Bio:  Richard G. Gantt, M. D., 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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Richard G. Gantt, M. D., was born in Greenville, South Carolina, December 12,
1837, he being the eldest of five children born to his parents, those
following him in order of birth being S. Josaphine Ridgeway (deceased,
formerly of Elbert County, Ga.), Mrs. Elizabeth Y. Blackwell, of Elberton,
Ga., Ann Eliza (died in infancy), T. Lawrence (editor of the Banner Watchman,
of Athens, Ga.), The father, Thomas W. Gantt, was born at Edgefield, South
Caroling in 1815.  After graduating in the South Carolina College, at
Columbia, he entered the office of Col. C. G. Meminger, as a student of law,
and was admitted to the bar in 1836.  In the same year he married Miss F. Emma
Groves, the youngest daughter of Joseph Groves, of Abbeville District, South
Carolina, a man of wealth and culture.  Thomas J. Gantt, the father of Thomas
W., was born in Edgefield, South Carolina, in 1788, moved to Columbia when
quite young, was admitted to the bar and began the practice of law in
Charleston, South Carolina.  Early in life he was elected register in equity,
which office he held for thirty-nine years, and was re-elected for another
term when he died suddenly in 1862.  His father, Hon. Richard Gantt, was born
in Prince Georges County, Maryland, August 12, 1767.  He moved to South
Carolina when quite young, and was a lawyer of marked ability.  Early in life
he was elected one of the judges of the court of general sessions and common
pleas.  This being a life office, he held it until nearly eighty years old;
feeling then unfitted to longer discharge the duties of the office he
resigned.  Upon his resignation the Legislature of South Carolina made him a
present of $10,000 for the many services he had rendered the State.  The above
was a son of Dr. Thomas Gantt, of White's Landing, Prince George County, Md.,
who was born August 18, 1736, and died in 1807.  He was a soldier in the
Revolutionary War, but whether an officer or private is not known.  His
immediate progenitor was Dr. Thomas Gantt, of Prince George County, Md.  He
married Rachel, daughter of Col. John Smith, by whom he had issue.  He was one
of the signers of the declaration of rights by the freemen of Maryland
Province in 1775, as was his also his brother, Edward.  The document is still
hanging in the executive chamber, at Annapolis, Md.  Dr. Gantt, the immediate
subject of this sketch, grew to maturity partly in Abbeville and in
Charleston, S.C.  His literary education was completed at the Furman
University, and his medical at the Medical College of the State of South
Carolina, in Charleston, where he graduated in 1861.  In August, 1857, he
married Mattie Sale, a daughter of Adolphus J. and Eliza N. Sale, a woman
noted in her youth for her great beauty, and in her riper years for her sound
judgement, her untiring energy and her complete devotion to her family.  To
them were born eight children: Ann E. Fell (died in infancy), Thomas Wilding
(died in 1878), Sylvanus Sale (died in 1884), Halbert Alston (now a practicing
physician with his father, in the town of Haynesville, La.), Neva, Richard
Groves, Mattie Helen and Fell Fletcher (the youngest).  The Doctor enlisted at
Charleston, S. C., May 1, 1861, in the First Regiment South Carolina
Volunteers.  His regiment was ordered immediately to Richmond, Va.  After the
time was up for which he had volunteered, six months, he returned to
Charleston and soon after joined the Nineteenth Regiment South Carolina
Volunteers.  He participated in all of the battles in which his command was
engaged except the battle and retreat from Missionary Ridge: at that time he
was at home on a fifteen days' leave of absence, it being the first he had had
since he entered the service.  At the expiration of his furlough he met his
command at Dalton, GA., taking part in all of the battles in which it was
engaged, until he was wounded in a skirmish about four or five miles southeast
of Marietta, which incapacitated him form further military service.  Prior to
the war Dr. Gantt was conservative in politics, and voted for Bell for the
presidency.  Since that time he has been an unswerving Democrat.

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