Wylie M. Barrow, West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Mike Miller ************** ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** ************************************************************** Wylie M. Barrow, former assistant attorney general of Louisiana, is one of the able lawyers who are upholding the high prestige of the bar of Baton Rouge. Mr. Barrow was born at Port Allen, West Baton Rouge Parish, on the 19th of February, 1874, and is a son of Cordelius J. and Martha Johnson (Robertson) Barrow. Mr. C. J. Barrow died at the age of seventy-nine on September 18, 1924, and Mrs. Martha Johnson Barrow (nee Robertson) died at the age of fifty-one on March 23, 1899. Cordelius J. Barrow was born at Nashville, Tennessee, September 1, 1845, a son of Willie M. and Cordelia (Johnson) Barrow, the former of whom was born in Tennessee, of English ancestry, and the latter of whom was born at Watertown, New York, her death having occurred at St. Francisville, Louisiana. Willie M. Barrow was a young man when he came to Louisiana, and he became a leading merchant at St. Francisville, West Feliciana Parish, where he spent the greater part of his life. His remains are interred in Magnolia Cemetery at Baton Rouge and those of his wife in Grace Churchyard, St. Francisville, Louisiana. Cordeline J. Barrow was reared in Southern Louisiana and was a student in the old State University at Pineville when Sherman was president of the institution. He went forth as a valiant young soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil war, his service having continued from 1863 until the close of the war. He was a member of Slocomb's Battery, Fifth Washington Artillery, under General Cheleron, and participated in the battle of Chicamauga, as well as in several sieges. He was wounded while in action at Chicamauga. By his affiliation with the United Confederate Veterans he always continued to show his interest in his old comrades, and just prior to his death was tendered a commission by Governor Fuqua as a member of the Board of Pensions for Confederate Veterans, a position for which on account of his prolonged illness he was never able to qualify. After the close of the war he became superintendent of the Louisiana Central Railroad and of the first successfully operated railroad in Louisiana, and later entered the general mercantile business at Port Allen. In that locality he also had extensive plantation interests. After his retirement he has maintained his residence at Baton Rouge. His was inviolable allegiance to the democratic party, and he served as a member of the police jury and as a member of the school board of his old home town of Port Allen. He was one of the state commissioners of the cotton exposition held in New Orleans in 1884. He was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Knights of Pythias, and was a most zealous communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church, as was also his wife. Of the children the eldest is Leila M., wife of John R. Mays, a successful cotton buyer at Rosedale, this state, and a member of the New Orleans cotton firm of A. L. Hyman & Company. Wylie M., of this review, was the next in order of birth. Mary J., who resides at Baton Rouge, is the widow of Charles Gilsen, a commission broker at Shreveport at the time of his death. Mrs. Gilsen was treasurer of the Louisiana State Demonstration Department of the National Home Economics Association and is now state demonstration agent of the State of Mississippi, having been tendered this position in September, 1924; Edward R. is by profession an analytical chemist, and as such he maintains large laboratories at Memphis, Tennessee; Miss Martha J. is a teacher of English in the New High School in the City of Newark, New Jersey. The public schools of Port Allen afforded Wylie M. Barrow his initial educational discipline, which was advanced by his attending the Magruder Collegiate Institute, at Baton Rouge, in 1887. In 1893 he graduated from the University of Louisiana, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Science. At the university he became affiliated with the Sigma Nu fraternity, served as captain of Company C of the university military organization, besides which he was president of the first band organized at the university and leader of the first orchestra. After his graduation Mr. Barrow went to the national capital, in the capacity of private secretary to Hon. S. M. Robertson, representative of Louisiana in the United States Congress from the Sixth District. He retained this secretarial position for several years, afterwards becoming a stenographer in the statistical division of the Interstate Commerce Commission. In the meanwhile he availed himself of the advantages of the law department of Georgetown University, District of Columbia, from which institution he graduated as a member of the Class of 1897 and with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. In 1898 Mr. Barrow returned to Baton Rouge and was chosen secretary of the State Railroad Corn. mission of Louisiana, an executive office which he retained until 1911. He took a special course in law under the private preceptorship of T. Jones Cross of Baton Rouge, and was admitted to the bar June 30, 1902. In 1911, upon his retirement from the position of secretary of the railroad commission he engaged in the active practice of law at Baton Rouge, and on the 23d of January of that year he was appointed assistant attorney general of the state, under Hon. Walter Guion. In the following year he was reappointed to this office by Attorney General R. G. Pleasant, and the years 1916 and 1922 recorded his reappointment by Hon. A. V. Coco, who was the attorney general at that time. On the 1st of July, 1923, Mr. Barrow resigned his office to resume the private practice of his profession, and his official prestige and fine professional achievement have conspired to cause his law business rapidly to expand in scope and importance. He is now attorney for the Louisiana Highway Commission, and also practices before the state and federal courts, and frequently represents large corporations before the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Louisiana Public Service Commission. His offices are at 401. 402 Roumain Building, Baton Rouge. Mr. Barrow has given loyal service in behalf of the cause of the democratic party, and his religious faith is that of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in which he and his wife are active communicants of St. James Church in their home city. He is affiliated with Capital Lodge No. 29, Knights of Pythias, of which he is a past chancellor, and is a charter member of Baton Rouge Lodge No. 490, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Mr. Barrow is president of the Istrouma Council of Boy Scouts, having served in that position since its organization, and is a member of the Baton Rouge Golf and Country Club, of which he was president in 1916-17. He was the first president of the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge, and is an active and valued member of the Baton Rouge Community Club, of which he is a director. He maintains affiliation with the American Bar Association and the Louisiana State Bar Association, and is president of the Inter-State Gravel Company of Baton Rouge. In the period of our national participation in the World war Mr. Barrow served as a member of the Legal Advisory Board and also served as adviser in many matters for the final administration of East Baton Rouge Parish. He was a four-minute speaker and vigorous campaign worker in the drives here carried forward in support of government war loans, Red Cross work, etc., an, made his influence felt in the furtherance of all local movements of patriotic order. January 14, 1903, recorded the marriage of Barrow and Miss Kate Lanier, who was born Lake Providence, Louisiana, and who was graduated from Belle Haven College at Jackson, Mississippi. Mr. and Mrs. Barrow have two children: Wilmer Lanier, who remains at the parental house and is now (1924) a student in the University of Louisiana; and Katherine Elizabeth, a student in the Baton Rouge High School. A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 57-58, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.