Biography of 	Monroe, Frank A., Annapolis, Md., now Orleans Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by 	Mike Miller February 1998

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Monroe, Frank Adair, chief justice of the supreme court of 
Louisiana, was born at Annapolis, Md., Aug. 30, 1844, but was 
reared at Frankfort, Ky., the borne of his parents, Victor and 
Mary Townsend (Polk) Monroe.  His father was a native of Kentucky, 
and born in Glasgow, Barren county; he was a lawyer by profession, 
and was appointed, by Pres. Pierce, the first federal judge for 
the territory of Washington; he crossed the great plains in the 
early '50s on his way to the territory, going in company with the 
first territorial governor of Washington, Gov. Stephens, and at 
Olympia, Wash., his death occurred, his family having never joined 
him.  Judge Victor Monroe was a son of Thomas Bell Monroe, a native 
of Albemarle county, Va., and a direct descendant of Andrew Monroe, 
a Scotchman of a Highland clan, who came to America in 1650, and 
settled in Virginia, and became the progenitor of the noted Monroe 
family of the Old Dominion state, of which Pres. Monroe was a member.  
Thomas Bell Monroe became a lawyer of prominence in Kentucky, and 
was appointed, by Pres. Jackson, judge of the United States District 
court, and held the position until the election of Pres. Lincoln.  
Toward the close of the Civil war, he came South and located at Pass 
Christian, Miss., where be died.  His wife was a daughter of John 
Adair, a native of South Carolina and a patriot of the American 
Revolution, after the close of which he removed to Kentucky, where 
he won honors in public service, becoming one of the early governors 
of the State, and later a United States senator.  The mother of 
Judge Frank Adair Monroe was a native of Maryland and her father 
was an officer in the United States navy.  Judge Monroe has one 
brother, William Winder Monroe, and a sister, Mary Eliza, the wife 
of Judge Joshua G. Baker, of New Orleans.

Judge Monroe received his early scholastic training in private schools 
at Frankfort, Ky., and then entered, in 1860, the Kentucky Military 
institute, where he had just begun his sophomore year, when he entered 
the Confederate States army, in which he served 4 years, first in 
Co. E, 4th Kentucky infantry, then in Co. C, 1st Louisiana cavalry.  
He was wounded and captured near Somerset, Ky., March, 1863, and was 
exchanged in Oct., 1863.  For many years Judge Monroe has been 
prominently identified with the United Confederate Veteran 
organization.  He has served as president of the Association of 
Army of Tennessee, Camp No. 2, U. C. V., and for years as a member 
of the Board of Governors, Confederate Memorial hall, New Orleans.  
The war closed; Judge Monroe went to Pass Christian, Miss., to where 
his paternal grandfather and other members of his family had removed 
from Kentucky.  Not long after, he took up the study of law, and in 
1867 became a member of the Louisiana bar.  Upon being admitted to 
practice law, he entered on his professional career in New Orleans.  
He rose rapidly in his profession, and in 1872 he was elected judge 
of the Third District court, but was dispossessed of office after 
a month's service, by the ''carpet-bag" regime.  He took part with 
the White League in the action of Sept. 14, 1874, which overturned 
the "Packard" government, and in Nov., 1876, he was reelected judge 
of the Third District court.  In 1880 he was appointed judge of the 
Civil District court, parish of Orleans; was reappointed in 1884 and 
in 1892.  In March, 1899, he was appointed an associate justice of 
the supreme court of Louisiana.  He had a long and honorable career 
as judge of the Civil District court, and it was his ability in that 
position that won for him the appointment to the bench of the supreme 
court.  In Nov., 1906, he was elected to succeed himself as associate 
justice of the supreme court, for the term of 1908-20.  In April, 
1914, he became chief justice, succeeding Judge Joseph A. Breaux, 
retiring.  The courts of Louisiana have had many able judges, the 
names of whom have come to be regarded throughout the country with 
great admiration.  Among these jurists Chief Justice Monroe holds 
conspicuous place.  He has won an enviable reputation for fairness 
and justice, and that of a profound lawyer, and his decisions have 
placed him among the ablest of associate justices, who have served 
on the supreme court bench of the state.  For 37 years, an 
unprecedented period in the history of the Louisiana bench, Judge 
Monroe has held a judgeship, and this period will have been extended 
to 42 years, should fortune smile on the state in the preservation 
of his health and life until he has served out his present term of 
office.  He has held other positions of honor, among which is that 
of a member of the Louisiana State Constitutional convention of 1898.  
For 20 years he was a member of the law faculty of Tulane University.  
His lectures in this institution were characteristic of a profound 
knowledge of the law.  His grandfather, Judge Thomas Bell Monroe, 
was in the habit, for years, of coming South and lecturing in the 
law school of the old University of Louisiana, and in the summers 
many of the law students followed him to his Kentucky home to continue 
their studies under him, and among these were some of the afterward 
leading lawyers and jurists of the South.

Judge Monroe has remained throughout all these years a Democrat 
in politics.  He took an active part in the anti-lottery campaign 
of 1892, and has always stood for those men and measures by whom 
he believed the public interests would be best served.  Jan. 3, 
1878, Judge Monroe married Miss Alice Blanc, the daughter of Jules 
A. Blanc.  Unto Judge and Mrs. Monroe were born 5 sons and 5 daughters.  
The sons are Frank Adair Monroe, Jr., J. Blanc Monroe, Winder Polk 
Monroe, William Blanc Monroe, James Hill Monroe, and the daughters 
are Alice, wife of S. S. LaBouisse; Kate Adair, wife of G. R. 
Westerfeldt; Gertrude, wife of T. M. Logan, Jr.; Adile, wife of 
George E. Williams; and Marion Monroe.  At 847 Carondelet Street, 
Judge Monroe has long maintained his home, and here his wife has 
joined him in extending a generous hospitality to a large circle 
of appreciative friends and acquaintances as the years have come 
and gone.

Source:  Louisiana:  Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, 
Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic 
Form (volume 3), pp. 17-19.  Edited by Alcée Fortier, Lit.D.  
Published in 1914, by Century Historical Association.

NOTE: Photo of Judge Monroe included in the book.