James Caldwell Weaks, Dover, TN., then Caddo Parish, Louisiana

Submitted by Mike Miller
Date: 1999-2000






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James Caldwell Weaks lived in northern Louisiana from early boyhood, was a 

lawyer by training, a planter and business man, at one time was United States 

marshal and in the closing years of his life was postmaster at Monroe.



He was born at Dover, Tennessee, December 26, 1830, son of George Milburn and 

Jane (Cinthelia) Caldwell.  The Weaks family came to America in 1633, settling 

in Massachusetts, and a later branch of the family moved to Virginia in 1720, 

and still later the family moved into Kentucky.  The Caldwell family moved from 

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to Mecklenberg County, North Carolina, and the 

grandfather of the late James C. Weaks, James Caldwell, moved to Tennessee in 

1815.



The parents of James C. Weaks were married near Dover, Tennessee, in 1828 and 

in 1840 when Captain Weaks was ten years of age, the family came to Louisiana.  

Preparatory to this removal, they fitted up a flat boat with considerable 

comfort and the family, slaves and household furniture were thus removed.  

The boat landed at a point on the Ouachita River about the southwest corner 

of the Courthouse Square at Monroe.  Their first home was at Mer Rouge, but 

later they moved to Point Pleasant on Bayou Bartholomew.



In the meantime, James C. Weaks had been sent by his father back to Kentucky 

to attend the Western Military Academy at Drennon Springs.  He made the journey 

to school by boat, later he attended Centenary College at Jackson, Louisiana.  

He was graduated there, and in 1838 completed his course at the Louisiana Law 

School in New Orleans.



In the meantime in 1850 his father had died, and much of his time was taken up 

with assisting his mother in the management of the estate.  On September 4. 1839, 

Captain Weaks married Nancy Ann Hedrick, granddaughter of Gibson Clarke, first 

territorial governor of Mississippi and great-grand-daughter of Gen. Elijah 

Clarke of Georgia, a leader in the American Revolution.  Captain and Mrs. Weaks 

were married in Issaquena County, Mississippi and brought his bride to the family

 home at Point Pleasant.



When the war between the states was brewing Captain Weaks was opposed to secession 

and strongly approved the policy of the cooperationists, a party that desired all 

southern people to give mature consideration to the questions involved to decide 

on the best course of action and then act as a body.  After the war he was a 

republican having inherited whig principles, not only from his father but from his 

grandfather, James Caldwell, an ardent whig.  During the period of reconstruction, 

it took courage of no mean order to remain a republican in this section of the South.  

During the war in 1862-63, Captain Weaks was elected a state senator.  When the 

conscript law was passed he was appointed enrolling officer, and resigned as colonel 

of the militia to accept the appointment.  He and Mr. Wilt C. Michie drilled the 

soldiers of Morehouse Parish, both having had military training.



After the war he edited a newspaper for a short time and was also captain of 

steamboats for many years at a time when travel by the river was a vital factor 

in transportation.  It was his experience as a steamboat man, rather than his 

military service that gave him his title of captain.



In 1881 Captain Weaks moved to Shreveport, having been appointed by President 

Garfield as United States marshal of the western district of Louisiana.  This 

trip required six days as there was no railway west of Monroe. After the expiration 

of his time, Captain Weaks came to Monroe and engaged in the insurance business, 

and was active in that line until appointed postmaster of Monroe in 1906.



Captain Weaks was interested in the achievements of science and the progress of 

the World.  He was a great reader, studied various religions of the world, and 

though not orthodox in any one religion, he was religious in the highest sense 

of the word.  His dominating characteristics were punctuality tolerance and loyalty.



NOTE:  The referenced source contains a black and white photograph of the subject 

with his/her autograph.



A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 17-18, by Henry E. Chambers.  

Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.