Will Harvey Todd; Morehouse Parish, Louisiana

Submitted by Mike Miller

Thanks! Mike, for all the hard work and information
you contribute to the Morehouse Parish Archives.



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Will Harvey Todd.  Continuously since 1847, members of three
generations of the Todd family have lent distinction to the
legal profession at Bastrop.  The attainments of the 
Louisiana branch of the family are fully in keeping with the
illustrious record of the Todd family in American history.
Since the first advance of the American colonists over the
Alleghany Mountains, the Todds have been conspicuous in both
war and peace.  The battle of Point Pleasant on the Ohio
River in 1774, sometimes referred to as the first battle of
the American Revolution, had as one of its heroes, John Todd,
a native of Pennsylvania.  This John Todd and his brother,
Levi Todd, went to Kentucky with Daniel Boone in 1775, and in
1776 located near Lexington.  Both were participants in the 
conquest of the Northwest, and Levi Todd lost his life in the 
Battle of Blue Licks, soon after the close of the Revolution.
Levi Todd was one of the commanding officers in that 
expedition, and was otherwise conspicuous in the early history
of Kentucky.  Robert F. Todd, a son of Levi, was the father 
of Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of President Lincoln.

Judge David Todd, a grandson of Col. Levi Todd, and an uncle
of Mrs. Lincoln, was born at Lexington, Kentucky, and early
in life moved to Columbia, Missouri, and after the admission 
of Missouri to the Union, served as presiding judge of the 
First Judicial Court.  Judge David Todd married Eliza Barr.

Judge Robert B. Todd, first of the distinguished lawyers to
impress his ability upon the Louisiana bar, was born at
Lexington, Kentucky, son of Judge David Todd.  He was one
of the early graduates of the University of Missouri at 
Columbia, and was admitted to the bar there.  When the
United States engaged in war with Mexico, he raised a company,
was elected captain, and served in Colonel Doniphan's regiment.
At the close of the war, he started on his return north by way
of New Orleans, traveling through Northern Louisiana by 
steamboat to Monroe.  During this journey he was persuaded by
Doctor Hedges, a celebrated Episcopal clergyman who had formerly
lived in Columbia, Missouri, to remain in Louisiana and make the
state his home.  Thus Judge Robert B. Todd located at Bastrop,
parish seat of Morehouse Parish, and 
there soon afterwards met and married Miss Annie Brigham. 
Her father, Maj. J. H. Brigham, was a wealthy planter of Oak
Ridge in Morehouse Parish, and subsequently his son, J.
Harvey Brigham, was associated with Judge Todd in practice at
Bastrop.  This became one of the greatest law firms in the
state.  Judge Todd and Mr. Brigham over a long period of 
years were engaged on one side or the other of practically 
every prominent lawsuit in Central and North Louisiana.  They
were associated in practice with the exception of the 1861-65
war period until 1880, when Judge Brigham was elected judge
of the District Court.  Soon afterwards Robert B. Todd was
appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, a
position in which he served for many years.  He was a member
of two constitutional Conventions, and was in every way one
of the outstanding lawyers and citizens of Louisiana.  Judge
Todd died in 1900.

Will Harvey Todd, a son of Judge Robert B. and Annie (Brigham)
Todd, was born in Morehouse Parish in 1862.  He was educated
in private schools and the Louisiana State University, and
was admitted to the bar in 1888.  Since then for a period of
more than one-third of a century, he has been identified with
a large and lucrative law practice.  For some years he was
associated in practice with his brother, the late Robert B.
Todd.  The members of the firm now comprise Mr. Todd and his 
son, Will Harvey Todd, Jr., these representing the second and 
third generations of the Todd family of lawyers, which has 
practiced at Bastrop since 1847.

Will Harvey Todd married Miss Ellen K. Stewart, of Princess
Ann, Maryland.  Their seven children are: Nell,  Ruth,  Will
Harvey, Jr.,  Roberta,  Stewart,  Margaret and  Kathryn.


A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 248, by Henry E.
Chambers.  Published by The American Historical Society,
Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.