Bio: Lawson K. Hodges, Bossier Parish La
Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville,  1890

Submitted by: Suzanne Shoemaker




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     LAWSON K. HODGES is a planter living on Red River, in Ward 1, of Bossier
Parish, La.  He was born in 1846, the second son of Gen. John L. and Mary
B. (Hamilton) Hodges, who came at an early day from Georgia to this parish.
 Mary B. Hamilton was the daughter of William Hamilton, one of the most
distinguished Georgian pioneers in the State of  Louisiana.  Gen. Hodges
was one of the most eminent gentlemen of North Louisiana, a statesman and a
patriot, who commanded universal respect, and exercised a powerful
influence for the benefit of his district.  He was one of the most
extensive planters on Red River at the opening of the war.  His wife died
in 1853 and he in 1866, leaving four sons and three daughters.  Their
eldest son was killed while gallantly fighting at the second battle of
Manassas.  Lawson K. Hodges, after leaving college at the early age of
nineteen, went to planting on his own responsibility, and by prudence,
skill and financial ability has added largely in acres by purchase to his
inherited plantation.  Today he is one of the most successful, progressive
and respected planters of the Red River Valley.  No gentleman of his ward
wields more influence in all political matters, and none stands higher in
public estimation.  His annual cotton crop amounts to from 200 to 250
bales, and his plantation is a model for good cultivation, fine
improvements and most excellent management of his laborers.  In 1875 he was
most happily united in marriage to Miss Annie D. Alexander, a daughter of
Col. George D. and Palmyra G. (Hunter) Alexander, of Arkansas.  Her father,
Col. Alexander, still living, is one of the oldest and most distinguished
educators of the South and West.  He is the only surviving one of the three
pioneer educators, who emigrated to the State of Arkansas, and is one of
the most noted lovers of the gun and dog, having a world wide reputation
from his numerous hunting sketches, contributed to the best sporting
journals of the world.  Mrs. Annie Hodges is a lady, refined, elegant and
cultured, noted for her kind attentions to the sick, her charities, and her
devotion to flowers, and her model housekeeping.  They have but one living
child, a lovely, intelligent and amiable daughter, just entering her teens,
and now a pupil in the "Kate Nelson Seminary" of Shreveport.  Mrs. Hodges
is a member of the Baptist denomination, as were the parents of her
husband, who, though not a member, yet is of that religious belief.  There
is not a pleasanter place to visit than "Gold Dust," their cozy residence,
embowered among the rarest of flowers, where Mr. and Mrs. Hodges dispense
their generous hospitality.