Hugh Louis Sanders, MD. Vernon Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Frances Ball Turner, December 1997
**********************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm
**********************************************
 
 
History of Louisiana by Chambers
Vol. III, pg. 232
HUGH LOUIS SANDERS, M.D., who died August 4, 1924, exemplified the type of
physician and surgeon and the professional service that could be ill spared
from any community.  Doctor Sanders was devoted to the work of his profession,
and his death at the age of fifty-three was in a large measure the result of
ardent devotion to duty with little thought of his own comfort.
Doctor Sanders was born in Liberty County, Texas, January 21, 1871, son of
Hugh Louis and Catherine Isabella (Cavanaugh) Sanders, his father a native
of South Carolina and his mother of Petersburg, Louisiana, and they were
married at Old Petersburg in Vernon Parish.  Hugh L. Sanders, Sr., now resides
at Leesville, Louisiana, while his wife died August 12, 1920.  He was at one
time clerk of court in Vernon Parish, held other official positions and was an
accountant.  He is a member of the Masonic Order and his wife was very active
in the Missionary Baptist Church.  They had a family of four sons and four
daughters.  The sons were:  John, a farmer in Texas; Dr. Hugh L.; William, a
resident of Alexandria, Louisiana, and Ernest, who died young.
The late Doctor Sanders was liberally educated, attending the Leesville
Academy, and taught school as a means of partially defraying the expenses
of his professional education.  He studied medicine in the University of
Texas, medical department, at Galveston, the Barnes Medical College at St.
Louis, the Tulane University at New Orleans, and in 1903 graduated from the
University of Nashville.  Subsequently he pursued special work in eye, ear,
nose and throat at the Tulane University.  Doctor Sanders practiced for a
time at Leesville, and later at West Lake near Lake Charles and also at
Orange, Texas, this work being in the form of industrial practice under
contract with the Long-Bell Lumber Co9mpany and other lumber companies.
While at Orange he engaged in a general private practice, and in 1913 removed
to Logansport, where his abilities brought him a generous practice over a wide
territory, and it was his constant response to calls for his service, attended
to night and day and in all kinds of weather, that undermined his health and
shortened his life.
Doctor Sanders in 1898 married Mary Minerva Oakes, daughter of Charles K.
and Catherine (LeBleu) Oakes.  Her father, who died June 15, 1921, at the
age of eighty-one, was educated at Jackson, Mississippi, and was a civil 
engineer by profession.  He served in the Confederate army, in Captain Hatch's
company, and was wounded in one battle and for a time was a prisoner of war. 
He participated in the battle of Gettysburg and in other campaigns.  After the
war he located at Petersburg, in Vernon Parish, Louisiana.  Mrs. Sanders'
mother died in October, 1911.  Mrs. Sanders was born at old Petersburg,
Louisiana, August 6, 1882.  She is the mother of three children:  Mrs.
Gertrude Caraway, of Logansport; Lloyd, now a student in the Georgia Institute
of Technology, and Sybil, at home.  Mrs. Sanders continues to reside at
Logansport.  She and her husband were active members of the Christian Church. 
Doctor Sanders was a Royal Arch Mason, a member of the I.O.O.F. and Woodmen of
the World, and belonged to the various medical societies and for a time served
on the local health board.  Mrs. Sanders is a member of the Eastern Star.