Bolivar Edwards, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana
Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Mike Miller, Jan. 2000

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Bolivar Edwards, of Amite City, Tangipahoa parish, La., was born in this
state, in St Tammany parish, July 8, 1837.  He is a son of Daniel and Eliza
(Bankston) Edwards, natives of Louisiana and Georgia respectively.  He was
the second of their ten children.  His father was born in 1787 during the
Spanish rule, and was among the pioneers of this country.  He followed
planting and stockraising until his death.  In 1810 he was engaged in the
revolutionary movement against the Spanish authority in West Florida, and
was a member of the convention or legislative council held at Bayou Sara,
and subsequently at Baton Rouge.  Of this convention John Rea was the
president.  In 1814 and 1815 Mr. Edwards was in the military service under
General Jackson, and was in the Louisiana state troops.  He was afterward
on the staff of Governor Roman, and also held the positions of colonel and
brigadier-general of the state troops.  He was elected to a generalship by
a joint ballot of the general assembly of the state of Louisiana.  He
represented the parish of Tammany in the lower house of the general
assembly of Louisiana. Some years after this he was elected state senator
of the district comprising the parishes of St. Tammany, Washington, St.
Helena and Livingston.  He served a term of four years.  His opponent in
the senatorial race was Hon. T. G. Davidson, a prominent citizen of the
district, and who afterward was a member of congress from Louisiana for
many year.  Our subject's father died July 5, 1877, being over ninety years
of age.  The paternal grandfather of Mr. Edwards was Margan Edwards, a
native of Ireland.  His maternal grandparents were Lesley and Elizabeth
(Brewer) Bankston, natives of South Carolina and Georgia, respectively.
Our subject was reared in Louisiana and educated in Centenary college,
where he graduated in 1859.  He is also a graduate of the law department of
the University of Louisiana, graduating there in 1861, and the same year he
was elected to represent St. Tammany parish, and served at the extra session
in the legislature called in that year.  At the end of that session he
resigned his seat and went into the confederate army as a volunteer,
enlisting in 1862 in Company K, of Miles' Louisiana Legion infantry, in
which company he served until the close of the war, acting as first
lieutenant of his company.  After the war, 1866, he was elected district
attorney of the Sixth Judicial district of Louisiana, which position he
held until 1868.  At the time of the reconstruction period he was elected
to hold the office for four years.  Each time he was
elected on the democratic ticket.  In 1874 he was elected as representative
of Tangipahoa parish to the general assembly of Louisiana, and served two
years as such, during the stormy period in which the house of
representatives was invaded by the military forces under Sheridan, which
resulted in the breaking of the democratic quorum under the speaker-ship of
Louis A. Wilts, who was afterward governor of the state of Louisiana.  In
1888 our subject was again elected to the office of district attorney of
the Eighteenth judicial district of Louisiana,
which position he now holds.  He was married in 1872 to Miss Sallie E.
Stewart, a native of Mississippi and a daughter of Charles S. Stewart and
wife, Mary W. (Huddleston) Stewart, of Tennessee and Alabama respectively.
Charles S. Stewart is a brother of A. P. Stewart who was a
lieutenant-general of the confederate army.  Mr. and Mrs. Edwards have
never had any children. Mr. Edwards is one of the most honored and
respected men of his parish, and takes a very active
interest in all of its affairs, both politically and socially.

Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 1), p. 398.
Published by the
Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.