Leon Locke, Oxford Co., ME., then Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller


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Leon Locke during his residence in Louisiana since 1903 has brought 
his personal enterprise and genius to bear upon some of the state's vital 
commercial and political problems.  His name has been conspicuously 
identified with that great transportation improvement known as the 
intercoastal Canal.  For a number of years he was a member of the 
Louisiana Legislature, and has been a member of various boards and 
other organizations handling local and state affairs.

Mr. Locke, whose home is at Lake Charles, is of old New England 
ancestry and was born in Oxford County, Maine, January 4, 1869, son 
of James and Sophia (Douglass) Locke, both of the pioneer stock of 
Massachusetts and Maine.  His paternal ancestor, William Locke, came 
to America with his aunt and uncle in 1632, and as a young man was 
one of the early settlers of Woburn, Massachusetts.  The family lived in 
that section for a number of generations, and some of its representatives 
were with the Colonists who met the British on Lexington Commons 
and harassed their retreat.  Mr. Locke through his mother is a 
descendant of Nathaniel Seegar, a Maine pioneer and patriot, who was 
captured by the Indians and escaped with a companion, Clark, and is a 
thrilling episode in the history of the Maine settlements when they were 
a part of the parent Colony of Massachusetts.  James Locke, father of 
Leon Locke, was a soldier in the Civil war, serving with the Fifth 
Battery of Maine Volunteers.

In 1870 the family moved out to Kansas, Leon Locke being then a year 
old.  He grew up in that state, attended common schools, and as a youth 
studied and experimented in chemistry and at the age of fifteen began 
business as a druggist on his own responsibility.  When he was only 
seventeen years of age he taught chemistry for a time.  For about 
twenty years he was a business man in Kansas and in 1903 came to 
Louisiana.  For a number of years the demands upon his time in public 
enterprises seriously interfered with his private business.

Mr. Locke was one of those who promoted the organization of the 
Intercoastal Canal Association, and from the first has been active in its 
management.  This association sponsored the Inland Canal, extending 
from New Orleans to Corpus Christi.  Through the aid of commercial 
organizations and the states interested, the Federal Government work 
has been continued on this project until it is now nearing completion.  
When completed there will be a canal extending from New Orleans to 
Corpus Christi, sheltered from the waters of the gulf and affording 
water transportation in a channel nine feet deep.  The estimated cost of 
the project is $25,000,000.  Mr. Locke is author of the article found in 
the "New Americana Encyclopedia" entitled "Intercoastal or 
Intracoastal Canals."

Mr. Locke is secretary-treasurer of the Wade E. Plauche Company, 
Inc., is secretary of the Louisiana Lloyds, an insurance business, and is 
vice president of the Title Guarantee & Mortgage Company of Lake 
Charles.  From 1908 to 1916 he was a member of the Louisiana 
Legislature, being chairman of the committee on education from 1908 
to 1912, and chairman of the committee on appropriations from 1912 to 
1916.  He was a member of the Special Tax Commission in 1912, and 
of the Employers' Liability Commission from 1914.  The subjects that 
have interested him particularly in his public career have been 
education and taxation.  Mr. Locke is author of the Locke law 
penalizing race track gambling, a bill that was violently opposed, its 
passage in many features rivaling the anti-lottery legislation.  The bill 
passed the Senate by a majority with not a vote to spare.  Mr. Locke 
also introduced the bill reorganizing the Southern University for the 
purpose of giving industrial and agricultural training to negro youths.  
This bill had formidable opposition for two terms of the General 
Assembly, finally becoming a law by a margin of one vote in the House 
and a majority of one in the Senate.  Mr. Locke was appointed a 
member of the Board of Trade Affairs, synonymous with the Louisiana 
Tax Commission, for the term 1920 to 1929, hut resigned in 1924 in 
order to give closer attention to his private business.  He is a democrat 
and has been active in state and national campaigns.  He made a 
speaking campaign in Indiana, Illinois and Ohio for Bryan in 1908 
under the direction of the National Democratic Committee.  Mr. Locke 
has never affiliated with any strictly secret society.  He is a member of 
the Lake Charles Country Club and a Son of the American Revolution.

On November 7, l889, he married Miss Frances E. King, daughter of C. 
A. King, who was a prominent Methodist minister, filling pulpits in 
Bath, Lewiston and Augusta, Maine; Omaha, Nebraska; also Parsons, 
Wichita, Newton and Hutchinson, Kansas.  Mr. and Mrs. Locke have 
one daughter, Miriam Locke.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 310-311, by Henry E. Chambers.  
Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New 
York, 1925.