Biography of Nathaniel John McConell; Wilcox Co., AL., then Richland Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller



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 Nathaniel John McConnell, clerk of court of Richland Parish, has been 
a resident of Louisiana since 1903.  He has had a varied commercial 
experience and has proved admirably qualified for his duties as clerk 
of court.  He was first elected to that office in 1916 and was 
re-elected in 1920 and again in 1924.

Mr. McConnell was born in Wilcox County, Alabama, August 24, 1878, son
 of Nathaniel J. and Virginia (Foxworth) McConnell, who came to Louisiana 
after their son Nathaniel and now reside at Mangham, Richland Parish, his 
father being eighty-seven years of age and his mother seventy-seven.  
Nathaniel J. McConnell, Sr., was a Confederate soldier in the Third Alabama 
Regiment, and saw a great deal of heavy fighting, though his only wound was 
when he was shot in the thigh.  He was with General Gordon at Gettysburg and 
with Lee at Appomattox, serving as a non-commissioned officer, though in one 
battle when all his superior officers were killed he acted as lieutenant-colonel.  
After the war for many years he was on the road as a traveling salesman.  His home 
was at Lower Peach Tree, in Wilcox County, on the Alabama River. he has been active 
in the Methodist Church and is a democrat.  His first wife was Laura Kimbrough and 
there were eight children to that marriage.  By his marriage to Virginia Foxworth 
there were ten children.  A son by the first marriage, E. L. McConnell, is cattle 
inspector of Richmond Parish.  By the second marriage: L. L McConnell, who is a 
cotton buyer at Mangham; Doctor McConnell, who is one of the leading physicians 
there M. K. McConnell, a salesman at Mangham; and M. D. McConnell is representative 
of a life insurance company at Mangham.

Nathaniel J. McConnell, Jr., oldest son of his father's last marriage grew up at 
Lower Peach Tree, Alabama, attended school there and took a course in the Draughan 
Business College.  He worked at stores at Lower Peach Tree until coming to Louisiana, 
and in this state spent three years as an accountant for W. T. Cook at Rayville, five 
years as an accountant for C. M. Noble at Charlieville, and for one year was with the 
Mangham Mercantile Company.  Following that he was elected and began his service as 
clerk of court.

Mr. McConnell married Miss Nellie Irby, a daughter of W. S. Irby of Lower Peach Tree, 
Alabama.  They have three sons:  Irby, a student of mechanical engineering in the 
Alabama Polytechnic Institute at Auburn, Alabama;  Norman, who is taking the electrical 
engineering course in the same school; and  Harold, attending high school at Rayville.  
Mr. McConnell is a trustee and treasurer of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South; 
is a member of the Shreveport Consistory of the Scottish Rite Masons, and Mrs. 
McConnell is a Presbyterian.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 252, by Henry E. Chambers.  
Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.