Newton C. Blanchard Explained

Newton Crain Blanchard
State4:Louisiana
District4:4th
Term Start4:March 4, 1881
Term End4:March 12, 1894
Preceded4:Joseph B. Elam
Succeeded4:Henry W. Ogden
Jr/Sr3:United States Senator
State3:Louisiana
Term Start3:March 12, 1894
Term End3:March 3, 1897
Predecessor3:Edward D. White
Successor3:Samuel D. McEnery
Order1:33rd
Office1:Governor of Louisiana
Lieutenant1:Jared Y. Sanders, Sr.
Term Start1:May 10, 1904
Term End1:May 12, 1908
Predecessor1:William Wright Heard
Successor1:Jared Y. Sanders, Sr.
Office2:Louisiana Supreme Court Associate Justice
Term Start2:1897
Term End2:1903
Succeeded2:Alfred D. Land
Birth Date:29 January 1849
Birth Place:Rapides Parish
Louisiana, USA
Death Place:Shreveport
Caddo Parish, Louisiana
Resting Place:Greenwood Cemetery in Shreveport
Party:Democratic
Occupation:Attorney
Signature:Signature of Newton Crain Blanchard.png
Alma Mater:Tulane University Law School

Newton Crain Blanchard (January 29, 1849  - June 22, 1922) was a United States representative, U.S. senator, and the 33rd governor of Louisiana.

Personal life

Born in Rapides Parish in Central Louisiana, he completed academic studies, studied law in Alexandria in 1868, and graduated from the Tulane University Law School in 1870 (then named the University of Louisiana). He was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Shreveport in 1871; in 1879 he was a delegate to the State constitutional convention.

In 1873 he married Mary Emma Barrett, the daughter of Capt. William W. Barrett, an officer in the Confederate army. Their daughter, Mary Ethel Blanchard, married Leonard Rutherford Smith.

Political career

Blanchard was elected as a Democrat to the 47th and to the six succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1881, until his resignation, effective March 12, 1894. While in the House of Representatives, he was chairman of the Committee on Rivers and Harbors (50th through 53rd Congresses). He was appointed and subsequently elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Edward Douglass White, who was appointed to the United States Supreme Court. Blanchard served in the Senate from March 12, 1894, to March 3, 1897; he was not a candidate for a full term in 1896. While in the Senate, Blanchard was chairman of the Committee on Improvement of the Mississippi River and its Tributaries (Fifty-third Congress).

Elected associate justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court, Blanchard served from 1897 to 1903, when he resigned. Blanchard became the Democratic nominee for governor in 1904. He was elected and was governor from 1904 to 1908, and thereafter resumed the practice of law in Shreveport.

As governor, he appointed Sheriff David Theophilus Stafford of Rapides Parish, a son of Leroy Augustus Stafford, a Confederate brigadier general mortally wounded in the American Civil War, as the Louisiana adjutant general.[1]

In 1913, Blanchard was again a member of the State constitutional convention, this time serving as president. He died in Shreveport in 1922 and was interred at Greenwood Cemetery.

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: David Theophilus Stafford. Louisiana Historical Association. August 25, 2014. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20160716204559/http://www.lahistory.org/site36.php. July 16, 2016.