Evander McNair GRAHAM

September 18, 1836
Coosa County, Alabama
May 22, 1908
Ruston, Louisiana


Judge Evander McNair Graham, of Ruston, Lincoln parish, La., is a native
of Coosa (now Elmore) county, Ala., and was born September 18, 1836. The
Graham family is directly descended from Scotch ancestry, and both of
Judge Graham's grandparents were of the same strain. His paternal grandfather
was Archibald Graham, and his maternal grandfather was John P. Graham,
both of whom came to North Carolina about 1790. The former married a Miss
Patterson of that state, and the latter married Miss Jeanette McNeil.
Thomas B. Graham, Judge Graham's father, was the eldest son in a family of
three sons and three daughters, whose father removed from North Carolina
to Florida about 1822, and thence to Coosa county in 1834. While a resident
of Florida, the father of our subject went back to North Carolina and
there married Miss Isabella A. Graham, a distant cousin. In 1835 he removed
to Coosa county, Ala., accompanied by his mother, brothers and sisters, his
father having died about ten years before. He became a successful
planter, and as he was well educated and very intelligent, he was a prominent
man in his time. He was noted for his sterling, Christian character. His
brothers were all professional men. Dr. George B. Graham was a man of
prominence as a physician and surgeon. He died at Marianne, Fla., in
1855, aged about forty-five years. John Graham was educated in Alabama and
removed to Woodville, Tex., in 1850, where he practiced his profession,
attorney at law, until his death, which occurred in 1852. He was a
brilliant young man and his future seemed unusually promising. Dr. H. P.
Graham was a graduate of the Charleston school of medicine and a
successful practitioner in Shelby and Talladega counties. Judge Graham's
maternal uncles were all farmers, save one who was a teacher and all were men
of the highest character, prominent in the communities in which they lived.
Judge Graham moved to Union parish with his mother in 1853. He was the oldest
of four children--three sons and a daughter--and his two brothers and sister
are all dead. His sister, Mrs. J. A. Manning, left one daughter, now Mrs.
Belle Third, wife of W. W. Hurd, of Union parish, who, except Judge
Graham, is the only representative of their family. Judge Graham received his
early education in the common schools and academies of Alabama and
Louisiana. In 1857 he entered Centenary college with the intention of
completing the course of that institution, but owing to sickness that came
upon him a short time after he became a student there, he was obliged to
abandon this laudable purpose. He attended a high school at Jackson
parish, and afterward taught school and studied law under the tuition of
John L. Barrett and Hon. H. Reganburg, of Union parish. He was prepared
for admission to the bar at the meeting of the supreme court, July 1, 1881,
but in that month he enlisted in Company E. of the Twelfth Louisiana regiment
as orderly sergeant, with which organization he was mustered into the
confederate service. He served during the entire period of the war in
General Johnston's army and greatly distinguished himself. Before leaving
Camp Moore he was promoted to a lieutenancy and for some time afterward
served as an adjutant of his regiment, and upon the reorganization of the
army in 1863, he was elected captain of his company at Columbus. In 1864
he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of his regiment of which he was in
command at the time of the surrender at Greensboro, N. C. After the close
of the war he returned to Louisiana via Alabama. In November, 1865, he
married Miss Florence Townsend, of Talladega county, Ala. He was admitted
to the bar at Monroe, La., in July, 1886. He devoted himself principally
to farming during that year however. In February, 1867, he located at
Vernon, where he entered upon the practice of his profession, and soon
acquired a good patronage. In 1872 he was elected parish judge of Jackson
parish, in which office he served with great credit for two years. He was
next elected state senator to represent the Nineteenth Senatorial district
composed of the parishes of Jackson and Union, and bore a prominent part
during the legislation of the McEnery and Kellogg regimes. He was elected
judge of the Fifth Judicial district, composed of the parishes of Jackson,
Union, Lincoln, Bienville and Claiborne, and served in that capacity for
four years in that district and for four years thereafter in the new
districts composed of the parishes of Union, Claiborne and Lincoln. The
administration of the affairs in his important office gave the greatest
satisfaction to the legal profession and to the people, and he was
solicited to become a candidate for re-election in 1884, but refused to do
so, and since that time he has been located at Ruston, actively engaged in
the practice of his profession. For some years he was associated with G.
L. Gaskins, who died in 1888, when Judge Graham formed a partnership with
J. B. Halstead, their firm being known as Graham & Halstead. In 1886
Judge Graham was a candidate for congress with a strong support in the
convention. He has five children--four daughters and one son--all of whom
are members of his household. He has long been a member and officer in
the order of Free Mason, and is an active member in the Presbyterian church,
with which his family has been connected through several generations, or
since its establishment. During the last year Judge Graham has been urged
to offer himself again as a candidate for the office of district judge.
Solicitations, repeated and strong, have poured in upon him to accept a
nomination. A state senator, who is conversant with the sentiment of the
people, says: "I think they would be delighted to vote for a man in whom
they have implicit confidence and one who would enforce the law without
fear or favor and I know they have the utmost confidence in your fearless
and impartial manner of dispensing justice." This sentiment is not
confined to the political leaders of the district, but finds a ready echo
among the people; so that the chances for Judge Graham's resumption of his
old position on the bench are favorable indeed.


Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 1), pp. 450-451.
Published by the Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.

Contributed on 4/19/16 by debbraszymanski
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