Bio: Hon. John D. Watkins, Webster Par., Louisiana
Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville, 1890
Submitted by: Gwen Moran-Hernandez
Date: April 2000



**********************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm
**********************************************
 


===Hon. John D. Watkins, attorney, Minden, La.  No name is justly 
entitled to a more enviable place in the history of Webster Parish 
than the one that heads this sketch, for it is borne by a man who 
has been usefully and honorable identified with the interests of 
this parish, and with its advancement in every worthy particular.  
He was originally from Caldwell County, Ky., his birth occurring 
on September 27, 1828, and received a thorough collegiate education 
in his native State, graduating at Cumberland College, Princeton, 
Ky.  He came to this State and parish when a young man, and directly 
after graduation taught school at Minden for two years, during which 
time he commenced and devoted his spare time to reading law, and 
continued studying after the close of his school.  He was admitted 
to the bar in 1854, and just two months previous to this he was 
appointed district attorney, filling that position for five 
consecutive years.  He held the office of judge of this territory 
from 1865 to 1869, but was removed from that position by the courts, 
after a long term of litigation, on accounts of war disabilities.  
In 1864 he was appointed enrolling officer at Monroe, and soon 
after was made lieutenant-colonel of the battalion.  He was also 
judge advocate of court marshal of the Trans-Mississippi Department 
for some time.  After the war Judge Watkins continued the practice 
of his profession at Minden, and in 1880 he was elected to the State 
Senate, serving as chairman of the judiciary committee for four years.  
The year previous to this Judge Watkins was a member of the constitu-
tional/convention and chairman of a caucus of forty members whose 
report was adopted as the basis for settling the State debt question.  
The Judge has always taken a prominent part in the politics of his 
State and parish.  He has served as a delegate to numerous conventions,
 and was elector at large for the State in 1884, casting his vote for 
Grover Cleveland.  Judge Watkins is a man of superior ability, has 
always kept up with the times in reading, has shown himself to be a 
man of strong native intellect, sound judgment, sterling principles, 
and is one of the most popular legal lights of North Louisiana.  He 
was nominated, and made the canvass of his district for Congress, 
was fairly elected, but was counted out by the then famous returning 
board.  His first law partner was A. B. George, now of the court of 
appeals; and his second, his brother, L. B. Watkins, now of the 
Supreme Court of Louisiana.  His third and last law partners are 
his sons, J. T. (see biography) and L. K. Watkins.  The Judge was 
married in Louisiana in 1852, to Miss M. F. Morrow, a native of G
eorgia, educated in La Grange of that State, and the daughter of 
J. T. Morrow.  Judge and Mrs. Watkins have two sons, who are named 
above, both of whom are prominent legal practitioners of Minden.  
The Judge is a member of the Methodist, and Mrs. Watkins a member 
of the Baptist Church.  He has been a strict temperance man all 
his life, and during his long residence in Minden he has never taken 
a drink at the bar, and never was intoxicated in his life.  He has 
always taken an active part, and used his means and influence, to 
advance the interest of Webster Parish and Minden.  His parents, Col. 
Thomas G. and Nancy L. (Dyer) Watkins, were natives of Virginia and 
Kentucky, respectively, the father born in 1798.  The latter went to 
Columbia, Tenn., and thence to Kentucky, in about 1820 being among the 
pioneers of Caldwell County.  He was married in that State, and 
followed agricultural pursuits until his death, in 1873.  His wife 
received her final summons in 1861.  Col. Thomas G. Watkins was a 
prominent man in the early history of Kentucky.  He served as colonel
of the State Militia, and held other important positions.  Of the 
three sons and three daughters born to this union, Judge John D. 
Watkins is the eldest, and all are living.