Bio: Judge John C. Moncure,  Caddo 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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JUDGE JOHN C. MONCURE,  
Judge of Appellate court, Shreveport, La.

 With as equal scale
 He weighs the affairs betwixt man and man;
 He is not so soothed with adulation,
 Nor moved with tears to wrest the course of justice
 Into an unjust current to oppress the innocent;
 Nor does he make the laws
 Punish the man, but in the man the cause.

These words, written by one who is now among the foremost lawyers of
this country, describes most truly the even-handed justice administered in
the court of this honest and upright magistrate.  Judge John C. Moncure is
not unknown to the people of this portion of Louisiana, for he has held
many positions of trust and honor since first coming here in 1860.  He was
originally from the Old Dominion, his birth occurring in Stafford County on
January 5, 1827, and is the son of Judge R. C. L. and Mary W. (Conway)
Moncure, natives also of Virginia, of Huguenot origin.  The ancestors were
French Protestants, and during the Revolution were driven out of that
country.  Col. William Washington, of Revolutionary note, was a relative of
Mrs. Mary W. (Conway) Moncure.  The paternal grandfather was a farmer on
the banks of the Potomac River in Virginia.  He died at Summerset.  The
maternal grandfather was clerk of the circuit court for a number of years,
and also died in Virginia during the Civil War when in his ninetieth year.
The father of our subject was chief justice of Virginia for a number of
years, being put on the bench in 1851, and holding that position
continuously until 1882, except during the reconstruction period.  He died
on the bench in the last-named year.  He was a member of the Virginia
Legislature for three sessions, 1827, 1849, and 1850, and was a member of
the constitutional convention of the latter year.  He was a distinguished
man in his profession, and was well known throughout the country.  His
family consisted of twelve children who grew to maturity, and Judge John C.
Moncure was the eldest.  He was reared in his native State, and
supplemented a common-school education by a course at the Military
Institute at Lexington, Va., graduating in 1847.  soon after attaining his
twenty-first year he began studying law and was admitted to the bar in
1849.  He practiced his profession in Fredericksburg, Va., and was State
prosecuting attorney, being three times elected to that position.  In the
winter of 1860 he came to Shreveport, La., and early in the beginning of
hostilities he enlisted in Capt. Nutts' company, serving until the
surrender.  He was promoted to the rank of major on Gen. C. J. Polignac's
staff, commanding the Second Louisiana Division.  After the war he again
engaged in his profession.  In 1870, he was elected to the Legislature,
re-elected in 1872, and was counted out by the returning board, but served
in what was known as the McHenry Legislature and was its speaker.  While
holding this position he was arrested and put in prison by the Kellogg
police.  In 1874 he was nominated by the Democratic Convention at Baton
Rouge for State treasurer, was elected, but again counted out.  In 1878 he
was again elected to the Legislature, and elected unanimously as the
speaker.  In 1880, under the new constitution, he was elected to his
present position with great unanimity, and has held that office
continuously since, being re-elected in 1888.  It may be seen that the
Judge has had political honors showered upon him since his residence in
Shreveport, having been almost continuously in office.  The Judge was
married in 1850 to Miss Fannie D. Tomlin, of Virginia, by whom he has two
children living:  Conway (who is in the wholesale saddlery and harness
business at Shreveport), and Fannie.  The Judge is a Knight Templar in the
Masonic fraternity.