John Smith Young (November 4, 1834 – October 11, 1916) was an American lawyer who served briefly as a member of the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

from

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

from 1878 to 1879.

Early life

John Smith Young is the sixth of thirteen children born to Dr. John Y. Young (1793-1868) and Eliza Henry Jones (1807-1882). Though born in

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the List of North Carolina county seats, seat of Wake County, North Carolina, Wake County in the United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most ...

, he grew up on family cotton plantations in the frontier borderland area of Fayette County, Tennessee (Lagrange postal area), and Marshall County, Mississippi (Lamar postal area). Circa 1847, following the death of John's older sister, Cornelia (1827-1847), Dr. John Y. Young moved his family westward to several locales in southern

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

. In the early 1850s, John attended Washington Male Seminary in Washington, Arkansas, where his older brother, Edwin Young, was on the faculty. John studied classic literature in their original languages—Greek, Latin, French, and English. Thereafter, Young attended Centenary College at its original location in Jackson, Louisiana, and graduated in 1855. He studied law, was admitted to the state bar, and started his career as an attorney-of-law in Homer, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana. The 1860 United States federal census lists John S. Young as an attorney in Homer. On August 21, 1861, Young enlisted in Louisiana's 31st Infantry to serve in the

Confederate Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. He rose to the rank of

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...

Later life

After the war, Young returned to his law practice and married Mattie Hamilton, with whom he had all his children. He was elected or appointed to several public offices: in 1870, a

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

(Claiborne Parish) judge; in 1872, a member of the

Louisiana House of Representatives The Louisiana House of Representatives (french: link=no, Chambre des Représentants de Louisiane) is the lower house in the Louisiana State Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. This chamber is composed of 105 repr ...

, and in 1876, a state judge. In 1878, Young was elected as a Democrat to Congress to replace the deceased

John E. Leonard John Edwards Leonard (September 22, 1845 – March 15, 1878) was a United States representative from Louisiana. He was the grandnephew of John Edwards, who also served in Congress. He was born in Fairville, Pennsylvania, into a Quaker family. Leo ...

for the final four months of the congressional term. Young chose to not run for reelection. He traveled back to Louisiana, and practiced law in Monroe, Louisiana, and then Shreveport, Louisiana. Young's first wife, Martha ("Mattie") Hamilton Young, died in 1891. From 1892 to 1900, Young was twice elected and served as

Caddo Parish Caddo Parish ( French: ''Paroisse de Caddo'') is a parish located in the northwest corner of the U.S. state of Louisiana. According to the 2020 U.S. census, the parish had a population of 237,848. The parish seat is Shreveport, which developed a ...

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

. Five years after being a widower, Young married a widow and Mattie's cousin, Frances ("Fannie") Rhoda Hodges. At age 66, Young finished his second term as sheriff and returned to practicing law in various capacities for several more years in Shreveport. He died at age 81 in

Shreveport Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population o ...

and is buried in Shreveport's Oakland Cemetery, Section 6, Lot 7.Brock, Eric J.: ''Necrology of Burials in the Old Oakland Cemetery, Shreveport, Louisiana''. J.&.W. Enterprises Publishers, 1988

Notes

References

, retrieved on 2009-04-28

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Young, J. Smith 1834 births 1916 deaths Politicians from Raleigh, North Carolina People from Columbia County, Arkansas Centenary College of Louisiana alumni Louisiana lawyers Confederate States Army officers Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana Louisiana sheriffs Democratic Party members of the Louisiana House of Representatives Louisiana state court judges 19th-century American politicians