house, salting establishment, cooperage, boat building works, and general merchandise business; supplied provisions to the Army of the Northwest during the War of 1812; elected to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Thomas Worthington and served from December 10, 1814, to March 3, 1815; was not a candidate for reelection; returned to Chillicothe, Ohio, and was proprietor of an inn 1815-1826; lost his extensive farm and was forced into bankruptcy; in 1826 moved to Tennessee, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits near Memphis until 1828, when he moved to Louisiana and purchased a homestead near Lake Providence, Carroll (now East Carroll) Parish; also purchased a plantation near Bunches Bend, La., and was engaged as a planter until his death at his homestead near Providence, August 22, 1837; interment in the family burying ground. |
