Joseph Johnston Vincent, Jr.; Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller


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Joseph Johnston Vincent, Jr., a veteran of the World war, has earned a 
distinctive name in Louisiana educational affairs.  His most noteworthy 
work has been done at Sulphur in Calcasieu Parish, where he is 
superintendent of schools, and under his administration has been 
developed and improved a school system that is one of the outstanding 
educational units in the entire state.

The Vincent family has for several generations been prominent in 
Calcasieu Parish.  The grandfather of Professor Vincent was William 
Vincent, pioneer teacher in the parish and a Confederate soldier. Joseph 
J. Vincent, Sr., was born in the Vincent settlement, which was also the 
birthplace of his son.  He has been a farmer and stockraiser successful 
in all his business affairs, and a willing worker in public causes.  He is 
a democrat, a member of the Masonic Lodge and the Baptist Church.  
His wife was Nellie Wilcox, now deceased.

Joseph Johnston Vincent, Jr., attended public schools, spent five years 
as a special student in Southwest Louisiana institute at La Fayette and 
earned not only a splendid record as a student but also in college 
athletics.  In 1914 he engaged in teaching, at first in country schools in 
his home locality, then in the Central School and high school of Lake 
Charles, and in the Dc Quincy schools.

In July, 1917, he enlisted as a private in infantry, being assigned to 
training with the Three Hundred and Forty-eighth Infantry at Camp 
Pike, Arkansas.  He was detailed to enter the Third Officers Training 
School at Camp Pike, was commissioned a second lieutenant of 
infantry, and at Camp Lee, Virginia, was attached to an infantry 
replacement battalion.  After completing the course at the Bayonet and 
Physical Training schools of instruction, he was made an instructor in 
the use of the bayonet at Camp Knox and Taylor.  He had nineteen 
months of experience with the colors, and when discharge in 1919 held 
the rank of first lieutenant of infantry.  Prior to the war he was a first 
lieutenant of Company K at Lake Charles in the National Guard, and 
since his discharge has been a captain of infantry in the Officer's 
Reserve Corps.

Mr. Vincent after the close of the war graduated with the Bachelor of 
Science degree from the Louisiana State University. and in September, 
1920, took charge of the public schools at Sulphur as superintendent.  
At that time he had eleven teachers and about 400 pupils.  The Sulphur 
School has done pioneer work in the matter of consolidating rural 
schools and the concentration of facilities in a union high school.  
Under Superintendent Vincent, a beautiful high school building has 
been erected at Sulphur, and the school facilities there now represent 
the union of twenty-two rural schools.  There are thirty teachers on the 
staff and about 1,000 pupils enrolled.  No school in the state has made a 
better record than Sulphur during the last five years.

Mr. Vincent is also a teacher in the summer sessions of the Southwest 
Louisiana Institute.  At Sulphur he organized and is captain of 
Headquarters Company of the One Hundred and Fifty-sixth Infantry, 
Louisiana National Guard, is a member of the W. B. Williamson Post 
No. 1 of the American Legion at Lake Charles, is a member of the 
Calcasieu Parish Health Board, the Sulphur Health Board, and belongs 
to the Louisiana State Teacher's Association and the National 
Educational Association.  He organized the Boy Scout Movement in 
Sulphur and is a member of the Sulphur Parish Council of Boy Scouts.  
He is affiliated with De Quincy Lodge No. 279, Free and Accepted 
Masons; Lodge No. 435, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of 
Lake Charles, and is a member of the Baptist Church.

He married at Iowa, Louisiana, in August, 1914, Miss Esther Findley, 
who was born and reared in Kansas.  Her father, Andrew J. Findley, 
came from Kansas to Louisiana and settled on a farm at the Village of 
Iowa.  Mrs. Vincent was a teacher before her marriage, and is active in 
the Methodist Church at Sulphur with in the Civic League.  They have 
two children:  Joseph J. III and Bruce.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 266-267, by Henry E. Chambers.  
Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New 
York, 1925.