Bio: Hon. John C. Moncure, Caddo Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller
Date: 1999-2000

Source:
Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 491.
Published by the
Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.



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Hon. John C. Moncure, judge of the appellate court, Shreveport, was born in
Stafford county, Va., January 5, 1827, a son of Judge B. C. L. and Mary W.
(Conway) Moncure, of Huguenot origin and also natives of Virginia.  Colonel
William Washington, of Revolutionary fame, was a relative of Mrs. Mary W.
(Conway) Moncure.  The paternal grandfather was a farmer on the bank
of the Potomac, in Virginia, and died in Somerset.  The maternal grandfather
was clerk of the circuit court of his county for a number of years and died in
Virginia in his ninetieth year during the Civil war.  The father of Hon. John
C. Moncure was chief justice of Virginia from 1851 to 1882 (when he died)
except during the reconstruction period.  He was a member of the
Virginia legislature in 1827, 1849 and 1850, and a member of the Virginia
constitutional convention of 1850.  Of his twelve children who grew to
maturity, our subject 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 Captain 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 McEnery 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.