Biography of James Franklin Pigott, M. D., Washington Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Frances Ball Turner (gturner@WORLDACCESSNET.COM) ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ From History of Louisiana, by Chambers in 1925 Vol. III, pg. 340 James Franklin PIGOTT, M.D. Numbered among the skilled and successful medical practitioners, Dr. James Franklin PIGOTT recently of Greensburg, as honorably won the prestige he now enjoys both as a professional man and good citizen. He was born at Bogalusa, Washington Parish, Louisiana, May 27, 1864, a son of Nathaniel PIGOTT. The PIGOTT family is one of the old ones of the South, having been founded here at the time of the colonization of Georgia by the great-great-grandfather of Doctor PIGOTT, a native of England, who came here an unmarried man. Following his settlement in the Georgia colony, he was married to a lady of French descent, and became a planter with many acres. He and his wife had four children, all sons, and one of them was the great-grandfather of Doctor PIGOTT. Subsequently members of the family migrated to Mississippi. Nathaniel PIGOTT, father of Doctor PIGOTT, was born in Marion County, Mississippi, in 1825, and died on the home farm six miles north of Bogalusa in 1908. His parents came to Louisiana when he was a boy, and he inherited the homestead from his mother, to whom it had been left by her father at his death. On this historic farm Nathaniel PIGOTT carried on farming very profitable. A democrat, he was a man of prominence in his parish, and was a detailed deputy sheriff of Washington Parish during the war of the '60s. In 1864 he had the misfortune to be captured by the enemy, and was held a prisoner until the close of the war. He was a consistent member of the Baptist Church and one of its strong supporters, and he was zealous as a Mason. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Permelia THIGPEN, was born near her family homestead in 1830, and died on this property in 1910. She and her husband had the following children: John T., who resides at Picayune, Mississippi, a farmer; Travis, who died in childhood; Mary Jane, who was married to J. Olie MITCHELL and resided on their farm near Bogalusa, but both of them being now deceased; Nathaniel Eli, who resides near Bogalusa, a successful farmer; Asa, who was also a successful farmer of the Bogalusa locality, but now deceased; William J., who is a farmer of Florence, Texas; Doctor PIGOTT, who was the seventh child; Laura, who lives at Pine, Louisiana, the wife of Monroe N. KNIGHT, a farmer; and Thomas E., who lives near Bogalusa, parish surveyor of Washington Parish, and a farmer. Doctor PIGOTT attended the private and public schools of Washington Parish, and remained on his father's farm unti lhe reached his majority. In order to earn the money to carry him through college he followed various callings, and finally, in 1892, was graduated from Tulane University, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. From then until 1917 he was engaged in a general medical and surgical practice at Covington, Louisiana, but in the latter year went to Bogalusa, and remained there for four years. In 1921 he began his connection with Greensburg, and here, as elsewhere, he has won appreciation for his faithfulness and ability. His offices were in the Sitman Drug Store Building. He owns a comfortable residence at Greensburg, and an equally valuable residential property at Bogalusa. On October 15, 1924, he moved to 2557 Verbena Street, New Orleans, where he is now practicing. A democrat, he was elected on his party ticket coroner of Saint Tammany Parish, and held that office for four years. For the same length of time he was a member of the parish school board, and he has always been interested in public affairs. He is a member of the state and national medical associations, and of the Sixth Congressional District Medical Society. On December 15, 1892, Doctor PIGOTT married, at Picayune, Mississippi, Miss Janie SMITH, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William SMITH, both of whom are now deceased. He was one of the pioneers to engage in farming in the vicinity of Picayune. The children born to Doctor and Mrs. PIGOTT have been as follows: Logan W., who resides at New Orleans, Louisiana, in the credit department of the Interstate Banking and Trust Company, a veteran of the World war, in which he served in a clerical capacity at Camp Pike for nine months; Sadie L., who resides at Bogalusa, the wife of J. Harvey RESTER, bookkeeper in the office of the treasurer of the Great Southern Lumber Company; Camille, who resides at Bogalusa, married to Ollie W. KNIGHT, a dispatcher in the office of the New Orleans-Great Northern Railroad Company; Juanita, who is not married, and is a clerk in the offices of the New Orleans-Great Northern Railroad Company at Bogalusa; Marguerite, who resides at New Orleans, the wife of Isidor MARX, who, with his father, is engaged in the building supply business; and James Lavelle, who resides at Pine Grove, Louisiana, employed by the Natalbany Lumber Company.