John Webster Rhorer, Rapides Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller

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John Webster Rhorer has been a conspicuous factor in the business and 
public affairs of Oberlin and Allen Parish since that parish was 
organized in 1913.  He has been well known for his business and other 
activities in several localities of Southwestern Louisiana.

Mr. Rhorer was born near Colfax in what was then Rapides Parish, now 
Grant Parish, January 11, 1865, son of James Monroe and Nancy (Hickman) 
Rhorer.  His father was born in Kentucky in 1825 and died in 1906 at 
the age of eighty-one years.  His mother was a native of Rapides Parish, 
born in 1835 and now nearly ninety years of age.  James M. Rhorer was 
in the commission business at New Orleans before the war, and afterwards 
a planter and merchant at Fairmount, Louisiana, and also served as 
postmaster there.

John Webster Rhorer had a country school education, his early life was 
spent on the farm, and by practical experience he learned surveying and 
civil engineering and that was his profession and occupation for nineteen 
years.  For seven years he was parish surveyor of Calcasieu Parish.  
From 1904 to 1908 he represented the Calcasieu Parish in the State 
Legislature, and was father of the legislation providing for the 
establishment of the Louisiana Training School at Monroe.

From 1892 to 1895 he was a member of the Calcasieu Parish School Board, 
for nine years was United States commissioner for the Western Louisiana 
District, and upon the establishment of Allen Parish in 1913 moved to 
Oberlin and has since been engaged in the abstract business as the Allen 
Land and Title Company.  He has also been deputy assessor and has served 
as parish treasurer.

Mr. Rhorer married at Opelousas, June 10, 1891, Miss Virginia Elms, who 
was born at Washington in St. Landry Parish.  Her father, George 0. Elms, 
a native of Canada, was reared in New Hampshire and as a young man came 
to Louisiana.  When the war broke out between the states he joined the 
Louisiana Infantry in Captain Bryan's Company at Lake Charles, served 
as adjutant and was made a prisoner at Vicksburg.  Following the war 
he engaged as a civil engineer and surveyor at Washington in St. Landry's 
Parish, and in 1900 removed to Lake Charles and died there in 1911 at the 
age of seventy-eight.  He was parish surveyor of St. Landry, and an 
honored member of the Confederate Veteran's Association and the Masonic 
bodies.

John W. Rhorer and wife have a family of eight children:  Mary, who is Mrs. 
Dennis Moore of Oberlin;  Augusta;  Mrs. Paul J. Le Gendre of Thibodaux, 
Louisiana;  Olive,  Mrs. A. C. Fisher, of Lake Charles;  Grace A.;  L. 
Osborn;  Lucille, and  J. W. Webster, Jr.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 274, by Henry E. Chambers.  Published 
by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.