Capt. Joseph W. Texada, Rapides Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by: Suzanne Shoemaker

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Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville,  1890

     CAPT. JOSEPH W. TEXADA was born near where he now resides in 1831 to
Capt. John A. and Lucy (Welsh) Texada, the former of whom was born in
Mississippi about 1789, and the latter in Kentucky in 1794.  The father was
educated in the common schools of his native state, and when a young man came
to this parish, and was married here in 1812, giving his attention to cotton
planting soon after his marriage, and continuing it during the whole of his
life.  He was a captain in the State Militia, which was called out during
the War of 1812, and during that time was under Jackson at New Orleans.
His father, Manuel Garcia Texada, was born in Castile, Spain, but his
mother was a Tennesseean.  He died in 1869, and his wife in 1845.  The
subject of this sketch is the eighth of eleven children-eight sons and
three daughters-and he and his sister, Mrs. Dr. Robert Cruikshank, are the
only ones of the family now living, she being also a resident of Rapides
Parish.  Capt. Joseph W. Texada graduated from the college of New Jersey,
at Princeton, in June, 1852, and was a classmate of Don Cameron of
Pennsylvania; Congressman Phelps, of Maryland; James T. Jones, of Alabama
(also a congressman)' Col. Charles C. Jones, of Georgia, and others.  After
his return home from college he was married to Margaret, daughter of Dr.
John Pintard Davidson, both natives of the State of Louisiana.  Dr.
Davidson was one of the most eminent physicians of the state at the time of
his death, which occurred at New Orleans in March, 1889, his wife having
passed from life in 1865.  After his marriage Mr. Texada devoted his time
to planting, and has since been a resident of his present fertile farm.  In
1866 he was elected a member of the Lower House of the State Legislature,
serving one term, and he is now a member of the police jury of this parish.
 He is a Royal Arch Mason, and in his religious faith claims to be an
Episcopalian.  In 1862 he joined the Confederate Army as a private in
Crescent Regiment, under Col. Marshall J. Smith, and was in the battle of
Shiloh, but afterward returned to the Trans-Mississippi Department, being
commissioned captain in the Eighth Louisiana Cavalry in 1863, serving as
such  until the close of the war, taking part in the engagements at
Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, besides numerous skirmishes, and surrendering
at Alexandria.  He and his wife are the parents of two children:  J. W.,
Jr. (who farms with his father), and Davidson Ker.