Robert Harwell Lee; DeSoto, then Webster Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller

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Robert Harwell Lee, who was captain in the World war service, is a native 
of Northwest Louisiana, and practiced there for a brief time before his 
military experience, and since the war has been one of the leading members 
of the bar f Minden, Webster Parish.

He was born at Keatchie, De Soto Parish, in 1890, son of J. M. Lee and 
grandson of the late Dr. J. B. Lee, who after a service as a surgeon in 
the Confederate army settled in De Soto Parish and practiced medicine 
there with distinction and honor for a period of thirty years.  One of 
the uncles of captain Lee was Judge J. B. Lee, a judge of the District 
Court.  Captain Lee's mother was Emma Rochell the daughter of the late 
J. L. Rochell, member of the cotton commission firm of Rugeley, Blair 
and Rochell of New Orleans.

Robert Harwell Lee was liberally educated, attending the common schools 
and the Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge.  He graduated with his 
law degree from the state university in 1914. and then located at Benton, 
the parish seat of Bossier Parish, and had an increasing business as an 
attorney until the summer of 1917.

He entered the Second Officer's Training Camp at Leon Springs, Texas, 
August 26, 1917, and received his commission as first lieutenant November 
27th.  He was assigned to the Fifty-seventh Regiment of the United States 
Regular Army, being for some time stationed at Brownsville, Texas, and in 
the latter part of December, 1917, was ordered to duty with his regiment 
in the oil country around Houston, Texas.  In May, 1918, he was stationed 
at Camp Logan, at Houston, and on July 11, 1918, was promoted to captain.  
He received his honorable discharge from the service at Camp Pike, Arkansas, 
February 1~ 1919.

Soon after leaving the army Captain Lee established his home and office at 
Minden, and in 1920 was elected district attorney for a term of four years 
of the Second Judicial District, made up of Webster and Bossier parishes.  
Besides these official duties he looked after general practice as an associate 
of Mr. Coleman Lindsey, state senator for the same district.

Captain Lee married Miss Marion Arnold, of Benton, and has one daughter, Marion.  
He is a Royal Arch Mason, and is a past commander of Wiley-Peavy Post No. 74 of 
the American Legion and is a member of the 40 et 8 Society.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 195, by Henry E. Chambers.  
Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.