James E. Smitherman, Bienville Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller

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James E. Smitherman.  A native son of Louisiana and a member of one of its old and prominent families, James Emory Smitherman is a lawyer with well established practice at Shreveport, enjoys some enviable social and civic relations in that city, and for some years has also been prominently identified with oil operations in Louisiana and adjoining states.

Mr. Smitherman was born at Liberty Hill, in Bienville Parish, Louisiana, January 2, 1882, son of R. G. and Rachel (Roden) Smitherman.  His father, descended from a colonial family originally from England.  Rachel Roden is a member of a family that has lived in the Bienville Parish for nearly a hundred years, and is also a descendant of the family of Georgia, her father having been Joshua Emory Roden.  

James Emory Smitherman attended public schools at Liberty Hill, the Louisiana Industrial Institute at Ruston, and pursued both the academic and law courses at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge.  He was graduated with the LL. B. degree in l909, and for several years practiced law at the state capital.  In 1914 he removed to Shreveport.

In connection with his law practice he has since 1916 been interested in the development of the oil resources in North Louisiana, and has become one of the well known operators in that district.  He headed the syndicate which in 1921 brought in the famous Anne Taylor No. 2 well at Haynesville.  This well started a notable boom at that place.  His interests in oil production are largely at Haynesville, Cotton Valley and Homer, in this state, and in Nevada County and other locations in Arkansas.

Where civic pride and patriotism are at stake Mr. Smitherman has responded generously and loyally.  He is a member of the City Park Commission of Shreveport, and was a delegate at the National Democratic Convention at San Francisco in 1920, and that at New York in 1924.  He is a trustee of the First Baptist Church, member of the executive committee of the Louisiana State Baptist Convention, and a member of the General Board of the National Council of the Y. M. C. A. and of the executive committee of the Y. M. C. A. for Louisiana.  He is a golf enthusiast, being a member of the Shreveport Country Club, and in college was a Kappa Sigma.

He married, December 14, 1910, at Wilson, Louisiana, Miss Ina Hill Thompson, daughter of Robert Emerson Thompson, a prominent planter and lumberman of Wilson.  The three children of their marriage are James Emory, Jr., Gustave Scott and Robert Emerson.

NOTE:  The sketch is accompanied by a black and white photograph/drawing of the subject.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 347-348, by Henry E. Chambers.  Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.