Joseph Barton Elam, Sr. (June 12, 1821 – July 4, 1885), was a two-term Democratic

U.S. representative 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 c ...

for

Louisiana's 4th congressional district Louisiana's 4th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The district is located in the northwestern part of the state and is based in Shreveport-Bossier City. It also includes the cities of Minden, De ...

, whose service corresponded with the administration of

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

Rutherford B. Hayes Rutherford Birchard Hayes (; October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 19th president of the United States from 1877 to 1881, after serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and as governor ...

Early life and education

Elam was born near

Hope Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large. As a verb, its definitions include: "expect with confidence" and "to cherish ...

Hempstead County Hempstead County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 22,609. As of the 2020 census, the population decreased to 20,065. The county seat is Hope. Hempstead County is Arkansas's fourth cou ...

in southwestern

Arkansas Territory The Arkansas Territory was a territory of the United States that existed from July 4, 1819, to June 15, 1836, when the final extent of Arkansas Territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Arkansas. Arkansas Post was the first territo ...

, to William Jefferson Elam, a teacher, and his wife, the former Cynthia Wheaton, both from

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. The Elam family moved in 1823 to

Ayish Bayou Ayish Bayou is a river in Texas. Ayish Bayou begins about north of San Augustine in northern San Augustine County. The course of the stream runs southeast for through the center of the county, before discharging into the Angelina River in north ...

near

San Augustine San Augustine is the county seat city of San Augustine County, Texas, in East Texas, United States. The population was at the 2020 census. History The first European settlement in the area began in 1717 with the establishment of Mission Nuestra ...

East Texas East Texas is a broadly defined cultural, geographic, and ecological region in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Texas that comprises most of 41 counties. It is primarily divided into Northeast and Southeast Texas. Most of the region consi ...

, where another son, Charles Wheaton Elam, was born. In 1826, the Elams relocated to Natchitoches, Louisiana, where Mary Jane Elam, was born. By 1833, the family moved to

Fort Jessup Fort Jesup, also known as Fort Jesup State Historic Site or Fort Jesup or Fort Jesup State Monument, was built in 1822, west of Natchitoches, Louisiana, to protect the United States border with New Spain and to return order to the Neutral Strip. ...

, Louisiana, the westernmost outpost of the United States at that time. William Elam tutored the officers' sons. Another son, John Waddill Elam, was born at Fort Jesup in 1833. There was also a daughter, Henrietta Elam. The Elam children were educated at Fort Jessup. Later, Joseph Elam

read law Reading law was the method used in common law countries, particularly the United States, for people to prepare for and enter the legal profession before the advent of law schools. It consisted of an extended internship or apprenticeship under the ...

with his cousin John Waddill in

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

, Louisiana. In 1853, Waddill helped obtain freedom of

Solomon Northup Solomon Northup (born July 10, 1807-1808) was an American abolitionist and the primary author of the memoir ''Twelve Years a Slave''. A free-born African American from New York, he was the son of a freed slave and a free woman of color. A far ...

, a kidnapped man from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and the subject of the film, ''

Twelve Years a Slave ''Twelve Years a Slave'' is an 1853 memoir and slave narrative by American Solomon Northup as told to and written by David Wilson. Northup, a black man who was born free in New York state, details himself being tricked to go to Washington, D.C., ...

'', who had been sold into slavery in Louisiana. Northup had been held for twelve years as a slave in the Red River region. Under its 1841 law, the state of New York commissioned an attorney to help find and free the kidnapped man. Elam was admitted to the bar in October 1843 and began his practice in Alexandria. He moved in 1844 to

Sabine Parish Sabine Parish ( French: ''Paroisse de la Sabine'') is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 24,233. The seat of the parish is Many. Sabine was one of five parishes created in as many week ...

and settled in the

parish seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

Many Many may refer to: * grammatically plural in number *an English quantifier used with count nouns indicating a large but indefinite number of; at any rate, more than a few ;Place names * Many, Moselle, a commune of the Moselle department in Franc ...

Political career

Elam helped to establish the court system in

DeSoto Parish DeSoto Parish (French language, French: ''Paroisse DeSoto'') is a List of parishes in Louisiana, parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish was formed in 1843. At the 2010 United States Census, 2010 U.S. census, the population was ...

, where on August 7, 1843, he made his first court appearance as an attorney. In 1845, Elam was elected to the Sabine Parish

Police Jury In the U.S. state of Louisiana, the typical governing body of the parish is called the Police Jury ( French: ''le Jury de Police''). Not every parish is governed by a Police Jury, but 38 of the 64 parishes use this system. The Police Jury is the ...

, the parish governing body. He was the jury president from 1846 to 1847. Elam also served as the

district attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a l ...

of Sabine Parish. In 1847, Elam drafted the articles for incorporation for the town of

Mansfield Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area (followed by Sutton-in-Ashfield). It gained the Royal Charter of a market tow ...

, and was elected as its first

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

. He served as mayor a second time in 1856. He was also a Mansfield alderman. Elam was elected to 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 ...

from DeSoto Parish. He served as the House Speaker from 1862 to 1864. His brother, John Waddill Elam, was elected sheriff of DeSoto Parish. In 1861, Elam was elected a delegate to the

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

Constitutional Convention and signed the Louisiana

Ordinance of Secession An Ordinance of Secession was the name given to multiple resolutions drafted and ratified in 1860 and 1861, at or near the beginning of the Civil War, by which each seceding Southern state or territory formally declared secession from the United ...

on January 26, 1861. In November 1865, he was elected as a state representative in the post-civil war

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Union ...

legislature; this tenure is not reflected in the website, "Membership of the Louisiana House of Representatives, 1812-2016." Elam served in the state legislature until the passage in 1867 by Congress of the

Reconstruction Acts The Reconstruction Acts, or the Military Reconstruction Acts, (March 2, 1867, 14 Stat. 428-430, c.153; March 23, 1867, 15 Stat. 2-5, c.6; July 19, 1867, 15 Stat. 14-16, c.30; and March 11, 1868, 15 Stat. 41, c.25) were four statutes passed duri ...

. Elam attended the National Union Convention as a delegate from Louisiana in 1866. During Reconstruction, the

Radical Republicans The Radical Republicans (later also known as " Stalwarts") were a faction within the Republican Party, originating from the party's founding in 1854, some 6 years before the Civil War, until the Compromise of 1877, which effectively ended Reco ...

took control of Louisiana, and Elam was temporarily disfranchised under the Louisiana Constitution of 1868, which prevented former officers of the Confederacy from running for office for a limited period. When in 1870, section 99 of this Constitution was repealed, Elam was allowed again to seek office. Because of violence and intimidation associated with elections, conducted in part by the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

trying to suppress black and other Republican voting, the Radicals passed legislation in 1870 to establish "returning boards," which were authorized to review elections and dismiss results from ones in which fraud was committed. That year, the U. S. Congress passed the Force Act, intended to aid in suppressing the power of the KKK in the South. Elam was denied office in 1870, 1872 and 1874 by the returning boards. In 1870, Elam stopped a riot by speaking to and calming a crowd after an election was taken from him, and did the same in 1872. The Wheeler Adjustment, passed by the Louisiana legislature in March 1875, did not allow Elam to take his Louisiana State Senate seat for the 1874 election. The elections continued to be marked by violence by the

White League The White League, also known as the White Man's League, was a white paramilitary terrorist organization started in the Southern United States in 1874 to intimidate freedmen into not voting and prevent Republican Party political organizing. Its f ...

, a

paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

group that supported the Democratic Party, disrupted Republican gatherings and worked to suppress black voting.George C. Rable, ''But There Was No Peace: The Role of Violence in the Politics of Reconstruction'', Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1984, p. 132 In 1876, Elam, a secessionist and former Confederate state legislator, was elected to the United States Congress in the

Forty-fifth Congress The 45th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1877, ...

. A national political compromise of that year allowed him and other Democrats to take office, along with the accession of

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

Rutherford Hayes as President. Elam was reelected to the

Forty-sixth Congress The 46th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1879, ...

for Louisiana's 4th district. During his reelection campaign of 1878, Elam was severely injured in a

stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...

accident. In 1881, he returned to Louisiana to practice law in Mansfield, where he died at the age of sixty-three.

Personal life

Elam was twice widowed and had eight children by his third wife, Harriet Spencer Elam. Son Charles Wheaton Elam, the brother of Joseph Elam, Jr., served in the Louisiana House from 1892 to 1896, and Joseph Barton Elam, Jr., was the mayor of Mansfield from 1914 to 1920. His younger sister, Henrietta Elam, married

William B. Spencer William Brainerd Spencer (February 5, 1835 – February 12, 1882) was an attorney and politician of the planter class, elected as U.S. Representative from Louisiana in 1876, in a contested election decided in his favor and against the Republic ...

, who was elected to the United States House of Representatives in the 1870s for

Louisiana's 5th congressional district Louisiana's 5th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The 5th district encompasses rural northeastern Louisiana and much of central Louisiana, as well as the northern part of Louisiana's Florida paris ...

. One of Elam's granddaughters, Margaret Taylor Elam Drew (1919–1977), was the first wife of R. Harmon Drew, Sr. of

Minden Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the greatest town between Bielefeld and Hanover. It is the capital of the district (''Kreis'') of Minden-Lübbecke, which is part of the region of Detm ...

, who was from 1972 to 1978 a state representative from

Webster Parish Webster Parish ( French: ''Paroisse de Webster'') is a parish located in the northwestern section of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The seat of the parish is Minden. As of the 2010 census, the Webster Parish population was 41,207. In 2018, the ...

in northwestern Louisiana. Their son Harmon Drew, Jr., also of Minden, is a judge of the Louisiana Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, based 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 ...

Citations

References

* Chambers, Henry E., ''A History of Louisiana'', the American Historical Society, Inc., (1925) * Fortier, Alcée, ''Louisiana'', Southern Historical Association, (1909) *''Biographical Dictionary of Louisiana'', Louisiana Historical Society, (1988) *''Biographical History of Northwest Louisiana'', Southern Press, (1889) *1850 United States Census, Sabine Parish, Louisiana *1860 United States Census, DeSoto Parish *''United States Congressional Record'' 1877-1881 * Northup, Solomon, ''Twelve Years a Slave'' *''La. Acts of the Leg.'' No. 128, 1847 *''DeSoto Parish History'' Vols. 1 & 2, DeSoto Historical Society, 1995, 2004. *''Journal of the Confederate Congress'', Vol. 7, pgs. 14-15,1864. * DeSoto Parish Clerk of Court records * Sabine Parish Clerk of Court records *Tunnell, Ted, ''Edge of the Sword: The Ordeal of Carpetbagger Marshal H. Twitchell'', LSU Press (2004) *Tunnell, Ted, ''Crucible of Reconstruction'', LSU Press (1984) {{DEFAULTSORT:Elam, Joseph Barton 1821 births 1885 deaths People from Hope, Arkansas District attorneys in Louisiana People of Louisiana in the American Civil War People from San Augustine County, Texas Politicians from Natchitoches, Louisiana Politicians from Alexandria, Louisiana People from Many, Louisiana People from Mansfield, Louisiana Mayors of places in Louisiana Democratic Party members of the Louisiana House of Representatives Speakers of the Louisiana House of Representatives Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana 19th-century American politicians American lawyers admitted to the practice of law by reading law 19th-century American Episcopalians