Bio: John William Dawson, Claiborne Parish, LA 
Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana 
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville, 1890 
Submitted for the LAGenWeb Archives by: Gwen Moran-Hernandez, Jan. 2000


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John William Dawson is a cotton planter, and for the last eighteen years has been a 
general merchant at Lisbon, Claiborne Parish, La., and like many, and perhaps the most 
of the representative citizens of this parish, he is a Georgian. His birth occurred in 
Heard County, about forty miles from the city of Atlanta, April 13, 1842, and he was 
the fifth of a family of ten children-four sons and six daughters-born to Robert and 
Sarah A. (Toombs) Dawson, natives of Georgia. The father was an agriculturist by calling, 
a well known local politician, and died near Lisbon, La., at the age of seventy-three 
years. Mr. J. W. Dawson's father was a cousin of Gen. Toombs, of Georgia, and his brother 
Toombs Dawson, is a resident of Claiborne Parish, La., and is a well known and thrifty 
planter. The paternal grandfather was a Virginian, and the maternal ancestor was a Georgian. 
John William Dawson attended the select schools of this parish in his youth, but the 
Rebellion broke in upon his scholastic life, and he was forced, much against his will, to 
relinquish his school work. On April 21, 1861, he joined the Claiborne Guards, Second 
Louisiana Infantry Volunteers, when only seventeen years of age and was sent to Virginia, 
the first twelve months being spent at Yorktown under Gen. McGruder. He afterward took part 
in the following battles: The first battle of the war at Bethel Church, Malvern Hill, seven 
days' fight around Richmond, Winchester, and the battles in the Valley of Virginia, 
Fredricksburg, Chancellorsville, Sharpsburg, Harper's Ferry, Gettsburg, Mine-run, the 
Wilderness (where he was wounded in the right hand), the siege of Petersburg and the retreat 
to Appomattox Court House, where he heard the last cannon of the Rebellion fired. He secured 
as a relic a piece of the apple tree under which Gen. Lee surrendered, and at that place he 
bade an affectionate farewell to his beloved and honored chieftain, who, when trying to bid 
his faithful followers farewell broke down and wept. At the surrender of Lee, the company to 
which Mr. Dawson belonged, numbered only eleven men which, on starting out had been 120 
strong. The names of those who surrendered at Appomattox are: Capt. A. S. Blythe, Sergt. W. C. 
Hightower and Privates J. C. Meadows, J. A. Reed, T. J. Monk, W. C. Cooksey, F. P. Coleman, 
P. A. Williams, C. B. Harrison, Orderly Sergt. J. W. Dawson, and a colored man by the name of 
Stark Glover, who acted as cook. Mr. Dawson returned home via Fortress Monroe and New Orleans, 
and for some time gave his attention to farming, and as a result has a valuable plantation 
comprising 600 acres, 250 of which are tillable land, and the products from this and the 
proceeds of his mercantile establishment furnished his with all the necessities, and many of 
the luxuries of life. He has always sustained the principles of Democracy, and although he 
has never been a very active politician, he has never failed to cast his vote, but took care 
that it should be for men of worth. He belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church South, of 
Lisbon, his wife having also been a member prior to her death, and for the past twenty-two 
years he has devoted himself to church work, being always a liberal contributor to enterprises 
which he thought deserving. On November 24, 1870 he married Miss Matilda O. Willis, who was 
born in Claiborne Parish, La., in 1850; but after a happy married life of twenty years her 
Master called her and found her ready. She died on July 2, 1890, having been a noble and 
faithful wife and mother, and is now sleeping in Lisbon Cemetery, where a beautiful monument 
marks her last resting place, a tribute to her memory by her sorrowing husband. To them six 
sons and four daughters were born, three of the ten dying in infancy, leaving seven living: 
Mollie Maude, John W., Nannie V., Linus P., Aubin, Sallie Will and Tillie Blanche. Mr. Dawson 
has many warm friends in this section, and here, surrounded by his children, he expects to 
spend the rest of his days. 

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